For Christmas, my wife, daughter and I were gifted a trip to Legoland Windsor. So after a day full of rides, queues and Lego themed shenanigans (not to mention an early morning and watching the first episode of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ on my phone with no sound) we made it to the shop. After our daughter picked out her purchases they found me in the Star Wars section. By then I had whittled my choices down to two, ‘The Bad Batch Shuttle’ or the ‘Mandalorian Starfighter’. In the end I boiled down to which build looked more interesting and different.
At the time of purchase the set cost £49.99 but has since had a price increase to £59.99 as Lego have put a new measure in place to keep the prices of sets relatively the same across all countries. The set contains 544 pieces split between four bags. It has a small sticker sheet and instructions in the box as well.
The first bag contains the rear section of the cockpit area. This is the section that has to do a lot of heavy lifting, it’s where all parts of the ship connect, the two wings and the front section of the cockpit. It has some nice detailing the the back as well as one of the stickers.
The first bag gives us a brand new Mini-Fig, Bo-Katan Kryze. She comes with her two Blasters, Jet Pack and helmet. The printed details are so good, including the crown-type thing she wears. The whole Figure looks spot on to both her ‘The Clone Wars’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ looks. I absolutely love the helmet. This Mini-Fig alone is worth the price of admission.
The second bag completes the unique looking cockpit. This build feels incredibly unique, the design of the build perfectly recreates the onscreen version which we have (so far) only really seen in animation. We get one of the main features of the ship with the rotating cockpit here where the front half can spin on a pin that connects the two sections.
Bag two gives us the second Mini-Fig of the set, this time it’s a Mandalorian Loyalist. Again, like Bo-Katan, this Figure has some great printed details on the body and the helmet. Like Kryze, this one comes with two Blasters and a jet pack.
Bags three and four build one wing each. The first half of each wing feels incredibly flimsy and at times the whole thing can fall apart as you’re building. Once you get to the second half of each one, the wings start to feel more solid as they get more support on the underside whilst the top gets more and more brick built detail, each wing only having one sticker each on the top section of the engines.
As I was building the wings, some of the instructions felt difficult to understand as the majority of the pieces are the darker blue and finding where each piece goes could prove to be difficult, although, despite some of the tricky elements the result is wonderful.
The fourth bag also gives us another first time Mini-Fig, Gar Saxon, complete in his black, red and yellow armour and a custom moulded helmet displaying the horns added in honour of Saxon’s master towards the end of ‘The Clone Wars’. All of the printing looks amazing on this, and the rest of the Mini-Figs included in this set. The only thing this one is lacking is a hair-piece.
The ‘Mandalorian Starfighter’ is certainly impressive with its wings in both flight mode and landing mode, however, when it’s wings are folded up it puts the well detailed top section out of view and displaying the less detailed bottom section. Personally I would have loved to make it so that the top could be manoeuvred to have the details on display. This problem has led me to want to hang the ship on my wall rather than display it on a shelf so that the great details are on display.
The finished model, whilst incredibly impressive in terms of design, does feel a bit flimsy in places. The spinning cockpit actually rotates with very little effort, the slightest nudge can knock it off centre, which as a play feature wouldn’t be an issue, but when wanting to have the set on display, can make the displaying part a bit difficult to get into the right position.
Despite these tiny gripes (overall I am very pleased and impressed) its a great set. The Mini-Figs alone, with their incredible detail and great accessories are amazing additions to the collection. The ship design and build is pretty good and for the price (both original and current) to piece ratio it’s well priced. There have been other sets of a similar piece count that have been priced much higher and haven’t been worth it but this one is spot-on.
Thank you for visiting My Star Wars Life Debt.
If you have enjoyed this blog/podcast, please like/share/comment/follow.
If you would like to support ‘My Star Wars Life Debt’ please visit the SUPPORT PAGE to see how or head on over to the new PATREON PAGE.
My Star Wars Life Debt 