Since January 2011, I’ve collected thousands of pounds’ worth of Star Wars LEGO, which – together with a flood of one-off minifigures and planets procured through eBay – now comes close to representing the saga’s key characters, classic vehicles and even, in a few instances, memorable set pieces. The nature of LEGO is such that popular Star Wars sets are regularly being reinvented, and more than often than not improved upon, and as many of the sets reviewed below are the latest available, they’re probably the best that have ever been released (save for any long-since discontinued ultimate collector’s editions, of course). And so if you’re in the market for a new hobby, and have more money than sense, here’s a rundown of how you can quickly build yourself an empire.
#7961 - Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator
Some LEGO sets you buy for the models; others you buy for the minifigures. Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator clearly falls into the latter category. Whilst I’m not overly fond of The Phantom Menace, I’ve always liked Darth Maul, and to date this is the only set released to feature him with his trademark Zabrak horns. The set’s flesh-tone Qui-Gon Jinn was almost as rare at the time of release, and it had been a decade since a LEGO Padmé had appeared in any shape or form. Captain Panaka also made his first appearance here, though I doubt that he’s going to be that high up on anyone’s hit lists.
The five hundred piece model is by no means a let-down though; at 38cm long and 22cm wide it’s an imposing size, and far more reminiscent of the ship featured in the movie than either of its previous LEGO incarnations (even if it does come with a probe droid fewer). Young builders are sure to be enchanted by its many features – the ship boasts folding wings, a working landing gear and the customary LEGO launchable missiles. Best of all though, the bowels of the ship house Maul’s Sith speeder bike.
#7929 - The Battle of Naboo
Another minifigures set, The Battle of Naboo is one of the best value Star Wars LEGO sets that I’ve come across. I picked up my set online for around £15.99, and for that I got a functioning, two-hundred plus piece battle droid carrier, together with no fewer than twelve minifigures. Granted, ten of those twelve are battle droids, but – as with clones and stormtroopers – you never seem to have enough of ’em. Furthermore, the two detailed minifigures that round off the set are very detailed indeed – Jar Jar Binks and his fellow Gungan each boast detailed printing on their torsos and legs, and uniquely-moulded heads that finally eschewed the long-standing LEGO practice of sticking aberrantly drab monotone headpieces on Gungan bodies. You wouldn’t even begin to imagine the fun that there is to be head removing Jar Jar’s convincing head from his realistic body time and time again.
#7143 - Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter
I decided to track down this 2002 set as I didn’t fancy the more recent, oversized ultimate collector’s edition of Obi-Wan’s Attack of the Clones ship because it isn’t scaled for minifigures.
The Kenobi minifigure also serves as a reminder as to how far Star Wars minifigures have come on in the last decade. Not only does the Jedi Knight look worryingly jaundice, but his eyes are no more than two black holes, and his hair’s been nicked from a generic LEGO woman.
#7752 - Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer
Ever since I first saw it in Attack of the Clones, I’ve been in love with Count Dooku’s baroque sailing ship in space. Trust the pompous, moneyed count to pilot one of the most beautifully-flamboyant craft in the Star Wars galaxy.
With fewer than four hundred pieces, this pricey limited edition model is smaller than I’d expected it to be, measuring only 27cm long and a few centimetres wide with its nacelles docked. However, the four nacelles do fold out in a surprisingly successful attempt to emulate the delicate sails seen on screen. The complete model may not be one of my favourites, but it is by far the most distinctive.
The minifigures are duly impressive, particularly the focal Sith. As strictly speaking this is a Star Wars: The Clone Wars set, this set’s Dooku is cartoonishly detailed, putting his supposedly more sober, yellow-skinned predecessors to shame. His flanking MagnaGuards are equally distinctive, though there is very little to his pilot, who is basically just a blanched battle droid less a proper head – but, to be fair, that’s all there is to his pilot on screen.
#8039 - Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser
As there was no full-scale star destroyer readily available at the time of my LEGO reawakening, the next best thing was a Venator-class Republic attack cruiser – a burgundy-striped, slightly more streamlined version of the wedge-shaped craft that would eventually symbolise Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial fleet.
This set is also a great one for minifigures, boasting not only LEGO’s first take on pre-Empire Day Palpatine, but his Senate bodyguards too. The extraordinary assemblage is then completed with the two clones – a pilot and a gunner, respectively – needed to see the ship’s armaments fully-manned.
# 7669 - Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter
The first Star Wars LEGO set to draw upon the 2008 animated movie, The Clone Wars, and the stunning series that would follow it, Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter saw the range eschew its customary sobriety and embrace a more colourful and - so far as toys go, at least - more convincing cartoon galaxy.
This set’s Anakin minifigure is a case in point. Earlier minifigures had been inspired by the character as played by Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen in the movies, but didn’t look much like either of them. Revenge of the Sith’s Anakin figures had bland, albeit slightly cross, black-pupilled faces that sat beneath a standard LEGO female long hair piece. This set’s, which is inspired by the CG character, has an expressive face with piercing blue eyes and a visible scar. Its hair hasn’t been stolen from a girl in a LEGO pet shop, but cast to look just like the ‘real’ Anakin’s. Even with its Republic military garb never seen in live action Star Wars, this set’s Anakin looks a damned sight more like the Christensen version than any earlier iterations. Even R2-D2 boasts more colour and detail than earlier versions, again making him more reminiscent of his silver screen self.The ship is almost as impressive, taking the basic size and shape of Obi-Wan’s striking Attack of the Clones fighter and painting it in the colours of Anakin’s ‘Battle of Coruscant’ interceptor. The design is much more pleasing than the LEGO incarnations of either of those ships though - it’s a lot sturdier, for one thing (save for its weak landing gear), and has space for R-2 just in front of the cockpit (from which he can be violently ejected, no doubt to the amusement of younger builders).
#8095 General Greivous’s Starfighter
When it comes to Star Wars LEGO, bottom of my list of priorities is the Separatist war machine. There is one infuriating exception to this rule, however, and it is the minifigure of the commander of the Separatists’ droid army – General Grievous.
I had originally planned to buy the 2010 incarnation of the minifigure on its own on eBay, but its price was such that I reasoned I might as well pay a tenner more and also get hold of his 30cm, four-hundred piece ship; his A4-D medical droid; and the young Mon Calamari Jedi, Nahdar Vebb, who viewers of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will know met his end inside the fiendish droid general’s lair.
The redesigned Grievous figure is nothing short of stunning, particularly when compared to its monotone predecessors. Just like in the movie and animated series, Grievous’s neck extends horizontally from his body, which is now a much more credible two-tone. He now also bears the correct number of limbs, which wield his four lightsabers (two green, two blue), and, best of all, those harrowing eyes that for me typify the character’s menace. The Vebb figure is also impressive, and has the added bonus of wearing the highly sought-after Admiral Ackbar’s head. Stick the headpiece on a white-tunic torso piece and you’ve got yourself a poor man’s Ackbar. The droid I was less taken with; largely because he’s so prone to falling apart if touched even lightly, and the stickers – a constant bane of LEGO – are a bugger to get stuck on straight. I am a fan of his character though – the only droid who gets away with cheeking Grievous, as he holds the general’s health in his hands – and so it’s nice to have him included, and his rotating-chair medical repair centre too.
The ship itself is a fairly nice piece of kit, buoyed by a couple of nice features such as its opening cockpit and hidden firing missiles. What lets it down is its failure to accommodate its supposed pilot, who has two too many limbs to squeeze into the cockpit. This is easily solved by unfastening his two offending arms, but it’s hardly ideal. I certainly wouldn’t have looked at buying this set simply to get my hands on the starfighter.
#7957 - Sith Nightspeeder
Relatively few LEGO builders will have seen the episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars from which this speeder hails, and even those that have may still struggle to place it - I know that I did. However, the daunting visages of the Zabrak monster Savage Opress and erstwhile Sith assassin Asajj Ventress are not so easily-forgotten. I’m sure that I’m not alone in purchasing this set simply to get my hands on their alluring minifigures, together with another subtly-different iteration of their Jedi scourge, Anakin Skywalker (this one belonging to the latter half of the Clone Wars).
Opress is a particularly outstanding minifig as he’s not only offered daunting bulk by his armour, but he’s crowned by a unique headpiece that shows off his distinctive yellow Zabrak horns. Ventress is impressive too, but I’d have preferred to see her in a skirt again, as opposed to easy-option leggings.
The model itself is nice for the price, boasting quite a wide array of features that are sure to appeal to younger builders. The detachable “bikes” are a particular boon.
# 7256 - Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid
The explosive battle over Coruscant at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith is the most spectacular space battle of the prequel trilogy, and I’ve always loved how Anakin and Obi-Wan’s interceptors seemed to foreshadow the look of the TIE fighters that would become synonymous with the Empire. As such, I felt that I had to get my hands on this old release.
This set, released the very month that Revenge of the Sith was theatrically released, paired Anakin’s dirty yellow starfighter with one of the colourful vulture droids that it would be pitted against on screen. The Jedi’s ship is a lovely bit of kit, boasting a distinctive cockpit and opening wings, and the adjustable droid is a welcome bonus. The models are only let down by the starfighter’s failure to accommodate R2-D2 - as with most sets from this era, the poor astromech’s head is just hopefully placed on the ship’s left wing.
Similarly, when compared to recent minifigures, the set’s Anakin’s is very basic, though I must concede that for 2005, he was cutting edge. The figure’s revolutionary flesh-tone face shows the Jedi’s distinctive battle scars, and his mechanical arm is emphasised by the black glove that he wears over it.
#9494 - Anakin’s Jedi Interceptor
Brick for brick, Anakin’s Jedi Interceptor is not only the most enjoyable Star Wars LEGO set that I’ve built, but the one that offers the most value for money. Rather than just present an iconic movie vehicle along with a couple of minifigures, here LEGO offer us the flavour of a whole scene.
Whilst it’s without retractable landing gears (which I find annoying anyway, prone as they are to collapse), Anakin’s TIE fighter-like ship is a great little model. Unlike its earlier incarnations, this model has room for the R2-D2 minifigure, boasting an astromech-friendly left wing. Its darker hue is also more pleasing to the eye than the mustard of its sister ship seen in the movie’s opening battle, not to mention more befitting the epic duel about to ignite amidst Mustafar’s volcanic flames.
This brings me to the set’s combatants: brand-new versions of the pre-suit Darth Vader and his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both are far more redolent of their silver screen alter egos than any earlier iterations, their respective hairpieces far more appropriate and their rotatable, double-faced heads vesting the scene that they inhabit with real emotion. They are accompanied in the set by the lava droid that Vader stands upon at the apex of the duel; an apparently arbitrary battle droid; and an evocative rendition of Separatist leader Nute Gunray, who, happily, is easily decapitated or cut in half (you chose). Noticeably, and indeed disappointingly, absent though is Padmé. It seems that LEGO engineering can stretch to x-wings and star destroyers, but not to pregnant tums.
#8096 - Emperor Palpatine’s Shuttle
Another of my favourite sets is Emperor Palpatine’s Shuttle, as seen on screen in the final, harrowing moments of Revenge of the Sith.
The ship itself is reminiscent of the better-known Imperial shuttles seen in Return of the Jedi, only curvaceous and grey, as opposed to angular and white. Pleasingly two of its three distinctive fins are fully-functional, allowing it to rest on the shelf with them pointing skyward.
Where LEGO have really excelled themselves with this set though is in how they’ve themed it around Darth Vader’s immolation and subsequent rebirth as a half-mechanical monstrosity. It’s grisly subject matter for a toy aimed at 9 to 14s, that’s to be sure, but inspiring nonetheless. The ship’s interior houses an operable operating table on which the set’s unique ‘crispy’ Vader minifigure can lie to have his famed black mask and helmet lowered onto his head before being theatrically raised to standing as in the movie. Purists may quibble that the Vader minifigure still has limbs, and that the operating table should belong on Coruscant, not in the surprisingly well-prepared Palpatine’s shuttle, but I applaud LEGO’s initiative.
The shuttle also comes with a rare pilot minifigure; an ill-fated medical droid; and, of course, the newly-crowned Emperor himself, who’s difficult to acquire in this incarnation if you’re not in the market for a £274.99 battle station. Here he appears without his trademark Death Star lightening, but with his bloodshine lightsaber in its place, which can be discretely secreted inside the shuttle’s chamber along with that of his roasted apprentice.
