Five things we love about the new LEGO Star Wars minifigures – and three things we don’t

Brand new LEGO Star Wars: Ahsoka and Return of the Jedi minifigures are on the way in August, and there are plenty of things we love about them – but also a few things we don’t…

Between 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, a total of nine brand new LEGO Star Wars minifigures (and two repeats) are joining shelves on August 1. Some of those represent the graphic design team at the top of their game, bringing new characters into the fold and updating returning heroes with fresh looks.

But while they’re all decent minifigures on the whole, there are just a few pain points we’ve picked out between them now we have them in hand. Dive into our highs and lows of these new characters below, and don’t forget to check out our full reviews of both 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit.

We love… Grand Admiral Thrawn’s new look

It’s hard to believe we’ve only been waiting seven years for another LEGO Grand Admiral Thrawn – it feels much longer, not least for how expensive the original minifigure has become on the aftermarket – but the LEGO Star Wars team has absolutely delivered with the new version included with 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea. From the dual-moulded boots and more accurate torso print to the new shade of blue for his skin tone, everything about this Thrawn just works.

We don’t love… the re-used Boba Fett

The LEGO Star Wars team is usually really good at including movie- and scene-accurate minifigures in sets, with a stringent attention to detail even where more casual fans wouldn’t notice the difference. But that apparently hasn’t extended to 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, which includes Boba Fett in his Empire Strikes Back clobber.

The bounty hunter’s outfit changed significantly for Return of the Jedi, as the LEGO Group acknowledged in the previous version of this set, so to see the same minifigure from last year’s 75369 Boba Fett Mech return here is very disappointing – and smacks of an unwillingness to stretch the budget to one more new minifigure. For the price of this set, that stings just a bit.

We love… Han Solo’s new face prints

We’ve seen Han Solo in his white shirt and brown trousers from the end of Empire/beginning of Jedi a few times already, but the LEGO Group hasn’t rested on its laurels for the version in 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit. The smuggler boasts brand new face prints here, stylised in a way that’s reminiscent of the Skywalker Saga video game and LEGO Star Wars animated specials, and the minifigure is all the better for it.

We don’t love… Ezra Bridger’s eyes

The best way to describe Ezra Bridger’s eyes in 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea is ‘strange’, if only for the inconsistency it presents among the wider LEGO Star Wars line-up. The theme has typically gunned for coloured eyes for its alien characters, giving humanoid minifigures uniformly black eyes with white pupils. Swapping Ezra’s out for blue is an alright hat-tip to the character’s sparkling eyes in the Ahsoka series, but it doesn’t sit well with the rest of the crew.

We love… Luke Skywalker’s attention to detail

The new and revamped Luke Skywalker in 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit is easily the best LEGO minifigure version of his early Return of the Jedi outfit yet, and while the designers may have overlooked Boba’s outfit in these scenes (even if as a result of the set’s budget), they’ve paid close attention to the movie’s main character – right down to the absence of a glove on his mechanical hand. (He didn’t cover up until after he received a blaster wound to the wrist aboard Jabba’s Sail Barge.)

We love… the Night Trooper’s head

The LEGO Group didn’t need to go the extra mile with the Night Trooper’s head print, and certainly none of us likely expected it (accustomed as we are to the plain black heads included with anonymous LEGO Star Wars soldiers as recently as June’s Mandalorian Season 3 sets). But this zombie-like face print really is LEGO Star Wars creativity at its best.

We don’t love… the Night Trooper’s subtle printing

While there’s a lot to love under this undead Stormtrooper’s helmet, the printing on the bucket itself is just a little too subtle compared to what we saw in Star Wars: Ahsoka. It’s neat that it’s there, but we almost missed it when first looking at the images of this character – and it’s only a little more prominent now that we’ve got it in hand.

We love… Nien Nunb

75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit includes our first-ever Nien Nunb minifigure, complete with the LEGO Star Wars theme’s first moulded Sullustan headpiece. And the designers have knocked it out of the park already – this is everything you’d expect from a LEGO Star Wars minifigure in 2024, striking a perfect balance between detail and the classic LEGO DNA.

75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit will both be available to buy from LEGO.com, in LEGO Stores and through third-party retailers from August 1, 2024.

• 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Duel on Peridea review
• 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit review

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