The Return of the Jedi | Mylenium's Brick Corner

After the craziness of the last issue of the LEGO Star Wars magazine – I’ve literally seen pictures on Facebook from people having bought twenty or more – we’re now back on more normal, more mundane territory again.

The main comic takes us back to Endor and portrays some hijinx that believably could have happened off-screen in The Return of the Jedi. I definitely prefer this type of story rather than some wildly crazy, concocted stories that don’t fit the story and lore as I know it. The second comic is just that and inevitably ties in with the extra that comes with the mag, Obi-Wan‘s Jedi Interceptor.

The model of said fighter is okay, but pretty unspectacular. That were of course true even if you bought a bigger set and an inherent strength or weakness with the slick, yet somewhat boring overall design. After all, it’s just a big barrel cockpit with some wings and huge flaps. Therefore for me the only real value in parts are the Dark Red ones. Not particularly rare, but it’s a nice color to have as it’s useful for many different applications.

A highlight this month are the posters, which satisfy my designer’s taste buds. They’re nice graphical designs and reasonably balanced with the only caveat being whether or not you could get over LEGO‘s version of The Child‘s all too alien-baby looking black eyes. I really wish they’d include those hazel-colored irises to make it look a little less terrifying.

Not much going on in the activities department this time around, though, with only some super simple games providing a bit of engagement. As it is, this issue enjoyable enough for a few minutes, but offers no longer-lasting distraction from the current misery around us.

As I wrote back then in my review of the Speeder Bike, I don’t think that most Star Wars Buildable Figures are particularly attractive due to the limitations of the underlying skeleton and the available parts for representing garments and armour. Not even every Stormtrooper quite looks quite the part, depending on the exact set you choose, so the risk of losing my mind me falling into a brainless buying spree are limited because of that (and other reasons). However that doesn’t stop me from doing a bit of cherrypicking and getting myself one or the other model from time to time, regardless. One such set is Boba Fett, a new release for 2018 even.

What makes the set stand out is easy to guess and doesn’t require any deeper science. In the Star Wars realm Boba Fett, the bounty hunter, is an iconic figure and even if you don’t care much for that, the unique color scheme speaks for itself. The overall appearance is a bit of an amalgam. He basically looked different in every movie or series for various reasons, so producing an exact match for anyone of them would be difficult within the limitations of LEGO.

Naturally the colors are one of them and they have been tweaked/ bent to fit into the standard color palette whereas they look different in the movies. That’s could be an endless filed of debate whether a Light Olive Green on some elements would have been more appropriate than Sand Green, but to me it looks okay the way it is.

The only part I don’t agree is the worn out coat/ tarp. This is pretty clearly a dark olive drab in pretty much every image you can find, not a Light Lime. The shoulder pads and other yellow-looking parts are actually Light Bright Orange. That seems to match the original, but is quite unusual within LEGO Star Wars or for that matter Technic. You don’t see it being used there every day.

Of course the only reason we see it on the jetpack is because it’s the version from Return of the Jedi, not the smaller, olive one from The Empire strikes back. That also explains the blue parts, which are pins and connectors from the Technic line. Here are actually available in Blue for the first time, so this should make some people happy who always wanted to swap them out in visible places on their otherwise blue models.

Beneath the jetpack there are also two small panels in Sand Green that might be handy when you build some military-, agriculturally- or forest-themed stuff. The rest of the details is what you would expect. unfortunately LEGO don’t go out of their way on those and a lot of them are just to cover up holes and make the model look a less skinny and skeletal. From a bit of distance this looks okay and credible on the shelf or in a showcase, but you shouldn’t get too close or the illusion falls apart.

On a whole this is a nice figure and one of the few from a limited selection that is actually worth the money. It doesn’t save grace for the whole Star Wars Buildable Figures series, but on its own merits this is a nice eyecatcher. Now I wonder where he parked that Slave I… 😉