75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter is an excellent reminder that not all LEGO Star Wars X-Wings are alike…
Releasing as part of the tie-in wave of sets for May’s The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter updates the X-Wing design for something familiar in almost every way that’s good, and different in what matters most.
75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter updates the standard X-Wing you may have built before, offering LEGO Star Wars a slightly new colour palette to play with – instead of red highlights across a white body, we have blue highlights across a white body. It’s not the most substantial change, but it’s change enough to give this latest X-Wing a sense of novelty.
More importantly, though, is LEGO Star Wars’ general attitude to X-Wing design, inasmuch as you cannot say that building one X-Wing means you’ve built them all. Whilst some other sets – for whatever reason – get released and re-released over the years with little-to-no clear changes in design, it’s rarely been the case across the now 27 years of LEGO X-Wings.
There are similarities to recent play-scale X-Wings (Smart Play X-Wing not included), and you can very much see particular techniques that proved successful before being mirrored in 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter. But, crucially for anyone who may be worried about X-Wing fatigue, yet again, the theme marries this with some new and innovative ideas that make building exactly the same thing feel completely different.
And that’s the most important takeaway from 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter. You can see we’re stuck at the 75%-ish scale due to budget reasons, but it works so nicely for this particular ship. Yes, there’s the new colour scheme, complete with quite-difficult-to-apply-straight stickers that really offer a new look, albeit in the simplest way possible. What matters most in terms of LEGO experience, playability and value, though, is that this feels fresh and interesting to put together.
As a result, there is a lot to admire and appreciate about 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter, and in most ways the final model also looks the part. It’s a fine addition to the proper X-Wing collection (sorry, Smart Play X-Wing) and a reminder that LEGO Star Wars is strongest at this mid-range size of play-scale set.
It’s not perfect, of course – the landing gear is a little clumsy in how it folds up, whilst the included Astromech droid sits way too high behind the cockpit, and admittedly, the intelligent play feature to open up the wings is a little stiff to operate. Likewise, whilst it is great to get two new named characters in Colonel Ward and Carson Teva, poor Carson doesn’t come with a hairpiece.
For a price of £59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99, though, 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter ticks almost every other box, including most importantly the fact that we can say this will feel just as good as any other X-Wing you may have built before, albeit built in a way you haven’t quite built one before.
Our honest opinion: 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter is an excellent and worthy addition to the LEGO Star Wars X-Wing collection, yet again offering a fresh take, and this time at a fair price.
This LEGO set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes.
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How long does it take to build LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter?
LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter comes together in about an hour of build time.
LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter contains 558 pieces, including named characters Colonel Ward and Carson Teva, as well as a New Republic Astromech droid.
LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter measures 31.5cm long, 19cm wide at the front wing, and roughly 8cm at its tallest point (Astromech droid not included).
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