The prices for the LEGO Star Wars August wave appear to have pushed fans of the theme too far, with many calling out the small sizes and hefty price tags.
With several LEGO Star Wars reveals popping up over the last day, fans of the brick-built galaxy far, far away are having a lot of emotions. While compliments abound on the return of some long-awaited characters in minifigure form, as well as well-designed vehicles that the community has wanted to see, many people are struggling to look past the prices.
That's perhaps most keenly felt on the 813-piece 75413 Republic Juggernaut, priced at £139.99 in the UK, $159.99 in the US, and €149.99 in Europe.
"Dang, this thing would rock for $90-100," wrote Rocknol on reddit. "150 is absurd!"
Specifically, people are calling out the size of the tank itself. While the minifigures – with Ki-Adi-Mundi appearing for the first time since 2018 and Commander Bacara for the very first time – are getting high praise in terms of design, another redditor, geraldforgey86, called the size of the main build 'pathetic'.
"What's even sadder is so many nice minifigures this wave being locked behind sets I would never pay anything close to retail price for," they continued. "50% off wouldn't convince me. Guess I'll just fully commit to collecting the classic stuff, thanks for convincing me, LEGO."
Indeed, that strikes at the heart of the issue. Many fans feel that modern LEGO Star Wars sets simply don't provide the value, instead preferring to chase white whales on the secondhand market. What's more, when minifigures are the main appeal of a set, some struggle to justify buying it at face value, espeically when they know that the figures alone will soon appear on marketplaces.
"Only the minifigures are worth getting, but not at $150 outright," wrote Old_Economics2152.
"The minifigures are stellar but at $150 this set is $50 more expensive than it's actually worth," agreed Open_Beautiful_8615. "As for the build itself this looks like the smallest turbo tank we've ever had. Feels like Lego really cheaped out on the build."
The other newly-revealed sets don't escape scrutiny either, with redditors describing the price (£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99) of 75433 Jango Fett’s Starship as 'outrageous', 'insane', and 'shamelessly absurd', to cherry-pick just a few reddit comments.
That's not to say there's nothing to like; as with 75413 Republic Juggernaut, the design is gathering plenty of praise – but not enough for people to look past the price tag.
"I actually like the colour scheme and build on this more than I thought I would," said FlavivsAetivs. "It's just the new scale is too small for the bigger things like shuttles or the big tanks. It's great for starfighters, but this is so underwhelming."
In the case of 75433 Jango Fett’s Starship and 75435 Battle of Felucia Separatist MTT, where there's an easy comparison to an earlier set, it's even more straightforward to draw price comparisons.
"As a comparison, I owned the 2007 MTT which was 1330 pieces, came with TWENTY battle droids, and only cost $100," complained LegoC97. "These modern prices are highway robbery."
"Does anyone else remember when [Jango Fett's Starship] was the tiny side build in Cloud City?" added Snorp69. "$70 for a slightly more detailed version is absurd (especially when a recolour/modification of the 2020 one is much better)."
"This feels like almost exactly the same as the 2021 version," agreed Financial-Abalone715. "I thought even that one was overpriced at £50."
The one area where LEGO Star Wars fans seem to feel the prices are fair is on 75417 AT-ST Walker, priced at £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 – ironically the most expensive of the lot revealed so far.
"The least talked about set in this August wave speaks for itself," wrote septasynthx on reddit. "This gives me high hopes for the incoming Death Star. Can't wait to pair this AT-ST with the UCS AT-AT."
All the LEGO Star Wars sets mentioned here will be available to buy from August 1. Check out the full galleries for each of them here.
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