With Andor currently making waves with its gritty new take on the galaxy far, far away, it’s another Disney+ series which has truly had an impact on the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian helped to breathe new life into Star Wars as well as introducing new characters, locations and of course, new ships. One of the ships is Mando’s Razor Crest, a ship which has already been transformed into a couple of different scale LEGO sets. But now it’s time for the ultimate version of The Razor Crest as the ship becomes the latest addition to the much-loved and long-running LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Series. With the set due to drop out of Hyperspace early next month here’s a detailed look at the UCS Razor Crest. A little note of the images in this review, the set is very big and therefore too big for my normal set-up so some of the wider shot images aren’t as great as I would have liked and had to be taken outside, hence the slightly different lighting in some images.
Product Details
Imagine life as a galactic bounty hunter as you build and display a LEGO® Star Wars™ Ultimate Collector Series version of The Razor Crest (75331) starship. Measuring over 72 cm (28 in.) long, it is packed with authentic details that reference memorable Star Wars: The Mandalorian moments. The top of the starship and its huge engines lift off for easy viewing of the detailed interior, and the cockpit is removable for access to the sleeping quarters. It has side hatches and a cargo compartment with a weapons cabinet, a minifigure-size carbon-freezing chamber and more, plus a detachable escape pod.
5 Star Wars characters
The set also includes a display stand for the new-for-October-2022 The Mandalorian, The Mythrol and Kuiil LEGO Star Wars minifigures, a Grogu LEGO figure in a pram, and a new-for-October-2022 buildable Blurrg LEGO figure.
- Set Name: The Razor Crest
- Set Number: 75331
- Pieces: 6187
- RRP: £519.99/$599.99/599.99€
- Number of Bags: Bags x 39 + loose elements
- Stickers: Sheet x 1
- Minifigures: The Mandalorian, Grogu, The Mythrol & Kuiil + buildable Blurrg
- Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
- Availability: LEGO Stores & LEGO Online from October 3rd (VIP Early Access) & October 7th (General Release)
The ST-70 Razor Crest was first introduced in the very first episode of The Mandalorian. This pre-Empire military-class assault ship was used by Din Djarin for much of the first and second seasons of the Disney+ series before it was destroyed by Moff Gideon’s Light Cruiser. Despite its demise, the ship became a fan-favourite and has previously been recreated in LEGO form as a smaller playset and a MicroFighter build.
With the Ultimate Collectors Series sets providing extremely detailed builds, the construction is split across two booklets. The first of which has a number of pages detailing the set’s creation and source material. As I’ve stated many times, I love seeing this sort of detail in the instructions. Now the instructions are an important part of any LEGO set yet they are also mostly irrelevant once the set is complete. Something I’ve previously mentioned in regards to the questionable redesign of many standard LEGO set instructions. Unfortunately, that new design is used for this set’s instructions and it’s awful. I’ve defended the new minimal design but not here. When you are paying over £500 for a set, one which has beautiful artwork on the inner boxes and you’re faced with two awfully basic-looking instructions, they feel really out of place. Regardless, you’ll be buying this for the set, not the instructions.
Within the box, you’ll find two separate boxes numbered 1 and 2. As mentioned these feature nice panels of artwork. Normally these inner boxes are just white, so they add an air of luxury to the overall packaging, although the instructions soon dispel that. I really like the bags being split up this way. It makes it much easier to get started, especially if you are lacking in space. Box 1 has two instruction booklets, the sticker sheet and 19 bags. With box 2 also has two booklets and 20 bags.
Much of the core structure of the ship is built from a mix of Technic and System bricks, this gives it a strong base to add the outer shell and allows plenty of room for the detailed interior. The core base of the ship also allows various ‘working’ sections to be included such as side doors, ramps and the drop-down rear ramp.
As with most of the Ultimate Collector Series sets, the Razor Crest is highly detailed, both inside and out. The interior has a lot more detail compared to the standard Razor Crest. These include various control panels, a pair of Carbon Freezing chambers, weapon stashes and a surprising number of small blasters dotted about the ship. The cockpit is built in two ways, the surrounds are built into the shell of the ship, with the seating area being a separate platform which slots into place. Although the minifigures would suggest the set is focused on the first season of the Disney+ series, there are little nods to the second season such as Boba Fett’s scavaged armoured and the Frog Lady’s egg chamber.
Everything about the build is stepped up a notch thanks to the greater detail allowed by the Ultimate Collector Series sets. Some of the panelling has little doors in them and the greebling adds a nice level of detail, especially to a ship which is largely grey. It does feature the yellow stripes painting across the sides of the Razor Crest. These are achieved with a mix of elements and stickers, thankfully the colouring matches up quite well between the two different materials.
With box 1 is largely focused on creating the shell of the ship, the interior and some of the exterior panels. Box 2 adds the top section to the ship, its two large engines and the gang of minifigures. Of all the UCS sets I’ve built, this has been the most secure. Often these large-scale sets need to employ unique connection methods in order to capture the shapes necessary to best match the source material. This sometimes leads to some of the outer panels or plates being loosely fastened and thus easily knocked off. I didn’t find that with the Razor Crest, in fact, it has some great methods to keep things in place. Simple things like a strip of clips, with the panels, then being angled in place by sitting against an element behind it. Another clever connection method is the use of a ball jointed plate turntable plate to allow it enough movement to clip into place and my favourite of them all is the use of a rubber connector which holds a peg plate in place.
The various sections added to the upper part of the Razor Crest are a little looser but this is necessary in order to allow access to the interior of the ship. Thankfully, they are partly held in place via clutch power and not merely sitting in place like on some of the Star Wars ships. The biggest of the sections added to this part of the ship, in the two large engines. This is the biggest of the added elements. This is built as one piece and straddles the body of the ship, sitting across the midsection. This is the only section which really doesn’t fully connect to the body of the ship. There are a couple of jumper plates and these combined with the weight of the engine section keep it firmly in place, obviously, if you started swooshing the ship around, any of the outer plates could easily become detached. But the engines require a large number of elements to create and once complete they are surprisingly substantial. Of the entire build, the engines are also the most intricate and at times a little fiddly to construct. There are lots of plates added to the circular engines and they can be tricky to place if the elements underneath aren’t aligned correctly.
Finally, the ship is completed with a small detachable escape pod, which sits in the central part of the engine section. I can’t recall seeing this in action during The Mandalorian but it’s a fun feature to have and more importantly it covers the gap up well. The final piece to add to the Razor Crest is the canopy which sits over the cockpit. This doesn’t connect to the body of the ship in any way and sort of sits in place against a few of the elements on the ship. It uses a couple of uniquely printed transparent elements for the canopy windscreen. As these are loose with the rest of the elements, they can and with the ones on had, will get scratched up. Another unfortunate oversight for such a costly set. In fact, this set has a few element bases issues, I had a couple of 1×3 flat tiles missing, with 1×4 tiles in their place, there was a random bunch of cherries in one bag and quite a few pieces had little tabs of plastic around the area they detach from the moulds.
With the ship complete, the rest of the build is focused on the display plate and minifigures. Most of the UCS sets feature various characters related to the build and more often than not, they aren’t that exciting but that’s not the case here. The set features four characters, unsurprisingly they include Grogu and the Mandalorian. Although Grogu is no different to past versions, it does not include his hover pram. Mando is also a new variant now kitted out in his Beskar Armour. Not only does he have a face, but he also has hair. Plus there’s better print detail on his helmet.
The other two minifigures are entirely new and currently exclusive to this set. They include the fugitive alien Mythrol and retired Ugnaught Kuiil. The Mythrol is a fairly simple minifigure, which uses a standard head to create the amphibious creature. Kuiil is a little more unique, with a brand new head element used to create the character’s features and headgear. Unusually for a UCS set, there is also a smaller buildable character.
Kuiil is joined by his Blurb mount. This is a great little build and could easily have been a future Microfighter set as it’s the perfect size and style for those releases. It’s an extremely strong possibility both Mythrol and Kuiil will appear in other sets in the future, but no doubt there will be the usual few bemoaning purposely adding exclusive minifigures into expensive sets.
All four characters along with the Blurrg can be mounted onto the display stand, which also features the usual info plate. This is a sticker, although it’s been stated that future UCS plaques will be printed. This features the usual details of the ship.
Review Round-up
On a whole, this is a great recreation of the Razor Crest and one of my favourite of the most recent Ultimate Collector Series sets. It provided an interesting build experience, especially with The Mandalorian on in the background as I built the set. Of course, the price has to be covered. The UCS sets have always been expensive, after all they are aimed at the adult collectors market. The recent price increases across many LEGO product lines has only seen the UCS range shot up in price and the Razor Crest’s RRP reflects that. It’s all very well me heaping praise on something I didn’t pay for. But times are tough for many at the moment. It’s a pricey set, there’s no getting around that. Does it warrant such a price? That’s more difficult to give a direct answer to. I will say it’s one of the best UCS sets I’ve built, it’s nicely detailed but well constructed. The minifigures are a nice addition. If you can afford it or want to treat yourself to a set that will keep you busy for a while, this is the way… to go.
For
+ One of the best UCS build experiences
+ Highly detailed inside and our
+ Great minifigures and Blurrg is a welcomed surprised
Against
– Very expensive
– Awful instruction booklet design does not have a place in such a costly set
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This set was provided to BricksFanz by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or Disney. Providing a set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
28th September 2022
I think you made a slip up in the retail price. Nice review otherwise!
28th September 2022
I always forget to change the template from the last review so thanks for the heads up 🙂