After Star Wars became part of the House of Mouse, Disney set about expanding the Star Wars universe beyond the core trilogies with spin-off films dubbed Star Wars stories. The first of these stories was Rogue One. Released in 2016, the film acts as a prequel to the very first Star Wars film, now known as A New Hope. With the Empire tightening its grip on the Galaxy, a rebellion rises. Rogue One introduces a number of new characters including Rebel Spy Cassian Andor. It’s this character who has inspired the upcoming Disney+ series Andor. As with much of the Star Wars content on Disney’s streaming service, it also acts as inspiration for an upcoming new set. With the set due to be released next month, here’s an early look at the Andor set.
Product Details
Star Wars: Andor fans can play out an action-packed Ambush on Ferrix with this LEGO® Star Wars™ (75338) set. It features a Mobile Tac-Pod with an opening top and side for easy access to the detailed interior, adjustable wings for flight and landing modes and a rotating double stud shooter, plus a speeder bike for Cassian Andor and Luthen Rael to ride on. There are 3 LEGO minifigures, each with a blaster pistol for battle play.
- Set Name: Ambush on Ferrix
- Set Number: 75338
- Pieces: 679
- RRP: £69.99/$79.99/79.99€
- Number of Bags: Bags x 6
- Stickers: Sheet x 1
- Minifigures: Cassian Andor, Luthen Rael and Syril Karn
- Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
- Availability: LEGO Stores & LEGO Online from August 1st – Available to Pre-order Now
Once Andor hits Disney+ in September, it follows the events that occur in the lead-up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which itself is a forebearer for the first Star Wars film released in 1977. So in essence it’s a prequel to a prequel. Set between the fall of the Jedi in the Prequel Trilogy and the rise of the Empire in the Original Trilogy, Andor will largely focus on a time period not really covered before. Despite this being the case, it will have an air of familiarity about it, to ground it in the universe we are familiar with. This set is a mix of new with a twist of what we’ve come to expect from the Star Wars universe.
One of the key factors with sets based on something like a film or TV series is how well it relates to the source material or captures a moment from it. As Andor has yet to air on Disney+, it’s going to be tricky to compare beyond what’s been shown in the trailer for Andor. Despite this and the fact elements of the set are based on something completely new, visually, you can tell it relates to Star Wars in some way. Speeder Bikes have featured a lot in various Star Wars stories from their debut in Return of the Jedi to the Book of Boba Fett. These simple forms of personal transportation have also appeared in many LEGO sets, but this one feels different. Firstly, it’s slightly more complex than previous takes. As well as being able to accommodate two minifigures, it’s a little more detailed. I particularly like the use of a whip to become a power coupling and how it’s twisted around one of the front poles.
The rest of the build is focused on a small ship known as a Mobile Tac-pod ship. This is quite stocky, which I like and appears to be a means of deploying a small band of troops. Although a new ship, efforts have been made to ground it in ‘Star Wars reality’. Although quite small, the ship’s shape and engine configuration give it a similar feel to a Republic Gunship. To achieve this the core of the build uses a few Technic beams connected at angles, which form a base to connect a number of plate sections.
The two larger ones on each side become doors, which drop open to allow access to the inside of the ship. Once the engines are added, the clearance between them is minuscule, almost to the point that they will catch on the engines sometimes. There’s also a similar door on the rear of the ship, but opening this reveals little more than a hidden blaster and the interior of the set upon which the rest of it is built.
The front of the ship is the most impressive part for me, a couple of smaller plates are connected at unique angles to give the front section of the ship a nice sloped finish. This is topped by a transparent canopy over the cockpit. Thankfully, it’s a printed canopy so there’s no fiddling about with stickers. Although there are stickers used elsewhere in the set.
The set is then finished with a pair of large tubular engines, with small fins. These are simply connected to the ship with Technic pins but can be rotated to raise or lower the wings. Much like the rest of the ship, despite these being just a small part of the build, they contain a lot of elements. Finally, sitting atop the ship is a blaster cannon. It features a pair of the newer stud shooters, with their square casing adding to the aesthetics of the ship.
There are three minifigures included in the set. All of them are unique, unfortunately, they aren’t that exciting. Cassian Andor has appeared in LEGO form before but looks a lot different this time around. Firstly, he has long hair and a much fuller beard, his skin tone has also been tweaked. Unfortunately, how well this matches the character in the series is unknown. He isn’t even shown having this appearance in the trailer and a recently released image from the show does show the character with longer hair, just not as long as it appears on the minifigure.
Luthen Rale appears to be an ally of Andor’s and is briefly seen in the teaser trailer. The character will be played by Stellan Skarsgårdt. It appears the minifigure is decent enough likeness. Finally, another new character is Syril Karn. The character’s affiliation isn’t clear, but he appears to be some sort of police officer. In the trailers, the outfit the characters wears is a darker blue, so the bright blue does look a little out of place. In fact, the minifigure looks extremely similar to a Cloud City Bespin Guard.
Review Round-up
This is an extremely difficult set, to sum up. It’s based on the content we are yet to see. It’s also inspired by something no one really asked for. Rogue One was an enjoyable film, but I’m sure there are very few people who sat there at the end pondering the backstory of Cassian Andor. I guess the series will relay the formation of what becomes known as the Rebel Alliance but it still seems an odd route to take. This middling interest and confusion also bleed into this LEGO set. Firstly, it appears overpriced, I say, ‘appears’ as there are quite a lot of elements in the set and it includes genuinely far more building than the images of the set would suggest. That goes for both the Speeder Bike and Pod Transporter. Not even the minifigures could be considered a highlight. They are all unique but based on mostly new characters, who are not overly exciting ones. However, I did enjoy building the set and it’s always welcome to have the Star Wars theme seek inspiration from new places. In this case, it’s possible the source material wasn’t the most interesting it could have been to start with. But the biggest factor against the set is the pricing.
For
+ Quite a fun build
+ Shape of the ship has been achieved in interesting ways
+ Offers more than it appears
Against
– Very expensive
– Uninspired minifigures
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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.
