The concept of buildable LEGO® characters has taken many forms, but the most popular has to be the Up-Scaled Minifigure. They debuted in 2021 via the Harry Potter theme and have since been the subject of a LEGO House Exclusive set, a handful of classic LEGO characters and most recently, a festive-themed Up-Scaled Santa. But the latest returns to the licensed realm with the first-ever Up-Scaled LEGO Star Wars Minifigure. This takes the form of the fallen Jedi and Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Here’s a closer look at the recently released set.
Product Details
Set Name: Up-scaled Darth Vader Minifigure | Set Number: 75461 | Pieces: 1028 | Theme: Star Wars
Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Sticker: sheet x 1 | Minifigures: N/A
RRP: £89.99/99.99€/$99.99/149.99AUD/139.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & LEGO retailers
As mentioned, there have been many different styles of buildable LEGO characters released over the years. From Construction Figures to BrickHeadz, some have portrayed certain characters better than others. But buildable minifigures have managed to marry the adulation for minifigures with larger-scale LEGO builds. Star Wars’ iconic villain, Darth Vader, has appeared in many different forms over the LEGO Star Wars theme’s long history. But this is the first time he’s been replicated as a giant minifigure.
If you’ve built any of the other Up-Scaled Minifigures, then the build experience is very similar. It includes the same points of articulation for the legs and arms. But to help accommodate Vader’s Lightsaber, his right arm includes a Technic ballpoint pin, which sits in a recess in the side of the torso. These allow the arm to cope with the additional weight of the Lightsaber. Speaking of which, this is built into the hand, so it can’t easily be removed, nor can Vader be displayed without it.
Although the base design of the Up-Scaled Minifigures is similar, the exterior design is much different. In fact, Vader is the most detailed of all the Up-Scaled characters. This includes the life support systems built into this suit and featured on the torso. These are unfortunately stickered pieces; for the price of the set and the elements they are applied to, these parts of the set should have been printed. I’m glad a cape has been included, this large cloth piece, which slots over the neck section of the torso, as it would on a normal minifigure. But the most complex and detailed part of the entire build is Vader’s head.
Similar brick-built versions of Vader’s helmet have been done before, but this one also needs to match the style of a minifigure. Overall, I’d say that a nice balance of recreating Vader’s iconic helmet whilst also looking like a minifigure has been achieved, mostly. One aspect of the head, I’m still not too sure about, is the eyes. Stickers have been used to show a slight reflection in the lenses of Vader’s helmets. These do make the eyes look a little off. I understand why they have been designed this way, as it helps give the eyes some definition against the rest of the helmet’s blackness, and I’ve seen some people choose to leave the stickers off the eyes, but I can’t decide which way is better.
I do like the Up-Scaled Minifigures, and it was only a matter of time before the concept was used for one of the most popular LEGO themes. Despite the use of stickers for some details and those pesky eyes, it’s a fun but expensive set. Hopefully, we’ll see more characters up-scaled similarly. The Up-Scaled Darth Vader Minifigure is available now from LEGO Stores and LEGO.com.
The LEGO Group provided this set to BricksFanz.com for review purposes. The thoughts in this review are those of BricksFanz.com and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or Disney. Providing the set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of it
