In 1999 as “The Phantom Menace” was the most anticipated movie in theatres LEGO was strugrling financially and decided to do something it had never done before. A momentous collaboration between two beloved franchises. Lego secured the rights to bring Star Wars to life in building block form.
Licensing would turn out to be one of the things that would save the LEGO Group a few years later…
LEGO Star Wars started with a bang featuring some of the most iconic scenes from the galaxy far, far away which would be re-released and impvoved for years to come solidifying Star Wars Lego as a cornerstone of both the building block company and pop culture at large.
Between the 1999 Star Wars sets that LEGO released are a Landspeeder (LEGO 7110), a Snowspeeder (LEGO ), an X-Wing Fighter (LEGO 7140) and a handful of sets derived directly from Star Wars episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Since then close to a thousand sets have been released in many sizes and styles.
Some of the most iconic sets have been in larger sizes that are more guided towards adults.
Minifigure Scale Sets
The sets you’re used to seeing in stores, these sets offer great value for money and are geared towards play. Some look great as show pieces by themselves however. We have a minifigure scale Razor Crest on a shelf, and it looks great next to the minifigure scale Slave I (We like bounty hunters?) – They were not challenging builds but are some of the sets we have gotten the most value out of due to their size and affordability.
Master Builder Sets
These are bigger sets but they are minifig scale! As I mentioned with the Minifigure Scale sets these also make for great display pieces. The very rare Betrayal at Cloud City (75222) and the newer Mos Eisley Cantina (75290) are some of the standouts from this set style. The sets can open to show detailed interiors, and to make play… or diorama displays… easier.
Ultimate Collector Series
If you are not looking to play with your lego, this is most likely what you would like to build. These are larger sets that have a lot of detail and complexity in the build. When finished any one of these sets could be a centerpiece of your Star Wars collection. All of the most important ships in the galaxy have been featured including some newer sets like the Razor Crest from the Disney+ tv series The Mandalorian. These sets include many exclusive minifigs that would make for great characters to have while playing, or for dioramas, however their price might be prohibitive and therefore many choose to purchase the minifigs individually on somre resell platforms.
Helmet Collection
Many like showing their love for star wars by showing their love for charcters, this is where these next sets come in. You can build detailed helmets, which due to the nature of things are mostly on the clone wars side of things. Dartth Vader, and a whole host of strooper helmets are available. For the Rebels, they have a choice between Luke’s Red V helmet and Leia’s Boushh helmet.
Brickheads
In a more general set style that is common across all of LEGO, we have Brickheadz sets. These are a great alternative to the very popular Funko style figures and feature many characters in the Star Wars franchise.
Dioramas
We have mentioned dioramas many times as something you would like to build with your Star Wars LEGO sets. The LEGO Group has also been listening and has started releasing diorama sets. These sets are on the smaller side, but have a lot of 1×1 plates that show quite a bit of detail and they fit great on any shelf. In this collection we very much like Dagobah Jedi Training Diorama, which features Luke Skywalker’s sunken X-Wing in the swamp.
