75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship sums up the state of LEGO Star Wars in 2023

75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship is almost everything great about LEGO Star Wars, but also an example of where the theme continues to be challenged.

Upon reveal and then September 2023 release, there was a lot of attention centred around 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship, amid an otherwise Ahsoka-inspired line-up of new LEGO Star Wars sets. Here was an iconic ship we had seen before but not for a long, long decade, and this time it was decked out in a new colour scheme and designed ever so slightly smaller. Once more it included highly-desirable minifigures and altogether came in at a relatively accessible price point, at least as far as affordability for modern LEGO Star Wars sets go.

For just those reasons and in spite of any of the flaws and criticisms that it may have also been facing from initial reviews, 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship represented for many of us a day one purchase or, failing that, an addition to the wishlist until such time as it could join the collection. There was enough that was new, collectible and/or clearly improved upon or different to previous versions to instantly speak to LEGO Star Wars fans.

That’s often the case with a number of shiny new LEGO Star Wars sets. So, now that we’ve all calmed down a little bit and we’re away from the initial excitement around this set, how does it really stack up? And what does it really say about the state of the theme as we close out 2023 and look forward to the 25th anniversary in 2024?

As a set, it stacks up pretty well, it turns out. 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship has released during a time where clearly the LEGO Group’s design teams are under a unique pressure to effectively create more with less, to try to offer as much quality in every set while global economic pressures impact affordability and pricing. And in trying to walk the line between quality and budget, 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship demonstrates the best that LEGO Star Wars design can offer in 2023, even when some compromises remain unavoidable and hard to completely ignore.

The LEGO Star Wars team are nothing if not varied in their approach over the years to the Gunship. While we have had four minifigure-scale editions release during the theme’s history, 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship is only the second to build a version of the Gunship with fully closing side doors, after 2008’s Republic Attack Gunship, and the first to venture away from the Republic white, red and green colourway, to the dark red and white Coruscant Guard design, as per an appearance in Crisis at the Heart – episode seven of season six of The Clone Wars.

Obscure references are nothing new for Star Wars nor LEGO Star Wars, and as far as 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship is concerned it is a smart and welcome change, particularly for being the fourth such model to release and with consideration to the larger UCS 75309 Republic Gunship currently occupying shelves at this time too.

As far as design goes too, 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship benefits from almost everything that LEGO Star Wars in 2023 can bring to the table. And this is best demonstrated in how tight and compact the entire model feels, with regards to achieving some quite complex changes in angle and demands on structural integrity without over-building or using too many pieces to achieve what’s required. Take a look at the much chunkier earliest LEGO Republic Gunships to understand exactly what is meant by this – that smoother all-round aesthetic that has your eyes instantly accept every facet and detail to the Gunship is all down to remarkably intelligent and advanced LEGO design.

The beauty in this model – and it is gorgeous to look at – is achieved through excellent, efficient and quite mathematical understanding of LEGO as the creative medium that it is. And that is something that LEGO Star Wars as a theme more consistently than most other themes has mastered and continues to demonstrate year in, year out.

Yet, that mastery is still set within the aforementioned context of ever-tightening financial parameters that visibly continue to limit LEGO Star Wars as a theme. And for where we said this is a set that benefits from almost everything that the theme and its design team can offer in 2023, it also cannot avoid the increasingly apparent restrictions that seem to afflict LEGO Star Wars sets and minifigures more so than most other themes. For meeting the price point that this set needs to and working to include five minifigures (all of whom are exclusive at release day), the piece count does come in too low to build out the Gunship to be as best proportioned as it could be.

According to a quite comprehensive breakdown on reddit, using official measurements of the on-screen ship as per starwars.com, while 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship comes in at a credible and accurate scale in height in comparison to minifigures. However, it is disproportionally scaled in length, built at a not-insignificant eight studs shorter than it should be to correctly match the height it has been designed at and to maintain the correct all-round scale to match the minifigures included. For comparison’s sake, 2013’s 75021 Republic Gunship measures at the same height, but for being longer comes in at the correct proportions across the board for height, length and minifigure scale. In short, 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship is lengthways too short.

And that is noticeable if you look for it. If you have other LEGO Gunships to stand it next to or you don’t, the body to the model does feel slightly off if you pay that sort of attention to it. By pulling in the position of the cockpits slightly too close to the middle of the body, and by using doors that are a couple of studs longer to cover up the fact there should be two separate doors on each side otherwise covering a longer body, the whole model does have a slightly diddier appearance than it could otherwise have.

So where does 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship actually land? Here is a set that absolutely delivers for LEGO Star Wars fans on most of the important aspects – it’s interesting to build, expertly designed within the limitations put on it, and feels creatively fresh for adopting a completely different colourway. It’s also pretty playable, looks nice on display and has a credible line-up of minifigures in the box.

Yet it’s also a product of its time when design teams – and in particular the LEGO Star Wars design team – are seemingly being challenged to continue to create the same depth and breadth of product with fewer pieces and a smaller budget, for a price point that two years ago would have delivered a hefty amount more. The trade-off that is skilfully avoided in a lot of cases can’t always be, and in this case, we have a model that needed a price-point-breaking few hundred more parts to round it out to perfection. Without those pieces it’s a solid 8/10, which combined with everything unique and new about it is more than enough for LEGO Star Wars fans.

That compromise, though, is the sort we have seen echoed in other LEGO Star Wars sets in similar ways, if you care to look hard enough, and it’s made for an increasing level of scrutiny for the theme this year.

Sets like 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship will justifiably continue to score highly for the marvellous models that the LEGO Star Wars team continues to create, but as we wait for external market pressures and out-of-control inflation to settle, we may have to accept that the imperfections that have been more commonplace through this calendar year are here to stay for a little while longer.

75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship is available now.

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