LEGO Star Wars GWP 40451 Tatooine Homestead review

Available during the May the Fourth weekend as a free gift with LEGO Star Wars purchases of £85 / $85 / €85 is promotional set 40451 Tatooine Homestead.

The fourth entry into the LEGO Star Wars theme’s line of microscale scenes from the original trilogy of Star Wars films, 40451 Tatooine Homestead is available exclusively from LEGO.com and LEGO stores during the May the Fourth weekend of May 1-5.

Orders of £85 / $85 / €85 or more on LEGO Star Wars products will include a free copy of the set during this time, or at least as long as stocks last.

40451 Tatooine Homestead depicts the desert location where we first meet Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, whilst living with his aunt and uncle, where a visit by some droid-trading Jawas proves fateful in setting the course of the farmboy’s journey to becoming a Jedi and taking on the Empire.

Through a variety of slopes and sideways building, the undulations of the Tatooine desert are cleverly represented in the model and notably punctuated in the very middle by the below-surface Lars homestead.

Combined with the above-ground remainder of the dwelling and details such as the mini Sandcrawler with printed side panels (the best microscale one to date, and a model that the advent calendar builds could learn a great deal from), Luke’s speeder, and 1×1 rounded plates representing Luke, Owen, Beru (in the homestead), C-3PO, R2-D2 and a couple of Jawas, there is a real sense of the story from A New Hope’s opening act captured within the build.

Those opening scenes of Luke at the Lars homestead are some of the most memorable from the original trilogy, for what they set up and for one of Star Wars’ most iconic images, the binary sunset. And it’s that strength of connection between scene and LEGO set that help make 40451 Tatooine Homestead a worthwhile and satisfactory addition to a series of LEGO microscale scenes.

If there is one disappointment, it is that the binary sunset hasn’t been built into the model, such as in a way that perhaps some clever use of colour and parts could have achieved. That aside, though, 40451 Tatooine Homestead represents an interesting and engaging mini-build, well worth the bonus of being free with purchases of £85 / $85 / €85.

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It’s a more-than-relevant addition to the series of microscale scenes that the LEGO Group kicked off in 2019 with 40333 Battle of Hoth and 40362 Battle of Endor, and a far more interesting model than last year’s May the Fourth set 40407 Death Star II Battle. There’s more to the build process and there’s a greater connection to a more significant moment in the Skywalker saga, and with that a more iconic nature to the model as a whole.

Completists will need it, but any other LEGO Star Wars fan who also ends up with 40451 Tatooine Homestead after the May the Fourth weekend won’t be disappointed either. Of course, it isn’t an exclusive minifigure, nor a stylish print or set of posters as we have had in previous May the Fourth weekends, but for what it is there’s little to fault.

40451 Tatooine Homestead is available at LEGO.com and in LEGO stores from May 1-5 or while stocks last, as a gift with purchases of £85 / $85 / €85.

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