LEGO Star Wars Microfighters 75263 Resistance Y-wing, 75264 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle and 75265 T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha review

Kylo Ren and Zorii Bliss minifigures, plus a first ever LEGO Bantha build makes the latest LEGO Star Wars Microfighters more than a little interesting

75263 Resistance Y-wing

Price: £8.99 / $9.99 / €9.99 Pieces: 86 Available: December 26 (UK), January 1 (USA)

75264 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle

lego

Price: £8.99 / $9.99 / €9.99 Pieces: 72 Available: December 26 (UK), January 1 (USA)

75265 T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha

Price: £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 Pieces: 198 Available: December 26 (UK), January 1 (USA)

Cartoonish in scaling and design, Microfighters have for the past five years offered a unique twist across generally vehicles in the Star Wars universe, as well as some desirable minifigures. 75263 Resistance Y-wing, 75264 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle and 75265 T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha are each no different, following the pattern well established in previous years, albeit taking steps to ensure that what was beginning to feel stale and formulaic as a sub-theme instead continues to rise in appeal.

That’s for two reasons in particular. Whilst 75263 Resistance Y-wing and 75264 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle offer the same quaint, resized editions of ships straight out of the Star Wars sequel trilogy’s concluding chapter, The Rise of Skywalker, they also offer a couple of highly desirable minifigures too.

Somewhat surprisingly, Zorii Bliss makes an appearance in 75263, in exactly the same design as she appears in the much higher priced 75249 Resistance Y-wing Starfighter. In the same vein, the Kylo Ren minifigure otherwise exclusive to 75256 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle is included in 75264, complete with the same double-sided face print, lightsaber and that new helmet, albeit without the cape. For minifigure collectors previously facing an outlay of £160 to own these minifigures (and a couple of the best LEGO Star Wars sets from the October wave), for just £20 both those characters can be picked up, thanks to these Microfighters.

Both minifigures are, as is commonplace in the LEGO Star Wars theme, expertly designed LEGO versions of their film characters, capturing the finest details in their respective characters’ costumes. Whilst Microfighters provide younger LEGO fans a more accessible, pocket-sized play experience and more casual fans a more discreet and affordable LEGO Star Wars collection, they have generally offered up builds that many older fans would take or leave. However, including minifigures such as these draw universal appeal, and will bring many of those sceptics in for a new building experience that some may be surprised to enjoy.

The other reason that this wave of Microfighters helps to continue to raise the sub-theme’s level is purely down to 75265 T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha furthering the excellent idea established with last year’s 75228 Escape Pod vs. Dewback – the introduction of organic creatures into the Microfighter styling. Where five years of applying the Microfighter template to various ships and vehicles has somewhat become formulaic, the Dewback from last year and the Bantha included in 75265 add something new.

Cute, brick-built renditions of classic trilogy creatures are hard to resist and truly give LEGO Star Wars fans of any generation something fun, new and very much desirable for their collection.

75263’s Y-wing and 75264’s Shuttle are both charming in design, as is the T-16 Skyhopper in 75265 (complete with an updated Skyhopper pilot – our third version of this pilot), but, that set’s Bantha is just everything a brick-built creature from Star Wars should be.

Not every animal has to have a new mould – there’s enough variety within the LEGO Group’s parts catalogue to build a host of the creatures within Star Wars, and last year’s Dewback and this year’s Bantha are positive steps towards that direction. Even if it just remains something to explore in the Microfighters sub-theme, it is a fresh and original take, at once serving a niche build experience within the LEGO Star Wars theme and providing access to a host of creatures and animals not yet explored.

Just as with the Dewback, the Bantha captures the cuteness of the Microfighters sub-theme but also stands plausibly as its own, more general brick-built creation, just as at home in a wider LEGO Star Wars diorama.

All told, these three Microfighters bring something new to the LEGO Star Wars sub-theme, and should rightly pull in more interest from a wider selection of fans.

75263 Resistance Y-wing, 75264 Kylo Ren’s Shuttle and 75265 T-16 Skyhopper vs Bantha are available from December 26 in the UK at LEGO.com. You can help support Brick Fanatics’ work by using our affiliate links.

Author Profile

Rob Paton
As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

Rob Paton

As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

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