Five LEGO Star Wars sets that could include the rumoured Nien Nunb
The first-ever LEGO Star Wars minifigure of Nien Nunb is thought to be on the horizon, so here are five potential sets in which he might pop up…
Arriving on May 1 in the LEGO Insiders Rewards Centre is a new and exclusive poster, which will be available for 1,800 points to celebrate this year’s May the 4th event (and the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars). Created by artist Joe Hogan and modelled on one of his previous Star Wars Celebration posters, the one-sheet features depictions of LEGO Star Wars minifigures past, present and future.
Some of those have been updated to match modern colour palettes, such as Jedi Bob’s head shifting from yellow to light nougat, but one stands out as having never appeared in physical form before: Nien Nunb. Hogan has confirmed on Instagram that the LEGO Group would not have allowed him to use unofficial minifigure designs, all but confirming that Nien Nunb will find his way into a set at some point.
When and where that might happen is a bit more of a mystery, but we’ve put our heads together to come up with five possible routes the LEGO Star Wars team could take to bring us our first-ever Nien Nunb…
5 – A new Millennium Falcon
Let’s get the most obvious candidate out of the way first: Nien Nunb’s major role on the silver screen was as Lando Calrissian’s Millennium Falcon co-pilot during the attack on the second Death Star, so a new Falcon inspired by Return of the Jedi seems like the most natural place for the Sullustan to show up. The caveat here is that we already have one minifigure-scale Falcon on shelves in 75257 Millennium Falcon, while another ‘dark side’ version is rumoured for August 2024.
It’s tough to envision a scenario in which the LEGO Group has three different similarly-scaled Falcons available simultaneously. But 75257 Millennium Falcon is currently pegged for retirement in 2024, so perhaps 2025 will be the right time for the LEGO Star Wars team to roll out its first-ever hunk of junk based directly on Return of the Jedi…
4 – 40755 Star Wars 25th Celebration
This tentatively-titled set is rumoured to drop in October, bringing with it the last of the six promised LEGO Star Wars 25th anniversary minifigures in R2-KT. Further details are scarce at the moment, but it’s thought to include three Stormtroopers and three Rebel Troopers, so an original-trilogy set could be on the cards – and maybe the LEGO Group is planning to just give us a bunch of cool characters within the one box?
Some kind of non-canon party scene would be the perfect excuse to chuck in anyone and everyone the LEGO Star Wars team likes, regardless of whether they actually appeared together on screen. We’re probably dreaming a bit here, but on the other hand, is it really a party until our boy Nien shows up?
3 – A new Resistance X-wing
Blink and you’ll miss him, but Nien Nunb did actually return in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this time as one of the X-wing pilots taking part in the attack on Starkiller Base. The LEGO Group has been reluctant to return to the sequel trilogy since The Rise of Skywalker left cinemas, save for last year’s 40658 Millennium Falcon Holiday Diorama, but there’s nothing to say we’ll never see another Episode VII set.
And if the LEGO Star Wars team was planning to test the sequel trilogy waters again, the safest way to do so would surely be with an icon that transcends trilogies: the X-wing. Even if the sequel version is slightly different (a T-70 versus a T-65), it’s the kind of set that would surely still sell pretty well, and could also be the home of Nien Nunb.
The minifigure as depicted by Joe features a moulded head though, while a pilot version would probably be closer in approach to Ten numb, with a printed head and separate helmet piece. Still, maybe we’d get both options in the one set… (Now we really are dreaming.)
2 – The rumoured Young Leia set
Perhaps the most mysterious set in the current rumoured LEGO Star Wars 2024 line-up is 75392, which is said to be some kind of buildable creature. Exactly which creature is uncertain, but this is also thought to be one of the six sets to include a 25th-anniversary minifigure in the form of young Princess Leia (as seen in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series).
There are two possibilities here: the first is that the creature build is actually some kind of huge minifigure-scale monster (think an Acklay or something from Attack of the Clones), rather than a supersized version of an animal (like 75230 Porg). In that case, it could include accompanying minifigures, one of which might be Nien Nunb. What would the creature be? What would it be based on? What would the context for this kind of set be? All good questions, for another time. (We have no answers.)
The second possibility is that the set’s 25th-anniversary minifigure is not Princess Leia at all, but is actually Nien Nunb. This feels more likely if only for the fact that the rumoured line-up of 25th-anniversary minifigures doesn’t include any original trilogy characters, which feels like a slight oversight given the LEGO Star Wars team’s eternal fondness for Episodes IV, V and VI.
It does rely on the initial rumoured information around this set being incorrect, but that’s not unheard of (75383 Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator was originally said to include Captain Panaka and Padmé), and if the creature is minifigure-scale – say, from upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte – it could well still include a young female minifigure. It just wouldn’t be Leia.
1 – A random Rebel Alliance starfighter
We’ve saved what’s probably the most likely candidate for a LEGO Star Wars Nien Nunb set for last: a random Rebel Alliance starfighter. It could be a new A-wing, B-wing, X-wing, Y-wing or even another ship or freighter; the important bit is that it includes a spread of minifigures hooked to the Rebel Alliance, among which could easily be Nien Nunb.
The LEGO Group has shown time and time again that it isn’t afraid to include minifigures in sets with only a tenuous connection, and previous Rebel ships have done just that. (See Lando in the A-wing above.) Sneaking Nien Nunb into one of those models could be the ideal way to bring him to shelves without having to devote an entire Millennium Falcon to Return of the Jedi (for example).
And this could then be the means by which we see Nien Nunb on shelves as soon as this summer: 75393 X-wing and TIE Fighter is rumoured to be dropping in August, with fresh takes on each of those classic original trilogy ships. Why not throw in a couple of unique minifigures to help sell them to veteran collectors who already have more X-wings and TIEs than they can reasonably manage?
This is obviously all just speculation at this stage, and the LEGO Group has yet to outright confirm that a new Nien Nunb minifigure is on the way. But all the signs are there…
LEGO Star Wars sets confirmed and rumoured for 2024
| LEGO set | Price | Pieces | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30680 AAT | TBC | 75 | January 1, 2024 |
| 30685 TIE Interceptor | TBC | 48 | May 1, 2024 |
| 40675 Commander Cody | £9.99 / $9.99 / €9.99 | 147 | May 2024 |
| 40676 The Phantom Menace | £49.99 / $54.99 / €54.99 | 732 | May 1, 2024 |
| 40686 Battle Droid Carrier | Free with orders above £145 / $160 / €160 | 262 | May 1, 2024 |
| 40755 [Star Wars 25th Celebration] | TBC | 383 | October 2024 |
| 75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack | £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 215 | January 1, 2024 |
| 75373 Ambush on Mandalore Battle Pack | $19.99 / €21.99 | 108 | June 1, 2024 |
| 75374 Onyx Cinder | $139.99 / €139.99 | 1,325 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75375 Millennium Falcon | £74.99 / $84.99 / €84.99 | 921 | March 1, 2024 |
| 75376 Tantive IV | £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 | 654 | March 1, 2024 |
| 75377 Invisible Hand | £46.99 / $49.99 / €52.99 | 557 | March 1, 2024 |
| 75378 BARC Speeder Escape | £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 221 | May 1, 2024 |
| 75379 R2-D2 | £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 | 1,050 | March 1, 2024 |
| 75380 Mos Espa Podrace Diorama | £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 | 718 | May 1, 2024 |
| 75381 Droideka | £59.99 / $64.99 / €64.99 | 583 | May 1, 2024 |
| 75382 TIE Interceptor | £199.99 / $229.99 / €229.99 | 1,931 | May 2024 |
| 75383 Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator | £59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 640 | May 1, 2024 |
| 75384 The Crimson Firehawk | £46.99 / $49.99 / €52.99 | 136 | January 1, 2024 |
| 75385 Battle on Peridea | $54.99 | 382 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75386 Paz Vizsla and Moff Gideon Battle | $39.99 | 289 | June 1, 2024 |
| 75387 Boarding the Tantive IV | £49.99 / $49.99 / €54.99 | 502 | March 1, 2024 |
| 75388 Jedi Bob’s Starfighter | $39.99 | 310 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75389 Dark Millennium Falcon | $179.99 | 1,578 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75390 Luke Skywalker X-wing Mech | $15.99 | 195 | June 1, 2024 |
| 75391 Captain Rex Y-wing Microfighter | $12.99 | 99 | June 1, 2024 |
| 75392 [Potential Creature Build] | $99.99 | 1,186 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75393 X-wing and TIE Fighter | $109.99 | 1,058 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75394 Death Star Playset | TBC | 1,555 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75395 Star Wars Advent Calendar | $44.99 | 368 | September 1, 2024 |
| 75396 Escape from the Sarlacc | $79.99 | 558 | August 1, 2024 |
| 75398 Buildable C-3PO | $139.99 | 1,132 | August 1, 2024 |
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.
Author Profile
- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
Latest entries
Latest30/04/2024Vote for your dream LEGO gift-with-purchase- 25 Years of LEGO Star Wars30/04/2024Exclusive interview: distilling 25 years of LEGO Star Wars into a single book
- News30/04/2024LEGO Ideas ‘80s challenge fan vote relaunched following judging error
- Features30/04/2024LEGO Series 26 Minifigures designer walkthrough: Ice Planet Explorer and Orion
