LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack review

75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack signals a change in direction for the LEGO Star Wars design team – with mixed results.

Following hot on the heels of oversized battle pack 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers, which arrived in summer 2020 to widespread applause from the LEGO Star Wars community, 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack dials things back to a traditional four-soldiers-in-a-box format.

Within that classic battle pack formula, though, 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack seeks to mix things up from the LEGO Group’s recent strategy for Star Wars troopers.

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack set details —

Theme: LEGO Star Wars Set name: 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack Release date: January 1, 2023

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Price: £17. 99 / $19.99 / €19.99 Pieces: 119 Minifigures: 4

LEGO: Available now

— Where to buy LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack —

LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack is available to buy from LEGO.com, in LEGO Stores and through third-party retailers now. Check out the best prices below.

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— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack build —

Nobody’s coming to battle packs for the build – they always have been, and probably always will be, a nod to say ‘this is definitely a LEGO set’ – but it’s refreshing to see the LEGO Group stepping up its game over the past couple of years. 2022’s 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack includes a genuinely useful (and well-designed) speeder bike, and the miniaturised AV-7 cannon in 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack is one you could definitely see setting up on a battlefield.

It won’t take any time at all to put together – the instructions try to draw things out by having you build the four identical legs in two steps, over multiple pages, rather than all at once – and the cannon’s range of motion is very limited (up a bit, down a bit, stop). But it jams in a spring-loaded shooter for the eye-endangering fun we’ve lost since switching back to regular blasters (a good decision, don’t get us wrong), and gives one of the troopers a place to sit.

Not to do anything, mind. There are no controls. Maybe it’s a droid cannon?

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack characters —

Where the focus for Clone Troopers since the LEGO Group updated their design in 2020 has been largely on generic soldiers, save for the odd Jet Trooper or Airborne Trooper, 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack leans heavily into specialist designs lifted directly from EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II video game.

Expanding our 501st armies with other types of troops is already an inviting proposition, given most of us interested in army building likely have our fill of standard troops by now, and as standalone minifigures, there are things to appreciate here: the Clone Trooper Specialist’s macrobinoculars are a brand new and well-designed mould, albeit sorely lacking printing, while the Heavy Troopers’ backpacks give them a tiny bit of the heft that their name implies. The variety in helmet and torso prints is worth shouting about, too.

For everything these LEGO Star Wars minifigures do right, though, they also suffer from taking predictable design shortcuts elsewhere – and ultimately falter by comparison to their source material. Beyond their helmet attachments and those brick-built backpacks, the rest of their outfits rely heavily on printing, where physical kamas, pauldrons, shoulder bags and even dual moulded legs would have much better communicated their differences.

As is, the variety that can be felt across these different classes sometimes struggles to come through – particularly in the officer, whose waist cape is printed only on the front of his legs. View him from any other angle, and the effect is lost.

It’s also a shame that much of the heavy lifting is left to the helmet attachments when we’re still using the same old oversized rangefinder and visor elements. It’s almost too late to update these pieces now, given they’ve already been used for Commander Cody, so we’ll probably have to wait for the next cycle of Clone Trooper redesigns to get more accurate minifigures.

Where that mattered less for a set like 75337 AT-TE Walker, which offers a sublime interpretation of a much-loved prequel trilogy vehicle, the focus in 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack is obviously on the minifigures above all else – and so the Clone Troopers here come under a much higher level of scrutiny. They’re not bad minifigures by any means, and will be well received by army builders to a point, but it is slightly disappointing that those shortcuts were taken.

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack price —

Battle packs returned from their temporary hiatus in 2022 with a substantial price bump, despite their contents – four minifigures and a small build – remaining constant. £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 felt high for 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack, and it still feels high for 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack.

The sheer quantity of plastic you’re left with when all’s said and done just doesn’t feel like it’s worth £18, particularly for those shortcuts taken across the minifigures, and – worst of all – that price tag makes proper army building a prohibitively expensive prospect. Picking up one or two at retail price won’t sting too much, but you’re going to want to wait for a price drop before you start buying in bulk.

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack pictures —

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack pros and cons —

In shifting its focus from different legions to expanding a single legion of Clone Troopers, the LEGO Group has brought us something completely fresh in 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack. The mini-build is as good as you’d hope for from a battle pack, but the same can’t quite be said for the minifigures: while the ideas are very good, and the variety appreciated, their execution feels a little half-hearted.

That’s perhaps a wider problem with LEGO Star Wars than just this pack, however, as previous Clone Troopers have suffered from the same shortcuts (printed kamas, no dual-moulding, old helmet attachments). But until things change, it’s still worth highlighting those imperfections – especially with one eye on the current price tag for battle packs.

LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack prosLEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack cons
Solid, if not showstopping, Clone Trooper designsMissed opportunities across the minifigures
Nice change to get more variants within one legionWe’re still getting used to the new price for battle packs
Build isn’t bad for a battle pack

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.

— Alternatives to LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack —

With 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers on the way out, this is your only option at the moment for the blue-tinted soldiers. If you just want to amass a clone army, look also to 75337 AT-TE Walker and 75342 Republic Fighter Tank for more colourful options – though at a much higher price.

— LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack FAQs —

How long does it take to build LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack?

You’ll spend roughly 20 minutes putting together everything inside 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack. There’s not a lot of meat on these bones.

How many pieces are in LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack?

LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack includes 119 pieces, which is the most of any army-building set like this since 2017’s 75164 Rebel Trooper Battle Pack (not counting 2019’s more expensive 75262: Imperial Dropship – 20th Anniversary Edition).

How big is LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack?

The AV-7 cannon in 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack measures 10cm tall (with its cannon raised), and – depending on how you position its legs – around 10cm wide and deep, too.

How much does LEGO Star Wars 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack cost?

75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack matches 2022’s 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack, retailing for £17.99 in the UK, $19.99 in the US and €19.99 in Europe. It’ll be available from January 1, 2023.

Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
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.

Chris Wharfe

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.

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