LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca teases pieces that don’t exist

One of the lifestyle photos of LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca teases newly-recoloured ball joint pieces – but don’t get your hopes up…

The LEGO Group’s smallest ball joint elements hit the market in 2014 with LEGO Mixels, in which they were used to give flexible limbs to the theme’s anthropomorphic characters. At the time, they were only available in two colours, light grey and dark grey – and nine years later, nothing has changed. That’s apparently because the pieces require specific stress tolerances, which would be pushed slightly too far when introducing a new colour to the mould.

It’s much to the detriment of sets like last year’s 76956 T. rex Breakout and this summer’s 76421 Dobby the House-Elf, however, where the grey elements clash badly with brown and nougat respectively, pulling focus away from the organic shapes the LEGO designers are trying to recreate. One image of 75371 Chewbacca, revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this week, briefly gave the community hope that things were about to change. But only briefly.

Among the lifestyle images of the buildable Wookiee – that is, those shot in-situ, rather than product renders – is a close-up of his satchel and bandolier. And the Mixel-style ball joint elements used to fasten the bottom of the bandolier are clearly dark brown, marking the first time these previously colour-locked pieces would have been available beyond shades of grey. Happy days! If only it were true.

In fact, this is the only image that shows those pieces in dark brown. In the 360-degree view of Chewie, where they’re otherwise most prominently visible, they’re dark grey. So what’s going on? Well, look a little closer at the dark brown joints, and you’ll have your answer: the reflection of the piece in the slopes is still dark grey, exposing the crude Photoshop edits made to the original image.

The LEGO Group – or the agency responsible for creating these images, whether as directed by the LEGO Group or not – has seemingly doctored the photo to make Chewbacca look a little bit better than the actual product.

This isn’t the first time official LEGO product photography has misled consumers in recent memory. The box art and lifestyle images for 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack both position the 501st Officer minifigure’s rangefinder lower than in reality, masking the fact that it sits too high compared to the source material – which the LEGO Group later admitted ‘doesn’t reflect the final finished physical element’.

The LEGO Star Wars community also picked up on a similar issue with the 212th Legion Clone Troopers in 75337 AT-TE Walker last summer. The orange prints on their helmets come to a point at the tip on the box art but in reality, the print simply disappears behind the brow. And earlier this year, the same theme came under fire for attempting to hide the mould mark in the printed plaque for 75355 X-wing Starfighter.

75371 Chewbacca’s misleading ball joint recolour is only the latest in a string of LEGO Star Wars obfuscations, then – even if it is limited to a single lifestyle image. We’ve reached out to the LEGO Group for comment.

You can pre-order 75371 Chewbacca (grey ball joints and all) right now for £179.99 / $199.99 / €209.99, with shipping due to commence from September 1.

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