LEGO re-releasing Captain Rex shouldn’t be a surprise – it makes perfect sense

Captain Rex’s second appearance this summer has struck a chord with the LEGO Star Wars community, but like it or not, it does seem to fit into the wider strategy for UCS sets.

The LEGO Group originally debuted the new Phase II Captain Rex minifigure in last year’s 75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser, where he appears alongside an equally new Admiral Yularen minifigure on the capital ship’s display stand. The instruction manual calls out both those characters as exclusive to the Ultimate Collector Series set – but it appears that was only a limited period of exclusivity for Rex.

That’s because the Clone Trooper will be available in next month’s 75391 Captain Rex Y-Wing Microfighter, a 99-piece model that’s due to retail for just £11.99. The aftermarket value of the minifigure is subsequently crashing as we speak, with average sold prices on BrickLink dropping from £81 in November 2023 to £40 in May – and the most recent three sales fetching just £15 each.

As you’d imagine, the decision to include exactly the same Rex in a pocket money-priced set – pauldron, printed arms and all – is proving pretty polarising among the LEGO Star Wars community. Over on reddit, some have suggested the LEGO Group should have included two different versions of Rex between the Venator and Microfighter, maintaining the exclusivity of the more detailed minifigure in the UCS set.

“Shouldn’t a $600 set have an exclusive though?” wrote zOOm_saLad. “Why not pull a Razor Crest and give us a unique variation of Rex that isn’t a P2? It’s easy to roast people complaining about it but the fact that there have been so many posts here about it proves that there is credibility to their argument.” 

Other users have criticised the LEGO Group for describing Rex as exclusive in the Venator’s instruction manual, with some even going as far as labelling it ‘false advertising’. But as Bobyite points out, the LEGO Star Wars team never promised that Captain Rex would be exclusive to 75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser forever – simply that he was at the time of release.

The majority of people in that reddit thread do appear to be pretty happy that Rex will be more widely available and accessible, however. “So bizarre to hear that folks are upset about the availability of a fig,” wrote SolidusBruh. “I bought the Venator and was disappointed by it only coming with two figs. Didn’t give a damn about anything exclusive. Screw the ‘exclusive’ mentality. It’s half the reason a lot of us have so many gaps in our playsets.”

Whichever side of the argument you take, what’s worth remembering most of all is that Rex popping up in a Microfighter isn’t necessarily surprising. Take a step back and consider the bigger picture of LEGO Star Wars UCS sets over the past couple of years, and it actually fits into the LEGO Group’s wider strategy towards minifigures in these models.

Turn back the clock to 2021, when 75309 Republic Gunship arrived on shelves with two unique minifigures: Mace Windu and a Clone Trooper Commander. While the Republic soldier popped up in two subsequent sets (75340 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar and 40558 Clone Trooper Command Station), that version of Mace Windu is still exclusive to that set.

This fan-voted release also taught the LEGO Star Wars team a valuable lesson about what the community wants from minifigures in UCS sets, which is that it’s never going to please everybody. Some wanted more impressive and exclusive characters for the UCS Gunship, like a Phase II Commander Cody, while others were happy not to see such highly-demanded minifigures locked behind a set that wasn’t even to scale with them.

The controversy around the set’s minifigures spilled over into the wider conversation around the model regardless of its other qualities, and so the LEGO Group has since tried to appease everyone by including one exclusive minifigure in its subsequent UCS sets – and only one. 75341 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder includes the only C-3PO minifigure with a dual-moulded silver leg, for example, alongside a Luke who’s appeared in eight different sets so far.

Last year’s 75355 X-wing Starfighter flipped the script with a new and exclusive Luke in his pilot fatigues and the same old R2 we’ve seen in numerous sets since 2022, while this year’s 75382 TIE Interceptor includes a unique TIE Pilot minifigure and a brick-built Mouse Droid. None of those variants on existing characters are likely to show up in other, cheaper LEGO Star Wars sets: if you want their ultimate versions, you’ll need to buy the ultimate sets.

There’s one glaring exception to this rule, but it’s easily explained. 75331 The Razor Crest includes three exclusive minifigures: Kuiil, the Mythrol and an updated version of Din Djarin in his The Mandalorian Season 1 armour. But that’s also the only minifigure-scale UCS set the LEGO Group has put out since 2021, with all the rest much larger than minifigure scale and simply accompanied by a couple of characters for their display stands.

Where does that leave us with 75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser? Well, it’s not a minifigure-scale set. And it includes two minifigures, both of which were exclusive at the time of release. But to marry up with the LEGO Star Wars team’s approach to its other recent UCS sets, only one of those minifigures should truly be exclusive to that set forever. In this case, it’s Admiral Yularen.

It’s a savvy choice between the two, because Captain Rex obviously has much wider appeal among the LEGO Star Wars fanbase, and locking that character behind a £559.99 / $649.99 paywall was never going to make much sense. If nothing else, it would restrict what the LEGO Group could really do with him in other sets, and of the two minifigures in the Venator, Rex is the one that has the biggest chance of appearing again (in a minifigure-scale Y-wing, for example).

Getting him back on to shelves in 75391 Captain Rex Y-Wing Microfighter this summer just rips off the plaster as quickly as possible for those eyeing up the Venator partly (or wholly) for Rex. He might then show up again in another set (or sets) further down the line, but regardless, the LEGO Group has stamped out any notions of permanent exclusivity around a character that many people desperately wanted to be more accessible.

Meanwhile, Admiral Yularen – a relatively obscure, or at least less requested, minifigure by comparison – can stay exclusive to 75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser, still giving minifigure collectors a little bonus when picking up the biggest prequel trilogy set to date. It’s a win-win scenario (except for those who were holding out for a big Rex payday), and crucially doesn’t seem at all out of step with the rest of the recent LEGO Star Wars UCS range.

75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser is available now, while 75391 Captain Rex Y-Wing Microfighter lands on shelves on June 1. Head here to check out our early review of the latest LEGO Star Wars Microfighter.

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