LEGO Star Wars 40407 Death Star II Battle review

Available over the May the Fourth weekend, 40407 Death Star II Battle adds to a unique LEGO Star Wars series and will likely sell out, even though it’s not very good

Price: Free with purchases of £75 / $75 / €75 Pieces: 235 Available: May 1-4

Free with purchases of £75 / $75 / €75 or more at LEGO.com over the May the Fourth weekend of May 1-4, whilst stocks last (which given how recent GWPs like the Batmobile and Manchester United minifigure trio went, will be just hours on the first day), 40407 Death Star II Battle is not only a limited availability incentive, but also the third in a mini-series of microscale LEGO Star Wars builds.

Very much comparable with 2019’s 40333 Battle of Hoth and 40362 Battle of Endor in capturing a battle from one of the original trilogy’s films with a unique, sideways build at small scale, what you may think about those first two sets may most immediately inform your opinion on 40407.

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Certainly, if you have the previous two sets (as any completist LEGO Star Wars fan will do) then you’ll already be working out what to purchase between May 1 and May 4 in order to qualify for 40407 Death Star II Battle. This set goes with those ones, you must have them all, it’s the only way to rule the galaxy. So, head over to LEGO.com from Friday, you don’t need to read the rest of this, and you probably shouldn’t.

For those of you who will be ending up 40407 either inconsequentially (it is available free with qualifying purchases and will no doubt land in the shopping baskets of many a person taking advantage of the LEGO Star Wars set reductions available over the weekend, or picking up the UCS 75275 A-wing Starfighter that also releases on Friday) or purposefully, through purchasing whatever it takes so as to receive the exclusive set, your reaction may be mixed at best.

40407 Death Star II Battle is very small and it’s not a better build in person compared with how it photographs. Design wise, it disappoints, both in execution and in what is really just a missed opportunity. The limited piece-count most obviously short-changes the A-wing and TIE Interceptor (the point has been made that there are better versions of these even in the advent calendars) and this concern is matched with a surprisingly sparse colour palette that suffers from being 95% light grey. Together these issues make it feel like an interesting build concept that could have been achieved better.

Indeed, there’s the sense that in the source material chosen there could have been a more enclosed aspect to the build, to mimic the interior of the Death Star II that these ships fly through in Return of the Jedi, rather than what as a set ends up being a less identifiable surface from the fully operational building site.

It’s not a complete throwaway of a set, with exclusivity on its side and its place within a unique mini-series of sets. For those who end up with this set without having put much stock in getting it or not, you’ll have a cute little display piece that – particularly if you have 40333 Battle of Hoth and 40362 Battle of Endor – can add to the collection even without much fanfare. However, if it’s something you are specifically spending the qualifying amount to end up with, to build without 40333 or 40362 already, you may feel short-changed. In that case, you should keep it in the box. The artwork is 1:1 scale and arguably helps the set stand out a whole lot better…

We are reviewing a gift with purchase – sent to us courtesy of the LEGO Group, whilst opinions remain our own – and it is only available during a four-day period. It may not whet the appetite quite like the exclusive minifigures from May the Fourth campaigns previous, but, there’s not much we can write here that’ll change your mind anyway. Go and get it, see how you feel afterwards and understand what we mean.

In which case, good luck trying to get it whilst stocks last. You can support Brick Fanatics and the work that we do (we have big dreams!) by clicking through to LEGO.com from one of our affiliate links (all these links in this article). We will receive a small percentage of your spend, and that will go towards us creating more LEGO-based content for your enjoyment (and we promise we’re not always this cynical…).

This product was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

40407 Death Star II Battle is available now 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].

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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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