LEGO Star Wars 75292 The Razor Crest: Designing the Mandalorian’s ship

Ahead of its highly anticipated release, LEGO Star Wars design experts Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Michael Lee Stockwell reveal the design process behind The Mandalorian inspired set, 75292 The Razor Crest

Brick Fanatics knows how much fans are looking forward to LEGO Star Wars 75292 The Razor Crest. While a couple of sets from Star Wars: The Mandalorian have already been released, it is to the show what the Millennium Falcon is to the classic trilogy. Plus, it includes the first minifigure scale Baby Yoda.

To find out just what went into developing this new model, due to launch on September 1, Brick Fanatics sat down with LEGO Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Designer Manager Michael Lee Stockwell.

What has it been like developing the Razor Crest and including Baby Yoda?

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Jens: We are super excited about the model. We knew that it was going to be a cool ship and have a big role in the show. At that time we couldn’t make the Child, at the beginning we didn’t know about it and later when we knew about it we were not allowed to do anything because of strict confidentiality. At the last minute we managed to squeeze it in and that was also because of support from Lucas Licensing. LEGO is a big machine so making new moulded elements takes time, but we did it.

Michael: We did it, the whole company basically just cleared their desk and said, ‘okay this is important, we’ll get it done.’

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Could you talk about what you have included in the Razor Crest and how you have represented it?

Jens: One thing that probably is interesting is that we made a new cockpit element. It was something we saw very quickly that we had to do. We’ve done an element that is a really good LEGO element for other purposes because it is a six modules half circle. In a solid colour it would also be a nice building element.

Also you’ll probably appreciate because of the domed curve surface we had to print the details on, it’s not stickers. Sometimes we are doing stickers, sometimes print, that is also very much depending on how well it prints. With this element, the size and so on, it was possible to make a good looking print. So that’s one of the new things in the model.

Then one thing that I particularly like when you open it up, here are the Carbonite blocks, there are two of them inside like on a bookshelf. If you have been with LEGO Star Wars for as long as I have, we have gone back to how it all started with this 1x2x5 brick with the character on. Here there are two different characters, it is stickers, but still it’s a bit like it was in the beginning.

In the original Slave I set.

Michael: Yeah exactly.

Jens: Yeah, the very first Slave I, and I think also in the first Jabba’s Palace and other sets we also used the same brick back in the day.

The Razor Crest is really cool because you can really open up everywhere to access the interior.

Michael: This is an escape pod here in the top.

Jens: You can place a minifigure inside.

How have you balanced it between a vehicle and a playset?

Jens: Yeah and that’s something I think we are always doing. Some models are just easier…

Michael: …to create functionality and features. We really saw it as a toy offering. When we found out the whole idea of the show was going to be targeted at families and audiences of all ages, that was great because that made it possible to do something that would be a good toy for kids.

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I notice you have different coloured elements amongst the grey, is that representing the weathering on the ship?

Jens: It is. It’s for several reasons. In the show it is a metal like colour, since we can’t make a silver coloured ship, we are often using the light grey and dark grey in combination to give that kind of reflection or the metal. But it’s also for the building experience because if we made it all light grey it would be a nightmare to put it together, so it’s for both those reasons.

How did you determine the scale?

Jens: That is based on first of all that we are building a model for a certain price. But that is something we are estimating, when we see the concept art we think that looks like a ship that fits this price point. Then we start working on a prototype and then we figure out, ‘okay it works ‘, or we can take the price up or we can take the price a little bit down. So the price is one factor but another one is also to make it a good toy. It needs to have stability so it can be handled and that’s against making it a good model, incorporating play features… there are a lot of factors.

Michael: Also, almost every vehicle has certain defining characteristics. Those strong characteristics make you quickly start looking at elements that would best represent them. So we might pick out particular elements that fit really well at a certain scale then use that as a starting point and sketch around that, if the model works well around those elements, then we try and make it work there or abandon that idea.

Jens: In this particular case I remember one of the first things we built was the cockpit because we had to do like a new element there and that was very much defining the size of this model.

Read more from Brick Fanatics at Fan Media Days 2020

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Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

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