LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier review

75323 The Justifier is an unexpected addition to the LEGO Star Wars collection, particularly at the size and price it comes in at.

It’s fair to say that 75323 The Justifier is a curiosity within the LEGO Star Wars summer 2022 wave of sets. Based on bounty hunter Cad Bane’s ship and its appearance in a story arc on Disney+ show The Bad Batch, it unexpectedly sits as the highest-priced set releasing this summer. That is by some margin too, and in spite of actually having a smaller piece count and fewer minifigures than 75337 AT-TE Walker.

While certainly a welcome addition to the LEGO Star Wars collection, the selection of this ship to be released at that size and at that price does set 75323 The Justifier apart.

The stands used to display 75323 The Justifier in this review are kindly provided by iDisplayit – click through to view their full range of display stands that offer a variety of heights and angles to showcase your airborne LEGO Star Wars sets.

— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier set details —

Theme: LEGO Star Wars Set name: 75323 The Justifier Release: August 1, 2022

Price: £149.99 / $169.99 / €169.99 Pieces: 1,022 Minifigures: 4

LEGO: August 1, 2022

— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier build —

Those considerations to one side for a moment, when you look at the fact Cad Bane has appeared in the last 12 months in both The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett, his return to LEGO form after a fairly long time away was always inevitable. Likewise, considering the LEGO Star Wars team’s comments last year for why 75316 Mandalorian Starfighter was a natural choice to release due to Bo Katan’s similar appearances across two shows, welcoming The Justifier into the LEGO Star Wars collection isn’t really all that surprising either.

Releasing at this particular size and scale, though, it is somewhat surprising. The prime spots for the LEGO Star Wars range have until recently been traditionally held for flagship vehicles and ships that are more universally known or popular. When rumours that the most expensive (and at the time, presumed largest) set of the summer would be The Justifier, the first reaction many had was to look up what the set actually looked like.

It’s not a ship many are familiar with and for the price it sits at in LEGO form, that makes it such a curious choice. Perhaps it exists at this size because of the lack of other clear points of focus to base sets on from The Bad Batch, and so as to also match the scale that 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle has been built at. It certainly does just that with impressive size and weight, resembling almost an old World War II bomber for that dark grey colour scheme and those huge, wide wings coming out of a central cockpit and body.

It’s a cumbersome ship on screen and fittingly, just as cumbersome in LEGO form. Story-wise, it also allows for an almost all-new character line-up to go with those in 75314.

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If those are the reasons for why this set exists or not, 75323 The Justifier doesn’t feel wholly unjustified, just unexpected. And an unexpected set is also a unique one – truly there has been nothing quite like this to build in LEGO Star Wars before, meaning that the entire process around it feels fresh and new.

Combined with the piece count dedicated to this model, there’s a deep exploration of something completely new to enjoy with 75323 The Justifier, and that’s one of the main plus points to this set.

The sheer enormity of the ship is apparent fairly early on in building it, as by the end of the second round of numbered bags you have put together most of the central core, which measures a good half-metre in length. Through building the set you also pick up very quickly where most of the 1,022 pieces are being used and, somewhat unfortunately, it’s almost entirely for the exterior design and functionality of the Justifier. That is namely in the giant wings on either side of the ship and also the mechanisation that allows the ship to switch between flight mode and landing mode, where moving the thruster engine at the back upright or down in turn pops down or folds up the landing gear underneath each wing.

As far as a function goes, this is a key aspect to what we see of the Justifier in The Bad Batch and it plays out wonderfully in your hands in LEGO form here. But as mentioned, working that function into the set eats up a lot of space and parts within 75323 The Justifier, leaving the interior very much focused to the front end of the ship, concentrated specifically around the cockpit and small holding cell immediately behind it. This is a shame as a key part to Omega’s capture in The Bad Batch and escape from Cad Bane was played out on board the Justifier, as she convinces/tricks TODO 360 to let her go while the bounty hunter is piloting.

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In LEGO form it’s fiddlier and more cramped inside than you would expect looking at this LEGO set from the outside. It’s also very dark inside and a dark minifigure like Cad Bane, for instance, disappears when sat in there. As far as the interior goes, it’s not much to enjoy. Separately, there is a ramp that folds down at the back of the ship that includes a smaller space for cargo, but it’s very hard to get minifigures down there, or indeed fingers.

Essentially, working into the model the otherwise flawless exterior functionality has come with a trade-off of space and playability for the interior of the model – it very much weights 75323 The Justifier towards being a highly-impressive display piece, rather than one with much play value, and while it is an unfortunate consequence, it’s also an understandable one – this set would have been pulled apart more so if the interior was big and spacious and the exterior did not allow for the switch between flight and landing modes. Some Star Wars ships present such difficult, almost impossible choices and will always have a compromise one way or another as a result.

— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier characters —

75323 The Justifier comes with five characters (four minifigures and one droid), all of which are important to the story arc that Cad Bane and Omega play out: the bounty hunter captures the young clone away from Bad Batch member Hunter, before a dramatic showdown with fellow bounty hunter Fennec Shand on Kamino, and with some input along the way from Bane’s droid TODO 360.

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All five characters are expertly designed in LEGO form here, with Hunter and Shand the same as they have appeared in previous sets, and Bane, TODO 360 and Omega all fine new additions to the collection. Cad Bane’s appearance in particular is entirely new, including a new head print, neck bracket with breathing apparatus and dark brown hat. TODO 360 comes in at a more accurate scale than other minifigure-scale droids of late, which adds to the authenticity of his design.

This is the third time we’ve had Fennec Shand in a LEGO set already, and the first time she has both helmet and hairpiece.

— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier price —

75323 The Justifier is priced at £149.99 / $169.99 / €169.99, making it the most expensive LEGO Star Wars set of the summer 2022 wave by some margin. That it doesn’t come with the highest piece count or most amount of minifigures (both of those are with 75337 AT-TE Walker) isn’t the be all and end all of this set’s success or failure.

Value in a LEGO set comes through a number of factors and for many, such as novelty, minifigures and accuracy, 75323 The Justifier offers a great deal on all those fronts. For all-round play, though, this is a LEGO set that falls short of expectations. The limited interior is a consequence of a tricky design choice that the LEGO Star Wars team faced, but one that means that the final price is definitely too high to really feel full enjoyment from this set.

— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier pictures —

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— LEGO Star Wars 75323 The Justifier summary —

75323 The Justifier is an accurate and fun first experience of building this particular Star Wars ship in LEGO form, and offers plenty of novelty. It’s hefty, huge and highly authentic in many ways, with a number of key points to the story it features in during The Bad Batch included.

However, the trade-off that has been made to accomplish one of the key facets to the model has come at what feels like the expense of a lot of play potential, leaving the set limited in ways to interact with it beyond switching modes from flight to landing and back again. How many times you want to do that before getting bored is not going to be enough to justify 75323 The Justifier’s price.

If this was £30 cheaper we’d be talking about the potential of this set to be one of the underrated stars of the summer. Instead, it’s one of the overpriced sets of the year, and that’s no reflection on how well designed it actually is.

(Yes, we missed a sticker…)

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

The stands used to display 75323 The Justifier in this review are kindly provided by iDisplayit – click through to view their full range of display stands that offer a variety of heights and angles to showcase your airborne LEGO Star Wars sets.

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