LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter review

75346 Pirate Snub Fighter is a simple but clever LEGO Star Wars build perfect for anyone’s growing LEGO Mandalorian collection.

Swooping in at the lower end of the LEGO Star Wars price range for summer 2023, 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter captures a new, neat little ship from a galaxy far, far away to serve as the perfect foil to last year’s 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter.

What may seem like a simple little LEGO model is far from basic, thanks to clever parts usage and a build that stays true to the source material as seen on The Mandalorian.

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter set details —

Theme: LEGO Star Wars Set name: 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter Release: May 1, 2023

Price: £29.99 / $34.99 / €34.99 Pieces: 285 Minifigures: 2

LEGO: Available now

— Where to buy LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter —

LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter launched on May 1, just in time for 2023’s May the 4th promos, and is available at LEGO Stores, LEGO.com and third-party retailers. Check below for the latest deals.

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— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter build —

Maybe we’ve been doing this too long, but sometimes when watching a new Star Wars show or film, what will be turned into a brand new, shiny and often highly-desirable LEGO set can appear quite inevitable. It’s not much of a guessing game for what might be released, but rather when, and particularly it seems with anything that shows up in the three-season-strong The Mandalorian.

Following on from the first two seasons opening the door to both of Din Djarin’s ships in the form of 75292 The Razor Crest (and then 75331 The Razor Crest) and 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter, as well as a few old Empire ships, another go at Boba Fett’s Slave I (half-shared with The Book of Boba Fett) and something to mark the return of Luke Skywalker, now comes 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter.

Introduced in the opening episode of Season 3 of The Mandalorian in a nice sequence pitted against Mando, with a named character as pilot of the lead fighter, and returning for a memorable mid-season showdown, the Snub Fighter is the most obvious on-screen shoe-in for a LEGO set we’ve seen since, well, the last one.

A small, agile, angled, single-seater fighter of which there are multiple, identical ones all flying around in combat with the Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter, the Snub Fighter is so instantly and easily convertible into LEGO form, and 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter is excellent proof for why. There’s little the LEGO Star Wars design team had to do with this model other than carefully replicate the approximate shape of the ship and speckle some subtle details across it, and pleasingly that’s exactly what they’ve done.

That’s not to dismiss this 8+ LEGO Star Wars set as light on design or too basic. It is simple because that’s what it needs to be, but still with enough smart connections and neat techniques that offer up authenticity to the on-screen ship and definitely give good value to the relatively small piece count of 285. That’s no mean feat, with consideration to how such a piece count is comparable to that you’d find in a supersized battle pack, for instance.

In fact, 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter sits very nicely as an example of the very best of LEGO Star Wars design when faced with limitations, because what may be a simple model in construct still rewards in clever little details throughout to produce something wholly authentic to what we see on screen, and incredibly playable too. The best design embraces the limitations of budget and piece count in a way that you don’t notice, and 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter is the latest LEGO Star Wars creation to do just that.

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter characters —

New Star Wars shows are best when they offer up something new. Feeling like old Star Wars is great – feeling like old Star Wars at the same time as expanding the galaxy far, far away is even better, and that’s where The Mandalorian shines best as a show and where sets like 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter are most welcome additions to the LEGO Star Wars roster.

Alongside a completely brand new ship design are two pirates, one of whom is a new named character and another antithesis to Din Djarin. Both are new, exclusive character designs and excellently translated from on-screen appearance into LEGO form. The headpiece for Vane in particular helps in that creative process, certainly to further differentiate him from the more generic Snub Fighter Pilot, considering they otherwise have the same face print.

Could the minifigures have been designed with a lighter skin tone more reflective of how they look on the show? Perhaps, but it feels like a minor point in this instance and one that hardly diminishes the appeal of both minifigures. The only actual point of contention to take with the design lies with the headpiece for Vane being painted a shade of colour that in no way matches that of his head.

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter price —

Coming in at £29.99 / $34.99 / €34.99 and offering up two unique, brand new minifigures including one named character, alongside a crafty LEGO model based on a never-before-built ship, there’s little to question the relative value of 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter. It’s at the lower end of the price range of LEGO Star Wars sets in 2023 and still manages to offer enough authenticity and accuracy for older collectors and swooshable fun for younger builders that there’s little to criticise.

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter pictures —

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter pros and cons —

Ultimately, 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter is exactly all that it needs to be, offering up a fun, swooshable and good value LEGO Star Wars set that is also pleasingly authentic to the ship it is based on – and very much ready to be played with and/or added to the ever-expanding collection of Mandalorian sets.

LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter pros	LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter cons
Simple but very clever little build	The colour matching between Vane’s head and headpiece is way off
Perfect foil to 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter	Tricky couple of stickers on the canopy
New named character minifigure in Vane

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter —

Part of 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter’s charm is that it compares favourably to other LEGO Star Wars sets currently on the market, but if you are after something similar anyway then 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter or 75342 Republic Fighter Tank both sit around the same price range. The closest direct comparison is the equally-excellent 75333 Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi Starfighter.

— LEGO Star Wars 75346 Pirate Snub Fighter FAQs —