LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca review

As LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca roars on to shelves, can this beefy buildable character blow past initial criticisms and deliver the goods? Erm…

While a large, detailed brick-built Chewbacca may be a solid idea on paper, in execution this set suffers from an overly complicated design that is tedious to put together, infuriatingly fragile once assembled, and, thanks to an unfortunate trip to the uncanny valley, looks more than a little off-putting on display.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca set details —

Theme: LEGO Star Wars Set name: 75371 Chewbacca Release: September 1, 2023

Price: £179.99 / $199.99 / €209.99 Pieces: 2,319 Minifigures: 1

LEGO: Order now

— Where to buy LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca —

Once released on September 1, LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca will be available from LEGO.com and from official LEGO Stores. It might also show up at third-party retailers, but there are no guarantees at this stage.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca build —

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea of a detailed, buildable Chewbacca. The LEGO Group has seen success with previous brick-built statues based on iconic Star Wars characters, with 75308 R2-D2 proving enduringly popular, and organic characters like Yoda and Grogu consistently winning over fans. These kinds of builds are typically fun to put together and make excellent display pieces, helping to turn any home into a mini LEGOLAND.

This being the case, Chewbacca likely seemed to be a logical next step for the LEGO designers; another hugely popular character who has appeared in every trilogy of Star Wars films (as well as Solo, but Disney doesn’t like to talk about that one anymore). The Wookiee has been consistently shifting Star Wars merch for nearly half a century, so why not make a brick-built Chewie to sit on a shelf alongside Artoo and Yoda?

Unfortunately, it seems that unlike droids and little green men, Chewie isn’t particularly suited to translation into LEGO. What the LEGO designers have come up with is an admirable attempt that certainly looks impressive, but this comes at a cost to both the set’s building experience and structural integrity.

First things first: the face. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that 75371 Chewbacca is uncomfortable to look at. There’s just something about his too-human eyes, paired with his bright, long, fiercely-bared teeth, that make the set less appealing than previous similar brick-built Star Wars characters.

This is a shame, as the rest of the model is actually a phenomenally impressive achievement. It is by no means a small feat to represent shaggy hair with a series of plastic bricks, but 75371 Chewbacca absolutely delivers on this point. The set is a marvel to behold, with curves and straight lines doing an exemplary job of simulating the look of Chewbacca’s many locks of hair. The face aside, this set looks spectacular, and perhaps with a little tweaking, a talented LEGO builder might be able to make this set’s face look a little less off.

While 75371 Chewbacca is an impressive creation, though, this approach to wild and free hair means that the process of actually assembling the set feels like an exercise in pulling teeth.

There are a lot of panels that need to be decorated with various different LEGO elements, all shades of brown and black, that are both repetitive, and just varied enough that it’s difficult to be certain that everything is in the right place. The paper manual doesn’t help, as it’s often difficult to see exactly where each piece needs to go, and near-identical elements are hard to tell apart. What’s more, the shades of brown and grey used to represent these pieces in the manual look virtually indistinguishable, making it all too easy to pick up a black tile instead of a dark brown, and end up making a mistake that remains unspotted until the end of the bag.

Even once the set is finally assembled, this issue isn’t resolved. With so many small pieces scattered across 75371 Chewbacca’s hide, the set is dangerously fragile. It’s common for a small movement or adjustment to the set’s position on a shelf to cause a brick to ping off. Thanks to the set’s incredibly detailed appearance, it’s often tremendously difficult to figure out where these pieces came from and how to reattach them.

It’s something of a blessing, then, that the set isn’t at all poseable. 75371 Chewbacca’s arms and legs can’t be repositioned; what you see on the box is the exact pose that your model will stand in forever. While this may feel limiting, the ability to move Chewie’s limbs around would probably cause him to shed bits of fur at an alarming rate – that is, assuming that his arm doesn’t get wrenched out of its socket in a moment of karmic retribution.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca characters —

75371 Chewbacca comes with a single minifigure, which – as should be expected – is also Chewbacca. This Chewie minifigure features a printed face and printed legs, but appears identical to the typical Chewbacca minifigures that have appeared in various LEGO sets over much of the past decade.

Fans of LEGO Star Wars almost certainly have a minifigure in their collection that looks more or less the same as the one included with 75371 Chewbacca, and while some larger sets will come with a unique exclusive minifigure, this one isn’t anything special. This would have been a nice opportunity for Chewie to get a bit of a refresh, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this minifigure; it’s just nothing to write home about, either.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca price —

Coming in at £179.99 in the UK, $199.99 in the US and €209.99 in Europe, this is a fairly expensive build. The piece count does justify this price, as there are well over 2,000 pieces in the box, and the build time does run in at around five hours, but the big question for any would-be buyer is whether this price is worth it for a set that will infuriate as much as it entertains.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca pictures —

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca pros and cons —

While 75371 Chewbacca may have seemed like a logical choice in theory, it’s difficult to imagine a version of this set that doesn’t suffer from either being too complicated and fiddly, or lacking in details. Some Star Wars characters just aren’t meant to be brick-built at this scale, and 75371 Chewbacca feels like one set that proves that bigger isn’t always better.

75371 Chewbacca pros	75371 Chewbacca cons
Visually impressive build recreates Chewbacca’s fur well in brick form	Tedious build experience where mistakes are easy to make and time-consuming to fix
Large build will please fans of the character	Finished model is fragile and prone to shedding pieces
Small plaque is printed rather than stickered	That face

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca —

The most logical choices for anyone looking for an alternative to 75371 Chewbacca are other large, brick-built characters. 75308 R2-D2 is a perennial favourite, and 75318 The Child is an excellent choice for fans of The Mandalorian.

— LEGO Star Wars 75371 Chewbacca FAQs —