The new LEGO Star Wars Microfighter brings back an awkward feature

75344 Boba Fett’s Starship offers many benefits to LEGO Star Wars fans – but its choice of interactive elements may not be one of them.

As 2023 approaches, the first wave of next year’s LEGO Star Wars sets is being unveiled by the LEGO Group. A mix of original trilogy and prequel trilogy sets are on offer here, with 75347 TIE Bomber – a surprisingly rare ship in LEGO form – a particular highlight.

That said, the smaller sets certainly have a lot to recommend them. 75344 Boba Fett’s Starship Microfighter is the latest addition to the long-running Microfighters theme, which depicts iconic Star Wars ships in a smaller, cutesier form. This particular set recreates the Slave I ship, and includes Boba Fett in his darker gear from The Mandalorian’s second season. This, combined with the set’s low price, makes it an excellent option for minifigure collectors.

However, it also brings back a play feature we thought we’d seen the back of. Flick fire missiles are attached to the base of the fighter, reflecting the addition of projectiles in older LEGO products. As their name suggests these are manually flicked out of a hollow LEGO element, unlike stud shooters – which use a separate ‘firing pin’ to launch a projectile.

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The problem with the flick fire missiles is that it can be difficult to fire the projectiles a decent distance, as the element used has just enough clutch to make it uncooperative. The hard plastic of the element can also be a little hard on the fingers when it comes to deploying them. That said, they do tend to look a little better than stud shooters – so if you don’t typically fire LEGO projectiles, this may be to your liking.

The return of the stud shooters here could be a consequence of their use in the upcoming 75347 TIE Bomber, which also uses flick fire elements to create a bomb-dropping play mechanic. However, since these are pressed down on rather than flicked, their use in that set makes a little more sense.

In short, 75344 Boba Fett’s Starship is certainly a retro release – in more ways than you might expect. If we haven’t totally crushed your interest in the set, it’ll be available at LEGO.com from January 1, 2023. Expect to pay £8.99 / $8.99 / €8.99 for it. 

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