The rumoured LEGO Star Wars Republic Gunship is a serious Clone Wars deep cut

A new minifigure-scale LEGO Star Wars Republic Gunship is rumoured to be on the way later this year – and it’s shaping up to be a serious Clone Wars deep cut for the era’s 20th anniversary.

Lucasfilm is celebrating 20 years of Clone Wars stories in 2023, marking two decades since Genndy Tartakovsky’s seminal animated series hit screens. Those celebrations also encompass George Lucas’s 2008 animated show, and the LEGO Group has already joined in the fun with 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack, 75349 Captain Rex Helmet and 75350 Clone Commander Cody Helmet.

It’s apparently not done yet, however, as 75354 Republic Gunship is rumoured to be launching in September, packing 1,083 pieces in the box for €149.99. And while we’ve seen the LAAT/i several times before in bricks – most recently in 2013’s 75021 Republic Gunship and 2021’s 75309 Republic Gunship – this one will apparently be a little different.

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According to StoneWars, the new minifigure-scale gunship will be decorated in predominantly dark red colours, matching the armour of the Coruscant Guard (commonly referred to as shock troopers). And if that’s true, it’s very likely that the set will be a super-obscure reference to Crisis at the Heart, the seventh episode of the sixth season of The Clone Wars.

The gunship in question appears at the start of the episode, ferrying Padmé Amidala to Scipio to help install Rush Clovis as the new leader of the Galactic Banking Clan. (Cue 20 minutes of politicking, interest rate rises and financial manipulation. All solid stuff for a Saturday morning kids’ cartoon.) You can just about see it in the background of the image above, with dark red wings and doors flanking its central white hull.

What’s also pointing us in the direction of this episode is the rumoured minifigure line-up for 75354 Republic Gunship, which is said to consist of Padmé Amidala, Chancellor Palpatine, Commander Fox and two Coruscant Guard troopers. If this really is the variant of the gunship the LEGO Group has chosen to bring to market in 2023, Padmé makes perfect sense as a character choice – as do the two Coruscant Guard troopers.

Palpatine doesn’t actually pop up on Scipio in this episode (he’s busy scheming on Coruscant), but we’ll take any excuse to get a new Clone Wars variant of the Chancellor. The potential fly in the ointment is Commander Fox: the squad leader you see in the image up there is actually Commander Thorn, a completely different character, which leaves us with two possibilities.

One, the LEGO Group has decided to forego accuracy in favour of a better-known character: Commander Fox originally appeared as a minifigure in 2008’s 7681 Separatist Spider Droid, so revisiting him in 2023 would also be a sort-of tie-in to the Clone Wars anniversary. Alternatively, the original source of the rumour could simply have mistaken Thorn for Fox – after all, they both share similar armour…

We’ll hopefully find out one way or the other in the next few months, if rumours of a new LEGO Star Wars Republic Gunship come to fruition. Until we get official confirmation from the LEGO Group, best to take it with a pinch of salt – but if nothing else, the link between a Coruscant Guard gunship and Padmé seems pretty strong.

Click here for a complete rundown of every LEGO Star Wars set rumoured for release across the rest of 2023.

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