Sandman vs. Sarlacc: which LEGO DLC did it better in 2024?

Between Sandman and the Sarlacc, the LEGO Group tried two different approaches to brick-built DLC in 2024 – but which one should serve as the template for future sets?

Companion models are not a new concept for the LEGO Group: over the years we’ve seen plenty of sets designed to work together, from Jabba’s Palace and the Rancor Pit to the many and various modular Hogwarts systems released under the Wizarding World banner. But from a narrative perspective, 76280 Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit are two of the strongest examples in recent memory of sets that are pretty much necessary to complete a specific scene.

In that sense they’re sort of like downloadable content for a video game; without them you’re missing out on a piece of the overall package that the developers (or to bring it back to the brick, the designers) had in mind. Sandman and the Lizard are the obvious missing components from 2023’s 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle, and that set genuinely doesn’t feel complete without them.

Likewise, the Desert Skiff and Sarlacc Pit are fundamental to the wider opening sequence of Return of the Jedi. They were included with the Sail Barge in a single set in 2006, then parcelled out into different sets in the 2012 and 2013 LEGO Star Wars ranges, just as they have been in 2024 across 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge and 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit. Both the Sandman and Sarlacc pits have therefore fulfilled similar roles across this year’s portfolio, albeit in different ways and at different price points.

76280 Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle is smaller and more affordable, coming in at £31.99 / $37.99 / €37.99 for 347 pieces. But it repeats two characters from the bigger set in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Electro, and also includes elements for a standalone display base, so you’re going to have minifigures and pieces that are surplus to requirements when you’ve combined both sets as intended.

75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, on the other hand, is a direct companion to the UCS Sail Barge: there’s no doubling up of characters and no wasted or leftover elements. The two sets are designed to sit side-by-side on shelves and have been designed with that much in mind. The trade-off is that key hero characters are not included with the Sail Barge, so if you want Luke Skywalker or Han Solo the Skiff and Sarlacc Pit become a requirement.

LEGO Marvel hasn’t walled off Tom Holland’s Spider-Man behind the smaller Sandman set, which means 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle is a better prospect all on its own – the ‘downloadable content’ isn’t a necessity to the same extent that it is in the pair of LEGO Star Wars sets. It’s worth considering here just how much more expensive the Return of the Jedi combo is, too: 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge retails for a whopping £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99 for 3,942 pieces.

At that point it feels miserly to not just go ahead and include the Desert Skiff and Sarlacc Pit in the same box for the same price, and it’s what we might have expected to see from LEGO Star Wars just five years ago (when 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina debuted with its extensive roster of exclusive minifigures).

Yet doing that would mean preventing those without the deepest of pockets from enjoying at least part of the movie’s opening sequence, so splitting up the sets seems reasonable from that perspective… if not for the fact 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit costs an eye-watering £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99, which is going to be beyond the pale for many anyway.

All-in with both LEGO Marvel Spider-Man sets, you’re looking at £126.98 / $147.98 / €147.98, and for that price you’ll end up with 1,247 pieces and 12 minifigures. Once you’ve combined them you’ll have a handful of parts and two duplicate minifigures left over. Both LEGO Star Wars sets together comes to £499.98 / $579.98 / €579.98 for 4,500 pieces and 17 minifigures, with nothing at all left over.

From a pure value proposition perspective, Marvel just about edges it – but if the price of the Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit was wound into the Sail Barge’s RRP, we’d probably be having a different conversation. That’s exacerbated by the fact that the two LEGO Spider-Man sets have already dropped by as much as 33% (if not more) at third-party retailers, while it’s likely going to be a long while before we see discounts on 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge.

It’s worth considering too the order in which these sets released. 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle arrived on shelves in August 2023, several months ahead of January 2024’s 76280 Spider-Man vs. Sandman: Final Battle. The general impression of the first set was that if it was all we were going to get, it would just about serve the purpose – Lizard was a disappointing omission, but he’d probably have turned up in some other set in some form eventually. So when the add-on did come along, it was more of a ‘cherry on top’ situation.

75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, meanwhile, debuted in stores in August 2024, two months before 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge. The mood around the rumoured price tag for the UCS set was therefore already quite pessimistic given it seemed likely it wouldn’t include those other necessary components for the wider scene, and while a few hopeful hold-outs theorised it could include a second skiff for a complete diorama, even that failed to materialise.

Dropping the companion set first felt like a video game announcing day-one downloadable content, a move often criticised as the developers holding back finished content to extract a little more cash from players, and not only soured the price of the UCS Sail Barge further but made the entire proposition sting just that little bit more (not least for the various inaccuracies in the minifigures across the two LEGO Star Wars sets).

On balance, the approach taken by LEGO Star Wars technically did DLC better in 2024 from a pure content perspective. Nothing goes to waste between the two sets and there are no repeat characters. But on vibes alone, the crown has to go to LEGO Marvel: the add-on set feels less egregious, partly for coming later and partly for being a more reasonable price (especially discounted), while the initial set still feels like a fair and comprehensive package.

The dream scenario going forward, then – whether in 2025, 2026 or whenever the LEGO Group decides to repeat this kind of approach – is essentially the template of 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit and 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge, only with fairer pricing. But once October’s LEGO Star Wars UCS set starts seeing discounts through third-party retailers, which is already happening to its companion model, even those criticisms might start to melt away…

This feature is part of our wider look back across 2024 in LEGO, which also includes our favourite sets and minifigures from the past 12 months, the biggest news stories of the year and deeper analyses of specific sets and product release strategies. Head here to check out all that and more.

The sets in this feature were provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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