Let’s talk about something unusual today: the upcoming LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters series that is scheduled for release in 2014. The LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters are replacing the LEGO Star Wars Planets series in the small Star Wars sets category. The LEGO Star Wars Planets sets included a minifigure, a planet, and a micro-fighter. A cool feature was that you could actually pack the whole set inside the planet, making the LEGO Star Wars Planets highly collectible pocket sets. There were 12 sets within the LEGO Star Wars Planets series (some are still available), and while they were really fun, I guess LEGO decided that it is time to replace them with something else; so enter the LEGO Star Wars Micro Fighters! 🙂
The LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters are chibi-size sets, meaning that they are small, cute-ified versions of Star Wars ships, that can still fit a minifigure. This is not the first time LEGO has released midi-size sets, but previously they were commemorative sets released at special events. Anyhow, let’s take a look at the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters in detail then we can discuss how we like them. There are 6 LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters scheduled for release next year. Below are the pictures of each of them (images from the Brickset database).
➡ #75028 LEGO STAR WARS CLONE TURBO TANK – A Clone Trooper riding a Turbo Tank. This one reminds me of little kids on those plastic push-cars.
➡ #75029 LEGO STAR WARS AAT – A Battle Droid driving a mini AAT. Actually this one appears quite believable as a real tank (albeit small) and doesn’t look too chibi-ish.
➡ #75030 LEGO STAR WARS MILLENNIUM FALCON – Han Solo riding on top of a tiny Millennium Falcon like he is on a carousel-ride! Now that I think about it, most of these sets look like carousel-rides! 😀
➡ #75031 LEGO STAR WARS TIE INTERCEPTOR – A TIE Fighter Pilot navigating a small TIE Interceptor. This set also looks fairly believable. I think what we see here is that when the minifig actually fits fairly deep inside the vehicle then the whole set-up doesn’t look so out of proportion.
➡ #75032 LEGO STAR WARS X-WING FIGHTER – This is my favorite set within the series. What can be cuter than a miniature X-wing?
➡ #75033 LEGO STAR WARS STAR DESTROYER – An Imperial Crew Member driving a very-very-very small Star Destroyer. I guess if it would have been this small in the real story, there would be no Star Wars saga…
Initial feedback on the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters has been quite mixed. Some LEGO fans like them, and some find them ridiculous. Personally I believe that they definitely have more play-value than the LEGO Star Wars Planets sets; there you basically got three components (a minifig, a planet and a micro-sized fighter), that were way out of proportion to each other and couldn’t really interact. Here, although the vehicles are small, the included minifigure can ride them – which means more fun and playability. I actually like most of the sets in the series, especially the X-wing and the TIE Interceptor, and I would really like to see a Snow-Speeder too! 🙄
And while we are waiting for the release of the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters, you can also check out the remaining sets from the LEGO Star Wars Planets series at the Online LEGO Shop.
What about you? How do you like the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters sets? Do you think it was a good idea for LEGO to make chibi Star War sets? Will they be popular? Would you collect them? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
You might also like to check out the LEGO Star Wars section for more news, reviews and discussions, or select from the following related posts: