LEGO Star Wars 75433 Jango Fett’s Starship: Slave I 2: Electric Boogaloo [Review]
Firespray-class starships appear to be like proverbial London buses. You wait 20 years for a specific one, and then two turn up within three months of each other! LEGO finally re-visited Jango Fett’s Slave I in style earlier this year, with the mammoth 2,970-piece 75414. But if that set’s $330 price tag is putting you off, good news! From August 1, you’ll be able to pick up 75433 Jango Fett’s Starship for a more modest US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99 (and you may be able to find it on eBay or Amazon, too). This one’s only got 707 pieces, but it does feature an extra minifigure for a total of three. Read on to see if you should pick up one, both, or neither…
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and build
Let’s not waste any time and rattle through the box! We have a shot of the Slave I above Geonosis, and on the back on (presumably) Kamino. Six bags, the stickers, and instructions await within.
What’s of interest once we start building? Well, right off the bat we have a trapdoor element sitting at the bottom of the ship – although it’s held shut with a couple of round 2×2 plates. There’s a good variety of dark blue and sand green slopes going up around it.
There’s a nifty little flip-out handle on the back, made up of Technic lift-arms. Making good use of the space is a red Technic axle, which acts as an end-stop for the aforementioned lever, and allows for the wings to swing in tandem with each other. Those will come later.
The trapdoor’s purpose becomes more evident as we put in a loose assembly of tiles and curved slopes. This is locked in with plates further down the line, and acts as a lever to push the trapdoor open. I think it’s safe to assume this will provide our seismic charge-dropping play feature.
There’s a lot of sideways building used for the ship’s ‘nose’, which is angled thanks to the Technic beams you see above. The panels allow for a more seamless transition between the plates and the rest of the body, and it’s a rather neat one.
The same is true of the cockpit, which is surrounded by plates and slopes on their sides. A cockpit piece is virtually the last to go on, besides the wings.
The minifigures
There are three Attack of the Clones minifigures included. The first two, of course, are the Fetts: Jango and Boba. Jango has a replacement hair piece to swap out for his helmet, and both feature reversible heads.
They’re virtually identical to their UCS counterparts; the only difference is the absence of arm printing on Jango’s armour. I’m not someone who craves arm printing, though, so I think he looks just fine without it. Young Boba is literally the exact same figure.
“Dad! Taun We’s here!” This is surely the biggest draw of this set minifigure-wise: Prime Minister of Kamino, Taun We.
Stylistically, he’s similar to the only other extant Kaminoan minifigure, Lama Su, who appears in 75333 Obi-Wan’s Starfighter (still available, and an ideal companion set!). There’s a new head and neck mould though, which looks great.
The finished model
Externally, the design is very similar to 75312 Boba Fett’s Starship from 2021. It’s not a carbon copy, but there’s definitely a whiff of ‘copy my homework but change it to make it look like you didn’t’. It makes use of the same cockpit piece, for instance, which is a terrible match for the source material in my opinion.
There are a few improvements, though. For one, despite the small cockpit piece, Boba can join his dad for a ride in the cockpit. Just – it’s a tight squeeze!
The seismic charge dropping function is also a fun upgrade, if a bit unwieldy to use. The space inside could’ve been made bigger though; there’s a specific orientation the two charges need to sit in, and they don’t want to when you just throw them in.
The service trolley doubles as a stand for the ship, again like the earlier 2021 model. Although I don’t own it, I think I still prefer the earlier design from a looks point of view. Perhaps the bigger size of this one makes it more stable? I’d be interested to hear in the comments if that was a problem afflicting Boba’s Slave I.
As you’d expect, this Slave I looks a bit ridiculous parked next to its big sibling, even in flight mode.
It is fun to see how the different details have been recreated at the different scales though. The colour blocking especially is quite a good match.
This is what it feels like when someone in a massive truck pulls up to your tiny hatchback at the traffic lights.
Conclusions and recommendation
It’s a bit odd to have two sets of the same ship for sale at the same time. In a way, it’s quite nice: if you don’t want to break the bank for the UCS Slave I, you can still get your hands on Jango and Boba Fett and their ship. The Taun We minifigure sweetens the deal, which appears to be a fair one, hitting the magical 10c/piece ratio. A rare thing indeed, for a LEGO Star Wars set.
However, price per piece is not the ultimate definition of set value, and I’m not crazy about this one. It is essentially a re-hash of a four-year-old set, and the upgrades are nowhere near substantial enough to warrant buying this one if you already own 75312. Ditto for the UCS Slave I – there’s no reason to buy this if you own the bigger one, or are planning to. If you don’t fall into either of those camps, then it’s a decent enough purchase that makes a nice change from the otherwise grey, red and white fare of other Star Wars sets.
LEGO Star Wars 75433 Jango Fett’s Starship contains 707 pieces and three minifigures, and will retail for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99 upon its August 1 release. It may also be available on third-party retail sites such as eBay or Amazon.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
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