The 5th series of one of my favorite Lego product lines has been out since the start of the year. Its already been long enough for prices to start dropping at Amazon by 20% here and there. These days it only takes a short amount of patience to get most lego sets for about 20% off so it is frequently a worth while wait. And the Microfighters are definitely on my must have list.
This series unlike some previous ones finally includes some actually named characters from the movies. This is notable because many of the microfighters come with a generic pilot, even though their ship is associated to several characters in the movies.
Series 5 also introduces some twin packs where two ships for the twice the price are included…a gimicky side build is included out of seemingly spare parts.
Top of the list is the A wing vs Tie Silencer:
Lots of good stuff happening here:
- We finally get an A Wing
- Kylo Ren himself is included
- Kylo comes with his Light Saber
The ships are reasonable representations although it looks like the “missle” holders on Kylo’s ship are just cluged onto the bottom. We’ve seen that before in previous microfighters. The tilted rear section of the A Wing looks quite ideal.
Series 5 also comes with its first Re-Hash: The Millennium Falcon returns this time with Chewbacca as opposed to Series 1 which came with Han Solo.
Series 5
Series 1
The other changes include switching from flick shooters to stud shooters, the radar dish goes to 1×2 jumper, the printing on the cockpit went from black to gray, the center tilted section has been altered a smidge, and some other little parts are recolored. It is a near clone which in some regards is great because the original Series 1 10$ sells for up to $40 these days. You can buy this new version, change the dish, and have an original trilogy ship.
The next twin pack is from “Last Jedi” with the new style Walker and Ski-Speeder.
The New Walker is updated for the new movie with the hulkier and more aggressive looking look. The best improvement to the microfighter is the front feet which have the plus sign shape. The ski Speeder is pretty decent but does not force the comparison to its movie counterparts. The issue here is the movie ski speeders were real junkers. The pristine Lego bricks are just a tad too clean looking to represent this ship with the color choices they made. The biggest non-cosmetic issue however is the lack of the mono-ski heavily featured in the movie. This Lego ship needs the drop down ski to be able to carry the name Ski-Speeder.
The final new kit which rounds this series out with the typical 6 vehicles is the First Order TIE Fighter.
The microfighters have featured several TIE figters int he past, but none with the classic hexagonal wings..So having that classic shape is a welcome addition. Too bad it was introduced with the First order version with Red accent colors. No real matter, you can trade those red parts out for black in a jiffy. Even the the pilot is generic, this is a low cost set that finally comes with this particular helmet that features the external hose. I’ll be excited to get one of those finally.
Overall this looks like a good series even though two vehicles are nearly repeats. The original trilogy is not getting any love here which hurts because I still want a Microfighter Slave 1, Land Speeder, Jawa Sand Crawler…..
Good news about the sand Crawler, Lego finally released a battle Pack that people/collectors will want: The Tatooine Battle Pack. Its essentially a Microfighter set in scale and style with its ride on top motif. The major pluses are 4 figures that are actually desirable: 2 Jawas, 1 R2 droid, and 1 Tuscan Raider! Started at 15 and already down 20% on Amizon. Perhaps some modifications and this thing can become a true sand crawler microfighter.
Now I know what I’m getting me for my birthday!