Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder review: "A sleek, accurate recreation"

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder was perhaps an odd choice for the UCS treatment. When it was released, there was literally more than 10 other versions of it in the history of Lego. Only the likes of the TIE Fighter, the AT-AT, and the Millenium Falcon have been flogged quite so relentlessly by Lego in terms of Lego Star Wars sets. In fact, an extremely quaint version of the land speeder was released in 1999 at the inception of the line itself. 

So, why give it the UCS treatment? Well, despite the fact that it's been released more times than there are mainline Star Wars films, it’s never quite been done correctly. It’s an awkward-shaped thing in 'real life' so it was never the next candidate to be adapted into Lego form. While that explains why it’s been weirdly shaped in its time, it doesn’t really explain why it's been until this release that Lego finally got the colors right. 

Happily, the Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder is arguably the most affordable UCS set, and it’s easily one of the simplest to display, thanks to its small footprint. Sure, you’re not going to be bowled over by the number of figures, but it’s the most accurate version of an iconic original trilogy vehicle and it’s well worth having in the collection.

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Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder - features

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder is a sleek, accurate recreation of a Star Wars vehicle that has never been given the justice it deserves. This set fixes the problems of the old versions by finally giving it an accurate paint job and some slick building techniques to make it look as smooth as the original prop, but still manages to make it sleek and compact enough to sit nicely on a shelf without having to renovate your house. 

The ship isn’t quite minifigure scale, but both figures do look good when sitting inside it. There’s also the argument that since it’s a UCS set with its own stand, it’s not really the type of set that needs to looks completely accurate with figures included. The typical UCS stand is included, but it is once again, unfortunately, a sticker on a black slab, not a printed piece. 

As for minifigures, this set comes with two mini figures - Luke Skywalker and C3P0. In an extremely strange omission, there’s no Ben Kenobi figure, which is odd for a multitude of reasons. There’s a Ben Kenobi figure that was in circulation at the time of the UCS Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder, which comes as part of the USC Cantina. Would that have been such a difficult inclusion?

Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder - what's it like to build?

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder is a simple build thanks to some clever choices by Lego under the hood. While the outside of the ship is covered in the lush maroons and oranges that give the ship its iconic color palette, inside Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder there’s a rainbow of shades. 

Continuing a recent trend, Lego has made the smart decision to make inside the ship a mess of different colors and pieces, so that it’s much clearer to work out which part you’re supposed to be building. There's nothing worse than a Lego build that’s entirely mono-color, especially when it’s so easy to mistake certain pieces for others, but Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder completely fixes this issue.

Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder - design

The Landspeeder is an iconic piece of '70s sci-fi design. It really is a miracle that the design team behind Star Wars were able to create so many long-lasting iconic silhouettes over the years. Sure, if you watch the original footage of Star Wars being made, it looks like it could fall apart at any second, and the levitating effect was created using a bit of old mirror, but the ship itself looks iconic. 

The issue with smaller versions of the ship is that they’ve found it difficult to recreate the sleek curves of the speeder, and in some cases, even the colour. This UCS version is the ultimate chance to right those wrongs, and it does so with aplomb.

Should you buy Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder?

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder isn’t the flashiest of sets, and certainly doesn’t wow like several other UCS sets, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a solid Lego kit. There’s almost an argument to be made that putting the Ultimate Collector Series tag on it invites an unfair expectation on the set. While the Luke figure can be found in basically any set, the C3P0 sets it apart, though.

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How we tested Lego Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder took us a solid night of building. It’s not the largest set in the world, and despite the interior being daily intricate, it’s a very comfortable and speedy build, so it shouldn’t be a case of your kitchen table being occupied for days at a time. 

I purchased this set from a Lego retail store in 2021.