Lego UCS X-Wing review: “The best-looking X-Wing Lego has ever made is standing by”

Star Wars is Lego’s oldest licence, and seeing the Lego UCS X-Wing (along with its imposing 18-inch wingspan) in the flesh feels like staring into the illustrious pairing’s 24-year history. The X-Wing has always been a huge deal for Lego; in 1999 it released its first Lego Star Wars kit to consumers, the X-Wing Fighter (7140). The following year it launched its first Ultimate Collector Series set, and once again, the iconic craft kicked off proceedings in the form of the X-Wing Fighter (7191).

Since then, a plethora of X-Wings in various guises have followed, from Sequel Trilogy variants to endless standard-range updates. Heck, Lego’s festive gift to employees to celebrate 20 years of Lego Star Wars back in 2019 was a Christmas-themed X-Wing, which is one of the best Lego sets (and the most sought after) to this day.

It’s not difficult to get your head around the Lego X-Wing’s enduring popularity. Arguably, only the Millenium Falcon is more iconic. And while a playset-scale Falcon is inherently large and expensive, a little X-Wing Fighter is a much easier purchase to justify. But the Ultimate Collector Series has never been marketed towards casual brick builders. It’s home to Lego’s largest and most ambitious sets. Think sports upgrade with alloy wheels and plush leather seats.

With that in mind, I'm expecting nothing less than the definitive offering here. After all, this little starship has been a part of some of Lego’s most important sets, ever.

Features

The Lego Star Wars UCS X-Wing Starfighter (75355) is a complex set weighing in at 2,000 pieces. That means it's much more detailed than the cheaper, smaller Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter (75301) that you can get for $49.99 / £44.99 at the official Lego store. Naturally, it'll cost you a pretty penny as a result - like many other Ultimate Collector Series kits, it's priced at more than $200 / £200.

If you're keeping score, this is the third UCS X-Wing Lego has produced, following the 2000 original and 2013’s Red Five X-Wing Starfighter (10240). In contrast to those versions, this one offers a new S-foils system, a more screen-accurate body thanks to tilted panelling, and plenty of greebly bits on the top and back to sell the complexity of this starfighter.

Lego UCS X-Wing – how easy is it to build?

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• 1,953 pieces
• New S-foils mechanism
• Only four stickers

This set comprises 1,953 pieces, split across 10 bagged sections, and it took me just under five hours to build. Only one instruction booklet is included, complete with the usual few pages of design and prototype information. If you’ve built the 2013 model, you’ll find that the wings, laser cannons and rear portion of the thrusters provide a healthy dose of déjà vu, while the rest of the build largely incorporates new techniques. 

This isn’t the most challenging UCS set to put together, but the 18+ moniker is definitely warranted. Mounting the S-foils mechanism is particularly challenging and attaching each wing can be a bit fiddly. There's obviously four wings to build too, so younger Lego fans may find the repetition a little difficult to sit through.

Each of the now three UCS X-Wings released over the years have featured a slightly different S-foils mechanism, although the first two sets worked much in the same way. A more primitive collection of Technic cogs, axles, and bricks with holes were used to build the original model’s mechanism, while the 2013 set used a single cog to drive a rather elaborate Technic beam construction. Both operate using a knob at the ship’s rear and while they’re structurally very sound - the S-foils open and close relatively slowly.

The latest set’s mechanism uses a knob on a Turntable piece – on top of the craft – to drive a rotating bar construction that pushes against a pair of rubber bands that pull against and cause opposing wings to rotate. An upside is that the wings open much quicker, just like they do in the film. The downside is that it doesn’t feel particularly robust and never quite works as seamlessly as you feel it should. This new mechanism does cause the wings to sag quite notably when in the closed position, and while most will display the S-foils in attack position by default, that’s not a good enough excuse for a UCS model. And yet, I think I'd still take this flawed, new mechanism over the older ones… 

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This is because moving the knob from the rear of the ship to the top has made for a much-better-looking product overall. No knob on the back has freed up ample space for some very convincing greebling, and the knob on top is well disguised within a similarly fine-looking panel of greebling. 

Thankfully, this set only features four stickers: two for control panels within the cockpit and one for each bottom wing. Anyone familiar with the 2000 and 2013 UCS sets will know that stickers had to be applied to the canopies, something we’re not accustomed to in 2023, and thank goodness - Lego didn’t disappoint here.

Another massive sticker-related upgrade is the UCS plaque that attaches to the stand. Fans have been calling – shouting – for printed plaques for years and Lego has finally delivered. The plaque is the centrepiece of any UCS set and applying one of the huge stickers can only be likened to placing a sheet of tempered glass on a smartphone screen (eugh!). And hopefully, this means we’ll never have to go through it again.

Lego UCS X-Wing – design

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• Lego’s best-looking UCS X-Wing yet
• Incredible attention to detail
• Still no landing gear

First and foremost, this is a stunning set – even by UCS standards – that blows previous iterations out of the water. In fact, it looks so good, it’s easier to list what doesn’t quite match the prototype. The front-facing thruster sections are a bit big, the fuselage is a little too wide, the flippers used to detail the ends of the laser cannons are too big, and it’s a shame there’s a large, visible gap when the S-foils are set to attack position. 

I'll get to the nose cone and R2-D2 later, but first it’s important to talk about the level of detail Lego has gone to here. The greebling is amazing, the thruster engines are spot on (even using sideways tiles to slot between studs), the sides of the fuselage are bafflingly accurate, and the cockpit is exquisite. Even the laser cannons match Red Five’s colour scheme for the first time, two with a striped blue-and-white pattern and the other two all in white.

While some might be unhappy to see that Lego has ditched the 2013 model’s grey nose cone, I'm actually in favour of this decision. In A New Hope, Red Five is heavily weathered, but the nose cone is the same colour as the body. The new nose cone is more bulbous in appearance, but this is largely a byproduct of the new fuselage. Yes, it’s wider than it ought to be, but this is to accommodate the beautiful new side panels. They’re no longer flat, but angled just like the prototype. This extends to the undercarriage beneath the cockpit too, which is now much more svelte. All in all, the X-Wing's profile really is spot on, and images can’t do it justice.

Perhaps the biggest omission is the lack of landing gear. The whole point of producing UCS sets that exceed minifigure scale is to pack them with a level of prototype detail that just isn’t possible in a smaller set, and it’s hard to believe that folding landing gear is beyond Lego’s capabilities in 2023.

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And while I'm on the subject of Minifigure scale, that little R2 unit really does get swallowed up by the humongous X-Wing. Past UCS iterations have had the minifigure sit higher in the astromech pod, and I'm not sure why the decision was made to seat the droid lower. Thankfully, it’s a quick fix, since you can attach one or two 1x1 plates on R2’s underside (present in the spares I got with my model) so he protrudes more. But beyond the seating position, it would have been nice to finally get an R2-D2 micro build in the same scale as the ship. The Minifigure could have then stood alongside Luke on the base.

The base itself is standard UCS fare. It doesn’t look particularly sturdy, but it is. The only problem we found was that the entire ship’s weight is held up by two 2x2 slopes that are used to prevent it from sliding further down the Technic beams that thread inside the X-Wing’s hull for stability. When moving the ship around for photography, these slopes were prone to pinging off. This never caused the ship to fall off the stand, but it’s something worth watching out for.

While some fans were disappointed that the larger and more expensive UCS Republic Gunship only featured two minifigures, R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker really are the perfect duo here. In fact, this is the first UCS X-Wing to include Luke and it’s a shining example of a UCS-exclusive figure done right. The legs, hip, torso, back, arms and helmet are all exquisitely printed and you get a dual face print to boot. It’s the epitome of what a modern Lego minifigure should look like.

Unfortunately, Lego is still turning out R2-D2 Minifigures with skewed dome printing, an especially hard pill to swallow as part of a premium UCS set. But, the same old grievance aside, this is still a charming representation of everyone’s favourite droid.

Should you buy the Lego UCS X-Wing Starfighter?

The Lego Star Wars UCS X-Wing Starfighter (75355) is Billund’s definitive offering; it’s quite simply the best-looking X-Wing Lego has ever made. The new fuselage is a game changer, the greebling is a notable step up, and the printed canopy has completely eradicated the presence of ugly air bubbles. Add to that the first printed UCS plaque (finally!) and a gorgeous Luke Skywalker minifigure, and there’s an awful lot to like here. It's a shame Lego couldn’t get everything right on its third attempt, though. 

Locked into attack position, the S-foils look fantastic, but the sag between wings when closed is arguably the most prominent across the trio of UCS X-Wings Lego has produced. The Ultimate Collector Series exists to represent the very pinnacle of Lego’s brick-building capabilities, and in 2023, the absence of landing gear on a model much larger than minifigure scale does seem like a missed opportunity, and I've no doubt a to-scale R2-D2 in the astromech socket would have been a huge boon too.

But beyond the Lego faithful who pore over every detail and count every stud, this is a magnificent-looking build. Whether it’s testament to the Lego designers or the original model makers who were unknowingly building one of the most iconic spaceships in sci-fi, it’s hard to look upon this UCS X-Wing and not feel a little awestruck. There’s something about the Original Trilogy that can’t be replicated on film, but when it comes to bricks, Lego may have cracked it.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Lego UCS X-Wing Starfighter

I put this set together in two sittings at a brisk pace. It took just under five hours to build, which isn’t a particularly long time considering the 2,000-odd piece count. However, I always recommend savouring a Lego build, especially something as special as an Ultimate Collector Series set. 

For more information on our procedure, take a look at how we test products.

For more brick-based goodness, don't miss our guides to the best Lego Star Wars sets. You can also get some money off with these Lego deals.