Star Wars

Defense of Crait

The V-4X-D ski speeder is the whole reason to buy this, and it very nearly earns it.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 75202 · 2018

Pieces746

Minifigs5

Year2018

Set number75202

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The verdict

The ski speeder is what got me here.

It is fifteen inches of spindly, red-streaked Resistance hardware, and it looks properly cinematic tearing across a shelf. The trouble is the little base and turret feel like an afterthought bolted on to justify the price, and $84.99 was always a stretch for what is really one hero vehicle plus scenery. If you loved that Crait sequence in The Last Jedi and you want the speeder, this is very good. If you want a dense, satisfying whole-set build, temper it a little.

Best for: Last Jedi fans who fell for the salt-flat trench run and want the ski speeder on display

The full review

What it is

This is LEGO's take on the final act of The Last Jedi, that blindingly white salt flat on Crait where the red dust kicks up under the Resistance ski speeders. The centrepiece is the V-4X-D ski speeder, and I will be straight with you, it is the reason the box is worth opening. It comes out at about 38cm wide, bigger than the photos suggest, all long spindly arms and a single stabiliser strut that lowers underneath like the film. There is a removable engine section, a proper minifigure cockpit, and enough sturdiness that you can actually swoosh it without pieces raining off, which is not something every Star Wars vehicle this shape can claim. When it is finished and sitting on a shelf, it genuinely reads as that scene.

The catch

Now for the honest caveats, because there are a few. The set was $84.99 at launch, and nearly every reviewer landed on the same verdict, that it felt about ten dollars too dear for what you get. Part of that is the speeder's design itself: it is long and thin, so 746 pieces do not translate into the visual heft you might expect from the number. The bigger issue is everything that is not the speeder. The Crait base, the little command tower and the foldout trench are meant to represent the Resistance fortifications, but they are undersized and a bit flat, more suggestion than fortress. And the speeder's weight sits unevenly, with the cockpit end heavier than the tail, so it does not hover level on its strut without a bit of fiddling.

Who it's for

So who is this for. If you loved the Crait sequence, if you want that ski speeder specifically, or if you are a Resistance minifigure collector, this is an easy yes, because Poe Dameron and Admiral Ematt were both exclusive to this box and the speeder really does deliver. If you are after a big, dense, all-day build with a satisfying base to go with the vehicle, I would set expectations, because the value here is concentrated almost entirely in that one model. It retired at the end of 2018, so the sealed price has crept up, and it now sits in that awkward spot where you are paying collector money for a set that was always really about a single beautiful, slightly overpriced speeder.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build is front-loaded, in the nicest way. Most of your time and most of the good engineering goes into the ski speeder, which uses a lot of angled connections and Technic elements to get those long spindly arms rigid enough to survive being picked up. That is the clever bit: a model this shape should be fragile, and it is not. The base, tower and trench sections build quickly by comparison, more straightforward stacking than puzzle, so the pacing dips noticeably once the speeder is done and you move on to the scenery.

There are no headline new molds here, but the colour work is where it earns its keep. The speeder carries that white-over-red look from the salt flats, and it is loaded with spring-loaded shooters, a rotating laser cannon on the trench turret and a stud shooter on the command tower. The real parts prize is the minifigures rather than the bricks: Poe Dameron in his Crait outfit and Admiral Ematt were both exclusive to this set, joined by a Resistance trooper and two First Order snowtroopers. For a 2018 Star Wars set the part-count value is fair without being generous, and the exclusivity of those two figures is what pushes it over the line for a lot of collectors.

Fun facts

01The V-4X-D ski speeder measures roughly 38cm (15 inches) wide, larger than it looks in photos, thanks to those long outrigger arms.
02Both Poe Dameron and Admiral Ematt in this set were exclusive to 75202 and appeared in no other LEGO set, which drove a lot of the demand.
03The set was designed by Niels M. Frederiksen and ran a single year, launching and retiring across 2018 before leaving shelves.
04It recreates the climax of The Last Jedi on Crait, where the speeders' skids scrape through the white salt crust to reveal the red mineral underneath.