Star Wars

Executor Super Star Destroyer

Darth Vader's flagship shrunk down to something you can actually put on a shelf.

Brick Rated Score

4.3/5

Set 75356 · 2023

Pieces630

Minifigsn/a

Year2023

Set number75356

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The verdict

The thing that got me about this one is how much menace they kept while shrinking a 1.27 meter behemoth down to 43cm.

It reads as the Executor instantly, dagger silhouette and all, and the two tiny Star Destroyers flying alongside sell the scale beautifully. It's an easy, meditative build rather than an engineering puzzle, and the sticker price stings a little for 630 pieces with no minifigure. If you love capital ships but don't have a wall to sacrifice, this is the one I'd point you to.

Best for: Star Wars fans who want the Executor's presence without UCS-level space or spend.

The full review

What it is

There was a LEGO Executor before this, the giant 10221 from 2011 that stretched a metre and a quarter across and swallowed your entire display shelf. This 75356 is the answer for everyone who wanted that ship but did the math on the space and the price and quietly gave up. It's midi-scale, 43cm nose to tail, and the first time I saw it built I was genuinely surprised by how much of the original's threat survived the shrink. The dagger profile is spot on, the surface is packed with detail, and the two little Star Destroyers tucked alongside do the clever job of making the Executor look enormous by comparison. It launched on the 1st of May 2023 to mark the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, and the stand carries a nameplate and an anniversary plaque, which is a nice touch for a display piece.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about the caveats, because there are a couple worth knowing before you buy. First is the price. At roughly 70 dollars for 630 pieces, this is not a lot of plastic for the money, and plenty of builders said so out loud. You're paying for the design and the licence more than the part count. Second, and this is the one that actually bugs me, there's no minifigure. On a set celebrating Vader's flagship, giving you even a single tiny Vader would have gone a long way, and its absence is the most common complaint I saw. The build itself is easy going, which is lovely, but if you live for tricky engineering this won't scratch that itch. The only genuinely annoying moment is fitting the lower engines, which are fiddly and like to drop back out before they finally seat.

Who it's for

So who should get this. If you love Star Wars capital ships and have always wanted the Executor but couldn't justify a UCS monster on your wall or your wallet, this is an easy yes. It displays gorgeously, it's forgiving enough to be a calm evening's build, and it looks far more expensive than it is once it's on a shelf. Third-party light kits exist too, and the orange engine glow they add is genuinely worth it if you want to push the presentation further. Who should skip it? If you're chasing minifigures, part-count value, or a build that challenges you, this isn't your set. But as a pure display object of one of the most intimidating ships in the saga, it more than earns its place.

The parts story

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

Building this is a slow, pleasant kind of task rather than a technical one. The main hull goes together first, then you cap the central city-like superstructure with grey plates, and the whole thing is sensibly broken into sub-sections so you can usually guess where each one belongs before the instructions confirm it. It takes around two hours, and because it's a small model dense with tiny parts, the time comes from patience rather than difficulty. The one section that will test you is the underside engines, which are genuinely fiddly to clip into place.

There are no rare or exotic elements here, and that's fine, because the magic is in how ordinary parts get used. Cheese slopes, ingots, grille plates, clips and bars are layered across the exterior to fake the surface texture of a ship a thousand times this size, and honestly some of that greebling reads better than it did on the giant UCS version. My favourite detail is a hidden easter egg: sets of small round pieces stand in for characters from the film, including Vader, Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Dengar, 4-LOM and Zuckuss, a quiet nod for anyone who knows the bounty hunter lineup. The part-count value is lean, but the parts usage is clever.

Fun facts

01The set launched on 1 May 2023 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, and its display stand includes a dedicated anniversary plaque.
02It's the second LEGO Executor. The original, 10221 from 2011, was over 1.27 metres long and had more than 3,000 pieces, while this midi-scale version fits the same ship into 43cm.
03Small round pieces on the model secretly represent on-screen characters, including Darth Vader and the bounty hunters Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Dengar, 4-LOM and Zuckuss.
04The box includes two tiny Star Destroyers to fly alongside the Executor, purely to make its enormous scale read at a glance.