Star Wars

Porg

A life-size, tail-press, wing-flapping ball of feathers that is far cleverer than it has any right to be.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 75230 · 2018

Pieces811

Minifigsn/a

Year2018

Set number75230

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The verdict

I did not expect to fall for a Porg, and yet here we are.

This is a nearly life-size version of The Last Jedi's most divisive little bird, and pressing its tail opens the beak and flaps the wings, which is the kind of daft joy I can't argue with. It is a display piece with a play feature bolted on, so if you want a ship full of functions this is not it. But if you loved the film or you just want something genuinely charming on a shelf, this one wins you over fast.

Best for: Last Jedi fans who want a charming, characterful display build rather than a spaceship

The full review

What it is

The Porg is exactly what it says on the box, a nearly life-size LEGO build of the wide-eyed sea bird that took over The Last Jedi and split the fandom straight down the middle. It stands about 20cm tall, all rounded body and enormous startled eyes, and the single best thing about it is hidden inside. Press the tail down and a concealed linkage runs the whole length of the body, opening the beak and flapping the wings at the same time. The first time I did it I actually laughed out loud, because it is such a silly, delightful little payoff for a display model. This was never sold as an Ultimate Collector Series set, but it shares that same spirit of building one iconic thing and building it properly.

The catch

I will be straight with you about where it stumbles. There are no minifigures at all, which catches some people off guard for a Star Wars set at this price, so if figures are the reason you buy Star Wars, look elsewhere. The wings flap, but their range of motion is modest, and I do wish they swung further to really sell the movement. And the value question is real. At 811 pieces for the original 69.99 price, you are paying a bit of a premium for the novelty and the shaping rather than raw part count. The Brickset comments when it was revealed were genuinely brutal, with people calling the poor thing ugly and useless, so this was always a set that asked you to already have some affection for the creature.

Who it's for

Here is who should track one down. If you loved The Last Jedi, or you just find the porgs adorable regardless of the discourse, this is a warm, characterful shelf piece that people always pick up and fiddle with. It is also a lovely build for someone who enjoys curved organic shaping over grey hull panels. Skip it if you came for pilots and troopers, or if you need lots of functions and swooshability, because this is a bird that sits, blinks metaphorically, and flaps when you poke it. It retired in January 2020 and now trades well above its old shelf price, so a sealed one is no longer the casual pickup it once was.

The parts story

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

Building the Porg is much more like assembling a little creature than a vehicle, and that is what makes it fun. It is essentially a Technic skeleton wearing a System skin. A central spine of Technic beams runs down the middle, studded with blue half-pins, and the tail-to-beak linkage threads through that core so the whole flapping mechanism is load-bearing rather than decorative. Then you clad the frame in curved plates and slopes, and honestly the outer feathers are trickier than the guts. Getting those angled orange panels to sit right takes patience. Most builders report it as two comfortable sessions, roughly four hours at a relaxed pace, and the reveal of the shape coming together is genuinely satisfying.

The star of the parts story is all that curved geometry. This thing leans hard on bow elements, wedge slopes and 1x2 curved pieces to fake a smooth organic body out of hard bricks, and the blend of orange with light and dark bluish grey does a lot of the heavy lifting for the film-accurate look. There are no exotic new molds hunting here, it is more a clinic in using ordinary curved and angled parts cleverly, which is exactly why it is a nice pull for anyone building their own creatures. You also get a small bonus porg mini-build and a display stand with a printed fact plaque, a tidy finishing touch that makes it feel like a proper collectible rather than just a big bird.

Fun facts

01The Porg was released in October 2018 and retired in January 2020, and sealed copies now commonly trade around double their original 69.99 retail price.
02Despite being a Star Wars set at a mid-tier price, it includes no traditional minifigures at all, just the life-size bird, a bonus mini porg and a fact-plaque display stand.
03The flapping mechanism is a single continuous linkage, so one press on the tail drives both the wings and the opening beak at the same time.