Star Wars

X-Wing Starfighter

The minifig-scale X-wing everyone quietly measures the others against.

Brick Rated Score

4.3/5

Set 75218 · 2018

Pieces730

Minifigs4

Year2018

Set number75218

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The verdict

This is the one people mean when they talk about the classic Rebel X-wing at minifigure scale, and having built it, I get why.

The sand blue highlights and light yellow flecks give it that beaten-up, flown-into-a-battle look, and the wings actually snap between cruise and attack mode with a real lever. It's not flawless, the wing cannons and engines run a touch short, but as a swooshable Red Five it earns its place. Best for someone who wants one great T-65 on the shelf without going full UCS.

Best for: Star Wars fans who want the definitive shelf-and-play X-wing at minifigure scale

The full review

I have built a fair few X-wings over the years, and this is the one I keep pointing people toward when they want a single T-65 that looks right and actually does something. The first thing that got me was the paint job, so to speak. LEGO scattered sand blue highlights and little light yellow accents across the grey hull so it reads as a fighter that has been flown hard and patched up between runs, not a showroom model. It sits with proper attitude on the shelf, and it swooshes without threatening to fall apart in your hand, which is more than I can say for some of its cousins.

The headline feature is the wings. Pull a lever near the back and the S-foils spread into attack position with a satisfying mechanical certainty, then press a button underneath and they fold back down for landing. White rubber bands hold the foils together when closed, and honestly you barely notice them. The build itself is engaging without being fiddly, with some clever space-filling tricks in the fuselage, though I will say the instructions run dark and don't flag the new parts at each step, so keep your eyes open when a grey piece meets a grey background.

Now the honest bits. The wing cannons are shorter than they should be and the engines feel a little stubby, so if you have owned a previous X-wing you may notice the proportions. The rear hinge and mudguard arrangement also tends to wander loose under real play, and the astromech can pop out if you flip the model upside down. At the original 79.99 dollars it was already a lot of money for the size, and since it retired in early 2020 the secondhand price has pushed up toward 130 dollars and beyond, so this is no longer the casual pickup it once was.

If you want one really good minifigure-scale X-wing that both displays proudly and survives a kid's hands, this is the set I would send you to, caveats and all. It gives you a full Rebel roster in the cockpit and a genuine play function that never feels tacked on. If you are chasing screen-accurate cannon length, or you are holding out for a UCS centerpiece, you will want to look elsewhere and save your money. But as the everyday hero X-wing, it holds up beautifully.

The parts story

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

Building it is a steady, rewarding few hours rather than a marathon. There is a nice bit of Technic bones running through the middle, with the grey nose cone sliding onto an exposed axle and the whole S-foil mechanism hanging off internal levers, so you feel the engineering come together as the fuselage closes up. The stud shooters by the cockpit and the spring-loaded shooters out at the wingtips add a few crisp sub-assemblies, and the retractable landing gear is a satisfying small puzzle in its own right.

On parts, the treat here is the printing. LEGO gave this release seven printed elements, including a printed cockpit computer tile that would normally arrive as a flimsy sticker, which is exactly the kind of detail collectors love to see. The sand blue and light yellow pieces are the real character parts, doing all the weathering work, and the dual-molded pilot helmets on Luke and Biggs are lovely. For 730 pieces at the old 79.99 price the per-part value was never generous, but you are paying for the mechanism and the minifigs as much as the brick count.

Fun facts

01The lever-operated wing function that snaps the S-foils between cruise and attack mode was brand new for this August 2018 release.
02The box includes spare stickers and tiles so you can build it as either Luke Skywalker's Red Five or Biggs Darklighter's Red Three.
03Three of its four minifigures were exclusive to this set at launch, with Luke's pilot figure being the most valuable of the group.
04It retired in January 2020 and its sealed value has since climbed roughly 65 to 88 percent above the original retail price.