LEGO Star Wars 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer review

The LEGO Star Wars team has fired up its shrink ray and pointed it squarely at 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer – with surprisingly satisfying results.

The LEGO Star Wars designers deliberately began scaling back certain vehicles in 2021 – the X-wing, TIE Fighter and so on – to make them more affordable and accessible for younger kids. And while they haven’t applied that design language to every LEGO Star Wars set since, 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer definitely feels like the latest victim of Danish downsizing. The good news is you probably won’t mind.

Release: August 1, 2024 Price: £149.99 / $159.99 / €169.99 Pieces: 1,555 Minifigures: 7 LEGO: Order now

Smaller but not cheaper

Star Destroyers are a pretty regular fixture in the LEGO Star Wars line-up, but the last playset version hit shelves a full decade ago in 2014’s 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer. This retooled version – now the third of its kind – feels long overdue. And following the current direction of the LEGO Star Wars theme, it’s smaller than both 75055 and 2006’s 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer.

But while the intent behind 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter and 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-wing Fighter was clear (make these vehicles more affordable), this set feels more like an almost inevitable consequence of the LEGO Group’s approach in 2024 across more than just Star Wars. 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer is very densely constructed, chasing and ultimately achieving a level of durability way beyond either of its predecessors.

But concentrating so much of the capital ship’s budget on ensuring it will hold up to play means that size was always going to be compromised, regardless of any deliberate attempt to downsize. And the result is that even though it’s smaller, 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer still includes 1,555 pieces, and still costs £149.99 / $159.99 / €169.99.

That’s the same slot in the portfolio occupied by last summer’s 75357 Ghost & Phantom II, and side by side they do feel comparable in terms of the volume of plastic. It’s also £30 more than 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer retailed for in 2014, though inflation puts that set’s RRP at £160 today, and the newer model includes just shy of 200 more pieces in the box. On balance, the price seems relatively fair.

And even though you are going to end up with a smaller Star Destroyer than you would have if you’d bought either of the previous versions of this ship, you’re arguably buying the best one… for the most part.

‘LEGO Star Wars fans are not as forgiving as I am’

75394 Imperial Star Destroyer adopts a similar approach to its source material as its predecessors, with hinged panels on either side that can open to reveal an interior play space. That interior is invariably smaller here thanks to the reduction in available space, but the designers have still managed to cram in a few control panels, a chair, a weapons rack and even a hologram view of a space battle, complete with a very neat element choice for a tiny Star Destroyer.

There’s a decent amount of open space to place minifigures too, and the designers have really maximised the internal space by using the central beam of the Star Destroyer’s core as a bridge for Darth Vader to walk across (with underlings at control stations below). You’ll also spot a very smartly-integrated handle with which to carry the Star Destroyer, tucked away under its central hull and accessed by hinged panels. Efficiency is the order of the day here.

And yet it’s still all secondary to the real reason most of us will be eyeing up this set, and that’s for a LEGO Star Wars Star Destroyer that doesn’t take up half your LEGO room but still looks good. And that it does, even while the proportions aren’t exactly perfect – the ‘neck’ between the hull and bridge is almost non-existent, as if this is Vernon Dursley cosplaying as a Star Destroyer – which you’ll forgive because it still captures the iconic shape and silhouette of this menacing vessel.

The level of detail and greebling across the hull and bridge is pretty much spot on too, where it would have been easy to overindulge and risk making things too messy. It’s also fun to see the turrets still able to turn in tandem (a feature carried over from the last version but executed with different elements here) with very little compromise to the model’s aesthetics.

It all comes together in a build that can best be summed up with the words ‘grey’ and ‘fine’, but mostly ‘grey’.

A chocolate box of Imperials

You’ll find seven minifigures in 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer, although the one of most interest arguably has very little to do with it. Cal Kestis is the latest LEGO Star Wars 25th anniversary minifigure to arrive in 2024, plucked straight from the Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor video games, and represents a long-overdue addition to the LEGO Group’s lightsaber-wielding line-up.

He’s mostly been worth the wait too, with decent printing all around (look twice for the subtle print on those gunmetal grey legs) and a fitting head-and-hair combo. You will feel the absence of a poncho though – Saw Gerrera must have claimed the entire cape budget for 2024 – and it surely couldn’t have hurt to toss in BD-1, who is now only otherwise available in a retired LEGO Star Wars set.

The roster is otherwise a familiar mix of Imperials, with Commander Praji the only brand new named character, and even he shares his generic head print with countless other Star Wars characters. But with no repeats across the mix, it’s a veritable chocolate box for anyone who doesn’t have an Imperial contingent in their collection – one of each to sample them all. It just needed a regular Imperial Officer to complete the set.

There’s space for them all inside, and efficiency of space is really what 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer does best. It doesn’t ask too much of your shelf space (while still asking a reasonable but fair amount of your budget), yet manages to deliver a credible and detailed rendition of a Star Destroyer that you’ll be content to display regardless of – or perhaps because of – its smaller size.

75394 Imperial Star Destroyer is available to pre-order at LEGO.com now and will start shipping from August 1, 2024. You can support the work that Brick Fanatics does by securing your copy using our affiliate links.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Our honest opinion: A clever and efficient approach to one of Star Wars’ biggest icons makes for a set we’ll be happy to have on our shelves for a long time indeed.