LEGO confirms what we all assumed about new Star Wars battle pack
The LEGO Star Wars team has confirmed what we all assumed about this year’s new 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack.
When 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers retired after two and a half years on shelves at the end of 2022, the LEGO Star Wars team wasted no time in putting out a replacement squad of blue-tinted soldiers. But while the original set includes three standard 501st troopers and a Jet Trooper, 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack pivots to different classes of soldiers, packing in an officer, two heavy troopers and a specialist.
We’ve obviously seen plenty of different Clone Troopers throughout the prequel trilogy and the Clone Wars TV series, but these particular minifigures seemed – at first glance – to take inspiration from a more obscure source: Star Wars Battlefront II, EA’s 2017 video game from a galaxy far, far away. Each of its six factions – CIS, Republic, Empire, Rebels, First Order and Resistance – has different classes of soldier to choose from, and there are obvious parallels between the Clone Troopers in-game and the new LEGO Star Wars minifigures.
The LEGO Star Wars team has now confirmed that wasn’t just a coincidence. In fact, 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack is specifically based on the soldiers seen in Battlefront II, which cements it as the latest in a growing line of LEGO Star Wars sets inspired by video games.
“To give them the whole gamut of possible different types of specialists, we actually leaned into some reference from Battlefront II, where you can use the different specialists, officers and heavy troopers,” LEGO Star Wars graphic designer Madison O’Neil tells Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media. “And so we’ve created a little line-up here, based off that.”
Recent video game sets include 75335 BD-1 (based on Jedi: Fallen Order) and 2019’s 75226 Inferno Squad Battle Pack, the latter of which is also based on characters that first appeared in Star Wars Battlefront II. But the LEGO Group actually has a long history with Star Wars video games, dating all the way back to 2008’s 7672 Rogue Shadow, which is tied to The Force Unleashed. And that relationship with video games is apparently not going anywhere any time soon.
“Video games are definitely within the realm of what we’re considering,” Madison adds, before pointing to the specialist 501st troopers sitting in front of him. “These guys right here, they’re from a video game, so we do get some stuff in there. Popularity is always a factor.”
Exactly how popular a video game needs to be to justify a LEGO set is a little less concrete. We still haven’t seen anything based on EA’s Jedi titles beyond 75335 BD-1, but Jedi: Survivor outsold its predecessor on release – and instantly became one of the best-selling games of 2023. Considering Star Wars Battlefront II debuted in 2017, though, we could be waiting a wee while for any further Jedi sets…
75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack is available now. Check out our review here.
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