Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama, a box of 608 pieces which is currently in pre-order on the official online store at the public price of 79.99 € with effective availability announced for May 1, 2023.

Those who follow already know the principle of Diorama Collection LEGO Star Wars, these are reproductions of more or less cult scenes from the Star Wars saga intended for adults and these pure exhibition products are presented on a base decorated with the logo of the range and a line of dialogue in English relating to the scene in question.

This collection was launched last year with the first three references still available for sale, the sets 75329 Death Star Trench Run (€ 69.99), 75330 Dagobah Jedi Training (89.99 €) and 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor (89.99 €).

Many collectors therefore find in these boxes something to replace their existing dioramas often made up of sets intended for a young audience, they obviously gain in finish but sometimes lose in potential playability due to the relative fragility of certain assemblies. This will be the case here with two Speeder Bikes nicely executed but more fragile than the different versions of the machine marketed so far in boxes for children.

The principle of staging does not change and consistency with the other sets in this collection is retained: a black base embellished with a few metallic pieces on its different sides and which serves as a "sandbox" for the scene in question. It's easy to move, nothing or almost nothing protrudes and it is therefore possible to line up all these dioramas wisely on a shelf to obtain a very satisfactory result.

This is to reproduce the pursuit on Endor with two Speeder Bikes circulating between the trees of the forest moon. Of the gigantic trees seen on screen, only two trunks remain here that are a bit skinny, and some may find that LEGO has been a bit sparing on the vegetation.

However, I think that the whole works rather well, it was still necessary to leave enough to admire the two machines present without visually polluting the diorama too much. The designer has forced on the foliage and the ferns present on the ground to compensate for the cubic and a little rickety aspect of the trunks and their foliage, it is in my opinion thick enough to be credible knowing that the scene occupies a surface of 28 cm long by 18 cm wide and 20 cm high.

The two Speeder Bikes are similar except for one detail: that of Leia and Luke is logically designed to accommodate two figurines where that of the Scout trooper is satisfied with a single seat. These two machines are significantly more detailed than the versions already seen at LEGO but it is at the cost of a certain fragility which will not allow too much manipulation. Nothing serious, this set is an exhibition model.

The transparent supports installed on the floor of Endor can be moved and oriented as you see fit in order to modify the dynamics of the scene or to adapt the angle of presentation of the Speeder Bikes according to the orientation of the diorama on your shelves . This possibility is even documented in the product's instruction booklet, just to reassure those who are sometimes reluctant to improvise by deviating from the design provided by LEGO.

On the side of the three minifigs provided, we therefore obtain a Scout Trooper identical to that available in the set 75332AT-ST and two new minifigs: Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Too bad for the black arms of the Scout Trooper, a two-color injection to reproduce the shoulder pads of the outfit seen on the screen would have been welcome on a high-end product like this. There was no need to modify the rest of the figurine, but the addition of an additional finishing detail would undoubtedly have been very appreciated by the fans.

The figurines of Luke and Leia are successful, the tampograhies are detailed and in the end only the ponchos worn by the two characters on the screen are missing. These ponchos are well symbolized on the chest of the characters and you can imagine that I prefer this graphic solution rather than two pieces of shapeless fabric which would undoubtedly have difficulty resisting the onslaught of time and dust.

No stickers in this box, everything is stamped, including the pretty brick which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Return of the Jedi.

All is not perfect in this diorama, but it should never be forgotten that the creativity of designers is limited by the marketing constraints imposed. It is their public price and the profitability expected by the brand that defines the limits of the content of these products and you have to deal with or embark on modifications that will involve the purchase of additional elements, such as adding a third Speeder. Bike or flesh out both trees.

We could therefore discuss the public price of this product and wonder why LEGO relieves us of 80 € for a box of 600 pieces, a significant part of which ends up in the base of the product.

The answer undoubtedly lies in the target identified on the packaging, an adult clientele who can afford these toys but who does not want to have fun with their LEGOs and who prefers to be satisfied with products from exhibition more compact and discreet than the usual toys. It will obviously be possible to find these boxes a little cheaper at the usual retailers in the weeks following their effective availability.

Update : the set is also available for pre-order at Amazon (€ 79.99), Auchan (69.99 €) and FNAC (79.99 €).

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at April 18th next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

Also back from the usual LEGO promotional operation at Cultura with an immediate 50% discount on the 2nd LEGO set purchased from a selection of boxes. On the menu: more than 170 products concerned in the LEGO Star Wars, Marvel, Ninjago, Disney, Super Mario or even CITY and Friends ranges. It's still not the offer of the year, but it allows you to afford a few boxes at an attractive price. The offer is valid until May 7, 2023.

As usual, it is the cheapest product in your basket that benefits from the advertised reduction and in the best case you can therefore benefit from a 25% discount on your entire order, if you buy twice the same product or two products sold at the same price.

DIRECT ACCESS TO THE OFFER AT CULTURA >>

Return of the usual LEGO promotional operation on FNAC.com with an immediate 50% discount on the 2nd LEGO set purchased from a selection of boxes. On the menu: more than 240 products concerned in the LEGO Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Technic, Super Mario or even CITY and Friends ranges. It's still not the offer of the year, but it allows you to afford a few boxes at an attractive price. The offer is valid until April 30, 2023.

As usual, it is the cheapest product in your basket that benefits from the advertised reduction and in the best case you can therefore benefit from a 25% discount on your entire order, if you buy twice the same product or two products sold at the same price.

DIRECT ACCESS TO THE OFFER ON FNAC.COM >>

If you like to be knowledgeable about the LEGO brand and its products on social networks or during evenings with friends and you never hesitate to go there with one or more anecdotes about your favorite products, the book The Big Book of LEGO Facts now available is for you.

No plastic bricks with this big, lavishly illustrated 240-page book, but its editorial content justifies the expense in my opinion with hundreds of facts, anecdotes and statistics verified by the author on the LEGO universe, its ranges and its products.

This book is now available from Amazon for just over $24. It's expensive for a book without bricks or minifigs, but for once, the content seems a little more elaborate than usual:

The Big Book of LEGO Facts

24.64 €

BUY

Today we very quickly go around the contents of the 18 bags of minifigs to collect gathered under the reference 71038 Disney 100th Celebration collectible Minifigures Series and which will be available from May 1, 2023 at the unit retail price of €3.99.

Those who follow already know the list of characters in question in this series of 18 figurines imagined to celebrate 100 years of Disney, for the others, know that you can get Oswald the lucky rabbit (1927), the Witch-Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - 1937), Mickey as a sorcerer's apprentice (The Sorcerer's Apprentice / Fantasia - 1940), Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket (Pinocchio - 1940), The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland - 1951), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty - 1959), Cruella (101 Dalmatians - 1961), Robin Hood and Prince John (1973), Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998), Stitch 626 (Lilo & Stitch - 2002), Tiana and Doctor Facilier (The Princess and the Frog - 2010), Baymax (The New Heroes - 2014) and Miguel Rivera, Dante and Ernesto de la Cruz (coco-2017).

I'm not going to dissect each of these figurines, the photos speak for themselves, but I still have a few comments to make regarding LEGO's work on this new series. We could obviously discuss the proposed selection which will make some people say, depending on the generation to which they belong, that it is made up of many second-rate characters or, on the contrary, that it brings together a large handful of heroes from their childhood.

It is indeed up to everyone to appreciate the LEGO proposal, there is something for all ages and nothing obliges you to invest in the entire collection if you consider that a few of these figurines are more than enough for your happiness. Some of the characters offered here might have deserved to have a little more ambitious career in dedicated sets, but we all know that these children's products usually come in overpriced boxes with sketchy content. Being able to obtain them individually is therefore in my opinion a good thing.

We can also consider that the selection made by LEGO unfortunately ignores certain antagonists or companions of the characters present (Lilo, Angel, Snow White, Prince Philippe, etc ...), but the manufacturer has clearly undertaken to sweep a century of Disney characters and choices had to be made.

Once again, LEGO puts all its know-how at the service of this series of figurines and we are witnessing a real debauchery of top-flight pad printing on all sides, two-color injection and new molds. However, the manufacturer delivers a result that sometimes seems a little disappointing to me if we compare each of the characters with the digital alter-ego that serves as a marketing medium to convince customers to spend €4 per sachet.

Some colors are bland, there are smudges around the eyes of some figurines, several areas are poorly aligned, the colors are not always perfectly centered on the area that should receive them and we even find on Robin Hood's legs the a bit messy layering of shades already seen on the legs of Marion Ravenwood in the LEGO Indiana Jones set 77013 Escape from the Lost Tomb.

Concerning Robin Hood in particular, LEGO does not totally oversell its technical know-how on the official visual with a slightly more successful superposition effect but just as visible as on the real figurine. LEGO is making progress, no doubt about it, but prices are rising faster than the trim level of some products.

Pinocchio's nose is a piece of flexible plastic added to a classic head, it is correctly executed even if the junction between the two elements remains clearly visible up close. If some wanted to believe it, know that this nose does not lengthen and is not retractable. You will have noticed, Stitch reuses the double arms seen on Rio Durant, a character present in the LEGO Star Wars set 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler marketed in 2018.

Baymax isn't as chubby as he is on screen, and the pattern on the classic torso struggles to give him volume even though the character's fully movable arms are very convincing. The figurine is white with gray patterns, the official visual let imagine something brighter and more contrasting. The face of the Queen of Hearts seems a little too caricatural to me, even if the graphic designer has tried to reproduce the somewhat ungrateful and coarse features of the character and Jiminy Cricket's legs are fixed and unarticulated contrary to what the visual may suggest official.

My favorite figurines are Robin Hood and Prince Jean, two minifigs that perfectly embody the characters of my childhood for which I am ready to forgive the few technical flaws present. Miguel and Ernesto are also two magnificent minifigs with very accomplished pad printing, I will have the impression of getting my 4 € with these two characters, their four-legged companion and the two guitars, including the white one, which is simply magnificent . Finally, Mickey as a sorcerer's apprentice will also join my shelves, the short film which inspired the pretty figurine offered here is a great classic of my youth.

We also welcome the possibility of finally obtaining certain minifigs of characters such as Mulan, Tiana and Aurore which were until now only available in mini-doll format, much less desirable when it comes to collecting particular characters in the most emblematic format of the Danish manufacturer.

As you will have understood, I find this series of 18 characters rather balanced, knowing that it aims to summarize 100 years of Disney heroes and villains, but also very unequal on a technical level with defects which seem to me regrettable on products sold for €4 each and promoted via extensively retouched visuals. LEGO has really gone all out to seduce fans by offering them a varied assortment of minifigs with a successful design, but the execution is a bit poor on some of them and we will probably never have a second chance to get a new version of these characters.

One last remark: I'm not a big fan of the systematic use of pieces of fabric to embody capes and other collars, I think that LEGO could make the effort for some of these attributes to offer them in plastic. The durability of these elements over time would only be better and the rendering visually more successful. Be careful when opening the bags not to cut them on the way.

If you're planning on hitting the bag at a toy store or a LEGO Store near you, good luck, I'm a little concerned about the ability of Pioncchio's nose to withstand the onslaught of fans fumbling without care. Otherwise, you can also buy boxes of 36 sachets, they contain two complete sets judging by the contents of the one I received.

Note: Two series of 18 characters, provided by LEGO, are as usual put into play. Deadline fixed at April 15th next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winners were drawn at random and notified by email.