Review : LEGO Star Wars 75352 Emperor's Throne Room Diorama

Today we take a quick tour of the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75352 Emperor's Throne Room Diorama, a box of 807 pieces currently in pre-order on the official online store at the public price of 99.99 €, as well as at Amazon et FNAC at the same price and Auchan at 84.99 €, and whose official availability is announced for May 1, 2023.

I'm not drawing you a picture, the scene reproduced is emblematic enough for the context to be obvious at first glance. The stunned will as usual have before their eyes the logo of the LEGO Star Wars range, a line of dialogue in English and, as is the case for the other diorama expected on May 1, a pretty pad-printed brick that makes perfect tribute to the 40th anniversary of the film Return of the Jedi.

Once again, this box intended for an adult clientele will replace any diorama made up of children's toys already marketed on the same theme, such as sets 75093 Death Star Final Duel (2015) or 75291 Death Star Final Duel (2020) by a frankly less voluminous staging but also a little less coarse.

The product offers a fairly satisfying building experience with a base that takes into account the rest of the model from the start of the process, such as the stairs or the back wall, which will be dressed in very convincing sub-assemblies surrounding the magnificent pad-printed canopy provided.

I am much less convinced by the frontal covering of the perimeter of the niche which accommodates the throne of Palpatine, the whole lacks in my opinion a little finesse especially on this scale and we visually graze the crossover with the stargate of Stargate . The use of darker gray pieces might have helped to highlight the niche and make this large crown of pieces visually "disappear" a little.

For the rest, and even if we lose a bit of the gigantism of the room seen on the screen, it is all the same nicely executed with some refinements such as the very correct throne of the Emperor, the railings with their arms of metallic droids, the two control stations with their colored micro-screens or even the solution used to surround the 10x10 canopy with two flexible tubes and 13 sub-assemblies made up of windows with their frames to clip onto these tubes. Impossible to completely place Luke in one of the two control stations as in the film, they are not hollowed out.
The rear view of the diorama reveals the mounting and reinforcement solutions used to make this display product a sufficiently robust unit, nothing serious, the construction is intended to be displayed from the front. Perhaps more embarrassing for some fans, there is still a little void visible on the sides of the stage at the level of the stairs as well as between the steps, this will have to be done.

Watch out for scratches on the big dish pad-printed, LEGO does not protect it and it is simply thrown in a bag. This is the centerpiece of the product, I was hoping for a little more care from the manufacturer in a high-end set sold at a high price and targeting an adult clientele necessarily more demanding than the usual young clientele.

We will remember that Palpatine's two lightning bolts can be stored under the removable forecourt of the room, it's always better than losing them and not being able to get your hands on them again if you ever want to change the setting a little on stage. LEGO has also provided four visible studs on the floor of the room to allow the minifigs of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader to be positioned without the risk of them falling each time the object is moved, it is well seen.

Three minifigs are delivered in this box: Darth Vader, Palpatine and Luke Skywalker. Vader is not new, it is the version available since the beginning of the year in the LEGO Star Wars set 75347 Tie Bomber (64.99 €). It was not necessary to modify this figurine, it seems perfect to me in this configuration with the pad-printed arms and the face which I find rather successful. I would have appreciated a plastic cape with a nice draped effect for the occasion, especially at €100 a box.

Luke Skywalker is finally enjoying a hairstyle that matches the haircut seen on screen, it was time for LEGO to look into the subject and it's very well done. All previous versions of the character in this outfit are therefore definitely getting old with this new hairstyle. The character's torso is yet another variant of the outfit seen on screen, it's faithful but LEGO can't resign itself to removing the too white area of ​​the neck which still doesn't match the color of the head. The legs remain neutral.

Palpatine is also a little "updated" with white pupils that are no longer really in line with the look of the character in the film and an evolution of the graphics of the outfit, but he retains the fabric cape and the angular hood worn by the character since 2020. Difficult to do better in the context of the scene presented here even if we could discuss the slightly too yellow tint of the character's face and that a metallic buckle under the neck could have in my opinion brought a little finesse to the somewhat dull design of the outfit.

To conclude, I find this diorama very convincing despite its few flaws, it perfectly symbolizes the scene concerned in a contained volume and it offers some very interesting assembly techniques as a bonus. The public price of the product does not seem to me justified, however, and as usual we will have to wait for the various retailers to offer us a sufficient reduction in this price to crack.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at April 19th 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.