LEGO and Star Wars are best friends. For decades, they’ve been printing money by putting out amazing kits representing iconic Star Wars vehicles, with the pinnacle of the craft being their incredible Ultimate Collectors Series kits, but we still don’t have UCS kits of these cool Star Wars vehicles.
The Galactic Republic Turbo Tank
Officially known as the HAVw A6 Juggernaut, the turbo tank is an incredibly cool vehicle that doesn’t play a huge role in the series despite its awesome design. You can see it in the background during the Battle of Kashyyyk in ROTS and as an objective in that same battle in Star Wars: Battlefront II, which is suddenly popular again. It’s unique for being one of the very, very few wheeled vehicles in Star Wars, and for being a gargantuan mobile behemoth bristling with weapons and carrying up to 300 clone troopers into battle.
The turbo tank does have a LEGO kit already, though it’s been retired and is several hundred dollars anywhere you look, but it’s never had a UCS kit. If the AT-AT can get a UCS kit, I think the turbo tank should be allowed to have one too: I just know this enormous rolling battle station would look awesome with the level of detail that UCS kits get. Not to mention, I imagine such a kit would be guaranteed to come with a lot of great minifigs.
The Naboo Royal Cruisers
It blows my mind even to acknowledge this, but not only is there not a UCS kit for the Naboo royal cruisers we see throughout all three of the prequels, but there are no official LEGO kits for any of them, at all. I mean, the A-Wing, B-Wing, and TIE Interceptor, all of which showed up in just Return of the Jedi for a few minutes each, got their own UCS kit, but these sleek chrome beauties can’t get any kit at all?
Frankly, it’s almost sinful. These cruisers may have just played the role of carrying our heroes around in the prequels, but they looked darn good doing it. I can’t help but appreciate them every time they’re on screen. I almost shed a tear when the variant introduced at the beginning of Attack of the Clones was destroyed within a few minutes. For a ship type that appeared in three movies with a decent amount of screentime, it’s crazy to me that there are no kits for these ships.
Forget a UCS kit at this point, I’d settle for anything. After years of negligence, I’d almost say we should get this LEGO kit for free when it finally exists.
The Imperial TIE Defender
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I love TIE fighters. They’re probably my number one favorite starfighter in the franchise. I love hearing their incredible sound design, I love looking at them, and I love playing as them in any video game. Admittedly, they get a good amount of love, considering how iconic they are. The TIE Fighter, Interceptor, and Advanced X1 all have UCS kits, and plenty of other variants have regular kits too.
The TIE Defender has an old kit that is now retired and fairly expensive to procure. Frankly, if I’m going to drop hundreds of dollars on a kit for this beauty, I’d want it to be a UCS kit. Granted, that’s because I’m a TIE simp, and I’d prefer a UCS version of nearly all of them, including the Bomber and Phantom. Everything except that horrific hybrid monster where they slapped X-Wing parts onto a TIE cockpit, please.
At any rate, I’ve always enjoyed starfighters even more than capital ships, so I’d love to get a UCS release of a TIE Defender one day, though I’m not holding my breath.
The Rebellion’s Nebulon-B Frigate
Only a handful of Star Wars capital ships have ever received the UCS treatment, and the handful that do exist are almost all variants of Star Destroyers. The Rebel Blockade Runner/Corellian Corvette has a UCS kit if you count that as a “capital” ship. My point is, we need more UCS capital ships, and as much as I love Star Destroyers, we need to diversify a bit, too. I think the Rebellion’s Nebulon-B frigate would be a great choice.
There is a retired LEGO kit of this funky-shaped ship, but it’s pretty simplistic, with pretty basic detail afforded by its paltry 459 pieces. While this ship is probably not the favorite of too many people, I think its unique design would really lend itself well to a high-detailed UCS kit. Unique shapes make for fun things to look at, and ultimately, staring at your LEGO kits in a haze while you think about something else is usually their primary purpose.
The Gungan Tribubble Bongo
I grew up with The Phantom Menace, and while I can acknowledge its flaws, it still holds a special place in my heart, as do the many amazing vehicle designs it introduced. Of course, most of those designs got to continue on after the film: most of the droid vehicles showed up again, as did the Naboo starships. But you know what goes unappreciated? The Gungan submarine, the Tribubble Bongo.
I used to have a plastic toy of this thing that could speed around in the bath and shoot out colored water. Best bathtub toy a kid could ever ask for. But I’m older now. More mature. My tastes are more refined, so now I want a highly detailed LEGO UCS kit of the Bongo, not a bath toy. Aquatic vehicles are very, very rare in the world of Star Wars, which gives the Bongo a unique identity in my eyes. And I could always use more Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, and Obi-Wan minifigs.
The Separatist Vulture Droid
TIE fighters may be my favorite Star Wars ship just based on sheer aura, but frankly, I believe the Vulture Droid is one of the most practical and effective. I mean, c’mon, it’s a starfighter than can transform into a light walker on demand. Not to mention the genius capability of these craft to just hang out on the outside of your ship instead of taking up hangar space. It’s just a fascinating starfighter design overall, and I want a detailed model with more than 205 pieces.
I want a fully realized Vulture Droid with enough articulation to be placed in various walking poses like a Gunpla or a Zoid model. Furthermore, I want it in the brown color scheme from The Phantom Menace, not the blue scheme they ended up using later. The more dynamic a kit’s movement can be, the better I think it looks on my shelf, and a UCS Vulture Droid would be just perfect in that area.
The Trade Federation Luchrehulk
Speaking of Star Wars vehicles that have somehow gone without an official LEGO kit for way too long, we have the Trade Federation’s Luchrehulk, which primarily featured in The Phantom Menace (I’m noticing a pattern here) but has also been explored plenty of times in various Star Wars video games, including Jedi Power Battles, Jedi Survivor, Republic Commando and LEGO Star Wars.
I’m just saying, UCS kits are the perfect opportunity to make big sets that flesh out all the little tiny details in massive vehicles like the Luchrehulk. That was the whole point of the UCS Death Star, after all. I believe the Luchrehulk is a prime candidate for a UCS kit thanks to the huge amount of detail that could be packed into it. Granted, it would probably take forever to build, but you wouldn’t actually be here if you didn’t enjoy building LEGO kits, right?
The Ebon Hawk
Traditionally, LEGO has not dipped its toes into the Star Wars EU very often, though they have a few times, such as with the TIE Defender kit it produced before it was a canon starfighter design. So I’m going to be frank: I have no faith in LEGO when it comes to producing an official Ebon Hawk kit, never mind a UCS one. I’m just saying I would absolutely drop hundreds of dollars to buy this kit directly from LEGO if they did.
This isn’t just because Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most iconic and beloved video games in Star Wars. It’s because the Ebon Hawk is just the cooler Millennium Falcon. Yeah, I said it. The Falcon’s cockpit placement drives me insane, and I still have PTSD from trying to fly that thing through pipe-filled tunnels in Rebel Assault for the PlayStation. And come on, who wouldn’t want minifigs of the main cast from both KOTOR games?
The Rebellion’s Hammerhead Corvette
Speaking of EU designs, we may have a faint spark of hope for the Hammerhead corvette, a ship design that was first introduced in Knights of the Old Republic, but later made it into canon in Rogue One, albeit with a slightly altered design and a different color scheme. I prefer the Old Republic version, but the canon variant is close enough overall that I’d still like to have this ship in my LEGO collection if at all possible.
I’m not really holding out hope for this one either, but compared to something strictly EU like the Ebon Hawk, at least there’s a chance, however small, of one day getting a LEGO kit for something canon like this. Frankly, I’m just a sucker for the more uniquely designed ships in Star Wars, and I want a lot of variety on my shelves. Considering that you explored the interiors of Old Republic Hammerheads in both KOTOR games, I think it’d be neat to have a detailed UCS kit showing off that familiar interior.
If I’m being honest with you, there are tons of other Star Wars vehicles I could name for this UCS wishlist. Spider Droids, the Hailfire Tank, the ARC-170, the ETA-2… there is no shortage of incredible vehicle designs in Star Wars, and I’d be willing to break the bank to have a lot of them. But until these many vehicles get the treatment they deserve, I’ll just have to settle for designing those LEGO kits myself.