Although Maul: Shadow Lord is currently kicking off on Disney+, our attentions are already being drawn to the latest instalment of the Mandalorian Cinematic Universe. As with so many Star Wars films, LEGO has made a selection of sets to accompany the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu later this year. First up on our reviewing plate is the 558-piece 75460 New Republic X-Wing Starfighter. Three minifigures are included, and you can already pick it up from LEGO for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99. It may well be available on third-party sites like eBay and Amazon too. Read on to see what we think of this unusually blue X-wing, and to see if I can make it through the review without mentioning Rogue One‘s heroic Blue Squadron. (Wait. Oh, for-)

LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-wing Starfighter | 558 Pieces | Available Now |US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and build

I couldn’t even make it through the first paragraph! Anyway, less Rogue One talk, we’ve got five bags and a 10-strong sticker sheet to get through here. The first two will handle the fuselage of the ship, the last two the wings, and the wing mechanism is sandwiched in between.

Most of the fuselage section is fairly straightforward, studs-up with some brackets peppered throughout. The technique used for the nose, though, is pretty nifty. It’s similar to the one debuted in the recently-retired 75393 Tie Fighter & X-Wing Mashup, made to tie in with the Rebuild the Galaxy series.



Where it differs is the Technic pins that join it in the middle. At the rear end, a 2×2 plate with underside bar slots into some judiciously placed rounded 1×2 plates. The resulting taper is both accurate to the source material, and once locked in with some more rounded plates, very solid.



After finishing off the cockpit and beefing out the underside, we can move on to the wing mechanism.

At this juncture, I should point out we will be making some comparisons to the most recent playscale X-wing – 75301, released back in 2021. That set featured a newly-designed mechanism that Editor-in-Chief Andrew loved in his review. Five years later, and we have the exact same mechanism, identical almost to the piece. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s a dizzying array of Technic beams.

It’s a bit difficult to show how it works without the wings attached, but essentially, actuating one wing moves its diagonal opposite. Pressing the lever on top will move everything all at once. I concur with Andrew that it’s a clever bit of LEGO engineering, so it being the same as before isn’t a bad thing. In fact, with the absence of stickers on top, I would say it’s actually an improvement!

This whole mechanism is locked into some long Technic axles at the back of the ship. Then, we can build up this area and add some detail. One thing that stuck out to me when we first saw pictures of this set was some Nice Parts Use (NPU) at the back. The white hinged piece is normally used for the armour of the entry-level mech sets; here, it allows a small cargo compartment to be incorporated. This is also carry-over from the aforementioned Rebuild the Galaxy set.



Before long, all we have left are the wings and engines. This is the 8th playscale X-wing, and every single one uses large wedge pieces as the base of the wing. The only difference between the top and bottom pairs here are the inclusion of landing gear on the bottom wing, and the presence of a sticker on the top one.



The minifigures

We either have two or three minifigures in this set, depending on how you count R… Er, New Republic Astromech. It doesn’t even get a proper designation! It’s not a new colour of droid, but the two pilots are new in minifig form. You may recognise Carson Teva, played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee in the second and third seasons of the Mandalorian. Colonel Ward, though, is a new character, created for the upcoming film and played by the one and only Sigourney Weaver.

Both characters share flight suit prints, but have new helmet prints. Also new are the heads, reversible to show the pilots with their visors down. I know some fans still lament the loss of the short-lived dual-moulded helmets, but I much prefer the look of the printed visor. The suit prints also look great; with the possible exception of dual-moulded legs, there isn’t much to improve with these.

The downside with the dual-sided heads is that with the helmets on, you can see the other side of the print underneath. Teva’s beard is especially conspicuous. I guess it can pass for hair, though…

The finished model

The X-wing we’re presented with at the end is a mighty fine one! The craft Teva flew in the Mandalorian had more yellow markings on it, so presumably this is Colonel Ward’s X-wing.

In isolation, I really like this model. The astromech sticks out a bit much for my liking, and we’ll get to the underside in a moment. Otherwise, I don’t have too much to complain about.



A small ladder is included to allow the pilots to get in and out. I really appreciate the inclusion of small builds like this; it’s only four pieces, but it’s enough to add another dimension to play. Ditto for the cargo compartment: minifigures in Star Wars sets are often accessorised with blasters or lightsabers, and not having anywhere to store them in flight always annoys me. So points for the new one.

Now, let’s bring the 2021 model out of storage. This was an X-wing radically different in concept (and size, and price) to what had come before. Side-by-side with its newer counterpart, we can see that it’s evolution, not revolution, for the design of 75460.

Are these differences for the better? In many cases, yes. The nose section is my favourite; from above, you can see how much it improves the silhouette. I also like how the rear is less square on the new iteration. The greebling isn’t as nice as previously, but I can accept that in favour of the cargo compartment.

Underneath, we now have retractable rather than removable landing gear, which is a definite improvement. Whether by design or accident, this changes the stance of the ship in the landed position, and to my eyes looks more source-accurate.

However, there are some flaws carried over from the old model too. The nose is still flat underneath and looks unfinished as a result – in fact, the whole front half underside looks awkwardly flat. And while I like the s-foil opening mechanism, I would love a lever that enables the wings to be closed as well as opened. That said, it is still very satisfying to use.

There is one thing that I love about this X-wing though: it’s blue! And that means I easily re-purpose it as a craft from my favourite Star Wars film, Rogue One. My Antoc Merrick figure has gone AWOL, but nonetheless, his squadmates look just as excited as me to see a blue X-wing.

And with the excellent 75399 Rebel U-Wing Starfighter still for sale, that means you can even start a fledgling Blue Squadron. It’s unlikely we’ll get all that many Rogue One sets in future, but it’s nice that we can live vicariously through other LEGO Star Wars offerings!

Conclusion and recommendation

This is the third minifigure-scale X-wing I’ve built (the 2012 model is also in my collection somewhere), and it’s comfortably my favourite. It’s a solid playset with a snappy wing mechanism, some nice figures, and pretty accurate proportions. Best of all, you don’t need to know anything about the Mandoverse to be able to enjoy it. It’s generic enough to slot in to any Rebel Alliance roster, while the inclusion of Carson Teva gives a nice ‘if you know, you know’ nod to fans of the Mandalorian series. I will give my customary advice to see if you can get it with a small discount to negate the Star Wars tax. But even at full RRP, it’s not a bad deal.

Perhaps the only caveat would be if you already own, and are content with, the 2021 Red 5 X-wing. The updates are not substantial; if you want to update your copy of 75301, it’s probably more cost-effective to get the necessary parts and carry out a small rebuild. If you want to build up a fighter squadron, though, it’s also just as easy to re-work this model into the colours of your choosing. Naturally, I will be sticking with blue!

LEGO Star Wars 75460 New Republic X-wing Starfighter | 558 Pieces | Available Now |US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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