May 8, 2026
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Ever since rolling onto the sliver screen over a decade ago, the astromech droid BB-8 has become one of modern Star Wars’ most well-loved characters. It’s no surprise, then, to see another buildable LEGO set of everyone’s favourite spherical droid, 75452 BB-8 Astromech Droid in the 2026 LEGO Star Wars wave.
The original large-scale buildable BB-8 model was released in 2018, and there has inevitably been comparisons drawn between this new version and its predecessor.
This variant is smaller, has less brick-built detail, and arguably looks less “round” in official pics. Accordingly, it has drawn criticism from some fans, particularly as sets based on the Sequel Trilogy are becoming increasingly few and far between. Let’s take a closer look at 75452 BB-8 Astromech Droid and see if it truly deserves the critique it’s been receiving!
Special thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set over for review.
75452 BB-8 Set Details
75452 BB-8 Set Details
Retail Price
US$89.99 / AU$149.99 / €89.99 / £79.99 / CAD$119.99
Unboxing
The box has a nice black border despite not being an 18+ set; the front shows BB-8 rolling along the sands of Jakku. The back has the droid against a background of the Millennium Falcon’s interior, along with a graphic of its main play feature.
Inside are four numbered paper bags and an instruction manual – no sticker sheet as all the decorated elements are printed.
Build Process
Bag 1 builds the lower half of the lower “ball” of BB-8’s body. This section is flipped upside-down at the end to connect to the rest of the body to get a symmetrical spherical shape.
Bag 2 builds the Technic frame that goes inside the model and delivers some of the main functions. This has studded surfaces facing both directions (top and bottom) which allows it to connect to the upside-down lower section from bag 1.
Bag 3 adds the upper shell of the model, connecting to that Technic structural core.
Finally, bag 4 adds the extra panels, head, and display plaque to finish off the model. Despite some repetition, this was still a fairly unique build process thanks to the design of the source material.
Minifigures
The minifigure included is the standard BB-8 minifigure that was first introduced in 2015. He hasn’t been updated, but there is really no need to as it’s still very well designed.
Completed Model
Here’s the completed model. It looks pretty accurate in terms of color scheme, with nice orange highlights scattered throughout the white design. The main thing, however, that stands out is its size – it’s surprisingly small, standing only 20cm (7.5″) tall (with its antennae) and 11cm (3.5″) wide. This makes it in-scale with sets like 75379 R2-D2 and 75398 C-3PO, but it still feels really small for a US$90 set.
My main gripe with the model is that the body just doesn’t look that round. The designers have done a valiant effort at this scale – certainly combining two sub-assemblies at opposite directions is some intriguing engineering – but it doesn’t change the fact that the overall shaping is clunky and doesn’t quite look like a sphere. The 8×8 dishes don’t mesh well enough with the flat slopes which don’t mesh with the round 4×4 plates, making for a scattered design that looks neither cohesive nor spherical. It’s perhaps a slightly doomed endeavour at this scale, but considering the sphere shape is so fundamental to BB-8’s design, it’s a pretty jarring look.
The head of BB-8 uses a number of printed 3×6 semicircle curved slopes to approximate the half dome shape, which is a bit more successful than the lower body. The printed parts add a lot of nice detail, and I like the brick-built “eye” and mechanical details towards the front.
BB-8’s body has four printed 8×8 dish panels, but only one opens thanks to a Technic liftarm connection. As you open the panel, a small robot arm swings out with the panel to represent his little astromech arm, which is a nice touch.
There’s also a retractable bar with a trans-blue flame at the end to represent BB-8’s cheeky thumbs-up blowtorch. You have to manually extend it yourself which is fine, but not as slick as the larger 2018 variant.
My main issue is I find the body looks pretty ugly with the dish hinged out – the tan parts are supposed to represent sand from Jakku that has gotten into BB-8’s internal mechanisms, but I think it just looks messy and inharmonious.
The back of the model looks pretty similar – the design of the body is the same all around. There are two different print designs for the 8×8 dishes, and they freely rotate on turntables.
The final feature involves rolling the droid around, which is made possible by this rubber tyre that ever-so-slightly protrudes from the bottom of the body. Despite this, the model is still stable on any flat surface.
Rolling BB-8 along causes his head to swivel around in a slightly erratic movement, which is achieved thanks to a somewhat randomized cam movement from Technic linkages inside the body. It’s a pretty interesting feature that does make the model feel a bit more alive, and is well designed without being overengineered.
Final Thoughts
Sets based on the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy only come around once in a blue moon these days, but unfortunately I’m not impressed with 75452 BB-8.
Although there has been a valiant attempt to include some key features like the swiveling head that moves along with the body being rolled, along with the fold-out arm and blowtorch, this is a model that feels heavily restricted by its size and scale.
Trying to keep it to-scale with the other buildable droid models is commendable, but has resulted in significant compromises to the design of BB-8, including the fundamental spherical shape of his lower body. With a core aspect of the model being flawed, it’s hard to look past it and see the positives, especially at a sky-high retail price of US$90 which is justified neither by the piece count nor the size of the final model. The concept of this set feels like it was set up to fail, and unfortunately, it pretty much has.
Build
Although it incorporates some nice functions, the spherical shape of BB-8 leaves a lot to be desired.
Minifigures
The BB-8 minifigure is still pretty good a decade on, and is the only figure that really needed to be included.
Real Value
Inexplicably expensive, especially for a small sub-600 piece model.
Innovation
Actually some pretty good build techniques, thanks to the unique shape.
Keepability
BB-8 is a pretty iconic, collectable model, but this particular variant is a bit of a letdown.
How would you rate this set?
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Thanks for reading! 75452 BB-8 Astromech Droid is available now from LEGO.com, or from retailers like Amazon.com
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