Review: 75441 Venator-class Attack Cruiser
Posted by CapnRex101,
75377 Invisible Hand was launched in 2024 and the famous Republic equivalent, 75441 Venator-class Attack Cruiser, follows next year! Star Wars fans have highlighted the vessel as a possibility since the Starship Collection started and I think this model looks fantastic.
The shape and proportions of this ship are very faithful to the source material; remarkably so considering the size. Furthermore, the Venator-class Star Destroyer is designed at exactly the same scale as 75377 Invisible Hand and seems equally detailed, so the two should be flawless companions on display.
Summary
75441 Venator-class Attack Cruiser, 643 pieces.
£69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 | 10.9p / 12.4c / 12.4c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
It is hard to imagine a better Venator-class Star Destroyer at this scale!
- Impressive accuracy and attention to detail
- Some interior details
- Excellent size for display
- Perfectly matches the Invisible Hand
- Missing two engines for complete fidelity to Episode III
- Fairly expensive
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Reference
Source - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Lucasfilm
The Completed Model
Much as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer is the iconic capital ship of the Original Trilogy, the Venator-class Star Destroyer is a symbol of the Prequel Trilogy era and particularly the Clone Wars. Its popularity has doubtless raised expectations for this model and I think the result was worth waiting for, putting some of the newer wedge plates to impressive use across the hull.
The release of 75377 Invisible Hand only increased demand for a matching Venator-class Star Destroyer and I am delighted to say the pair are constructed at the perfect scale. The new ship measures 31.5cm in length, while its Separatist equivalent is 30cm long, exactly proportional to their respective lengths of 1088m and 1137m in the movie. I will be displaying the pair like this, with the Guarlara bearing down on the Invisible Hand for their memorable broadside.
Starship Collection sets are always presented on a black display stand, with the same curved features and printed plaques. However, whereas most models can be attached to their stands facing in either direction, you would need to swap a few pieces around on this stand to reverse its direction. Also, the white colour on the plaque seems a little brighter than normal, which is nice to see.
As shown here, the structure is actually tilted upwards slightly, resting on a 2L bar with ball joint element on the stand. Additionally, almost the entire hull is angled on the top and bottom, which creates a subtle wedge shape to reflect the vessel onscreen. Only the engine assembly and the base of the hull are constructed flat.
The shape of the forward hull is fairly accurate and includes medium dual turbolasers on each flank, represented by clips. The armour should be recessed around these weapons, but I think attempts to recreate that at this scale would look messy. Moreover, the anti-stud cutouts on the wedge plates work quite well for texture along the sides.
By contrast, the dark red stripe on top is completely smooth, apart from two ingots, which form the secondary hangar doors opened when Obi-Wan departs for Utapau in Revenge of the Sith. This stripe and the printed Open Circle Fleet insignia look superb and I like the grey 1x2 ingots adding texture to the hull.
75367 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser was criticised for lacking the ship's characteristic dorsal hangar, but this model does have room for the hangar. The dark red panel is removable to reach the hangar deck, which contains trans-light blue magnetic shields with yellow and dark red 1x1 rounded tiles, representing Anakin and Obi-Wan's two Jedi Interceptors.
The pointed end of the dark red stripe is a little too sharp, but I am glad the feature is captured and without requiring any decoration or stickers. In fact, this set uses no stickers and the Open Circle Fleet symbols return from 75404 Acclamator-class Assault Ship.
A number of Starship Collection sets include 1x1 round plates and tiles forming little characters inside. Two of these figures are added early while assembling the Venator-class Star Destroyer and they are not readily accessible later on. The white pieces denote a Clone Trooper, while the grey ones form a naval officer, erroneously labelled as an Imperial Officer in the instructions.
These characters are eventually covered by the starship's additional hangars, formed by trans-light blue tiles on each side. These and the other details along both flanks look marvellous and more texture becomes necessary here, where the area between the top and bottom hull panels widens.
Among the pieces used for greebling are pearl dark grey blasters and Uruk-Hai swords. These provide good detail, but I also find them quite funny because you can unfold these elements as though deploying extra weapons for battle! Star Wars capital ships should clearly be armed with giant swords.
A new 4x4 triangular tile debuts here, corresponding with the familiar 2x2 triangular tile. These are printed with accurate dark red stripes, but I am sure the tiles will appear without decoration elsewhere. Otherwise, the texture on the hull surface continues to please, incorporating several more 1x2 ingots to break up the tiles.
Venator-class Star Destroyers are equipped with eight turbolaser turrets beside the command tower, cleverly represented here by bucket handles. The turrets cannot turn, which is a shame, although you can raise and lower them. I think prioritising the scale of these weapons over any motion was a good decision, but they could be easily modified to rotate if you wish.
Among the vessel's most distinctive features are its twin command bridges, with one directing ship operations and the other starfighters. The curvature towards the front is accurate and 1x1 round plates with hollow studs work nicely as the communication and scanner arrays placed on top. The 1x3 rounded plate is not available in dark red currently, otherwise you could swap the bridge colour to designate this as a flagship.
The engine assembly at the stern is broadly accurate to the source material, using dark bluish grey barrels and 2x2 round textured bricks for the main engines, while the smaller engines are constructed with 1x1 round bricks. This configuration reflects the starship as it appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, whereas the live-action design has one more nacelle on each side.
Even the underside of the model is finished properly, featuring a dark red stripe that widens in two places, accurate to the ships in Revenge of the Sith. Dark bluish grey elements create the ventral hangar, meanwhile. It is a shame the hangar has no actual depth, but there is no space for that inside the hull.
Overall
The design of 75441 Venator-class Attack Cruiser is essentially faultless. The proportions and shape of the vessel are incredibly accurate and I am impressed with the details too, especially along the sides and inside, where the dorsal hangar even includes magnetic shields! The scale corresponding exactly with 75377 Invisible Hand is another outstanding feature.
Sadly, the price of £69.99, $79.99 or €79.99 is a problem. Even though this is one of the larger Starship Collection sets by piece count, it feels quite expensive at full price. However, previous sets in the series have received discounts and the Venator-class Star Destroyer will certainly be a worthy purchase once discounted similarly. In fact, I can see myself buying a couple more if the price comes down to around £50!
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26 comments on this article
I really do love this set. I think it’s a perfect choice for the Starship collection, and the designers did a wonderful job with this. I think $70 still would have felt fine, but $80 is flat out too much. But, I said the same about the Tantive IV, and it was $48 on Lego.com! So, if this reaches anywhere at or below $70, I think this would be a worthy purchase. Seems like a fantastic set.
Came here to ask if it scaled with the Invisible Hand and was not disappointed.
Apparently the Invisible Hand retires this year, so those of you who want the pair need to get it now.
Are there any Advent Calendar builds that are compatible in scale with these two? I'm realizing that the Midi Ships may scale decently with some micro builds and I'd love to get them out of my box of tiny builds that I'm too OCD to cannibalize for parts.
I got the Acclamator-class on deep discount and I am sure that this will one day be available for a very good price too.
At that point I will be happy to let this become the little brother of my giant MOC version by Anio.
Definitely the best set of the 2026 January wave. Beautiful design and great review! I’m definitely buying this to go along with my Acclamator and Invisible Hand
Wow, that white on black printing almost looks strange because it's so opaque. Hopefully this is an improvement in the printing process that we'll continue to see going forward!
I guessed the price would be $100 over here, but actually it's even worse ($106).
@brickwich said:
"Wow, that white on black printing almost looks strange because it's so opaque. Hopefully this is an improvement in the printing process that we'll continue to see going forward!"
Maybe the price of the set is so high because they sent that one part back through the printer for a second coat.
The cost of greatness, or something along those lines....
No cheap stickers makes this better than the UCS version in my eyes, even if it is expensive.
Looks amazing, but it all gets lost with the price. The Invisible Hand released last year for 50€ and you could get it on sale for around 35€. This is releasing at 80€, it's madness.
Maybe a bold statement, but this starship doesn’t particularly interest me. However, I do think this set looks flawless and when discounts start showing up I will definitely consider this one, it is that well designed IMO
Aren't you a little short for a Starship?
It needed a photo of the Acclamator and the Venator side by side.
Definitely the best set in the starship collection, and so far the best set of 2026. It looks absolutely incredible.
I was gifted an acclamator recently. While I vastly prefer the venator(both due to shaping and my fondness of it and related media), I'll stick with my acclamator. I'll just rebuild it to a venator, albeit a less clean one. Regarding the actual set though, I think it is an excellent rendition! The shaping is fantastic, and I love that there aren't stickers! I look forward to seeing what other ships they might do in this line.
"Also, the white colour on the plaque looks a little brighter than normal."
That's a good thing! Maybe they finally learned how to properly print white on dark surfaces!
I built one I found on Rebrickable last year and it looks so much better. Plus I spent half of how much that new one will cost in Brazil.
I think this looks really good, but never even considered buying any of the helmet or starship collections. They are still the price of a decent size playset, yet are just shrunken scale models that look goofy to me. (Goofy because of the size not the designs). Idk
I can't think of this ship without hearing John Williams's tremendous score for the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith :)
Looking forward to getting this set when its price drops to 45-50 euros.
@essel said:
"I can't think of this ship without hearing John Williams's tremendous score for the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith :)"
That’s how I am with anything Star Wars; I can’t not hear John Williams :)
If you were going to show two reference pictures, then considering the engine issue, maybe one should have been from Episode III and the other from The Clone Wars. Anyway, if I get any of the Starship Collection sets, it'll be either this or 75376. (Although 75376 retires at the end of this month, and I don't find myself in a huge hurry to purchase it, so maybe it'll just be this.) That said:
@Maxbricks14 said:[[Definitely the best set in the starship collection, and so far the best set of 2026. It looks absolutely incredible.]
As much as I like this, I'm more inclined to name 77256 as the best 2026 set so far. It's much cheaper, it's a much-needed update of 21103, and it's more playable. Not that I'm saying this has no playability (swooshability is important), but this doesn't have minifigs, for one thing.
So is that 3x8 wedge plate new or did I miss it in this year’s new parts already?
The wedge empire continues to grow, and I love it!
@TheOtherMike said:
[[If you were going to show two reference pictures, then considering the engine issue, maybe one should have been from Episode III and the other from The Clone Wars. Anyway, if I get any of the Starship Collection sets, it'll be either this or 75376 . (Although 75376 retires at the end of this month, and I don't find myself in a huge hurry to purchase it, so maybe it'll just be this.) That said:
@Maxbricks14 said:[[Definitely the best set in the starship collection, and so far the best set of 2026. It looks absolutely incredible.]
As much as I like this, I'm more inclined to name 77256 as the best 2026 set so far. It's much cheaper, it's a much-needed update of 21103 , and it's more playable. Not that I'm saying this has no playability (swooshability is important), but this doesn't have minifigs, for one thing.]]
Sorry, I meant best Star Wars set of 2026 so far
I enoyed the review and I like the set even more now. As with every Star Wars set lately, we have to wait for a 25%+ discount, tho.
Adjusted for inflation, this would have been £50 in 2014. Does that feel expensive?
Not a big Star Wars fan, so not really interested in this set, but it does look great and as faithfull to the original as you can get on this scale (and considering the limitations of LEGO pieces). Extra points that it doesn't include any stickers.
I hope LEGO will consider expanding this range to Star Trek now that they have the license, with the same level of detail and quality as in this specific set (so no stickers, please ;-) ).
@Maxbricks14 said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"If you were going to show two reference pictures, then considering the engine issue, maybe one should have been from Episode III and the other from The Clone Wars. Anyway, if I get any of the Starship Collection sets, it'll be either this or 75376 . (Although 75376 retires at the end of this month, and I don't find myself in a huge hurry to purchase it, so maybe it'll just be this.) That said:
@Maxbricks14 said:"Definitely the best set in the starship collection, and so far the best set of 2026. It looks absolutely incredible.]
As much as I like this, I'm more inclined to name 77256 as the best 2026 set so far. It's much cheaper, it's a much-needed update of 21103 , and it's more playable. Not that I'm saying this has no playability (swooshability is important), but this doesn't have minifigs, for one thing."
Sorry, I meant best Star Wars set of 2026 so far"
Now that, I'll agree with you on. I've been wanting them to do a Venator ever since the Starship Collection started.
@Tc99m said:"I hope LEGO will consider expanding this range to Star Trek now that they have the license, with the same level of detail and quality as in this specific set (so no stickers, please ;-) ). " "
Another sentiment I completely agree with. As soon as I saw 10356 announced, I thought, "I don't have the space for that, so now do ships at a smaller scale, please!"