Review: 75449 Siege of Mandalore Battle Pack
Posted by CapnRex101,
The Siege of Mandalore serves as the climax of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and LEGO Star Wars already includes a number of sets based on the battle. However, the Mandalorian factions have received relatively scant coverage in LEGO sets, ironically.
75449 Siege of Mandalore Battle Pack goes some way to improving the situation, as two of Maul's Mandalorian commandos are provided. The minifigures are not without controversy though, as the Mandalorians' visors are silver instead of black and these Clone Troopers are perhaps unnecessary, so soon after their dedicated Battle Pack.
Summary
75449 Siege of Mandalore Battle Pack, 116 pieces.
£17.99 / $22.99 / €19.99 | 15.5p / 19.8c / 17.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
While this Battle Pack has many strengths, I am frustrated by its missed opportunities
- Excellent Mandalorian minifigures
- Nice speeder design
- Inaccurate visors
- Unnecessary 332nd Clone Troopers
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
The two Mandalorian Super Commandos are by far the most interesting minifigures included and I think they look excellent, if not entirely accurate. The details on both the male and female armour are impressive, although the battle wear could make it difficult to build an army of these commandos, especially on the male figure, where that damage is particularly prominent.
I like the use of black on the female warrior and the yellow triangles on her armour correspond with the source material. However, the silver visors have received criticism because they differ from the usual black. The visors are reflective in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, though not nearly as shiny as they appear on the minifigures.
I imagine silver was selected to contrast with the black handprint on the male helmet, although slivers of dark red worked on the minifigures available in 75022 Mandalorian Speeder, pictured below for comparison. Personally, I find the silver shade very striking, although it is not accurate to the animated series and I am not convinced the colour change was necessary.
Both minifigures are equipped with pearl dark grey jetpacks and blaster pistols, while one can carry a handheld energy shield, like those frequently fitted to Mandalorian wrist gauntlets. The generic heads are perfectly fine, but paler designs more specific to natives of Mandalore would have been ideal.
This set also includes a couple of 332nd Clone Troopers to rival Maul's Mandalorians. These minifigures are welcome for army building, but they earlier appeared in a dedicated set, 75359 332nd Ahsoka's Clone Trooper Battle Pack. Admittedly, the prior Battle Pack retired a year ago, but I think most people wanting to assemble an army will have done so already.
With that in mind, I would have preferred members of the Mandalorian Resistance. Minifigures from 75373 Ambush on Mandalore Battle Pack can potentially fill the role, although without the Clone Wars styling. Regardless, these Clone Troopers are nice minifigures and come equipped with blaster rifles, as well as standard Clone Trooper heads.
The Completed Model
The set is designed for a battle of attack versus defence, beginning with a simple barricade and stud-shooting turret. I like the use of a pearl dark grey lattice piece on the barricade and the 1x4 tile decorated with hazard stripes behind the fence looks good. Also, there is a slot for additional 1x1 round tiles ready to launch, plus a black crate for extra storage.
There is plenty of space for minifigures to stand behind the barricade, but the stud shooter is a bit too high for them to grip the handlebars comfortably. Even though you can pose a character holding the weapon, just about, it certainly could be easier.
Fine though the barricade looks, I wonder whether using those elements for the speeder would have been a better course of action. I think the speeder looks superb in its current form, thanks to the distinctive colours and clever use of curved wedge slopes on either side, which create an interesting shape. The vehicle is quite small though, resulting in some compromises.
For example, the speeder's stubby nose seems awkward to me. Using the underside of a 1x2 bracket element for texture is a nice idea, but it looks quite flat, particularly in contrast with the curved bodywork around the sides. On the other hand, I like the rounded windscreen and even though this speeder is not based on anything specific, its shape is visibly Mandalorian, akin to the Buirk'alor-class vehicles from The Clone Wars.
You can seat one minifigure behind the printed console in the cockpit and another can grip the stud shooter mounted on the back. There is not really anywhere for the gunner to stand, which could be improved, but you could imagine a Mandalorian using their jetpack when directing this weapon.
Furthermore, the turret is connected to a ball joint, which gives it a great range of motion and provides stability for dynamic poses. The trans-yellow engines look excellent as well, partially armoured with curved slopes, but I think only a few more pieces would be needed to raise this from a good speeder to a brilliant one, for a Battle Pack.
Overall
75449 Siege of Mandalore Battle Pack is undoubtedly a good set, but also a frustrating one, in my opinion. Despite their inaccuracy, I like the Mandalorians' reflective visors and those figures are great. However, the 332nd Clone Troopers feel superfluous to me, especially given the need for some of Bo-Katan's Mandalorian resistance to oppose the Super Commandos.
Similarly, while the speeder is well-designed for its size, I think focusing more attention on this vehicle rather than the barricade could have resulted in a truly excellent model. Unsurprisingly, the price of £17.99, $22.99 or €19.99 is an issue too, although I still consider this a Battle Pack worth owning, albeit one with unrealised potential.
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20 comments on this article
Need some rep from a different era or even a non clone faction in these cheaper packs. Sick of clones.
The Mandos are nice.
But dude, who’s calling the shots for SW at TLG?? pfff. Another double dipping for profits doing re-runs on these clones.
‘especially given the need for some of Bo-Katan's Mandalorian resistance to oppose the Super Commandos.’
The front of the Speeder boggles my mind. It's as if some piece fell off during the approval process and they just left it bare.
Couldn't they have at least added an inverted tile or slope?
I suspect Clones were chosen over more Mandalorians to make it clear there were two factions at play, something battle packs switched to after the first few were purely one sided. Kind of miss those, they were handy for army building
@VictorvanSchagen said:
"The front of the Speeder boggles my mind. It's as if some piece fell off during the approval process and they just left it bare.
Couldn't they have at least added an inverted tile or slope?"
You put the included grey crate there.
@Broken_Cheese_Slope said:
"Need some rep from a different era or even a non clone faction in these cheaper packs. Sick of clones."
The last traditional battle pack that included rebels (the good guys of the franchise) was released in 2017!! And sequel era fans have long starved to death.
I wish that they would at least include macrobinoculars and/or rangefinders as optional accessories for the figures in these sets. I know they wouldnt offset the cost but I think people would appreciate it, just as the first Clone Wars sets from 2008 included accessories for clone customization.
What’s the in-universe explanation for handprint decals when everyone has u-shaped claws at the ends of their arms?
@Brickalili said:
"I suspect Clones were chosen over more Mandalorians to make it clear there were two factions at play, something battle packs switched to after the first few were purely one sided. Kind of miss those, they were handy for army building"
Many recent battle packs have been just one faction. It feels random to me which ones get the 2-faction treatment and which ones don't.
@Broken_Cheese_Slope said:
"Need some rep from a different era or even a non clone faction in these cheaper packs. Sick of clones."
I’m the same way. The repetition is getting boring for me.
I know it’s an ancient complaint but I have to say it again:
Lego is *never* going to sell me on $20+ “army builder” battle packs.
At 116 pieces, the ABSOLUTE MAX this set should have been at would be $15. $22.99 is patently insane.
If I can get the China clone, with comparable quality of print and brick holds, in a couple months for $9 *with shipping and tariff fees*, Lego is in a dead end rut trying to get just shy of *triple* that. I don’t care if that’s not a “fair” comparison - that’s simple economic math.
@Brickalili said:
"I suspect Clones were chosen over more Mandalorians to make it clear there were two factions at play, something battle packs switched to after the first few were purely one sided. Kind of miss those, they were handy for army building"
Even so, we had the 332nd Batte Pack with these same minis very recently. If they wanted to include clones, they could have gone with a 501st regular trooper and a white one to change things up a bit.
Man I hate the inclusion of 332nd Clones.
A purely mando based battle pack would've been much better imho.
Even with the Minifig issues, still a day 1 pick up for me. Been wanting new maul mandalorians for a while.
@GirlWoman said:
" @VictorvanSchagen said:
"The front of the Speeder boggles my mind. It's as if some piece fell off during the approval process and they just left it bare.
Couldn't they have at least added an inverted tile or slope?"
You put the included grey crate there."
Yeah, the black one.
This set just disappoints me. I had high hopes for it when the rumors came out and this severely falls short. The visors are just so frustrating. They don’t look any cooler than the black ones, they got them correct for every single Mandalorian for well over 2 decades, and they got them correct with the same figure 13 years ago. It just simply makes no sense. And why are there 332nd? That totally wastes the spot we had in 2023. Regular 501st would have been just as accurate, which by the way, were also still in circulation. I’m still kinda torn on the builds, but I think the play value seems really great, which I definitely like. Overall, another lackluster set that I had high hopes for, only to be dashed by the design team. Sigh.
@Kalking said:
"I know it’s an ancient complaint but I have to say it again:
Lego is *never* going to sell me on $20+ “army builder” battle packs.
At 116 pieces, the ABSOLUTE MAX this set should have been at would be $15. $22.99 is patently insane.
If I can get the China clone, with comparable quality of print and brick holds, in a couple months for $9 *with shipping and tariff fees*, Lego is in a dead end rut trying to get just shy of *triple* that. I don’t care if that’s not a “fair” comparison - that’s simple economic math."
You can never win the argument that fake Lego minifigures are the same quality as real Lego
I like the spaceship, I just don't like it twenty-Euros-much.
@CommanderR3x said:
" @Kalking said:
"I know it’s an ancient complaint but I have to say it again:
Lego is *never* going to sell me on $20+ “army builder” battle packs.
At 116 pieces, the ABSOLUTE MAX this set should have been at would be $15. $22.99 is patently insane.
If I can get the China clone, with comparable quality of print and brick holds, in a couple months for $9 *with shipping and tariff fees*, Lego is in a dead end rut trying to get just shy of *triple* that. I don’t care if that’s not a “fair” comparison - that’s simple economic math."
You can never win the argument that fake Lego minifigures are the same quality as real Lego "
I wouldn't care if the quality were superior- I won't support IP theft.
@Mister_Jonny said:
"What’s the in-universe explanation for handprint decals when everyone has u-shaped claws at the ends of their arms?"
this guy is wondering the same thing:
https://brickset.com/minifigs/lor022/uruk-hai-handprint-helmet