Review: 75535 Han Solo
Posted by CapnRex101,
Several previous examples have demonstrated that the Buildable Figures subtheme is poorly suited to unarmoured characters so I have been slightly sceptical about 75535 Han Solo. Not only does the set include a human head, which are of notoriously inconsistent quality, but its colour scheme seems rather dull in official images.
Nevertheless, several past Buildable Figures have proven to be a pleasant surprise and I hope to be similarly impressed on this occasion, although that does seem somewhat unlikely given the high price point of £25.99 or $24.99.
The Completed Model
Han Solo is built around a standard 'Character and Creature Building System' skeleton so stands 24cm in height and the figure is highly articulated. It features ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles so there are few limits with regard to poseability. However, the dull shades of black and reddish brown that dominate the figure are immediately apparent so I wonder whether a character sporting more flamboyant clothing, such as Lando Calrissian, would have been more attractive.
Human head sculpts have often proven challenging for LEGO and I believe that is particularly visible in this instance. Han Solo has rarely appeared in animated form so the stylised design of his head seems bizarre. I quite like the textured hair though and the printed eyebrows look superb. Unfortunately, the figure includes a reddish brown collar around its neck which hinders movement and it looks out of place here as well, unlike on 75537 Darth Maul.
The chest also suffers from some notable problems. This angular torso shell is excellent for armoured characters but looks awkward when the figure is supposed to be wearing a jacket or any other kind of soft fabric attire. On the other hand, I appreciate the graphic designer's efforts to disguise the ridges that cross the torso and the pattern appears faithful to the costume in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Viewing the model from the rear reveals another accurate detail as the top of Han's jacket is black, just as in the movie. The new shoulder piece is effective too, creating a unique padded shape which is not conveyed by the more common shell introduced in 2015, although they seem similar at first glance. Moreover, a curved notch in the shell permits a full range of outward motion at the shoulder.
Han wears a new outfit in Solo: A Star Wars Story but certain aspects of his more famous clothing from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope remain intact. The most notable such detail are the dark red stripes on the side of each leg. The right leg also includes a reddish brown holster strap and you can fit the smuggler's DL-44 blaster pistol here which is perfect.
The figure is also equipped with a much larger blaster rifle. This weapon feels completely superfluous to me, although it is possible that Han Solo will use a rifle in the film and it is ideal for play as a spring-loaded shooter is hidden inside the barrel. The blaster rifle looks great too in my opinion, borrowing design elements from the weapon in 75119 Jyn Erso but improving the stock as well as the trigger mechanism.
Overall
This is one of my least favourite Buildable Figures to date. The head sculpt is reasonably detailed and I quite like many of the printed designs but the reddish brown and black colour scheme is very drab. Moreover, the price of £25.99 or $24.99 seems extremely expensive for a figure of unremarkable size which does not include any fabric components.
I would not therefore recommend 75535 Han Solo unless you are an absolute Star Wars completist or are hoping to use any of the new, or rare, pieces included for your own creations. The shoulder shells in particular have the potential to be very useful.
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.
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46 comments on this article
It's mildly creepy, to be honest.
I like the buildable figures. Personal opinion is this is the worst yet.
^^ Uh, MORE than mildly!! If they'd invest the time/effort to make these things actually LOOK like the people they represent, I think they'd sell a lot more of them (e.g. the Disney Infinity figures, those were stylized and not perfect, but you could tell who it was supposed to be and they were well-designed).
Thunderbirds are GO!
He is staring into my soul.
You could tell me this was a set of Nicholas Cage and I'd believe it.
EDIT; glossing through the database for these buildable figures, it's hard not to notice that, amongst Brickset users, armored characters greatly outsell sets with human faces released in the same wave (both 'own' and 'want' numbers are higher). The only exception I've been able to note is newly released Darth Maul, but then again, how human can we consider him? My cousins prefer regular sets, but the few buildable figures they do have are all armoured.
I've seen hundreds of Baze Malbus sitting on deep discounts and not moving at all, and the same is true in lesser degree for figures like Rey (she definitely didn't need two sets), Chirrut Imwe, Jyn Erso, and Finn, although this could also be because of them being sourced from the sequel trilogy and Rogue One.
We have to wonder whether this theme overstayed its welcome, and whether some of the choices made in regards to which characters to pick were smart.
Blech!! No! I do not like this set at all. :(
So that is what creepy Clowns look like without makeup...
The legs are far too long in comparison to the torso. I guess that's the same for all the figures but it looks particularly ridiculous here.
I'm reasonably satisfied with this figure's design, but as soon as you mentioned the possibility of a Lando figure I immediately felt sad we didn't get one of those!
I don't think the stylized face sculpt feels bizarre, to be honest. As with all the buildable figures, the crisp contour lines make it feel more consistent with the design language of the parts used for the body and limbs, sort of like the design language of Disney Infinity figures but a little less Pixar-ish. I also think it's a pretty good likeness of Alden Ehrenreich's portrayal of the character.
I agree that the price seems really steep for this one, though, and I would have probably preferred to pay less for a figure with a smaller blaster.
Oh my god he looks disgusting
Hard to believe this is part of the same wave as the Darth Maul figure!
That is by far the worst human head sculpt in this line. That smile is so shiver-inducing.
Only thing of interest is the new curved shoulder armor. It is kind of a dull figure; but while it may be one of the worst, we also just got the Boba Fett, which I think has been one of the best, so the theme as a whole is a bit of a mixed bag.
This reminds me of those creepy Galidor sets that even LEGO themselves are trying to forget. At least some of the other ones look good, though.
Forgive me for not knowing much about SW but is this thing supposed to resemble Harrison Ford??
Personally I've never understood the purpose of these things. The only one that's ever piqued my interest at all was the speeder bike trooper & I even passed on that. When people hear that I have a Lego collection the words "action figure" never enter into the discussion. But to each their own, maybe it's just me.
Also, I had to Google "peaked my interest" to find out that it's actually "piqued."
And knowing is half the battle.
Why couldn’t they just make a Harrison Ford version?
@Kinto I know lots of AFOLs abhor the "action figure" builds, but Lego has been doing them for nearly two decades now, first with Bionicle and now exclusively with SW. Not saying you have to like it, but it's not like a new trend or anything.
Less Han solo more prince Hans of the southern isles.. (frozen)
Computer says Nooooooooo for this one..
@dude45
It's the actor from Solo
It looks way too much like Nick Bluetooth, that kid from Galidor.
This looks terrible IMO. His head looks like garbage and his jacket looks like some sort of armor. This will be a shelf warmer for sure!
Shame the mouse got lego to get rid of bionicle in place of this
@xccj.. Yeah, I admittedly have a few Bionicles & accessory buckets that I bought when they first came out way back when, but they're the only sets in my collection that I would sell off anytime without even a thought. So it's entirely possible that since I turn a blind eye to them I just never realized that they're so popular with others and actually do sell.
What I more meant is if you showed this to a person who's not into Lego at all I'd bet you could tell them Mattel or whoever made it & they wouldn't argue. Whereas if you showed them a house, car, boat, spaceship, minifig etc (pretty much ANYTHING else that Lego makes) they would know immediately without question that it's Lego. Except they'd call it "Legos" =)
@CapnRex101 Great review, but it should be noted that the price point for this set is actually $24.99 in North America rather than $29.99.
@Kopaka14 - So it is, thank you.
This is the first CBBS head that I find ugly and...creepy.
It is a good likeness ... if Cillian Murphy was playing Han Solo.
A little thing that's been bugging me with these figures lately- that's only now grating on me- are the lower legs. That curved shin piece is PERFECT for armored figures like Clone and Stormtroopers, but it looks pretty out of place on humans or aliens who are just wearing space-pants. I feel like some long standard CCBS shells would have looked infinitely better on "Han" here, along with many other figs like Rey, Maul, you name it. Again, they're wearing pants, not toddler's kneepads
And yeah, other people have and will mention it, but at the very *least* give Han his vest and shirt. The jacket doesn't scream "Han Solo" to me. I know this is the SOLO actor, but I'll be calling this guy Hans Yolo from now on. I can't see myself- or anyone else for that matter- looking at this and going "There! That's Han Solo!" I would have stuck with a more OT-looking figure. It would sure be much less inaccurate than the Rey figure wearing a hood and googles she wore for 5 seconds, or Jyn's hat she only wears in promotional material. So yeah, I'm going to skip Hans here and save for Maul or some Infinity War sets.
Yikes, one of the worst looking Buildable Figures (probably the worst).
This is along the lines of that DJ figure.
But I do like the sidearm blaster and rifle. Good printing too. Be good for parts.
If LEGO continues to release these buildable figures, I would like to see them introduce a more prefab, organic part system, like that of Galidor. Comparing figures like Han Solo to the Galidor action figures, while both are a bit uncanny, human figures like Nick and Allegra look much more humanoid than the buildable figure range. That said, those parts would cost a fortune to produce, and considering the poor sales of this line, it's very unlikely we'll see that.
Wow, that's just ... horrible. I don't own a single one of these SW constraction builds, and honestly, that's not about to change in a hurry.
I've also noticed a huge amount of these, sitting in my local toy stores gathering dust.
Ghastly face, no worse! Utterly repugnant!
That is one hideous looking and totally out of all proportion constraction figure.
Wow, this can never be unseen! The horror.
For me, the Solo movie was an okay idea but I was disappointed when they hired Alden Ehrenreich to act as Han. He really doesn't look like Harrison Ford. This however, this is just wrong. His face is way too white, his collar is wrong, his hair is too short, his pistol is wrong, his legs are too long, I know they probably can help this but his shoulders are way too broad. This really is just a bad, bad Buildable Figure. I won't be surprised if they all get canceled. Although, the Range Trooper does look pretty cool.
After the excellent Dart Mail figure and reasonably well done Range Trooper, I thought Star Wars buildable figures were looking up.
When I logged in to this site and saw that thumbnail, all that confidence was destroyed.
Horrifying.
Looks Awful! He looks as much like Solo as the actor does Harrison Ford
Honestly I think the only buildable figure with a human face that I actually like the likeness of would be Obi Wan Kenobi, and that was because the Clone Wars face was easily adaptable.
It looks very stiff like the old Knight's Kingdom II figures. The head needs a redesign. It's obvious the angular style was done to match the blocky aesthetic of ccbs shells and ordinary bricks but it looks completely off putting. This is just a lazy man's Galidor, at least those are better proportioned and offer a nice variety of organic shapes. Heck even the Scala and Belville dolls of the 90s offer better heads since they weren't trying to copy the brick aesthetic.
Take the first place in the ranking for the worst sculpted head ; second place for 75110: Luke Skywalker, and third position for 75525: Baze Malbus.
Really horrible...For do this, better do nothing.
@FARLANDER You forgot Finn. He looks like Black Panther’s sister.
I think they should just stick with troopers. ARC troopers or Captain Rex or a Sandtrooper would be so much better than this poor, poor excuse for Solo.
Wait! Didn't Lego discontinue Galidor ten years ago?
This looks like 8310.
That face... how unfortunate. It's like the Justin Beiber Beauty and the Beast doll... blegh.
Yeah, these figures have never quite worked for me on human forms. Now the more mechanical ones: Greivous, Vader, K-2SO... they look great.
I’ve been collecting these buildable figures since the start. Have them all...will get this one over the weekend. Can anyone confirm that this range is the last of the buildable figures? I’d still like to have the super battle droid and captain Rex on the AT before the series says goodnight?