[REVIEW] 75399 Rebel U-Wing Starfighter + MOD from Rebrickable

[Clone OPatra]

It's my third time in four years reviewing a ship tied into a Star Wars Disney+ show, so I guess that makes it tradition around here... even if I'm pretty late to the party with this one. On paper it's a pretty exciting looking set, being a tie-in to a popular show and with some in-demand minifigures, but as its flaws have been well documented, I thought I'd also take a look at one of the Rebrickable MODs to fix them.

Come along for my take on the set as designed by LEGO, and my first experience trying out fan-made MOD instructions. Thanks to LEGO for sending this for review at our request.

SET INFORMATION
Number: 75399
Name: Rebel U-Wing Starfighter
Theme: Star Wars
Released: 2025
Part Count: 594
Minifigures: 4
Set Price (RRP): 69,99 EUR / 59.99 GBP / 109.99 AUD / 69.99 USD / 89.99 CAD
Links: Brickset Bricklink Flickr album

BUILD
Some sets you build and go "oh cool, I love seeing this bit come together" and some sets you build and go "what the heck am I even building" for the longest time. This one falls in the latter category unfortunately. The bottom grey portion felt almost over-engineered while building it, with so many small parts being packed in but barely any substantial progress being made. Really no aspect of building this was much fun, though that's fine of course. Sometimes you have to slog through to get to the hopefully worthwhile end result, but this one really did feel like a slog.

I had forgotten about the stickers and photographed the set from a whole variety of angles without them, but that goes to show that the (thankfully printed) canopy is all the decoration you truly need. Here are a couple of no sticker shots, with more in the album.

MINIFIGURES
As with many Star Wars sets especially, the minifigures form a major part of the draw. K-2SO making a welcome return (very similar to his first minifigure from 2016), Cassian in an iconic Cassian vest, Dedra Meero, and an ISB Tactical Agent to top it off - we love to see it all.

There's very little to improve about these figures. Dedra would be better with dual-moulded legs of course, though at least on my copy the white printing on the legs is pretty decent. I'd have no qualms pointing it out if it was terrible as many have been in the past, but to the naked eye especially, it's almost perfectly where it needs to be. The new hat-hair designed for Dedra also looks great and shows the level of care put into these figures.

Though the ISB Tactical Agent has a bland face, that actually works for several characters in the scene. Unfortunately the figure isn't really Heert, the ranking officer who leads the raid on Cassian at the end of Season 2 and who K-2 uses as a shield, because Heert wears black leather boots instead of the white armored boots the regular Tactical Agents wear. It could be Benzi, if you like. No matter what, he's getting absolutely wrecked by K-2.

THE U-WING
I still remember seeing the first images of the U-Wing before Rogue One came out and thinking they nailed the design for a new ship in the Rebel fleet. There's something about it that just feels right and that it belongs with the stuff designed for the original films.

The old LEGO version was well-regarded I think, though I never got it (my LEGO buying was pretty light at the time), but this one certainly looks pretty sleek and swooshable, and is very sturdy, whether or not its proportions are actually any better.

I'd say the few stickers help carry the little pops of colour through, and it does look pretty good from all angles.

The flight mode looks a lot more awkward. Using balls and sockets to hold the wings in the different positions just like on the 2016 one is still a structurally sound method, but the sockets are less concealed this time around. More than that though, there's just something about the overall shape that feels weird. Maybe that comes straight from the ship in universe, but I really don't care for this mode.

The cockpit is frustrating to say the least. This is as far as Cassian can sit up; he's basically lying down and staring up at the sky. What irks me about this most is that the designers think this is fine enough to sell. LEGO designers are pretty great and I don't think it's beyond them to design a ship with a cockpit that can have a figure sitting properly. I think for some reason their internal design guidelines say this is ok, and that's a big shame.

K-2SO fares no better, also cursed to stare up while piloting the ship.

Just like on the original 2016 U-Wing, there's a little tile on a technic axle to push and pop the cockpit open enough to get a fingernail under the front more easily. I do like the stickered control panel... for the pilot to use with their feet I guess. Good luck!

In front of the cockpit there's an ever-so-slightly raised 1x4 section that will shoot off the cleverly embedded spring-loaded shooters. That's a well-done feature, but you have to be careful you don't bump it accidentally.

Looking underneath the shooters now, there's a big window on the front. You can't really see anything through it, but... nice that it's there?

In Andor Sason 2 the U-Wing is kind of just Cassian's Rebel ride, but in its original appearance in Rogue One, it's very much a troop transport. With that in mind, here's the interior:

Um... yeah. It's a 2-wide section and part of it is taken up with a weird stack of a tile on top of two plates sitting on jumpers. Not even a real crate. There's also another stickered console that Cassian can't reach because his head hits the ceiling if you try to sit him up straight. I honestly felt like I must have built this wrong, but did I?

Ok, ok, you can remove the crate. And then fit a whole two figures bumping their heads on the ceiling. How did this pass muster design-wise? I could also mention how the doors inaccurately fold down whereas they slid back on the 2016 version just as they do in universe, but honestly the lack of troop space and fact that figures can't even sit up straight bothers me way more.

In some ways there are echoes of Ahsoka's T-6 from two years ago, though this one frustrates me more. The T-6 is a massive ship with a big interior space in universe, and LEGO's version holds just a single figure. What's better is that you can kind of write it off as almost a midi-scale set since there's really no fitting figures in the side parts whatsoever. The U-Wing, on the other hand, teases you. Sure, you can fit figures in the troop compartment... but not really. And the pilot can't see where they're going.

MOD by RadmiralThrawn
Frustrated by the set, I fired up Rebrickable and looked through the free MOD instructions that several users have created. I decided to try out the one from Radmiralthrawn since it seemed like quite a lot of the ship could be left intact.

In actuality the instructions take you through the entire build as if you were starting from scratch, but I didn't want to do that, so instead I got the bottom troop section off and essentially pulled it apart as I went along to match the MOD instructions. Ultimately mine might not match Radmiralthrawn's instructions 100%, but the major differences to the official build are there.

Look different to you? There are a few external differences but they've very subtle, which is fine because the exterior of LEGO's model looked good to begin with. It still feels just as sturdy as the original build did too.

What's that in the photo above? Cassian looking straight out of the cockpit? By golly, so he is!

There he is, sitting up straight, and there's now an empty space between the cockpit and the troop area so the pilot can talk to whoever is down there just like in universe.

What's more, three whole figures can fit in the lower area and two can even stand up! Wow! LEGO designers, please take notes.

The only drawback with this MOD is that K-2SO can't really sit properly in the cockpit so can't be set up to pilot the ship, which is a shame because you want to be able to reenact him piloting sometimes. Some of the other MODs out there do seem to accomplish that, but I'll leave that... for another time.

CONCLUSION & RATINGS
If it wasn't obvious, I'm quite mixed on this set. It looks good externally and swooshes well, and the minifigures are great to get, but I don't really accept that the compromises were necessary. I don't understand why it's acceptable design to have pilots lying down; they should be designing the sets around having proper cockpit space and not throwing in the figure at the end in coffin position. It honestly would've bugged me big time as a kid too.

What's even more unacceptable though is the "troop" area, which is truly baffling design. It's no surprise that they don't show figures in there in any of the official marketing material except one video of a kid playing with the set, where K-2SO has been haphazardly chucked in.

The MOD by Radmiralthrawn (among others) shows what can be done with the exact same parts and maintaining what feels like the same amount of durability. If a fan can do it, surely the LEGO designers could've.

So how do I rate this set?

9 MINIFIGURES

Dedra could've had dual moulded legs or slightly better leg printing, but really this lineup is very good. Sure another figure like Kleya or Melshi would've been great, and it's sad we might never get them, but I won't dock points for that.

6 PIECES

Nothing terribly exciting with the pieces, so not what I'd call a parts pack.

6 DESIGN

For all my banging on about the cockpit and interior, the overall design of the ship is still pretty good with its looks and features. It just loses a few major points for those issues.

7 PLAYABILITY

The major playability of swooshing and going between landed and flight mode are there, plus the good feature for opening the cockpit and the embedded shooters. However, part of the core playability you want out of a troop transport type ship is loading and unloading troops, and it kind of falls down on that front.

8 PRICE

I'd say it feels slightly overpriced by 5-10 dollars/euros. Not egregious, in the ballpark, but a smidge higher than it needs to be for its size.

7.2 OVERALL - It's a set that could've been great, but the design choices with the cockpit and troop area really knock it down. Still, the bones are there, and with the help of other fans on Rebrickable, even if you're like me and no good at MODding yourself, you can take this set from so-so to very decent.

 

[Jim]

"Some sets you build and go "oh cool, I love seeing this bit come together" and some sets you build and go "what the heck am I even building" for the longest time. This one falls in the latter category unfortunately."

Lol, I was wondering the exact same thing.