Reviewed by Johan Kruger (SAFOLs Member, jhbLUG Member)
In celebration of Star Wars day I found the lack of review for Star Wars sets disturbing. So decided to do a review on 75188 the Star Wars Resistance Bomber. This set was released all the way back in 2017. This set was based on the opening scene from Star Wars the last Jedi where the resistance mount a last desperate escape from the first order right after star killer base was destroyed in the last movie. Ever since that scene I knew I wanted to get this set. This I would say is the first Star Wars strategic bomber role aircraft and made me think a lot of the older warplanes, like the Boeing B-17 and Avro Lancaster with manned turrets for protection.
In terms of the set it is made out of 5 numbered bags but also does contain some stickers as well. Bag 1 and 2 builds the bottom half of the set including the start of the bombing bay, bag 3-4 is the top half of the bomber and lastly bag 5 is the turrets and finishing details.
When fully assembled it is an impressive sight and nice size ship that is very swooshable.
The set also has some nice play features like the bombs that can be dropped and very well hidden spring stud shooters.
In terms of Minifigures the set comes with five Minifigures: Vice Admiral Holdo, Poe Dameron, three resistance bomber operators, Nix Jerd and 2 generic units a pilot and a gunner. They also all have alternate faces. The pilots have very nice prints and could even be used to make a WW2 bomber pilot with the breathing masks if one wanted to reuse them for MOCS. Even the turrets would not look out of place on a WW2 bomber.
The inclusion of Admiral Holdo and Poe is a bit strange as they did not feature in that scene but still nice Minifigures to add to your collection.
Normally the review would have been done by this point, but LEGO® did something very strange with this set. After a few fan complaints with the bomber pilot figure the set was later released with a new figure.
Finch, however, has his five seconds of fame. He first appears in the scene right after Blue Leader piloting an A-Wing, in which Tallie says “Bombers, keep that tight formation. Fighters protect the bombers. It’s not every day we get a shot at a dreadnought, so let’s make this count!”
Later into the movie, Finch responds with “Copy that, Blue Leader,” and as the scene pans off, we hear his voice from off-screen saying “You get us there, we’ll give it to ‘em!”
At ten minutes and four seconds, we see him for a fraction of a second screaming “Look out!” before his demise from the attack blast of a TIE fighter.
The minifigure is a very good copy of the original character, even matching the helmet design. Although in terms of new parts, it is only the head and helmet that differs from the original design. If you don’t have this set yet it is worth while looking out for a later released set with the new figure.
Lastly, I decided to make a few changes to the bomber using the extra parts and moving a few parts around.
Placing the cheese slops at the back and also using the extra parts to add greebling to the top of the set makes a big difference already in the appearance.
Lastly if you wanted to improve the appearance even more a few additional part would be needed from your own stash. This involved mostly placing LEGO® tiles on the side and top of the wing. If I had more slopes I would have placed them all along the top wings and even more greebling on top.
