Review: 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser (Guest Review)

June 11, 2022 | 4

The Kenobi Disney+ show may be the hottest new Star Wars show at the moment, but let’s journey back to 2020 with the universally acclaimed Mandalorian Season 2 finale.

75315 Imperial Light Cruiser is basically ripped off the screen, featuring Moff Gideon’s command ship and a star-studded cast of minifigures. Let’s take a closer look!

Please enjoy this guest review by @vaderfan_2187, and check out his awesome content over on Instagram.

Special thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set to review.

75315 Imperial Light Cruiser – Set Details

Name: Imperial Light Cruiser
Set number: 75315
Pieces: 1336
Price: AU$269.99 | US$159.99 | £139.99 – buy from LEGO.com [US] [AUS] [UK] [Amazon] [Amazon Australia]
Theme: Star Wars
Release Date: August 2021

Unboxing

As expected for a set of this size, the box is pretty massive. It has a neat design of the Imperial Light Cruiser flying through space, accompanied by a couple of TIE fighters.

The back of the box shows the cruiser with the top open, along with some of the play features.

Inside the box are bags numbered from 1 to 9. Strangely my bag 4 had a bit of a small tear in it, but thankfully no pieces were missing.

The instruction manual was packaged in a separate bag with the sticker sheet, which helps to protect the sticker sheet from getting bent in the box.

Bag 1 features Moff Gideon and the Mandalorian himself, and builds the base of the cruiser. A lot of plate stacking at this point so nothing too interesting.

Bag 2 builds up the Technic walls for the sides of the front section. This area is reminiscent of LEGO’s play scale Star Destroyers, which is cool to see the shared heritage between similar LEGO Imperial ships.

Bag 3 adds more to the back, including the Technic frame for the carrying handle.

Bag 4 finishes the rear hangar section.

Bag 5 has Cara Dune and Fennec Shand, and fleshes out the bridge of the ship in its entirety.

Bag 6 adds the engines, which adds quite a bit of length to the cruiser.

Bag 7 adds panels to the bottom and the front of the ship, plus some more interior detail.

Bag 8 builds a section of the top of the cruiser, and comes with a Dark Trooper…

…while bag 9 finishes the cruiser and comes with Baby Yoda!

Minifigures

The first figure included is The Mandalorian himself, Din Djarin. This figure is no longer new now, having appeared in around 6 sets, but it’s still an excellent figure. He is armed with his blaster rifle and a beskar spear.

There’s some back torso printing which is nice, given that it’s usually covered up by the cape. Unfortunately the head is just a plain black head, though.

Both arms are printed with Beskar armour detail which looks excellent, and is what makes this figure really stand out. It’s always nice to see arm printing on a Star Wars minifigure.

The second minifigure is Cara Dune. This is her second minifigure appearance after 75254 AT-ST Raider, and could be the last given the fact that the actress was fired by Disney.

It’s still a decent figure, with good head, torso, and leg printing, but I wonder if another more interesting figure could have been included instead, since this minifigure already appears in another set.

She is armed with a blaster rifle that has a lightsaber hilt mounted on the end to make it even longer.

The reverse has some back torso printing and an angrier alternate face.

The third figure is the first-ever minifigure of Fennec Shand. She has excellent torso and leg prints, a new double-sided face, and a new helmet that matches the in-universe design.

She has arm printing on both arms which is really the cherry on top, elevating this to be another excellent Star Wars figure.

Here’s a look at her alternate face, which looks more sly. This figure is now no longer exclusive, as it appeared in 75326, but the helmet piece is still exclusive. I do wish a hairpiece was included in this set, as in most scenes she does not wear her helmet.

The next minifigure is exclusive, and is none other than Moff Gideon himself. His head print looks accurate, but his torso print design is surprisingly simple and the legs are unprinted.

He has a double-sided cape (black on the outside, dark red on the inside). Unfortunately, the darksaber design is unchanged from 2012, and is unsatisfactory.

I would’ve preferred a more sword-like shape for the blade, given that the in-universe darksaber blade differs from a lightsaber blade. I feel that this black bar design is outdated and should be replaced soon.

The Moff has an alternative, angry face which looks excellent.

Next up is the highly anticipated Dark Trooper figure, based on the droids that memorably appeared in the Mandalorian S2 season finale. This figure was initially exclusive to this set but has since re-appeared in the much more affordable 75324 Dark Trooper Attack.

It is still excellent though, with a brand new helmet mould that fits over a minifigure head, and simply looks gorgeous. It has a printed shoulder armour piece and some nice torso and leg printing.

The back has some more printed detail, along with two studs on the back of the shoulder armour piece. I believe the studs are there since this specific mould was also used on other figures, like Paz Vizsla.

Removing the helmet reveals more printed detail on the torso and head. The head print has a red visor to give the helmet its red eyes, but it could double for other sci-fi themes.

The torso has the same printed details as the shoulder armour, which means that you could have the figure without the shoulder armour if you wish.

The back prints of the minifigure are surprisingly detailed, considering you don’t see it most of the time.

Last but not least is Baby Yoda aka Grogu, who isn’t a new figure, but still looks absolutely adorable.

The body uses the LEGO baby body mould, while the head is a unique rubbery mould. I love the big printed eyes and the long ears. The torso has some printing but the area printed is a little small, still that is a minor complaint.

The back has no printed detail but that’s not a big issue.

This figure is absolutely adorable overall, and captures the essence of Baby Yoda in a LEGO figure. It’s excellent that it comes in this set, as Grogu was the central character in the finale.

The figure can be attached via a stud at the bottom, while the hands are bars so it has a couple attachment points.

The minifigure selection in this set is good, with some standouts like Fennec Shand and the Dark Trooper, but I feel like a set of this size needed one more figure. Personally, I would’ve liked a live-action version of Bo-Katan, or even just another Dark Trooper.

Builds

There is only one build in the set, which is the Imperial Light Cruiser itself. It has a classic Star Wars ship design, with angled light grey panels all over. I like the overall shape of the build, including the complex angles at the front and the three engine thrusters at the back.

The engine pods are large cylinders built using round panel pieces. 4×4 trans light blue radar dishes are used for the thruster glow, while there are some small greebling details around.

However, this area is unfortunately inaccurate – in between each main thruster there should be two smaller thrusters, and as such the design of this rear section does not match the in-universe ship. Nevertheless, I still like the look of this area, it’s just a shame the extra thrusters were omitted.

The side view of the ship is great, and the length is certainly a standout feature: The ship measures around 58cm (22.5″) long, which is a couple inches longer than the 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer set, and certainly looks impressive on display.

The side panels toward the front of the ship use studs-not-on-top techniques, which feature nice greebling. Two small cannons are mounted on either side, and the cannon barrels can be adjusted up and down.

Higher up on the top of the ship are two much larger cannons. Corresponding cannons exist on the in-universe ship but these are certainly oversized. They are mounted on ratcheted turntables so can swivel 360º, plus each one comes with two spring-loaded shooters and two brick-built cannons that can hinge up and down.

They might look a bit large and the spring-loaded missile tails are a bit obtrusive to the overall design, but on the whole it doesn’t look too bad and adds quite a bit of playability.

The bridge of the ship uses 5 stickers on a few bricks to create the iconic window design, although lining up the stickers correctly is crucial to the design.

Interestingly, the bridge is reinforced with many Technic elements underneath the panelling, and the entire bridge doubles as a secure carrying handle for the ship.

The back of the ship has the three engines, along with some angled paneling. The thrusters use the new 3×3 rounded corner piece first introduced on 2020 Poe Dameron’s X-wing, and they fit perfectly here.

In between the engines and the bridge is a mini hangar that holds a microscale TIE Fighter. Two TIEs are included, with space for one on each side.

Given the low height of the rear section I suppose this was the best use of space that the designers could come up with.

The TIE Fighters are miniscule, and made up of only 7 pieces. A printed 1×1 clear round tile represents the cockpit which actually looks decent. The wings are certainly oversimplified but it’s understandable given the scale.

Of course the TIEs are way too tiny to be minifigure scale, but they’re not intended to be to-scale anyway. They can be used in another play feature that I’ll talk about later.

The top of the cruiser’s front section can be hinged open to reveal the interior space.

It’s definitely a bit disappointing that a ship this large has so little usable space, but that’s partially due to the design of the in-universe cruiser.

Thankfully, there aren’t too many strange colors that stand out, which is often a problem that plagues large LEGO Star Wars ships. The only ones that look a bit out of place are the blue Technic pins on the side walls.

The interior has four stickered slopes which represent control panels, plus a stickered console table in the middle with a red coffee cup.

Two crates are attached at either corner; these contain an electrobinoculars and a printed thermal detonator. There’s also a clip for the extra spring-loaded missile at the back, but it can also be used to hold the Darksaber if you wish.

There aren’t too many other details but I suppose that was necessary to prevent the limited space from becoming overcrowded. As such, there is a fair bit of space to pose minifigures and act out scenes from the show.

However, several spots in the interior cannot hold figures when the ship cover is closed, due to the height limitations. This is slightly disappointing but still understandable, as preserving the correct external shape is more important to me than usable interior space.

And, with the cover open, there’s enough space to recreate iconic scenes from the Mandalorian season finale!

The front of the ship seems to be yet another area where the designers tried to make the best of a limited space. This is supposed to be the front hangar of the ship, and you can take one of the TIEs from the rear hangars and place them here.

There’s a 2×2 round red piece on the inside of the interior that you can press, which pushes an axle that launches out the TIE Fighter.

This play feature is supposed to make it look like a TIE Fighter is being deployed from the front of the ship, but in my opinion this feature is entirely superfluous.

It’s not particularly fun to play with, as the TIE only launches a few centimetres, and the feature only works with the top of the ship open so it looks rather odd. I’m not sure this play feature was an effective use of parts.

Here’s what the TIE looks like when it’s inside the hangar at the front. Unfortunately it’s not attached with any studs, so if you move the cruiser around too much the TIE can fall out.

Also, this area’s design is a bit messy as a result of this feature being integrated here.

I’m also not a fan of the exposed blue pins at the front, as they’re quite obvious from most angles. I wish LEGO included a couple more pieces to cover these up and preserve the uniform grey design.

What I liked:

• Excellent Fennec Shand and Dark Trooper minifigures
• Ship looks impressive on display due to length
• Detailed exterior

What I didn’t like:

• Should have included one more minifigure
• Limited interior space
• Unnecessary TIE Fighter launcher play feature
• Expensive price

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think this set is above average, but weighed down by a few significant flaws. The Light Cruiser’s exterior looks really cool, but the limited interior and superfluous TIE launcher are both disappointments. The variety of figures included is excellent, but for this price point I think the set needed one more figure. Finally, the price: £139.99 / $159.99 USD is frankly quite expensive, even for a set of this size.

Fans of the Mandalorian ought to get this set, but I think waiting for a discount first would definitely be wise.

Rating:

Builds: 4/5 – the cruiser looks excellent overall but some minor issues hold it back.
Minifigures: 4/5 – some great figures included but a set at this price point needs a bit more.
Innovation: 3.5/5 – nothing groundbreaking, but some good techniques for building the angles and reinforcing the bridge.
Price: 3.5/5 – definitely an expensive set for what you get.
Keepability: 4/5 – this set is worth keeping, especially for fans of the Mandalorian or Star Wars ships in general. It certainly looks good on display.

Final Rating: 3.8/5

Special thanks to @vaderfan_2187 for this guest review! Be sure to follow him on Instagram and check out some of his fantastic content.

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