Shortly after the official reveal, and pre-orders opening on LEGO.com, I’m pleased to be able to bring you an early review of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars set 75319 The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge!
Bring to life one of the pivotal moments of Season 1 of the Mandalorian when Din Djarin trades in his valuable Beskar for his fully-upgraded Mandalorian armour, courtesy of the mysterious Armorer whose identity is still a mystery.
The Mandalorian Forge set has a release date of 1 September 2021, but if you’re in the USA, you can pre-order the set to secure it at launch.
Read on for my full review!
Special thanks to the LEGO Group for providing this set for review
75319 The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge Set Details
Name: The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge
Set Number: 75319
Pieces: 258
Price: AU$49.99 | US$29.99 | £27.99 – Buy from LEGO.com [AUS] [USA] [UK]
Exclusive to: N/A
Theme: Star Wars – The Mandalorian
Release Date: 1 September 2021 – pre-order available in the US
First up, here’s a look at the sticker sheet. Some of these, like the curved stickers are an absolute pain to apply.
I kinda messed up some of these, and they’re really mis-aligned here. One of those classic cases where printed elements would’ve been ideal.
Another interesting encounter, and I’m not sure if this was just my set – but in my instruction manual, the colour of the pages, just suddenly fade from Step 64 onwards. All the colours suddenly become desaturated and it got quite hard to visually tell apart the tan elements, which suddenly look like grey.
I hope this was just isolated to my set because it can’t be good for colourblind individuals.
The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge is really a minifigure-heavy set, and it comes with 3 exclusive minifigures – The Mandalorian, Paz Vizsla and The Armorer.
For a US$30/AU$50 set, it’s pretty decent value and comparable to the excellent 75299 Trouble on Tatooine from earlier in the year, especially as you get Paz Viszla and The Armorer who both make their debuts in this set.
Here’s a closer look at Din Djarin aka The Mandalorian – the minifigure is identical to the one from 75299 Trouble on Tatooine, except that he doesn’t have a cape.
It’s the most detailed Mandalorian minifigure so far, and I especially like the arm printing on his left and right arms which have cool details such as the Mudhorn signet, and also the Whistling Birds weaponry on his wrists.
New for this minifigure, and what makes him an excusive is his sleek Beskar Jetpack – which has a nice gunmetal sheen on it.
Bit disappointing that we still get the blank black heads beneath his helmet – which means we’re still waiting for a set with Din Djarin’s head beneath it, which is slightly unfortunate.
Here are Paz Vizsla and The Armorer which are two excellent new Mandalorians to collect. Paz Vizsla comes with his bulky armour, which has some printed decorations on it, which is a nice bonus, and I also like the detailed battle-scuffed print on his helmet, and body.
The Armorer is an exciting new addition as well, and comes with the new horned Mandalorian helmet, and a humble leather tunic atop her armour.
Here’s a look at their backs, and Paz Vizsla’s massive jetpack.
A really cool detail on Paz Vizsla’s heavy infantry armour is the Mythosaur signet printed on his shoulder.
And here’s a look at their blank black heads, and Paz Vizsla’s body without his jetpack.
The build is quick and straight forward, and makes for a fun, brisk build – there are 3 bags altogether, and while there aren’t any groundbreaking techniques, the end result is a pretty compact and displayable scene which also has some functional elements to it.
The centerpiece of the model is the Mandalorian Forge, with blue flames where you can smelt the Beskar that Din Djarin has collected from his intergalactic hit jobs.
Once done, you can start shaping the Beskar into all manner of toys and weaponry for all your Mandalorian needs.
There’s an entrance, where among other things is a broom (I guess the Armorer likes to keep things tidy), and also the stickered symbol above the arch.
A great new accessory included in the set is this blank, dark silvery grey Mandalorian Helmet, perched in a corner here. It’s a really cool piece, and I can see minifigure customisers having a lot of fun with this.
On the other side of the room is a small stickered computer terminals, and more importantly, a printed Mandalorian hologram 1 x 1 round brick which is fantastic accessory.
There’s some cabinets which open up to reveal some tools, which are achieved with a sticker on the inside.
The crates below serve as storage, and there is this silver blaster (neat) and Thermal Detonators, which are printed on 1 x 1 round tiles.
Here’s the exterior of the set.
One of the major flaws is the Beskar bars – there are 3 included, and they are just your standard gold bars in dark silverish gray which is a little disappointing as they’re crucial to the scene, and Season 1 in particular.
I wish LEGO would’ve used a printed 1 x 2 tile, which has the iconic Beskar marbling as detailing, and maybe a small Imperial symbol printed in the corner, to make them look like proper Beskar bars we see in the show.
What I liked:
- Great selection of exclusive minifigures
- A tight compact display model
- Lots of fun little Easter Eggs and accessories
- A great set to re-enact an exciting location in The Mandalorian
What I didn’t like:
- Stickers were annoying to apply
- Lack of printed Beskar tiles
- Din Djarin still has no face
Final Thoughts:
Small and accessible Star Wars sets are pretty rare, especially as the LEGO Star Wars theme is known for relatively expensive sets, so a set like The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge is always welcome as it gives fans an affordable way to get their hands on key characters, without having to spend hundreds on pricey Starships.
It’s a minifigure-centric set, and in this department, it mostly does a fantastic job thanks to the 3 exclusive minifigures – Mando might not be truly exclusive as it’s the same version as the one from Trouble on Tatooine, but the addition of the Beskar jetpack helps set him apart.
Paz Vizsla and The Armorer are great additions to the lineup of LEGO Mandalorian minifigures, so if you’ve been a fan of the theme, this is a must-buy just for the minifigs alone.
That said, LEGO missed an opportunity here to make the set truly special, with the lack of Din Djarin’s face/head – so this means fans are going to be waiting even longer to re-enact the pivotal scene from the end of Season 2.
Also, for a set that’s all about Beskar Bar, it’s a little disappointing to not have printed 1 x 2 Beskar tiles, and have to make do with gunmetal gray gold bars instead – small printed tiles are pretty easy for LEGO to do (see the CMF theme), and I assume that there’s going to be plenty more Mandalorian sets, so I don’t know why they would cut corners in this department as that would heavily elevate the set, and add so much to The Mandalorian universe.
That said, if you’re a fan of the Mandalorian, this is an easy set to recommend, thanks to the 3 minifigures, and how easy it is to display the set. There aren’t any gimmicky play features – although a fun feature would’ve been a “armour-changing” area, where you can transform Mando from his pre-Beskar armour to his fully kitted out version.
At US$30 and AU$50, this won’t hurt the wallet as much and I can see this being one of the most popular LEGO Star Wars sets of 2021.
Rating and score: 4/5 ★★★★✰
Build [3] – The build was straight forward, with nothing really outstanding
Real Value [4] – Lots of value with exclusive minifigs, and cool little accessories
Innovation [3] – Nothing too innovative, but the minifigure printing continues to impress
Coolness [4] – Mandalorians are cool, and this set is oozing with them.
Keepability [4] – With exclusive minifigures, this set will hold its value incredibly well, especially if we don’t see The Armorer and Paz Vizsla make an appearance again.
Thanks for reading my review of 75319 The Armorer’s Mandalorian Forge set! The set will be available from LEGO.com on 1 September 2021 and is available to pre-order now in the USA.
Let me know what you think of this set in the comments!
Special thanks to the LEGO Group for providing this set for review.
My son thanks you for the review, and he would like you to know that his instructions aren’t faded.
Also, Jay, thanks for the photo of Vizsla’s torso without the armor! Nice that they have that decorated to be uamsed as a standalone piece.
You’re welcome! And yeah, the printing is superb on him sans armour.
LEGO needs to make up its mind about the color of Beskar. The gunmetal / dark pearl gray jetpack looks great (and matches the other sets like the Mandalorian Starfighter), but it drives me CRAZY that it doesn’t match Mando’s helmet. Not that his new flat silver helmet is perfect, but slightly better than the darker one… metallic silver like lightsaber hilts would probably be the best, but they can’t walk that back now that Mando is in half a dozen sets. The best thing they can do is at least be consistent going forward and keep Mando’s jetpack the same color as his helmet.
Yeah – the inconsistency is all over the place. A metallic silver jetpack would’ve been perfect.
My theory is that a lot of these designs and colours were locked in during the concept art phase, and there might have been changes when they eventually made its way on-screen.
Hopefully we’ll see a fully-decked out Mando (it’s almost begging to be turned into a Chromed exclusive version) complete with Din’s face as the “complete” version.
I’m tempted to get two sets and expand the background areas a bit. I love the set idea, so looking forward to seeing it in person. I do agree, printed beskar would be essential. I*have* been looking for a thermal detonator for my Boushh MF, so that’s good. But why include a printed detonator when you could have included beskar?
Printed detonators have been around for a few years now, so they’re an existing piece. Still disappointing about the Beskar, though.