Review: LEGO 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader

March 12, 2023 | 8

75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Darth Vader set is the smaller of the two 2022 Star Wars sets based on the Kenobi Disney+ series, and joins a decent-sized collection of US$50 LEGO Star Wars playsets with desirable minifigures.

However, the set was subjected to heavy controversy upon its reveal, due to the uninteresting source material and perceived high price. Does the set warrant a second chance, or is this one you should skip entirely? Let’s find out!

This is a guest review by our resident LEGO Star Wars correspondent Vaderfan! We’re on a quest to reviewing nearly every active LEGO Star Wars set currently – check out some of his previous reviews for more!

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• Review: LEGO 75344 Boba Fett’s Starship Microfighter

Special thanks to LEGO for providing the set used in this review

75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader Set Details

Set Name: Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader
Set number: 75334
Pieces: 408
Minifigures: 4
Retail Price: US$49.99 / AU$79.99 / £44.99 
Theme: Star Wars
Release Date: 1 August 2022

Unboxing 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader

The front of the box shows an action-packed version of the set, as well as the basic design features of the average LEGO Star Wars box.

Interestingly, the Darth Vader minifigure in the bottom left graphic has red eyes, while the actual minifigure in the set does not.

The back of the box has an alternate view of the set, plus the play features.

Inside the box are the instruction manual and numbered bags from 1 to 3. No sticker sheet is included!

Interestingly, despite the relatively small final product, the number of pieces included in the bags feels quite substantial, although still less than normal for a US$50 set.

75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader Set Minifigures

Four minifigures are included, the first of which is this exclusive version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, wearing his tattered Jedi robes.

Unfortunately my figure suffers from a couple of misprints – the eyes are off-centre from the eyebrows and the hip print is totally misaligned. Nonetheless, the rest of the design looks good and I like the new hairpiece created for Obi-Wan, which I think looks really accurate.

Something that can easily be rectified by reaching out to LEGO’s customer service for a replacement.

Obi-Wan’s robe printing continues to the back of his torso.

Obi-Wan has an angrier alternate face and is armed with his blue lightsaber. It is a nice figure, it’s just a shame about the misprints–seems like LEGO needs to step up their quality control.

The second figure in the set is Darth Vader, and this was a huge draw for this set to me as this is the cheapest way to get the modern Vader figure with arm printing.

He has excellent torso, leg, and arm printing, and the two-piece helmet returns.

While the helmet mould is great, it would’ve been nice to get an exclusive variant, perhaps with dark red eyes or a cracked mask from the season finale. Given the set’s high price I think LEGO should’ve been a bit more experimental with the included figures.

The cape used is the older papery style, and the back of Vader’s head is printed with tons of scars from his fiery Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan.

The only new part of this Vader figure is the head print, which shows a scarred Anakin Skywalker under the mask; this new print looks excellent. Vader is armed with his red lightsaber, and looks good in all his arm-printed glory.

The third figure is Tala Durith, dressed in her Imperial Officer uniform which is technically the wrong outfit for this scene. She gets a new torso print with the officer rank, and a new head which uses the new 2022 skin tone.

My main gripe with the figure is the lack of dual-molded legs to give her black boots – LEGO has done it before and it really makes the figure look a lot better. Again, given the set’s price point I think LEGO should’ve been more generous in the figure department, and the plain grey legs don’t really do Tala’s outfit justice. She is armed with a blaster pistol which is a fitting accessory.

The final figure in the set is NED-B, the worker droid on Mapuzo. He gets a new head-and-torso mold which looks excellent and makes the figure look suitably bulky, although height-wise is a little lacking. The printed and molded texture on the new mold is fantastic, and is complemented by detailed printed legs.

The back of NED-B has a printed 1×2 slope with even more added detail, and looks excellent. It is attached via studs on the back of the new head-and-torso mold.

NED-B is armed with a brick-built hammer, which is an appropriate and well-done accessory. The level of detail on this figure is excellent, and its exclusivity will undoubtedly be a big draw for this set.

On the whole this minifigure selection is strong, and one of the biggest draws of the set, but I wish LEGO gave that extra mile treatment with some red eyes for Vader or boots for Tala.

Builds

Now moving on to the finished model, which is a playset depicting the location of Obi-Wan and Vader’s brief duel on Mapuzo from Kenobi episode 3.

Unfortunately, the set has received lots of criticism of basically being a flat grey baseplate, which I have to agree with.

That fault does not rest entirely on the LEGO design team, who did the best job they could given the incredibly uninteresting source material, but that does not take away from the final model being effectively a pile of rocks.

However, the model does look pretty finished on all sides, the only exception being this white rubber band on the back which is integral to one of the play features in this set.

The main play feature in the set is similar to what we’ve seen before from LEGO for these duel sets. A couple of 6×6 round plates are mounted on turntables, and can be rotated to simulate the minifigures duelling.

It’s a decent feature but not the most interesting, and I think given the set’s size it is a bit of a wasted opportunity to not have the turntables be remotely controlled.

If you could rotate the minifigures using a gear on the back of the model, it would look quite cool, but unfortunately you have to get your hands directly on the 6×6 round plate itself which breaks a bit of the immersion.

LEGO included a couple of 1×1 clear round bricks to simulate Obi-Wan being lifted up by Darth Vader using the Force. It’s a very basic inclusion but works well for display, and you can also make Obi-Wan look like he’s jumping through the air.

The other main play feature in the set replicates the scene where the ground catches on fire after the duel between Vader and Kenobi. Half the model is mounted on rails, which can be slid out partially. This causes a series of translucent orange pieces, mounted on Technic bricks, to spring up thanks to the rubber band on the back of the model.

Closing back the two halves of the model will then leave a nice line of fiery orange parts in between the two figures. While the trail of fire is a little small, the feature is clever and works well, and adds a welcome splash of color to the build.

For more fiery destruction, there’s a yellow cart on the back of the model that has a lever underneath to tip it over.

Hitting the lever will jostle the yellow cart and cause the two smaller grey carts inside to fall over, spilling more translucent orange slopes across the build.

This feature, combined with the strip of fire in the middle of the model, adds lots of fiery details across the set and is accurate to the TV show’s scene.

The yellow cart and the orange pieces are not secured with any studs though, so when moving the set around you have to be careful not to spill them.

The final play feature is this section of high ground for Tala to stand at and shoot at Vader. It’s very simple and quite small, but it kind of works given the scale of the model.

Although it’s a little close, this rocky outcrop does look pretty good with Tala in position, firing at Vader.

Finally, there’s this brown generator off to the side with some translucent orange parts leaking out, and seems to be responsible for some of the fire. However, it doesn’t have any inbuilt play features.

Final Thoughts

What I liked:

• Strong minifigure selection
• Good selection of play features
• Decent for display

What I didn’t like:

• Uninteresting source material and final model
• Minifigures missing that extra level of detail
• Expensive for what you get

Final Thoughts

On the whole, I feel this set is a slight misstep from LEGO. The minifigure selection is definitely the big draw here, although I think LEGO needed to go the extra mile (red eyes for Vader, boots for Tala) for a set like this.

Unfortunately, the set suffers the most from the source material and the scene it is based on, which is basically about as boring as a flat piece of land can get.

Being at the US$50 price point does not help either, and although the designers did their best to integrate as many unique play features as possible, the final model is still an overglorified grey base.

It does look decent on display as it’s fairly accurate to the in-universe scene, but I think this set should not have been made at this price point.

I think this set should have been done as a smaller US$20 duel set with just Obi-Wan and Vader, and the $50 slot could’ve been used for another set in this wave (maybe a Jango Fett Slave I to go with the 2022 Obi-Wan Starfighter).

A valiant effort by the designers to make an uninteresting in-universe location more exciting, but ultimately falls short due to external factors, namely the source material and price.

Build [2]: Unfortunately, just an overglorified grey rock.
Minifigures [4]: Strong selection but missing that extra oomph.
Real Value [3] Not great value here, good figures but final model is a little small and uninteresting.
Innovation [2]: Nothing really innovative here other than the clever rubber band action feature.
Keepability [3]: Bad price and good minifigures may make this a desirable set a few years down the road, but the model itself is pretty bland.

Rating and score: 3/5 ★★★✰✰

Thank you for reading this review of 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Darth Vader set!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below – is this set a mixed bag, or am I being too harsh on it? Do you plan on buying it?

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