Shortly after yesterday’s official reveal of 75349 Captain Rex and 75350 Clone Commander Cody, I can now share my review of these 2 new additions to the LEGO Star Wars Helmet Collection.
Celebrating 20 years of the Clone Wars are the first prequel-era helmets to join the ever-expanding Helmet Collection, and will be released on 1 March 2023.
These will likely be very popular among die-hard Prequel and Clone Wars era fans, as these are 2 of the highest profile named Clones, and to secure yours, you can pre-order both 75349 Captain Rex and 75350 Clone Commander Cody helmets from on LEGO.com or on Amazon.com
See below for regional pricing and individual product pages.
75349 Captain Rex
- 75349 Captain Rex [US] – US$69.99 [Amazon pre-order]
- 75349 Captain Rex [AUS] – AU$99.99
- 75349 Captain Rex [UK] – £59.99
- 75349 Captain Rex [EU] – €69.99
- 75349 Captain Rex [CA] – CAD$89.99
75350 Clone Commander Cody
- 75350 Clone Commander Cody [US] – US$69.99 [Amazon]
- 75350 Clone Commander Cody[AUS] – AU$99.99
- 75350 Clone Commander Cody [UK] – £59.99
- 75350 Clone Commander Cody [EU] – €69.99
- 75350 Clone Commander Cody [CA] – CAD$89.99
If you do pre-order, please consider using these affiliate links, as I may earn a small commission with each purchase that helps support the work I do on the blog.
Special thanks to LEGO for sending these sets over for this review!
75349 Captain Rex Helmet Set Details
Set Name: Captain Rex
Set number: 75349
Pieces: 854
Price: US$69.99 / AU$99.99 / £59.99 / €69.99 / CAD$89.99 [Amazon pre-order]
Theme: Star Wars:
Release Date: 1 March 2023 – preoders available on LEGO.com and Amazon
First up, we have Captain Rex, also known as CT-7567 who served under General Anakin Skywalker and Commander Ahsoka Tano during the Clone Wars, leader of the 501st Legion.
His fearless leadership, and empathy, as well as being one of the few Clones that had their inhibitor chips removed, thus did not participate in Order 66 makes him a fan-favourite, where even his minifigure commands hundreds of dollars on the secondary market.
This helmet features Rex’s Phase 2 Clone Trooper helmet, a nice contrast to Commander Cody’s Phase 1 helmet.
Here’s a look at the instruction manual, which has a lovely introduction and foreword by LEGO Star Wars Creative Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, as well as a reference image of Rex in his Phase 2 armour.
Unfortunately, stickers are relied on heavily for Captain Rex’s helmet, and these make for some of the weaker parts of the design.
Thankfully the name plaque is printed.
Firstly, the good bits. LEGO have done a remarkable job adapting the Phase 2 helmet into the design, nailing the overall silhouette and shape of the helmet, which is no mean feat for a helmet with plenty of curves.
The blue and and white colours of the 501st legion are brilliantly captured here, and I especially love how vibrant the blue is, although one could make the argument that the shade of blue isn’t 100% accurate.
The helmet design gets a lot of things right, and I especially love the use of negative space for the eyes and face, followed by the layered plates for the harder angles to get that Clone look just right.
Here’s how Captain Rex’s helmet looks from the side and back. Similar to the Stormtrooper Helmet, from the first wave of Star Wars helmets, the rounded design relies heavily on studs, which I like as opposed to fully smooth designs because it just oozes LEGO DNA.
The build was also mostly enjoyable in parts, with some really detailed and technical sculpting used to re-create the helmet’s shape, angles and also markings.
Oh, and the rangefinder swivels downwards as well, which is quite a fun play feature.
Here are Captain Rex’s signature Jaig Eyes design, which is my favourite part of the helmet design, as apart from the small sticker, uses a clever array of plates, tiles and slopes to Rex’s iconic markings right.
The visual effect works incredibly well, and I love that the designer opted to challenge himself with using negative space for the markings, as opposed to stickering the entire section.
Speaking of stickers, here’s a look at the Tally Marks scribbled on Captain Rex’s helmets. It’s slightly unclear what these stand for – early on they were thought to be kill marks, but was later retconneed to have a more mysterious meaning, as Captain Rex has wasted thousands of clankers than what’s counted here – unless each mark represents a thousand droids killed.
The colour matching is awful here, with the stickers having a totally different shade to the bricks they’re stuck on.
This is also an issue with the breathing vents at the base of the helmet.
It’s incredibly distracting, and frankly looks very cheap and nasty, and if you care about details, this will annoy you to no end.
Another thing I didn’t quite like is the jagged visor. It’s a really tiny detail, and it’s likely you won’t notice this from far away, but I would’ve preferred a smoother design throughout.
What I liked:
- The build was interesting in parts, although quite fiddly
- Nails the Phase 2 helmet silhouette
- Jaig Eyes design is inspired
What I didn’t like:
- Sticker colours don’t match at all, creating a jarring visual artifact
- Jagged visor makes it look rough when viewed from certain angles
Build [4] – A really refreshing and challenging build, with clever techniques
Real Value [2] – At full price, the helmets while fun are a little on the pricier side
Innovation [3] – Introduces some really cutting edge sculpting techniques, especially for the Jaig Eyes and face
Coolness [4] – For Prequel and Captain Rex fans, this is a must-have
Keepability [4] – Slots very nicely into the Helmet collection, and it’s great to finally have Prequel Helmets
Rating and score: 3/5 ★★★✰✰
75350 Clone Commander Cody Set Details
Set Name: Clone Commander Cody
Set number: 75350
Pieces: 766
Price: US$69.99 / AU$99.99 / £59.99 / €69.99 / CAD$89.99 [Amazon preorder]
Theme: Star Wars:
Release Date: 1 March 2023 – preoders available on LEGO.com or Amazon
Here’s a look at the instructions, which also feature an introduction and foreword by LEGO Star Wars Creative Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen.
And here’s the sticker sheet which is comparably smaller to Captain Rex’s.
Up next is Commander Cody, with a Phase 1 helmet variant offering a completely different building experience and helmet model to Captain Rex.
Commander Cody or CC-2224 led the 212th Attack Battalion, best known for their orange markings. Cody is of course infamous for being in the scene where Darth Sidious gives the go-ahead for Order 66, enacting the betrayal of the Jedi by their Clone Troopers.
LEGO really nailed Commander Cody’s helmet design, and this one is my favourite of the two. For starters, I really like the white and orange colour scheme, as it translates incredibly well here.
The orange visor and fin makes for a fantastic visual elements that really catch the eye.
Here’s a look at the side and back. Cody’s comms antenna can also be swivelled and repositioned, allowing you to slightly alter his look.
Like Captain Rex, the sculpting and ingenious use of negative space and depth are incredibly eye-catching, and I cannot state just how well they got the Clone Trooper look right.
As a bonus, Commander Cody doesn’t rely too heavily on stickers for details, and it really shows, as the mismatched colour stickers aren’t that big of a distraction here as they are with Rex.
What I liked:
- A really fun build, with fresh and new Helmet building techniques
- 212th Orange Markings work really well for contrast
- Nails the visor and fin design
- Incredibly LEGO sculpting
- Order 66 Easter Egg in piece count
What I didn’t like:
- Not much at all!
Build [4] – Great build with not much repetition and plenty of fresh techniques
Real Value [2] – Helmets are pretty expensive in general, but make for a decent afternoon of fun
Innovation [3] – Great sculpting-work, and nice to see Prequel-era helmets
Coolness [4] – Bright, vibrant and who can resist an Order 66 classic
Keepability [4] – As part of the Helmet Collection, these will look great alongside others in the series
Rating and score: 3/5 ★★★✰✰
Final Thoughts:
Here’s both helmets on display together. It’s a great thing that LEGO is finally throwing their weight and celebrating 20 years of Clone Wars, giving Prequel fans exactly what they want – more Prequel sets!
Having both Commander Cody and Captain Rex inducted into the Helmet collection makes perfect sense, and the boon of having both a Phase 1 and Phase 2 options means that it won’t feel awfully repetitive if you have to build both, especially one after another.
For me, I have to pick Commander Cody as my favourite for not having too many glaring flaws and for the vibrant orange markings of the 212th, which helps it stand out just a smidge more on display.
While I really love what LEGO did with the Jaig Eyes for Captain Rex, I cannot overlook the jagged visor lines, and the awfully inconsistent and mismatched sticker colours, which are just so distracting on Captain Rex.
Here’s my Helmet collection that I have on display, and as you can see my space is beginning to fill up, but Commander Cody and Captain Rex both look splendid alongside some of the other Star Wars (and non-Star Wars) helmets.
The Clone Trooper Helmets translate incredibly well to the Helmet format, and with the bright colours of the 501st and 212th, I can definitely say that they’re great additions to the collection.
That said, if you’re not a fan of the Prequels, and have no emotional connection to the Clone Wars, especially if you’re an orthodox Original Trilogy fan, I think it’s perfectly fine to skip the both of these and instead just pick up 75351 Princess Leia (Boushh).
LEGO will continue to add to the Helmet Collection, as these are fairly collectable, and LEGO Star Wars fans seem to generally like buying them, and with such a vast library, you can be assured that there’s many more helmets to come, so unless you want to, don’t treat it like an obligation to collect every single one, and instead just pic up the ones you like.
If you’re a prequel fan, and loved Dave Filoni’s Clone Wars series, you’ll be jubilant at these fine additions to your collection. Just try to avoid looking too closely at Captain Rex’s stickers.
Thanks for reading this review of both the 75349 Captain Rex and 75350 Clone Commander Cody helmets.
These 2 helmets, and 75351 Princess Leia (Boushh) will go on sale on 1 March 2023, but you secure your copy by pre-ordering both 75349 Captain Rex and 75350 Clone Commander Cody helmets from on LEGO.com or on Amazon.com
What do you think of the Commander Cody and Captain Rex helmets? Will you be adding them to your collection?
To get the latest LEGO news and LEGO Reviews straight in your inbox, subscribe via email, or you can also follow on Google News, or socials on Facebook, Instagram (@jayong28), Twitter or subscribe to the Jay’s Brick Blog Youtube channel.
Nice review and I agree with pretty much all you said.
I especially agree with the sticker comments. Lego really needs to do better if they want to use stickers. I understand that printing on different materials will produce different results, but as with the UCS Razor Crest, if the results are ugly and are so obviously mismatched, they need to rethink their use at all ( definitely should not allow stickers in a UCS set under any circumstances).
The use of stickers, when they’re bad, detracts heavily from the notion that Lego is a premium product.
Great review Jay! The Jaig eyes on Rex look great, but I feel like the price tag is just too high for most of these helmet sets.