Ambush on Mandalore Battle Pack 75373 Review

109 pieces at A$34.99 makes this LEGO set a simple and affordable build for your kids, and for the collector It has some unique Mandalorians and Imperial Commandos (unique to a set, because 2 of the figures were also available with a LEGO Star Wars magazine… something our European based readers may know all about).

Set 75373 has unnumbered paper bags containing the LEGO pieces, though the helmet accessories are still in plastic.

Anyway back to this fun little set, which my 8yr old son built easily and had a lot of fun playing with. The build creates a scene which is a rock outcrop with an archway… though it could well be an entrance to a cave hideout, or a bunker as the lights on the side of the ‘archway’ might suggest. I guess thats the thing with small battle pack builds, the set uses minimal pieces to reduce the set cost and it can impact the detail that can be included. But in saying that, set 75373 creates a cool scene, and having it as a rocky formation means it doesn’t matter how many pieces there are as it can’t really look incomplete, because it could be anything… and I do enjoy building and playing on interesting landscapes myself.

As I mentioned my son had fun playing with it, and though the play factor can’t be expected to be huge with such a small set with minimal play features, the features that it does have stand out to me as a win for the playability of the set. The long transparent element it has, allows a minifigure to be attached to it, with the other end connected to the rocks by a ball socket joint. There is a handle with which you can move the minifigure around, swivelling over a large range, to cause the figures with jetpacks to ‘fly’ around the scene.

There is also a storage box which contains a thermal detonator, and a stud-shooting cannon that can be moved around freely. A clip at the rear of the build contains a large gun that is hidden and awaiting use, and another clip at one end of the build… there is a bar handle at the other end, and I believe it is designed so that if you purchase a few of the battle packs you can connect the rocky landscapes together. Or it could be connected to set 75386 (Paz Vizsla and Moff Gideon Battle), because it has a clip on one end and a bar handle on the other as well. In fact the two different sets seem to be made to go together and would add much more playability when combined.

The minifigures are nice and detailed on both torso and legs, and it is good that they have the Mandalorian Nite Owl as a point of difference to the usual Mando style of helmet. The Imperial Commandos look quite good too, and give us another type of Star Wars minifigure to add to our collection. All the characters have featureless black heads, and although I understand that Mandalorians don’t remove their helmets, that doesn’t mean each fan of LEGO wants to follow that storyline during play… and the Imperial Commando surely doesn’t follow the same beliefs and really should have a regular head beneath their helmets. Feels like it could be a little laziness and more cost cutting from LEGO.

The thermal detonator inside the storage case, and the extra weapon clipped at the rear of the build.

If you are interested in battle packs only for the minifigures, then this set gives you 4 of them at A$8.75 each (feel free to post me the leftover bricks if you don’t want them). You could jump onto BrickLink and purchase each figure for as low as A$5 or A$6 each (+ postage), to save some coin, but I say build the rock formation (or if you have a kid then let them build it) and display it proudly amongst your other Star Wars builds.