Recently, at a LEGO Fan Media Event, LEGO Star Wars™ Creative Team Lead Jens Kronvold Fredriksen shed some light on the reason behind the recent change in scale to certain sets like the LEGO Star Wars™ Imperial TIE Fighter™ (75300), Luke Skywalker's X-Wing Fighter™ (75301), and most recently Boba Fett's Starship™ (75312).
We thought that the prices of these classic models had become relatively high, with an X-wing at $90 or €90, and we thought, 'Hey, there must be something we can do here.' Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, Creative Team Lead
It goes without saying that the down-shift in scale would inevitably mean that the number of pieces within the sets would decrease as well. Although admittedly, with the way things have been going in the LEGO Star Wars™ camp, it wouldn't be unusual to see a decrease in scale without an accompanying decrease in price—consider 2010's General Grievous' Starfighter (8095) when compared to 2020's General Grievous's Starfighter (75286), which was a stark shift in cost from ¢11/piece to nearly ¢17/piece. Luckily, however, with 2021's re-releases of infamous starship sets, we've seen a shift in the LEGO Star Wars™ design team's format, which may have been the result of the Creative Team listening directly to fans.
We saw the reviews of Betrayal at Cloud City (75222), and especially how people were reviewing the mini Slave I. And then we thought, 'Hey, maybe we can make super-cool models that are scaled down.' -Jens Kronvold Frederiksen
With the release of LEGO Star Wars™ Betrayal at Cloud City (75222), we received an updated version of the infamous Slave I—now known forevermore as Boba Fett's Starship™ (75312). The Slave I from set 75222 was a vast shift in terms of scale and piece-count when compared to the likes of Slave I - 20th Anniversary Edition (75243) and the Ultimate Collector's Series Slave I (75060), which contained 1,007 and 1,996 pieces, respectively. This is a far-cry from the first iteration of the Slave I (7144), which released in 2000, contained only 166 pieces, and retailed for $20 USD.
The brief that I gave to the designers was to make a cool X-wing or TIE fighter with the same level of details—and preferably also [the same] features and functions, but almost half the price. -Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, Creative Team Lead
So, with 2021's lineup we received new smaller-scale variations of some of the Star Wars™ Themes's most notable starships, including the LEGO Star Wars™ Imperial TIE Fighter™ (75300), Luke Skywalker's X-Wing Fighter™ (75301), and Boba Fett's Starship™ (75312), which are excellent representations of the models, and are surprisingly detailed versions even when considering the steep decline in piece-count.
These particular sets are also a step in a new direction in terms of cost, as they feature a ¢9.3, ¢10.5, and ¢8.4 price per piece (PPP) ratio—which, for example, is among the lowest PPP we've seen for the Slave I since the 2006 version, Slave I (6209), which retailed at $49.99 and contained 537 pieces. The latest version of Slave I is actually the most affordable version to-date at ¢8.4/piece.
In conclusion, The LEGO Group may not be able to replicate this winning format for every starship in the LEGO Star Wars™ armada, but at the very least it will allow younger builders and builders on a budget to add these ships to their collections without breaking the bank.
