LEGO® Star Wars™ has been around for 26 years without a break. Despite being galaxy-wide, the theme has been making certain subjects over and over again. Although minifigure scale has been the standard, the first large-scale characters – using both LEGO® System and LEGO® Technic System bricks – were released soon after the theme's beginning. Recently, we have seen statuesque, LEGO System-based character models such as 75371 Chewbacca (see my Chewbacca review) and 75398 C-3PO (see my review of the parts in C-3PO). These have been 18+ sets sporting an extravagant air, with blue-on-black information plaques and designer remarks in the instructions.
75428 Battle Droid with STAP seems to be something in between those and normal sets. It has standard instructions without remarks, and no 18+ branding on the box – the age mark is 12+. The model is poseable, but on the other hand, it has the aforementioned plaque and a sleek, black stand. However, my passion lies in some new recolours it has, which imply that we're getting some sweet ball joint recolours for the first time since 2011. Thus, this article features a parts review, a set review, an "Old Elementary" section and an original model by me. Roger roger!
Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.
75428 Battle Droid with STAP
- Release date: 1 July 2025
- Pieces: 1088
Price: US$139.99/ £119.99/129.99€/ AU$199.99
- US$ 139.99 on LEGO.com US
- CA$ 169.99 on LEGO.com Canada
- GB£ 119.99 on LEGO.com UK
- AU$ 199.99 on LEGO.com Australia
- NZ$ .99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
- 129,99€ on LEGO.com Deutschland, Nederland, France etc
- PLN 579.99 on LEGO.com Polska
- NOK 1799,90 on LEGO.com Norge
- DKK 1099.95 on LEGO.com Danmark
Interesting parts
Recolours
- 8x Technic Ball Joint with Through Axle Hole in Tan (6559236 | 53585) - also in 10358 Transformers: Soundwave
From its introduction in 2008 until 2025, the colour of this piece was limited to black and red. I am very pleased to see that the tide has turned and we've got two new colours this year. More on this later.
- 6x Technic Brick Special 2 x 2 with Ball Socket Wide and Axle Hole, No Arm Holes in Tan (6559239 | 67696)
The ball joint's LEGO System counterpart has been recoloured too. This is very welcome, as none of the 3 previous iterations have appeared in tan. I use this piece in most of my character models as the hip joint. The current mould variant is my favourite, as the colour of the ball is not visible from the side.
More tan goodies:
- 4x +1 extra Plate Round 1 x 1 with Hollow Stud and Underside Clip in Tan (6559240 | 5264)
- 2x Technic Driving Ring Extension, 8 Ridges in Tan (6559238 | 35186)
- 6x Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Axle Hole in Tan (6528173 | 73230) - in 3 other autumn 2025 sets
The underside clip gets my award for the Best Smart Little Bit of 2025. It has a tremendous SNOT potential.
- 10x Slope 1 x 6 x 1 with 1 x 2 x 1/3 Cutout in Reddish Brown (6559243 | 4569)
These long, studless slopes are slowly getting more common. Ten is a great quantity for experimentation in MOCs.
- 4x Technic Cylinder 4 x 4 with Pin Holes and Centre Bar, Closed Sides on Bar in Reddish Brown (6559245 | 41531)
- 2x Brick Round 3 x 3 x 2 Recessed Center with 2 x 2 Studs and Axle Hole in Reddish Brown (6559244 | 73111)
I'm surprised that the turbine cylinder hasn't appeared in reddish brown before; I have fond memories of this piece in red in set 4797 Ogel Mutant Killer Whale of 2002. The 3x3 version is like its modern little brother.
- 3x Bracket 5 x 1 x 1 1/3 in Reddish Brown (6559242 | 5712) - also in 75639 The Going Merry Pirate Ship
- 4x Plate Special 2 x 6 x 2/3 with 4 Studs on Side, 1 Support Wall on Bottom in Reddish Brown (6552281 | 87609) - also in 31166 Beautiful Horse
While quite obscure in shape, these pieces are great for extra stability, as demonstrated in the excellent STAP build.
Decorations
- Plate Special 6 x 12 with Studs on 3 Edges with 'STAR WARS Single Trooper Aerial Platform', Stats print in Black (6541279)
- Brick Curved 2 x 4 Double, No Studs, with Black Screws/Eyes, Dark Tan Lines print (Battle Droid Face) in Tan (6541278)
Pleasantly, the most important decorations are printed. The large plaque print associates this set with Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) models, despite this set not being branded as such – and the instructions have no gleeful insights from the designers. The model works fine without the additional stickers. I did not apply them.
Rare parts
- 6x Claw with Clip in Tan (6440775)
- 2x Slope Curved 2x2 with Lip in Tan (6483131)
- 2x Brick 1x2 with Vertical Handle in Dark Bluish Gray (6540940)
- Equipment Wand [two in sprue] in Light Bluish Gray - new in 2025, in 2 other sets
The curved slope with the lip is another familiar face from my childhood. I like its shape. It debuted as a turtle's beak; now it makes up the droid's skull.
- 2x Wedge Plate 2 x 4 27° Right in Tan (6458390 | 65426) - in 2 other sets
- 5x Wedge Sloped 2 x 5 Left in Reddish Brown (6475334 | 3504) - in 2 other sets
- 5x Wedge Sloped 2 x 5 Right in Reddish Brown (6475347 | 3505) - in 2 other sets
These wedge plates have been deprived of anything unnecessary in their design. They're pure wedges, and I like them.
The history of ball joints
The regular ball joint system debuted in 1999 in the LEGO® Technic Slizers theme, known as Throwbots in North America. The theme included two limb pieces with ball connectors, and two socket pieces to connect them.
Slizers and the subsequent Roboriders were short-lived themes. Next up, LEGO developed a theme that did not make it to production, Boneheads of the Voodoo Island, featuring play function gimmicks that removed the enemy's head, connected to a ball joint with an intentionally loose connection. This is why older versions of the Technic Ball Joint (32474, 18384) are known in the LEGO database as the "voodoo ball". It can be connected both to an axle and a stud, by a rather elegant connection.
The head-removing gimmick was abandoned in favour of a mask-removing one as the theme evolved into LEGO® BIONICLE®, released in 2001. The rest is history.
The simple ball joint was a useful piece in elegant poseable figures, and was used relatively often during LEGO Bionicle's early years – but almost never as the sole connection of limbs, due to its loose connection. The most infamous appearance was in 8593 Makuta of 2003. After three years of waiting, the LEGO Bionicle nemesis finally appeared as a set, but unfortunately, most legends of shadow battles were resolved in an untimely fashion as Makuta's head – connected with the loose voodoo ball – fell off his shoulders.
Having been around for 25 years, part 32474 appears currently in 23 colours – plus old dark grey, which appeared printed in 4475 Jabba's Message of 2003. I have one unprinted in my collection; I suppose it originated from some LEGOLAND® store.
The mould was updated with a modern cross-shaped hole at some point: above, the white one is new and light gray the old variation. I propose (on minor empirical material) that this doesn't have a huge effect on the looseness of the axle connection. However, I'm sure that the mould got a less visible but more impactful update at some point, and the newest ones have decently strong friction. 71481 Izzie's Dream Animals used them boldly to connect the legs, and they had no issue of falling off (see my review of set 71481).
The through hole means the ball can slide freely on axles, which turned out to be very useful – especially after the introduction of CCBS shells, from 2011 on. Furthermore, the piece was used in the new piston system on the legs of the larger figures, combined with the new Technic Axle 8 with Stop (55013). This stopper, well, stopped the axle from sliding off the ball when pulled, while not disturbing the movement of the ball in its socket. Later, 4L, 3L and 5L axles with identical stoppers were introduced.
LEGO Bionicle sets only had part 53585 in black. From 2011 to 2013, it appeared in red in 9 sets: 2505 Garmadon's Dark Fortress and 8 construction figures. Set 2283 Witch Doctor had a whopping 39 of them.
Since then, we have had 11 dark years of only black ones, until light bluish grey appeared in 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. (see Elspeth's review of the LEGO Pixar lamp) and 75432 V-19 Torrent Starfighter, and now tan here in 75428 Battle Droid with STAP as well as 10358 Transformers: Soundwave, doubling the available colours.
Whoever was responsible for this choice: Thank you. Keep up the good work and give us 4 more colours in 2026, and 8 more in 2027, please!
Battle droid and STAP
Single Trooper Aerial Platform is familiar in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, where they carried battle droids over the Windows standard wallpaper of Naboo. I've always liked the weird, alien design of STAPs – both elegant and inelegant arrangement of shapes.
It was not easy to find good reference images of battle droids piloting STAPs, but I suggest the position puts too much weight in the back; the elbows should be nearer the spine line, making the posture more upright, especially on the lower legs. Such posture is not possible to capture here, and the assembly is not that well-balanced while swooshing. But it looks decent, and stays upright while mounted on the stand.
The base features an UCS-style data plaque and battle droid minifigure on a small STAP. I enjoy the arrangement.
It's wonderful how this minifigure has not changed since its first appearance in 1999, although a more modern blaster with the straight-shooting arm is provided, hidden behind the plaque. Furthermore, the small STAP has two megaphones, so the droid can be equipped with a good old megaphone blaster, wielded in a sideways "Desert Eagle" position. Only the trans-neon orange round plate is missing.
The large STAP is perfectly designed, with small details, great shaping and ingenious structure that is very stable and easy to handle. Designing this has clearly not been an easy task, as the droid drags weight backwards, requiring sturdy handlebars and pedals for swooshing action.
The droid itself is more controversial. The torso, head and lower arms are perfect. However, due to the understandable requirements of sturdiness, and the relatively robust shape of 2x2 ball socket bricks, the limbs feel a lot thicker than in the reference material; as if the battle droid was wearing slim-fit trousers.
The droid has an elegant backpack with an accurately positioned blaster. The studs on the back of the feet connect to the STAP's pedals. I must confess that, to some extent, building the droid felt like building some of my own MOCs, only with instructions – and without too-fragile or illegal connections. It's probably because this is the first poseable large humanoid set I've built.
The blaster is excellent and clips firmly into the droid's hand – though the excellent magnet function of LEGO Technic 8001 Battle Droid of 2000 is obviously missing here.
MOC: The Plunge
However, it evolved quite naturally into a swimsuit, as I opened the swimming pool season last week. The sports framework reminded me of The Athlete that I built for the LEGO® Creator Flamingo review a few months ago.
However, I soon realised this wouldn't be just another figure. The seed parts were ball joints, so I pursued to capture motion – a fleeting moment of gliding through the water.
The fact that the figure would be eternalised into one posture, and that the legs wouldn't be carrying any weight, gave me some liberty with the joints. The curved fingers of the battle droid were more fitting for the sense of movement than my usual skeleton arm fingers, though I needed two more - as we know, battle droids have only three fingers per hand, whereas humans, as we know, have four…
The figure is connected to the base via an axle. This connection was the trickiest bit of the whole process. In the end, I utilised the specific qualities of the lovely new ball joint recolour by anchoring the the connection to the hip joint: Tan 6L axle connects the leg ball joints but goes through the other one and continues via connector into another white axle that is firmly inserted into the pool wall. The axle itself is turned 60 degrees by using 6-hole pulley wheels, hidden behind the wall. A downward plunge was the most interesting, as most of my characters are – unsurprisingly – positioned head upwards!
The base is fragmented, almost cubist. I had intended to build a whole backdrop, spanning the length of the figure, only to realise that I don't have enough white tiles. This one tangibly breaks the idea of needing enough tiles. I also think this is more dynamic than a large, rectangular aquarium would have been.
As last touches, I added a stream of exhaled air bubbles and a ponytail – borrowing some sweet pieces from the STAP – flowing behind the diver.
Conclusion
Set 75428 Battle Droid with STAP is a weird product, combining a decent poseable droid with an excellently designed STAP. However, Episode I is far from being universally loved, and this subject is far from poetic.
With this price point I can't quite comprehend who this set is designed for. I commend the designers for including tan ball joints and sockets, and there are many useful reddish brown pieces here as well, but US$139.99/ £119.99/129.99€/ AU$199.99 for 1088 parts including one very common minifigure is expensive, and no matter how you look at it, there are better sets at this price point.
READ MORE: Review of 77239 Porsche 911 GT3 RS Super Car with MOCs from both the Toms
Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!
A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Huw Millington, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbühler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars), Timo Luehnen, Chris Wight, Jonathan Breidert, Brick Owl, BrickCats, Erin and Dale, Thunderdave, Jake Forbes and our newest top-tier patron, H.Y. Leung! You folks are better than inverted cheese slopes.
All text and images are ©2025 New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.
Another fantastic Eero review and MOC!
ReplyDeleteI must admit I overlooked the tan ball joint with through hole when it came out—or at least, forgot about it until I spotted it recently in one of next year's Dreamzzz sets. It's a great recolor for character building since it's less mechanical-looking than the previous colors.
Your MOC is fantastic. I love the shaping of the calves and how the stud you've used for the mouth feels like her lips are pursed from holding her breath underwater.
i just wish they would recolor the Mixels joints already...
ReplyDelete