It has been ten years since Star Wars™ Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released and we were introduced to BB-8™. In my opinion, the little rolling droid was one of the stand-out features of that first film of the Disney era. Love or hate the sequel trilogy, I think it's difficult to deny that BB-8 is one of its successes.
BB-8 joins the (unofficial) sub-theme of LEGO® Star Wars droids: sets 75379 R2-D2, 75398 C-3PO, 75434 K-2SO, 75416 Chopper, 75381 Droideka and 75428 Battle Droid with STAP have all been released within the last two years.
LEGO has made BB-8 at this sort of scale before; the now-retired 75187 BB-8™ from 2017 was built in a more traditional "stepped and studs showing" way. This new interpretation looks like it takes an interesting approach to the construction of some difficult forms.
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.
75452 BB-8™ Astromech Droid
- Release date: 1 January 2026
- Pieces: 687
Price:
- US$ 89.99 on LEGO.com US
- CA$ 119.99 on LEGO.com Canada
- GB£ 79.99 on LEGO.com UK
- AU$ 149.99 on LEGO.com Australia
- NZ$ 169.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
- DE€ 89,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
- NL€ 89,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
- FR€ 89,99 on LEGO.com France
- PLN 389.99 on LEGO.com Polska
- NOK 1249,90 on LEGO.com Norge
- DKK 799.95 on LEGO.com Danmark
Parts
Printed parts
- 2 x Dish 8 x 8 Inverted [Radar] with Orange Band, Silver Droid Plating print (BB-8 Left Side) in White (6602008 | 3961)
- 2 x Dish 8 x 8 Inverted [Radar] with Orange Band, Silver Droid Plating print (BB-8 Right Side) in White (6602007 | 3961)
- 3 x Brick Round 3 x 6 Half Circle with Orange Rectangles print in White (6602010)
- 2 x Brick Round 3 x 6 Half Circle with Silver Band print in White (6602009)
The 3x6 half circle (6957) was introduced last year and has only appeared a handful of times, mostly where printed decoration was needed. It only appears as a plain element in one set: 43286 The Aristocats Adorable Marie contains two of them in white and was also part of January's range of new releases.
- 1 x Plate Special 6 x 12 with Studs on 3 Edges with 'STAR WARS BB-8', stats print in Black (6593972)
Rare pieces
- 1 x Technic Wedge Belt Wheel [aka Pulley] in Red (6532101 | 49750) in two other sets, but prior to last year's 10358 Transformers: Soundwave, the classic 4185 pulley hadn't been seen in Red since 2000 in 8279 4WD X-Track
- 1 x Technic Wedge Belt Wheel [aka Pulley] in Green (6515235 | 49750) in one other set 10370 Poinsettia
- 1 x Tile Round 1 x 1 in Trans-Black (6514204 | 35380) in two other sets
BB-8 minifigure
The set also includes a minifigure version of BB-8. This features a new head, but the body is the same as previous versions.
- 1 x Brick Round 1.5 x 1.5 Dome Top with BB-8 Print in White (6603850)
Other parts of interest
- 32x Wedge Sloped 45° 2 x 2 Corner in White (6601847 | 13548) – notable for the high quantity. More than enough to build a LEGO rhombicuboctahedron, which is a word that will appear again later in this article...
A large proportion of the white parts in BB-8 are listed as being 426 White V3, the "new white" introduced in 2025. We discussed this last year in our article Updated LEGO® colours: 427 Cool Yellow & 426 White.
I felt it was overkill to list so many parts as new when they have been available in other whites in many sets previously. The inventory presented on Brickset will show you which ones remain as the original white, because Brickset use the raw data from the LEGO Group while other databases manually combine both whites into one colour.
The build
The shell of the body is constructed in two halves and we begin with the lower section. The construction method is very solid.
The inner mechanism is a little bit like a unicycle, featuring a belt-driven cam that will transfer rotary motion to the head. The support for this is constructed in such a way as to present stud connections in two polar directions. This allows the two halves of the body "sphere" to then be attached - the corners being anti-stud to anti-stud, of course.
Three of the sides lock top and bottom together while simultaneously creating the method to mount the radar dishes to the body.
The plaque portion of the build features the minifigure version of BB-8.
The main play feature is the push activated turning head, and it is effective at creating some of BB-8s idiosyncratic movements, but I found it to be slightly erratic.
The form of the main body is successful and creates an adequately spherical shape. Geometry (as I discovered) names this shape a truncated cuboctahedron or great rhombicuboctahedron. The shape is enhanced by the addition of the radar dishes.
There are still some noticeable gaps and I could defend or condemn them, but I know that compromises have to be made to achieve other goals. Here I feel that the pros of play function outweigh the cons in terms of looks.
Conclusion
Despite this set having a terrible price per gram, I quite like it. The weight is 687g and gives us a UK cost of 11.64 pence per gram which, sadly, is higher than even that of set 75440 AT-AT that I recently reviewed.
There is an argument to be made about value, once again, but I'm not going to do that: it is clear to see that the commodity value is very poor here, but there is a little more to this set that enhances its appeal in my opinion.
The first thing to note is that there are no stickers. That's not really a surprise; compound curves, domes and more complex geometry are not normally stickered.
BB-8, like R2-D2 before him has personality; he's quirky and likeable. That's an achievement in a machine that communicates in a sophisticated series of beeps and whistles. Furthermore, translating that personality into (silent) LEGO form is a tricky task, and it is wheely well done in this interpretation. You could say they've built character into him!
I'm conflicted a little: this BB-8 feels like it's balancing the accuracy wanted in a display model with the functions that make for an interesting LEGO set. The fun of the build, the functions and the appeal of some of the new parts I think elevates this slightly overall.
I'm not completely convinced by the 4x4 round plates that cap each of the 'corners' and I feel that the sphere of the body is overall a little elongated. The depiction of BB-8 is mostly pretty convincing though, and I think it's a fair interpretation.
I didn't mind the approach to opening up his whole side to access the blue flame and I thought the function of the head turn was a little erratic.
Overall, I'm not going to recommend the set; at US$89.99/ £79.99/ 89.99€/ AU$149.99 I think it's very expensive for what's included. Don't let that stop you from buying it – I just think you might not mind quite so much if you can get it with any kind of discount.
READ MORE: Review of BrickLink Designer Program set 910061 Antique Collection
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The BB-8 head is actually confusing me. This version appears to be an existing version, but the version shown in the TLG images show a slightly different head (where the small silver square left of the centre eye is missing.
ReplyDeleteWoops, it is a new head, but only differs slightly near the photoreceptors.
Delete