LEGO Star Wars 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit review

LEGO Star Wars casts us back into the Pit of Carkoon for its summer 2024 line-up, but are we about to find a new definition of pain and suffering?

The LEGO Group is revisiting a tried and true concept in 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, a set that calls back to three previous standalone desert skiffs – two of which have also come bundled with a small Sarlacc pit. This one mixes things up for the LEGO Star Wars theme by shifting its focus to the Sarlacc pit, complete with a small taste of Tatooine’s sand dunes. But not for the first time this year, the LEGO Group has put a huge bounty on the price of admission…

Release: August 1, 2024 Price: £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 Pieces: 558 Minifigures: 6 LEGO: Order now

‘R2, we need to be going up’

It’s fair to say that previous LEGO Sarlacc pits have been a little… lacking. The beast itself typically gets all the attention, and there’s no semblance of the actual pit. 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit attempts to rectify that situation by devoting a bunch more pieces to the Sarlacc’s sandy surroundings, making use of a variety of tan and dark tan plates and slopes to simulate Tatooine’s most dangerous dune, complete with two Technic assemblies to turn its tentacles in tandem.

The idea is a nice one, and you can see what the designers were going for. It’s a strong starting point for building your own wider Tatooine display, for one thing – and it’s tough to criticise LEGO sets that go the extra mile to provide that spark of inspiration for budding builders. But for those who aren’t in a position to expand on what’s in the box, the pit as it comes feels like a bit of a misfire.

A pit is defined by its verticality – you’re throwing minifigures into rather than on to it – but 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit opts to expand things horizontally instead. The result is a still relatively shallow build that for some reason stretches Jabba’s favourite pet (RIP the Rancor) into a weird rectangle. Take a look at images from the original movie: the opening to the pit may not be entirely circular, but the Sarlacc’s mouth is. Not so in this set. It’s a strange choice, and not the first one you’ll encounter in 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit. The good news is that things only really get better from here.

Skiff superiority

This is the best version of the desert skiff to date, refining rather than overhauling the already strong starting point of 2017’s 75174 Desert Skiff Escape. It’s still six studs wide, and still uses the same large slope elements, tubing and retro hand rails to capture the broad strokes of the skiff. But the details are different: smaller slopes and wedge plates build up a stronger rear end; a quick raid on Master Wu’s wardrobe neatly tops off the skiff’s steering vanes; and even the control pedestal cranks up the details, swapping out a printed tile for brick-built controls.

The result is a desert skiff that feels slightly higher-resolution than 2017’s effort, and the only real criticism that can be levied against it is prioritising tiles over studs, which makes posing the minifigures a little tricky. But that’s the easiest fix in the book if you’re so inclined (save for the extendable gangplank, which needs to be stud-free to retract properly). The other modification you might want to make is extending the height of its transparent stands, which are a welcome bonus here, but definitely not tall enough to give the scene that much-needed sense of verticality.

‘His Excellency hopes that you will pay honourably’

If 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit’s builds are a mixed bag, that same spectrum of highs and lows also applies to its minifigures. This is a hodgepodge of previous desert skiff line-ups, combining Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian (in his bounty hunter disguise) from 2012’s 9496 Desert Skiff with Han Solo and Chewbacca from 2017’s 75174 Desert Skiff Escape, plus Boba Fett (who appeared in both).

It’s basically every major main character from the skiff scenes, which is good news for anyone missing these guys in their collection, but it does come at the expense of more interesting cannon fodder – those background aliens like the Weequay Skiff Guard or Kithaba, both of whom appeared in previous desert skiffs. Even the designs are hit and miss: one hand, this is the best version of this Luke Skywalker yet, complete with his new-for-2023 hairpiece, while Han’s new double-sided face print feels straight out of a LEGO Star Wars video game or TV special.

Lando also represents a significant improvement over the previous version, with a more detailed helmet print, a double-sided head and full leg printing. But it all comes crumbling down with Boba Fett, who’s a straight reuse from last summer’s 75369 Boba Fett Mech. It’s a very good minifigure: it’s just not the right one for this set. The bounty hunter has a slightly different outfit in Return of the Jedi, which the LEGO Star Wars team did a great job with in 2017, so it’s baffling to see such a lack of attention to detail here.

All that said, the real star of the show – just as it is in 75394 Imperial Star Destroyer – is actually the bonus 25th-anniversary minifigure. This time round it’s Nien Nunb, a character somehow overlooked for the past 25 years despite his memorable turn at the controls of the Millennium Falcon in Return of the Jedi. He’s also our first example of a moulded Sullustan head, and the LEGO element design team has absolutely knocked it out of the park here.

But you won’t be surprised to learn that all of this comes at a price. And as usual for LEGO Star Wars, it’s a price that a significant chunk of the community is going to struggle to accept. The LEGO Group wants £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 for 75396 Desert Skiff & Sarlacc Pit, which is more than double the price of 75174 Desert Skiff Escape for a package that feels pretty close to that 2017 set – just with a bit more sand.

Like 75385 Ahsoka Tano’s Battle on Peridea, the finished product feels around £20 too expensive. But at least here you’ll end up with a more satisfying LEGO Star Wars set, so it’s not all bad. Just wait for a discount before diving into this particular pit…

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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Our honest opinion: The Sarlacc pit might not be all that, but the switch in focus hasn’t compromised the skiff or the minifigures. Nothing here justifies that price tag, though.