This LEGO Star Wars battle pack stands out for the wrong reason in 2024
LEGO Star Wars 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack is a surprisingly good army builder – but it stands out for entirely the wrong reason in 2024.
Originally released last August, 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack revisits an obscure Clone Trooper variant that made its debut in 2020’s 75283 Armored Assault Tank (AAT). The orange-tinted 501st troopers that comprise the 332nd Company banded together to help Ahsoka Tano defend Mandalore in Season 7 of The Clone Wars, and the LEGO Group included a solitary example in the 286-piece set.
The LEGO Star Wars team finally gave us an easier (and cheaper) way to amass an army of these distinctive troopers in 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack, which includes three regular soldiers and Captain Vaughn (distinguished by his torso markings and orange visor). They aren’t exactly the same minifigures as in 2020 – they’ve now got the helmet holes introduced in 2022, to equip accessories like Vaughn’s visor – but they’re close enough.
And while collecting a bunch of these does mean you’re going to end up with an equal bunch of Vaughns (named characters being the bane of all good battle packs), his only unique element is his torso – and the troopers otherwise use standard 501st Legion torsos, which are readily available in 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack and in copious numbers on the aftermarket. That means you can still make use of his helmet, head and legs for bonus regular troopers.
These four detailed minifigures are accompanied by a blue and grey swamp speeder, which makes absolutely zero thematic sense for The Clone Wars, but is actually a pretty fun battle pack vehicle when all’s said and done. It’s certainly a lot better than – for example – the speeder bike included in 75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack. So on paper, this is a pretty successful battle pack. But there’s one thing holding it back: the price.
LEGO Star Wars battle packs have fallen victim to some of the LEGO Group’s most egregious and substantial price increases over the past few years, rocketing up from £8.99 when they debuted in 2007 to £9.99, £10.99, £12.99 and – with the return of the concept in 2022 following a year absent from shelves – £17.99, starting with 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack. Eighteen months later, 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack nudged things up again to £18.99 in the UK.
Buy a copy of 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack and take the three minutes required to put it together, and you’re going to wonder where your money just went. This is very much not £19 worth of LEGO, and that only becomes more apparent when you look at what the LEGO Star Wars team has launched since in 2024.
75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack arrived on shelves in January, resurrecting the concept of dual-faction battle packs and introducing an easy way to build a regular droid army for the first time since 2007’s 7654 Droids Battle Pack. That set likewise includes four Clone Troopers – three shinies and one Coruscant Guard Trooper – but also packs in two Battle Droids, three Super Battle Droids and almost double the number of pieces as 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack (215 vs. 108).
That’s basically twice as much ‘stuff’ as the August 2023 set. So if you didn’t know better, you might imagine the LEGO Group is charging around £34.99 for the 2024 model. Nope: 75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack retails for just £24.99. You’re getting so much more for your money that it just makes 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack look even worse value by comparison.
The bad news is that if rumours are to be believed, 75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack looks set to be a one-off. The next LEGO Star Wars battle pack is said to be arriving in June in the shape of 75373 Ambush on Mandalore Battle Pack, a Mandalorian Season 3 set that’s rumoured to include four minifigures and 108 pieces for $19.99 in the US and €21.99 in Europe – a €1 price increase on 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack, and exactly the same value proposition in the US.
It’s clear that the LEGO Group doesn’t consider Battle Droids as cost-intensive (or perhaps as valuable) as regular LEGO minifigures, which probably goes some way to explaining the disparity between the Ahsoka and Mando packs and 2024’s dual-faction set. But given we’re back to a paltry piece count for 75373 Ambush on Mandalore Battle Pack (108, the same as 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack), the outlook isn’t great.
If you can find these more expensive battle packs at a deep discount, and particularly 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack, they can’t be faulted for their army-building potential. The LEGO Group is really knocking it out of the park with the contents of these packs: it’s just a shame their prices are so off-putting. But it does make 75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack a much easier buy by contrast…
This copy of 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack was provided by the LEGO Group.
75372 Clone Trooper & Battle Droid Battle Pack and 75359 332nd Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper Battle Pack are both available now at LEGO.com, in LEGO Stores and through all good third-party retailers.
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