More LEGO Star Wars fun with my daughter this week as we built another new set, the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium.
Firstly, a confession. I’ll admit it. The reason why we selected this particular set for review was because of one of its smallest elements – the Princess Leia minifig.
(As you can see, we also have Sabine, from another soon to be reviewed set.)
This is not to put down this LEGO Star Wars set by any means. But we have wanted a Leia figure for some time (that WASN’T in her ‘slave’ outfit) and we’re stoked to finally have one. My daughter was so desperate for one she started making up her own from what we had, creating brand new adventures for her too. Now we have one, sporting a rather cool if fragile looking camouflage poncho.
As well as a LEGO Princess Leia in her Endor outfit, you also get Han Solo & Chewbacca, plus two similarly attired Rebels. Accessories include the usual guns (Chewie gets his crossbow one), some thermal grenades, plus what appears to be cake – presumably the food Leia offers to Wicket the Ewok in the movie.
This is the latest in a line of Imperial Shuttle LEGO sets, but is the first one to include the rebels, and is taken from the scene in Return of the Jedi when they attempt to sneak onto the moon of Endor to sabotage the force field protecting the under-construction Death Star.
The build took us a few sessions of an hour or two, with my 3-year-old daughter helping me out with this age 9+ recommended set. I can see why the age is relatively high, as this is an intricately engineered model, with hinged ramp and cockpit plus fold up wings and doors in the cargo section.
It also features fold-out guns and fireable rockets/torpedoes – the set comes with (or at least ours did) much needed additional spares. It also has retractable landing gear, which is cool but we have found to be a little temperamental.
While the dominant white colour scheme is not reflective of the colour of the ship in the movies, it makes for a more eye catching model, that is visually different from our other grey Star Wars sets.
Being a vehicle, to me it lacks the full on creative storytelling led playability of the Death Star Final Duel set, but my daughter still loves opening the doors, ramp, landing gear – and of course firing those missiles! It has prompted many creative play sessions, involving new adventures and scenarios.
While I found the Imperial Shuttle to be one of the less interesting craft in the movies, as a LEGO Star Wars model it looks great. It’s still one of the iconic ships of the original trilogy, and adding these classic minifigs to your LEGO collection is a nice bonus. My daughter and I had fun building it, and a great time playing with it too.
The LEGO Star Wars – Imperial Shuttle Tydirium (75094) has a RRP of £79.99, but please see below for your chance to win one.
** This giveaway is now closed, but the LEGO Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Tydirium set (75094) can still be purchased here **
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I think it’s important for boys and girls that female characters such as Princess Leia are included in merchandise like this. What do you think?
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Disclaimer: While I was not paid to write this piece, we did receive the set reviewed free of charge. All opinions remain ours.
Man vs. Pink 
Very important, all series should have a female hero
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I completely agree. Lego has tried really hard to include girls with the introduction of Lego friends. My daughters both love Star Wars though so this set would be amazing for them
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Yes I totally agree
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I completely agree. And children shouldn’t feel under any pressure to play with toys targeted at their specific sex.
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Of course it’s appropriate for both sexes to be included, just like in real life!!
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Just let boys and girls play with what they want !
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Lego shouldn’t be gender dividing as girls and boys love to build whatever is in their imagination!
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Really important for all the characters and both sexes to be represented – Love that your daughter created her own Leia too!
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I (clearly) loved that as well! 🙂
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I think it is great they include both, it is great for children to have both to play with.
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I completely agree. It’s really important that children feel that they are able to play with the same playset with each other.
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I totally agree that equality should have no age limits – the younger a child learns that men and women are equal the better in my opinion.
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I definitely agree, it’s important that there’s equality. Lego are getting there though…slowly 🙂
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It is good both male and female characters are included
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I think it’s good for children to play with both sexes because it reflects real life. Also they can be even more creative when playing.
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I think it is very important. I always buy boy and girl figures for my boys
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It is of course good that action sets such as Star Wars are (or could be) marketed at both boys and girls. What sort of weirdo would claim otherwise? But equality and challenging entrenched gender roles should also be about marketing all sets at both boys and girls, not having a two-tier system where girls are occasionally gifted a female minifig character so as to legitmise them playing with a ‘boys’ set.
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As a kid, I don’t think I would have wanted any female figures. But I see my son playing with his Marvel Lego & he’s quite happy playing with the Black Widow, Storm, Gamora & Scarlet Witch minifigures and I realise that, thankfully, times have moved on!
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I agree it is important, male and female should always be included so children can choose which they prefer
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yeah very important
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In Star Wars, Princess Leia is one of the strong main characters – so it would be wrong for her to be left out of a game set intended for boys and girls. Any film/tv show that has an exclusively male or female cast should reflect that. And anything that is showing ‘real life’ should have a ‘mixed cast’ (just like real life!)
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a sensible approach .. full agreement xx
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even for boys it’s good to see strong female roles
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Boy or girl they should be able to play with all toys, grown ups don’t adhere to whether they are male or female when choosing a career path
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Exactly 🙂
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both role models important
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Yes very important, especially if little boys will be playing with them. It helps to teach them about equality.
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I think these days a lot of toys that were just known for been boys/girls toys are now for both. My daughter loves playing with Lego and its nice that they include figures of both sexes so that all children can get involved 🙂
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I absolutly agree
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I completely agree by adding in a princess it becomes appealing to girls aswell as boys and I think its so important that kids don’t have stereotypes about what they should be playing with
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I’m all for having both male and female heroes
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Definitely! It’s important for both girls and boys to see women included – and in powerful roles.
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In this day and age it’s imperative. Equality should stretch from childhood right the way through and should be promoted.
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She’s equally part of the films so yes!
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Definitely it makes it more appealing to girls and shows boys that it is acceptable to play with female characters. I think there is far too much stigma surrounding that subject. But kids should play freely.
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it is important to show that women have an equal place with men
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Very important but I do think we need to stop over thinking things I have boy girl twins and she definitely heads towards the more classically girly but they choose themselves. Sometimes we can end up getting too obsessed and media almost shames those that fit conventional stereotypes
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Far from being ‘shamed’, children who enjoy traditional gendered interests aren’t the ones teased or bullied about it on the playground.
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Completely agree
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Yes I agree we need to teach children that there are strong females out there as well as males!
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Of course there should be both as it should be reflective of life.
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girls and boys play with the same toys its thier choice.
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Definitely agree. 🙂
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Yes, for sure although I’m all for kids being allowed to play with any toys, regardless of gender.
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Yes, I believe children of both genders should be able to play with toys aimed at one particular gender.
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My Daughter loves Lego – I don’t see why she can’t play with sets that are more male orientated x
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Its fab to see that they have included more female characters outside of the Lego Friends range. x
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yes i defiantly agree with you
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I think it’s good so girls have a character they can identify with while the set being fun for boys to play with too
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I am happy for my children to play with girl and boy characters and I know my kids like it so its good!
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Definitely! It wouldn’t be Star Wars without Princess Leia.
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i thik it is really important, because lego is one of those rare toys that everyone young and old play with and love, so role models for everyone is equal and fair
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Yes i think its really important for kids to see both genders fill an equal role!
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