We Build LEGO Boba Fett, Complete With Jet Pack And Wookiee Scalps

The new LEGO Star Wars: Boba Fett, out now, is a 16-inch-tall poseable statue, and it includes all the details you'd expect to see in a LEGO set of this size and scope. It cuts an impressive figure, and its pose looks organic rather than static. There's a difference between having a model of Boba Fett's armor and having a model of Boba Fett himself, and this set is decidedly the latter rather than the former.

The build comes in 15 paper bags. The designers sculpted the base to look like Tatooine's desert surface, and the legs are anchored directly into it via pins. They're angled to create a more natural pose, in which Fett is shifting his weight onto his right foot.

When you initially build the legs, they feel flimsy, but later in the build, you pinch them into place with additional bricks on either side of them. Gray bricks form the musculature on the thighs and calves.

Then you build the torso, a barrel-shaped build (the chest and the abdomen), connected together with pins. The green armor elements are added on later, when the build is almost complete, to create pecs.

Next are the arms and hands, which you build as mirror reflections to each other. The shoulder joints – just as with the knee joints on the legs – are stylized with yellow armored plates. On Fett's right shoulder is a weapon accessory that's reappropriated as a Wookiee scalp. There's also a hose representing the flamethrower that attaches from the right wrist to the back. There's another attachment representing a concussive rocket launcher on his left wrist.

Then comes the head and helmet, which you can turn and tilt to your liking. The most distinctive part of the build, the helmet, curves in all the right places, and it uses black tiles to create a clever illusion of negative space.

Then comes the jetpack, equipped with a missile/rocket mounted on its top, and his signature poncho draped over his left shoulder. Next is the rifle, which you can cradle in both of Fett's arms if you articulate the model properly. And lastly, you build the black stand for the placard and the Boba Fett minifigure.

Boba Fett is an ideal subject for a LEGO model, because his look is nearly the entirety of his characterization. We don't have much narrative to go on; in the original Star Wars trilogy, Fett only appears on-screen for eight minutes, during which he establishes himself as a man of few words and decisive action. All four lines of his dialogue are impersonal and service-oriented, and they convey a cold amorality. This is a man whose job – and his devotion to it – is his most defining characteristic.

His visual presentation communicates how good he is at that job. Compare the condition of his dented, weathered, armor to that of your average, untested Imperial Stormtrooper, who looks like he just stepped off the factory line. His weaponry, incoherent in its variety, tells a story all on its own. I imagine that each piece connects to an incident where he nearly lost his life. He added a flamethrower so he never has to worry about X monster again, and he added a grapple hook so he never has to climb out of Y again; it's a kit designed by trial-and-error. This man is battle-scarred, and this LEGO set is a wonderful homage to that sentiment.

LEGO Star Wars: Boba Fett, Set #75455, retails for $169.99, and it is composed of 1,544 pieces. It is available at Amazon and LEGO Store.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.