Scout Trooper Helmet [REVIEW] | LEGO Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars | Scout Trooper Helmet [REVIEW]

Theme: LEGO Star Wars

Name: Scout Trooper Helmet (75305)

Year: 2021

Price: €49.99 | $49.99

Pieces: 471

Minifigs: 0

The Scout Trooper Helmet is the cheapest LEGO Star Wars helmet collection set to date at just €52.99. It comes as part of the second wave of this subtheme, which started exactly a year before this launch. So how does it compare to the others?

The set has no minifigures, so those sections won’t be included in this review.

The 18+ black boxart was designed specifically for the Helmet Collection sets of last year, so of course it continues onto the scout trooper here. It looks as good as ever. The box is almost a collectable in and of itself. I especially love the “Helmet Collection” writing on the side of it. In the downtime before I built this set, I displayed the box on its own and it looked amazing.

The instruction manual has the same art as the boxart on the front, with just the Star Wars logo on an otherwise black background. It starts off with two pages of preamble, a single page with details about the scout trooper, and a second page that’s just a picture of the scout trooper. It surprised me how little they wrote as the preamble. It’s definitely better than rambling for 5 pages just to pad it out (I’m looking at you, 21055).

LEGO have officially moved away from the black background in the instructions at this point, so it’s not surprising to see the familiar greyish blue background come back here. As much as I liked the black background, moving back isn’t too much of a loss really.

The build experience for this set was largely similar to other helmet collection sets. For its foundation, you build a kind of ‘box’ skeleton and patch on the external details. This is fine of course, it’s a fun and affective way to do it. For anyone whose built any other Helmet sets though, it’ll be nothing new to you in that sense.

In terms of techniques used, nothing really jumped out and surprised me about this set. Maybe it’s because I’ve built 3 helmet sets before, but nothing about the construction of this one wowed me in all honesty.

it was a fun build, for sure. I liked putting together the front mouth/nose area especially, and how the sides attached to the set was fairly satisfying. Other than that, it was fairly unnoteworthy.

This set uses quite a lot of stickers, considering the size. That being said, I don’t have any problems with how they were used for the most part. My issues with the stickers in this set mostly comes from LEGO’s reluctance to print them on a transparent background.

The Front Stickers

I think using stickers for the vent details on the face of the mask is the only way they could have gotten those details in, so that’s no problem. However, there is a clear colour discrepancy here. The white background of the sticker and the white of the pieces surrounding it simply don’t match. For a premium, adult-oriented display set like this, I really wish they had used transparent backgrounds on these stickers. I don’t mind it so much for the back vents, because its not seen so much, but for the nose and forehead stickers I think the white background stands out too much.

The Back Stickers

The stickers on the back of the helmet make up the vast majority of the stickers used in this set. I do think they could have sacrificed a little bit of accuracy for the sake of building this with bricks. They could’ve done two 1×2 sloped tiles but have the bottom ones be the dark grey colour they needed. They use a dark-grey piece for the rhombus shapes above it already, so it wouldn’t stand out too much either.

I don’t know how else they could’ve done the white vents stickers on the back though. I suppose they could have left it just white, which I think would be acceptable. They could have used printed 1×4 sloped pieces to achieve this detail I suppose. For a set in this premium market, that maybe could have been better, in my opinion.

Scale/Shaping

If you’re familiar with previous Helmet Collection sets, then you know what to expect from this one in terms of its size and display-ability.

I originally thought the back of the helmet was weirdly bulbous, but after looking the below picture (Credit: Sideshow Collectibles) I was clearly mistaken. I was blown away at how well they managed to shape this set and how well they detailed it. They managed to include the two grey rhombus shapes as well as get the venting right (by use of stickers).

I think the overall shaping is more accurate than people give it credit for. I’ve seen complaints that the top of the helmet is too square and boxy, but if you look at the source material, I think they shaped it very well. In person I think it looks completely fine.

Detailing

Comparing it to the scout trooper helmet in the movie (Photo Credit) , I am shocked at how well they captured the details in this set. I love how they did the mouth area. A detail I really liked is how they did the thick black line surrounding the grey section of the mouth/nose. They captured that here by using black plates attached to the cheek sections. Unfortunately, this black detail doesn’t go all the way around, but I love that they managed to capture it as they did. It would’ve been very easy to leave a gap there.

The Visor

They didn’t quite get the visor shape perfect, but I think they did they could’ve within the LEGO system. The sloped 1×4 tiles are probably the most gradual sloped piece they could find, but it still creates too strong a curve compared to the real thing, I think. Its definitely shaped well enough, but I feel it’s more level in the real thing for sure. I photoshopped a more accurate version to illustrate what I mean.

The Grey Accents

The last detail I want to mention is this grey section LEGO included at the top of the head. In all the source material I took a look at, I couldn’t find a single one with this grey detailing. This is a situation where the LEGO designer decided to take some liberties with the design for the sake of balancing out the colour distribution, and I honestly do quite like it. It may not be 100% accurate, but it works well with the set. It combines with the grey area of the mouth and the tiles on the sides to really balance the set. You could even view it as extra shaping/the shadow from where the visor connects to the helmet. Either way, I do like the inclusion here, it just works. The top of the head would look much blander had it been all white.

The set retails for €52.99 / $49.99 and contains 471 pieces, which isn’t too bad. It’s the cheapest Helmet Collection set they’ve done to date, but it doesn’t really look or feel like it. The build did feel very quick, considering the price, but it wasn’t like the Great Wall of China set where it ended so soon I felt ripped off.

Its competition at this price range would be the Bonsai Tree, Flower Bouquet, and Architecture New York sets. Of these sets, I think the Bonsai Tree is its only real competitor. Assuming you’re in the market for an adult-focused display-set, the decision between which to get is fairly simple:

If you have other sets in the Helmet Collection, or even are just a fan of Star Wars, absolutely this set is worth it and you should get it over the Bonsai Tree.
If you have 0 interest in Star Wars, or have a deep interest in Japanese Botany, then the Bonsai Tree is probably a better choice.

Don’t be fooled by the price-per piece on this set compared to the Bonsai Tree though. You get much more stuff with this set, given that it generally uses larger pieces than the tree. The Bonsai Tree, for example, has 100+ pieces you won’t be using half the time, and 200 that are just used as ‘pebbles’. The display value of each is subjective, but you definitely get a weightier set with the Helmet.

Overall, I think it this is a brilliant addition to the Helmet Collection series. It’s a surprisingly highly detailed helmet with a solid but unremarkable build.

Helmet Collection Rank

Compared to other sets in the Helmet Collection, its very hard to rank this. I think Im gonna rank it 2^nd out of 4 sets for now. I think the margins for ranking these helmets are very tight, so it comes down to tiny details to decide which I prefer. In this case, I think this set balances visible studs and tiled sections better than the stormtrooper helmet. I think the superior piece count and mass of the TIE Fighter Helmet is enough to keep it in first.

Star Wars Rank

Relative the Star Wars sets, it keeps itself sandwiched within this pack and is ranked 10^th out of 42 sets.

All Sets Rank

Overall ranking, all themes included, would be 26^th out of 98 sets. Again, sandwiched within the pack of Helmet Collection sets. The margins are too narrow between these that it’d be impossible for me to separate them.

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LEGO Star Wars | Scout Trooper Helmet [REVIEW]

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