This piece of news is rather odd, but in a relatively good way. If you recall back in 2017, one of the better sets that LEGO has released under the LEGO Star Wars The Last Jedi subtheme is the new Resistance Bomber (75188) set consisting of 778 pieces and 5 minifigures. One of these minifigures was simply referred to as Resistance Bomber Pilot, in honor supposedly of the pilot that coursed the bomber that destroyed the Dreadnaught at the opening sequence of The Last Jedi. It was a cliff hanger of a scene, with the entire crew of the lone Resistance Bomber eventually sacrificing their selves in order to carry out their critical mission. It is a great scene that eventually found its way as an official LEGO set. However, devout LEGO Star Wars fans quickly noticed the small, but very unpleasant inconsistency that this particular LEGO set has, and LEGO was quick to respond.
According to an excellent summary written by The Brothers Brick, this nagging inconsistency was eventually addressed by LEGO. So what was it exactly? With the release of The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron novel, which is considered as part of Star Wars canon, the generic Resistance Bomber Pilot now has a name, and LEGO eventually re-issued a new minifigure to accurately represent his character. Named as Finch Dallow, LEGO has now confirmed that they will be re-issuing, or has issued an update already, to correct this matter. Though Finch was only given 5-seconds of screen time on the big screen, it was enough to give us a close look at the character.
As you may have noticed already, Finch’s character is very much different from his generic minifigure rendition that was released with the Resistance Bomber (75188) set. Thankfully, the matter was addressed by LEGO when it gave its official response to an inquiring fan:
“When we develop LEGO sets based on movies, we aspire to make minifigures and models that reflect the iconic characters and scenes in the film. For this reason our products are most often developed by LEGO designers using reference material from specific movies – still images, sketches, as well as in the actual movies as inspiration. We developed The Lego Star Wars Resistance Bomber set (75188), based on “The Last Jedi” movie and discovered after the film was released that one of The Lego minifigures in the set doesn’t reflect the movie scene properly. As a result, we decided to adjust the set accordingly, true to our motto: “Only the best is good enough”. We hope Star Wars fans across the world appreciate this attention to details”
It is a known fact that LEGO designers do not really receive the entire set of details about a film or a particular scene in which a LEGO set will eventually be based. This holds true in the case of the LEGO Star Wars Resistance Bomber. This adjustment resulted in the roll-out of a new and updated LEGO Star Wars Resistance Bomber (75188) that perfectly captures in minifigure form the character of Finch Dallow, including his Resistance helmet as well. Check out these side by side images, comparing the old and new minifigs, as shared by The Brothers Brick.
Now I’m not really sure if this re-issued LEGO Star Wars Resistance Bomber set has already been released to the market, but an Instagram post from actor Kevin Layne who played the role of Finch Dallow, may hint that this re-issued set may already be out there.
The only question is where and how will you be able to get this set later on, considering that it is reasonable to expect that previously released Resistance Bomber sets with the generic Resistance Bomber Pilot minifigure, is still distributed in the market. Though as TBB observes, this kind of scarcity has led to some ‘overblown’ hype towards the Finch minifigure, as evidenced by its risen value of as much as $100 in some secondary market platforms. This is not something that LEGO intends though, and I’m personally glad that LEGO has corrected this matter, though a little bit too late in my opinion.
Frankly, it’s now seems to a kind of hit and miss if you wish to get your hands on an updated set that contains the new Finch Dallow minifigure. Even if the Resistance Bomber is still up and selling at shop.LEGO.com, buying it from LEGO’s online store still doesn’t guarantee if ever you will receive the new minifig. In fact, the LEGO Shop@Home page for this particular set is still not updated with the new Finch minifig as of this posting.
Anyways, what are your thoughts about this change? Do you think it’s worthwhile to haunt down this set with the hope of landing on this new and accurate minifigure rendition? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
