The LEGO Group has removed the designer video for 75309 Republic Gunship from its YouTube channel following significant backlash from Star Wars fans.
Controversy has followed the newest Ultimate Collector Series set since day one, mostly stemming from quotes from the design team and decisions made by the LEGO Group’s marketing department. The designer video for 75309 Republic Gunship has seemingly only added fuel to the fire, to the point that it’s now been taken down from the official LEGO YouTube channel.
First published over the weekend, a full month after the 3,292-piece set hit shelves, the video featured LEGO designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer sharing insights into the design process behind the enormous rendition of the prequel trilogy ship. But two choice quotes – which you can see preserved in MandRproductions’ video below – led to backlash from fans in the comments.
The first of those was Hans referring to the Republic Gunship as an ‘original trilogy’ vehicle, despite the fact that it first appeared in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones – a prequel trilogy movie. (This could easily be explained away by Hans meaning the ‘original’, pre-Disney movies, but it still doesn’t fit widely-used Star Wars terminology).
The second was in doubling down on quotes first reported on Brick Fanatics, in which Hans referred to the included Clone Commander minifigure as ‘doubling up’ as a pilot for 75309 Republic Gunship, in the absence of an actual Clone Pilot minifigure. Those comments were chastised at the time of the set’s reveal back in July, and received no more warmly here.
The designer video subsequently attracted a high proportion of dislikes (compared to likes), along with plenty of negative comments – which has now ultimately led to the LEGO Group removing it from its YouTube channel altogether. Whether an amended version of the video is in the works remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: the community still isn’t happy with the marketing around 75309 Republic Gunship.
For a closer look at the set itself, which really deserves no such vitriol, check out our in-depth review. 75309 Republic Gunship is available now at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores.
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