The Times They Are A-Changin’ Part Two: Packaging

In the last installment we covered a variety of sets that have changed in their overall build design during production. However, it isn’t just the items within the box that can be changed but so too can the packaging itself.

The earliest example occurred with the 7140/7142 X-Wing Fighter and 7150/7152 TIE Fighter & Y-Wing. Both of the original sets were released in 1999 as part of the first wave of sets. Just three years later they were re-released in nearly identical packaging, but the set had been given an updated set number. These are the only examples of a Star Wars set being re-released in its original form under a new number.

• 

• 

• 

• 

In 2003/2004 one of the most notable and collectable packaging changes would occur. A total of six sets – 4478 Geonosian Fighter, 4483 AT-AT, 4500 Rebel Snowspeeder, 4501 Mos Eisley Cantina, 4502 X-wing Fighter, 4504 Millennium Falcon – came in two different box designs. The first style has blue framing and is similar to other LEGO sets from the time while the second style had black and silver edges. Even though the changes were made within the same year, only four of the sets would carry the “Original Trilogy Edition” label.

Similar to the changes made with the blue vs black box editions above, there were two Clone Wars sets that had a box color swap during their production. Both 7669 Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter and 7670 Hailfire Droid & Spider Droid were part of the Winter Wave of 2008 and initially came with black and red packaging with Darth Vader’s helmet on the header. These two sets were used as a soft launch for the Clone Wars category with the remaining sets coming in July. When the summer came, both of these sets were repackaged with the blue and white style and a Clone Trooper header.

• 

• 

• 

• 

A similar effect can be found on a number of polybag sets as well. Many of these have a longer production run which means that the packaging is updated to the current header for each year. We have included an example here, but you can find all known variants listed in the notes portion of the database entry in our dedicated Polybag section.

• 

• 

A few of the sets that we covered in the last article also had changes made to the packaging that were consistent with the ones made to the build. The majority of 8097 Slave I‘s changes were internal which means the only evidence on the box is the change in piece count. However, some of the changes such as the replacement of the 2×2 tan tiles can be seen from the outside of the ship and were not changed for the updated box.

• 

• 

For both 75090 Ezra’s Speeder Bike and 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter the changes in design created visual differences on the outside of the vehicle. Surprisingly, the box art was updated to reflect these changes. In a similar manner so too was the polybag for 30461 Podracer which reflects the build change as well as updating the piece count.

• 

• 

• 

• 

In 2005, LEGO experimented with minifigures with light-up capabilities. Five were designed for the Star Wars theme with light-up lightsabers (sometimes referred to as LULS) that were included in the right hand of the figure. One of these was Mace Windu who was included in 7261 Clone Turbo Tank. For some reason, the following year the set had replaced the LULS version with a regular Mace Windu minifig and the packaging was changed to reflect this difference by removing the open section that allowed consumers to try out the light-up functionality.

• 

• 

A more recent change was made with 75188 Resistance Bomber when the pilots on the box were swapped to be more screen-accurate. These last two examples serve as a good transition into Part 3 of the series – minifigures!

• 

• 

Are there any other examples of changes that have been made to the packaging that we didn’t cover? Let us know of any we may have missed in the comments below.