As one of the first characters to appear on screen in A New Hope, Owen Lars is a name that many older fans recognize but one that could easily get skipped over by the newer generation of enthusiasts. As part of our focus on the new 75341 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder, let’s take a look at the man who helped raise him.
Owen Lars was a moisture farmer on the desert planet of Tatooine. His father, Cliegg Lars, married Shmi Skywalker after purchasing her from Watto and subsequently freeing her from slavery. This means that sometime in the ten years between Anakin starting his Jedi training and Shmi’s death, Anakin and Owen became stepbrothers. After Cliegg’s passing, Owen became the only family that Anakin had left.
Determined to take over the Lars Family Homestead, Owen married Beru Whitesun and continued moisture farming. A couple of years later, Owen would be contacted by Obi-Wan Kenobi and tasked with raising Luke Skywalker. Although Owen would keep Luke from learning the truth about Anakin, Luke knew that Owen was not his father and referred to him as Uncle Owen.
Uncle Owen first appeared in LEGO form in 2005 with the release of 10144 Sandcrawler, a set that was exclusive to LEGO brand stores and the shop@home online service.
He was given a unique face print with a gray stubbly beard and a blank expression. His torso printing was also uniquely composed of tan and gray robes with a brown undershirt. This version received a basic light bluish gray hairpiece and plain reddish brown legs.
Almost a decade later the updated version would be released in 75059 Sandcrawler, the upscaled Ultimate Collector Series version of the previous model.
The figure was a complete redesign and came with all unique prints. Although it was exclusive to the set, the price was fairly modest going for around US$17/UK£13 on average.
However, that all changed when the first images of 40531 Lars Family Homestead Kitchen revealed that – after more than twenty years – an Aunt Beru minifigure was finally on the way.
Although the average sold price has not gone up tremendously, both the max sold price and average price of available minifigs indicate that all the cheaper options have been bought up. Only time will tell if this minifigure will remain one of the most expensive or if this is just a temporary increase brought on by community reaction.
Founder and owner of The Holo-Brick Archives, Kevin Downard maintains and curates the Database Catalog as a collecting resource for all fans and covers new product releases.
Getting in at the ground floor when the LEGO Star Wars theme first launched, Kevin has been collecting ever since. He is a self-proclaimed minifigure guru and has a passion for tracking down and cataloging every minifig variation – no matter how obscure. He has assisted Rebrickable and Bricklink in maintaining their set inventories, helped overhaul the rebelscum.com LEGO forum, and created the LSW Collector mobile app.
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