Review: 75404 Acclamator-class Assault Ship
Posted by CapnRex101,Acclamator-class transports serve an essential role in the Republic navy, valued for their large troop capacity and relative speed. However, the vehicle has made limited appearances in LEGO form, restricted to Advent Calendars and the Planets Series.
Fortunately, the Starship Collection excels with vehicles like this, able to include a high level of detail without becoming enormous and thus expensive. 75404 Acclamator-class Assault Ship certainly looks good in official images and I have been excited to see this vessel depicted at a scale worthy of its prominence onscreen.
Summary
75404 Acclamator-class Assault Ship, 450 pieces.
£44.99 / $49.99 / €49.99 | 10.0p/11.1c/11.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
This model of the Acclamator looks marvellous, but feels too expensive
- Accurate design from all angles
- Intricate surface texture
- Printed pieces
- Great scale with 75377 Invisible Hand
- Expensive, considering its size
- No landing gear
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Reference
Source - wookieepedia.com
The Completed Model
Despite its regular appearances throughout Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I will always associate the Acclamator-class assault ship with Clone forces departing Coruscant at the end of Attack of the Clones and the Republic Commando video game. With that in mind, the wholly grey livery is perhaps more iconic than the Clone Wars variant with red stripes, although those highlights are attractive on the LEGO model.
Moreover, the vessel's shape and proportions are very faithful to the onscreen vehicle, while its length of 23cm means this model scales nicely, though not perfectly, alongside 75377 Invisible Hand. The pair look excellent together on display and the Acclamator certainly benefits from a companion, as it is smaller than previous Starship Collection sets.
Nevertheless, its display stand is identical to others in the series. Though part of me wishes the stands could be simplified to reduce their piece count and potentially the price of each set, I am pleased with their curved shape. Also, they tend to contrast well with the models and the printed plaque beneath the assault ship looks superb, as usual.
Acclamator-class assault ships evidently share certain similarities with various Star Destroyer types, but their broad silhouette is unusual. The designer of this model has captured its shape quite accurately, using the shallow Technic connector introduced in 75398 C-3PO to reproduce the gentle angle of the transport's hull. I find the view from the front effective in particular.
The mix of studded plates and tiles on the hull's surface looks nice, but I was initially uncertain about the texture along the central red stripe, which seems untidy. However, that rough texture is clear in images of the Acclamator, while its gradual tapering towards the nose is accurate too. The slope directly in front of the command tower is awkward though, as that should be subtler, mirroring the wedge slopes on either side.
The command tower itself, on the other hand, looks impressive. I like the trans-clear elements forming windows and the curved shape of the bridge is faithful to the source material, although this structure is rather fragile. Detail continues on each side, as roller skates represent banks of turbolaser batteries.
Much like the bigger Venator-class Star Destroyer, the Acclamator is driven by several engines arranged beside a pronounced tail section. Roller skates are again integrated to good effect for texture, but the engines are attached with low friction Technic pins, so they are not as secure as I would like. The tail is splendid though, featuring 1x6x1 slopes for only the second time in light bluish grey.
Unfortunately, the model lacks landing gear. While not essential when displaying the vessel on its stand, the Acclamator's ability to land directly on a planet's surface, without the need for any planetside structures, is among its most notable features. Also, flaps on the underside can open to serve as ramps, but these are not much use without landing gear.
These ramps are a nice inclusion, nonetheless, with rows of white 1x1 round plates denoting legions of Clone Troopers ready to descend the ramps. Personally, I would have loved to see orange, yellow, dark green and dark red pieces included as well, in reference to Delta Squad's memorable mission aboard a Republic Assault Ship in Star Wars: Republic Commando.
Overall
75404 Acclamator-class Assault Ship is another welcome addition to the Starship Collection, again taking advantage of this scale to recreate a popular, though far from iconic, Star Wars vehicle. The execution of the model is superb on the whole and I was pleased to find that all decorated pieces on the hull are printed.
As increasingly seems to be the case, however, the price of £44.99, $49.99 or €49.99 is pretty expensive. This is the cheapest Starship Collection model to date, but it is significantly smaller than the others too, lacking their presence on display. The price is my only real concern though, as this is an excellent rendition of the Acclamator-class assault ship.
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44 comments on this article
I'm not getting any of the Star Wars sets this wave. They're either too overpriced or simply don't interest me at all.
I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary.
I changed my mind, will be buying this at about €30, I think.
But I agree with the previous commenter that it's a very bad wave, possibly the worst winter wave ever. Other than the ARC-170, I had no "must have this" reaction - and even that one, of course, is overpriced so I'll grab it someday down the line at 40% off..
I really like this and can look past the price. I hope this series continues with a Venator, Trade Federation ship and maybe a CIS Frigate
Thank you for the review @CapnRex101.
It appears so strange to me that some of the sets in the Starship collection comes with only printed pieces, while others come with (quite a few) stickers. Does anyone know the reason for this?
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"I'm not getting any of the Star Wars sets this wave. They're either too overpriced or simply don't interest me at all."
I will just make them the last to be purchased.
It looks good. I don't know much about SW, but this looks like the source material. I like the idea of smaller scale ships. I think the designers are quite clever in how they can construct these.
Oh well. I've got my Advent Acclamator.
(Although as I mentioned in the Advent Countdown, I looked up the sizes of these ships, and man they don't scale well in Advent size. The Acclamator is 752 meters, while the Venator is either 1,137 m or 1,115 m depending on Class I or II, so the Advent Acclamator is just a *little* too big to be a fair match to either version of the Venator.)
I was also hoping that there would be studs for Delta, oh well. I plan on nodding it to the gray one, so might as well swap those out, easy enough
@Th3_3m3rald_M1n3cart said:
"I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary. "
My thoughts too... you look at this and first thoughts are "Oh it's actually flying through space" given the stand etc.
'Begun the Clone War has.' - Yoda
Iconic ship from a iconic scene!
I never really liked the Acclamators. The fact that they look too much like conventional Star Destroyers feels like one of the cases where they overplayed their hand in AOTC, making the Republic (and Anakin) look too evil too fast and had to awkwardly backtrack in the beginning of ROTS with the cooler and more heroic-looking Venators. Of course, both ships were active at the same time in the story, but the Acclamators still feel like a rough draft. The TCW livery only exacerbates it, looking like a hasty paint job to make it look more like a Venator. As it is, I'll continue to wait for a Starship Collection midi-scale Venator.
If this were a playset I'd agree on the landing gear complaint, but as it is, this is a pure display model, so I don't think it's necessary. (Despite that, the Invisible Hand did include the breakaway function...)
The dubious state of Delta Squad in the new canon bugs me. Canonized through a cameo in TCW, barely acknowledged, then a clone commando in Scorch's deco appears in the first season of The Bad Batch, people get excited so they keep him around and confirm that it's him, only for him to never act like himself, never interact with the rest of Delta, and unceremoniously gets shot off a bridge. It's genuinely the only part of the new canon that gets me actually angry. That's not this set's fault, though. I suppose it wasn't considered for a cameo because the game itself isn't canon anymore and as a result the RAS Prosecutor mission isn't canon either. Still, a guidebook could just go out and canonize it, like how famous scenes from CWMMP have been referenced as things that happened just with the details blurred and changed around a bit.
Probably my most anticipated January 2025 set that i'll be getting. It looks like a very nice display model.
@Alia_of_AGL said:
"I never really liked the Acclamators. The fact that they look too much like conventional Star Destroyers feels like one of the cases where they overplayed their hand in AOTC, making the Republic (and Anakin) look too evil too fast and had to awkwardly backtrack in the beginning of ROTS with the cooler and more heroic-looking Venators. Of course, both ships were active at the same time in the story, but the Acclamators still feel like a rough draft. The TCW livery only exacerbates it, looking like a hasty paint job to make it look more like a Venator. As it is, I'll continue to wait for a Starship Collection midi-scale Venator.
If this were a playset I'd agree on the landing gear complaint, but as it is, this is a pure display model, so I don't think it's necessary. (Despite that, the Invisible Hand did include the breakaway function...)
The dubious state of Delta Squad in the new canon bugs me. Canonized through a cameo in TCW, barely acknowledged, then a clone commando in Scorch's deco appears in the first season of The Bad Batch, people get excited so they keep him around and confirm that it's him, only for him to never act like himself, never interact with the rest of Delta, and unceremoniously gets shot off a bridge. It's genuinely the only part of the new canon that gets me actually angry. That's not this set's fault, though. I suppose it wasn't considered for a cameo because the game itself isn't canon anymore and as a result the RAS Prosecutor mission isn't canon either. Still, a guidebook could just go out and canonize it, like how famous scenes from CWMMP have been referenced as things that happened just with the details blurred and changed around a bit."
One of my main objections to the new canon is that a lot of it is weaker versions of the old canon. And also, that they turned Quinlan Vos into a surfer bro.
Was the ship new or always example like reference pic
Guess toss dirt on it.
I personally think the size is ok, considering its wider than most of the other starship collection (all but the falcon)
That set does nothing to me. I'm not getting it.
@Th3_3m3rald_M1n3cart said:
"I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary. "
In this case, landing gear would have made sense - in universe, most large Star Wars ships don't ever land, but this one does (being a dropship).
Doesn't wreck the model by not having them though.
Looks cool but just not iconic enough (had to Google where this ship even appeared) for me to buy.
@missedoutagain said:
"Was the ship new or always example like reference pic
Guess toss dirt on it."
That's the clone wars animation style for you.
Pretty cool to see the ship as the focal model of a set :D
@Th3_3m3rald_M1n3cart said:
"I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary. "
Fair enough. I agree it is not essential for the reasons you stated, but I think it would be nice to have. The ability to land directly on a planet's surface to discharge troops is really the Acclamator's defining feature, after all.
I didn't expect to see Delta Squad mentioned in the review! I'm glad that you did, though... it's nice to know that the old EU hasn't been completely forgotten :D
I really have nothing to say about the set. To me, the appeal of Star Wars has always been its characters rather than its ships, since I'm not much of a vehicle guy. I just wanted to say that I appreciated the reference ^^
I'm a vehicle guy but always felt kinda neutral about this ship - it's probably something I would pass on were it released in UCS or playset scale. This rendition looks really good though and it's the perfect solution. I'll definitely pick up one or two.
Thanks for the review!
@CapnRex101 said:
" @Th3_3m3rald_M1n3cart said:
"I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary. "
Fair enough. I agree it is not essential for the reasons you stated, but I think it would be nice to have. The ability to land directly on a planet's surface to discharge troops is really the Acclamator's defining feature, after all."
Especially annoying as the set has ramps which you can open.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I didn't expect to see Delta Squad mentioned in the review! I'm glad that you did, though... it's nice to know that the old EU hasn't been completely forgotten :D
I really have nothing to say about the set. To me, the appeal of Star Wars has always been its characters rather than its ships, since I'm not much of a vehicle guy. I just wanted to say that I appreciated the reference ^^"
If you look in the right places online you'll find that it certainly hasn't been forgotten about.
@Maxbricks14 said:
" @ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I didn't expect to see Delta Squad mentioned in the review! I'm glad that you did, though... it's nice to know that the old EU hasn't been completely forgotten :D
I really have nothing to say about the set. To me, the appeal of Star Wars has always been its characters rather than its ships, since I'm not much of a vehicle guy. I just wanted to say that I appreciated the reference ^^"
If you look in the right places online you'll find that it certainly hasn't been forgotten about."
You could say that about EVERYTHING.
This is a pretty good set. Printed pieces are nice.
Absurd prices and no minifigs make me bored with Lego and SW Lego in particular.
@StyleCounselor said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
" @ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I didn't expect to see Delta Squad mentioned in the review! I'm glad that you did, though... it's nice to know that the old EU hasn't been completely forgotten :D
I really have nothing to say about the set. To me, the appeal of Star Wars has always been its characters rather than its ships, since I'm not much of a vehicle guy. I just wanted to say that I appreciated the reference ^^"
If you look in the right places online you'll find that it certainly hasn't been forgotten about."
You could say that about EVERYTHING."
Indeed.
@The_Cellarer said:
"Thank you for the review @CapnRex101.
It appears so strange to me that some of the sets in the Starship collection comes with only printed pieces, while others come with (quite a few) stickers. Does anyone know the reason for this?"
For the most detailed rundown on the stickers vs prints topic, check these two links:
https://brickset.com/article/107287/stickers-vs-prints-in-lego-sets-what-s-up-with-that--[part-1]
https://brickset.com/article/107288/stickers-vs-prints-in-lego-sets-what-s-up-with-that--[part-2]
For the TLDR version:
Basically set designers have a budget to meet for each set, and changing the colour of a piece is more expensive than using pieces that are already in production. Same goes for adding a print. Stickers are cheaper, so some set designers will trade prints for stickers to allow them to introduce a new part colour and stay within the budget, whereas other set designers might like to print their pieces purely out of aesthetic preference. Sometimes a set might be running right up against the design budget and they HAVE to use stickers to keep the costs down.
Same price (in the US) as the 75377 Invisble Hand, with 100 less pieces.
Wow, that inflation! She moves fast!
I like that ship and I will wait for a sale because, come on!
Is it to scale with the UCS Venator?
It’s a nice model. But I don’t really like this series. It’s a cheap use of the Lucas / Disney license in my opinion, like the helmets before. It’s not a toy. It’s just a model kit. Happy for everyone who loves this, but it’s not for me.
@Badarse2294 said:
"Is it to scale with the UCS Venator?"
no. the Venator Star Destroyer is 1137m long in-universe, the Acclamator Assault Ship is 752m. So a Venator in the same scale would be less than twice the size of this model.
Cool set, but not for me. I have my good 'ol 75007, and I'm perfectly happy with it.
It should be slightly larger so the stripes on the wings could be brick built.
These are not the kind if sets i'm looking for.
@DJazzer said:
"These are not the kind if sets i'm looking for."
You can go about your business. Move along...
@Th3_3m3rald_M1n3cart said:
"I don't agree with the complaint about landing gear. There's no need for that here. It's always going to be on the display stand. Therefore making landing gear arbitrary. "
While it's first and foremost a display set, sure, take it from someone whose family could only afford 4488 and 4492. Kids can ignore scale if need be. Especially with no viable play scale republic star destroyers, least of all acclamators.
In my book, printed pieces on a display model are much better than stickers! That's an extra incentive for me to get this one from the Starship Collection as well.
This is the only 2025 set that really caught my attention, but man I don't know if I can swallow a full $50 + tax for that. I would have totally done it for a proper-scale midi Venator though
@Pocketkid2 said:
"This is the only 2025 set that really caught my attention, but man I don't know if I can swallow a full $50 + tax for that. I would have totally done it for a proper-scale midi Venator though"
Same here. The Venator has always been my favorite of the gray triangles.
I'm mostly just seeing everyone's first ever paper airplane, in the rich, vibrant Star Wars palette. That's not really an indictment of this set though - more of the source material, such as it is.
Still, better than the Hoopty.
I'm definitely interested in getting this, just gonna wait for a discount, and I might try adding delta squad myself