Now I’m not going to claim any particular powers of manifesting. But when I reviewed 75404 Acclamator-Class Assault Ship, I mentioned that a Venator would make a great match for the existing Invisible Hand set. Fast-forward two years, and what comes across my reviewing desk? Why, 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser, coming next January 1! You’re welcome, Venator fans. And there are many of you – so this set should be quite the hit. With 643 pieces and pre-orderable (is that a word? It is now) for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99, it’s certainly a bit of a hit to the wallet. (Prices may be slightly friendlier on third-party sites such as Amazon or eBay after general release). But price-per-piece isn’t everything, so let’s see how the venerable Venator stacks up!
LEGO Star Wars 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser | 643 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026; Pre-orders open now | US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and build
The box is a stout one, feeling quite heavy for its size. It’s full up with 5 paper bags and a front-on view of the ship, similar to its wave-mate 75440 AT-AT.
Some familiar shots of the Venator are on the inside.
There are some interesting techniques almost immediately as we start the build. In this instance, it’s plates and jumper plates centred on anti-studs, allowing for a smooth transition from two studs wide to one.
This next shot was intended to show some of the Technic construction inside, but instead I’m going to use it to highlight some terrible colour-matching on those 1×2 clip plates. It’s so bad I thought LEGO had introduced a new shade of grey for a second.
We move to what is definitely a different shade of grey for some of the engines. Barrels, domes and fluted 2×2 round bricks all add texture despite the small scale. And if you see that assembly on the right attached the wrong way round later on… No you don’t.
Our midi-scale Venator has a crew of just two: a Republic officer and a cloner trooper, represented by pairs of grey and white studs respectively. They’re pretty well buried inside though.
We’ve got quite the range of Technic attachment points now – let’s put them to good use. First we extend forwards, with part of the underside.
Then we make a similar build for the top of the craft. Here, we have two more easter eggs: dark red and bright yellowish orange tiles representing Obi-Wan and Anakin’s starfighters. Revenge of the Sith’s opening sequence was the first meaningful appearance for both these and the Venator, so it’s particularly fitting. And for all its flaws, Episode III’s opening sequence was a real high point of the prequel trilogy, so it’s nice to see it recognised – even if the starfighters aren’t technically to scale.
After building up the bridge, this entire assembly can be assembled to our main model. This is why we have all those Technic pin connections: to give the Venator a subtle taper. It’s nice attention to detail.
With that done, it’s time to build up the bulk of the hull with the help of some printed tiles. Happily, there’s a complete absence of stickers! The printed Republic Navy symbol makes a welcome return after first appearing in the Acclamator. The 4×4 triangular tile is not only a new print, but a new part altogether, with left- and right- hand versions. We’ll surely see unprinted ones in the coming months.
The top and bottom plates are made in sides – left in bag 3, right in bag 4. Nothing of note particularly – they’re just plate sandwiches. Nice to see those trans-light-blue tiles getting plenty of mileage though.
The turrets on the top plates are accomplished with bucket handles, and the clips holding them are in that strange shade of grey again. Come on, LEGO, what are we doing here? Presumably there’s been some sort of process or material change, perhaps relating to clips specifically. But you didn’t think to check the colours matched?
Anyway, let’s keep things moving. Between the upper and lower halves sit a compound 1×5 slope and the last of our thrusters. I found the assembly of this area to be quite awkward. In the instructions, the order is lower and upper wings assembled (with the rubber Technic joint); then the thruster pin; then the slope; then the thruster itself (not shown here). I found it easier to go lower wing, thruster pin, thruster, upper wing, slope. In either case, it requires a bit of adjusting after assembly.
We’ve seen some unusual parts so far: barrels, bucket handles, and now some minifigure weapons! These are used to provide some extra greebling between the upper and lower wings. They feel a bit superfluous, to be honest, as they’re not that visible from the outside. Still, a nice detail nonetheless.
The finishing touch is, of course, the stand. A simple build featuring another appearance for the black tow-ball – making it slightly less rarefied.
The finished model
So not an entirely frustation-free build process. Was it worth the trouble? Oh, absolutely. What a great-looking model!
The design team nailed this one, I think. The taper towards the front is really nicely done. And despite my misgivings over its assembly, the rear portion also looks great once assembled. This is one of my favourite angles of the Venator, with the hull falling away to reveal the engines powering this thing through space.
No opening ventral hangar doors on this model, but you can still easily access the inside. Given the cover is only attached by two studs I thought it might be liable to fall off during swooshing, but it actually stays fairly well put.
And yes, I have been swooshing it. It’s easy to remove from the two Technic axles on the stand – the tow-ball is only there for support. The underside is slightly more barren than the top but still looks pretty OK. The extra prints help with that.
Remember 75377 Invisible Hand, that I mentioned earlier? One big reason the Venator makes a better companion than the Acclamator is that the former is to scale with the Separatist flagship! So you can re-create the face-off between it and the Guarlara from Revenge of the Sith.
That encounter didn’t end particularly well for the Hand, if you recall. Still, both ships look great together, even when one of them becomes half a ship.
And even if they’re at completely the wrong scale, the aforementioned Acclamator makes a nice shelf companion too.
Conclusions and recommendation
I should make my biases absolutely clear here: I’m a sucker for a Venator. I think it’s one of the coolest capital ship designs in all of Star Wars, even if it does bear some similarities to Jar Jar Binks’ head. With that said, it’s perhaps no surprise that I really like this set. That’s not to say it was a foregone conclusion though. For starters, the price is at the upper limit of what I would pay for this (but – spoiler alert – I would still pay it). I still have my reservations about the way the back came together, and the mis-colouring of those clips verges on unacceptable – I’ll probably be asking LEGO for some replacements in the correct colour.
That said, I’m willing to accept the former as part of a challenging build (this is officially an 18+ set, after all), and I will stay positive and hope that the dodgy greys get ironed out as production goes on. What’s disappointing is that the Invisible Hand production run doesn’t appear to have been extended to have both available on shelves at the same time; at the time of writing, it’s sold out and listed as ‘Retiring Soon’ on LEGO’s website. If you do see it on shelves, it’s worth picking up anyway, as it’s a good set. If you already own it, I highly recommend adding the Venator to your collection to oppose it. It’s a real highlight of the Starship Collection.
LEGO Star Wars 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser | 643 Pieces | Available January 1, 2026; Pre-orders open now |US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Check out our full gallery of pictures:
The post LEGO Star Wars 75441 Venator-Class Attack Cruiser [Review] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.
Leave a Reply