Review: Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary Collectable Coin

It looks to be sold out for UK now, only the mini x-wing left.

Guess it’s cheaper for Lego to offer than actual discounts… Seems pretty lame.

I got one with my purchase and I quite like it. It's not something I would increase my order for, but it's a nice extra.

@Huw, "The plastic sheet is a little under 2mm thick and about 59x85cm in size." I think you meant mm instead of cm.

@Huw
"about 59x85cm in size." Are you sure? ;-)

You all and your silly Metric System. ;o)

@Cap - how does this coin compare to the other LEGO coins?

Can't say as I find SW stuff particularly compelling, but I like the design of this. Still can't hold a candle to the classic gold coin that my pirates were always after. Shame I can't get the Redbeard giantfig without a massive trip...

I’ve got one. It’s heavy enough that if you wing it at someone in anger you could cause minor damage if you hit them in the eye or nose.

Enough to give you time to grab a more useful weapon. It’s also fun to spin on a table.

I feel like this isn’t really a good “LEGO” product. It’s just a normal Death Star with some bricks around it and the logo on the back.

@LegoBoi69 said:
"I've got 4. Only 1 is mint. Not Lego's best non lego star wars gwp. Did like the beskar piece they did though. "

They’re coins, surely they’re all mint?

Comments like "It's mass-produced in China so isn't particularly high quality" are pretty outdated in 2023. For example, most of your smartphone, tablet, or laptop that you paid a lot of money for and think are pretty good -- was probably made in China.

yes, but imagine how awesome it would be if it really WERE 59 x 85 cm.

Just another non-Lego Lego GWP.

The engraved piece would be great if it was brick compatible, say legal to fit between studs. Something like that would work well as the Emperor’s hologram.

I’ve never understood the coin gifts lego has released as gifts. The wall prints of design schematics have more relevance to the core product. The coins seem like generic trinkets.

No date stamping or anything to commemorate the promotion year makes it even more generic. Somehow adding that anniversary Vader print would have been nice.

@yellowcastle:
I opened the coin I got at the store, but haven’t unboxed the LEGO.com order yet. Just from what I recall, the coin looked cleaner than the VIP coins (one of my gold-colored coins has a blemish), and not painting them avoided issues like the puke-colored Castle crown. I don’t really remember what the Mario coins look like. I still haven’t seen one of mine, but the seal was messed up on the other so I did take a quick peek. Anyways, straight metal with minimal surface treatment seems to be the way to go, since these aren’t being produced by a reputable company like the Franklin Mint. Doing a layer of paint on top of a layer of plating caused a lot of VIP coins to have flaws, so hopefully @LegoBoi69‘s experience is not typical for this promo.

In terms of the packaging, the VIP coins had the most robust with the plastic cases, but they were also notoriously bad construction (top, bottom, and pocketed center that weren’t all cut the same size, or were badly aligned), plus they tended to arrive scratched up, or with coins cockeyed. The Mario coins had the worst packaging, which was just a form-fit paper envelope with a tab of plastic tape to seal it shut. This has a cardstock box that’s pretty thin, and a molded tray that feels even thinner. The plastic overlay is really cool, though, as it only shows the outer shell of the DSII, while the coin shows the whole thing. I had to rotate my coin to get the images to line up, but it actually gives you a kind of bas-relief image if there’s enough light to illuminate the coin through the welding lens overlay. My main concern, though, is that the tray feels _so_ flimsy, and it’s the only thing that actually keeps the coin lined up with the overlay.

I certainly would have preferred a exclusive minifig from the 2nd death star over this even if the spend threshold was higher, like maybe Mof JerJerrod or an imperial dignitary. This is the GWP that I'm the least excited about receiving.

@Galaktek said:
"Comments like "It's mass-produced in China so isn't particularly high quality" are pretty outdated in 2023. For example, most of your smartphone, tablet, or laptop that you paid a lot of money for and think are pretty good -- was probably made in China."

Long term contracts with (I hope) decent quality checks
VS
1 Bulk order of cheap trinkets at the cheap trinkets factory
If you pay little and don't check the quality you better prepare for crap

To the negatives in the Summary box, it might be worth adding:

- Artificially scarce for no good reason.

Metric for life. The day I start measuring things in thumbs, feet, stones, or the phase-transitioning temperature of brine is the day they can put me 1.8288 metres under.

"Comments like "It's mass-produced in China so isn't particularly high quality" are pretty outdated in 2023. For example, most of your smartphone, tablet, or laptop that you paid a lot of money for and think are pretty good -- was probably made in China."

It's a valid complaint. Most items like this which are mass-produced in China are not of a high quality, and the quality control is usually not very good either.

As for electronic devices made in China such as tablets and laptops, they will probably not have as long a lifespan as similar devices which used to be manufactured in Japan. I think Japanese-made electronic devices used to be renowned for their quality and durability.

@Sabreman64:
Immediately post-WWII, not so much. Under US oversight, Japan was required to mark something like 25% of all goods to indicate they were made in “Occupied Japan”, because the quality just wasn’t very good. Then they went through some major cultural changes, and the 1970’s oil embargo happened. Suddenly nobody wanted to drive American land-yachts anymore, and tiny Japanese cars were the only real alternative. That’s really when people started realizing those “ridiculous little piece of junk cars” were actually being made to a much higher level of quality. This almost spelled the doom of the US auto industry, as they scrambled to adapt.

How is this Lego? I genuinely don't understand. Apart from the logo, there is nothing Lego-esqe about this object. This makes as much sense to me as Lego-branded tulip bulbs would.

I think Lego should take GWP's like this more seriously. When you're selling high quality stuff, the things you give away should be high quality as well. It reflects on the whole of your product. And that this is low quality is hardly surprising; no image of the box it comes in can hide the fact that Lego spent mere cents on it (if that). The thing in total might have cost, what, 20 cents to produce? Spend twice as much and the Chinese can make you something that is actually worthy of display.

I'm fine with it not being Lego, but it would make a hell of a lot more sense (to me) to make that datacard an actual Lego piece for example. Now that would be collectible! Or make a brick built stand if you really wanted to do a coin. There's so many better things to think of that don't need outsourcing to China (not that there is anything wrong with that).. It just baffles me that a 85 euro threshold is worth that little that they can't produce something themselves. Sets are still full retail and the margins on those must be humongous. Yeah yeah, VIP (Very Important Anybody)
points, but those only add up on sets that don't sell well.

I do follow the whole May the Fourth circus, but it never persuaded me to buy anything. I kinda liked the earlier mini diorama's and liked the Auntie Beru's womancave, but in the end they just turn out to be way too expensive.