Months ago I decided to treat myself to this set, and let me say it looks incredible. As someone who is fascinated with the Empire and their angular ships, this flagship is replicated incredibly.

With over 4700 pieces, incredible detail is provided, especially around the rear thrusters and equator. Many tiny pieces like frying pans and the Mjolnir element create amazing greebling details and make the giant ship more breathtaking. The ship is built with locking plates connected to an intricate sword-shaped technic skeleton. Two of the outer plates can be removed to carry the ship by grabbing the technic structure, but I would move it around as little as possible as it is quite heavy when built.

The display stand is built into the bottom of the ship, so displaying it without the stand is not possible without modification, and even then I wouldn't recommend it. Again, it's very heavy and leaving the ship freestanding is just asking for it to fall over. The display plaque shows a render of the UCS model with some information about the flagship in canon, including its length, manufacturer, and armaments. It looks sleek and is uniform with the rest of the UCS plaques.

Overall, I think I spent about 10 or 11 hours across two days building the ship, and connecting the large plates and the command tower is very rewarding. Some parts are repetitive as the ship is symmetrical across its length, but it was still a fun building experience.

While 2 minifigures seems underwhelming (and it is), the dual moulded boots on the officer look great and the crewmember's printed arms capture great detail. The model also includes a micro Tantive-IV build, which looks great when displayed on the clear arm piece though parts of it are fragile. Personally, I don't have it displayed as it can get knocked off easily, but it does look nice.

Since me buying the set, it has retired, though it is currently available second-hand for lower than its RRP and if you have the capacity, I would definitely recommend 75252 - Imperial Star Destroyer. It's a lengthy, but fun build that really makes you appreciate the scale of the Devastator-class Destroyer.

75355 X-Wing Starfighter, despite varying opinions, is a very solid Ultimate Collector's Series set.

The build starts with the X-Wing fuselage, which feels very secure and is mostly built with Technic locking mechanisms. Before adding any external plating or details, the cockpit is built. The set is larger than minifigure scale, so more detail can be added, including a semi-retractable targeting computer, and a pilot seat with some pretty good detail using grille pieces. A throttle lever is also included and can be manipulated up and down.

The build continues down the fuselage towards the nose of the craft, and some stickered details for the front of the cockpit, showing some intricate wirework and electrical panels. From here on, the building system for the S-foils, which is a really intricate build. It utilises two small rubber bands, so the wings will move at the same time, which is all caused by turning a small wheel on top of the back of the ship, which locks the wings into place at various stages of opening. I would recommend keeping it displayed at the same level, as moving the wings together and apart repeatedly could put stress on the rubber bands.

Building the S-foils is somewhat repetitive, as they all appear mostly the same, but mirrored across the back of the X-Wing and are unique. The KX9 laser cannons look pretty good, but the pieces sliding on the technic axle are somewhat free to move. A common critique of the set is that the engines are too big, but personally I believe the rest of the set makes looking past that fine.

Another criticism of the set is that there are too many exposed studs along the fuselage, and this I agree with. There are plenty of available pieces in production that could have avoided this.

As for the minifigures, I think this is the definitive pilot Luke Skywalker. He has printed arms with pockets and code cylinders, printed hips as well as dual moulded black legs to represent boots. There are flares along one of the legs, and the printing overall is fantastic, with the common helmet mould, as well as a printed visor on the face. He comes with a lightsaber, which was not included in any of the scenes inside the X-Wing, but it's nice to have it. The R2D2 included is the same one as in 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor, with back printing. I was fortunate enough to have good printing on the head dome, but there is still an issue with it being off center at times.

R2D2 can be placed on the ship just behind the cockpit, but a minifigure placed in a scaled-up ship looks awkward and out of place. I think maybe a 3x3 dome piece with R2D2 printing could have fixed this issue, but as is, I keep my R2 figure displayed along Luke at the bottom of the base.

As for the base, this is the first UCS set that uses a printed plaque rather than a stickered one! I, for one, hope this trend continues with future sets. There is a typo on the plaque however, reading "Incom GBk-585 hyperdrive motivator" rather than the plural "motivators". The black technic base feels very strong, but two curved slopes near the top of the spine can break off when the X-Wing moves, but they're easy to put back on.

75355 X-Wing Starfighter, despite some minor flaws, is a solid UCS build, and though repetitive sometimes, was a fun experience. The minifigure selection is perfect, and I think this version of Luke Skywalker is one of the best Star Wars minifigures ever made. The price of $239.99 / €239.99 / £209.99 seems pretty fair for this set, again despite its handful of flaws. I would totally recommend this set!

The LEGO Botanical Collection has an interesting and often beautiful selection of sets that reflect real life flowers and plants. 10309 Succulents includes 9 different species of succulent plants, such as an Aloe Vera plant and the Gymnocalycium mihanovichii cactus. The set includes three separate instruction booklets covering three different plants each, which I believe makes it more complicated if anything.

This set uses several interesting pieces to accomplish the various shapes and angles of these natural-looking plants, including buildable figure shoulder pads, yellowish green egg elements, and even 62885 submachine guns.

These different plants look convincing enough when it is all put together. The black pots they all are built onto are connected using small technic axle pins, and the order can be rearranged, though the size of some plants makes certain combinations difficult or impossible without altering the build.

Overall, this set shows impressive use of different LEGO elements to capture a natural feel of these diverse plants, and looks great on display with other Botanical Collection sets. I would recommend this set to anyone who values other sets in the Botanical Collection.

Pros: Fun to build, visually appealing, sophisticated 18+ set.

Cons: Somewhat expensive ($49.99, €49.99), unnecessarily split up instructions