The gold rush resulted in a hoard; LEGO® Star Wars™ 75398 C-3PO is a rich seam of this precious "metal". Therefore, our Parts Fest featuring creations made using Threepio's elements is about opulence, glamour and gilt. What happens after the medium-sized golden men have been handed out?
Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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75398 C-3PO
- Release date: 1 August 2024
- Pieces: 1138
- US$ 139.99 on LEGO.com US
- CA$ 179.99 on LEGO.com Canada
- GB£ 124.99 on LEGO.com UK
- AU$ 229.99 on LEGO.com Australia
- NZ$ 249.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
- DE€ 139,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
- NL€ 139,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
- FR€ 139,99 on LEGO.com France
- PLN 619.99 on LEGO.com Polska
- NOK 1899,90 on LEGO.com Norge
- DKK 1249.95 on LEGO.com Danmark
As this set was released over 4 months ago, most of its new parts have been added to Pick a Brick. There are individual links throughout the article so you can check if the piece you want is availaible there, or just use this link to see all parts from the C-3PO LEGO set available there (both new and previously existing elements):
Buy individual pieces from 75398 on LEGO® Pick a Brick
After the Gala
I wanted to build a character with golden clothes, and the parts selection of Threepio suggested free-form, flowing shapes. Combined with the luxurious feel of the colour, I chose to build a simple evening party dress, focusing more on shapes than textures. Therefore, I was able to use the new and recoloured curved slopes, wedge bricks and wedge plates in ways that were not possible before. The abundance of recoloured brackets made it possible to connect them in many directions without breaking the monochrome gold surface. 
The turning point of this process was the decision that the character would be lounging in a specific, relaxed position. Most of my character models are not designed to be in a specific posture - instead, I try to achieve as natural joints as possible to enable a variety of poses; I like shooting my characters, trying to find out what sort of posture fits them best. This often establishes the feel of who they are. However, the posing is often limited to standing poses, and flowing or hanging garments - dresses, skirts, long coats - limit it a lot; generally, if brick-built, they don't allow sitting or, indeed, lounging. Limiting characters to standing ones only limits what I can express with them.
I wanted to express something exuberant yet relaxed – after-gala vibes – luxurious but in a laid-back way without certain official rigidity. This is after the little statues that look like Threepio have been handed out and it doesn't matter that much who got them and who did not. Titles have been dropped off and interesting stories circulate.
The pose meant that I didn't have to make the legs strong enough to support the weight. However, I wanted the legs to be full legs; to have natural proportions and angles.
There is a hip joint block positioned on the sofa surface, angled with a 2x2 turntable. The main torso block is connected to it via a double Mixels ball joint, meaning that there is a 1x2 plate with ball and socket in between the parts to allow as free positioning as possible. I did this to allow the folds of the dress to follow the shapes of the legs – freely angled, and full of curves in several directions – as closely as possible. This is something entirely natural to soft materials such as cloth, but always a tricky challenge with LEGO bricks.
Now, I'm not entirely sure how this dress would look like in a neutral, standing pose, and as I did not have any real-world reference, I had to base the creasing of the dress on the sofa on intuition, carried out with this vastly expanded yet still so limited array of pearl gold parts. Fortunately, the viewer probably won't know how it should crease either.
The sofa was actually built earlier than the rest of the model, before 75398 C-3PO was even released. I have a good amount of Brick Curved 8 x 2 x 2 (41766) in dark red and chose to do something with them while re-organising parts a year or so ago. They're wonderfully chunky pieces and I was surprised to see they've only been in 8097 Slave I in 2010. Unfortunately, the mould was last seen in 2011. Anyway, they make nice furniture.
In this model, I took the old sofa sketch model and added the legs and the armrests, using the rest of those curved slopes. Yet still, the model needed more life. At the time I was reviewing January 2025 LEGO® Botanicals sets, and half-accidentally placed 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo (see my review of both sets) next to my WIP. It looked pretty good, but of course, I could not just add two sets to my MOC. Actually probably I could have done, but I wanted to have something even slightly more interesting. So I made my own botanicals.
The first one was just leaves, to bring some free-form lushness to the composition. I like the contrast between the mundane greens and the luxurious dark red and pearl gold. The other plant is blossoming, and it definitely is a "10343 Mini Orchid at home". The silhouette of the set matched my WIP composition very nicely, arching over everything, and I wanted to echo the effect. Furthermore, I added some bright purple hues to compliment the pearl gold, while the bulky round pot continues the shaping of the sofa.
As a result, this model became more than a MOC inspired by the parts of 75398 C-3PO. Instead, it reflects my 2024 New Elementary journey more broadly.
READ MORE: Check out Ben Davies' Lion Statue creation for 3x3PO Fest
C-3PO on LEGO.com
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Absolutely incredible MOC!
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