The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con Collectible Display Sets
Six Sets. Six Days. One Per Day. 300 Each. Except One.
LEGO returned to San Diego Comic-Con in 2009 with something more ambitious than the year before — a complete series of individually numbered display sets, one released each day of the convention, spanning the entire Star Wars universe from Clone Wars to Return of the Jedi.
San Diego Comic-Con 2009 ran July 23–26, with Preview Night on July 22. LEGO had been to SDCC the year before with the Clone Wars Pack (COMCON001), a bundle of retail sets with extra minifigures. In 2009 they did something different: six unique display sets, each themed to a different era of Star Wars, each individually numbered, each available only on a single day of the convention. You could not buy Saturday’s set on Sunday. You could not buy all six on one day. If you wanted the complete series, you had to be there every day — or know someone who was.
This collection holds two complete sets of all six. The physical details documented here are drawn from firsthand examination of those examples.
The Packaging
Each set shares the same outer packaging format: a cardboard box with a plastic display window covering the front and wrapping around part of the sides and top, allowing the contents to be seen without opening. Inside, mounted on a dark gray 4×20 baseplate, are three minifigures with any relevant accessories — weapons, stuncuffs, capes — posed against a printed backdrop that is unique to each set.
The front of each box carries the LEGO and Star Wars logos and the text COLLECTIBLE DISPLAY SET. Below that, in a red window: the individual number and edition size in black text — ### OF 300 for five of the six sets, with the number printed directly on the box as part of the same typeface as the “OF 300” text, not handwritten or stamped. This means every box in the print run was individually numbered at production.
The back of every box carries two panels. The left panel features General Grievous and other Star Wars characters with the date 08.28.09, the LEGO and Star Wars logos, and the title The Hunt for R2-D2 — an online game hosted at LEGO.com that launched alongside the 2009 Clone Wars season. The right panel carries the LEGO and Star Wars logos, the heading THE QUEST FOR R2-D2, and an image of Anakin Skywalker with the text PLAY THE GAME @ WWW.LEGO.COM. The right has four screenshot images from the game under the Anakin image.
The inner cardboard — the backing visible through the display window — carries a unique backdrop scene for each set, themed to the minifigures inside. A Comic-Con logo appears in the upper left corner of the inner backing cardboard, making it the only Comic-Con branding on the packaging — it does not appear on the outer box.
The Sets
COMCON009-1 — Collectible Display Set 6 — Preview Night, Wednesday July 22
The anomaly of the series. COMCON009 was distributed on Preview Night — the Wednesday before the convention officially opened — and was numbered ### OF 1,250 rather than the 300 that applied to every other set. More than four times the edition size of any other set in the series, reflecting the larger Preview Night attendance or a deliberate decision to make this entry more accessible.
Minifigures: Anakin Skywalker (Clone Wars version, sw0183) with chrome blue lightsaber · Obi-Wan Kenobi (Clone Wars version, sw0197) with chrome blue lightsaber · Clone Trooper (Clone Wars version, sw0201) with blaster rifle
Backdrop: An industrial-looking city scene.
Theme: Clone Wars — the Republic hero trio.
COMCON004-1 — Collectible Display Set 1 — Wednesday July 22
Also distributed on Wednesday, alongside COMCON009. Limited to 300.
Minifigures: Ahsoka Tano (sw0192) with chrome green lightsaber · Mace Windu (Clone Wars version, sw0220) with chrome purple lightsaber · Clone Trooper (Clone Wars version, sw0201) with blaster rifle
Backdrop: A terrain and city scene on a reddish hill — consistent with a Clone Wars Outer Rim planet setting.
Theme: Clone Wars — the Jedi commanders. Ahsoka’s chrome green lightsaber and Mace Windu’s chrome purple lightsaber are the standout items here. Chrome lightsabers appeared across several of the 2009 display sets and are among the more visually distinctive accessories in the series.
COMCON005-1 — Collectible Display Set 2 — Thursday July 23
Limited to 300.
Minifigures: Admiral Ackbar (sw0247) · Crix Madine (tan hips & legs version, sw0250a) · Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight version, sw0207) with green lightsaber
Backdrop: A ship bridge — almost certainly the bridge of Home One, the Mon Calamari star cruiser that served as the Rebel command ship during the Battle of Endor.
Theme: Return of the Jedi — the Rebel Alliance command. Admiral Ackbar and General Crix Madine together in one set is unusual; Madine is one of the more obscure general-release minifigures in the entire Star Wars lineup.
COMCON007-1 — Collectible Display Set 5 — Friday July 24
Limited to 300.
Minifigures: Darth Vader (Death Star torso version, sw0209) with chrome red lightsaber · Snowtrooper (light bluish grey hips, white hands version, sw0115) with blaster · Han Solo (Hoth parka version, sw0253) with blaster
Backdrop: Hoth.
Theme: The Empire Strikes Back. Vader’s chrome red lightsaber is the centerpiece. The Hoth Han Solo figure uses the tan legs with holster pattern variant.
COMCON008-1 — Collectible Display Set 3 — Saturday July 25
Limited to 300.
Minifigures: Han Solo (Stormtrooper disguise, sw0205) with blaster · Luke Skywalker (Stormtrooper disguise, sw0204) with blaster · Chewbacca (reddish brown version, sw0011a) with stuncuffs
Backdrop: An Imperial hangar on a ship interior, with Clone Troopers visible behind the figures — consistent with the Death Star hangar scene from A New Hope, referencing the sequence where Han, Luke, and Chewbacca infiltrate the Death Star.
Theme: A New Hope — the Death Star infiltration. The Stormtrooper disguise versions of Han and Luke are among the more memorable figure variants in the classic trilogy lineup. Chewbacca with stuncuffs is specific to this scene.
COMCON006-1 — Collectible Display Set 4 — Sunday July 26
Limited to 300. The final set of the convention.
Minifigures: Count Dooku (Clone Wars version, sw0224) with curved-hilt red lightsaber · General Grievous (sw0134a) with two blue and two green lightsabers · Asajj Ventress (dark blue torso version, sw0195) with two curved-hilt red lightsabers
Backdrop: A ship interior — consistent with a Separatist vessel.
Theme: Clone Wars villains. The three primary antagonists of the Clone Wars animated series together on one baseplate. Grievous with four lightsabers is the visual centerpiece — the figure carries two blue and two green, the weapons of Jedi he has killed.
The Distribution Structure
SDCC 2009 ran July 22–26. The set numbering (COMCON004 through COMCON009) does not follow the chronological order of distribution. The actual release order was:
- Preview Night, July 22 — COMCON009 (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Clone Trooper) — 1,250 made
- Wednesday, July 22 — COMCON004 (Ahsoka, Mace Windu, Clone Trooper) — 300 made
- Thursday, July 23 — COMCON005 (Admiral Ackbar, Crix Madine, Luke Jedi) — 300 made
- Friday, July 24 — COMCON007 (Darth Vader, Snowtrooper, Han Hoth) — 300 made
- Saturday, July 25 — COMCON008 (Han & Luke Stormtrooper, Chewbacca) — 300 made
- Sunday, July 26 — COMCON006 (Count Dooku, General Grievous, Asajj Ventress) — 300 made
The five 300-edition sets were distributed via a VIP, press, and select fan raffle system — not a first-come-first-served queue or open purchase. Attendees entered a drawing for the right to obtain the day’s set; winning meant access, not a guarantee. COMCON009 on Preview Night was available to anyone with a four-day ticket who attended that night, which accounts for both the larger edition size and the comparatively easier access to that entry in the series.
Five of the six sets were limited to 300. COMCON009’s edition size of 1,250 has not been publicly explained. One possibility is that Preview Night had a substantially larger audience than any single convention day and LEGO produced proportionally more units. Another is that COMCON009 was intended as a more widely distributed entry point to the series. Either way, it is the easiest of the six to find on the secondary market and consistently commands the lowest price of the set.
The chrome lightsabers across the series — Ahsoka’s green, Mace Windu’s purple, Obi-Wan’s blue, Anakin’s blue, Darth Vader’s red — were specific to these display sets. They do not appear in standard retail sets and represent some of the more desirable individual accessories in the 2009 SDCC lineup.
The Quest for R2-D2
Every box in the series carries advertising for The Quest for R2-D2, an online game hosted at LEGO.com that launched August 28, 2009 — the date printed on the left back panel of each box. The game was a Clone Wars-themed online experience tied to the 2009 animated season. It also served as the unlock mechanism for building instructions for the Malevolent — a large Clone Wars-era Separatist warship — as an online-exclusive build available through the game, separate from any physical set.
The back panel cross-promotion ties every display set in the series directly to the Clone Wars product launch, regardless of which era of Star Wars the individual set depicts. A Return of the Jedi set (COMCON005) and an Empire Strikes Back set (COMCON007) both carry Clone Wars promotional content on the back. The boxes were a marketing vehicle as much as a collectible.
Current Value
The five sets limited to 300 are among the rarest standard-format LEGO Star Wars exclusives ever produced. Current sealed values based on recent sales:
- COMCON004 (Ahsoka, Mace Windu, Clone Trooper) — ~$1,600–$2,000 sealed
- COMCON005 (Ackbar, Madine, Luke Jedi) — ~$1,200–$1,600 sealed
- COMCON006 (Dooku, Grievous, Ventress) — ~$1,800–$2,200 sealed
- COMCON007 (Vader, Snowtrooper, Han Hoth) — ~$1,600–$2,000 sealed
- COMCON008 (Han & Luke Stormtrooper, Chewbacca) — ~$1,400–$1,800 sealed
- COMCON009 (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Clone Trooper) — ~$300–$500 sealed
A complete sealed set of all six — which requires sourcing five separate 300-edition items and one 1,250-edition item — represents one of the most significant single-convention LEGO Star Wars acquisitions possible.
In This Collection
This collection holds two complete sets of all six display sets. The packaging details documented above — the printed numbering, the back panel layout, the Comic-Con logo placement on the inner backing — are drawn from firsthand examination of those examples.
What We Don’t Know
- Why the COMCON numbering is out of distribution order — COMCON009 was the first set distributed (Preview Night) but carries the highest number in the series. The sets numbered 004–008 were distributed in a different order than their catalog numbers suggest. No explanation for the numbering sequence has been documented.
- The specific backdrop scenes — the inner backing images are visible through the display window but rarely photographed in detail. If you have high-resolution images of any of the six backdrops, please get in touch.
COMCON004-1 through COMCON009-1 — Collectible Display Sets 1–6 (San Diego Comic-Con 2009 Exclusives)
BrickLink: comcon004-1 · comcon005-1 · comcon006-1 · comcon007-1 · comcon008-1 · comcon009-1
Distributed: July 22–26, 2009 | Event: San Diego Comic-Con International 2009
Quantities: COMCON004–008: 300 each · COMCON009: 1,250
Status: Complete series owned ×2 (sealed)
