Death Star (75159) Starting on the Second Floor

The second floor is the largest, as it makes up the "equator" of the Death Star. It's tough to tell just from the floor structure which scene each quadrant will be representing, although there are a couple clues ...

Based on the various computer consoles in the lower right quadrant (in this picture), I would hazard a guess that the detention cell escape will be featured there.

The lower left quadrant is fairly ambiguous at this point. It could be a storage room based on the two barrels OR it could be something far more high-tech based on the hosed contraption towards the center.

Now this I am thinking is going to be the throne room, based on the hand rails - both the circular one around the edge of the quadrant and the 2 small straight sections near the center of the room.

And this section looks like it will be a hangar bay (possibly for the TIE bomber that we built way back when?). That would make sense given the directional arrows on the floor as well as the elevator platform leading up from the floor below. 

Death Star (75159) - First Floor Complete!

We've had a very productive week, finishing off the remaining 3 scenes on the first of the two main floors.

First up is Obi Wan Kenobe shutting down the tractor beam. He is looking very pleased with himself, brandishing his light sabre around. I am happy to see that they got the color of his light sabre correct - BLUE!

The tractor beam control station is a fairly good representation of the movie, down to the blue cone of light at the top. There is even the elevated platform where the storm troopers walk by in search of the intruders.

From there, we move to a representation of one of the gunnery stations aboard the Death Star. I was very impressed with this gunnery station. Not only is it visually appealing - it looks high tech and absolutely lethal - but it actually launches the green pieces (meant to represent the green laser fire) across a significant distance!

The laser bolts are loaded in a spring-loaded piece and click into place before being fired by the two red release switches at the top of the gun.

The gun is capable of swiveling completely around and is limited only by the walls that separate this scene from those beside it. It can also traverse in a wide range of motion on the vertical axis. The gunnery station controls look authentic, as do the death star gunners.

Last of all is a storage room of some kind. I don't recall a specific scene from the movie that this is supposed to depict - perhaps it is a hangar? There are a number of weapons arranged in racks along the wall as well as an elevator capable of moving large objects from this floor to the upper floor. One of the ship's officers is currently operating the large mechanical claw, which presumably is used to transfer heavy objects to the elevator.

 The articulated claw has a wide range of motion in the vertical direction. The claw itself can also swivel. The elevator is controlled by a simple winch that is built into the wall.

Death Star (75159) - Walls Complete & Trash Compactor

Chapter 3 is now finished, which means all the partitioning walls on the first floor are complete. Nothing particularly interesting to write about with those - the new additions primarily serve to separate the various scenes being portrayed.

 
The first completed scene is the trash compactor scene. As you will recall, our heroes find themselves in the trash compactor after rescuing Princess Leia from her cell and dropping down the garbage chute.

Shortly after arrival, the walls of the compactor start to close, threatening to crush them all. The Lego model attempts to re-create this and is successful in capturing the sentiment behind it, but due to the shape of the model, it's not really a crushing motion so much as it is a pinching one. The walls do not come together fully as they do in the movie but rather just pincer together at one end. Theoretically, our heroes could just stand by the door and be perfectly safe.

The door to exit the trash compactor is a simple, yet clever contraption. You manually open and close the door using a long "handle" that is attached to the bottom of the door and slides along a track. The door itself is sandwiched between the 2 pillars making up the middle structure. The whole things moves very smoothly. Below you can see that the door is half open. The red stud that sticks up from the floor in the right-most room is the handle to control the door movement. You can see the flat tile that acts as a track.

Of course, one can not mention the trash compactor room without talking about the hideous dianoga that makes its home there. I like the fact that Lego has included it in this set. You can see its head poking up from the surface, as it looks for its next victim.

On the underside of the floor is a hatch that can be manually moved up and down in order to raise and lower the level of the eyeball. You can see in the picture below that the dianoga is actually sitting on this platform.

Death Star (75159) - Starting on the Walls

With the floor of the 1st level done, we next started on the walls. With these starting to go up, you can definitely begin to see the spherical shape of the death star as well as get an idea of the scale and size of the set.

We also started filling in some of the background details in some of the scenes - ladders, weapons racks, etc.

 Here we can see the beginnings of the "swinging across the shaft" scene with the platforms that Luke and Leia swing across in order to escape from the pursuing stormtroopers. The stickers on the long vertical pieces are a nice touch as they do a decent job of recreating the lighting panels as seen in the movie.

 The top down view gives a sense of just how small the base is compared to the upper levels.

Death Star (75159) - First Floor Structure Complete

This is definitely not mom's favorite build. She's never been a fan of builds that are primarily one color and certainly not when that color is gray or shades of gray.

The floor was constructed in quarters, with each quarter panel being affixed to the base as it was completed. It wasn't until we went to attach the last quarter that we realized we had offset the other 2 by 1 stud!!! So we had to rip them up and fix everything - mom was not a happy camper (though hopefully she will be a more careful camper in the future hee hee).

Attaching pieces to the base is not a simply prospect. Because the base is so much smaller than the upper floors (at least until we get past the mid point of the death star), it tends to tip quite easily. When attaching pieces, you need to push down on the opposite side of the structure to ensure you don't flip the entire piece over.

Death Star (75159) - Minifigs and a TIE Bomber!

The first thing that gets built from any set are mini-figs and this set is no different. Chapter 1 comes with 4 mini-figs - Darth Vader, an Imperial Officer, Death Star Droid, and an Imperial Astromech.

There is also a garbage droid but it's a small buildable component and not a minifigure.

A surprise build, however, was the TIE bomber. I did not realize that was part of this build. Given it's small scale, it is surprisingly detailed, from the printed cockpit piece to the curved wings to the laser turrets.

It is accessed via a hatch on the top of the vessel.

Death Star (75159) - Unboxing!

Mom decided she was ready to tackle the Death Star. This is a big step because she typically shies away from Star Wars sets due to the overwhelming "grayness" of the sets. I think she found this one more acceptable because of all the scenes that are built into the structure.

At over 4,000 pieces, this build will likely take us a while to work our way through. Certainly not the blitzkrieg of our previous builds (BB8 and Year of the Pig).

This is another UCS set, and in my opinion, one of the better looking ones. We've passed over a number of other UCS sets like Cloud City and Snowspeeder, which we really just didn't feel were anything too special.

 The first thing that came out of the box was the instruction manual. You know you are working with a big set when the manual weighs about 10 pounds and comes with a coil spine to support the weight. I'm a fan of the coil spine though as it makes it much easier to flip through the book without crunching pages and putting creases into the binding.

Year of the Pig! (40186) - Fastest Build Ever!

As you may know, according to the Chinese Zodiac, 2019 is the Year of the Pig. One of the free gifts that Lego was giving out earlier this year was a commemorative set to celebrate the Year of the Pig. 

At only 153 pieces, we were able to get this built in under an hour, including unboxing, taking photos and finding a spot to display the finished set.

Aside from looking adorable, this set is well articulated. The ears can swivel in any direction due to the ball joint used at the connection points to the head. The arms, likewise, can swing all the way around and the feet can also pivot sideways.

The huge eyes and snout really make this figure stand out and serve well to catch the eye. It's also pretty funny that the pig is displayed on a platter of salad (at least that is what my food-oriented mind has interpreted the green leaves and red studs as!).

 The back is a little more plain but features a curly little pig tail.

As far as free sets so, this is definitely one of my favorites. The freebies aren't typically as detailed as this one, nor do they have as many pieces. The free sets typically come in a plastic bag as well, and not a proper box like this one. Well done Lego!

BB8 (75187) Final Thoughts Already!

Like I said, this was a quick and easy build.

Mom really liked the colors - her biggest complaint about Star Wars sets is that they seem to be primarily gray and she isn't wrong. So the fact that this little guy is orange and white with only hints of gray was very satisfying for her. She also very much appreciated the "cuteness" factor of the set.

It has decent heft to it for a relatively small physical footprint and certainly isn't something that is going to go rolling away on you. It balances fairly well on its own but the set includes a mounting frame for it to sit on. The frame also has the classic UCS placard attached and really elevates the elegance of the model.

It also comes with a BB8 mini-figure which sits below the model.

The only "wish list" item I have for this set would be the orientation of the welding torch. As previously mentioned, when fully extended, it sits at an angle towards the torso instead of being fully vertical. It would also have been nice if retracting the torch automatically pulled the access panel shut as well. As it stands, the hatch must be shut manually.

Nonetheless, these are very minor critiques in what is otherwise a very solid and fun build that results in a splash of color to the Star Wars sets.

BB8 (75187) - Building the Body

The body was an uncomplicated build - essentially repeating the same thing 6 times with the only differences being cosmetic ones to show different buttons on BB8's various surfaces.

It came together very rapidly, which explains the small number of update posts. Below is a closeup of the torch in extended position - it is extended and retracted by turning the center of the surface to the right.

The head is able to swivel a full 360 degrees and also has a little play in the "neck" so that it bobbles back and forth when you swivel it. The swiveling is controlled by another turning plate built into the right side of BB8.

BB8 (75187) - Back to Star Wars!

We decided to return to Star Wars with our next build - the cute little droid we all love ... BB8!! This was a relatively small build in comparison to the usual large scale projects we take on.

It was a relatively simple build. The internals of the sphere are comprised of some technique pieces that allow for the 2 movement functions - the extension of the welding torch in the "thumbs up" sign and the swiveling of the head.

Here is the torch in its extended position. I really wish that it could go further so that the flame would be fully upright instead of angled in towards the torso.

Old Fishing Store (21310) - Final Thoughts!

We had such a great time building this set. We were really blown away by 3 main things:

1 - the sheer volume of merchandise and "trinkets" included - both the inside of the shop and the outside are just jam packed with all the equipment you would expect to find in a shop like this. From scuba gear and spear guns to nets and fishing tackle - it's all there!

 

The exterior of the shop has an equally large number of accoutrements - from the fish hanging from the wall, to the seagulls and cat to the cases of fresh lobsters that just came off the boat.

2 - The unique access method - we really liked how the side walls opened up to reveal the interior. When closed, they flow seamlessly into the building and really enhance the completeness and stand-aloneness of the set. When open, they provide a large entry point to access the interior to move things around and just to see what is going on inside the shop.

3 - The overall detail in the rugged look of the set - this was the first set we came across that really accentuated the beat down, jury rigged look of this shop. From the patchwork repairs on the roof to the lopsided tiling on the walls, this look look added such character to the feel of the set.

If there was anything we would have liked to see, it would be more mini-figures. The set only comes with 4 - the proprietor, his son (or so we think), a fisherman and a fisherwoman. A few more customers or perhaps the proprietor's wife would have been nice additions that would have fleshed out the human element to the set a little more.

All in all though. this was a very fun build.

Old Fishing Store (21310) - Observation Tower Goes Up!

We finished off the last stage of the bait shop this weekend, putting up the observation tower where the store owner has a complete 360 view of what is around him.

There is a large telescope mounted to the front deck to enable really long range surveillance.

The weather vane complete with chicken on the top is a nice touch. The deck railings extend around the entirety of the tower. Unfortunately, there is no door, so access is via crawling through one of the 2 windows. Internal to the tower is a ladder that stretches all the way down to the lower level.

Somewhat surprisingly, the roof of the tower looks to be in much better shape than that of the bait shop itself. Perhaps because the original construction material is much sturdier. There has definitely been some patching done, as evidenced by the myriad of colors, but it lacks the randomly slapped on boards of the bait shop roof.

Old Fishing Store (21310) - Tiling and Roofing Complete!

After a long hiatus, we hit this hard over the weekend and finished everything but the last step of the build.

We started off with finishing the top section of the swinging wall. Visually, there is nothing too much that stands out - it continues with the green tile motif of the rest of the building. There is a vent at the top left of the wall, which swings out just as the bottom section does.

Again, we are such fans of this access design - it's very easy to operate and provides a large space for hands to get into the building and arrange things. It's also a very sleek design that hides very well once the walls are swung back into place.

The next step was to build the roof trusses - these were very standard triangular trusses. I guess you wouldn't really expect much more than the basic for a rundown fish store.

The cobbled together roof over the porch is another character building component to the set. It definitely looks run down and gives the impression that it has been repaired multiple times over the years using whatever materials were on hand. Not many of the original boards remain and the rest look like they are on the verge of falling apart.

The roof provides much the same story - it's clear that patch repairs have been made over the years as leaks have sprung up. I'm not sure how much of the original roof remains under all the random bits of flotsam that have been nailed up.

Some of the local wildlife seem to have taken a liking to the patchy roof - I guess it offers a plethora of sturdy landing spots and is high enough to give a good view of the surroundings and any tasty morsels that might be lying around.

As one would expect, there is an orange tabby cat on the prowl for scraps and defending his scavenging territory from the pesky seagulls.