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.