Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Fire Up The Engines!

Last night saw the beginning of the work on the propulsion system for the SSD. We put together a couple of the engine banks and put them into place.

Also managed to do a fairly nice printout of the placard sticker and got that set up as well. It looks pretty sharp!

The SSD has grown to the point where it is quite unwieldy to move around for photo shoots. It's been really nice outside these past couple days so I may take it out today and get some shots of it in the driveway. At least, there won't be clutter in the background of the photos that way.

Mom also picked up a Slave I set yesterday. She said she was tempted by 3 things:

1 - it is also part of the Ultimate Collectors Series
2 - it is colorful (its got some green, dark red, and yellow)
3 - it "looks like a turkey drumstick" - those were her exact words

She is such a riot!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Middle Section Complete

The "crumble" is done! I'm talking about the bumpy section in the middle of the ship that reminds me of the crumble on top of an apple crumble pie.

It looks pretty amazing with the whole section done now. I can only imagine that the remainder of the build will be putting the top deck plates on and installing the engines.

Mom is going to the dentist tomorrow and is already planning on stopping by the lego store. She claims she will just be browsing to see what other sets there are but I'm thinking she may give in to temptation and bring home another set. Not that I would complain about that. We are going to have to do some serious thinking about where to display all these builds!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - It Takes To The Air!

Well, not really - at least not like you might be imagining. It did get put up on supports to raise it off the table though, so there IS air between the bottom of the ship and the table ....

Made some decent progress this weekend - got a lot more of the greebling done in the center part of the vessel and of course, got the stands put together and attached. Here is a picture of one of the supports. They are pretty beefy but still classy looking!

And the vessel looks really majestic when it is raised up like that. It's going to be a treat to see when it is 100% done. We put together the placard (bottom right of the picture below) which typically would have a sticker attached detailing what the vessel is along with some technical specifications. I didn't buy stickers for this set (and wouldn't put them on even if I did - all that glue and limitation of re-buildability etc.) so for now, it's just going to sit as a plain black piece. That looks a little odd though so I'll see if I can print off a paper copy and just tape it on.

And a few closer shots so you can get a better look at the awesome greebling!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Mega Greebling!

I think mom has found her calling - Master Greebler. Despite vociferous complaining about how hard it is to make out the differences in color (light bluish gray, dark bluish gray, and black), she has done a really good job on the nit-picking greebling that really makes the SSD look great.

A lot of the tail section is now done and we have started working our way towards the nose of the vessel.

She was also itching for a Darth Vader minifigure that she could parade through the ship. I didn't pick up any of the minifigures when I put this set together as I had intended it primarily as a display piece. I told her that when we build our Death Star, Darth Vader can come for a visit :)

We've also picked out a pretty good place where we can display this once it's finished. We're thinking it will look pretty sharp on top of the china cabinet in the formal dining room.

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Gucci Plays Hide & Seek

Gucci loves joining mom and I for our Lego sessions. She's got her own amply padded chair that she curls up in and listens to us rustling around with the pieces. Occasionally, she takes a peek out just to make sure we are staying on track.

We did some more work on the internals yesterday - put in some of the command areas (they would look more like command and control centers if we applied the stickers but we feel that limits the re-building capability so we leave them off).

We also added some more greebling to the sides, covering up some of the exposed tiles and giving it a more detailed and finished look.

The main decking is starting to come together as well. I *think* this section may be visible on the outside. I am guessing that all the tiles with the single central attachment points are for future greebling. We'll see if I am right about that.

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Upwards and Onwards - Chapter 2 Finished!

Either Chapter 2 was pretty short or we really picked up the pace. It didn't seem like that long ago that we finished Chapter 1.

Where Chapter 1 was all about laying down the foundation for the ship, Chapter 2 started building up to give it some height. It also fortified the structure a lot with interlocking layers of plate and technic bricks. And of course, it lengthened the overall vessel by adding the "backbone" that lies down the middle and extends out the back end.

The piece now is getting pretty heavy but is very solid. It's also almost at its final length ... I think ... At any rate, it's already longer than 2 of Gucci lying head to butt.

Mom got her first taste of "greebling". That is, the detailing of some of the exposed areas of the vessel. The SSD, of course, has a lot of turbo-cannons and other structures dotting the top of the vessel and the model does a great job of capturing these by using a lot of small pieces to re-create that landscape.

The last piece that we built in Chapter 2 is going to have the top exposed and thus required this detailed greebling. You can see this in the picture below. The piece includes the command tower for the SSD - that raised section with the distinctive dual deflector-shield domes.

Death Star UCS (75159) - Guess Who Got One? .....

Mmmhmmm YUP! I picked up one of these from the Lego Store this weekend. The box was huge and probably weighed about 15 lbs (it seemed to have grown to 100lbs by the time I had lugged it through the mall and back to the car). There were only 2 sets on display at the store (not sure if they have more in the back and just don't want to have so much sitting out as it is an expensive set). One had a pretty banged up box - there was a large crease that ran the length of the box and the corners were pretty scuffed up. Luckily, the second box (the one I picked) was pretty sharp. All the faces were smooth and the corners looked fairly crisp.

It was approximately $630 including tax. A lot of people were angry with this re-release (it replaces the Death Star 10188 set) as it seemed there were minimal changes between it and the 10188 set. The biggest difference was perhaps the price, which increased from $500 CAD to $600 CAD.However, having never owned the 10188 set, I can't really complain as this allows me to add an iconic element to my collection. I admit that the $600 price tag is steep though. It makes me feel a little better that it seems to be the most cost effective to buy it here in Canada. The listed USD list price is $500, which after conversion is about $650 CAD. In Australia, you would have to shell out a whopping $800 AU for the set. The AU and CAD dollars are pretty much on par, which means the Aussies are spending $800 CAD on this. Yay for being in Canada!

It looks pretty impressive from the outside - a lot of different famous scenes recreated inside the death star and with 25 mini-figures included in the set, there is bound to be a ton of play function. Not sure when I am going to get around to building it as there are a number of sets I have planned already.


So for the meantime, it's sitting in my closet where I go and ogle it once in a while :)

Front of the box - with official UCS stamp

Back of the box - also stamped with the UCS logo