Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Final Thoughts

I am a Star Wars fan, so needless to say, I am biased in my thoughts on this set. The real deciding point was how much my mom ended up liking it in the end. She did not start off as a Star Wars fan but by the end, I think she appreciated the set and the franchise in general. In fact, she liked it so much that she has proclaimed her like and desire to do some additional sets - Millenium Falcon, Imperial Star Destroyer, B-Wing, Y-Wing, AT-ST, AT-AT. I would say that is quite the turnaround!!

This build was definitely challenging, even with both my mom and I working on it. The similarity in the colors of the pieces required focus to not only select the correct pieces but then assemble them correctly. There were a few instances in which I picked the wrong color pieces and my mom put them together incorrectly due purely to the similarity of color and the difficulty in making out the instructions.

Aside from color, the sheer size made this a challenging build as well. Finishing at over 4 FT in length, this took up a large portion of our Lego table and at times, it was even partially hanging off the side. This made it a little unwieldy to flip upside down and rotate to continue building it. Not to mention trying to take decent pictures of it! With previous sets, I could leave it on the table and get some fairly un-cluttered shots but with this behemoth, most of my pictures either have the surroundings in them or I had to move everything onto the floor to try and get a shot of just the ship.

There were also some blind build sections, which took a little maneuvering to snap together. Examples include attaching some of the engine sections underneath the chassis and snapping the two "wing" top deck sections onto the frame. These were done completely blind and to this day, I am not sure whether ALL the snaps were done. Seeing as it hasn't fallen apart, I am working with the assumption that enough of them were successfully aligned and snapped. :)

The look of the set is spectacular. It is definitely meant more as a display set than a play set. The play functionality is very limited but the raised stands and the descriptive placard really make this set look superb sitting on whatever display surface you have chosen.

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - It's All Done!

This past weekend was a long weekend, and we made excellent use of the extra time off! We finished off the super star destroyer and even found a place to display it (on top of the piano).

The view from the back end is pretty impressive too. You can almost imagine the engine banks igniting and propelling this behemoth around. Maybe Lego 50 years from now will be able to do just that!

We had a lot of fun putting this together, despite the occasional griping about the lack of color :)

We are still waiting for pieces to finish off the carousel (fingers crossed there are no problems getting them). We've already started thinking about what we might build next. Continuing on the Star Wars theme, and particularly the Ultimate Collection Series sets, mom has said she likes the looks of the B-Wing and the Y-Wing in particular. So those may be coming up in the near future. She also likes the AT-AT and AT-ST sets, so those are a possibility as well.

In non-Star Wars related sets, she is a fan of WALL-E as well as the Technic Bucket Excavator. I was a little surprised at this since it's not, at least in my opinion, a really good looking set. I think she was drawn to it because of the plethora of yellow pieces hahaha.

So keep your eyes peeled to see what we get up to next!

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.