Set Review - #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer - UCS - Star Wars

Just in time for the next giant Star Wars UCS set to be announced, I’m releasing my set review of the previous one. #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer was released back on 1 October 2019 in the US. It retails for $699.99 and contains 4,784 pieces. This makes it $0.146 per piece this is quite high in my opinion. Usually, with such a large set containing so many pieces, they can get it lower, but part of it has to do with the number of large plates in this set. There’s a lot of plastic in there despite the smaller piece count as compared to #75192-1: Millennium Falcon.

I’m finally getting to the review on this one. I actually purchased it back in April 2021. Then I moved and it moved with me still in the box. I finally opened it in late September 2021 and finally got to finish building it during the beginning of November 2021. Most of the time I spent building it was bringing the instructions and a small table outside to watch my kiddos play with their neighbor friends. Lots of questions about what I was building and if they could help. “No thanks. I got it!”

Onto the review…

So it comes in a sturdy box made great to fit the next box. The box with the set box inside is similar to other large sets I have purchased in the past with the LEGO branding. The set box is well protected inside which is as it should be considering the price of this set. From the label, my set was made in Mexico in April 2021. Not bad considering I also purchased it in April.

Here’s the set box with some of the art work. It has some great artwork of the set with different backgrounds. You can see just about every side of the set and the minifigures. You also get a computer generated outline of the ship (on one of the box flaps) which shows the dimensions of the set (43 inches long, 17 inches tall, 26 inches wide). You also get them in metric for those of you not familiar with inches.

Inside the box are four parts boxes and a box with the instructions. Each box has some artwork of the set. I like how the instructions come in a box versus a bag. I didn’t like that the boxes weren’t numbered. You have to sort through the boxes to put the parts bags in order and then if you don’t have the space like me, you have to sort them back into boxes. There are 19 numbered parts bags and then a few bags with larger plates. There are also a few plates not in any bags. Sorry, I didn’t count the total number of bags. You’ll have to zoom in on my picture to try and count them all.

The instructions come in a large, heavy book bound with wire. Inside are some details on the set, designers, and LEGO Star Wars.

Only one sticker on this set. It’s the large label for the description plate. I don’t like these large stickers, but I can’t complain since it is the only one.

The build for this set starts off with a pretty sturdy Technic structure. If you’re not a Technic fan, then this part will not be enjoyable, but I’m always amazed how people can use Technic pieces to put things together and then how they can connect them to System parts.

You’ll also notice the stand below the structure, the description plate, and the two minifigures. Building the stand first definitely helps make the build go easier as you have something to hold it up as you go versus building it later.

As for the minifigures, there were a lot of complaints when this set came out about just having two and how they were just crew members and nothing special. I don’t buy giant sets like this to get minifigures. I do it because I want to assemble a large set. So no real complaints here.

The second set of bags continues the internal structure and you can see the form of the ship start to take place.

The third set of bags builds the side of the ship in the form of a long running plate with a lot of greebling on it. Each side is mostly the same, but just flipped upside down. It clips on pretty easily to the substructure.

The bags labeled four and five build the underside skin in the back on the left and right. Lots of stacking plates together. This is where the build can get somewhat uninteresting as you are just connecting lots of plates together. Then you duplicate it only in a mirror image on the other side. The good part is on the inside of the ship, there are some different colors to mix things up a big.

The sixth bag adds some of the various bays underneath the ship and then a… um… I’m not an expert so I’m not sure what my last picture is… The middle one contains a small Tie Fighter. It also has a hook up where you can connect the Tantive IV as was done in “A New Hope.”

The seventh set of bags starts to build the back of the ship where the engines are located. This part was a bit more exciting to build as it wasn’t just stacking plates on top of each other.

Side note… this build is so big that I couldn’t use my normal low-grade picture taking method of just using the box as a background on a flat surface. So I found a low-tech program to crop out some of the background. It’s not the greatest, but it gets rid of a lot of the clutter in my building area that distracts from the set itself.

The eighth set of bags finishes up the back with the engines and adds a small amount of color in. If I wanted to dump more money in, I could get LED lights to light them up which I think would look cool. For now, I’ll stick with it as is.

Bags nine and ten finish up the front of the ship on the bottom. You build both sides. It is more stacking plates next to each other.

Then when you are done with that, you can move onto bags 11 and 12 with the top front.

Bags 13 and 14 build the left and right sides of the back of the shop on the top. This part was a little more involved as there is some minor greebling and there are some of the gun ports. Each gun is on a swivel and you can angle the turrets on each one. This is a nice touch to a ship devoid of many play type features.

Bag 15 builds the sub structure of what will become the bridge. You get to build with some color other than gray which is nice and it is more than just stacking plates.

Bag 16 finishes up the bridge portion. I failed to take a picture of it alone, but you can see part of it in these pictures and then more in the final versions. I like the large balls on either side which I assume are some sort of radar or sensor. There is some good detailing in my opinion as compared to the ships you see in the movie.

Bags 17 and 18 build up the layer on the top of the ship and surrounding the bridge area. I’m sure someone can tell me what they are meant for, but this section was a change of pace. There were some plates to connect, but a lot of details, some use of SNOT techniques, and lots of greebling to add in detail. Each one just snaps/slides into place like much of the rest of the build for easy assembly/disassembly.

Bag 19 wraps everything up with two attachments that clip onto the previous build to wrap up the top of the ship. The attachments are with Technic pins so you can easily unclip to get to the substructure inside the ship. The nice part about this build is that you can move the set by holding onto the structure inside. It makes it easier to move as compared to the Falcon. I assembled it in one place and then moved it to take pictures and then moved it to a shelf for display. I was a little nervous it would break, but it held up okay.

So here’s the final build from a few angles. Sorry for my crappy graphics editing program to cut out some of the clutter in the background. Maybe I just need to stick to reviews of smaller sets to avoid this problem in the future.

Bag 19 also builds a small version of the Tantive IV so you can re-create the scene from “A New Hope.” The small model is pretty accurate considering the scale and you can attach it with either the clear pole and clip as shown or it also clips into the bay on the bottom of the Star Destroyer. This is a cool feature in my opinion.

Overall, I thought the build was okay. The use of the Technic core was great, but there’s only so much excitement you can get from connecting plates into bigger plates. I think the end set captures the ship quite accurately and I like the shear size of this monster. There were some complaints about the line up the center between the two sides of the ship. I can see why people would complain, but I understand it is LEGO and there is only so much you can do.

The price is pretty steep considering the number of pieces, but you do get a pretty large beast of a set. If I can remember back that far, I think I purchased it during a double VIP point period. Hopefully you can find a deal or some way to cut back on the price to swallow the cost. Has anyone been able to get it at a discount?

Lastly, here’s where I’m displaying it for now. My NLS got some shelves and let me put sets on the tops. I’ve got #75308-1: R2-D2 and then #75192-1: Millennium Falcon. The two big builds look good together I think. Not sure if I will add an AT-AT in there or not. We’ll have to see.

Happy building!

BrickCon 2020 - My Experience

I posted about some of the swag I received and a bit on BrickCon 2020 here. This post will focus on the content. I attended a Brickworld Virtual back in May 2020 and that was a number of online rooms that yoiu could go into and out of at will. There were a few presentations throughout the day as well. BrickCon was a lot more than that. They had multiple sessions scheduled every hour, a Discord server running full time, Zoom rooms to hang out in, and lots of prizes throughout. All of the MOCs on display were on a private Flickr group page for viewing. While I would have preferred the opportunity to go in person, meet people, ask questions of MOC builders, and not be stuck behind my computer, the experience was definitely worth it in a COVID-19 context. Here’s a run through of some of the events I attended.

Tiago Catarino is a former LEGO Designer turned YouTuber from Portugal. You can visit his YouTube channel here. Now he posts small builds that you can do yourself with minimal pieces. He also has a few videos on what it was like to work at LEGO and why he quit (spoiler alert… it was not because he hated LEGO). Tiago had two sessions. The first was a Q&A for registered AFOLs only where he gave a short presentation and then people could ask him questions. The second was a build with Tiago session open to the public. I attended the registered AFOL session. Tiago shared some great info about working at LEGO, being a YouTuber, and some of his other experiences. Here’s a screen shot of him below.

The next one I attended was a public session where Stuart Harris presented to the public. If you don’t know him, he’s the lead designer for the LEGO House®. Stuart gave a presentation about how the LEGO House® was developed and built. Then he gave a description of each of the zones and what you can do there. Below are a few pictures from the presentation that I grabbed. The first is one of Stuart’s creations/Stuart working at the LEGO House®. The second is a brick built model of the Minifig Cafe.

Another one I attended was with registered AFOLs only and was a presentation by Gaute Munch (Lego Product Technology Director) and Flemming Jepsen (from the Powered Up team) on Powered UP. I am not an expert in this area by any means so a lot of the conversation was a bit over my cranium, but it was interesting to here. My experience has been motorizing the Crocodile Locomotive, but there is a lot that LEGO has in the works. Just after BrickCon, LEGO released a new version of the app which allows customization. They are working on a rechargeable battery box, new software, and a bunch more. Gaute and Flemming took some tough questions from the audience and handled them very well. I’m glad I participated in this one. The screen shot below is one of the slides with Gaute presenting.

Another event was a keynote where Andrew Becraft (The Brothers Brick Founder and Editor-in-Chief) interviewed Skip Kodak (Executive Vice President, Americas Market Group - LEGO). This was an interesting conversation covering a range of topics from sustainability to COVID-19 impacts for the company, to the adult focused products and lines. I’m glad I attended this one and thought it was great that LEGO offered up someone from upper management to participate.

Throughout the event, a number of AFOLs got on to share their MOCs. One of them was with Ben Smith who lives in the UK. He builds in the space theme and has some pretty impressive MOCs. You can see what he builds on his Flickr page. The screen shot below shows a classic space set, but he had a modern take on it and some other larger space crafts to show off. The benefits of having a virtual event is to get folks to participate in other countries to include people like Ben (and me!).

LEGO Designer Chris McVeigh gave a presentation and Q&A. If you aren’t familiar with Chris and his work, he designed the Brick Sketches™ and the latest Winter Village set the #10275-1: Elf Clubhouse. Chris shared his AFOL experience, how he was hired by LEGO, and then some details on designing the Winter Village set.

I sadly did not get to see this full presentation, but Graham Hancock gave a presentation on LEGO’s foray into catering to adult fans. If you’re not familiar with Graham, he run Brick Fanatics and is the deputy editor for Blocks Magazine. The part of the presentation I saw had details on the history of sets focused for adults. Some I remember and some I hadn’t heard of. And of course some that I wish I had.

I also attended a presentation and Q&A with Henrik Andersen. Henrik is a LEGO Designer who might be best known for his recent work on #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer. He’s been with the company for a while and showed some of the other sets he worked on an parts he developed. He went through the details of how they develop parts and showed what works and what doesn’t work. Most notably (for me anyway) I learned he was the developer of the cheese slope.

One last presentation I attended was with George Patelis. George lives in Greece and goes by PatGeo313 on his YouTube channel and Flickr gallery. He made a short video on some of his latest MOCs on YouTube here. Definitely check his work out as he has some impressive stuff.

That was a quick glimpse into my BrickCon 2020 experience. I had a lot of fun even if it wasn’t in person. I hope I can attend again next year and maybe some day get there in person.

Until then, happy building!

Give to Creations to Charity and Win a UCS Star Destroyer

Beyond the Brick is running a donation drive starting today (9 May 2020) and ending on 19 May 2020. The goal is to raise $2,000 and it looks like they will get there on day one. For every $5 given, you will get one chance to win a #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer. The set is not new. It is the version LEGO sent to Beyond the Brick for a set review. The Beyond the Brick gang has decided to give it away with a goal of raising money for Creations for Charity. If you have never heard of it, it is the following:

“Creations for Charity is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that hosts an annual fundraising event from October to November where builders from all over the world donate custom LEGO creations to sell and raise money to buy LEGO sets for underprivileged children during the holidays.”

Here’s the YouTube.com video announcing the effort:

Here’s the link to the donation page if you want to go directly there.

Thanks for supporting and happy building!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Saarbrücken, Germany

I wasn’t planning on it, but I had the opportunity to stop in a Brand Store in Saarbrücken, Germany during the Triple Force Friday sales event 2019 (4 to 6 October). The store front was full of some of the most recent new sets. With the focus on Star Wars, I’ll start there. The first picture I took included the new LEGO Boost Droid Commander (#75253-1), Kylo Ren’s Shuttle (#75256-1), another Millennium Falcon (#75257-1), and Yoda (#75255-1). They had all of the other new sets available as well. I didn’t look around at the sale sets to see what was available (sorry).

Additionally, they had the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer (#75252-1) assembled in the front window. Wow is it a big set! I was not the only one in the window taking pictures of the set. Still not sure if it is worth my money or not, but it’s definitely a cool display piece.

Additionally in the front window was the new Winter Village Gingerbread House (#10267-1). It was cool to see it up close and personal. I think I’ll be picking the set up at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Also on display was the new Disney Train and Station (#71044-1). Inside the store they had the Disney Castle built (#71040-1).

The LEGO Ideas Tree House (#21318-1) was on display in the front in the summer version. Inside the store they had it built in the fall version with the other set of leaves. It was neat to see how it looks with both versions if leaves.

LEGO Ideas Central Perk (#21319-1) from the TV show Friends was on display in two places. There was one in the front window and one inside the store. The one inside the store was a little easier to see and get pictures of so you get the picture here.

The Technic Land Rover (#42110-1) was available for sale and they had a built set that they were letting people touch and pick up. Props to LEGO for allowing that!

The Pick-a-Brick wall or “Suche & Baue” wall was in the back. According to Google Translate, this works out to be “Search and Build.” The wall was one of the better ones I’ve seen. There were a lot of pieces that I wanted to get, but I decided against it. There were numerous “gold” colored pieces, some different flower pieces I have never seen before, some colors that are not always out there, and a few cool pieces that would look great on MOCs for buildings. Bravo to LEGO for stocking this wall well!

I thought this display was cool. Two Statues of Liberty in different formats. The Brick Headz version (#40367-1) and the Architecture version (#21042-1). It’s cool to see the different sizes and versions next to each other. Behind it is the Architecture Trafalgar Square (#21045-1).

Most stores have some none standard builds that are usually larger in size. This one was no exception with a large Chewbacca holding a crossbow and then a Pirate Captain with a hook arm and a parrot sitting on his arm.

Overall, I was impressed with this store. They had everything in stock from what I could tell and a large amount of sets on display for viewing. There were numerous build stations for kids to play with in the store to see things before you buy. The workers were all very helpful with one dressed up as Princess Leia for Triple Force Friday. I talked to one who spoke German, French, and English and the one who rang up my purchase spoke English as well.

I purchased the LEGO® Brand Store (#40305-1) which is only available in Brand Stores. It was 24.99€ as compared to $24.99 in the US. The price I paid was roughly $27.37 with the exchange rate so the total varies since the VAT (value added tax) is factored in and the sales tax in the US varies by location. The last place I lived in the states had an 8.5% sales tax rate so it would have been $27.11… although we didn’t have a Brand Store. I’ll do a review of the set at a later date.

So if you’re in western Germany or eastern France and you’re looking for a LEGO® Brand Store, I highly recommend this one.

Happy building!

EDITORIAL: What Would You Say About a Set if LEGO Sent You it for Free?

I haven’t done this before so we’ll see how it goes… I’ve decided to write an editorial piece capturing an opinion that I’ve formed as of late after scouring the LEGO fan pages. Specifically, I’ve been following the recent release of the new UCS Imperial Star Destroyer Set (#75252-1). I had a blast building #75192-1: Millennium Falcon and news of the Imperial Star Destroyer set release caught my attention. Thankfully, the fan media has their set reviews ready to go soon after release. From the sites I look at, there were Imperial Star Destroyer reviews on Brickset.com, Eurobricks, and on YouTube, Beyond the Brick had a video review.

I’m trying to decide whether I want to save up my VIP points to buy a Star Destroyer set. The reviews have been helpful in pointing out things I wouldn’t even consider. They’ve highlighted the less than stellar minifigures included, the lack of internal designs unlike the Falcon, points where the design lacks detail, and the mere challenge of trying to display a model this large somewhere. They’ve also highlighted the positives like the cool “greebling,” the built in carrying handle, the intricacy of the various angles formed, and some of the many cool details. To be honest, I have not decided one way or another whether I want to take the plunge or not.

Onto the meat of the discussion… I am glad LEGO sends out free copies of the sets to various LEGO fan media influencers. It works out great for them to get reviews published right as a set releases for sale so the rest of the fan community can get an inside look at the set. It’s a smart move on LEGO’s part and they probably see more benefits by giving away a bunch of sets for free than they do by giving up sets. Also to be fair, all of the reviewers acknowledge that they have received a free copy. For example, Brickset says “This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.” But are we in the fan community getting true reviews? Many of the reviews have a comment about the set being expensive, but it seems like it’s worth it to buy. However, they didn’t actually buy it. How can they make an assessment like that? I almost feel like I need to wait and find someone who as actually spent their hard earned cash to buy this before I accept any decisions on price. Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if LEGO sent me free sets to review (hint, hint… if someone from LEGO is reading this…), but I don’t think I could make a fair assessment on the price LEGO picked for a set without actually paying for a set. Often times, that’s why my reviews are much later as I tend to wait for sets to go on sale before buying them.

I don’t mean to stir up discontent among the community. I think LEGO is doing a great thing by sending sets to the community to review. I appreciate and thank the fan media for taking the time to create videos, post professional quality photos, and assess sets from the prospective of a fan builder. My recommendation going forward is to continue with this process. I would also suggest that we as a fan look into finding ways to assess the price that are more objective. We have the somewhat meaningful price per brick. I have seen price per pound used as well. The Star Destroyer is also compared in price to the Falcon which I’m not sure is 100% accurate either. What else is there? Any ideas on how to make this process more transparent?

Thanks for hearing me out. Happy building!