Death Star™product_label_list_price_accessibility 45 Reviews123451FIND MORE PRODUCTS LIKE THISSpaceStar Wars™Win the battle for the Empire with the awesome Death Star! Death Star⢠Reviews - page 2It’s still another six months to go before the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, arrives in theaters. Lego fans will have new sets to look forward to closer to then, but in the meantime they’ll have to content themselves with some original trilogy action. New this month is the Death Star Final Duel, featuring the iconic scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where Luke Skywalker fights Darth Vader to the death while the sinister Emperor Palpatine looks on. This isn’t the first time the scene has popped up in Lego. It’s also featured in the massive, 3,803-piece Death Star, released in 2008. The new set, however, expands on what was just a small piece of that much bigger whole. Here are nine ways in which the Death Star Final Duel improves on its previous Lego incarnation.
The original Death Star’s duel section is rather cramped, with the Emperor’s throne sitting atop a small floor section, across from a collapsible balcony. There’s hardly enough room for the five minifigures: Palpatine, Luke, Vader, and a pair of Imperial Guardsmen. The 724-piece Death Star Duel features a lot more real estate, with a large staircase leading up to the throne and a retractable drawbridge that leads to sliding doors with their associated guards. A pair of side sections also swing out from the main trunk. The Death Star Final Duel runs $79, a far cry from the whopping $399 price tag of the full Death Star. Of course, the Death Star is perhaps the ultimate Star Wars Lego set, but still, this is a far more affordable chunk. The new Luke Skywalker minifigure has been completely redesigned, so much so that the older Death Star version looks positively ancient. Luke now has more details on his outfit, including a pretty boss belt buckle. His eyes are more two-dimensional, rather than just black dots, and it almost looks like he has a goatee.
His hair is also a little more brown than blond. Most importantly, his lightsaber is green, rather than a greenish yellow. The online protests can finally end. Purists will love this one. Palpatine’s bodyguards are largely unchanged in this new set, except for two slight details that are more faithful to the movie. Gone are the black hands in favor of red, and the black staves have been replaced by two-piece black-and-grey polearms, which look more like what the guardsmen actually carry. Star Wars nerds can sleep easier now that this travesty has been corrected. Who can forget Vader looking for Luke in the movie among the darkness and those weird blue-glowing terminals underneath Palpatine’s throne? They’re under-represented in the cramped quarters of the Death Star set, but here they’re fully realized. We’re still not quite sure what they’re for, but they look cool nevertheless. The Emperor is largely unchanged from the older Death Star, although the new version has a few more details in his robe.
His face is no longer a sullen grey but rather a ghoulish flesh tone. He still has the same attachable lightning bolts, which are as inventive a design as Lego creators have ever come up with. The original Death Star designers deserve kudos for fitting in a collapsable balcony, a key part of the film’s duel segment. But the new set has three such action areas: a fall-away balcony, exploding stairs, and an ejecting floor near the drawbridge. More space equals more action, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s probably more of a draw for kids. What fun is killing the Emperor off when there’s no electrical shaft to throw him down? The Death Star Final Duel has one, complete with decals that provide all the piping and wiring details on the inside. Now you can replicate your own blood-curdling screams as Vader tosses his boss to his death. Hands-down the new set’s coolest feature is Darth Vader’s two-piece mask. Take the helmet off to reveal the pale, scarred head and face of Anakin Skywalker, so he can say, “Let me look on you with my own eyes.”
As an extra bonus, the Death Star Final Duel doesn’t feature George Lucas’s edited-in Anakin ghost at the end. This is Return of the Jedi as it was meant to be. In Lego form, of course. Brickrolled is a monthly Lego review column by Peter Nowak. You can read about his previous builds here.Take command of the ultimate Imperial weapon—the Death Star! This amazing Star Wars model has so many great rooms, chambers, hangars and more, you won’t know where to start. Operate the giant superlaser from the control room, plan missions in the conference chamber, and launch Lord Vader's TIE Advanced from the hangar bay. Fix Droids in the maintenance room, keep prisoners secure in the detention block and overpower rebel starships with the spring-loaded shooter turbo laser, turbo laser towers and powerful tractor beam. You can even visit Emperor Palpatine in his throne room, keep things moving in the cargo area, and take out the trash in the trash compactor. And of course no Death Star story would be complete without Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo doing their best to destroy the Empire's fearsome Death Star!
Will they foil the plans of Vader and the other Imperial characters? The fate of the Death Star is in your hands…The #10188 LEGO Star Wars Death Star has been one of the best-selling LEGO sets of all time, originally released in 2008, and finally retired after seven years at the end of 2015. However this wasn’t a true retirement, just a bit of time taken off to get some updates and improvements, and now the Death Star is back! The #75159 LEGO Star Wars Death Star includes over 200 extra pieces as well as three new minifigures. Below is the full press-release with pictures and details. Here is the official description of the #75159 LEGO Star Wars Death Star: Win the battle for the Empire with the awesome Death Star! Reenact amazing scenes from the Star Wars saga with the Empire’s ultimate planet-zapping weapon—the Death Star! With over 4,000 pieces, this fantastic model has a galaxy of intricate and authentic environments, including a superlaser control room, Imperial conference chamber, hangar bay with moving launch rack and Lord Vader’s TIE Advanced with space for Vader inside, Emperor Palpatine’s throne room, Droid maintenance room, detention block, trash compactor, tractor beam, cargo area, turbo laser with spring-loaded shooters and seats for the 2 Death Star Gunners,
and 2 movable turbo laser towers. This fantastic set also includes 23 iconic minifigures and 2 Droids to ensure hours of Star Wars battle fun. Includes 23 minifigures and 2 droids: Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Imperial Navy Officer, Imperial Officer, 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Death Star Troopers, 2 Emperor’s Royal Guards, 2 Death Star Gunners, Death Star Droid, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C-3PO, Han Solo, Han Solo (disguise), Luke Skywalker (Tatooine), Luke Skywalker (disguise) and Luke Skywalker (final duel), plus R2-D2, an Imperial Astromech and a Dianoga trash compactor monster. Features a superlaser control room, Imperial conference chamber, hangar bay with moving launch rack and detachable TIE Advanced with space for Lord Vader inside, Emperor Palpatine’s throne room, Droid maintenance room, detention block, trash compactor, tractor beam, cargo area, turbo laser with spring-loaded shooters and seats for the 2 Death Star gunners, and 2 movable turbo laser towers.
LEGO VIP members will get early access to the #75159 LEGO Star Wars Death Star on September 15th, followed by general release on September 30th. Prices are as follows: US $499.99 – CA $599.99 – DE 499.99€ – UK £399.99 – DK 4499.00 DKK (Euro pricing varies by country). The set will be available at official LEGO stores and under the LEGO Star Wars section of the Online LEGO Shop. Rumors started circulating even before the #10188 LEGO Star Wars Death Star was retired that LEGO was going to release a new Death Star. Some people thought it will be related to the new Star Wars film, others speculated that it would be like the old #10143 LEGO Star Wars Death Star II display-model from 2005, and some LEGO fans reasoned that it will probably be just an updated re-release with new minifigures and improved building techniques. And this third group pretty much had it right; the #75159 LEGO Star Wars Death Star is basically the same thing as the original set, with updated minifigures.
It is clear that LEGO felt that there was no need to change the original set, besides freshening up the minifigures and adding a couple of other small changes. On the box image the Death Star is even oriented almost exactly the same way as on the original set, to emphasize that it is the same thing. Nobody was expecting that the sets will be this similar. In fact, when the first images of the new set leaked in mid-August, most LEGO fans thought it was a prank. Even with a re-release people expected that LEGO will at least update some of the more unsightly features of the original model, like the stepped curves. Personally, I would have loved if the outside would be covered with opening panels! The collection of minifigures is nice, but I don’t think it justifies a $100 increase in price. Just to give you some comparison here is some data. The #10188 LEGO Star Wars Death Star was released in 2008 with 3,803 pieces and 24 minifigs/droids for a price of $400 (10.5 cents a piece). T
he #75159 LEGO Star Wars Death Star comes with 4,016 pieces (213 more pieces) and 25 minifigs/droids for a price of $500 (12.4 cents a piece). The #71040 LEGO Disney Castle is 4,080 pieces (so 64 pieces more than the new Death Star) for a price of $350 (8.6 cents a piece). From this perspective, it might make more sense to just buy the old Death Star (which still sells for around $400 on the secondary market and prices will likely drop once the new one is out), and maybe add a few updated minifigs. Or if you just want to get a big display set, the LEGO Disney Castle is a much better deal. Below are a few more comparison pictures of the two sets (old on the left, new on the right). What do you think? How do you like the new LEGO Star Wars Death Star? Do you think it is worth getting it? What interesting changes and updates you notice between the two sets? And how do you like the minifigures? Do you have the previous version of the set? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉