More than 40,000 bricks. 110 pounds (50 kilograms). 6.62 feet long (2.02 meters). 4.1 feet wide (1.25 meters). 1.9 feet tall (58 centimeters). Eight months of design and building. Those are the stats for the biggest, most accurate Lego Imperial Star Destroyer ever built. This model of the Chimaera—the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer used by Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Star Wars extended universe—is not only amazing because of its massive size. It's the perfection and accuracy of this Lego machine is one of the most impressive Lego builds I've ever seen. Every single detail was resolved with masterful skill, using a technique called SNOT—or Studs Not On the Top. If you notice, you won't see any of the typical Lego bricks studs.Jerac, a Lego builder from Łódź, Poland, started to design this titanic model on November 11 2013. It was a very complex endeavor, so building actually started on December 28, 2013, ending on June 1, 2014, just two days ago. Check out the intricate work.
The imagination he displays in the use some of these pieces is simply incredible. You're reading Leg Godt, the blog with the latest Lego news and the most awesome Lego models in the web. This is truly unbelievable: Lego has built a 1:1 scale model of the X-Wing fighter using an astounding 5,335,200 bricks! It's as big as the real thing, capable of fitting the real Luke Skywalker—and Porkins. As you can see in these exclusive Gizmodo images and video, it reproduces the official $60 Lego 9493 X-Wing Fighter. But instead of being 560-pieces and a few inches long, this model uses more than five million pieces and it's 11-feet tall and 43 feet long, with a 44-foot wingspan. Just like the real X-Wing—and 42 times the size of the commercial Lego set. Here are all details about the model:Engines that light up and roarThere's only one thing different from the original model: the engines glow and roar like the X-Wing in the movies. To capture these photos and videos, Gizmodo had to travel to an airplane hangar near New York City, where the model had arrived by ship from the Lego Model Shop in Kladno, Czech Republic.
But you can see it for yourself now if you are in Manhattan, since it's on display in the middle of Times Square. According to Lego:The model was heavily engineered to withstand all the transportation, setup/break down and to ensure it was safe for Times Square given the subway system below and California’s seismic requirements for the Legoland California Resort installation. The X-Wing being unveiled today in New York City's Time Square. Bottom image by Gizmodo reader Ludlow Smith. You can see official Lego images of the unveiling here. Not in New York? After three days in the city, the X-Wing will be transported to the West Coast, where it will stay until the end of the year. And, by the way, you will be able to sit inside: The thing is so huge and heavy that it requires an internal metal structure to support it: Here's one of the crates used for shipping: The model was created to promote the original Lego Star Wars animation TV series The Yoda Chronicles, which will premiere on Cartoon Network on Wednesday, May 29 at 8:00PM.
You can see my review of the Lego X-Wing Fighter 9493 right here. You can get the original 560-piece version at the Lego Shop and Amazon. Images and video by Gizmodo's Nick Stango.In order to compile a list of the biggest and most challenging Lego sets, it was necessary to narrow down the criteria. First, the sets have to be mass produced by LEGO. In other words, we’re not considering any giant custom sets like the 6-meter Death Star Trench or insane 150,000 piece recreation of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings. Second, we excluded expandable sets such as the Modular Building series that you can keep adding on to like the Town Hall (10224), Green Grocer (10185), and the newly released Palace Cinema (10232) that can be combined together to lay out enormous Lego city scenes. Furthermore, to define what we mean by “biggest” the list considers those Lego sets with the largest amounts of pieces and/or final completed size of the set. As far as “challenging,” most of the sets listed below are suggested for builders aged 16 or older, although I’ve personally seen kids half that age cranking out 1,000+ piece sets with hardly any difficulty.
Some of the sets listed below are still available at Lego stores worldwide, while some are out of production. But you may find retired sets listed for outrageous prices on Amazon or eBay, though, those ones are arguable the best LEGO sets. Once Lego stops selling an item, or if produced in limited quantities, third parties grab those products and jack up the price depending on demand. You’ll find Lego sets a purchase limit per customer on certain items. Last week we created a list of must-have movie-themed Lego sets. Now, here’s a list of the most challenging and biggest lego sets, ordered somewhat subjectively but with consideration of total number of pieces combined with level of difficulty. By the way, the number in the parenthesis represents the Item Number in case you decide to go on a hunt for one of these Lego sets. It’d be hard to argue against Lego’s Star Wars Collector’s Millennium Falcon as being one of the most challenging and largest Lego sets (it also probably ranks as our #1 LEGOs for adults).
The $499 Millennium Falcon is suggested for ages 16-years and older but younger kids can probably get through it with some supervision. The highly detailed scale model is made up of a whopping 5,195 pieces but only 5 mini-figures including Luke, Princess Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and a stormtrooper. Why the set doesn’t include C-3PO and R2-D2 mini-figures is sort of a mystery (weren’t they on the Falcon during the mission to rescue Leia?), but nevertheless the ship itself is more than enough to focus on. The Collector’s Millennium Falcon was released in 2007 and retired in 2010, but remains the most-expensive mass-produced Lego set to date. If you need a little break from science fiction-based Star Wars sets you can jump into an architectural project building the Taj Mahal. The $299 set gives you more bang for your buck than the Collector’s Millennium Falcon, boxing a total of 5,922 pieces (about 700 more than the Falcon). What also makes this set a bit more of a challenge for builders is that all the pieces are all generally the same color.