More Sith Mosaics

For the last of my holiday builds, I've graduated from mosaics of sith M&Ms to mosaics of sith lords.  Specifically, I picked Darth Vader as my choice of the three options from the offical Sith Lords Lego Art (32100).  Unusually, I'll lead with a photo of the finished thing:

This set is all about aesthetics - box, build, experience and obiously the finished display piece, so let's go through these in turn.

The box is a pretty unique shape but hints at what you're going to build - it's square and just larger on all dimensions that the finished mosaic.  It's clearly aimed at adults, minimalist in its design and all black (again, hinting towards the finished set).  The helmet sets are similar but somehow this box feels even more clean - almost clinical.  To be clear, this isn't a problem - indeed I find it refreshingly different.

On opening, you get several interior compartments.  Unhelpfully, I've unboxed it here but the bottom contains 9x 16x16 technic bricks, the right hand side the c. 3000 studs and the left hand side the instructions and the pieces for the outside frame.  All very neatly presented.

So, to the build.  You take a 16x16 brick and apply some studs; and apply some more studs... and more studs... and then you turn the page and repeat.  2304 studs later (you get lots of spares from one picture because I assume the others need different amounts of each) you have finished the main bulk of the set and just have the frame to go. That's the downside; the upside is that the instructions are wonderfully clear and the 16x16 sections are just the right size to be able to follow the patterns.  I made just one mistake, which was half accident - this is way lower than my usual error rate. 

I reckon it took me just under 3 hours in total, over two nights but I have to say that this set is not for those who are prone to RSI - or those with fumbling fingers.  I can imagine it will take some people much longer to complete.  

To the experience... Lego have realised that it's going to be quite dull to sit and apply studs so they provide a soundtrack.  It's actually a series of interviews with some of the people involved in the creation of the various characters and finally the Lego set artists.  This kept me going for most of my first build session with Vulfpeck providing the soundtrack on day 2.  Vulfpeck were more interesting (but as an intermittent semi-pro bassist, Joe Dart is endlessly able to hold my attention).  

The end set is, however, a thing of beauty.  My wife would almost (but actually) have it on a wall*.  Despite the relatively limited colour palette, there is a real depth to the picture of Darth V and the frame is very nicely done (almost SNOT, but just a few studs to remind you that this is Lego).  Up close, it doesn't look great, but stand back a bit and it comes really into focus.

Actually, it photographs better than it looks in reality. 

At some stage, I'll do the other two pictures, but I suspect that won't be until next year (I am fully focussed on getting all my sets built up for now).  Will I ever buy three of these and build the full size Darth?  Hmm...  

Overall, I'd give this set an 8 out of 10, which may feel a bit harsh.  However, the monotony of studs was ultimately a detraction and I actually preferred the build of the M&M promo set as it had more variety of brick (about the same range of colours).

I'm also in two minds about the cleverness.  The audio track goes into some detail about this but last year I coded a mosaic maker of my own in Matlab (solves for the closest RGB colour match for each pixel) and I'm in the process of making it size plates to get me the cheapest build cost... I've promised to make a mosaic of my 7yr old Lego-loving niece and my wife would let that go on a wall if we kept it.  So I know some of the issues and they're not that hard to get around.

* my wife would let it go on the wall of my Lego cave.  I actually don't think it was a close-run thing that it would go up anywhere else in the house...