Death Star II

Having finished the new R2 yesterday afternoon, I couldn't resist a bit more building in the evening so started on Death Star II (10143).  Today's build was therefore finishing it off and I'm satistied with a weekend of bricking that took me well over 5000 bricks - a pretty good pace and gets me back on target to finish all my building by the end of June.

So the DSII... a bit of a beast.  The instruction book is only 100 or so pages but they are big pages and there is quite a bit of repetition, not least in the building of the two central bits of internal detail.  I've always felt that this was the limitation of the set - it was a shame that the upper and lower halves are identical and Lego could easily have done something a bit more creative.

That said, being a bit simpler means it is quite easy to build and with an average of 25 pieces per lot, you don't have to go hunting around for the single small [hinge plate] you can't find too often. 

My version is a rebuild - I realised that I had many of the expensive parts some years ago and was just missing the DBG 1x2 bricks, the black bricks with axle hole and the LBG 2x8 plates.  However, it then took me some time to buy the last of those in sufficient bulk! Even then, I'm left with a few colour switches (the pearl technic beams, the hinge bases) and some part subs (the 7x4 wedge plates). Hard to spot them, though.

Until I built it, I had a real hankering for this set.  However, while it is undeniably imposing (it certainly imposes on the remaining space in the Lego cave) and its use of plates and technic to create the ball shape is clever, I'm always left slightly underwhelmed by this one.  Hmm.  On that basis, I think it gets 6 out of 10, marked down because of the expectation a UCS set creates.
 


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