Deathly Star

I have to say that it's taken me 24 hours to get around to writing this post.  The Death Star nearly killed me!

Given it was a bank holiday weekend, I thought I'd get stuck into something big and picked the second-biggest set left in my to-build pile - the original Death Star playset (10188).  To be fair, the biggest set left is the more recent Death Star so it was 50:50!  

This is labelled as an ultimate collector series model but I think it would belong better in the new "master builder" label.  Or indeed just as a giant playset.  I'll not bother describing what you get as anyone who is interested will already have looked up one of the many reviews or indeed built this themselves.  As such, I've just taken one photo to prove I've done it.

Perhaps I'm just getting Lego fatigue but I didn't really enjoy this build.  A few thoughts:

  • It's very repetitive.  Lots of reinforced plates and walls.
  • I really didn't like the fact that a whole box came out with the same numbered polybags.  I'm used to having either a couple of hundred bricks to rummage through or well-sorted selections of pieces that I've picked.  It was really annoying having to hunt through 500 odd bricks to find the one I wanted (even though I had up to 4 trays on the go).  
  • I started off vaguely disquieted by the fact that my BNIB set seems to have non-standard minifigs.  In particular, both the Han solo figs have the wrong head!  I have the head that started getting used in 2011, which I presume was a late release version of set.

Having done the build, I thought I'd also compare it to the newer version on paper.  They are nearly identical - at least 98% the same, with only some very minor differences.  As such, I'm going to give myself a pass on the newer set and classify it as "for investment" rather than for building.  By doing that, I immediately get two days closer to building everything and can give myself the night off building.  That makes me feel a bit better!

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