Jdurg

Went and expanded my mini-fig display case to fit the greater number of minifigs I now have. I'm quite fond of the 3PO line-up at the top with a regular C-3PO figure that I have a huge number of, but is slightly modified. I have a ton of them, but can't really photograph the mod. I have a large bottle of this Europium based glow-in-the-dark paint. I dabbed some over the eyes on the model, then with a very fine tipped brush put a dab of black ink for pupils. In the light, it looks fairly normal. After turning the lights off, however, the eyes glow an intense green color which is incredible looking. Best part of all is that it can be easily removed if I ever decide to do that. With so many 3PO figs in my collection I don't see myself doing that. Anyway, the 3PO line includes C-3PO, K-3PO, R-3PO, TC-4, and TC-14. The highest cost minifigs for me were TC-14 and the Chrome Stormtrooper. The Chrome StormTrooper is incredible looking. If only I could find the "chrome" Darth Vader for a price that isn't obsurd. I've attached the LDD file to my post here in case anybody else would like to build this case. It is large, and as I found out when I BL'd and PaB'd from the S@H site, fairly expensive. Still, it came out looking great and is VERY sturdy. Feel free to use this however you would like. I'm thinking that I'm going to need to go and spend some cash to build me another one soon. Large Mini-Fig Stand.lxf

I'd like to see that too. This way you could have the nice progression from the senate guards you see in TPM, through the blue-robed Imperial Like guards, finally to the current Imperial Guards we have which look great.

Just found a really great deal on BrickLink for a set I wanted to get, as well as a nice used set to get a module I wanted. Was able to pick up the 7754 - Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser set for only $79.00! When released, this set cost $109.00 and the one I got is new and sealed in the box. Very happy with this pick-up. Also picked up the Dagobah X-Wing set used. It doesn't have instructions, minifigures, accessories, and is missing some pieces from the ship, but the main reason I got it was to get Yoda's Hut. That is fully complete and all the instructions are available online. I calculated that BLing the individual parts would have cost me nearly the same amount, so getting the incomplete set for $60.00 is worth it as it will give me a bunch of spare parts to use in MOCs if I desire. I'm just most excited about getting the Mon Calamari set for such a great price. Just have to hope that the seller doesn't come back and say "Oops, we're out of stock and I was too lazy to have updated my store." As the store showed multiple copies in stock, I figure that's not the case. Can't wait to get the invoice and make the payment. Friday is pay-day so I had to pick up something. Hehe.

You know, I've pretty much bought up all the available Star Wars sets that I want to buy due to my spending spree these past few months, but I think I'm going to pick up another Cantina and do this mod as well. It looks really good, and I'm sure I can find ways to make use of the minifigs that would be in excess for me. (Yet another Han Solo, Luke, and old Obi-Wan. The extra Greedo is useful, as are the three extra Bith guys and the Sand Troopers). Great job on the MOC!

Looking forward to the T-16 set. I have one Tusken Raider that I picked up on BrickLink a while back, but would like to have more. The Womprat minifig is exciting for me. I hope that by the time these sets are released I'll have gotten the shelves built that I so desperately need. It is funny, however. My roommate was away the past few months, and upon return I showed off my Star Wars Lego collection. First thing he noticed was the smell of the Lego and seeing the boxes stacked against the wall. Said it made him feel like a kid again. That's the best thing about Lego. It can bring out the kid in all of us. Now if only there was a beautiful single lady out there with the same infatuation. Haha.

Finally finished building the SSD today. My god to my finger and thumb tips hurt. Haha. It was a fun build, though at times it did have a bit of repetition with the greebling and smaller parts, and the final builds of the outer covering was pretty monotonous. Still, the instructions were easy to follow despite being massive in size, and there wasn't a huge number of unique parts so it was pretty easy to sort out each bag as it was being built. Seeing the completed set in person, it is MUCH larger than any photos can make it out to be. Wow! I now have it in my bedroom on top of the horizontal dresser in front of a mirror, so I'm able to see both sides. It's an incredible set and very well worth the price.

Wow, VERY awesome! I built the 10212 a few weeks back and loved it. Had some frustrating moments, especially with regards to putting the landing gear on for the non-flight mode display, but otherwise it's an awesome set that was fun to put together. Just a few minutes ago, FedEx delivered my 10221 SSD. Oh my god these last five hours of work are going to be a bear! As I work from home, the box and sealed bags are calling out to me "Put me together. You know you want to. Forge work. If you're fired, you'll have more time to spend with me. Ignore work and put me together!" I have to ignore those pleas and can only browse through the MASSIVE instruction book and look at the bags in Box 1 as that is the part of the build I plan to work on today. Tomorrow will be Box 2, and Sunday will be Box 3 when I need to then figure out where the hell I'm going to put this thing. Haha. Would love to build some small shelves on the corner of a wall in my office and have the ship angle across the corners on the shelves. Would be really cool looking. For now, I think it's going to reside on the dresser in my bedroom.

I only collect one theme, Star Wars, so I never have a backlog of sets. As soon as I buy a set, it gets built. When I go and purchase a ton of sets, like I did when I picked up all of the summer wave sets a month or so ago, I stay in that weekend and just spend the entire time building them. Heh. Since I came out of my dark ages late, it's too expensive to pick up every single set I missed out on at once and then just go through the backlog when I'm bored. So I buy what I want when money allows it, then build it straight away. Have set 10221 Super Star Destroyer arriving tomorrow, so I know what I'm doing this weekend. :) I also don't purchase more than one of the same set unless I feel that the parts are super useful to me, or if they have minifigures that I want more of. (Like in the Death Star Troopers set). I feel that Lego is for building and playing with, and not for investing and scalping. So I don't ever plan on buying a set just to hold onto it and sell it in the future. But that's just me and my opinion.

VERY well stated. I came out of my dark ages just a tiny bit too late and barely missed the SSD. I was able to get the Sandcrawler at retail a bit earlier this year, and just earlier this afternoon I picked up the SSD set. The problem is that the SSD set cost me around $500, and that was only because I was able to use some cashback options with my Amazon card and also had budgeted money for a big spend. This time next year, I'm willing to bet that you'll still be able to get the Sandcrawler from a Lego Store, but the SSD will likely cost you a hundred dollars or more than it would right now. (Here in North America, the SSD is not available for sale at retail stores. On the Lego Shop At Home website it is still readily available in all European stores, however. Kind of irked that I can't buy it from Lego simply because of where I live, but them's the breaks). I'll be getting the SSD on Friday (unless of course this order from Amazon is canceled like my order yesterday was), so I don't really know how that build it. With the Sandcrawler, I can tell you that it is an incredibly fun build and it has plenty of minifigures and droids with which you can create many dioramas with. I really like every aspect of the Sandcrawler set and am very happy that I made the purchase. If I had neither set in my possession, however, but was able to purchase one of the two, I would go with the SSD because of the fact that it is more likely to become prohibitively expensive regardless of where you live much sooner than the Sandcrawler will.

Today I got the Nute Gunray (The one with the gray face and headpiece) and the Chrome StormTrooper that I ordered from BrickLink. I picked up the Gray version of Nute Gunray since he looks different enough from the green-skinned/orange headpiece version that he's basically a completely different character. I consider him to be a second one of the Trade Federation goons. Heh. The Chrome StormTrooper is INCREDIBLE looking! Glad I got him for such a cheap price as he is a great addition to my collection. Looks pretty sweet up there in my self-made display stand in the same row as all my Protocol Droid variations which includes a TC-14. A neat little thing that I did to one of my numerous extra C-3PO minifigures was that I took some Europium based glow-in-the-dark paint and just applied it to his eyes. I took a small pin-head size dot of black paint in the middle, so that when the minifig is in "normal" light he looks like he has a VERY slightly green tinged cream eye with the black pupil. When the lights are turned off, however, it glows an incredibly sweet looking green color. Yes, I know this is "sacrilege" to modify a Lego part in this way, but it's removable and I also have so many of these C-3PO figures that I figured why not. In some sad news, the order I had placed yesterday for the Super Star Destroyer got canceled. Apparently the seller on Amazon completely lied about the stock they had in hand and the order was canceled. Kind of pissed about that as I was really looking forward to getting this set. I just now went and purchased one from seller who distributes through Amazon.com and who also says that it's "in-stock". The nice thing is that this is eligible for Amazon Prime and is able to be had with overnight shipping for only $8.00 more. I was also refunded my cashback points as the previous purchase didn't go through. So I'm REALLY hoping that this doesn't get canceled as well. Just a bit "irked" at the moment that sellers don't bother to keep their stock up to date and accurate as it's incredibly annoying to think you have something coming your way, only to be told "Sorry, we lied, you get nothing."

For those wondering if the retr0bright treatment will permanently remove the yellowing, the answer is NO. This is the reason why. (Warning! Chemistry discussion!) Lego parts are made from a type of plastic called ABS which stands for Acrylonitrile Buadiene Styrene. It's a mixture of three different chemical compounds that forms a tightly knit, sturdy, and workable end product. The product, however, is not free from catching on fire and creating problems. Therefore, manufacturers also include a flame retardant in the mixture to stop it from spreading fires. The flame retardant used is generally a brominated compound meaning that it has bromine atoms in there which are readily "dislodged" from the molecule which is what helps it stop fires from spreading. The problem with bromine is twofold. One problem is that the bromine atom when it attaches to something is generally not very tightly attached. Therefore, when something like a photon of UV light hits the chemical bond, it will break the bond and free the bromine atom. This bromine atom will then attach to something else and not what it was originally attached to. The second problem is that elemental bromine is a nasty, deep brown, volatile liquid. Volatile meaning that it readily vaporizes. The name of the chemical element, bromine, comes from the Greek "Bromos" meaning "stench" as the element smells like a skunk that has taken a bath in bleach. (Not that surprising since, like chlorine, bromine is a halogen). Anyway, when you have your white or light gray Lego pieces out in the sunlight, the UV rays will interact with the brominated flame retardant in the ABS plastic and "knock" a bromine atom free. If this bromine atom binds to another free bromine atom in the mix it will form elemental bromine. That dark brown, nasty substance I just described. As this bromine is trapped within the tightly bound structure of the ABS plastic, it will sit there and you'll see the discoloration showing up. What the retr0bright method does is generate a good deal of oxygen gas from the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide. Under UV light (whether from a UV lamp of the sun), the UV light will break apart that bromine bond and cause the bromine to bind with the free oxygen generated from the peroxide decomposition. At the same time, the heat of the reaction expands the plastic at a molecular level allowing the oxygen atoms to get in there, or unbound bromine atoms to get out. It doesn't need to get deep into the ABS pieces since the breakdown of the flame retardant generally happens on the surface. (As is seen by the fact that parts of pieces not exposed to UV light are generally still close to the original color). Unlike what many in this thread have stated, this process is NOT "dissolving" away the top layer of plastic on the Lego piece. Any softness that may be noticed is likely due to the heat generated by the chemical process which will of course soften the Lego pieces. In addition, if you leave it in the peroxide solution for too long, the peroxide (especially if it's concentrated) can attack the ABS itself and cause problems. However, if you watch the pieces and take them out as soon as the discoloration is gone, then go and wash and dry the pieces, all will be fine. Some things to keep in mind: Do NOT put this solution in a sealed jar while the reaction is happening! This is especially true for the more concentrated peroxide solutions as there will be a LOT of oxygen gas generated. If it's in a sealed container made of glass, you might have a bomb ready to go off. ALWAYS leave the cap on loosely so gas can escape. You also cannot re-use the solution. As time goes on, the peroxide decomposes and becomes more dilute and therefore less effective. So after one or two uses, you have to throw it out. ALWAYS wear eye protection and gloves. ESPECIALLY with the more concentrated solutions. You do NOT want this stuff in your eyes as it WILL blind you. You also don't want this on your hands/fingers as it will cause nasty little burns that will take time to heal. Keep in mind the temperature. You don't want this getting too hot as it will start to damage the pieces and the decomposition of the peroxide increases as the temperature goes up, releasing more heat, etc. etc. Try to keep it as room temperature as you can. UV light is really key to the process. Any changes you see without UV light are likely caused by the peroxide eating away at the surface of the plastic. Make sure that the peroxide you use only contains hydrogen peroxide and water. You don't want to use brands that have other chemicals in there (especially true of hair product peroxides) as these are likely to attack the ABS in unexpected ways. Just my thoughts as a chemist and a Lego fanatic myself who wants to ensure the safety of everybody, the restoration of aged parts, and fun!

Very nice pick-up. I got that a few weeks/months back along with the Character Encyclopedia, and just love looking through it and seeing retired sets that I want to get. Lately, after having completed a major spending binge on sets, I've pretty much got all the sets that I can afford. One set that I really, REALLY, want to get is the UCS Super Star Destroyer - Executor, but it is no longer available for sale here in North America. I would love to be able to go to Europe and get it there as I see it is still for sale in the Lego Shop At Home sites in England and Spain, for example, but I can't get it shipped here. Arrrgh! I did receive a letter in the mail from my former employer talking about a pension plan payment that I am owed which they can pay me in a lump sum, albeit with income taxes taken out, but still, even after the income taxes are taken out of it it is still a LOT of money. I have a few weeks to think about if I want that or if I want to go and roll it over into my current retirement account, but if I decide to take the lump sum I may just go ahead and pay the $800 or so that it's going for on the re-sale market here. Hmmm. I think I just made a decision on what to do with this offer to take the lump sum. Haha. I think I'll be getting that UCS SSD soon. :D EDIT: Decided to make the plunge. I had forgotten that I had a TON of cash back rewards available on the Amazon credit card I have, so I went and picked up the Super Star Destroyer MISB for only $500 thanks to the cash back I had available, and because I decided to take the massive lump sum payment that was offered to me by my ex-employer. It should get here some time next week, and I'll have one of my holy grail of Star Wars Lego sets. :D

Haha. Thank you for confirming that I'm not the only one who noticed that. This is the Palpatine from the Emporer's Shuttle set from Episode III. I had noticed that as well and wondered if it was just the medication making me see things.

Heh, it's funny that the topic regarding Boba Fett was brought up here as I just recently watched the entirety of the Star Wars Saga Blu-Ray set while recovering from the minor surgical procedure I had. The Cartoon with Boba Fett is definitely VERY cringeworthy to say the least. Heh. Still, was nice watching all the movies again as a group and seeing all of my Lego sets in there and going "Yeah, I have that one! That one too!" Felt like a little kid all over again which is the best you can ask for when watching a movie. As much as so many of us like the criticize and complain and pick apart the littlest details, if you can sit back and just take in the movies for what they are and not hyperanalyze everything, you'll see that they are still very good movies and have that "thing" which can't really be quantified but draws you into them. My little nephew is only 3 years old and wasn't even alive when the RotS came out, but he loves every single one of the movies and is always asking "Uncle Justin, can we watch the Star Wars movies?". Of course, how can I say no? He's always playing with his Lego sets while watching the movies and enjoying them just as all of us did when we first saw them as kids. (Oh yeah, post 100!!!)

I have two X-Wings in my collection. One is set 9493 which was the first X-Wing I bought and is my "play scale" set. I love it and think it does a good job of representing the iconic ship. I guess I may be grateful in that I'm not such a stickler for details regarding Star Wars so small discrepancies don't bother me all that much. The other X-Wing I have, the one I picked up this weekend, is the UCS X-Wing (set 10240). It's a great set and it looks incredible sitting on the cabinet next to my work computer setup. I'm 34 and like a mixture of good display characteristics with nice play features. I do lean more towards the display characteristics of a set more than playability, however.

It's a tough decision between three sets; 10188 Death Star, 75059 Sandcrawler, and 10236 Ewok Village. Death Star was the very first "Big Set" I got since getting back into Lego, and it was incredible seeing this HUGE package sitting on my door step after it was delivered, then lifting it up and feeling how huge it was. Then, to open it up and see four more huge boxes inside and a spiral bound building guide was crazy. It also gave me so many minifigures to get my collection going that it will always hold a special place in my heart. Add on to that the fact that the set is just so well done and has so many iconic little scenes from the OT that I would have a tough time selling it. For the Sandcrawler, I picked that up a couple months after it came out and just love it. The build was super fun, the building guide for it is well put together and informative, and the end model just looks incredibly good. It has lots of playability with it and is VERY durable which is a plus. For some reason, it just has a strong attachment with me and I would have trouble parting with it. Finally, there's the Ewok Village. I know that a lot of people complain about the Ewoks and RotJ in the Star Wars fandom, but I don't hate it nearly as much as everybody else seems to. Yeah, it's not the masterpiece that ANH and ESB are, but it's still a great movie that wraps up the OT quite nicely. The Ewok Village Lego Set does an incredible job of detailing so many iconic scenes from that movie, and unlike just about every single other Lego set in the theme, it's not filled with grays and whites or browns. It's a nice "natural" setting with the iconic rotisserie, C-3PO's chair, the net that Chewie gets caught in, and a great deal of foliage and play features. Next to the Death Star, it's my most beloved set. In addition, when I've had friends over and shown off my newly found addiction, they are always drawn to the Ewok Village for the reasons that I outlined above. In conclusion, if I had to pick just ONE set to hold onto, I would go with the Death Star set 10188. Ewok Village would be a very close second, with the Sandcrawler sitting in a respectable 3rd place.

Was bored yesterday, and with this past Friday being payday and my return to work happening tomorrow, I decided to spend the little bonus money in my paycheck on some Lego. Having picked up pretty much everything available at the store that is for sale, I decided to splurge and pick up a few UCS sets to bulk up my VIP points. So I got R2-D2 and the X-Wing UCS. All I can say is "WOW!" The X-Wing was a great build and looks amazing, and R2 was just so much fun to build and see it completed. The only thing that sucks about having such a good deal of money saved up and stored away for "fun" is that after splurging these past few months and having more fun than a man should have, I've run out of things to buy for my Lego Star Wars addiction that won't require a second mortgage. Heh. Still, I now have the unenviable problem of needing to build shelves in my home office as the floor space is now gone and some parts of it are unable to be accessed without either moving a bunch of Lego, or stepping on them. Hehe. Was kind of funny being in the Lego Store and putting the X-Wing and R2 on the counter and seeing the look of awe in the eyes of a young kid at the register next to me. He had that look of "Oh my god, this guy is buying two huge sets like it's nothing! I can't wait until I get older and can do that!" At first, it was a bit odd, but then I realized that yeah, this is the type of thing I always wanted to do when I was a kid and now I can do it. :D Just stinks that I need to go back to work tomorrow (and it's already after midnight right now so I can tell an insomnia bout is hitting me tonight, uggh), but on the bright side while I'm in my office I can play with my Lego.

Oh good lord I just finished reading the entire thread, and this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I felt that I had to contribute something, but couldn't really think of anything "good" to put in there. I hope this quick attempt at humor will work, though I know it's nowhere near the greatness that you guys have all come up with. Haha. As my collection of spare parts and ideas come together, I may have some better ones to add in later.

You are going to love the Ewok Village. I picked that up a few months ago, and it was an INCREDIBLY fun build. While the Death Star 10188 is still the most fun build I've had since coming out of my dark ages, the Ewok Village rivals it for a fun build and a great end product. It is a great set to display, and when I had some friends over who were curious about my new found addiction, they spent a ton of time just playing with the set and admiring it.

As someone coming back into LEGO from my Dark Ages, it's kind of a bummer that the new movies are coming out as well as the Rebels series. I really have no desire to pick up sets that aren't from the PT or the OT, but i pretty much have no choice. Lately, I've started becoming more "attached" to the non movie sets. I still HATE the freaky printing on the CW series sets, and try to avoid them as much as possible. However, I am happy that the minifig printing on the Rebels series and the non CW sets are more in alignment with the "regular" Star Wars sets. I have started buying more and more of these sets as the printing on the minifigs isn't so offensive. Where they still have the horrible "cartoon" printing on the faces, if it's for characters wearing helmets it doesn't bug me as the helmets cover the horrific printing that bothers me so much. I REALLY need to get some shelves built for my collection as storing them on the floor is quickly becoming problematic for me. lol.

I do agree that the "skirts" look odd, and perhaps wonder if it would have been better if they were hard plastic moldings that were placed between the legs and the torso. Since you can't sit the minifigs down with the "skirt" on anyway, it wouldn't be a problem. I was just happy that the AT-AT was re-released this year. As I came out of my dark ages three or four months back, I had missed out on a LOT of sets. Thankfully, due to some great financial planning when I was laid-off from my previous job a couple years back, and a massive reduction in frivolous spending, I was able to get quite a lot of sets fairly rapidly. Heh. I'm now pretty much out of room to be putting sets I've bought, and I guess that's a good thing as it's keeping me from coughing up the $600 or so to get the Super Star Destroyer that I REALLY want to buy. Haha. Anyway, with regards to the 2014 AT-AT, I again think that TLG did a really good job of capturing the look of the machine. Yes, the interior of the AT-AT is barren and doesn't have anything going on like previous versions did, but that's pretty much the case with all sets these days. Something that is somewhat disappointing with modern Lego sets. While the accuracy and detail of the main features are light years better, the inclusion of little side "things" that aren't the main set are missing. (Things like Yoda's hut on Dagobah with the X-Wing, a stand to house the B-Wing on, and other little nick-knacks to compliment the sets). While the interior of the AT-AT is barren, is that really a huge deal? Many of us AFOLs display the set with the side panels closed anyway, so an empty interior doesn't mean much. For me, I have my AT-AT displayed with one of the extra "ropes" from the Death Star (10188) set attached to the bottom and Luke Skywalker hanging on to it. It's a neat little addition to the set. I've also got the Snowspeeder with the winch rope attached to the legs while the head of the AT-AT is pointing towards the Hoth Echo Base set I have.

Regarding the SSD, I was just looking around online and apparently it is still available for sale in the Denmark Lego Shop At Home site. Of course, when I put in my shipping address it said that it is not available for sale in the USA. Looking around on BrickLink, I do see many sellers out in the EU who have it available for a cost slightly above $540. With shipping, I figure that would come out to be near $600 or slightly above when all is said and done. I need to get my credit card balance back down to zero before thinking about going for it, but at some point in the next few months I may go ahead and pull the trigger. First need to clear out plenty of room on my dresser to put it. Haha.

For some PT characters, I think a good Boss Nass minifig would be good. Perhaps in the release of a Naboo set with Boss Nass, some Gungan soldiers, etc. etc.

I know this is an old review post, but yesterday I received this set in the mail after finding it for a great price on BrickLink from a local seller. ($370 including shipping!). I have wanted this set for quite a while as the shuttle is something that I didn't have an example of, and I also didn't really have a "true" UCS set. (Yes, I have the Death Star, Ewok Village, and Sandcrawler, but none of those include the display stand and "plaque sticker.") One thing I have to say is that all pictures and videos about this set on the internet can't come close to truly displaying just how MASSIVE this thing is. Wow. Every part of this set is hefty, and it's amazing how the designers at TLG were able to create a very sturdy, yet hefty, creation. Of all the sets I have, size wise this is most definitely the largest. Putting it together was quite fun, though it makes me realize just how much I appreciate the numbering of bags. I couldn't imagine building something like the Death Star without numbered bags. I only had a little bit of trouble as I recently had my shoulder operated on again and therefore don't have any real strength in my left arm. So putting in some of the cross axles while holding the parts securely was a bit difficult. Below are some key points I had while building this: Each of the individual sections is VERY sturdy. Once you have all the parts put together, it almost feels weapon-like. Haha. I thought that the gears for raising/lowering the wings would require some force to turn, but they did a great job of making it very fluid and easy. Doesn't take a lot of force, or time to get them to move. You need a LOT of space to store this. It is simply a massive ship and kind of dwarfs all other sets due to its scale. I'm hoping that TLG releases a smaller scale version of this again in the future. They did a really good job of providing ample space in the cockpit to hold all five minifigures. (If you stand the Stormtrooper up in the middle, he'll fit just fine). The "hole-studs" on the floor of the cockpit make it easy to store Luke and Vader's lightsabers. I am very happy to finally have this set in my possession. I'll be spending some time in LDD figuring out a way to add a ramp to the bottom of the cockpit area while still allowing the top to raise/lower. Now, the other set that I REALLY want to get if I can ever find it for a cheap price is the Super Star Destroyer - Executor. I know that it will absolutely not fit into my current Star Wars Lego room due to its size, but in my bedroom I have a dresser which is five feet long so if I were to get this, I would be able to build it and store it in the bedroom so it would be the first and last thing I see each day. Haha. The only problem will be finding the set for a price that doesn't exceed the ~$500 limit I've set for it.

Very, VERY true. I just got the Imperial Shuttle UCS set for $350 on BrickLink. On E-Bay, we're talking nearly twice that price.