StoutFiles

Looking good, love the lighting and your C-3PO backpack. Real bricks are always better than a LDD file so I'll be following this closely. I would suggest both a button and antenna (throw switch) on the carbonite control panel over two tiled pieces, but it's not a big deal. Reference

That's fine, I don't expect everyone to like it. Have you considering the stability of what you're suggesting though? Tops, by design, are not stable. If the ratio of the widest point to the bottom gets any worse, the set would topple over or break with any pressure downward on the edge of the set. Physics is not your friend here. The other, more selfish reason for the width being what it is, is that I want my Cloud City to be displayed on a shelf. The Death Star barely fits on a shelf, so if it gets any wider I'm forced to dedicate a table to it. As for a landing pad, the bridge could be redesigned to fit micro ships if it had to. Look, all the scenes on the landing bay take place on the bridge. Lando talking to Han? Bridge. Leia shooting at Slave I? Bridge. If you want to act out these scenes you need a good bridge, and having a landing pad to scale with it not only makes a modular tiered build impossible, it means that at todays prices were spending 70 bucks for a big circle. If it were me, I would rather have those pieces be invested into the rooms and figures. With this design you aren't limited on how far Luke falls. He can fall 6 ft if you have the set that high off the ground. If the weather vane is a must, it could be built as a separate attachment to act that scene out, and possibly double as a stand when not in use.

I plan on doing it if/when TLG lets me down with a smaller version of Cloud City. Then I'll incorporate the figures and pieces into this version. I've got too many other sets I need to use the money on for the time being. By "Death Star" style, I meant that it's supposed to resemble the shape of Cloud City with the scenes inside. It's not as good as the Death Star in that regard, but a sphere is easier than a top while still being stable. I went as far as I could. Set is within the red box, floors are the blue lines. That's a good idea, I'll give it a shot. Yes, I'll make it available when I think it's finished. The top floor does need some features..but there isn't much to go on. I could greeble the circuit boards that are set up for stickers (boo DSS) but yeah...if you have any feature ideas that fit the movie I'm all ears. The chute is near impossible with this setup. I can't raise the catwalk any higher because it's linked to the height of the window Luke smashes through, which can't be raised higher because it would raise the next floor's height, etc. What I would suggest is a kid sit the set next next to the edge of a table and Luke can fall a huge distance like in the movie. Perhaps I could make a stand for the set that could double as a stand-alone chute/weathervane? But then you couldn't have the Falcon fly under that...so yeah, I don't see it working. I'll see about putting some sloped bricks on the top floor walls, but I'm just copying 10188's walls. How do you do that? I bet it would be Pick-a-brick overpriced , but I'm sure this set would/could be priced equivalently with 10188.

Before I begin, let me go over my goals when I built this. It’ll help explain why some things are the way they are. I’d say it’s about 90% finished, but enough to where the main design won’t change much. -Build a Cloud City in the same modular tiered format as 10188 Death Star. Should be shaped like a top instead of a circle. -Have a piece count that will likely keep the set in the equivalent $400 price range (3500 pieces or less). -Have playability (ex: figures are easily moved about and posed by kids). -Structurally sound (hopefully, hard to tell with LDD). -Give more floor space to important/playable areas. -Connect areas that flow together in the movie (Ex: Similar to 10188’s prison block and trash compactor). I’ll start with the most disappointing omission…there is no landing pad. The main question I had to ask myself was “Can it fully hold a System scale Falcon with a bridge back to the door while still being a stable set?” The answer was no, no matter how I cut it. I could shrink the landing pad but then I’m sacrificing a ton of good playable area for a half-assed landing pad. I’ll revisit it someday. Top Floor: With the bridge, I guess the hope here is that since this is the widest point of the model, a kid would be inventive enough to place the bridge at the same height as a table, stack of books, etc. to hold a large ship. Anyways, I think the bridge is important because multiple scenes take place on it (or others like it). The elevator hasn’t been added to the elevator shaft, but it will be the same general design as 10188’s elevator. Middle Floor: I’d tried to capture the feel of the room as much as possible with taking into account the space limitations. The freezing platform was raised as high as needed to fully conceal a figure lowered into the chamber. From there the staircase was raised as high as possible so the figures could still move around without dragging their heads on the ceiling. Bottom Floor: Two smaller rooms, so I gave them the prison and torture area. Some shots with the two pieces together. I wish it was more of a top shape, but it's the widest I felt I could safely make it. Like I said earlier, it still needs some work here and there. I've used 2905 pieces so far, and I plan about 150 pieces would be used on minifigures, so I probably have around 200-300 pieces left to keep in line with TLG. There are a lot of instances where I used 2x10, 2x8, 1x8, and 1x10 bricks that TLG wouldn't use, so I have to account for a rise in piece count to use two bricks instead of one longer one. Figures I would use: (22 total) Han (white shirt) Han (jacket) Han (carbonite piece) Leia (white jumpsuit) Leia (red/white dress) Luke (tan) Chewbacca C-3PO R2-D2 Vader Fett Lando Lobot Ugnaught (2) Stormtrooper (2) Bespin guard (2) Cloud car pilot E-3PO IG-88B Let me know what you all think! C & C welcomed.

Incredible work. Whenever I get around to building my SSD I'll be displaying it up high, so I may steal some of these ideas.

Is it weird that I like that Sarlacc better? I'm not a fan of the special edition mouth coming out, I preferred the pit of doom over the piranha plant. Nice touch with the skeletons, I didn't notice them on the other one.

Aren't the magnet minifigs made with an inferior plastic (China)? That might bother some people.

Forces you to buy them all to fit a certain era/planet.

I attempt to fully populate each scene with character duplicates from other sets. For example, Vader could be in four different areas (meeting room, watching Alderaan get destroyed, fighting Obi-Wan by the blast door, and battling Luke in the throne room.

I think the majority of us desperately want that. Two Tuskens and a Bantha is all I ask for.

But how would he sit down then? He'd probably get gray legs with a possible cyborg print.

I like the simplistic feel, reminds me of the good ol' days.

I'm ashamed I put this on the backburner for so long, but I'm almost finished. I fell for the rumors that Lego was going to come out with a new Cloud City and they still haven't, and at this rate I feel it won't be modular when they eventually do. Sadly, my design is in LDD for people hoping for real pieces, but there's too many pieces to bricklink a WIP. It will be fun to show off how my design changed as I built it, should be up sometime this week. Hoping for lots of feedback.

Interesting scene! I love when people show the camera crew in MOCs. Couple things: -This scene is from Empire Strikes Back, not Return of the Jedi. -Lucas wasn't the director, it was Irvin Kershner.

Leia is never shown with a bruise on her. Shmi has clearly been tortured with visible evidence. One escapes while the other dies from her torture. Leia's scene is looked back on fondly as "hot girl in bikini". Shmi's scene is looked back on negatively as "horrible female abuse". If you don't see the difference then I'm not sure what else I can say. Even Hasbro, who has made a figure for practically everyone in every outfit, hasn't touched that subject to my knowledge. Mothers are the leading buyers of these sets; why would they buy a set with "Tortured Mother"? I don't really care if they do or not, I'd just be shocked if TLG takes that risk.

Leia's slavery amounted to wearing a bikini and sitting next to a slug. Anakin showed the perils of lying in lava/coals/whatever, and he was the evil character. Shmi was sold to monsters who savagely raped and beat her to death. I shouldn't need to explain how that trumps the other two. I don't know how TLG would spin it if a mother saw their child act out that scene, especially the implied parts. Not to mention Anakin murders everyone after, including the women and children. Society really frowns upon that, especially in children's toys. TLG made this scene once before and they left out both Shmi and women/children. That's probably what they would do again.

I don't think we'll ever see raped/beaten Shmi, but that's just my guess.

Anything that didn't happen in the movies is extended universe, because it extends the story. You are right though that CW is technically not EU as far as canon talk is concerned. They made up some silly canon for the CW to say "Hey! This matters! You should watch it!". CW is all about making money, that's why it exists, and bringing back a popular movie character is marketing genius. Maul is loved because in every scene he rarely talked or was doing something interesting. The more screen time he gets the less mysterious and more overplayed he will get. But I guess we will just see, that is just my prediction. If you want to continue discussion, PM so we don't hijack AC's thread.

He died in G-canon, just like Boba Fett and Palpatine. The EU keeps everyone alive because of the $. As far as the movies go, Maul is dead, even though we get to see his character ruined in the CW. AC, you continue to outdo yourself. The wall details are fantastic. Could you give me the part name of that propellor piece you used in the back wall above the door?

Right. Having a scene in a UCS shames the UCS label, but if TLG built a UCS set I wouldn't put it past them to include a scene inside of it.

They could build a set like the Death Star and have scenes in it, or they could build a UCS set like the Death Star II and have it completely accurate on the outside, with possibly one scene in the middle. I would prefer the Death Star option as I would want all the new figures it would come with.

In a ziplock bag away from the set.

Only wishlists. There has been zero evidence they are working on a Cloud City set, but it is assumed it will happen sooner than later based on its popularity. Also, a UCS version would just be a big spinning top, so I hope that doesn't happen.

True, but it's a completely different Yoda than the OT. I am offended by angry lightsaber Yoda.

What every Star Wars fan should one day have. UCS Flick Fire Missile - LXF