drdavewatford

I would be in seventh heaven if we got the following : Cavegod's B-Wing.... .....and Peter Salter's R2-D2. Not holding my breath, however.... Dr. D.

Hmmm, now you're asking.... Build time is hard to estimate as I built the SSD over 5 or 6 nights, and a fair bit of the time was spent taking pics as I went along and writing the review. Also, I'm a pretty slow builder, preferring to savour every step rather than rush through. A faster builder could probably nail this in a (long) day I reckon. Regarding launch date, I'm still assuming 1st September, although it may be available on the S&H website the previous evening as was the case for the Imperial Shuttle. Dr. D.

She might be long, but she's not very wide...... At the widest point the SSD is a mere 34 cm in width. Height WITHOUT the stand is only 13cm. Please note that these measurements are approximate. Dr. D.

Truth be told, the design of this ship is such that IMHO a system scale LEGO version will always have to make compromises. When you add to this the fact that it's a playset, the likelihood of a set to satisfy the purists is precisely nil. With respect to detail and accuracy I got my fix from the UCS version, so anything after that is going to pale into insignifiance..... This new Falcon is probably a small advance on 4504, but neither of them are really aimed at us AFOLs I suspect. Dr. D.

LOL ! I refer you to my blog posting from last year on this very subject : http://gimmelego.blogspot.com/2010/10/flavour-of-month.html Man, they're EVERYWHERE these days. They've actually been around for longer than most people think, but their use in official sets has just exploded over the past couple of years. They're certainly extremely useful, but LEGO needs to throttle back on their use or else the world will suffocate under the weight of the things.... Dr. D.

Beautiful - a veritable work of art ! Only one question : strange that the Technic beams joining the wheels are grey rather than black; is that to make it more true to life ? D.

Given the profound effects of prolonged (or even not so prolonged...) U.V. exposure on LEGO bricks, one solution might be to take a random selection of bricks that'll make up the outer surfaces of the loco or rolling stock and just leave them outside in the sun for a few weeks.... It should fade them enough to get a less uniform, weathered appearance. This of course won't work so well if like me you live in the UK where we don't get much sun..... ;-) Dr. D.

Superb - love it ! Also kudos for attempting something a bit different to the usual procession of modular buildings....some top creativity there. And as for sputnik16 who's never heard of the Chemical Brothers, I assume that's because you are true to your username and have spent the last 50 years in space.... :-)

Box dimensions are 48.5 cm x 58 cm x 19 cm approx. Dr. D.

More pics here. It's certainly sizeable, but not much detail evident. I've heard some good things about the Dr. Who Character Building range, however. RRP is £50. Dr. D.

Brickset has offered the facility to track your LEGO collection for a while now; this facility recently had a major overhaul with the addition of something called the Advanced Collection Manager (ACM) which takes things to a whole different level. Now for each set you can enter how much you paid + postage, condition of the set, date of purchase, notes on each set etc. etc.. You can also export the file in various formats for safe-keeping. I believe that ACM is available to all registered users, and I can highly recommend it for keeping track of your collection. Dr. D.

My understanding is that this isn't likely; there are only so many 'product slots' available, and LEGO were burned in the past by poor sales of additional rolling stock. That having been said, the unexpected appearance of the Red Cargo Train is evidence that LEGO are taking note of increased sales of trains; likewise, we got the Maersk exclusive earlier in the year, which I believe was as a result of stronger than expected E.N. sales. If the various trains continue to sell well, perhaps LEGO will reconsider the rolling stock question ? They could sell extra coaches on the website only so as not to occupy shelf space in stores, and to keep costs down they could dispense with boxes and sell these like a service pack, with online instructions to further reduce costs. LEGO, if you're reading this thread (!), why not try this as an experiment....? Dr. D.

No pics for me either. I'm on Safari. :-( Any chance of a link instead ? Dr. D.

I love it - great job, Anio ! You even answered my question before I asked it - whether Sebulba's podracer was in scale with Anakin's ! Some really neat building techniques, and the greebles are wonderful. Not sure I can forgive you for painting parts, however... ;-) As always, I'm looking forward to your next creation. Dr. D.

Excellent review, bricknation - you've done a particularly good job with the photographs which are superb. Well done ! I agree that there are some interesting similarities with the Design By Me MOC you've highlighted - good detective work ! The photo is dated July 2010, however, and given the lead time for design of official LEGO sets, I guess there's every chance that the official version had already been designed by that point. Dr. D.

Ha ha ha - you are joking, right ?! Of course LEGO will not rework this set just because a couple of Star Wars obsessives moan about aspects of the design. If you think it's OK but not perfect then buy it and mod it. And if you think it's terrible then MOC your own. D.

I suggest the following cure in 2 steps. 1. Buy 10030 UCS Imperial Star Destroyer 2. 6211 is rubbish compared with 10030. Knowing this, you'll have no problem opening the box and building the thing..... Simple ! Of course, then you'll have to buy something better than 10030 so you can feel comfortable building that one as well, but that's another question altogether....... D.

Nice review - thanks ! Some of the pics are perhaps a teeny bit over-exposed, but great otherwise - good job. You can't really argue with this set - an iconic Star Wars vehicle, reasonably well realised, with loads of classic minifigures thrown in. This set has been available cheap as chips on Amazon.co.uk at various times (I think I got a couple for less than 15 quid each) so no LEGO SW fan has an excuse to go without. Cheers, D.

Thanks for the review ! This should satisfy those who've been crying out for a new System scale Falcon. It doesn't look much different from 4504 to me, but there are undoubtedly some tweaks. It's certainly much better than 7190 which is ugly as sin, however. I'll save you all my moaning about this being about the 6th Falcon in the 12 years of LEGO Star Wars (the seventh if we're counting bag charms) and how I'd rather they'd given us something new than a remake..... Whoops - looks like I said it anyway. ;-) Cheers, D.

I still prefer's Anio's version (below) but it's really nice to see the official TIE moving closer to that level of quality. To be fair, however, I suspect I paid quite a lot more to source the parts for Anio's TIE than I'll have to pay for the new official version, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. Nice job, LEGO ! D.

Then I will have to disagree with you, Anio - you could drive a bus through some of the joins on 10143, and I don't think 10030 is much better than 10143 in that regard. Coincidentally, I'm currently in a strong position to compare 10221 and 10143...! I guess what I've been trying to get across is that 10221 feels quite "polished' compared with a number of other other UCS. You're absolutely right that some aspects could be improved, but for a retail set I think it's pretty good. D.

Thanks for all the nice comments about my 10221 Super Star Destroyer review, guys - much appreciated. A couple of thoughts from me on the postings so far. Firstly, I don't think it's reasonable to judge 10221 against the standards set by the highest quality MOCs - it's not a fair comparison. It's a production set, and as such compromises will have to be made for reasons of practicality, cost, stability and other considerations, as against the "no expense spared" approach favoured by the best UCS MOC builders such as Anio. That having been said, I think the designer has done a good job with 10221 - it's not perfect, but it looks good to my eye, you don't need to perform gymnastics with your hands to put it together (I still have nightmares about trying to fit the lower surface of the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer onto the frame without it immediately falling off) and the finished model is stable and can be readily moved about without parts falling off. And comments about the greebling not being extensive enough or varied enough are definitely a matter of personal taste - I'd have started to get bored with the build if I'd been required to add much more greebling, so I think LEGO got that compromise right. As for the joins on 10221, I don't find them obstrusive at all - I actually think the ship fits together pretty well, certainly when compared with some of the joins and transitions on previous UCS sets. This is after all LEGO - the joins will never be airtight without obsessive levels of effort and potentially complex workarounds, and once again I come back to the fact that this is a set for retail, not a MOC. Secondly, the magnets. I'd agree that some magnets are stronger than others, but as a result of using them on the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer, mine was so fragile that I could barely breathe on it without it breaking. Credit LEGO for coming up with an alternative solution in the form of 1 x 2 plates with clips, and I can live with the bottom of the ship being flat if it means I don't have to shield the ship from air currents in order for it to remain intact ! Cheers, D.

It's certainly a monster and no mistake ! The completed model will be displayed at the UK National Space Centre this weekend, so I obviously need to finish building it by then...! I'll try and post Part 2 of the review before I leave for the show. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Super Star Destroyer displayed next to some of the other big UCS sets like 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer at the exhibition; I'll take lots of pics so people who can't attend can share the experience. D.

Yep - LEGO took on board feedback from the community and quickly rectified the error - can't ask for much more than that. D.

Agreed - printed parts would be better. I've posted Part 1 of my review of Set 10221 Super Star Destroyer here I've not completed the build yet, but have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. It is absolutely huge ! D.