Review: 10188 Death Star

Set ID: 10188 Death Star

Number of Pieces: 3803

Year of Release: 2008

Minifigs: 24!!!!!

Purchased Price: About SGD 600

There are many items in my bucket list, and I am glad that there have been several check-off to date. A few of these unchecked items include traveling to some really exotic places in the world, writing a book and yes, building all my LEGO Star Wars sets AND put them into display cases for an exhibition. To check off the last item, I will have to, unwillingly, open up all my super duper exclusive sets one by one and build them. As I have absolutely no intention to bank in on my collection, it is a matter of time before I open them all. Starting with ... The Death Star.

Looking at the year of release, my heart sank even before I opened the box - I don't think the packets are numbered in the year 2008, and I was right. What that implies will be plenty of time spent on sorting the bricks prior to building. And sorting 3803 bricks is no fun. Regardless, I was happily lugging the set back home from my rented storeroom and was greeted with my son's amazed expression. "Let's build this, son!" And his response was "You must be mad, dad!" LOL ... Perhaps I am, for this is a probably one of the most expensive sets that I have opened and built to date and I have absolutely no idea how and where I want to display it upon completion. 

How to write the review is also a potential headache, especially trying to keep it to a sane length such that readers will not be turned off by the sheer amount of information I am intending to write. This will really test my summary skills to the limit, and here we go ...

Death by History

Many significant events happened in the Death Star. For the uninitiated, the Death Star is the mother of all destructive weapon developed by the Empire (bad guys), and the Rebel (good guys) are going all out to destroy it. In the movies, it is built as large as a small planet, fully equipped with weapons, narrow corridors and everything a bad-guy place should have. If you have memorized the script of Episodes IV - VI, you will find immense satisfaction in re-creating many of the classic scenes in the movies in this set. For practical reasons, do not expect the Death Star to be built in proportion to the minifigs, as you will probably need a mini exhibition hall to accommodate one of that size. The Death Star was eventually destroyed by Luke, utilising his Force and crushing the core of the Death Star in the process. Undeterred, Death Star 2 was built by the Empire, but let's leave that to another day, another set.

Death by Building 

To put 3800 pieces of bricks together is never going to be a walk in the park. Prior to building this, my toughest effort hovers around the 2000 plus mark, never breaching 3. This, to me, is a big step forward. On the bright side, conquering this gives me the confidence to confront the 5000 piece Millennium Falcon, hopefully in the near future.

My Death Star set comes in a original customized brown shipping box, keeping the content in immaculate condition. The box is so huge there are plenty of space for box art, detailing all the playable features of the completed model. Once opened, the 3800 pieces of bricks are distributed over 4 other boxes (yes, it sounds like the Russian Toy Doll, if you know what I mean), accompanied by a ring bound (!!!) building manual. "Manual" will be a more appropriate term as "booklet" will not be doing justice to its 200+ page thickness. I quickly flipped to the last page to check out the last step. Number 192, it says. What it didn't say was that there are many sub-steps amongst the 192 steps, something I found out soon after I started building. Oh, did I mention that tiny little detail that this set also comes with a sticker page? No complaints though, for the stickers actually did add to the level of details in the set.

Death by Sorting

In the era of non-numbered packs, sorting the bricks will take precedence over the entire building process. And the more time you invest in sorting, the less time you will spend on building. As I went through the building process, I do realize that most of the time spent are on the almost-impossible task of looking for the right bricks. I do have a suspicion that the later release of this set do come with numbered packs (anyone who has confirmation on that, please let me know), but as a AFOL, I do not want to be deprived of the "fun" of the old-school LEGO building technique.

The painful sorting process begins!!!

Different builders will like to sort the bricks in their own unique way. I tend to keep all the smaller pieces in their original packs and will only look for them when needed. As for the bigger pieces, I'll first sort them according to colors, then followed by shapes. My extra storage boxes and plenty of small plastic bags do make the task of sorting much easier. Given the sheer quantity of bricks, there will always be a remote chance that you will sort one of those bricks wrongly. When that happens (like to yours sincerely), don't give up and keep searching.

Looking for a brick amongst hundreds of similar one is (a) an art, (b) depends on luck and (c) testing your patience or all of the above. I do find it useful to occasionally walk away, do something different, visit the loo, eat a meal, skip the step etc and guess what? You will find that when you return to the mountain of bricks, the one that you are looking for will be staring at you right in your face! It works every time!

The FIRST step

This Death Star is built using the traditional bottom-up approach, i.e. starting from the base and build upwards, finishing all the furnishing and details in each compartment before moving to the next higher level. There are not many difficult techniques involved, which probably explains why this is a 12+ set, rather than a higher age group. In fact, the steps that troubled me most are the ones that involve strings rather than the conventional bricks. Tying those knots on the tiny, thin strings can be quite a hair tearing experience for those with larger hands / fingers.

Despite its spherical shape, there is hardly any repeated building steps in this Death Star. This is attributed to the uniqueness of each compartment, with different play features and different set ups. Unless, of course if you want to include the multitude of 16X steps in the building of the Death Ray's satellite dish. Talking about the Death Ray, it is such a joy to see it in action upon completion, being able to swing from side to side and tilting up and down in various angles. All these movements are controlled by a well concealed knob on the upper deck, disguise as part of the furnishing there. Brilliant!

Black? Grey?

One frustration that I must admit while building this set, is the difficulty in telling apart the dark grey / light grey / black bricks. Under different lighting conditions, it is rather easy to mix them up. While it is easy to reverse this mistake in a smaller set, it requires some major demolition / reconstruction when you realize much later that you have used the wrong colored bricks. That realization typically occurs towards the end when you find that you do have an "extra" brick somewhere. When that happens, slap the panic button and activate the retracing process. The same can also be said of the single stud red and orange bricks, although the impact of those mistakes are easier to mitigate.

Another tip to share to accelerate your building process. In the (very likely) event you are not able to locate a particular brick in a certain step, move on. Just dog ear the page and come back to it later. This is totally doable, PROVIDED the missing brick does not affect the construction of the next few steps. If it does, too bad.

Death by Playable Features

Lift in the background

This Death Star is built 4 level tall, with 4 compartments on each level. Mathematically, it works out to be 16 rooms for you to play / display with. But in actual fact, you can effectively rule out the bottom most level as it is the least accessible and one with the lowest head room. So I guess the designers were forced to relegate this level to be for storage only. That still leaves 12 featured packed rooms for you playing pleasure. To access all the different levels, there is a lift shaft built in the core of the Death Star globe (and I suspect to reinforce the structural integrity of this massive ball of bricks), complete with a fully operational lift platform.

I don't intend to introduce the other 12 rooms in detail as that will certainly over stretch any reader's patience. A few of these rooms are actually interconnected via trap doors and secret passages, emulating the exciting escapes of Luke and co. within the Death Star.

Level 2
The most interesting playroom in this level is the junkyard where Hans and Co. were trapped and almost crushed by the closing panels. Other than the movable panels, there are also hi-tech junk thrown in to simulate the thrash, of which there are long poles for Luke to prop the closing walls to buy time for their escape. It is worth mentioning that the access to the junkyard is via one of the secret entrance in the prison room above.

Luke and Princess Leia can also do their "Tarzan swing" in an attempt to escape from the chasing pack of troopers in another room here. This room is the only room that spans across 2 levels and therefore has the highest headroom amongst all the other rooms. Because of this, a loosely designed guard rail replaces the usual floor board, which will make the Death Star more sturdy and solid. This guard rail does have the tendency to drop off during the movement of the model from place to place.

Level 3

More playable features can be seen on this level. Emperor Palpatine has an exclusive throne room for himself. He could be perched high up in his throne to witness the light saber fight in the room. Turning Palpatine's throne 180 degree will face him towards the screen where he can peek into the TIE fighter's garage. The inclusion of a TIE fighter with this set is a huge plus for me, although I have to say given the minuscular proportion of the TIE fighter, the pilot would better not be suffering from claustrophobia.

Another room includes a cell to house the unfortunate captors as well as a "long corridor" that was designed brilliantly to provide areas for Luke and Leia to take refuge as they battle the troopers. The "longness" was actually an optical illusion created by putting a regressing perspective of a corridor using a stickers and some well placed arch ways. Unfortunately, as most of the bricks, if not all, are black, it does make appreciating the corridor and prison a challenging visual treat.

The last room on this level holds the beacon of hope for the Death Star - THE Death Ray. Despite the constant frustration of breaking parts from the Death Ray, it still makes rather good photo backdrop for this set. Well, at least it does break the monotony of greys and blacks found on over 90% of the Death Star. The Death Ray can be rotated left, right, up and down to a certain degree, by operating a very smartly designed rotating mechanism housed a floor above. Two knobs are responsible for the movements, one for lateral and one for vertical.

Level 4

The penthouse level has a much smaller floor area, courtesy of its higher latitude on the Death Star. There is a conference room (or according to my 6 year old daughter - a dining room), a twin cannon compartment, a discussion room where the occupants are able to watch live streaming of another planet (and another channel to alternate with), and a Darth Vader transformation room.

Being a machine (or planet) of destruction, the Death Star is expected to house some fearsome armory and the pair of twin cannons on the top deck provides the necessary fear factor. I have to say they reminded me very much of those cannons found on the deck of those WW2 battleship models that I used to build in my teens. Designed to rotate in tandem by a shift of a level under the deck, the twin cannons can also swing 90 degree up from a horizontal position. That should keep the X-wings at bay during battle.

Death by Minifigs

24. That's a big number. Well, this is a large set and will have plenty of space for these 24 minifigs. I can even imagine them playing a round of hide-and-seek when I leave the Death Star alone at night (think Toy Story ...) There will be plenty of room and crevices for the minifigs to hide in this set so it is not easy to account for every one of them at the end of play time. In the year of 2008, the trend of double sided head piece has not started, which is why none of these minifigs here has one. Also, the expressions on their faces (if they have one) are certainly not as detailed and expressive as those found in the post 2010 sets. In any case, the star (pun intended) of this set is the Death Star itself, guess not many people will pay too much attention to the details on the minifigs. If my research is correct, the 10188 is probably the set that comes with the most minifigs in the Star Wars range, although some may debate on the authenticity of a few of them to be classified as "minifigs".

When there are so many of them, do not expect every one as an exclusive minifig or rare collectibles. In fact, some of them need no further introduction and can be found in abundance in other sets:

Chewbacca: Comes with a cross bow in combat mode, or you can dress him up with a pair of handcuffs.

C3PO: Still the same old gold version, printed on both sides of the torso piece. Probably share the same mould as the Protocol Droid
Princess Leia (in white top and pants): This is the version that comes in flesh color but does not have elaborate make up as compared to her latest counterparts. The lack of proper facial expression does gives Leia a kind of "lost" look.
Han Solo (in his usual black vest): This is one of two Han Solo minifigs found in this set. I am not sure if LEGO is that generous nowadays but I am not complaining. The smirk on his face is a trademark of Han and the hanging gun holster printed on his leg piece makes him one of the most recognizable character in this set.
StormTroopers (X2): A very common minifig in the Star Wars range. This version comes with a all black head piece and a double printed torso. Although this set comes with 2 standard ones, you can double the quantity by just converting the Han Solo and Luke minifigs (both in Stormtrooper disguise) into additional 2 Stormtroopers.
Darth Vader: Well, he is the boss here but nothing too special about him. He does have a sith face when the helmet is removed thus he can easily pose in the transformation room in the Death Star as he transit effortlessly into the Dark Side.
R2D2: A dime a dozen. There is frankly little that can be improved on this well-loved characters. A must have for this set as its gadgets were instrumental to the successful escape o Luke and Co.

Assassin Droid: This is a white version that I don't remember seeing in the movie. Perhaps it's about time to revisit the classic again. He is supposed to be a bounty hunter and certainly look a little more human like than droid like based on my research on the internet. Regardless, I like the way the head piece is designed - simple (3 bricks worth) and yet effective enough to portray the longish head.
Interrogation Droid: Supposed to be hovering while conducting the interrogation of the prisoners. Put together with less than 10 bricks and propped on a grey stick to simulate the hovering action.
Protocol Droid: This is exclusive to the Death Star set is probably the only black "C3PO" found in Star Wars range.
Mouse Droid: Used as a messenger on board the Death Star. Put together with very little bricks, yet being able to bring out the shape and features of its movie counterpart.
Grand Moff Tarkin: A very stern looking Tarkin is a main character in the operation of the Death Star. Unlike many of the recent minifgs, this one comes with a single sided printed head piece and full grey uniform. The printing on both sides of his uniform is very consistent to his movie counterpart. His only other appearance is in the ISD (6211) set launched in 2006.
Luke Skywalker (Stormtrooper disguise): Exclusive again. Actually, not really so. If you take the head piece apart from the torso, they are used in many other sets before. But putting them together makes it unique as we now have a young Luke Skywalker dressed in Stormtrooper uniform as they try to evade unwanted attention in the Death Star. IMHO, his hair piece does make Luke look a little more ladylike and out of place. A quick remedy for that is to replace the hair piece with one of the spare Stormtrooper helmets  and voila, you get an additional Stormtrooper with this set!
Hans Solo (Stormtrooper disguise): Basically the same comments as above. Except for the different, and more smirky looking expression on Hans' face. If there is one improvement I can suggest for this minifig (and the Luke's counterpart too) will be to have a second face on the head piece, one that befits the panic they went through in the trash compactor.
R2Q5: Exclusive to 10188. The black cousin of R2D2 (no racist slur intended!) After seeing so many white versions, this black one does come across as a breathe of fresh air!
Royal Guard (X2): The best part of this minifig is the head piece. It has the perfect black visor which gives the Royal Guard a mysterious feel as well as the fabric wrinkles that you can expect as the head piece drapes over the shoulder. The downside of this unique head piece is that it is so large it extends to its chest level and prevents the head from turning. Not a major problem though.
Emperor Palpatine: This minifig is not new or rare, for it has appeared way back in 2000, but with yellow skin tone (as with all LEGO minifig released then) and less realistic facial paint. This version, is spot on - robe-like printing on the torso, Sith eyes, wrinkled face and guess what, a pair of lightning bolts to do some damage to his enemies.
Death Star Guard (X2): Dressed in all black, the Guard follows the black theme of the Dark side and still look rather classy, I must say. The black helmet works well with the printed chin strap on the head piece, above which shows a rather stern facial expression. This set comes with a pair of Death Star Guards, perhaps to provide the symmetry when they escort Darth Vader around.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: This Jedi master is already rather old in Episode IV, and that explains why he comes with grey beard and a rather wrinkled face. His tan colored robe is printed on his torso, with great details on the folds of the fabric and a brown belt.
Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight): Another Luke, but this one comes with shorter hair and a mechanical right hand (after the duel with Darth "I am your Father" Vader). He comes with an all black outfit and a rather nonchalant expression.
Luke Skywalker (Tatooine outfit): The 3rd Luke (yes, 3 of them!), is one with white robe that extends up to his knee level. He still comes with his longer locks and a rather lost look on his face. Look carefully at how the robe is printed on the torso piece and the printing extends (almost) seamlessly down to the leg piece. Well designed!

Death by Photos

I took more than 180 photos to chronicle the building of this set - from the first brick all the way to its completion. It certainly does no justice if I leave out some of the photographs that do not fit into the review. Will create another entry just to document these photos on a later date ...

Conclusion

It's hard work. From the moment I dragged the heavy set home, to spending hours after hours of sorting out the bricks, PLUS many hours of backbreaking effort to put 3800 pieces of bricks together. IT IS WORTH EVERY OUNCE OF ENERGY AND EFFORT! The entire building effort took me around 9-10 hours in total, spread across 2 weeks. This set is not cheap (I saw it retailing at SGD 900 = USD 700) at some of the toy shops in town, so it is definitely not for everyone. But this set certainly ranks amongst the top 3 sets of MUST HAVE in the entire Star Wars range. Completing this certainly gives me the confidence (and itch) to go back to my collection and relook at the UCS sets - Who's next?

+ Tons of minifig

+ Plenty of playable features

+ No dull building moments

+ Sheer size

+ Sense of achievement upon completion

- Tend to mix up the greys and blacks in the instruction booklet

- Sheer size - where to store?

- Expensive
- More curves along the circumference will be good