Monday, April 02, 2012

Lego Death Star

I asked Mark to buy me the Death Star during the recent Lego VIP double points sale. It's a very big set--3803 pieces. It's the only Star Wars set that I've seen that I wanted to own. I figured that I hadn't piddled my Lego funds away on small sets (like my spouse), so I could justify this single large purchase.

Why did I want the Death Star? Two reasons. First, it comes with 24 minifigures--including 6 exclusive minifigures! *grin* That's pretty cool. I won't have to waste my time collecting Star Wars minifigures one or two at a time in small sets. (I'll never be allowed to keep these minifigures in my private collection. *sigh*) Second, it's a small doll house (for boys and men!), so after building the Death Star there is still lots of fun to be had.

On YouTube there are a number of videos of boys and men unboxing their Death Star. It's a big deal. I did not take a video of the unboxing, but we did (of course!) take a few photos.

Lincoln next to the outer inner box. (This box was delivered inside a bigger box.)


B, J, & V checking out the inner box.


B, J, & V examining the super sized manual.


Finally we get to the Legos: lots of bags of big and tiny Lego pieces.


I've read online that a skilled Lego fan can put this set together in 20 hours of dedicated work time, but I'm hoping it'll take the trio a lot longer than that. I hope to get more hours of fun than that!

You might not have noticed that on the box it says this set is for 14+. That works well for us because the children's ages add up to 14.

A 3803 piece set might seem a bit more than a trio of 4 and 6 year olds can handle, but this is no average trio. Bentley built his 743 piece Lego Cars Big Bentley Bust Out set on his own in just two days. This set is much larger and more complex and will require adult supervision (the Cars set did not), but I'm sure they can do this. Matt started Lego building with them over a year ago and Mark's intensified their training the past two months. They are up to the challenge!

The set was delivered to us Monday, March 19th. We opened the first box that night and the children put together 21 of the minifigures.



We've now had the Death Star for two weeks. The children have made admirable progress, but they would have made much better progress if they didn't have so many other demands on their time. Their mother thinks they have plenty of free time, but I'm starting to wonder. It's been difficult finding time for them to work on my Death Star.

There's chores, meals, and baths. There's their daily reading which has to be done before they get free time. B, J, & V started twice weekly swim lessons and they still go to gymnastics and ballet on Thursday. On Tuesday's Bentley likes to go ice skating, so I take the trio. Matt's been gone a lot lately, so when he is home he gets top priority in the evening, not my Death Star. Go figure. Other times the trio work on their own Lego projects or with Opa building his Lego sets. I get access to their free labor maybe every other day. Sometimes for a half hour, sometimes for an hour or a little longer.

Despite the obstacles put in their path, they have done a great job so far putting together the Death Star. I thought they would need some adult help/supervision, but usually they don't. Bentley works completely on his own and he and Jake do a great job together without supervision. If Jake works alone or Jake and Viva work together, they need a little help. More often than not Viva chooses to work with her pink and purple Legos rather than the gray, gray, and more gray Death Star.

Here's a photo journal of their progress to date:









The children finished box 1 of four boxes. Today they will open box 2. Go workers, go!

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