1. If someone doesn't want to pay one thousand dollars for a Lego Death Star, couldn't they just wait for the manual to come on the internet, and use other parts to make the Death Star? Isn't that Lego's key selling point; that you can make anything so long as you have enough pieces. It seems to me that you can bypass the licensing fees, and build a lot of it using cheaper parts.

--Derek

It is possible to come close, but I don't think anyone would find there to be sufficient savings to make that trade-off.

I am a cheap, cheap person who goes to extreme lengths to save a buck. I bought a lot of clearance socks and a $3 sweater over the summer for future use. If Kleenex goes on clearance - and it sometimes does - I will go get a shopping cart and clean the place out. I absolutely will swipe someone's receipt at lunch if they leave their garbage behind and it has a code for some sort of loyalty points on it. But putting together a LEGO set without the benefit of knowing the parts are all there? I don't have the time to source 9,000 bricks. I assume any "savings" would be offset to hundreds of hours of amassing and sorting the needed parts.

Is it possible? Maybe, but it wouldn't be identical. Each set always seems to have at least a few proprietary pieces, usually in the figures. I haven't gone over the fuzzy pictures with a fine-toothed comb, but the Imperial Dignitary seems to be unique to this set - I assume there are going to be some other printed bricks or stickers, too.

Part two of your question, "would it be cheaper?" is unlikely. If you already have/do not care about the minifigures, maybe you can put something together that's pretty close. Over the years I've found it difficult to amass large amounts of black and gray pieces, but it is possible someone with the right hoard might be able to work around this.

If this big LEGO Death Star does indeed come out at $1,000, it's worth noting it has 9,023 pieces. Back in the 1990s, a "good" price-per-brick was around 10 cents for most sets which also included minifigures. This one shakes out at about 11 cents per brick. It is not a bargain - but it is not a bad deal.

By comparison, the LEGO Republic Juggernaut 75413 is new, $159.99, and 813 pieces. That's about 20 cents per brick.

A homemade Death Star won't be exactly the same, it won't have the figures, and the time you spend finding the proper 9,023 parts is likely a real "savings" loser. It takes me forever to go through the bags with the exact pieces I need - the only way I could build something like this from scratch (with instructions) would be if I had a near infinite supply of pre-sorted bricks, and I sure as heck don't. If I did have a stash of that size, presumably I'd be rich. At which point I'd just drop the $1,000 for this.

Ad: Get New Star Wars Pre-Orders at Entertainment Earth! Get Free USA Shipping on Orders $79+

 

2. Hello, I've been enjoying your Q and A for years (decades really), thank you for your work. I know you have dropped bits over the years, but I was wondering what areas, other than Star Wars, you still actively collect. Do you venture at all into other common '80s properties, something more specific? Vintage/retro or modern? Or even non-toys?
--Amy and/or Brian

A pretty good answer to what I'm sweet on can be found at 16bit.com, specially designed for dial-up era web browsers and to antagonize smart phones. I post three toy reviews a week and other odds and ends.

Playmobil's a favorite, but a funny thing happened. (And it's related to Star Wars.) I've joked that if I ever got a toy Star Wars Droids Vlix I could play with it, my interest in Star Wars might evaporate because that's the last Star Wars thing from when I was a kid that I'm still actively hunting. (Retro or an original, I'm not picky - as long as it's safe to play with.) With Playmobil, they've made almost everything I could want (Scooby-Doo, Manatees), and I bought the things I wanted as a kid and didn't have (Playmospace UFO, fake R2-D2 droid.) I'm still watching it for new stuff, but I haven't had the urge to pick up anything in over a year. If you can satisfy the itch, the itch may go away. All bets are off if Playmobil gets another great license, but I can't think of what would get me buying more other than maybe a really big Star Trek line extension, Universal Monsters, an armadillo, or Star Wars. (The armadillo would be for Dracula's castle.)

I get a lot of Transformers - a friend who's gone silent (and I hope is OK) and I talked about them a lot at night online and we used to meet up for big conventions. I also work in this space so I grab a lot of things for professional curiosity. Check out Cyberworld when you're at a store next - there's a shark with wheels. Lovely.

The 5 1/2-inch Masters of the Universe Origins range has been fun - I love that they still make vehicles and playsets at fair prices. I'm whittling it down a bit because the Cartoon Collection was so amazing. I don't buy everything, but have picked up a bunch. I used to buy some G.I. Joe but it got expensive, and there aren't many vehicles, and there's not much "toy" to the current brand... but Super7 is keeping it real, so those are nice.

I'm a big fan of Glyos and it is worth noting there's a new drop tonight. Edition sizes are usually in the low hundreds. The parts are swappable between figures and brother/sister lines. For example, I love The Outer Space Men but it's been slow and I haven't had a new thing to pick up in a couple of years. They make some amazing 3 3/4-inch-scale aliens. Healey Made hired an ex-Kenner sculptor to make brand new guys for about $25 each. I just picked up an X-Raider. They're a joy. He has 3 PVC molds (with 2 heads each), and I recommend them highly.

Super7 does a great job with ReAction Figures, and I pick up a lot of movie monsters and some 1980s guys.

I love Zoids but I like the motorized ones. Battle Beasts are a favorite, but the Laser Beasts were always a little expensive. I'd buy new ones if someone made some (like Beast Saga or Diamond's Minimates ones.) I'd be interested in Dinosaucers if someone made a toy line - but if it wound up as a high-dollar collectible I'd probably pass.

I like buying records. It's more flipping through bins and picking up something if it looks cool or is priced right, and isn't really a particularly targeted quest. I'll also buy new video games for old consoles. Did you know Spirit Halloween has an exclusive NES game this year? I would've assumed GameStop would get one, but they don't seem terribly interested in such things.

One of my favorite lines is Imaginext, but it's gone from fun and weird to pretty typical stuff. Their non-licensed stuff was amazing, with space stations and remakes (and nods) to obscure 1980s toy notions. Who else is making a nod to the Tom Hanks movie Big?

I'll also buy pretty much anything (for a fair price) that glows in the dark. It took me years to finally track down Pineapple Glow Ghost figures, one of which I found in an art store as a kid. The rest took a while.

There are a lot of other things I like that I probably won't name-check again until I figure I'm done buying up what I want. I've noticed prices go up when I write about things that were once affordable. As such I'm a huge fan of just wandering stores and seeing what's on sale.

Become a Patron!

Special thanks to our generous Patreon patrons, especially: JT, Jared, Bobb, Christopher, Daniel, Dan, Tim, Jayson, Matthew, Michael, Robert, Stephen, Todd DrReiCow, Eddie, Jeremy, Mario, and Todd! Thanks for helping us keep the servers on!

FIN

Happy Labor Day! I'm not at the bar - the Cantina hasn't shipped to me yet. (I assume mine's late because I backed pretty late in the game.) I remember hearing some fans for various Transformers campaigns saying it took weeks or even a month for all of them to get out there and shipped. If you're waiting, you aren't alone! It'll just take some time.

It's a slow season for Star Wars. We got some hot pre-orders this week. The figures of Obi-Wan and Anakin are vast improvements over most previous releases, and that's great! A Shoretrooper helmet is new! I think the figures are great for those who missed the SDCC set.

The Gunship is still open on HasLab for another week. We hit the halfway point Saturday, and we got some new reveals of bonus stickers as well as confirmation of Padme and Shaak Ti figures. It doesn't mean that it won't make it. Heck, it doesn't even mean it can't hit the stretch goals. But if you're waiting for the last minute, others are too, and it's going to need more support to get people jumping at the last minute. If you want it, pledge early so others will feel that it's not a waste of time. If you don't want it, keep doing what you're doing.

I'm still excited for the Cantina. Additive things rather than upgrades always make me super happy. I'm really interested in seeing what the buzz is about this alleged Cantina 4-pack later and I'm really really hoping it's four characters/costumes we don't already own. Hasbro is amazing about hiding retool options in plain sight. For example, Arleil Schous' legs are the same molds as Jod Na Nawood. I'm really hoping for Tzizvvt, Arleil Schous, Chachi De Maal (Baniss Keeg if you're nasty), and a Lutrillian would be great. I expect we'll probably get a refresh here or a repack there, though, but anything would be nice to add to the mix.

2027 is the 50th anniversary, and the Starfighter movie. My expectations are low for both, mostly because I was spoiled by the 30th anniversary lines and largely disappointed with the 40th. Actually that's a half truth - Return of the Jedi did a decent showing for Retro in 2023. The other 40th lines were all decent places to jump on board with the hobby if you're new, but mostly old stuff in new packaging if you've been here. I'm hoping there's going to be a massive push for some weird things and classic things, but I'm at a point where I don't think it's realistic to expect anything better than what we got this year. It's never going to be 2008 again, or 2005, or 1985, or whatever.

Oh, and I got one last bonus Q&A rerun tomorrow.

--Adam Pawlus

Got questions? Email me with Q&A in the subject line now! I'll answer your questions as soon as time (or facts) permit.

Social media? Sure. Bluesky | Fediverse | Mastodon | Tumblr | Instagram

I'm on Instagram! All Pictures from a GameBoy Camera.