It seemed there was probably sufficient interest in this, so will be posting Lego pr0n along the way. By virtue of being the biggest set Lego has ever produced this will obviously be the biggest build I've done, though by quite some margin. Nothing even in the ball park - I have the Tumbler (76023) and Technic Silver Champion (8458), both in the 1500-2000 pieces range, both put together across a few sessions of a couple hours at a time. "I" have a Disney Castle as well (71040) which at over 4000 pieces is in mega-set territory, but that's still boxed and in hiding waiting for a Christmas or birthday once my daughter is old enough for it (I have been positively aching to build it though). When I was a kid, amongst all the sets I had, the "big one" was this 395 pieces can't be right... I sure felt like it was a huge set at the time I'm expecting this to take at least a month on account of A) taking my time over it and B) enlisting my daughter to help with most of it, limiting time to work on it during the week. So without further ado, on to the pics! Large box is large... and heavy. Do not put on shelf until 1st October... I almost certainly won't be. So very exciting opening this box up, as giddy as a schoolgirl. Human child, and my helper, for scale. Also as giddy as a shcoolgirl (mainly about the seeing Chewbacca on the box), on account of being an actual schoolgirl. Thoughts of flipping it on ebay and making a few hundred quid profit dashed with one fell snip Some pages. Lots of concept art and history before the instruction book tome gets down to business All of the stickers for the whole set. This is good news. Four separate internal boxes, nice touch on the artwork. Even nicer touch... So you might be wondering what 7500 pieces of Lego looks like. The rug is 4x7', for scale. I also found another two bags wedged in the bottom of one of the boxes that aren't pictured - 65 in total. And that's instalment number one ladies and gents. Now to actually start putting it together!
I absolutely do not want to know the astronomical cost of that pile of foot-stabbers. Looking forward to some progress pictures!
Build underway... Box 1 Bag set 1 Normal approach of just tearing them open and distributing evenly to sift through isn't going to work for this set. Probably more pieces in the first set of bags than there is in most entire sets... Raid my daughter's playroom for one of her lego bins and the kitchen for some takeaway containers, much better. Can you tell what it is yet? The sheer size of it is becoming apparent. The ottoman I'm building it on is 900x900mm My helper is in bed by this point, but want to get a bit more done, so I enlist another to assist. nom. And going to put a stop here for the evening. Steps 1-77 complete in 1:44:30. Not even finished with the first set of bags yet! This is definitely a set where being attentive is a requirement, as so far there are quite a few elements that you expect to be symmetrical but are not. There are also quite a few long pieces, obviously, so I've been doing a bit of counting to double check. I can pick out a 6 from an 8 from a 10 or 12 without thinking about it, but when it comes to differentiating between a 12, 14 or 16 at a glance, I'd rather be sure and spend a bit longer to count the studs rather than screw up and have to backtrack. I'm also surprised to see a bit of detail going on at this very early stage. The only other build I have to compare this to is the Tumbler, which doesn't add detail until very late, certainly not whilst the frame is being built. It's very sturdy so far though, lots of pegs interconnecting sections further reinforced by studs and then more pegs again. Until next time folks!
So freakin jealous! I've been banned from more Lego 'til I finish the Death Star and the Technic crane I have already started...
I've been almost constantly eyeing up the Bucket Wheel Excavator (simply for value for money, so many pieces for so cheap), Slave 1 and the Technic 911 GT3 RS. The only thing that's really stopped me is the lack of obvious places to put them. Fortunately! Pretty sure that a new house is required prior to new Lego at this point.
Bucket Wheel Excavator and UCS Falcon are on my list, along with the Saturn V. Would love the Super Star Destroyer and a Star Destroyer, possibly the Prequel equivalent (can never remember its name) and a Slave 1 and a B-Wing from the main-line sets (not UCS) to go with the x-wing, falcon, a-wing and tie-fighters i have. Biggest sets i had as a kid were: Blacktron Message Intercept Base Ice Planet 2002 Deep Freeze Defender The latter i saved up my pocket money with birthday and christmas money and bought for myself. EDIT: sorry for the thread sidetrack...
Looks amazing! Liking your choice of beer too - one of my Belgian favourites! Looking forward to more developments from your build log
Ha! I coordinated with my mates when it came to pocket money or Christmas/birthday lists so that we made sure between us we had pretty much all of the three space sets of the day without duplicating, including those. My lot was... http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6984_Galactic_Mediator http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6897_Rebel_Hunter http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6813_Galactic_Chief http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6878_Sub_Orbital_Guardian http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6832_Super_Nova_II http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6814_Ice_Tunnelator http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6834_Celestial_Sled http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6879_Blizzard_Baron http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6898_Ice-Sat_V Oh the memories! I'm not sure the satisfaction after the fact is worth it... can't imagine how long that would take.
I got a bit carried away tonight and continued for quite a bit longer than I had intended to. Finished off the first set of bags, another large section attached to the... front? Steps 78-130 in 37:30 That brings the total build time for the first set of bags up to 2:22:30 On to part 2! This looks like it will be somewhat quicker than part one... It appears I'm making feet... Fairly quick going on these, doing them 6-up instead of sequentially, as I feel the latter approach would be incredibly tedious. This also let miss helper work on one by herself as she watched me do the other 5. And we have feet... She stands! Actually starting to look like something now... Steps 131-151 complete, which concludes part two. Only 22:30 in total, but it definitely seemed longer, I've had about enough of building feet. First two parts complete, total build time 2:45:30 I was going to call it a night at this point after my helper went to bed, but couldn't resist cracking on. On to part part 3, that may take markedly longer than 22 minutes, from the looks of it... I'm going to need some more takeaway containers Finally some minifigs! Chewie's crossbow shoots, so I expect to instantly lose the ammo. Yes, I know C-3PO's body is backwards. Clever touch here. That's a sliding hatch under the cannons, which drop down when it's opened. There's a rubber piece that just slightly rubs against the inside of the hatch to give it just the right amount of resistance. This section in situ - popped into the frame from the bottom and secured by just a few pegs pressed through. It's fairly sturdy, but I don't think it will bear any load anyway. I'm loving the detail so far in this next section. The first stickers go on, which I manage apply without making a mess of it. And then I started to feel cocky apparently, because with the next set of stickers on the seat backs, I managed to put one upside-down. Fortunately it peeled off cleanly and in one piece. Oh good. My favourite... Large section applied underneath. One of those "aaaah, that's was that was for" moments, as there was a part of the first section that seemed a bit odd, and loose. This was kind of fiddly to get on there as the sections it attached to are semi-floating until this was in place. And the foot of course, which must be the last one... probably And the whole thing so far... Steps 152-248 complete, which concludes part 3 in 2:15:00 This brings the total build time so far to 5:00:30 I'm not working tomorrow... must find other things to occupy myself with, lest I do "just a couple of steps" after breakfast and find myself still on it 8 hours later.
