Build Review of LEGO Star Wars UCS Death Star (75419)

The LEGO Star Wars Death Star Ultimate Collector Series (75419) was unveiled on September 4th and went on sale at the start of October. It's massive. Over 9,000 pieces, an army of 38 LEGO Star Wars Minifigures and a finished build measuring 70 x 79cm makes this the biggest LEGO Star Wars set ever.

Building instructions for this set come in six separate books, with 81 bags of bricks to open in total. The numbers are worth the Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) tag, but can the build process live up to that promise?

What's in the box?

LEGO Star Wars UCS Death Star (75419)

Release Date: Available Now

Price: $999.99

Age: 18+

Pieces: 9,023

LEGO Minifigures: 38

Size: 70 x 79 x 27cm (H x W x D)

LEGO Insiders Points: 6500

This is an intimidating build with 81 bags averaging 111 pieces each, and six separate booklets of building instructions. We'll talk more about the assembly process below, but spoiler alert: it's looooong.

LEGO UCS Death Star (75419) is designed to be displayed up against a wall, with a flat back and a fairly slim 27cm slice across the middle of the space station. But its cross-section is huge at 70 x 79cm, making room for every major interior set from the movies to appear in brick-built form.

A ton of tiny details and easter eggs have gone into the scenes inside those interiors, and fans of the film franchise will have fun trying to spot what happened where, as well as all the ways LEGO's designers have captured those iconic moments.

What's the build process like?

We've tackled the biggest LEGO builds in recent years - it's all part of the process when we make our custom LEGO display cases to fit those flagship sets - but it felt like this one was never going to end.

The pieces just keep coming, bag after bag, book after book. Although it's not the most fiddly of builds, it is quite fragile, as there are no LEGO Technic pieces holding it all together.

You can't build a set this big directly where you want to display it, so you're going to have to move it when it's done. Unfortunately, this dislodged a fair few pieces and it took quite some time to work out where they needed to reattach.

Overall, it's easy to see why this set has an 18+ age rating. Partly due to the price and partly due to the piece count, but probably also because you need to make sure every brick is securely pressed into place if you don't want to be picking them off the floor later.

Our impressions of the build

Make no mistake, this build is a long and painstaking process. In terms of patience, it's among the most challenging LEGO sets on the market, and it can be frustrating when you dislodge a piece you've already placed.

Aside from that, the design has plenty of plus points too. It's great to see interiors from multiple movies across the franchise, adding to the versatility of this set to recreate your favourite moments.

Some of the scenes you can find in the LEGO UCS Death Star include:

• The cell where Princess Leia was held
• The Death Star's fearsome Superlaser
• The Imperial Shuttle hangar bay
• The throne room of Emperor Palpatine
• The tractor beam control unit deactivated by Obi-Wan
• The trash compactor where the Rebel heroes were almost crushed
• The control room infiltrated by Luke and Han in their Stormtrooper disguises

We especially like the functioning elevator, which is a nice little interactive touch to transport your LEGO Star Wars Minifigures up and down between the different floors of the UCS Death Star.

What are the problem points?

The wobbly aspects of the finished build almost certainly come from the size of the surface area versus the narrow 11-inch thickness of the 'slice'. We get that it's intended as a wall display, but it's lacking the strength that a half-sphere would have.

It's also suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. As a UCS set with an 18+ age rating, you'd expect this to be a thoroughbred display piece. But while it does look good, it tries too hard to also work as a dollhouse for imaginative play.

We absolutely support LEGO as a toy to spark creativity, but on a £900 'adults welcome' collectors set, it does feel like a bit of a compromise.

How to display it

The iDisplayit made-to-measure UCS Death Star display case for LEGO 75419 is now available with a pre-applied vinyl background.

While we can't promise to stop pieces from falling off of your Death Star (and we don't recommend trying to move your completed model inside the display case), it should at least mean you don't lose those all-important pieces.

And as well as catching any stray bricks, your display case will help to keep your UCS LEGO Death Star free from dust and damage, so you can enjoy all of those scenes and interiors for longer without spending too much time on keeping the set clean.

Final Thoughts

We like this set, but it's not an all-time favourite. That's reflected in the mixed reviews from customers, with the LEGO Star Wars UCS Death Star sitting at an average rating of 3.3 out of 5 on the LEGO website right now.

Some of the most common complaints include:

• Too many stickers instead of custom-printed bricks
• Not enough Minifigures to fill the massive space
• Hangar bay feels empty unless you have the TIE Fighter GWP (40771)

It's a victim of its sheer size. Instead of feeling like a lavish collectible with no expense spared, it's impossible to see past the empty spaces and the feeling that the price tag is just a little bit TOO steep.

That being said, this will undoubtedly be a firm favourite for some Star Wars fans, and it's definitely a mammoth project for LEGO endurance builders.

Is it a must-have? Only if you're a completionist, probably, but it will still be a core memory for anyone who unwraps LEGO Star Wars UCS Death Star (75419) on Christmas morning this year.

OUR BUILD RATING:

6.5/10

See more on the LEGO Store: LEGO Star Wars Death Star UCS (75419)

Think you can handle this 9,000-piece build? Tell us YOUR thoughts about the LEGO Death Star UCS (75419) build process below!