The first DEATH STAR was 160 km in diameter with 357 internal levels, so trying to build a model of it in LEGO® bricks was always going to be a mammoth task. To make it even harder, the Death Star is an enormous round sphere, a stark contrast to the inherently square nature of LEGO bricks! However, one of The Brickman’s model signatures is our use of intricate cutaways, to add minifigures and inject fun scenes to our huge models – and the Death Star, was certainly no exception!
LEGO® BRICKS
BUILD HOURS
Our model is based on the first complete iteration of the Death Star, which allowed us to have more interior details than the incomplete second version. This behemoth of bricks stands at an impressive 2m in diameter, with a staggering 105 rooms, containing 429 humanoid minifigures and 57 different types of droids. It also has the highest number of bricks in the entire exhibition!
The rooms were constructed using 185 floor segments that varied in both size and shape, carefully tailored to their specific location within the sphere. Crucially, each floor segment was equipped with integrated light channels, allowing us to illuminate the rooms below. The floors were built and connected to each other by LEGO hinge bricks, creating the rounded effect we see on the model, with each level unique to the ones above and below.
We opted to include movie references from all three films of the original trilogy for visitors to discover. From the Millennium Falcon in Docking Bay 327 and Obi-Wan Kenobi shutting down the Tractor Beam array, to Princess Leia’s escape from Detention Block AA 23 and Darth Vader’s meditation chamber.
Of course, any formidable military installation requires extensive support and logistical infrastructure, and the Death Star is no different! With nearly 100 rooms beyond the core movie scenes to fill, our creativity was truly put to the test as we designed a huge variety of different tactical and recreational spaces. We even hid a multitude of fun and quirky details within these rooms, including references to other Star Wars media too – Did you find the LEGO Star Wars game hot tub, or the DJ droid based on DD-EC from Jedi: Survivor?
Similar to our Star Destroyer Cutaway, the meticulous design and layout of every single space within the Death Star model was paramount. To introduce visual variety and better convey the sheer scale of this monstrous space station, we opted to build some of the larger areas in microscale, cleverly using LEGO trophies in place of traditional minifigures. This allowed us to design smaller-scale versions of various starships and vehicles, including the Millennium Falcon!
The intricate exterior surface of the Death Star was carefully crafted using strategic lines of Dark Stone Grey bricks to mimic the trenches and gaps between large plated surfaces. Constructing the Superlaser dish, which is mounted at a distinct angle, required the precise insertion of the dish into a specially designed gap within the upper hemisphere. Finally, to mimic the subtle twinkle of countless tiny windows across its surface, we painstakingly added a large number of small Transparent Clear plates and bricks seemingly at random across the outer structure.
Witness these incredible models and more at the world-first LEGO® Star Wars: The Exhibition. Embark on an epic, hands-on adventure through the Star Wars galaxy – Created by Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught and his talented team with over eight million LEGO bricks and 25,000+ build hours. Now open at Melbourne Museum.
