Tag Archives: Revenge of the Sith

I hear drums. Drums in space.

The blackness of space. Drums that become louder. Pan down, a massive angular spaceship hovers above a planet covered in city lights. These images and sounds make a very strong first impression of a movie. It sets the tone of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, and many of us associate that opening shot to the angular Venator-class Star Destroyer. Martin Latta spent two years building a massive and accurate LEGO model of this beautiful ship. He painstakingly recreated every small detail he could find on the original studio miniature model, bringing his build to be over a meter long and consisting of 11103 pieces.

Not only did Martin nail the complex angles of this ship with clever layers of tiles and panels, he also threw used the shapes of LEGO pieces to create textures on an otherwise smooth hull. Dark red highlights break up the typical grey of this Star Wars vessel, and the brick-built Open Circle Fleet insignia brings a splash of an additional colour. What I consider the icing on the cake: the top red hull paneling splits open to reveal a hangar, from which Anakin and Obi-Wan’s starfighters take off to partake in the Battle of Coruscant.

Check out Martin’s Flickr album for more shots of this behemoth, as well as work in progress pictures!

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Nimble Nimbus V-wing Fighter

Star Wars is notorious for its level of detail and worldbuilding that we barely notice at times. Things like a background character or a vehicle that appears for a split second have extensive Wookieepedia articles. Many of these elements receive backstories from writers of the extended universe. And many of them return to the forefront of newer Star Wars media due to popular demand. For example, the Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing starfighter – as built by Pande (Malen Garek) appears at the end of Revenge of the Sith for a few seconds. Yet, its striking unique silhouette piqued the interest of many vehicle-oriented fans. Many LEGO builders built their own version of this starfighter despite not being very well known.

You could say that the V-wing is essentially an evolutionary step between the Delta-7 Jedi Starfighter and the TIE Fighter. Its sleek arrowhead shape and bladelike wings are tough to get right considering looks and structure. You either make it too skinny and it falls apart, or you make it too thick. Pande found the balance between the two in a beautiful clean finish and sharp angles. I particularly like the usage of tall slopes to make the front wedges and throwing in a little dark grey for greyscale colour variation.

What’s all the buzz about?

The Buzz Droid was first introduced in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith as insidious saboteurs that could wreak havoc on unsuspecting starfighters. We’ve seen them before in LEGO but I don’t think anyone has done one with a UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) level of detail. Along comes Instagrammer pennydrop.works and now we’ve seen everything. I particularly like that even with a monochrome color palette, this builder brings out each detail nicely. The domes are made from Death Star halves, which is rather fitting, actually.

Want to see what this LEGO Star Wars UCS stuff is all about? Well, click the link and get ready to have your minds blown!

Star Wars: Now serving Order 66!

The prequels are generally regarded as the least favorites of the Star Wars franchise for many fans. With that said, we can’t deny there were some iconic moments in the films. One such moment; Order 66. That’s when the Galactic Republic was secretly ordered to execute every Jedi they could find–and man that was some edge-of-your-seat stuff! Max Fudal replicates the scene nicely in LEGO and tells us this project took two years and 50,000 pieces to complete. I’d say this was well worth the time and effort. The terrain, from the planet’s liquid core to its craggy cliffs, is astounding. The man-made structures built into the cliffside offer up a change in textures and the minifigures denote plenty of action.

I can get lost in all these great details. I just want to play with this scene all day and maybe execute Order 66 myself! Does that make me a bad person? While you’re mulling that over let’s rejoice in the fact that this seems to be the first time we’ve featured this builder here on The Brothers Brick. If this is any indicator, we readily look forward to seeing what else Max is capable of.

War beast of burden

It was only seen briefly in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, but the sight of the All-Terrain Open Transport lumbering through the forests of Felucia was not one to be forgotten. Builder Mr. Idler went to painstaking length to incorporate every ounce of detail into the clone troopers’ favorite method of transport. Each leg is articulate, with ankle joints and toes adding to the sense of an ancient war elephant.

This is probably the closest LEGO version of the AT-OT that can fit the same amount of clones as shown in the movie. Don’t worry about finding a spare seat: there’s room for everyone!

R2-D2 vs the Buzz Droids

Remember that one annoying thing from the Star Wars prequel movies? No, I don’t mean that. And no, not that either. No, no, not that! I’m thinking about the Pistoeka sabotage droids also known as Buzz Droids. I mean, who would have thunk there could be these bots that can cling to a starship like a parasite and slice the important bits out of it? That is just scary stuff right there! Luckily R2-D2 was a smart little droid with a good solution to a pest control problem. He just zapped them into oblivion! Martin Latta illustrates this point nicely with some stunning photography. The blurred Venator-class Star Destroyers in the distance are an excellent touch.

Emperor Palpatine watches his plans fall into place.

Spoiler warning for a series of movies that came out between 1999 and 2005. The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy make it pretty clear that Senator, later Chancellor, Palpatine was the puppet master behind the Clone Wars, leading to his accession to Emperor and the formation of the Galactic Empire. ZiO Chao‘s latest creation captures this idea perfectly. The bust of the Emperor works well on its own, as does the vignette of Anakin and Obi-Wan dueling over the lava, but the hands really tie the whole thing together – they frame the fighting Jedi as something that Palpatine is playing with. The size of the three characters really emphasizes how big of an impact each character had on the war. Even as generals, Obi-Wan and Anakin were merely pawns in a larger game of chess they weren’t aware of. The expression on the Emperor’s face is priceless, as he subtly yet gleefully stares at the scene, grinning as the final pieces of his plan fall into place.