Ever since I was little, my favorite movie has been Star Wars. When LEGO started releasing Star Wars sets almost 20 years ago, it was the first LEGO sets I had bought since I was a kid. It was a way to relive some of my childhood by building ships from my favorite movie. Now, DK Publishing has released Ultimate LEGO Star Wars compiling all the creations released by the LEGO Group.
The book covers the entirety of the LEGO Star Wars line from the first releases in 1999 up to the more recent movies – The Force Awakens and Rogue One. (The book does acknowledge The Last Jedi in its timeline, but does not include any of the sets in the book) With over 500 Star Wars sets to cover, there is a lot of detail on many of the fan favorite ships and characters.
The book starts with over 100 pages worth of characters. Each and every Star Wars figure that has ever been produced is not only shown in the pages of the book, but every single released variation as well. Each character, droid, and alien gets a bio, but the main characters also get much more in depth as the main characters are given even more information and many fine details are pointed out, even when it’s just minor changes to hair or decoration between different figures, giving a deep dive into what goes into the thoughts behind each minifigure.
The LEGO Star Wars playsets have given fans the ability to create iconic locations from the Star Wars universe, and the book dedicates a section to these sets.Ultimate LEGO Star Wars gives backstory on each of these locations and their roles in the films before informing about the special features that each LEGO set has to recreate the scene from the film. Additionally it lets the reader know all the additional parts included in each set, including accessories and minifigures.
The last and largest section of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars is the vehicles and equipment. The vehicle section is broken down by locations and by groups (Rebels, Imperials, etc.) to allow reference by different alliances. Like the locations, the vehicles are given backstories and more information about the special features and playability of each vehicle. To me, the most interesting are the ships that have been done multiple times and have been detailed out, including all the differences between the different versions. For instance, the X-Wing has been done over a dozen times and the Millennium Falcon has been made about 16 times, and each time is fairly different, but the book gives perspective on each variation and how the models have changed over the years.
Ultimate LEGO Star Wars is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in Star Wars LEGO sets or just wants an easy reference for Star Wars LEGO. A solid reference for all the Star Wars LEGO that has been released up to Rogue One and a good way to learn about how LEGO has built up their version of a galaxy far, far away.
