Huge LEGO Death Star Trench Run Diorama Has 80,000 Pieces
This massive brick build includes the exterior of the Lego Death Star as well as interior rooms with minifigs and the famous trench run chase.
The second season of Andor brought us a year out from the historic Battle of Yavin that ended in the destruction of the first Death Star… and features one of the most iconic space battles in movie history. The dogfight blew audiences’ minds when A New Hope hit theaters in 1977.
The final chase has been created in LEGO more than a few times—including an official diorama that’s sadly retired—but none of those builds are quite as large and detailed as this one.
LEGO Death Star Trench Run Diorama
A little background into the creator of this huge LEGO trench run before we dive into the details. Wani Kim is a Lego Certified Professional who lives in South Korea. He augments his builds with lights and motion and has built massive Marvel-themed dioramas, animals, and more. In this interview he shows off what he’s built, including a detailed look at the interior details of the trench run model—make sure you turn on the subtitles!
Kim built the massive diorama that features the iconic ships involved in the chase. On the back side, it has detailed rooms of the moon-sized space station with minifig characters and working lights. The rooms highlight iconic scenes from the franchise as well as things imagined by the building team. It’s a truly impressive and gigantic build.
The Build
It took Kim and his team three months to construct the LEGO trench run and it is by far the largest model of the chase out there. It’s nearly 9 feet long, 4.5 feet deep, and over 3.5 feet tall. The brick build includes somewhere around 80,000 pieces and 100 minifigs. It uses a 220V power supply and an Arduino board to power and control all of the interior and chase scene lights.
The front shows Luke’s famous trench run complete with a super detailed recreation of the outside of the Death Star and explosion effects from Darth Vader‘s attempts to take him down. There are other ships featured at the top of the build, including a small Millennium Falcon and a group of tiny TIE fighters. The number of pieces required to create the exterior of the LEGO Death Star is bonkers. There are layers of bricks on every inch of its surface.
The back side is even more detailed with multiple fully furnished rooms that feature working lights and minifigs. It has Vader’s personal chamber, jail cells, several catwalks, and tractor-beam controls. You can see stormtroopers being taken out by an explosion, Obi Wan Kenobi trying to disable the tractor beam, and the command room.
LEGO X-Wing Starfighter
Don’t have the room, the time, or the cash to build something that large? You can still display a LEGO version of the big players in the legendary Death Star chase—Luke’s X-Wing.
This Ultimate Collectors Series X-Wing has authentic brick-built details like an opening cockpit, a spot for R2-D2, and wings that can be adjusted from flight mode to attack mode with a turn of a switch. It makes an impressive display piece and comes complete with a stand and plaque showing X-Wing technical data.
- 1,949 pieces
- Includes Luke and R2-D2 minifigs
- 10.5 in. (27 cm) high, 21.5 in. (55 cm) long, and 17.5 in. (44 cm) wide
UCS TIE Interceptor
The TIE Advanced sets are all retired (we can hope there will be an updated version soon), so this UCS set is your best option if you want to build a TIE. This is a redesigned version of 2000’s Ultimate Collector Series. Build the detailed cockpit, laser cannons, and the Imperial fighter’s distinctive wings. It comes with a TIE pilot minifig and a mouse droid that are currently only available with this set. When it’s built, it measures an impressive 16 inches long and comes with a brick-built stand for display.
- 1,931 pieces
- 12.5 in. (32 cm) high, 16 in. (40 cm) long, and 13 in. (33 cm) wide
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