Star Wars 'Death Star' playset, LEGO, 2008-2012

3803 piece construction toy consisting of the following parts:

1. Death Star spacestation playset with many rooms across four floors, each room shows a scene from the Star Wars films A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. The rooms are:
Bottom floor
-An open storage area with barrels etc.

First floor
- Trash compactor with moveable walls
- Tractor beam generator with deactivation action
- Destroyed bridge area with rope swing
- Cargo bay with working crane and lift servicing docking bay above

Second floor
- Docking bay with rack for Darth Vader's TIE fighter, a working blast door opening to the Superlaser control room
- Superlaser control room, the angle of the weapon can be changed from the command centre located on the floor above
- Detention block, with opening prison cell door and garbage chute. The cell wall is removable.
- Emperor's throne room, with mezzanine and round window

Top floor
- Room with two turbolaser turrets
- Droid repair bay, with crank to operate central lift
- Command centre, from where the Superlaser can be moved up, down, left and right using one of the consoles
- Conference room with table and seven chairs

2. Darth Vader's TIE fighter, it opens so a minifigure can be sat inside
3. Wheeled trolley containing 'scanning' equipment

The set also contains twenty-four LEGO minifigures, these are:
4. Luke Skywalker in Imperial stormtrooper uniform
5. Han Solo in Imperial stormtrooper uniform
6. Chewbacca
7. Princess Leia Organa
8. R2-D2
9. C-3PO
10. Obi-Wan Kenobi, with hood, cloak and blue lightsaber
11. Luke Skywalker in Tatooine 'farmboy' outfit
12. Han Solo in 'smuggler' outfit
13. Luke Skywalker with short hair, in black Jedi Knight outfit, with green lightsaber
14, 15. Death Star troopers
16, 17. Imperial stormtroopers
18. Darth Vader, with cape and red lightsaber
19. Grand Moff Tarkin
20. Emperor Palpatine, with blue Force Lightning
21, 22. Royal Guards, with spears
23. Interrogation droid
24. black Imperial protocol droid
25. black Imperial astromech droid, R2-Q5
26. Imperial 'Mouse' droid
27. Imperial assassin droid
29. Dianoga garbage monster

The packaging (29) consists of a printed card box containing four smaller white card boxes. The instruction manual (30) is of printed paper, with 264 pages, ring-bound.

Originally purchased for the Museum of Childhood's exhibition War Games (2013-14). It was accessioned by the Museum following the completion of the exhibition's tour in 2016.

Two separate Death Stars were featured in two films from the original Star Wars trilogy: A New Hope (1977) and Return of the Jedi. They were moon-sized spacestations capable of destroying entire planets. The evil Empire used the stations as instruments of terror, to 'keep the local systems in line'. Both Death Stars were destroyed by the Rebel Alliance at the climax of the respective films.

The Lego Group was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932 in Billund, Denmark. The name is a contraction of the Danish phrase Leg Godt , meaning ‘play well’. The company began as a general manufacturer of wooden toys and playthings, which it continued to make until 1960. In 1949 Lego began to produce self-locking plastic brick construction toys, having taken inspiration from similar bricks produced in the United Kingdom by Kiddcraft. Design and technical limitations and customer preference meant that the plastic bricks were not initially a great success. However, sales grew, as did the range of products and sets available, and the name Lego became synonymous with imaginative, colourful and highly distinctive construction toys. Today, Lego is one of the most profitable toy manufacturers in the world, and can boast in addition to its construction sets several theme parks, video games, board games, retail stores and a blockbuster film (2014).

Starting in 1999, Lego began to produce sets based on popular films and television shows. Star Wars was the first licence obtained by the company. Sales of licenced sets contributed greatly to the enormous profits obtained by Lego in the 21st century. As well as Star Wars Lego has licenced, amongst others, Harry Potter, Marvel superheroes, Winnie the Pooh and SpongeBob Squarepants.

In the original Star Wars trilogy, Death Stars are moon-sized spacestations, terror weapons capable of destroying entire planets. This large playset has scenes from the two films which featured Death Stars, 'A New Hope' and 'Return of the Jedi', and twenty-four minifigures representing well-known characters from the movies.

The LEGO Death Star is very much a luxury toy, very expensive when new. This comments on two things: firstly, it questions if sets such as this are really toys at all, given their high cost, complicated nature and relative fragility; secondly, it further highlights the continued successful merchandising of the Star Wars films, something which was a game-changer in the late-1970s in terms of commercial possibilities available to film-makers.

B.2-2016