LEGO Techniques - Bricklinking a Super Star Destroyer 10221

It's been a while and I've got a backlog of requested sets to analyze for Bricklinking. This analyzing stuff is fun. I also do it for the readers of my ebook, Insider Secrets to Funding your LEGO Hobby. I review sets for part out value. Get the book and get on the list!

For those of you not familiar with BrickStock, find a tutorial at the beginning of this popular post and then come take the walkthrough of this set. I'll be doing it in real time meaning that even as I'm typing this I don't know how much we can shave off of the bill.

A brand new one can still be had for $900. Not near the prices of the Millennium Falcon so my first gut instinct is that you might as well buy new. Fire up the gerbils and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-G to get the average prices of all of the parts. Once you've done this toggle the status to get all the variants at the bottom. Go through each one and strike the most expensive version. There aren't a whole lot of doozies except for the 3x6 cylinder piece and even that's not terrible. My computer shows me ~$650 of parts value.

As usual, I'm going to strike the minifigures from BrickStock. That takes off $100. The sticker is another $32. Now toggle the price to get the most expensive pieces at the top. The yellow right angle technic brick poses a problem. Almost $12 each? Change it to black for $1.25 each. Total value for 6 of this part goes from about $70 to $7.50. Part prices quickly fall to reasonable from there. Toggle the Total Price column now.

We want to be careful about changing out too many colors since this build is very drab and needs to stay that way, What we're looking for are variants that might be a little more obscure or were updated after this set was retired. But there are seriously no variants to be found here!

The only things I can find that would make a lick of difference are things like the tan 1x8 plate. Forty-one of a piece you don't see at 20c each can be swapped for any other color, even medium lavender. Whee, we just saved $4. The blue hinge plate could be swapped for green to save another $3. But these kinds of minimal savings can easily be gained or lost depending on the buyer you choose.

At this point I'm going to anti-climatically shut down the rest of this study. I'm down to $450 for new parts. Add another 12% for shipping and you're at about $500. Not even half off. What if we change the condition to used? Now at $350 for pieces and $420 delivered. Considering all the orders you'd make, the time spent checking them, as well as organizing all the pieces and you may decide to skip it and buy new.

Coming soon, the Grand Carousel!

Set Review - Microfighters Star Destroyer 75033

I guess I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the box art on this one.  I took a quick glance and figured this would be a drawn out version of the Jedi Starfighter.  Turns out I wasn't paying attention to the direction of the lips.  Instead of the 33° slopes I was expecting, this one is built with 65° slopes.  It's pretty striking actually.  Really outside the box.  I marveled over most of the build and the techniques that went into this one.  It's so full of SNOT that the set designer must have had a terrible cold while working on it.  Almost as much SNOT as the Planet Series Cloud Car.

Most of that SNOT is created with brackets.  As you may be aware, the vertical part of most brackets is a half plate of width instead of a full plate.  So anything laid on top doesn't quite sit flush and there isn't anything readily available to fill that gap.  As a result there are several half plate gaps all throughout the ship.  I'm gonna assume those are speed holes.  But some of the techniques are genius and it's fun to see some real variety in the builds.  At one point while testing the hull you might be concerned with how flimsy it is.  Rest assured, this was thought of.  The bottom is tied together with an assembly topped with some 2x2 tiles with half pin on top.  These click into some Technic brick holes that are worked into that hull and turn the thing into something that can withstand a small drop.

I was surprised to learn that sticking studs into a Technic Brick hole is considered a legal technique.  I had thought it was verboten.

There were some nice piece surprises in this set as well.  First is the dark bluish grey 3x3 plate.  I hadn't realized this existed yet.  Checking the "Comes In" portion of the BrickOwl or Bricklink catalog I see why.  I can't afford any of those other sets.  Of no surprise was the obligatory "i can haz flik-fierz".  Trending, I see.

With 93 parts + 4 extras and a minifig, $10 works well.  The set averages 2.3 parts per lot which if I recall is higher than normal.  If you need dark bley 1x2 - 2x2 brackets or light bley 65° slopes, this is the set to buy.  Overall it's certainly worthwhile as the build itself is fun and the accuracy is not TOO terribly off considering some of the other sets in this line.


All the Microfighters:

A not so micro fighter: