UCS Imperial Star Destroyer

The Imperial Star Destroyer is the first thing you ever see in Star Wars. A New Hope opens with one sliding overhead, and it just keeps coming. LEGO’s Ultimate Collector Series version, set 75252, tries to give you that same feeling on a shelf, and it gets remarkably close.

At 4,784 pieces it’s one of the biggest Star Wars sets LEGO has made, well over a metre from nose to engines. The hull is built from angled plates that hide a solid frame inside, and the command tower at the back has the two “golf ball” shield generators fans look for first.

Star Wars did something permanent to an entire generation of us. This is what that looks like, built brick by brick in Kampala.

Photos are coming: the full length, the bridge up close, and a hand in frame so you can see the size of it.