Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Return of the Jedi with these two Dioramas

It was 1983, and fourteen-year-old me had been waiting fairly patiently for the arrival of Return of the Jedi (teased for a while as Revenge of the Jedi) – bringing with is the conclusion to the story that had been inspiring my school friends and I for the previous 6 years. And with it, we saw some iconic scenes: Jabbas Palace and the Sarlacc Pitt; Heroes of the Rebellion gathering on board the Mon Calamari spaceship, Home One; Yoda’s death on Dagobah and, of course, the forest moon of Endor, as well as the Emporer’s throne room on the second death Star.

Originally intended to be revealed to an unsuspecting world at Star Wars Celebration, we can now bring you the press pack for the latest Star Wars Dioramas: The Emporer’s Throne Room and the Endor Speeder Chase. Last Year’s dioramas The Trash Compactor, Jedi Training Ground and the Trecnch run were some of my favourite display sets last year – being engaging subject matter, some interesting builds that could be completed in a little over the course of an evening, and (most importantly) able to fit on a relatively small footprint.

The 807-piece LEGO Star Wars – Emperor’s Throne Room and 608-piece LEGO Star Wars – Endor Speeder Chase diorama building sets are available to pre-order from April 7th, and available to purchase from May 1st from www.LEGO.com/Star-Wars and LEGO retailers priced at €99.99 / $US99.99 / £89.99/CAD129.99/$AUD159.99 and €79.99 / $US79.99 / £69.99 /99.99 CAD/$AUD129.99 respectively. 

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Keeping It Simple with the Troops: 75305 Scout Trooper Helmet [Hands On Review]

Sometimes, its not about being in charge, or having all of the action. Sometimes its just about hanging around, waiting for something to happen, or to be sent off on some errand. At least, that’s how it sometimes appears to bewhen you are living the life of a Scout Trooper, the subject of the latest LEGO® Star Wars Helmet.

I recently took a look at the forthcoming 73504 Darth Vader Helmet sculpture, the latest from the LEGO Star Wars team. With over 840 pieces, that set has the highest part count of any of the helmets currently available. The LEGO Star Wars helmet other set due for release in April, 73505 Scout Trooper with 471 parts, has the current lowest.

Thanks to the AFOL Engagement team, I received a prerelease copy of this set for review purposes – it will be hard to avoid comparisions with the Vader helmet.

The set comes in the ‘standard’ helmet box, with its instruction manual, 5 bags of elements and a sticker sheet. As we already mentioned, the set has significantly fewer elements than Vader’s helmet, and as such the instruction manual is almost half as thick.

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