New Star Wars Diorama Sets Coming From LEGO

LEGO has released a lot of different Star Wars sets through the years. However, there was one scene that LEGO hasn’t been able to replicate… until now.

“For years we’ve been scratching our heads about how to capture the Death Star trash compactor, an extremely iconic scene, in LEGO bricks,” Michael Lee Stockwell, LEGO Star Wars design manager, told StarWars.com. “But what good is a trash compactor that doesn’t ‘compact’? We needed the function!”

Stockwell and the LEGO Star Wars team were able to come up with a solution to this challenge. The inspiration for the solution actually came from a place quite far from a galaxy far, far away.

“Replicating a static mess is one thing, but building a function that works repeatedly without jamming, required coming up with a solution that would somehow control the mess. Inspiration for the final solution was taken from live theater — imagine recreating the movement of ocean waves with the use of stage props.”

This will soon be available for fans as this set and a couple of others are now available for pre-order. They will be arriving on April 26th. The other moments that have been recreated for display include the fully-operational trash compactor, a recreation of the Death Star trench run, and Luke’s Jedi training with Yoda on Dagobah.

“The Diorama series is really something special, and something we are very excited about,” says Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, LEGO Star Wars design director. “The models are built on a frame. On the frame there is a small, printed plaque with a famous phrase from that particular movie scene. The frame is always the same depth — 20 LEGO modules, which is a perfect size, as it makes it fit on a regular bookshelf. So they’re perfect for display.” 

Diorama is a new LEGO Star Wars series that gives the opportunity for experimentation while upping certain details and also scaling down at the same time. The fighters in the Death Star trench are simplified, and the trench itself replicates the original models from the movie. The Dagobah set brings many of the classic highlights of Luke’s training on the planet with Yoda together into the design.

“It’s great getting the opportunity to pack in a lot of detail into a build in this form of presentation,” says Jason Zapantis, LEGO Star Wars designer. “It’s fun to present a highly-detailed scene akin to an iconic snapshot from the film with more intricate construction techniques.”

“It’s such a different experience from building minifig scale play models,” adds Jme Wheeler, LEGO Star Wars designer. “I enjoy being able to look at the element library in a completely different way. Hopefully fans will enjoy the greebling, and maybe even get inspired for some of their own builds.”

The LEGO Star Wars Diorama series is the most recent release aimed at adults. More are on the way.

“As these models are intended for adults, we can use relatively complicated building techniques, and by that take the detail level a bit higher than on our regular play-theme models,” says Frederiksen, who has worked on LEGO Star Wars since the very first sets in 1999. “These are our first dioramas, and we have already created a lot of prototypes for more potential dioramas to come in the future.”

The LEGO Star Wars Death Star Trash Compactor, the LEGO Star Wars Death Star Trench Run Diorama, and the LEGO Star Wars Dagobah Jedi Training Diorama are already available for pre-order now. They will arrive April 26. The LEGO Star Wars Death Star Trash Compactor Diorama building set will be exclusively sold at Walmart stores, in addition to LEGO.com and LEGO stores.


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