A Florida teacher has built a model of the (second) Death Star landing bay out of 30,000 Lego pieces.
Jay Hoff reportedly spent six months creating the 6-foot-by-6-foot of the scene in Return of the Jedi where Emperor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) lands on the Death Star to inspect Darth Vader’s progress.
Hoff told Rex Features that he shelled out approximately $2,300 to build the Star Wars tribute which was showcased during Science Discovery Day at his school.
“I only got to display the model for one day and I still haven’t had the heart to take it apart yet,” said Hoff.
“I’ve been crazy about LEGO ever since and began collecting it again in the early 90’s, especially when the Star Wars kits started coming out.”
As every Star Wars fan knows, the Death Star is a moon-sized superweapon capable of destroying a planet.
The weaponized space station first appeared in Star Wars: A New Hope and was commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), who perceived it, along with the rest of the Imperial high command, as the Empire’s “ultimate weapon.”
Nevertheless, the Death Star was eventually taken out by Luke Skywalker with a little help from Han Solo, but not before destroying Alderaan, the home planet of Princess Leia Organa.
Four years later, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader decide to construct yet another Death Star, which is ultimately blown up by Lando Calrissian piloting the Millenium Falcon – after the space station’s shield generator is knocked offline by Han Solo and his strike team on Endor.
