10212 – UCS Imperial Shuttle
Mid-Saturday a parcel was delivered from far away New York city. Courtesy of some great friends who had visited recently, I was lucky enough to have them source for me two Ultimate Collector’s Series Lego Star Wars kits.
Building complex models (particularly sets with over 1,000 pieces) is a favourite pastime, and over the years I’ve put together almost all of the kits which have been released. The Imperial Shuttle is a new release, and one I’ve been waiting to build for quite a while.
First – obligatory box shots:
It’s a big box, but not as large as, say, the Millennium Falcon or Star Destroyer. This is mostly due to the kit weighing in at around 2500 pieces. In any case, it made it all the way from NYC with only a few bumps and scrapes.
Unpacking took longer than expected – many baggies containing smaller bags of pieces. Then I came across the instructions which were (for the first time) sealed within a bag on cardboard backing (so the instruction booklets and stickers don’t get squished.
In total four instruction books, split between the core hull, shuttle cockpit and the three fins. With the help of my support team (pictured below, upper left hand side) I sorted all the baggies into logical piles. The next step, as per normal, is to create a whole lot of unnecessary washing up but piling similar parts into bowls.
The build was steady, the technic gears being the only really challenging part. The core hull is a solid bit of work, the only hard part is finding enough room to store completed sections. At one point, I stood up to reach some parts and accidentally knocked the kit onto the ground, with some minor breaks (fixed).
The build was split into three sessions. I began in the afternoon on Saturday, but departed for the Brumbies vs. Reds game at 7pm, after 3 hours of building. I resumed much later that night and completed another 2 hours of building, before retiring to bed. The late morning (final) session was a further 3 hours bringing the total build time to 8 hours.
The build order was as follows:
1. Minifigs
2. Main hull
3. Top fin
4. Cockpit
5. Landing struts
6. Engine
7. Left fin
8. Right fin
9. Display stand
Here’s the final model, with the original minifig edition version for comparison:
Moved onto the bookcase with some of the other UCS models:
Building Instructions