LEGOs - Star Wars sets, mini Star Wars figures & more
If you are a person under 60 years of age, introducing the LEGO company might be a bit pointless. Virtually everyone I know is familiar with the famous LEGO brick construction sets and toys. And if you also consider yourself a Star Wars fan, I'm pretty sure you have already come across the Star Wars themed LEGO sets, models and figures.
LEGO's Star Wars sets were first introduced in 1999 on the occasion of releasing The Phantom Menace movie as LEGO's first line of licensed products. These first sets were based on the original StarWars trilogy and shortly after that LEGO continued with new sets (mostly ships, vehicles and scenes) based on the new prequel trilogy (Episodes I. to III.). Considering that the original license (valid till 2008) was recently extended till 2011, there's still much to be looking forward to in near future.
Enough of the history, let's take a look at the range of main LEGO's StarWars toys available:
Star Wars Ships, Spacecraft and Vehicles
These types of sets (created in the mini-figure scale) are forming the basis of LEGO's StarWars line. In order to achieve a realistic and accurate look, LEGO had to develop many special parts and pieces and some of the models exist in multiple redesigned versions, which makes them even more interesting for collectors.
The line includes spacecraft and famous vehicles like X-wing, Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, AT-AP Walker and other types.
Exclusives
A special range of StarWars LEGO sets - Ultimate Collector Series - contains models and scenes created in larger scales and much more detail than the regular ones. Apart from the larger scale versions of the previously mentioned spacecraft and vehicles, this line includes for example a very detailed model of the Death Star featuring authentic environments and some exclusive minifigures and droids, which you cannot get anywhere else. And, as mentioned earlier, there's much more to come in near future.
Star Wars LEGO Mini Figures
A very important part of the product range and a very popular topic among collectors are the Star Wars LEGO characters. Just think of any famous character which appeared in the movies, and you are guaranteed to find its minifigure version. Similarly to the spacecraft models, the unique appearance of these characters required many specially designed parts like helmets, weapons, headpieces and other had to be created. Some selected characters also exist in the light-up lightsaber version (powered by built-in battery) or as minifigure magnets.