HELP! Lego Death Star (10188) or Super Star Destroyer (10122)???

sjerakat

Hello everyone! I am new to this site but have collected Lego since I was a child. I am disappointed to say that I was in the dark ages for the last 9-10 years. However I recently rediscovered the 'light'! I am currently collecting the Lego modulars, only have Fire Brigade so far, unless you count the Haunted House, ( my first Lego set in 10 years!)

Along with the modulars though, I plan to expand my Star Wars UCS collection, I have all the UCS from the first X-wing up until Cloud City and Snowspeeder. Really sad I missed out on UCS Falcon..sigh..

Anyway, I recently won a $200 gift card at work and am planning to buy a large set this week. But I am completely torn between 10188 and 10122. I have read reviews but would really enjoy some light discussion before I decide. Below I will list why I want each set

10188-Death Star
- I dont have the first Death Star and it seems no Star Wars Lego collection is complete without one or the other.
-So many mini-figs! And features! Im a big fan of lego playlets (cloud city/modulars) and this one is bursting with playability.

10122- Super Star Destroyer
- Appears to have that wow factor! So long and detailed!
- Because its not as popular, I feel like this set will be worth a lot once its retired
- I have 10030 and feel this is a necessary companion

I know that the Death Star was released almost 5 years ago and is on its way out, but Lego seems to have sold a lot which means it may not be too hard to get one later on. The SSD is 3 years newer but it does feel like it will be disappearing soon and may increase in value quite dramatically. I guess i'm hoping for 10179 treatment post retirement.

Sorry if this is long or drawn out, but I dont have the opportunity to talk Legos much..at least until now!

Looking forward to your feedback!

Cheers!

spaceinvader1979

In my opinion the set 10188 is incredible, its a must have...very nice, with a lot of scenes of the different films and with a lot of minifigs; some of them exclusives to this set.
I like the ssd, but not as much as my ds!
I will choose again the ds, you will have fun assembling it, playing with it and having it.

Well, let us know what do you decide.

LegoFanTexas

sjerakat said:

Anyway, I recently won a $200 gift card at work and am planning to buy a large set this week. But I am completely torn between 10188 and 10122

A mod usually pipes in here saying that "what set should I buy" topics aren't really helpful as they don't lead to interesting discussion. This isn't a blog. :)

That being said, you did point out a few things, so it might get left, however if it does, it really should be moved to the retirement thread, since most of what you're asking is related to that.

sjerakat said:

I know that the Death Star was released almost 5 years ago and is on its way out, but Lego seems to have sold a lot which means it may not be too hard to get one later on. The SSD is 3 years newer but it does feel like it will be disappearing soon and may increase in value quite dramatically. I guess i'm hoping for 10179 treatment post retirement.

10179 is unlikely to ever be repeated, any time soon. 10221 sure isn't going to be it.

10179 was a unique series of events that took everyone by surprise, it was, at the time of launch, by far the most expensive set LEGO had ever producted, almost by double. 10143 Death Star II was, I believe, the most expensive set before that at $269. So $499 for UCS Falcon was way out there and a lot of people went, "$500 for a LEGO set? Nuts!"

Today we now accept that price point, 10188 and 10221 help with that, and of course watching many other sets pass $1,000 in the retired market no longer makes $500 seem like that much.

CCC

I think you need to decide what you are buying. Is this an investment, or something to keep and build? For both those sets, I think those things are mutually exclusive. There are enough of them stored by resellers in new and sealed conditions that used sets will not command high prices like previous used sets. So you cannot have the fun of building and expect high returns.

jon_k

I would have thought that someone who is coming back to lego and wants to ask advice about two specific sets, it would lead to meaningful discussion.

I find it strange to think that asking advice from people who own the sets and can give an insight, is not helpful, or are they who frown on such discussion the new lego Luddites ??

Ah well.. as I don`t own either .. yet.. For me Death Star .. by a long mile, two reasons, one, its a mahoosive set.. two the you tube vid of the lego death star and the eddie izzard sound track .. " yes I an Jeff Vader " priceless

sjerakat

Hey Jon, I do feel the same way, I mean if this isn't a place to discuss specific sets I don't know where is..

CCC, when it comes to buying Legos, the fun of building and owning is my number one priority, I've bought all of my previous sets for this reason, that being said, I do enjoy seeing my sets appreciate in value, even though I never plan on reselling.

So far I'm leaning on the Death Star, and I do indeed hope this discussion doesn't get modded as I'd like to see if there's anyone on team SSD.

Cheers!

LegoFanTexas

DS and SSD really aren't at all alike... One is a playset, the other is a display set. What do they have in common? $400 price tag and lots of plastic bricks, and both Star Wars. :)

BTW, I noticed something interesting today when I was shipping out DS and SSD to a few people I've traded with...

The SSD box is actually bigger than the DS box, I thought they were the same, but they aren't. The height and length of both boxes is the same, but the SSD is just under an inch thicker.

Anyone else notice that? Anyone know why?

Pitfall69

^I will try to answer that if you tell me why the Imperial Shuttles box is the size that it is.

rocao

jon_k said:

I would have thought that someone who is coming back to lego and wants to ask advice about two specific sets, it would lead to meaningful discussion.

I find it strange to think that asking advice from people who own the sets and can give an insight, is not helpful, or are they who frown on such discussion the new lego Luddites ??

The reason these type of threads are generally discouraged is because it could be repeated ad nauseum for any two sets, and even the same sets (this isn't the first DS vs SSD thread), and that's not a situation we desire. A lot of information that you seek to aid in your decision can be found by reading reviews of the two sets, here and at other websites.

P.S. Your assessment is already spot on. Death Star is more a play set than a proper UCS model. SSD is a good display set and companion for 10030. It seems you like both aspects, so you'll need to decide what you value more.

pvp3020

For the pure joy of building it has to be the Death Star. I've rebuilt it more times than any other set and it's always great fun.

Rainstorm26

sjerakat said:

I know that the Death Star was released almost 5 years ago and is on its way out, but Lego seems to have sold a lot which means it may not be too hard to get one later on. The SSD is 3 years newer but it does feel like it will be disappearing soon and may increase in value quite dramatically. I guess i'm hoping for 10179 treatment post retirement.
Cheers!

To me there are several aspects to your question. Are you buying to build and enjoy or are you buying to hold NIB and resell? With respect to build and enjoy it is an easy decision. DS is hands down the best because it is a great build and once you are done building it you can still play with it as there are plenty of interesting and funny scenes you can make with it.

SSD to me looks like it would only be a good build and then you're done and hope that you might be able to off load it if prices go up once you are bored with it collecting dust.

With respect to buy and hold and hope for price appreciation, I would say both are a risky bet.

CaptAPJT

"He must choose his own path" personally I'm in for the SSD, but then some people might say its just a vast expanse of Bley. However whenever I tell people about my Lego I always show them a picture of the SSD when I had it on display on my TV cabinet using my 46" TV for scale and people are blown away by the size of the thing. These days it sits on a shelf in my "man cave" with the IS, R2, B-Wing, Jedi Starfighter and the planet sets for company.

So the question is are you going to play or are you going to display? Personally I lack the imagination to make playset a a great display item. That's why I'm probably not going to buy the Ewok Village.

As for returning from your dark age, welcome back, believe me your not the only one regretting missing out on 10179, I'm also trying to track down many of the UCS sets I missed without breaking the bank. Presently I'm fairly focused on a 10174 to sit with 9679.

Lobot

I've got the SSD and it's a great display piece, it's certainly long and everyone who's seen it has been impressed by it. There was a lot of criticism about the flat underside when it was fist released, but I didn't think that was totally justified. Personally I really don't like the 'bridge' section, or that a lot of the upper surface greebling is almost identical.... I appreciate that it's to do with the scale, I'd just have preferred a few other part types to be thrown in here & there! There's also the odd coloured part from the internal frame that you can still see when it's finished, which does annoy me a little considering the RRP of it.

It's good fun to build, and it's going to remain in my collection for a long time :-)

RomanticWarrior

I own both and would recommend the Death Star. They're both great sets, but the DS is just more satisfying. So many different things to look at, and levers/switches that 'do stuff.' the SSD is impressive because of its size, no doubt.

louismoik

I have both, and i really like both but would recommend 10188 because it will retire soon.

hantot

SSD for me its what brought me out of my dark ages, and now I must have every SW set... So it was a very expensive purchase

monkeyhanger

If you can only have one, I suppose it depends how much you value the collection of minifigs. DS is an ideal environment for the minifigs that come with, the ones on the SSD are a bit of an afterthought. I have the DS and an SSD is on it's way to me right now from Amazon.fr. If I could only have one I would have the DS. Both could be disappearing at roughly the same time if DS rumours come true and SSD retires on schedule. If you ignore the rumours, common sense might imply that the SSD will be gone first.

HokieJoe99

You do get more minifigs with the DS, but I feel that some of them are beginning to feel a little dated especially considering some of the Star Wars minifigs that have come out the past couple years. I'm not saying they are bad, just if you want detailed minifigs, then SSD would be the way to go although you get considerably fewer of them.

Another thing to consider is display space. The SSD is very long and will take up much of a shelf. The DS packs all of its pieces into a much more compact (relatively speaking) area.

CCC

HokieJoe99 said:

You do get more minifigs with the DS, but I feel that some of them are beginning to feel a little dated especially considering some of the Star Wars minifigs that have come out the past couple years.

It is interesting to see who from the "core characters" needs updating / hasn't been updated for a while.

Obviously Chewie is about 10 years old now.

Vader, The Emperor and Royal Guards were last done about five years ago - all in that set. Lando as a general is four.

Then the one only versions such as Jawas and Tusken raiders.

Whereas rebel pilots / troopers, and stormies, get updated quite a bit.

CapnRex101

Personally, I am a huge advocate of the SSD, I think it is a spectacular model and is my favourite UCS set for display. However, the Death Star is certainly much more fun and something of a definitive set, so I would go for #10188.

Devastator

I was recently faced with the same dilemna coming out of my own dark age. I chose SSD both because I've gotten the feeling it would retire sooner, and that it seems to be more of a display piece than play piece. I am more of a vehicles guy anyways. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a DS in the next year or so if it continues to hang on for that long.

pvancil27

The SSD is nice, but as a big grey triangle it doesnt get a lot of second looks outside SW fans. My DS tends to get comments from everyone, especially when I have the lazy susan itis on turned on

LegoFanTexas

Pitfall69 said:

^I will try to answer that if you tell me why the Imperial Shuttles box is the size that it is.

What is wild about that is the contents of the SSD box will actually fit into an Imperial Shuttle box.

I've sent several SSDs overseas that way, because the SSD box is very expensive to ship, but when deboxed the manual and all the sealed bags fit perfectly into the 24x20x4" box size of Imperial Shuttle.

If the Imperial Shuttle box was made out of the same thick material as the SSD box, it would have been fine. Instead, they used paperboard thin boxes that have a very hard time surviving anything.

LegoFanTexas

louismoik said:

I have both, and i really like both but would recommend 10188 because it will retire soon.

Be careful when you give this advice...

Based on what I know from various sources, SSD will retire at the end of this year, DS won't retire until the end of next year.

So actually SSD is the one to buy, based on that.

Will it come true? Who knows, things can always change... but don't take it for granted that just because DS came out first means it has to go first.

pteric

Death Star to build SSD for investment

Drmnez

I think you should pick the set you'd love to have built.
I do not know about everyone else but I do not think about investment. I'm a collector not a reseller. That's what helps me make my choice when it comes to set purchase. What's the point of having rooms full of Lego hoping to make money when you can just enjoy Lego

sjerakat

Wanted to update on an interesting turn of events. I was all set to buy the Death Star yesterday but a few days ago I stumbled upon a Lego collector shop. He had a lot of vintage and discontinued sets , loose, new, you name it. He had 2 imperial shuttles and a SSD MISB and I knew I had to have them. I came home, rounded up a bunch of older minifig scale Star Wars kits, technics, bulk bricks and was able to trade my lot for both the shuttle and the SSD. I am beyond stoked! I'm building the shuttle and it's beautiful! Super excited for the SSD.

It's funny, deep down I wanted the SSD more than the Death Star, but did feel the DS was a better value and with limited income it felt like the right choice, however I am really thrilled with my new additions!

piratemania7

Thats awesome! Thanks for the update. IMO I would go with the DS first too; lots more figures and clearly the anchor in many ways of the whole line right now and for the past few years.

Have fun with the new finds though!