Sunday 23 October 2011

AFICIONADO REVIEW: LEGO "STAR WARS" CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA

Legion of LEGO! The cover for the lovely new LEGO STAR WARS CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA



LEGO STAR WARS CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA

Published by DORLING KINDERSLEY


Reviewed by Scott Weller


The fertile imagination expanding and inspiring creations of Ole Kirk Christiansen and George Lucas join forces once again with DORLING KINDERSLEY books to present the newest volume of the LEGO STAR WARS CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA, out to buy in all good book stores and online sources this month. Now presented in a more compact presentation size (a new uniform look for this type of series), this lovely, lavishly illustrated tome gathers together everything you need to know, and more, about the small scale, big hearted world of the STAR WARS LEGO universe’s iconic characters- still as popular today, and even more ambitious and creatively made and presented, as they were when the range was first launched back in the nineties. Hannah Dolan and her research team have done an admirable and exhaustive job putting all this data and photo material together in collected form, along with worthy and practical, pleasing to the eye design by Anne Sharples and Jon Hall.

Darth Maul and Yoda: the LEGO lowdown!

This bristling information and photo guide presents each of the key 300 plus characters from all six STAR WARS movies, the animated series and comic books: Jedi and Sith, friend and foe, aliens and droids of all shapes and sizes get well treated in special fun packed and absorbing to read info pages, including a veritable wealth of detail on their history as LEGO creations (including multiple variations over the years, their accessories (large and small) and collections they’ve been a part of, alongside interesting behind the scenes production notes on how they came into existence. Amongst my personal favourites of the book, specially photographed, are the Sith Lord Emperor, Imperial Sandtrooper, Bib Fortuna, Embo the Bounty Hunter and the battle damaged Darth Vader. Brilliant!

It’s fascinating to see how each character has been visually rendered into the small but no less intriguing and fun world of scale LEGO, whose two inch tall figures (some of which I don’t think have yet been realized by KENNER!) have certainly belayed their size with the children and adults that adore and enthusiastically buy them in all their guises and multitude of accessories. STAR WARS has proved, and remains, a consistent winner for the company in its toy transition and evolution, and vice versa.

The final icing on the cake, the book also comes with an exclusive mini-figure of that daring space pilot Han Solo, bearing the medal worn and won at the end of EPISODE IV.

AFICIONADO RATING: Another unique and highly readable blending, it’s an essential purchase for all LEGO and STAR WARS toy fans to dive into and enjoy. Plastic Fantastic! 4 out of 5

1 comment:

Royn-Ber Wendjaifa said...

Now I know where to go if I just can't let go of the Star Wars concept even for an instant, even to grab a quick bite and a cuppa, lest I miss something in the rush...