If this 7-foot long model of the Mon Calamari flagship from Return of the Jedi—complete with integrated lighting—doesn't impress you on first sight, consider this: It uses 30,500 bricks valued in $5,500.
The stunning Lego model—created by Thomas Benedikt—was created to scale with the official Lego Star Destroyer, which is an impressive 3,104 pieces beast on its own. According to Thomas, the ship was almost impossible to recreate in Lego because of the difficulty of its surfaces: There's no right angles at all.
On top of being difficult for creating the CAD plans, in a Lego model the curved surfaces make it extra difficult. After considering many building techniques, he decided to use studs joined by hinges, with transparent yellow studs to let the light from the star cruiser's interior to shine through.
The resulting model is beautiful, bigger than many apartments in New York, and the final effect when lighted up is simply amazing, as you can see in this gallery.
