LEGO is an extremely versatile building material. It’s light, strong and modular. People all over the world have done amazing projects, in all kinds of themes. The most recent massive LEGO project to hit the crowdfunding world, and one of the biggest, is this 12 and a half foot long model of Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, The Executor.
Thomas Benedikt, veteran of another huge, Star Wars themed project, his 7 foot-long, 52-pound model of Admiral Akbar’s cruiser, is asking for money to be able to buy the massive number of rare, light gray tiles that he’ll need to finish the sculpture. Apparently that means $15,500 worth of light gray tiles, and that will only offset about 60% of the total cost of the project.
He’ll be working from a design that he’s already poured more than 1,000 hours into. He’ll also be working up a complex LED harness to light up 5,000 windows in the main body as well as the glow of the massive engines. In the end the piece will have some impressive stats:
- Piece count: 90,000 (approximate)
- Dimensions: 12’6” x 4’1” x 1’
- Weight: 100 Kg (220 pounds)
- Surface Area: 53 Square Feet
Though I’m excited to see this thing built, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot here for backers. Prints and galleries of pics aren’t much. At the highest tier you’ll get a DIY kit for a LEGO Star Destroyer that’s easily available elsewhere. You can’t even get a copy of the plans for the actual Executor, which is what I would want out of the deal. He’ll take the sculpture on tour and then eventually sell it to a collector for some kind of profit. There just isn’t much meat on the bone for backers.
His Kickstarter is also just a touch defensive. Explaining that the tiles he needs are rare and expensive is reasonable. Starting from the place of defending what you do as art is not. There’s no particular need for a project to be considered “art” at all on Kickstarter. It seems like an unnecessary thing to try and take a stand on. He should have spent some more time coming up with backer rewards. What can really sell a Kickstarter is showing that you deeply appreciate the people who support you. The prints aren’t even of the finished product, but of the digital rendering of the plans.
I would love to see this finished, but I don’t know that there is much reason for me to personally back it.
