REVIEW: LEGO Darth Vader Bust
Recently, LEGO announced a set of three Star Wars-themed helmets that will be available in April. Once I saw the images of them and started writing a piece about the announcement I asked my husband why LEGO was not doing a model of the most iconic helmet of them all, Darth Vader? He immediately showed me this LEGO Darth Vader bust and I had to have it!
About the Character: Darth Vader
Darth Vader is one of the most infamous characters in Star Wars and all of movie history. He starts out as an innocent child named Anakin Skywalker and over the course of time evolves from a Jedi Knight to the legendary Sith Lord we have grown fear.
The Build
The LEGO Darth Vader Bust (set #75227) is 327 pieces. This set was created to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of LEGO’s relationship with Star Wars. The bust was originally only available as a 2019 Star Wars Celebration exclusive shared with Target. We missed out on the initial release and had to pick ours up on eBay.
The bust built a lot like a LEGO Brickheadz set. I started by building the base. There are several multi-colored pieces that you can’t see that make up the insides just like a Brickheadz.
The build of this bust took me about 2 hours to complete. I am not a LEGO master and tend to take my time in order to make sure I don’t mess up. A more experienced builder would likely take less time. The directions were easy to follow and nothing about this build was tricky. I sometimes need help figuring out how to do a step or two and in this case, I didn’t.
The Results
The end result was a very cool model of Darth Vader’s bust. The detailing is remarkable. I especially like the ventilator on the front of the mask, which supplies him with his signature rasp. Grooved LEGO pieces give the appearance of vents. The helmet itself is smooth and truly resembles the original. The flaps on the sides and in the back are actually clips on using bar pieces and hooks. I also like the chain accent that appears to be holding on his black cape.
The bust measures 5.6 inches from bottom to top. I’d like to see a set where the size is doubled. If it were that size the detailing could be so much more and displaying it would be made easier. I have it displayed with my Star Wars POPs but because it’s a similar size it’s not the signature piece I want it to be.
I also would like to see this model with a display plaque. The new LEGO helmets that are coming out next month have them. I think the display plaque gives the model a more elaborate appearance.
Score
Overall, I give the LEGO Darth Vader Bust a score of 7/10. The detailed set is nice but a little small and did not come with a display plaque.
