Mania Grade: B
4 Comments | Add
Rate & Share:
Related Links:
Info:
- Book: The Star Wars Ultimate Blueprint Collection
- Author: Ryder Windham
- Art By: Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff
- Publisher: DK Publishing
- Price: $19.99
Book Review of Star Wars Blueprints the Ultimate Collection
By
Tim Janson
August 14, 2008
© N/A
The Star Wars Ultimate Blueprint collection isn’t a book exactly but rather a collection of five huge and double-sided poster-sized plans. While five may not seem like a lot, the prints are quite beautiful and enormously detailed and a great deal of information is packed into each one. These are printed on very heavy stock with the front side treated with a heavy gloss. The front of the poster features the character, ship, or weapon shown in full color images from the Star Wars movies while the back displays the blueprints.
R2-D2 and C#3P0 are combined onto the same sheet. The cutaway drawings display all the parts of the two druids along with a “parts” list. C3P0 has 95 different parts detailed and R2D2 has 52 parts documented. As a protocol Droid, C3P0 has a large memory bank, language memory discs, and phonetic pattern analyzers to assist him in his main function. The Astromech druid R2D2 is like a walking Swiss army knife, equipped with item such as a utility saw, fire extinguisher, life form scanner, holographic projector, and more.
Next we get and up close look inside Darth Vader himself including his life-support systems, cyborg implants, and sensory enhancers. Vader’s cyborg implants provided him with a breathing tube, supplemental nutrient storage, aural ear implants, and a ventilator to assist his breathing. The enhancers in his helmet include infrared and ultraviolet lenses to allow him to see in total darkness. It’s clear from looking at the blueprints that while Vader’s suit made him a living weapon, it was also his personal hospital and maintenance area that kept him alive.
The weapons blueprint covers Han Solo’s modified Blastech DL-44 pistol; the Stormtroopers standard issue Blastech E-11 rifle; the Blastech RT-97C, favored by Sandtroopers; and Anakin Skywalker’s custom lightsaber, passed on to Luke by Obi-Wan.
The last two prints cover the Millennium Falcon and the original Death Star. The Death Star plans, and it’s kind of funny to say that, considering the events in the very first Star Wars film, cover just about everything you can think of regarding the massive battle station: It’s Hypermatter reactor core, tractor beam reactor, superlaser gunner station, tie-fighter hangars, and the Hull defenses. A note of trivia, the Death Star’s armament included over 7,000 Tie Fighters.
While all this is really superb, I think a bit more content would have put the product into solid A grade territory. One more print could have included X-Wing and Star Destroyers and that would have bolstered the set. Also, it might have been better for these to be presented in a book where the plans folded out rather than be in poster format. Posters tend to just get ugly once you unfold them and fold them several times, although I supposed if you were an avid enough fan you might consider framing them.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
