LEGO’s Rumored $1,000 Star Wars Death Star Spotted in Leaked Images, With One of the Largest Piece Counts of All Time

Leaked photos appear to have revealed an enormous new LEGO Death Star comprised of 9,023 pieces, that’s reportedly set to cost $1,000 and launch this October.

But, rather than include the full spherical battle station, this version of the Death Star will showcase the Empire’s ultimate command center via a cross-section view, in order to include numerous rooms and other Easter eggs.

Reaction to the set only containing one half of Death Star’s sphere (unlike previous Death Star sets) has been mixed, with some fans saying this offers more detail for your dollar, with others saying LEGO is shortchanging fans by only providing half of the design.

So, what do you get for your $1,000? Well, the enormous set includes more than a dozen smaller areas that will be familiar to Star Wars fans, such as a throne room, death star laser control, garbage compactor, shuttle bay, and that area where Luke gets to swing across holding Princess Leia and look very heroic.

Included within the docking bay is an entire Lambda-class shuttle, which is nice, while collectors will likely be eyeing up the set’s reported contingent of 32 minifigures.

Characters reportedly within the set include multiple versions of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia, plus Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, Rogue One’s Director Orson Krennic and Galen Erso, Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Motti (the one who gets Force choked in A New Hope), General Tagge, Colonel Wullf Yularen (Clone Wars fans rejoice), insectoid protocol droid 5D6-RA-7, a Death Star Gunner, Imperial Royal Guard, Imperial Crew Member, Stormtroopers (including a Hot Tub Stormtrooper variant) and Imperial Dignitaries — purple-cloaked advisors that have a new LEGO hat element.

Whether all this is enough to convince you into parting with $1,000 for the privilege is something we’ll leave up to you. (Or maybe you fancy buying two sets, to make the Death Star sphere complete?)

Just on its own, the new Death Star will clock in as the fourth-largest LEGO set of all time by number of pieces, behind the company’s 11,000-piece LEGO Art World Map, LEGO Icons Eiffel Tower, and LEGO Icons Titanic sets.

Three other LEGO Star Wars sets rank among the company’s biggest, with the top 10 also including the UCS LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon, LEGO Star Wars AT-AT and LEGO Star Wars Razor Crest. It’s Expelliarmus to the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle, though, as the set will be shunted out of the top running with a puny piece count of just 6,020.

LEGO is still to formally announce its new Death Star set but, judging by the leaks, it won’t be long now.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social