Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 19
Posted by CapnRex101,
I think the standard of mini vehicles during this Advent Calendar has been excellent, continuing with an Imperial speeder bike supplied on day eighteen.
However, I think a minifigure is likely today...
In fact, the shield projector protecting the Death Star II arrives on day nineteen. This model looks reasonable and is a nice companion for the shield bunker and Ewok village from previous days. I think the base for the dish could be better though, ideally using a 2x2x2 pyramid slope to recreate the shape of this structure onscreen.
Overall - The shield projector is a splendid addition to the growing microscale Endor scene, but could be improved with that pyramidal slope.
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So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine.
In my little Endor diorama, I built a hill behind the bunker and put the generator on top. But I honestly don't know where it goes. (Also, the central antenna has a lot of points. I've seen MOCs where the builder uses a 1x1 SNOT plate at the center of the parabola to get a second rod on there, so I'll be doing that when I get home.
Also, TIL that in ROTJ, you can see bits of the shield generator bouncing around the set when it explodes. https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/4ejgy7/the_spectacular_destruction_of_the_shield/
Today is one of the weaker days.
5. SW - wouldn't sell in larger scale. Uninteresting at this one. Parts pack.
4. HP - just so beat SW because of the slopes and fire pieces. Just so.
3. Marvel - it's connectable and I like the lamp
2. Friends - Thought it would finish last, but the boxes are very usable. Also: cookies.
1. City - because of the comments
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED.
@WemWem said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED.
"
I'm headcanoning that Galen Erso had a brother named, let's call him "Steve," who worked on shield generator design.
I told he'd do it!
Huh, huh, huh, huh.
Where's a jar of jam when you need it?
it's so poor.
This is good for protecting a Death Star until such time it is destroyed by "Rebel Scum" aided and abetted by those infernal Ewoks.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
" @WemWem said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED.
"
I'm headcanoning that Galen Erso had a brother named, let's call him "Steve," who worked on shield generator design."
Hee hee, very funny!
@KruzioBaal48 said:
"it's so poor."
It's a ten-piece abstraction made for children who want 5 minutes of daily joy as they count down to Christmas. How much detail needs to go into these things?
(Although I am, again, someone who beefs up his AC builds with greebles and kibble. If you don't like it: make it better.)
@WemWem said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED."
The bunker is indeed several miles from the shield projector, which is vaguely implied in the movie, as Han mentions they are approaching the back door. Star Wars: Complete Locations contains a map showing the distance.
Also, the strike team does not need to blow up the shield projector itself because their target is the power generator for the shield projector. That seems to be readily accessible from the bunker, as we see in the film.
Of course, that begs the question why the projector explodes rather than simply powering down. I choose to assume it is so powerful that the shield projector is in a constant state of nearly exploding and that the power generator maintains a system that keeps it from doing so. When the power goes off, the shield projector enters its natural state of exploding :o)
@CapnRex101 said:
" @WemWem said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED."
The bunker is indeed several miles from the shield projector, which is vaguely implied in the movie, as Han mentions they are approaching the back door. Star Wars: Complete Locations contains a map showing the distance.
Also, the strike team does not need to blow up the shield projector itself because their target is the power generator for the shield projector. That seems to be readily accessible from the bunker, as we see in the film.
Of course, that begs the question why the projector explodes rather than simply powering down. I choose to assume it is so powerful that the shield projector is in a constant state of nearly exploding and that the power generator maintains a system that keeps it from doing so. When the power goes off, the shield projector enters its natural state of exploding :o)"
Isn't it a chain reaction of the reactor coils exploding? They blew up the bunker, and then that triggered everything else going down the line, and the projector surely has other reactors directly under it, too, meaning a really big boom.
I'm not really loving this microscale Endor for some reason. It might just be that the buildings aren't enormously interesting. Big dish. Small lump. Ring and sticks. Doesn't quite have the appeal of the Hoth and Tatooine ones we've had in the past somehow.
This calendar started strong but I'm a bit bored with it at the moment.
Today represents 50% of the days that weren’t spoiled on the box.
@MisterBrickster said:
"I'm not really loving this microscale Endor for some reason. It might just be that the buildings aren't enormously interesting. Big dish. Small lump. Ring and sticks. Doesn't quite have the appeal of the Hoth and Tatooine ones we've had in the past somehow.
This calendar started strong but I'm a bit bored with it at the moment."
It's hard to do a lot with Endor in *any* scale since it's mostly trees, which don't translate to Lego well. (Organic=/=brick)
I am currently making a bunch of micro-scale trees from brown cylinder brick, brown 1x1 round plates, and green leaf pieces to surround all three builds. It's helping immensely. (That micro-bike is way out of scale, though.)
@MCLegoboy said:
" @CapnRex101 said:
" @WemWem said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"So is the bunker UNDER the shield generator or somewhere else? For the life of me, I cannot find a map of Endor that lays out where these things are relative to each other. Given that Han blows up the bunker which takes out the generator, I'd say "under" isn't unreasonable, although it does make a colossal explosion and Han and the Ewoks are somehow fine."
I always wondered this as a kid. The explosion is absolutely *MASSIVE*. Presumably the bunker Han enters is some kilometers away from the actual dish. Han isn't even showered in debris, light, or heat from the explosion in his reaction shot.
So my belief was the explosion set by Han traveled up through that looooonnng corridor that the Imperial mechanic clumsily falls into when struck with the Craftsman toolbox, to the base of the dish. I feel like it'd need to be at least 7 kilometers away for the entire strike force to not be obliterated.
So another Imperial war construct destroyed by a tiny explosion that set off a massive chain reaction. If Imperial engineers ever learned of the concept of "partitioning" or "redundant systems" the Alliance would have been SCREWED."
The bunker is indeed several miles from the shield projector, which is vaguely implied in the movie, as Han mentions they are approaching the back door. Star Wars: Complete Locations contains a map showing the distance.
Also, the strike team does not need to blow up the shield projector itself because their target is the power generator for the shield projector. That seems to be readily accessible from the bunker, as we see in the film.
Of course, that begs the question why the projector explodes rather than simply powering down. I choose to assume it is so powerful that the shield projector is in a constant state of nearly exploding and that the power generator maintains a system that keeps it from doing so. When the power goes off, the shield projector enters its natural state of exploding :o)"
Isn't it a chain reaction of the reactor coils exploding? They blew up the bunker, and then that triggered everything else going down the line, and the projector surely has other reactors directly under it, too, meaning a really big boom."
Yes, according to the aforementioned Complete Locations book, there are numerous reactor lines spreading out from the shield projector in the centre. I was facetiously trying to explain why the Empire may not have seen the need for partitioning, as @WemWem alluded to.
@WemWem: Interesting bit of trivia: That Imperial mechanic was played by Ben Burtt, the famous Lucasfilm sound designer. He makes his own version of the Wilhelm scream as he goes down.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @WemWem: Interesting bit of trivia: That Imperial mechanic was played by Ben Burtt, the famous Lucasfilm sound designer. He makes his own version of the Wilhelm scream as he goes down."
Ha, I never knew that! So the scream he yells isn't the classic Wilhelm but his impression of it?
@WemWem:
Imperials are famous for design flaws that allow explosive cascade failures in critical power systems, and there was clearly power generation going on in front of the bunker control room.
@CapnRex101:
Could just be a magnetic disconnect holding the self-destruct circuit open. As soon as it loses power, the magnetic disconnect releases, the self-destruct circuit closes, and BOOM!
@TheOtherMike:
Burtt’s signature is to use the original Wilhelm scream. If it sounds like the Wilhelm, it’s added in post.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Where's a jar of jam when you need it?"
JarJar ate all the JamJam. We still have the bleeps, the sweeps and the creeps.
I’m here for the technical chat about the mechanics of the bunker explosion, because I too was interested.
@CapnRex101 said:
" Of course, that begs the question why the projector explodes rather than simply powering down. I choose to assume it is so powerful that the shield projector is in a constant state of nearly exploding and that the power generator maintains a system that keeps it from doing so. When the power goes off, the shield projector enters its natural state of exploding :o)"
It's the movies. Explosions are better than flicking an on/off switch, especially for a younger and active hero. Turning something off was OK for Obi-Wan, but not Han Solo.
@PurpleDave said:
"Today represents 50% of the days that weren’t spoiled on the box."
Correction: Today represents 100% of the days that weren’t spoiled on the box. I just noticed one that I’d been overlooking before.