I have to confess, the only other Star Destroyer I own is 8099, the delightful but very small midi-scale effort. So I can't say from experience that this is the best Star Destroyer, but 6211 was hideous with its open fronted bridge and visible framework, and 10030 is famously fragile with its magnet system. Those faults apart, this model looks so much more coherent and well scaled according to the aesthetic I nearly always mention from the 8038 AT-STs.

This is a beast of a set, but next to the Sandcrawler and the Super Star Destroyer it somehow feels more attainable than the other mammoth sets. In fact for the same price as the last Falcon this should prove a popular set.

Box/Instructions

The box is the standard large size used for most bigger sets and is bigger than I expected with the other releases this wave being more compact, but of course it deserves it! The instructions are over three books and so come in a plastic sleeve, which mercifully means the sticker sheet is protected.

I did find the instructions a little patronising to start with. Keeping things simple for younger builders is good of course, but the first step is selecting one piece, the next is selecting another and putting them side by side, and the third puts one more piece on top of them. That ridiculous start didn't fill me with confidence but it did pick up pace, and though I would have liked a faster pace (this is a large set after all) I can't complain, it's not too bad.

Parts

You won't be surprised to find a good amount of Technic and a lot of grey plates, and I can't quite understand how this set could be marked down for that given what it's meant to be. Given that the part selection was actually quite good, a lot of the still new to me 3x3 plates, some of the 2x2 inverted tiles, the parts that make up the rotating guns, a host of clips and hinges, and a good variety of sizes in the other obligatory parts.

Minifigures

For a group of Imperial troops in shades of grey this selection of minifigures is actually pretty good and varied.

Darth Vader is a great figure as I think in all the sets I have I still only have 4, though again it should be noted he's in a £100+ set. The printing is excellent and the leg printing is an improvement on previous versions. The biggest difference is his head which is in light tan and has generated a little discussion on what colour Vader's skin actually was. If you are happy with this shade (and presumably this is an Episode IV set so actually who's to say it's not right?) it's a great head, especially with a little printing on the back that are a good representation of the scars you see briefly in ESB.
I do have to say though, regardless of how accurate it may or may not be, having such a light colour visible between the helmet edge and his shoulders always bugs me. That's been a bugbear of mine ever since Stormtroopers lost their black head though (Boba Fett too), so it's hardly new, but I still think it's a shame.

The Stormtroopers are slightly mixed. The helmets are great with very clear and crisp printing, though I wonder if it's crossed a line and is starting to look a little too stylised and cartoonish. The torsos are well printed in keeping, but the glaring error of the leg printing that hit the Cantina Sandtroopers is here, with the printing cutting off before the knee pad design is finished. Why TLG changed the design from the Droid Escape legs where the knee pads were perhaps a little high, but the whole design could be printed I don't know. Maybe the scale is better now, but the unfinished edge is embarrassing and surely a hardly noticeable scale issue is worth the trade off.

The officers are really good and nice to have. The hats are the same on both and look brilliant with just the tiny silver dot in the centre. The more junior officer in light grey has great printing all over his body and has a good concerned looking head with a microphone, and the dark grey officer has only torso printing, but the fantastic mutton chops make him a superb figure, reminding everyone of the very 70s and 80s haircuts they had long, long ago in that far, far away galaxy.

And the Death Star Trooper is good as he has been since the TIE Fighter set he first appeared in with this helmet. He's got the same printed legs that just about every black Imperial figure has had this year, and a face that has appeared on an Imperial officer before, but not on this particular one, and so all 6 figures are NEW!... just! ;)

There's also a mouse droid (surely the cutest brick build droid ever and still appearing after all these years) and a truly fantastic holographic Emperor in micro scale. The minifig selection seems perhaps a little small, but these are nice little inclusions and with them included it seems a like a fair selection.

The build

As such a large build it was always going to be hard work, being entirely symmetrical (except for the superfluous cavern-not-quite-filling interior) I knew it would get wearing, and I've already mentioned that the pace of the instructions is frustratingly slow to boot. The brilliant points where modules attach and the skeleton instantly becomes fleshed out do offer a good amount of reward to offset all of that, but I did still feel a little bored towards the end.

What the build really has going for it is its simplicity. I didn't notice all that many nice techniques given the size and shape of the model, and reflecting on it that means it's actually very impressively designed! The way the main bodywork folds into place is fantastic, and putting the rotating guns together is really pleasing when you work out how all the various parts contribute to the mechanism.
For lovers of SNOT and technical building the bridge section does have some nice plates, angles and very elegantly side-mounted pieces. And for lovers of greebles there aren't many until late on but when they come they come in bucket loads!

I suppose what I enjoyed most of all was how I was reminded of 8099 throughout (particularly with the greebles), but fulfilling all its potential at this larger scale.

The completed model

Particularly given the deficiencies of previous models this set comes up trumps. I didn't like the look of the front of the bridge in any of the photos, but in the, er, brick, it's not as empty and fragmented as I thought, so the main fault of 6211 is well avoided, and in stark contrast to 10030 this set feels really solid.

The way it sits and looks is really great, and I don't know what others think but I really like the flat bottom that lets you set it down without worrying about it sitting on a point, or needing a bar coming down from the front. It does make it sit a little low next to other ships I'm displaying but I guess I just need to give it a stand. And though that means it won't have the bottom detail of the massive round whatever-it-is and the docking bays I don't think that's a huge loss given how awkward playing with is upsidedown would be and how nothing is the right scale to dock with it anyway.

The chunkiness and coherence of the look is, I think, fantastic. The upper section is strangely loose to move around a little, but the way it sits inside the main bodywork sunken down just a little and the way the body panels fold together tightly look really great. The top section looks imposingly solid too, and every detail works together well.

One thing that's a first for me is the carry handle, and it is integrated really well into the model, barely visible when it's tucked away, and is very solid and very close to the ship's centre of gravity. It makes it very easy indeed to hold and move. The ship tilts ever so slightly forward on it, and though it's pretty heavy I think it's just about swooshable. In fact, being the hulking juggernaut it is, having to swoosh it slowly and steadily is pretty true to the ship!

The one thing that disappoints me a little is the interior when the ship is opened up. Pulling the top section off and folding out the main panels is very easy indeed and is actually quite fun, but I can't imagine anyone but the youngest of kids will ever really want to. The area at the front with a walkway over engineer's pit area is really poor considering how good the section in the Super Star Destroyer is, just a little raise part and some stickered pieces on the side frame.
And the area at the back is just pathetic! It looks lost in such a cavernous space, and the rotating gun holder is a bit of a joke.
Saying that, the elements themselves are very nice. The tiny hologram of the Emperor (belongs in an ESB set, no? Great to have though!) and the Death star graphic (any kind of graphic on a trans panel is always welcome for me!) are good things to have, but they came straight out of mine and into a vignette I have where they look like they belong and can be seen.

(I've not mentioned the flick fire missiles - they are what they are, good, but of limited value in such a large ship, though not unusable with it being slightly swooshable. And the carry handle makes using and aiming them difficult, but possible where it wouldn't be at all if you couldn't hold it one handed.)

Overall opinion

There were a few niggles, but really they fade to nothing faced with all the set's triumphs. It's a huge and bulky set, but all looks right and together unlike previous clumsy versions. Most importantly it is solid and easy to hold, move, open up and display. I'm delighted I bought it and I think that actually this will satiate my longing for the still unattainable Super Star Destroyer. I imagine if you own 10221 then this set is a must have, and maybe the only question is how many you buy!