The UCS Death Star is the biggest Lego Star Wars set yet: Here's why we WON'T get it

How much is too much for one of the best Lego Star Wars sets? Up until last month, the most we'd ever spent on a Lego Star Wars set was $849.99. That was an eye-watering amount, but with the release of the new Ultimate Collector's Series Death Star in October, it's just gone up even higher. If you want to own this exclusive collector's piece, you're going to have to part with $1,000. Yeah: a grand on a Lego set. It's a fantastic set, no doubt, but has Lego gone too far this time?

Judging by the reviews on the official Lego website, the answer to that may well be 'yes': of 214 reviews, 33% of them are one-star. We have a feeling they're not from actual buyers; however, simply people making their thoughts known about the price. But they have a point: one thousand dollars could buy a lot of things more important and useful than a Lego set. It also isn't currently on offer for Black Friday despite there being many models discounted.

For collectors, though, there's no doubt the Death Star is a tempting prospect. Measuring 28 by 32 inches, it's huge, and with a whopping 38 minifigures, it's really quite something. Unusually for a UCS set, the focus is on the interior, with the set providing a cutaway diorama of everything going on inside the Death Star. It's split into multiple rooms, each providing its own scene that Star Wars fans will recognize from a key part in the movies. There's the trash compactor, Emperor Palpatine's throne room, a hangar with an Imperial Shuttle and a whole lot more. In fact, several of the dioramas have had their own entire set. And here, they're all together in one place.

As good as it is, though, we won't be buying the Lego Star Wars UCS Death Star. As much as we love Lego Star Wars, it's one set that won't be gracing our collection any time soon, and here's why.

The price

One thousand dollars. Honestly, we'd expect to be able to buy our own room in the actual Death Star for that. To a lucky few people, though, $1,000 is pocket change. For them, heading down to The Lego Store to pick up a UCS Death Star is nothing more than picking up a candy bar in the supermarket. For most of us, though, that amount of money is several months' worth of disposable income. It's rent. It's our electricity bills for half the year.

Not to put too fine a point on it, things are tough right now and unless you’re absolutely flush with spare cash, it feels a little irresponsible to be throwing so much money on one Lego set. There are a lot of things that you could buy with $999.99, and who knows when something more urgent or life-dependent is going to come up.

And how about the fact that there are so many other great Lego sets that cost just a fraction of the price of the Death Star? Take the Acclamator-Class Assault Ship, a set we rated 5 stars. You can buy twenty of them for the price of one Death Star. We also thought Grogu with Hover Pram was a pretty great set. You can have ten of those. An army of ten Grogus, or one singular Death Star. Your choice.

The size

For $999.99, you'd expect a huge set. That's exactly what you're getting with the Lego Star Wars UCS Death Star, but for many of us, it's going to be too big. It's 28 by 32 inches, so you're going to need a huge shelf to display it on. If you live in a small home and you're limited for shelf or worktop space, you can forget about it.

In the same amount of space taken up by the Death Star, you could display several other smaller sets. Smaller sets that will undoubtedly cost a fraction of the price of the Death Star, too. In fact, some of the dioramas included in the Death Star can be bought as their own sets: both the Throne Room and the Trash Compactor were released as standalone sets (with a lot more detail than you'll find in the Death Star) for less than $100 each.

There's also the fact that, despite its price and its size, the UCS Death Star is not a full set. Unlike the previous (and now retired) Death Star, this new model is not spherical. It's merely a cutaway of the inside of the Death Star. And while it's nice to get more interior detail, it doesn't provide enough detail to really understand the full scale of the actual Death Star model. Perhaps that's for the best, because then it really would be far too huge for most people's homes. But it's still a shame that we're only getting a slice of it.

Other sets are just as good (and much cheaper)

The draw of the Death Star for a lot of Lego Star Wars collectors will undoubtedly be that it's a UCS set. The Ultimate Collector's Series has been around for over 20 years and focuses on big, detailed sets designed to be displayed rather than played with.

Many UCS sets do carry a premium price tag, but the Death Star is the highest by a long shot. It's almost 18% more expensive than the next most expensive set (the Millennium Falcon, which costs $849.99 — and since that has been around for eight years, it's often available at a discount). We can't help but feel that Lego is testing the waters to see just how much money fans are willing to spend on one set.

Look at the available Lego Star Wars UCS sets and you'll find plenty of great-looking display models available for substantially less than the Death Star. The Lego X-Wing Starfighter, which we rated highly in our review, costs $239.99, and thanks to a wealth of detail, it's a stunning set to have on display. It takes up much less space than the Death Star, too, making it appropriate for collectors with a smaller area to display in.

Even Jabba's Sail Barge, with an expensive-enough price tag of $499.99 and an impressive 31-inch length, is half the price of the Death Star. This is a set that comes with 11 unique minifigures (including a large molded model of Jabba the Hutt), a fully-detailed interior and a huge scale model that is going to take pride of place in any Lego Star Wars collection. Perhaps Jabba's barge isn't as iconic as the Death Star, but given that you can buy this and still have $500 left over, it feels like a no-brainer to us.

Of course, your own opinion of the Lego Star Wars UCS Death Star will vary. For us, our thoughts are very much driven by the price: as much as we love Lego, a thousand dollars on one set feels like a step too far. Do we wish we had more disposable income so that we could buy it without worrying about the cost of it? Perhaps — but even then, we can't help but think there'd still be something more worthwhile we should be buying instead.