The last time “Return of the Jedi”‘s final duel came to life was in 2020. That version of the set included more of the Death Star to build, and acted more like a game kids can play with. . Since it’s meant to be more of a display piece, the scale of the Death Star itself is more impressive. But I can’t help but wish this diorama was inspired by the original Death Star Final Duel game (seen below).
For example, it would have been nice if the escape shaft was included to recreate the sequence where Darth Vader throws Emperor Palpatine to his (eventually retconned) doom. Of course, that would require the scale of the set to be much larger and therefore even more expensive, but including more detail could make the set worthwhile.
As it is, priced at $100, I’m not sure this set is worth the money. For that price, there should be some sort of technical feature that would allow you to rotate Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to engage in their lightsaber battle. If the set size were to be increased, there could be a collapsed balcony to further recreate the lightsaber battle. After all, the Indiana Jones diorama has a ton of moving parts and is still an impressive display piece. A similar “Return of the Jedi” set wouldn’t even need to be that big. In its current form, I feel like a price of $70 would be more appropriate, but that’s just me.
Having said that, if price isn’t your concern, then this diorama is a neat little display piece that captures the Death Star aesthetic without leaving a lot of exposed brick studs, something the original game doesn’t do very well. Well.
The LEGO Emperor’s Throne Room Diorama Set is available for $99.99 from The LEGO Shop and Amazon.