Think you're good at LEGO building? You've got nothing on Michal Kazmierczak.
The Polish AFOL (that's Adult Fans of LEGO) put together an incredibly faithful recreation of the planet Mustafar, as seen in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Star Wars fans know this volatile, lava-filled world as the place where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker have their fateful duel that ends in Skywalker being mamed and ultimately transforming into Darth Vader.
If he was going to build any location across the Star Wars universe, perhaps it's appropriate that Kazmierczak funneled his talents into one of the most pivotal locations of all. But 60,000 bricks is insane. Aside from the incredible investment of time it must've taken to create this monster, there's the expense, too. The average cost of a single LEGO brick or piece is about $.10. Do the math, and that's $6,000 worth of LEGO elements Kazmierczak put into this thing.
Six thousand dollars!
60,000 LEGO bricks may simply be too large a number to get your head around. For a little perspective... The biggest set LEGO has ever produced is a re-creation of the Taj Mahal, which comes with 5,922 pieces. That's less than 10% of the size of this massive Mustafar. LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya once built an impressive, life-size Han Solo in Carbonite, and that massive work of art required 10,000 pieces. That's enormous, but still far eclipsed by the Mustafar build.
The details on this thing are mind-boggling, as you can see in this closeup. Just look at the realistic lava and the Emperor's (tiny) shuttle flying low over the planet. You can't see Anakin and Obi-Wan engaged in their lightsaber battle from this angle, but they're in there.
See more of Michal Kazmierczak's impressive Mustafar build on his Flickr stream. There, you'll find shots where he applies Photoshop effects to some of his pictures to add even more realism. Kazmierczak has also done landscapes from Avatar and Indiana Jones.
