Effectively replacing the Brick Master series, which were published from 2010 to 2014, this book joins Friends, City and Ninjago in DK's Build Your Own Adventure collection. So what does this book have and how does it improve on the old format?

"LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational LEGO ideas for building with enthralling story starters. Get inspired to build, then play out your own adventures using your LEGO bricks. Comes with a rebel pilot minifigure and bricks to build an exclusive Y-wing starfighter model that features in the book.

From a podrace on Tatooine to a jailbreak on Bespin each chapter of LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure is packed with inspirational model ideas ideal for all ages and building abilities, with a mix of easy, medium and harder models."

For starters the format has been tweaked to do away with the packed-in-cover set storage that bulked out the book, with the thick and largely empty slab of cardboard which added weight to the front cover and helped weaken the spine. Instead this BYOA title comes as a threesome: a slip case holds the book itself and a similarly sized box containing all the LEGO pieces.


The slipcase is made of a very sturdy card that is commonly used in hardback covers, so it's going to stand up to use. The graphics - especially the foil print - are eyecatching and modern and the cover has a window that looks in on the building bricks. The second element is the brick box itelf: constructed of a thinner card, it has an inventory of all the pieces on one side and a landing pad, which is great for showing off the exclusive LEGO Y-wing Starfighter that comes with this book, printed on the other.

Making its debut is the 11912 Y-wing Starfighter set which is an exclusive to this book. Within the brick box are all 73 parts needed to put the set together, and contained within the first five pages are the necessary build instructions.

Though not overtly named a MicroFighter the Y-wing is clearly part of the subtheme. If (or when) we see this set added to the MicroFighter line as an individual set it will be subtly different so enjoy this unique build. Though the Y-wing is a collection of standard grey, white and yellow bricks and plates it's still a pretty nifty build in the style of the old super deformed toys that were popular in the late '90s. Sadly, and unlike the Brickmaster series, this BYOA book doesn't have alternate builds for the Y-wing pieces. If you are interested in just building the Y-wing you could check out the parts inventory page at Bricklink.com, but I'd encourage you buy the book because of all the inspiration it contains.


The set isn't just an enticement to buy the book, but a vehicle to move the story along. The book itself follows Zin Evalon, a Rebel pilot, who's on a mission to recover a set of lost holocrons. Along the way he visits Home One, Hoth, Cloud City, Tatooine, and Endor - all of which provide the setting for a series of inspirational builds like the ones seen in the LEGO Ideas Book. These range from vehicles (including a MicroFighter version of Slave I), scenery, accessories and mini play environments. Each build is relatively simple and for the most part the pictures and accompanying text provide enough advice and guidance to complete each one.


This is the first BYOA book I've had a chance to get my hands on - and it turns out I'm a fan of the series! It has a great feel to it - a sturdiness, a stylish look, catchy content and a fun build that all suggest great value for money. But that's me, LEGOscum, a +40 year old LEGO Star Wars fan who isn't anywhere near the target audience.

Luckily we have Son of LEGOscum, an eight year old boy who occasionally shares his opinion of LEGO, Star Wars and video games with Rebelscum readers. Son of LEGOscum was full of enthusiasm for Zin's adventure which, he said, made him feel like he had lots of his own build ideas to get on with. Though he thought the adventure was "pretty long" he liked how it was presented in a comic book style, with builds interspersed through out.

In particular he liked how there were :small areas to tell the adventure", leaving plenty of room for the inspriational builds. "Some of the things that were in the adventure book, like the giant Hoth spikes - the ice stalacmites - and the racer pods were cool." He was also very surprised you could make a bath out of LEGO, which prompted a discussion on how LEGOscum built a LEGO submarine when he was the same age as LEGOscum Jr. The Tatooine radio thingy [actually a vaporator] was a hit because it was quite cool and reminded him of what he saw in the movie.

Son of LEGOscum particularly enjoyed that the book came with a small landing pad on the "box thingy". Asked what he thought of the Y-wing he said it "was kind of cute" but was sad that Zin had to carry his gun everywhere. When questioned where else he coould have put it, Son of LEGOscum stated that Zin would just have to leave it back at Home One, which did sound like a good option.

		Price : $12.95
		Pages : 80
		Pub Date : 2 August, 2016
		Age Range : 8 - 9
		Grade Level : 3 - 4
		Format : Box/Hardback
		ISBN : 9781465450456/1465450459

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