Customer Reviews

Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First to tone down the publisher's hype. 5 posters does not constitute an "incredible collection" and there's certainly nothing "ultimate" about it.

Now, the 5 posters are gorgeous. They're printed in vibrant colors on very high quality thick paper that's just shy of being cardboard. On the front of each is a glossy photo and the back has a non-glossy blueprint of one or more items. They would easily rate 5 stars, but...

they come folded and creased, ruining their potential as posters. And if they're not used as posters, they're extremely inconvenient for browsing. As everyone knows, folding and unfolding these will weaken and eventually tear the paper along the creases. But even fresh out of the box, with the creases not yet worn, THEY'RE STILL CREASES!

A five-year-old could look at this and figure out that the posters should have been shipped in a tube. Why the publisher couldn't make that same leap of logic, we'll never know.

So should a Star Wars fan buy these? Absolutely! You'd regret not having these, but you'll also curse the luminary who thought that a rectangular box made the package artsy and stylish.

Growing up with the Star Wars films in the late 70's I was always drawn to the technology behind the films. One of my favorite Star Wars items was a collection of blueprints and technical designs I bought in 1981 so I was extremely happy when this book was announced. While the cross sections books are excellent additions to my library for me nothing is better than spreading out a big drawing and pouring over the details of it as it adds tremendous depth to the Star Wars experience.

It is very apparent that both authors/artists, Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas, along with being extremely gifted and talented artisans, they are obviously dedicated Star Wars fans. From their choices of images to the modern design and descriptions used in their work you can clearly see the care they both took be clear, concise and true to Star Wars Universe while imprinting their own incredible style upon it.

This collection of poster blueprints will please the serious and casual fan and look great spread out on table or hung up on the wall. I hope there will be additional volumes and my only suggestion would be a rolled poster tube set as that would make framed versions appear even better.

I am certainly left wanting more!

The Star Wars Ultimate Blueprint collection isn't a book exactly but rather a collection of five huge and double-sided poster-sized plans. While five may not seem like a lot, the prints are quite beautiful and enormously detailed and a great deal of information is packed into each one. These are printed on very heavy stock with the front side treated with a heavy gloss. The front of the poster features the character, ship, or weapon shown in full color images from the Star Wars movies while the back displays the blueprints.

R2-D2 and C#3P0 are combined onto the same sheet. The cutaway drawings display all the parts of the two druids along with a "parts" list. C3P0 has 95 different parts detailed and R2D2 has 52 parts documented. As a protocol Droid, C3P0 has a large memory bank, language memory discs, and phonetic pattern analyzers to assist him in his main function. The Astromech druid R2D2 is like a walking Swiss army knife, equipped with item such as a utility saw, fire extinguisher, life form scanner, holographic projector, and more.

Next we get and up close look inside Darth Vader himself including his life-support systems, cyborg implants, and sensory enhancers. Vader's cyborg implants provided him with a breathing tube, supplemental nutrient storage, aural ear implants, and a ventilator to assist his breathing. The enhancers in his helmet include infrared and ultraviolet lenses to allow him to see in total darkness. It's clear from looking at the blueprints that while Vader's suit made him a living weapon, it was also his personal hospital and maintenance area that kept him alive.

The weapons blueprint covers Han Solo's modified Blastech DL-44 pistol; the Stormtroopers standard issue Blastech E-11 rifle; the Blastech RT-97C, favored by Sandtroopers; and Anakin Skywalker's custom lightsaber, passed on to Luke by Obi-Wan.

The last two prints cover the Millennium Falcon and the original Death Star. The Death Star plans, and it's kind of funny to say that, considering the events in the very first Star Wars film, cover just about everything you can think of regarding the massive battle station: It's Hypermatter reactor core, tractor beam reactor, superlaser gunner station, tie-fighter hangars, and the Hull defenses. A note of trivia, the Death Star's armament included over 7,000 Tie Fighters.

While all this is really superb, I think a bit more content would have put the product into solid A grade territory. One more print could have included X-Wing and Star Destroyers and that would have bolstered the set. Also, it might have been better for these to be presented in a book where the plans folded out rather than be in poster format. Posters tend to just get ugly once you unfold them and fold them several times, although I supposed if you were an avid enough fan you might consider framing them.

The size of each poster is fantastic. all 5 posters are Beautifully colored and illustrated on both sides. But would have been better to ship them in a poster tube instead of folding them creating creases in them.

I think the collection is too short. things I would have liked to see in the collection are R2-D2 and C-3PO on there own poster, not stuck together as they are. X-wing, Tiefighters of all types to include Vader's Tie, other vehicles and ships of various design. more weapons, Rebel Bases and Vaders Imperial Star Destroyer,and Han in carbonite.

This is still a set that any Star Wars fan must have. a nice collection that could have been much greater, but seams to be limited to keep the price down. I would have gladly paid more for a broader collection of full size doubles sided prints like these.

Overall a small set of great prints that sales it self short. DK and author Ryder Windham could have given a more complete set and shipped them in a poster tube to aleviate creases.

These blueprints are beautiful - amazing work that could have popped off the movie screen. This set will delight any fan with its exhaustive details of a galaxy far, far away. While the packaging is attractive and fits well on a bookstore shelf, it does leave the posters creased. I hope future editions could be sold in tubes.

The Star Wars franchise has become an amazing collection of books, movies, comics, and collectibles. One of the most interesting types of books from Star Wars has always been the blueprints. DK, Chris Trevas, and Chris Reiff (and Ryder Windham) have teamed to produce a cool collection.

The packing is outstanding. Fold over book top with cool silver lettering catches your attention. Windhams' text is brief and to the point. The prints are neat, but 5 blueprints does not make a collection, ultimate. If there were 10, or 15, yes, but perhaps the title of the book should have been Collection Part I?

Having said that, the blueprints are very neat and printed on heavy, poster style paper. Computer manipulation has made these blueprint packages very easy to produce.

As for the topics, I have always wanted to see an x ray image of Vaders' head!

Tim Lasiuta

Nobody gave me one of these, so I bought my own. Hmm... when I started this review, it asked me if I was over 13.. so maybe they think only guys 13 and under would like this. I actually like it, since I'm into CAD and mechanics. I may make my own replicas.....

This is an interesting piece of Star Wars memorabilia. On one hand it touts new revelations in the nuts and bolts of the technology in the Star Wars universe. On the other hand it's a decorative accessory meant to be hung on your wall. I'll cover both aspects as there is no real way to separate them. As posters they are not only impressive in quality and content, but are also a faithful nod to previous merchandise of this sort. As another notch in the long line of SW tech books it delivers on its promise of never before seen content, but it's not a slam dunk.

First lets start with the posters. The paper used is a good quality with a fair amount of heft and weight to it for a poster. One side is the actual blueprints, which I'll get to in more detail later. For now it's suffice to say it looks nice with a good palette of colors that keep the whole image clean in spite of all the information. Definitely something to make any room look cool for the Star Wars fan into the techie stuff.

Better still on the other side of the blueprint is another full sized poster. This time a full color photo image. These aren't just regular stills. I can confirm that at least most of these are the exact images used for posters sold in the early days of the original trilogy. These aren't still shots from the movie. These are specially photographed publicity shots, maybe just for those original posters. It's nice to see the same poster of Darth Vader I had as a kid, or the Han Solo/Chewbacca duo in action bigger and better.

Now onto the blueprints themselves. These aren't schematics style blueprints. More like seeing through the item in question and pointing out the various components type blueprints. A lot of this stuff has already been covered in other books, and in some cases with better detail. However if you are a completest you will still want to get this for the stuff that's never been previously produced. Here is a breakdown of each poster/blueprint:

Darth Vader - This is the one that delivers information never before gleaned in this detail. You get to see all the little components in his suit and learn about most of their functions. It explains all the little lights and buttons on Vader's chestplate, which parts of him are still human and which are robotic. You get the whole medical functionality of the suit from assisted breathing and nutrient intake to the sensors and electrodes all over his body to help monitor tissue and stimulate muscles. It's not enough to impress the medical journal type fans, but it's enough to make it a worthwhile purchase.

R2D2 and C3PO - This is a half and half kind of deal. R2D2 has been done like crazy on various books and this blueprint doesn't give really that much new details other than mainly showing every single extension the droid has like sensors, manipulator arms, tools and the like. To me if you want the most R2 for your dollar get Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary - The Ultimate Guide to Characters and Creatures from the Entire Star Wars Saga. C3PO, on the other hand, gets a great amount of detail on this blueprint that is hardly scratched on in other books. George Lucas messed around with this droid's continuity since the Star Wars Technical Journal made way back in the 80's, and while many previous books did their best to mesh all the broken canon together I think this is probably the best retcon attempt I have seen to date.

Weapons - Not really new material in regards to how blasters and light sabers work. The best resource for that is still The New Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, Revised Edition (Star Wars) (the older edition is good too). This is not even the only place to see the insides of a blaster or saber as the aforementioned Visual Dictionary covers that quite well. Actually as far as lightsabers are concerned don't bother with this. It's the weakest entry on the subject from just about every previous book. What is interesting here is the chance to see specifically the insides of Han Solo's blaster and the Stormtrooper standard issue blaster. I think the repeater blaster the Sandtroopers carry may also be an exclusive to this blueprint, but I am not certain. You can still get the specific technical details of each these guns from the Essential Guide, but not a look at the insides. So this is not for people just interested in blaster technology. It's for those interested in the guts of these particular blasters.

Millennium Falcon - Been there. Done that. The best resource for Falcon fans is Star Wars Complete Cross-Sections: The Spacecraft and Vehicles of the Entire Star Wars Saga. All this blueprint gives as far as new information is a top down view of the ship and a few little details like access hatches and where all the storage holds are. I will admit two things that the blueprint contributes well. One is the Falcon's hyperdrive gets a little more detail than given before. I will also give a nod to the reconning done to clear up discrepancies between previous books and how they portray concussion missiles.

Death Star - I can't find a thing on this blueprint that makes it any different from previous books information-wise. The Cross-Section book was pretty descriptive and shows the layout and insides of the DT even better than this. The Guide to Weapons tells the whole history behind it . That about covers everything. This is the one poster/blueprint that won't offer a shred of new information that hasn't been shown before. It's only good for those who just want the blueprint style drawings.

So is it worth it to buy? Depends on what you are looking for. If you are a tech-head like me it's really a toss up depending on how bad you want the exclusive content. Keep in mind, as a previous reviewer has stated, that these are big poster sized pages and aren't all that easy to read as a book is. Now if you want cool posters then it's a no-brainer to go for this. The posters are indeed cool and will geek out any room you put them in.