Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary is obviously a specialized product. It’s a sub-group within a larger fandom; but at the same time, it’s got a broad appeal due to the Lego name – something that might draw in fans who might not otherwise pick up a Visual Dictionary. And ultimately, it’s going to be up to the individual to decide if it’s a worthwhile purchase or not. What I’ll do here is give you my impressions, along with my 5-year-old son’s thoughts, as well as give you a look at some of the pages inside the book – and perhaps that will give you a better idea of what to expect if you’re on the fence.

I’ve been into Lego for as long as I can remember. I got my first set when I was 5 years old – the same year that A New Hope first came out in the theaters – so I often used Lego to build Star Wars vehicles and playsets. I thought it was a stroke of genius a few years ago (10 to be exact) when Lego teamed up with Star Wars to make official sets. I have a few of the ‘model’ type Lego sets on display, though not nearly as many as I’d like to have – and this book did a fine job of making me drool and give me ideas for sets I’d like to get in the future. Meanwhile, now my oldest son is now 5 years old, really just discovering Star Wars through the Clone Wars series – and now he’s starting to get into Lego as well. We sat down together to look over this book, and I’ll try to capture some of his thoughts as well.

The book is broken into a few sections, starting with a timeline. This shows every Star Wars set that Lego has released in the last ten years, and what part of the Saga they cover. It’s an interesting reference, even if the pictures of the boxes are a little too small. There’s also a brief history of how Lego got involved in producing Star Wars toys as an introduction, though there was nothing surprising to me. My son wanted the pictures to be larger in this section – he found it difficult to tell what some of the boxes were depicting. Interestingly, some of the more outlandish sets – like Jar Jar’s Naboo submarine – were easier for him to point out due to the garish color schemes.

Moving on we get to a section devoted to the Movie sets. Here the two page spreads are devoted to particular characters like Anakin Skywalker, groups such as Bounty Hunters, vehicles like the Imperial Navy or set pieces like the Death Star. Each of these two page spreads gives a high level, basic outline of the story around that character/grouping – nothing that any grown up fan won’t already know, but definitely at a good level for my 5 year old. But there are also tidbits to be found on almost every page – from trivia about rare sets to changes that were made between different versions of the same vehicle over the years. Each set gets a description of some of it’s features, and there’s a Data Box which gives you the information about the set should you want to seek it out (such as the date of release, and the set number). This section has large colorful pictures, and gave my son many ideas for things he wanted to build – though because most of these sets are from prior to The Clone Wars TV show, the actual mini-figures of some of the main human characters look less like they do in the movies (as opposed to Fett or Vader who wear easily recognizable masks) which seemed to throw off my son - but the Millennium Falcon and the AT-AT were particular highlights from this section for him.

The next section is devoted to The Clone Wars TV series, and it was a big hit with both me and my son. The mini-figures are stylized to more easily be recognizable as their cartoon counterparts – and my son had no problem identifying each one. There’s only a few pages in this section, but we lingered on each one, talking about the Jedi, the Clones, the vehicles and the droids. I swear I had no idea that one of the Droid vehicles is from the Corporate Alliance – which I assume is the same group Han Solo had dealings with in the old Brian Daley novels. If so, a nice bit of trivia and a nod to one of the greats.

Then we get to Specialist Sets, devoted to the mini-vehicles and the far more advanced technic sets. The mini-set page was again of particular interest to my son, as he immediately started to try and figure out which ones he could build using the Lego pieces he already has. Some of the technic pictures look less like the characters they’re supposed to be, which was again a little confusing for my son – but the Ultimate Collectors sets are just beautiful to look at, and were definitely the source of most of my drooling.

Finally, there’s a Beyond the Brick section, which wasn’t of as much interest to my son as it was to me. There’s a great interview with a member of the design team from Lego where he describes the process which I found fascinating. There are also two unreleased sets shown on this page; the Rebel Base on Yavin IV and a Trade Federation Shuttle. There’s a spread devoted to the various merchandising Lego Star Wars has done beyond Lego – it’s like it’s own brand now, with Lego Star Wars games, pencils, shirts, watches and even special limited edition sets. Finally there’s a spread with fan made super scenes – like Echo Base with the interior hanger and the exterior Hoth Battle, or a full size Mos Eisley spaceport with various vehicles and buildings. Impressive, most impressive.

I should note that the exclusive mini-figure of Luke Skywalker (from the ceremony on Yavin IV) that comes with the book was an immediate hit with my son – it was the first thing he wanted to take out and play with, even before looking at the book. Which kind of speaks to the whole thing – Legos are a lot of fun to play with. This book is a great reminder of that, an easy reference and inspiration for any age to try and design their own favorite Star Wars scene. As I said at the very beginning, Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary may not be a book that everyone will want – but it’s definitely a book meant for anyone, from the youngest fan to the oldest – and it’s definitely a lot of fun.