If you’re a fan of Star Wars™ and LEGO®, combining the two passions into creating Star Wars-themed LEGO® MOC (My Own Creation) landscapes is a thrilling way to display your collection. It’s a unique and customizable way to bring iconic moments from the galaxy far, far away to life. This post is more about inspiring you to think outside of the box and to try your hand at crafting some iconic locations from the Star Wars™ galaxy. Below we’ll explore ideas and tips for crafting impressive Star Wars-themed LEGO® MOC landscapes that showcase your creativity and love for the franchise.
1. choose iconic star wars locations
Planets:
Tatooine: The place where it all started. Capture the essence of Luke Skywalker’s home planet with desert landscapes using a lot of varying tan and brown bricks. You would recreate the Dune Sea or the canyons, or create a desert area to house a Mos Eisley set or the Lars Homestead.
Hoth: This is probably the most well-known, and Legoland had once done a phenomenal job at recreating the Battle of Hoth. However, you can create your own similar to how they did theirs by using greys, whites and blues to recreate the icy landscape of Hoth. It’s the perfect way to display an AT-AT Walker.
Endor: Immerse yourself in the lush forests of Endor, featuring towering trees. Very similar to the redwood forests, this would need a good supply of brown and green bricks. You would also need to get a good supply of green plant pieces to build out the trees.
Naboo: This one is a bit more difficult to pull off, as city MOCs tend to be more difficult (in my experience…I prefer landscape designs). Naboo is not without its landscapes, though, and you can create the rolling fields with plenty of green blocks and shrub pieces to give it that look.
If you want to try your hand at designing the elegant city of Theed, you’d need a lot of tans for the buildings, and plenty of extra building parts (for further inspiration, you can check out some Castle Sets to see how those buildings are designed). The lakes of Naboo would be created using translucent blue blocks, and if you’re feeling up to it you could try your hand at creating the underwater Gungan City.
Kashyyyk: What about the droid attack on the Wookies? The homeworld of the Wookies and site of a pivotal battle of the Clone Wars. This build would be similar to the Endor build, only it would include more water elements (think clear blue bricks).
Mustafar: Where Anakin died and Darth Vader was truly born. This is a fiery landscape and would require a lot of oranges, reds, browns, and yellows. Recreate the lava flows with a mix of solid and clear colored bricks, and use a similar method that you would for the dunes of Tatooine to create the hilly terrain.
Other Locations:
Space locations: These are more difficult to pull off than planets because these require “walls” to full encompass the open location. What I mean by that is that you’d need to build a back wall and at least one side wall in addition to the bottom to create the illusion of open space behind the scene. It’s a little tricky, but if pulled off correctly you can set the scene for some epic space battles this way.
Interior Locations: Docking Bays, Throne Rooms, Death Star hallways, these are all examples of some interior locations. Luckily, LEGO® already has a lot of sets that mimic these locations. All you’d have to do to create your own is copy their overall design and method and scale it out to fit the size that you’re looking for.
2. incorporate iconic vehicles & characters
Adding iconic vehicles and characters can enhance the authenticity and appeal of your LEGO® MOC landscape.
Starships: Include well-known starships such as the Millennium Falcon, X-Wings, TIE Fighters, TIE Bombers, and Star Destroyers. The choices are really limited by what you have on-hand and what scene you’re looking to build. These are especially fun to use in a Space Location MOC to create some really dynamic battles. They can also be used in planet locations as background pieces or even focal pieces.
Ground Vehicles: In planets locations you can add AT-ATs, speeders, and other ground vehicles to bring your scene to life. A favorite of many experienced builders is to recreate iconic battles from the franchise. From Hoth to Kashyyyk to Endor, you can create a visual masterpiece. Or, you can make your own battle that was never featured in the films.
Minifigures: Populate your landscape with iconic characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Princess Leia to bring the story to life. Use a bevy of Stormtroopers or Clonetroopers to build out an army.
3. create diverse terrain & Structures
Designing diverse terrain and structures is key to capturing the essence of Star Wars landscapes.
As touched on above, use different colors and types of LEGO pieces to mimic the unique terrain of each location, such as Tatooine’s sandy dunes or Hoth’s icy plains. There are a lot of tutorials you can find online that go through a lot of the basics of creating cliffside landscapes, and you would just have to alter the colors of the bricks you’re using. For example, I once modified a simple North Pole MOC that I had found to use for a Christmas display to be a part of a Hoth display.
4. Add Unique Details & Easter Eggs
Incorporate small, unique details and Easter eggs to make your LEGO® MOC landscape stand out.
Hidden Scenes: Add fun scenes featuring lesser-known characters or comedic moments from the Star Wars universe. As George Lucas once said “it’s like poetry, it rhymes”. You could create side by side replicas of similar scenes, creating it so that one merges into the other. For example, imagine a scene that showcased Anakin vs Dooku, and the bridge of Grievous’ ship blended into the Throne Room from the Death Star II and showcased Luke vs Vader. Those are my favorite builds, personally. I love seeing iconic scenes that “rhyme” across the trilogies side by side.
References: Include nods to other Star Wars stories or media for a touch of nostalgia and whimsy. Why not create a scene from Heir to the Empire? Or Shadows of the Empire? Or The Force Unleashed?
Final Thoughts
Building a Star Wars-themed LEGO® MOC landscape is a fun and rewarding experience that lets you immerse yourself in the beloved galaxy of Star Wars™ while expressing your creativity with LEGO® bricks. Whether you choose to recreate iconic battles, locations, or characters, the possibilities are endless. This post isn’t really more than that, just to give you some ideas and hopefully inspire you to think outside of the box and create the best Star Wars® MOCs that you can.
Happy building!