The year 2023 is the 40th anniversary of the Return of the Jedi movie release. A highlight of that movie is when Princess Leia arrives at Jabba the Hutt’s palace disguised as a bounty hunter to collect the reward for capturing Chewbacca. A helmet completely covers her face and even masks her voice enough that viewers do not know it is her. She threatens to use a thermal detonator to get the price she wants.
This LEGO replica of Leia’s helmet is one of many helmets from the Star Wars universe. It makes a nice display piece alongside the other helmets. I have built a couple of the others including Darth Vader’s helmet. I felt that this helmet was a bit easier to put together. There seemed to be less structure and more exterior details early on in the build.
The step by step bags were well organized and even helped know what was being built and even what was probably coming next. There were a few stickers to apply to give the illusion of vents or just texture of the materials. I have found that using the brick separator tool really makes it easier for me to put these stickers on straight. I put an edge of the sticker on the flat end of the tool and position it before fully applying.
The top of the helmet is much flatter than most of the other helmets. I am not sure what all the different elements of the helmet are for, but the green visor looks really slick. One side has what appears to be some sort of weapon.
The side sections have some great ways to build in detail. I am sure it was not an accident that part of the ear covering detail is a telephone handset. Clever, I thought. Two of the bag steps are building the left and right sides before proceeding to the stand.
The stand is built before the mouth section because it helps provide the angled connection used to attach that section. A few technic™ style pieces are used to accomplish this. These pieces connected easily. This helmet has a primary color scheme of two tones which do an excellent job of replicating the original.
I enjoyed building this addition to the Star Wars helmet series and will further enjoy seeing it displayed alongside the many others we already have. Although the helmets do not normally have any accessories, it would have been really fun if they had included a thermal detonator.