Star Wars is a licensed theme introduced in 1999.
The theme is based on material from the Star Wars franchise of films, cartoon
series, comic books, video games, and other media. The theme covers all six
films, along with The Clone Wars movie and TV series. Also, some Expanded
Universe sets have been released, with at three The Old Republic sets to
released in the second wave of 2012 and the first wave of 2013. The Star Wars
license is scheduled to expire in 2022.
Background
The Galactic
Republic was a peaceful government that lasted for more than twenty-five
thousand years. Then, in Episode I, the Trade Federation (later known as the
Separatists), a trading group, has been convinced by the evil Sith Lord Darth
Sidious, who was actually Senator Palpatine, to attack the world of Naboo using their Droid Army.
They attacked, but Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn were called in from
Coruscant, and they freed Queen Amidala and her advisors and pilots from the
droids and fled to Coruscant, but had to stop at Tatooine for repairs after
they broke through the Droid Navy blockade at Naboo. Later, they met Anakin
Skywalker, a Force-sensitive slave on the world. After going to his house and
meeting his mother, Qui-Gon Jinn realized the potential that Anakin had in
himself and believed that he was the chosen one. Later on Anakin entered a
podrace and won first place and enough money for the others to repair the
queen's ship. Then Anakin left Tatooine to grow up and become a Jedi Master.
The queen had asked the new Supreme Chancellor (Palpatine) for help on the
invasion of her planet, but she didn't get that much help from that. So the
only choice she was left with was asking the Gungan army for help. This was now
the Battle of Naboo. It was the Gungan Army, and the Naboo Army against the
Trade Federation. Anakin had stumbled into a Naboo Starfighter and had flew off
into space to destroy the Droid Control Ship, while the others had been
fighting off droids. They all then stumbled into Darth Maul, so the plan was
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan fight off him while the others deal with the droids. In the
battle in space, Anakin destroyed the ship and saved the Gungans from certain
defeat, and possibly death. Amidala and her troops succeded in their part. So
did Obi-Wan, but in order to have this happen Qui-Gon got killed by Darth Maul,
which lead to the anger and sorrow that built up in himself, so he instantly
flipped, grabbing his master's lightsaber, and cut Darth Maul in half. There
was then celebration on Naboo.
Later in
Episode II, the Trade Federation called in two assassins, Mandalorian bounty
hunter Jango Fett and Clawdite assassin Zam Wesell, to assassinate the Senator of Naboo, Padme Amidala.
After the attempt was quelled by her bodyguards, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and
Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Kenobi was sent to Kamino to track Jango Fett.
While he was there, he discovered that a clone army was being created at the
request of the now dead Jedi, Master Sifo-Dyas. Anakin was ordered to stay and
guard Padme on Naboo. Obi Wan found out that the Separatist Alliance was
building a droid army, so he tried to inform the Jedi Council, and then was
captured, but Anakin and Padme were on Tatooine because Anakin was searching
for his mother, and they picked up the message. Then, the two went to Geonosis
but were captured, but a strike team of Jedi came to rescue them. After a short
skirmish, Master Yoda came with the Clone Army to rescue the Jedi.Then Anakin
Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi attempted to capture Count Dooku. Count Dooku
escaped after cutting off Anakin's hand. The Clone Wars had begun.
In Episode
III, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and the Republic fought against a large
Separatist Navy fleet in orbit of Coruscant. They boarded cyborg General
Grievous's flagship,the Invisible Hand and dueled Count Dooku, and freed
Chancellor Palpatine from him, who was being held prisoner. Palpatine wanted Anakin Skywalker be his personal
representative of the Jedi Council. The Jedi approved, but did not grant him
the title "Jedi Master". Anakin became angry at the Jedi Order for
not letting him become a Master, and got even angrier that Palpatine, who was
Anakin's friend, was untrusted by the Order and they wanted Anakin to spy on
him. Anakin refused, and later Kenobi and the 212th Attack Battalion was sent
to Utapau, a world where Grievous was spotted, and Anakin had to stay on
Coruscant. Later, Yoda went to Kashyyyk in the Outer Rim to defend it from the
invading Separatist forces, and then Palpatine gave the Clone troopers across
the galaxy Order 66, contingency order that branded Jedi traitors to the
Republic. Clones across the Galaxy turned on their Generals and killed them,
and only a few survived. Anakin became a Sith named Darth Vader, and went to
the volcanic world of Mustafar where he received the order to "Take care
of the Seperatists". Then Padmé arrived and told him what Obi-Wan said.
Obi-Wan, who was secretly aboard, looked at what happened,and Vader
force-chokes Padmé. The 2 battle, and Vader lost, got his legs cut off, then
fell near a lava river, but was rescued by Palpatine and a squad of Shock
troopers. Padmé is taken to a hospital, where Luke and Leia are born. Padmé
dies,having lost the will to live, Yoda exiles himself to Dagobah, Bail Organa
adopts Leia, and Luke is brought to his Uncle and aunt, Owen and Beru on
Tatooine.
In Episode
IV, Princess Leia, who was a member of the Rebel Alliance and her ship, the
Tantive IV, was being pursued by Vader's flagship, the ISD Devastator. She was
captured after Storm troopers, Imperial soldiers, boarded the ship and killed
everyone onboard. She put a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Death Star plans
in R2-D2, an astromech droid. Him, along with a protocol droid named C-3PO,
went to Tatooine in an escape pod. The two wandered in the desert but were
captured by Jawa creatures, and the Empire sent troops to find them. Luke
Skywalker was a teen living on the desert world of Tatooine, was
Force-sensitive and wanted to go to the Imperial Academy, but his Aunt and
Uncle didn't let him for another year. Later, his Uncle purchased two droids,
R2-D2 and C-3PO, an Astromech and a Protocol droid, to work around the farm.
When R2-D2 went missing one day, so Luke and C-3PO went after him. They found
him but were attacked by Tusken Raiders, and were rescued by Obi-Wan, who
called himself Ben Kenobi. Luke found out that Kenobi was a Jedi, and Kenobi
told him he was Force-sensitive, and he should train to become a Jedi. The four
stumbled upon a destroyed Jawa sand crawler who were the ones that sold Artoo
and Threepio to Luke. He went back to the farm and saw that everything was
destroyed. He left with Ben to the world of Alderaan with Han Solo and
Chewbacca and the droids, but they saw that the world was destroyed by the
space station Death Star. They were captured by it, and rescued Leia from the
prison while Ben turned off the Tractor Beam, and was killed. The others
escaped to the Rebel base, and after an attack on the Death Star, it was
destroyed.
Later in
Episode V, Luke joined the Rebellion and was patrolling around Echo Base on the
frozen ice world of Hoth. The Empire was searching for the Rebel base and sent
an Imperial probe droid to Hoth, and Luke was thought it was a meteor crash. He
was attacked by a Wampa ice creature, but later escaped from it and was rescued
by Han Solo, who stayed around the base longer than he bargained for. Later,
the Empire attacked with Snow troopers and massive All Terrain Armored
Transport (AT-AT ) walkers, led by General Veers. Luke lead a squad of
snowspeeders to take out the walkers, but failed and the base was lost. The
surviving Rebel troops evacuated. Han, Leia, Threepio and Chewbacca were
followed by a squad of Star Destroyers, and fled into an asteroid field hoping
they would give up the chase. They landed inside and asteroid, but realized it
was a space slug, and quickly left. They then headed to Cloud City, where Han's
friend Lando Calrissian was located. Later, Han was
betrayed by Calrissian, captured, and Luke left his training on Dagobah, a
swamp world that was residence to master Yoda, and went to Cloud City. Han was
taken by Jango Fett's son, Boba Fett, to the crime lord Jabba the Hutt
and was frozen in carbonite. Leia, Luke, Chewie, R2, Threepio, and Lando
escaped.
In Episode
VI, Leia tried to rescue Han from Jabba's palace on Tatooine but was captured.
Luke came to try to rescue Han, Chewbacca, Leia, Threepio, and R2, but was
taken prisoner. He then was forced into a pit with a horrible rancor monster,
but managed to kill the beast. Luke was to be thrown into the mouth of the
Sarlacc, but managed to get to Jabba's sail barge, destroy it, and escaped with
Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, and the two droids. They made it to the Rebel fleet,
where the space attack on the Death Star II battle station over the forest moon
of Endor was being planned. Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, and the droids were to go
down to the planet surface with a group of Rebel Commandos and destroy the
shield generator bunker on the planet surface. They left to the world and made
it past the blockade, and landed. They went to the bunker, but had to fight
Scout troopers on speeder bikes and Leia was lost and captured by Ewoks. Then, the
strike team waited near the bunker while the droids, Luke, Han, and Chewie
searched for Leia, but were captured by Ewoks, but freed and were made part of
the tribe. They then attacked the bunker, and the fleet attacked the Death
Star, and Luke told Leia that she was his sister and Vader was their father,
and left to Vader to turn him to the light side. The bunker was destroyed after
a battle, and Luke managed to turn Vader to the light side but Vader died while
killing the Emperor on the Death Star. Meanwhile, the Death Star II was
destroyed. The Rebel Alliance, Ewoks, and other planets (like Tatooine,
Coruscant, and Naboo) celebrated the fall of the Empire. Luke saw the spirits
of Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin during the celebration. After watching them, he
turned back to enjoy the festivities.
Overview and history
At its start in 1999, Star Wars was one of the
first officially licensed LEGO themes released, alongside with Winnie the Pooh.
The theme was originally planned to end in 2007, but was renewed and slated for
discontinuation in 2011. Despite this, LEGO renewed the license yet again until
2016. After that had been announced, Lego established another contract
guaranteeing the continuing of the theme at least until 2022. So far, from
1999-2011, there have been 236 LEGO Star Wars sets, including regular sets,
Star Wars Mini sets, Midi-scale sets, TECHNIC, Mind storms and Ultimate
Collector Series sets. In 2005 they changed the faces from Yellow to a flesh
colored face which also continued when Harry Potter used the flesh color for
the brand.
