LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded

On a whim, I purchased this book for my son to enjoy reading about his LEGO Star Wars figurines. Upon receipt, I thumbed through the pages and was totally blown away with the detailed pictures and fun and obscure facts that the publisher had put together in this compilation of LEGO SW history.I posted a few pictures above to illustrate some of the amazing detail this book has -- also note the entire list of figures listed in the two page table of contents.First off, the book is not too large, and could be easily carried around by a five year old. It is hardcover and the glossy pages are printed on thick paper. The colors in the pictures are lively and the layout of each page is very organized and easy to follow. The publisher/authors definitely put a lot of thought into the presentation of each lego figure. About 1/4 of the thickness of the book is taken up by a cardboard insert that holds the heroic scoundrel Han Solo. He looks pretty clean cut and is wearing the medal given at the end of Episode IV by Princess Leia. He even has Han's smirk on his face. This figure is an exclusive to this book, so if you want to add him to your collection, you need to buy this book.Each individual figure is color classified into the episode they appear, as can be seen in the table of contents. The figures are printed quite large, around 7-8 inches tall, with exceptional detail. Droids are also included. A small descriptive blurb is in the top corner of each page. Then a "data file" box will tell you which year, lego set#/name, # pieces, and # of variants of manufacture. Lots of smaller white boxes point out all kinds of details about each and every figure, such as:1) "Stolen imperial binoculars hang from Han's torso" p. 922) "On duty on Hoth, Leia wears her hair back in braids. This Lego hair piece is also seen on Leia in her Endor outfit (p.139)" p. 933) "Lando's exclusive cape is blue on the outside and yellow on the inside. It is a status symbol that distinguishes him as Baron Administrator of Cloud City." p. 1114) "Yoda's head is made from rubber, like the Plo Koon (p.164), Kit Fisto (p.45) and classic Yoda (p.17) minifigures" p. 1585) "Only one other Lego astromech droid has a blue status display, R2Q2 (p.201)" p.46As can be read above, the book is quite good about cross-referencing pages to give the reader the ability to quickly find the same attribute in other figures. When appropriate, a nice colorful picture of the actual Lego set from the whence the figure originates is also included. Additional boxes also appear with pictures of variant figures including very rare figurines created for very specific events (like a bronze Bobba Fett). At the end of book, an index is provided that lists ALL the lego set#'s the figure has ever appeared in. You can then go to the Lego website to find the set (you must use the Holobrick archive, not regular search box):[...]I believe every single human, alien, and droid figure in the Lego Star Wars universe up to this point is included in this book -- even the obscure and very limited event specific ones. The way this book was put together, from the large high quality pictures, the fun descriptions, cross references, esoteric facts, figure variants, and lego set#'s makes this book truly encyclopedic. I was very impressed with this book... and I think my 5 year old will enjoy it too.

We started with the DK book on Lego Star Wars sets, that includes the Luke mini figure. My son loves it and 4 weeks later is still reading it nightly before bed. It was a 5 star product, especially at the Amazon price. This is now our 4th DK book as we picked up the Lego Harry Potter book and Clone Wars character encyclopedia in the last month as well.This book is smaller in physical size then the other two lego books. It is the same size as the Clone Wars encyclopedia and like that book has about 200 pages. Also like the Clone wars book, each character gets their own page and the layout is very similar to that book. The mini fig is pictured in a large layout form and usually the set (or sets) from which it comes are pictured in smaller form. There are about 4-6 little trivia facts about details on the figure itself, that are perfect for my 1st grader to work on his reading. There is also a small trivia box about the set it comes from, another about the number it is assigned/year issued, and usually a bigger trivia box with an overview of the character.Unlike his earlier DK book on lego star wars sets, this one just got released (september 2011) and is up to date on the figures and sets from 2011. My son has the Plo Koon star fighter and both Plo Koon, his Droid, and his ship are included. In the other book (which is still outstanding) his set is only mentioned in a timeline they updated in the front of the book, but not in the book itself. So if your little one wants to look up minifigs from something he just picked up a week ago, it would be in here. The only one I am aware of not in here is the "little Han" figure which came with the Walmart blu-ray release of the padawan menace last week.I have reviewed all 4 of the DK books now and I think they are all great. My little guy gets his love of both Legos and Star Wars from me, and I also like paging through these books. This book, like the others, is great and the price on Amazon was equally nice. Again my son loves to read these and in his mind they are as good as toys. He is thrilled to practice his reading every night because of these books. If I could give this one (and the others)6 stars, I would.