Building a LEGO Army

The Grand Army of the Republic

When I shut my eyes and think back to what truly started my love of StarWars I find myself accepting that it wasn’t the movies that hooked me into the universe. It was the LEGO’s. Countless hours, days and weeks were spent in my youth creating whatever sprung to my mind.

Three or four soldiers, whether they be Republic or Imperial, suddenly became something so much more. Small hastily crafted thingumajigs assumed the roles of bases, anti-air weapons, gunships or whatever. Aiding the troops in planetary assaults, retreats, insurgencies and betrayals. That spontaneous free-flow of ideas that gave me the room to explore both StarWars and my larger imagination are some of the core experiences that define a few of the happier moments of my childhood.

And with Powerball fervor sweeping the country over the past week I found myself reconnecting with those thoughts. That childhood dream of creating the Grand Army of the Republic. What if I had won the Powerball money? Would I really build the Grand Army of the Republic in LEGO form?

So I did what anyone in their mid-20’s would do: procrastinated until I was so bored with procrastinating one night that I fired up the Internet and started researching.

I started with researching just how large the Grand Army of the Republic was at the height of the Clone Wars. Given how Disney has been busy retooling and streamlining StarWars Canon into something more approachable I did my best to avoid the Legends/Old Extended Universe lore as best as I could. Because in reading I found that the accounts of the size and scale of the Army seemed to be in a constant state of flux.

I nailed down the number 5,000,000. Which, for perspective, would be the equivalent size of a combined Chinese/American Army (if you include reservists). Not exactly massive when you consider that there were upwards of 50,000,000 planets in the Galaxy…. Not all Republic or Separatist aligned… But hey, that’s what (I’m 85% sure) it was. I wasn’t sure if it was the number of pure infantry so for the sake of this post I’ll say it is.

Then I began to think about all the space battles, ground invasions and general war stuff that’d require actual war machines. Things like gunships, tanks, aircraft, artillery and troop transports; things I’d seen in Episode II, the excellent Clone Wars series and Episode III. What numbers would be needed to scale to the amount of infantry in the Republic Armies and what existed in LEGO’s arsenal.

There would be:

5,000,000 Clone Troopers (composed of Phase One and Two Troopers)

2. 30,000 LAAT (Republic) Gunships

3. 20,000 AT-OT Transports

4. 10,000 AT-TE’s

5. 5,000 AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Canons

6. 2,500 AT-AP’s

7. 7,500 AT-RT’s

8. 2,500 BARC Speeder’s

9. 15,000 Z-95 Headhunter’s

10. 35,000 ARC-170 Starfighter’s

11. 15,000 V-19 Torrent’s

12. 15,000 V-Wing Starfighter’s

Maybe I could be a little more thorough and throw in some Imperial Carriers that were modeled after Republic designs, but for the sake of simplicity I’ll hold off until LEGO actually releases proper Republic cruisers, battleships and other naval goodies. And while the temptation is there to throw in some of the Jedi and factor them into this mix I won’t because the Jedi existed as their own entity and organization.

Now that I have the core sets figured out, the fun begins with the math….

I created this spreadsheet to help keep things organized. Helping me to figure out the total cost and amount of pieces and such.

I think I’ve finally gone insane

The final cost for this Army, based on the current prices offered on Amazon, comes out to $60,125,025. With a final piece count of 239,077,500. The final cost doesn’t include shipping or anything pre or post tax. Nor does it include where I’d create and store any of this alongside the cost of storage. And the more I think about storage, or dream of it, the more awesome I think it’d be to have stored at Disney World somewhere so families could walk through and see the scale of the Clone Army in something easier to grasp. With the faces of all those who would serve blessing and overlooking the families as they go to enjoy their vacations.

Maybe have a huge diorama set up depicting a key battle in The Clone Wars like the First Battle of Geonosis, the Invasion of Utapau or the Invasion of Coruscant. Something that would unfold like a history lesson as the viewers explored the little details in it.

I don’t exactly know for certain, but I can continue to dream. And for now that’s all this will be as I didn’t win the Powerball or foresee me ever being in a position to drop $60,125,025 on LEGO’s for any purpose.

But I do hope you enjoyed the read and I’ll considering doing one of these for all of the factions in the StarWars Universe.