Lego does many things. You can build elaborate car sets, you can create drones and you can even make a scale model Death Star. We’ve known about the Lego Death Star for a while now (and if you’re thinking of sending Stuff any holiday gifts… well…) but this build video makes the others look bad.

That’s because builder Bart van Dijk has turned a simple (relatively speaking) build of a Lego Death Star into something a lot more elegant: a short stop motion presentation that looks as though the 4,016-piece set is building itself. With a little help from some of the Lego figures that form part of this impressive little diorama.

The elaborate build goes beyond just constructing a Star Wars Death Star without showing human hands, though. Snippets from the films have been woven into the backing track to help animate the little vignettes that play out from time to time. Certain iconic moments (and you’ll know them when you see them, assuming you’re a Star Wars nut) take place before the view switches to the next section and the next detailed piece plays out.

We shudder to think just how long this must have taken. Stop-motion isn’t the easiest thing in the world and to animate slices of movie scenes in addition to building the 4,000-plus pieces that make up this kit? Our ADD-riddled fingers couldn’t do it.

Source: Bart van Dijk (YouTube)