This is just a rough little vignette I threw together for the shelf, meant to evoke the Emperor's Throne Room in a space-conscious way. When I got the new Death Star Troopers battle pack (75034) I decided to rejigger it slightly to incorporate the new Royal Guard minifigs. I wasn't satisfied with their "force pikes," however. Formerly, they were just given black spears. Now, they have weird gray lightsaber-like things. I can see where they were going for in terms of having an action accessory. But for those of us who just like to have the guards standing at attention looking menacing, the lightsaber analog just doesn't work. The old black spears look a little better, but still fail to capture the iconic Royal Guard pose.

After playing around with a few things, I hit upon using harpoon guns. Held vertically, they look VERY much like the pikes as seen in the film. And if you rotate around the hand so that it's "backwards," they sit at the perfect angle against the shoulder. A quick forum search reveals that I'm not the first to come up with this solution. But I haven't seen an example of this usage in an actual MOC before, so I thought I'd post a quick shot. Apologies for the low resolution. (And yeah -- I know my little turret things are clunky, and the guards don't actually stand inside them in the film. But it suffices for my purposes!)

EDIT: Updated with all-2014 minifigures: Darth Vader from 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer, Luke from 10236 Ewok Village, and Emperor Palpatine from the Lego Star Wars: The Dark Side book.

Edited September 21, 201410 yr by Admonisher

Nice vig, and it really captures the scene well. The harpoon piece looks good with the guards, although mine still hold their spears.

Good MOC! The harpoons look awesome and the scene itself is nicely executed.

Thanks for the kind words! The entire vignette has now been updated with 2014 minifigures (see first post). These figs are a big upgrade, IMHO. I love the new Vader -- the leg printing and sloped shoulder armor really gives the impression of height, and avoids the somewhat "chibi" look of the previous incarnation. Light tan was a great choice for Palpatine, looking far more screen-accurate than gray -- and he's finally got that evil grin he so often sports in the films. Meanwhile, Luke is FINALLY wearing his Death Star II outfit (even if the shirt flap wasn't down until after the duel).

Great little MOC, you can almost feel the Force floating around it.

I would really like to see it enlarged, with the walkways that were drove down by Vader's thrown lightsaber, etc..

One little glitch though - were the Red Guards present in the chamber during the lightsaber duel? I thought the Emperor asked them to leave...

Thanks, BHs! You're correct, the Imperial Guards were not present during the duel (and I don't think we see them standing inside the little console turrets, either). This vignette was only meant to evoke the general feel of the throne room scenes, not to recreate a specific moment, so I took a few liberties. Anyway, the Guard minifigs look too cool NOT to include!

If I ever move into a residence with lots of room for display, I suppose I may be tempted to do an enlarged version. But I deliberately kept this one small so that it would fit comfortably on top of a CD shelf!

Edited September 21, 201410 yr by Admonisher

Nice use of new figs.

Nice MOC I like the harpoons too