LEGO: The Moldy Crow

Built October and November 2010, Updated March 2013

This MOC is based on the The Moldy Crow starship featured in the Star Wars video games, Dark Forces and Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight.

This was the first MOC that I tried to tackle. My LEGO building passion started with my building classic Star Wars star-fighters sets. Once I had a decent representation of both Imperial and Rebel fighters, I realized that I needed some "rogue" ships to balance out the collection (the only one I had at the time was Slave 1). I loved the look of the Moldy Crow back when I played the Dark Forces games. After seeing how other LEGO builders had interpreted the model, I figured it was worth a shot.

My main focus was to build a version of the ship that would fit in with the rest of my official LEGO collection. I tried to keep it clean and economic while capturing the profile of the original design. Needless to say, compromises were made. Since the first build back in 2010, LEGO has manufactured pieces that better fit to color profile and shape of certain bricks used in my MOC’s design. I’ve posted an image of the original to show the differences between the two versions.

The final compromise that I decided to fix was the issue with the cockpit windows. The official Moldy Crow has a unique window design, one that is hard to replicate with LEGO. So I asked myself, what would LEGO do if releasing an official set. Molding my own cockpit window seemed extreme, and would take me too far away from keeping this build legit. However, LEGO does use stickers to help push details, especially with their Star Wars licensed sets. So, as dirty as it felt to first apply those custom stickers, over time, I’ve gotten used to their placement and no longer feel guilty for using them. In the end, what counts for me is that it's playable and looks right at home next to the out-of-box sets I have on the shelf.