LEGO’s $999.99 Death Star set, revealed in leaked images — confirmed

Long before LEGO formally showed its new Death Star, the price and shape were already provoking arguments. The Verge’s September 2025 announcement coverage says images and pricing had leaked in July. IGN’s August coverage documented a giant, thousand-dollar set whose cross-section design differed from the full sphere some collectors expected.

The exact first day of that July leak has not been established from the sources retained for this retrospective. We show the month rather than manufacture a precise date. Rumors about individual minifigures and later images should not be treated as interchangeable evidence for when the complete set first appeared.

The early discussion was unusually revealing about what buyers thought a premium collectible should be. Some objected to paying that much for a slice of the battle station; others valued the visible rooms and scenes. Those reactions were opinions about a reported design, not proof of the final piece count or included characters.

LEGO’s public announcement supplied the outcome: the Ultimate Collector Series Death Star was a real product, with 9,023 pieces and a US price of $999.99. The official details and The Verge’s launch coverage confirmed the central price-and-format story. They also superseded tentative counts and lists circulating before the reveal.

The confirmed badge covers that core claim, while the unresolved first-day provenance remains an editorial limitation. This is a miscellaneous entry in the archive, not a breach or stolen-data story. It shows how an advance product disclosure can force a pricing debate before a company has made its case. We do not reproduce the leaked pictures, and no relevant X post was verified for this retrospective. The archive links reporting and the official announcement, with an original graphic in place of copyrighted product photography.