Ah, my first ever Star Wars set.

I'm fairly certain that I dismantled the bits and pieces, but I definitely still have the figures.

This reminds me of walking into a toy aisle (probably TRU) back in 1999, and first seeing LEGO and Star Wars together. What a sight to behold it was!

I bought this Darth Maul at a used bookstore or something for like 50 cents. Much better than the hellish terror that is the grinning Darth Maul featured in sets of late.

We'll give Mr Maul a cape, and we'll give him a seat which refuses to accommodate the cape. Love this set. I'm sure some aficionado will let me know if i am incorrect, but is the Maul figure the first (non-helmeted) star wars minifig to feature a non-yellow head?

Good times where you could get two important SW characters in a very cheap set.

I really want to know how many of those prototype lightsaber hilts and Qui-Gon hair pieces made it out into the public. Probably not many, but still, they must exist somewhere, right?

Yes, this was my first one, a first step in the much larger Lego world that was Lego Star Wars! In early 1999, I was aware of the release of Star Wars Lego sets, but had only seen the original trilogy sets in the LEGO.com catalog for January. Later on, I used clues on the Lego website to find a "secret" website that showed off the Naboo Starfighter set for the first time, which impressed me, but I had no idea what it represented (apart from the teaser trailer, I had no idea of what Episode I contained as late as March 1999).

Naturally, you could imagine my surprise in late April 1999 when, on a regular family trip to Target, I was confronted with an endcap by the checkout counters for rows of Lego Star Wars sets, including a bunch for things and characters I had never heard of in Star Wars! As excited as I was at the prospect of a Lego X-Wing or Snowspeeder, my imagination boggled at the sight of something called a "Sith Infiltrator" and a "Gungan Sub". Overwhelming, child-like NEED overcame me to have one or all of those sets. I knew I couldn't finagle one of the large ones from my parents, but perhaps one of the small sets...I eyed the smallest box I could find, and my eyes settled on this set, the Lightsaber Duel. It was perfect! There were lightsabers, my first ones, along with capes and a new hood piece! Plus, these pieces were parts of two brand-new, intriguing characters.

Thankfully, my parents were feeling generous that day, and to tide me over, they bought it for me. I was so excited! It was definitely one of those moments I almost wanted to build the set on the way home in the car, but better sense came over me and I waited until that afternoon when I was back in my room. I was glad, too, for I had the peace and quiet to examine every detail of the set down to the letter. First, the minifigures! I learned from the instruction manual that I had "Qui-Gon Jinn" and "Darth Maul". "DARTH" Maul??? There were more Darths? Vader wasn't the first Darth? That was a revelation. Granted, I knew nothing about the Sith concept that had been part of Star Wars since the beginning, so 10 year old me was astounded. And the name "Qui-Gon" had the same cadence as the name "Obi-Wan". Were all Jedi back then named similarly? Was Qui-Gon some distant relative of Obi-Wan's? And he had a green lightsaber, like Luke Skywalker. Was he a full Jedi Knight then? So many questions, right out of the gate!

Even the small assemblies amazed me. The speeder was crude, but its simplicity made me wonder if the "lightsaber duel" of the set was actually fought between the Jedi and this Darth Maul riding a speeder bike. As in, he attacked solely while clinging to the speeder. Wow, that would be cool to see on film! And then there was the mysterious moisture vaporator. Or was it? It didn't look like the ones I saw in "A New Hope", and it really did nothing. Or did it serve some other purpose? I already made the assumption this duel took place on Tatooine, but I suppose one could have wondered if this device hinted at another planet entirely. Anyway, in play, I often used the moisture vaporator as something to give old Qui-Gon a leg-up on the levitating Darth Maul.

For a month, that set and that set alone defined Lego Star Wars for me. After school was over, I got into full Phantom Menace fever, with action figures, Micro Machines, and even that Lego Naboo Starfigther. But I never forgot it all started with Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. And yes, even though what happened in the film was different than what I envisioned as an eager kid, I was still stoked by the duel Qui-Gon and Darth Maul had. It was more intense than even I had imagined, and I totally forgot there were no moisture vaporators present.

This set is a real treasure for me, a rare favorite that still holds up from those blocky, first few years of the Lego Star Wars theme.

It’s funny. I have no love for Episode I, but the original 1999 Episode I sets are some of the most powerfully nostalgic things in all of Lego for me. I had this one, the Naboo Swamp and the Droid Starfighter as three of my first five sets, alongside 2000’s Adventurers Dino Research Compound and the Adidas soccer bus. My two Qui-Gons would frequently team up with Johnny Thunder and company to defeat the evil t-rex rider Darth Maul and his soccer team of doom (my childish mind connected their red shirts with Maul’s red saber).

@Vladtheb said:
"My two Qui-Gons would frequently team up with Johnny Thunder and company to defeat the evil t-rex rider Darth Maul and his soccer team of doom (my childish mind connected their red shirts with Maul’s red saber)."

IMO this is everything that Lego should be about :')