I’m happy to report that I finally acquired the finch head and helmet from Lego in the US! I’ve been following this ordeal for a long time and had actually purchased 75188 late in December. It was and online order so I thought I may have been lucky enough to have the updated version when reports came in of finch being a running change. When I got home to check my set, it was not so and this started my hunt for him.
When I heard of reports that Lego was giving him away, I called customer service and was one of the unlucky one to be give a strong no, even with a recent purchase. I was very bummed and tried placing an online order for all of the figure parts and it was then cancel soon after. I thought it was hopeless until I read of some people still getting parts, even if it was just the head and helmet, which is fine by me. I just wanted a movie accurate figure. I decided to place another online parts order a week or so later for just the head and helmet. The order went through but then I got the order canceled message, or so I thought. Turns out only the head was canceled and the helmet came in the mail a week later! I was so excited, yet I still didn’t have Finch’s head. After another week of contemplating how to get the final part I needed, I placed an order online for just the head and it came through! I’m super thankful I was able to get the updated parts and hope this may help anyone still trying their luck to keep positive and keep trying.
I think it is totally wrong to try to get free parts from Lego in order to resell on eBay and it’s sad this was abused by some. I feel like it was the right thing for Lego to do to offer the updated parts to those who had purchased the set, especially later on, but I wish there was a better way to control the abuse of it.