[PRESS RELEASE] 75192 - UCS Millennium Falcon 2017

[Whovastron]

38 minutes ago, blbills said:

This topic is pretty void of actual content of the kit.  Is everyone just flippin' them?  Want to hear more about the build, the included pieces, etc...  Less about the second hand market and backorders...

I have put a semi-review of sorts in the 2017 thread and also a small comment here, but they kind of got lost in all the talk about supply.

when everyone's got theirs the topic should evolve into discussing the kit itself again

[Mr Hobbles]

1 hour ago, blbills said:

This topic is pretty void of actual content of the kit.  Is everyone just flippin' them?  Want to hear more about the build, the included pieces, etc...  Less about the second hand market and backorders...

I think this only serves to show just how few of this set is actually out there in the wild.

I imagine making this beast seriously strains Legos production capacity. If you assume the average set you can buy is 700 odd pieces, then this thing takes 10 times as many resources to make. For every one of these Lego makes, that's the time they could have spent making 10 other Lego sets. They still have their normal set obligations to fulfil too...

[Robianco]

Well mine has arrived and is sat behind me... Box was packed into the outer cardboard box which actually still had the 'don't place on a shelf before October 1st' on it. There was a second outer box that had been smacked around but the outer box was perfect and obviously the main box was also perfect.

I'll be starting, albeit it tentatively, this evening... Maybe one bag or two... Hopefully I can grab some time this week so really get stuck into it. Worst case scenario my wife is out on Saturday evening so I know I'll get some time then. The box is just so big!

[Whovastron]

I'd love to know how long it takes others to build it. I watched a video and a team of four guys took 12 hours to do it together and stated it much be a record, but that's the amount of time it took me on my own.

Either I'm fast or they're slow I just wanna know! 

[Cyanide-Tipped]

Any pics or comments from my post yesterday? It was about the underside...

[Whovastron]

15 minutes ago, Cyanide-Tipped said:

Any pics or comments from my post yesterday? It was about the underside...

I'm not with my Falcon right now so can't take any pictures, but Its mostly studded, rather than the underside of bricks

[Daniel Jackson]

What is the size of the area that the MF needs to stand on? (so basically, the size of the shape formed by the legs together)

Or perhaps easier to answer: what would the diameter of a round table need to be for the MF to fit? It's ok if the body sticks out. 

[Quothcorvus]

Mines gone from "In warehouse" to despatched, so hoping it will turn up next day or so.

I think the first build video I saw was 38 hours for one person.

[Altair1]

My MF also arrived today ! (in France)

[mva5580]

4 hours ago, Mr Hobbles said:

I think this only serves to show just how few of this set is actually out there in the wild.

I imagine making this beast seriously strains Legos production capacity. If you assume the average set you can buy is 700 odd pieces, then this thing takes 10 times as many resources to make. For every one of these Lego makes, that's the time they could have spent making 10 other Lego sets. They still have their normal set obligations to fulfil too...

Not to mention (despite what some people here seem to enjoy assuming) that there are A LOT more people looking to buy the ~700 piece/~$60 sets than there will ever be looking to buy the 7,500 piece/$800 set.   They were NEVER going to just make the assumption that tons and tons of people were going to run out day 1 and buy this set, hence they are taking production slower, which is what a responsible decision maker should do.  If someone is willing to spend $800 on a Lego set September 14, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they'll be willing to spend that October 1.  Or November 1.  Or December 1. 

[ZO6]

For those wondering about surface area for the feet/landing gear: you'll want something that's 13" wide x 18" long.  The rest of the Falcon will of course overhang a lot, but the feet will all fit within those dimensions.

My story:  I got to my local Lego store about 3 hours before opening on the 14th.  At that point I was 5th in line.  The store had 12 copies for sale.  I talked to a lot of people in line, and everyone seemed liked genuine Lego fans who were going to build the set (as opposed to selling it).  It took me approximately 18 hours to build the Falcon.  About 12 hours of building on the 14th, and then finished the rest the following day.  I like to make sure everything is perfect when I'm building, so it could definitely be assembled an hour or so quicker.  Any faster than that, and I would say people aren't accurately keeping track of time (...or they're ridiculously fast).  I was surprised that there is a large section that is currently empty, and could be used to add in another interior room.  For now I'm storing the FA dish/accessories and extra blasters in that space.

After having it assembled for a couple of days, I spent this morning modifying it a bit.  Swapping out dark grey for light grey on the mandibles (taking pieces from the undersides of them and swapping them with the parts on top), filling in small gaps here and there, and doing other minor cosmetic changes to make it more like the OT Falcon.  Pretty simple changes that are mostly personal preferences as opposed to flaws with the set.

Overall I'm super happy with the set.  It looks amazing!

[NikhilR]

This is one set that would definitely benefit from a pre-order system/payment plan. That way they could stretch the release for a long time, they could take their time producing it without affected smaller sets and everyone would have a chance to buy it.
It would also crush the scalper/secondary market for this set which isn't a bad thing.

[The_Chosen_1]

You're on to something there with the payment plan idea. I'm sure loads of people would take advantage of that, especially with the holidays approaching.

It also opens the door to more fans being able to afford future "Mega UCS" sets.

[ic3cold]

24 minutes ago, The_Chosen_1 said:

You're on to something there with the payment plan idea. I'm sure loads of people would take advantage of that, especially with the holidays approaching.

It also opens the door to more fans being able to afford future "Mega UCS" sets.

But then Lego would need to worry about Collections instead of letting the credit card providers deal with it.

[NikhilR]

24 minutes ago, ic3cold said:

But then Lego would need to worry about Collections instead of letting the credit card providers deal with it.

I also buy anime collectibles (good smile company) that work with preorders. They are expensive (50 - 100$ a figure)
The way they do it is take preorders on their site during a specific time frame and then the production cycle starts depending on the number of pre orders with an estimated release date (usually several months away. Sometimes they may close preorders early, though popular figures are re-released later in the years. This streamlines the buying and selling process while maintaining the hype.
Even sideshow collectibles does preorders where they do sometimes charge a deposit upfront.

In both cases the product is never released to the buyer until the whole payment is made in full during the production cycle or at the end.

All payments go through the credit card provider first, so lego will only have to receive payment.

And these are bricks, save for a few parts, the rest of the lot is recyclable across other sets (most of the time) incase of any order cancellations.

Still on a set this popular and exclusive lego is unlikely to lose any orders, the surplus if any will be bought at some point.

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by NikhilR

[segatasan]

hmmm not sure if this section about the MF VIP card was available before:

https://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Exclusive

What are the special offers that this card entitles a member to?

Special offers will include points promotions, special events, gifts with purchase and more! The offers will be shared directly with applicable VIPs throughout 2018.

 

[Evolved Turtle]

If not for that Rebrick contest I would neve have a chance to get this. $800?

[Joel1234]

Just spoke to someone from the Lego Store in Germany. They are expecting some units this thursday, although they cant tell me for sure. I have to drive 2 hours to get there, and there might be a change there wont be any sets when the store opens. They also told me there will only be a very limited number of units for sale. 

He also told me the set wont come back in stores and online till AT LEAST januari 2018.... 

[Whovastron]

16 hours ago, ZO6 said:

Any fast than that, and I would say people aren't accurately keeping track of time.  

Well I kept a my stopwatch app by me the entire time and only paused for breaks. Mine came to 12hrs 26 minutes but I'd give or take half an hour of that for some breaks that I didn't pause for and forgetting to press play straight away, but i never went a stretched amount of time without the stopwatch going whilst building.

Edited September 19, 2017 by Whovastron

[arnoldtblumberg]

Mine arrived today - outer shipping box, inner box with the label for shops warning them not to shelve it before 10/1, and then the display box itself. This thing is HUGE! And so HEAVY!

:D

[Bolingbroke]

21 hours ago, NikhilR said:

I also buy anime collectibles (good smile company) that work with preorders. They are expensive (50 - 100$ a figure)
The way they do it is take preorders on their site during a specific time frame and then the production cycle starts depending on the number of pre orders with an estimated release date (usually several months away. Sometimes they may close preorders early, though popular figures are re-released later in the years. This streamlines the buying and selling process while maintaining the hype.
Even sideshow collectibles does preorders where they do sometimes charge a deposit upfront.

In both cases the product is never released to the buyer until the whole payment is made in full during the production cycle or at the end.

All payments go through the credit card provider first, so lego will only have to receive payment.

And these are bricks, save for a few parts, the rest of the lot is recyclable across other sets (most of the time) incase of any order cancellations.

Still on a set this popular and exclusive lego is unlikely to lose any orders, the surplus if any will be bought at some point.

 

Please don't give them ideas. I'm a figma and figuarts collector as well, and Im pretty ambivalent about the supposed benefits of preordering. What if, as often happens with the Japanese stuff, preorders close early and you don't get your order in? It happens often with the more popular figures. Would hate it to happen with Lego. The beauty of collecting Lego is that the stuff is always readily available, with the rarest exceptions like the Saturn V set and this one, and it's only a matger of time till they're available again. On the other hand, as you surely know, goodluck getting your hands on a figma once they're sold out, unless you buy it for double the price on the aftermarket.

[Sam892]

I know its pretty unlikely at the moment, but has anyone spotted any of the unique pieces on Bricks and pieces yet? 

[NikhilR]

6 hours ago, Bolingbroke said:

Please don't give them ideas. I'm a figma and figuarts collector as well, and Im pretty ambivalent about the supposed benefits of preordering. What if, as often happens with the Japanese stuff, preorders close early and you don't get your order in? It happens often with the more popular figures. Would hate it to happen with Lego. The beauty of collecting Lego is that the stuff is always readily available, with the rarest exceptions like the Saturn V set and this one, and it's only a matger of time till they're available again. On the other hand, as you surely know, goodluck getting your hands on a figma once they're sold out, unless you buy it for double the price on the aftermarket.

Nice to meet a fellow figma collector!

I meant having preordering in the case of just this one set with set delivery windows and no fixed shelf life. That way it becomes made to order in perpetuity so people can take their time and there's no scalper interference.
The preordering in this case would be more like sideshowcollectors than goodsmile, and since its just for this one set, the development time can be segregated from other sets. It also saves all the running around and site crashing.
They could also have the sets in the stores, but having preordering and payment clan eases the traffic for this one set and spreads interest over a long period of time.

Of course if someone misses out on a preorder despite knowing it's deadline, that's unfortunate, but they can get in on the next production cycle.

With the current approach, lego will be producing this set like mad given the VIP rush and eventually end up with a surplus past Christmas as the sales trickle down in the off season.
I hope instead that they keep the production going and release the set in batches, in some way its kinda working like preorders, since they now have an estimate of how many people want the set so I can see multiple production cycles with everyone eventually getting this set.

 

[kiwiatlarge]

Mine has finally made it into the country and past customs, after being one of the early successful online purchases... A good sign.. 

[Brikkyy13]

1 hour ago, kiwiatlarge said:

Mine has finally made it into the country and past customs, after being one of the early successful online purchases... A good sign.. 

What country are you in if you don't mind me asking? Aussie here and aus post is still "processing" mine in Sydney