[PRESS RELEASE] 75192 - UCS Millennium Falcon 2017

[Txemipej]

Hi, this is the first time I write here but I've been following the topics for months. I purchased the falcon online on 14th  (i live in Spain and there are no lego stores) and after a thousand difficulties I managed to buy it. Few days later, the status of my purchase changed to backordered and when i talked with Lego they apologized and they gave me the express shipment for free. Yesterday my MF left the warehouse and is now on the way so I guess maybe yesterday was the beginning of the first wave of backorders. Sorry for my poor english, i just wanted to thank all of you, it has been great to read you these days and share all the hype, tips and ideas about the MF and Lego itself. Thanks again!

[eliminator]

I was out of town for the last week and missed out on the launch.

Thankfully my wife made it down to our local store yesterday (second in line) for the restock and brought one home for me!

 

 

[StarfuryT]

Just fyi I managed to pick one up this morning (30 minutes ago) in Tyson's corner store in Washington DC. They got "a few" but couldn't give me a number due to their shipment just getting in, just fished one out for me. I expect other stores in the states will get some as well, should check with managers for their delivery dates. It's Monday/Thursday for me. 

I expect the other stores in the DC area got a few as well. There was a guy behind me picking up one, so I don't expect them to last. However people in the later time zones may get a chance to pick one up.

Edited September 21, 2017 by StarfuryT

[ds760]

It seems a number have been shipped to warehouses for the Spet 14th launch. The stores sold out what they had then warehouses locally shipped the rest of what they had the followingweek which was likely reserved for the Oct 1st launch but given the circumstances....

[eliminator]

Side note: what's the best way to remove the handle and wheel from the outer box without making a mess?

[ds760]

I slowly started pulling it off then decided to leave it and open it from the bottom where the wheels are.

[joeshmoe554]

I wonder when the web-site will get some more in stock.  I've been checking multiple times every day since around 6:30 am on the 14th each time getting more and more disheartened.

[jdubbs]

21 minutes ago, joeshmoe554 said:

I wonder when the web-site will get some more in stock.  I've been checking multiple times every day since around 6:30 am on the 14th each time getting more and more disheartened.

At this point I wouldn't expect it to just show up as in-stock on the website without prior notice. They've already warned that it will remain out of stock through the Oct 1 general release date... Given that they've got a notice up on the product page about the problem, I expect we will see another update advising when more stock will be available, before anything shows up for sale.

[will]

I should probably start a new topic for mods, but here's mine so far. I'll try and spoiler them but not sure if it will work!

All grey mandibles (where spare parts allowed), and engine mod, copied from Scottish Dave's 10179 mod.

Spoiler

http://i.picresize.com/cyim

http://i.picresize.com/cyi9

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by will

[wwwmwww]

I got one today.  The closest LEGO store to me is in West Hartford, Connecticut and is 105 miles away.  I called over this past weekend asking when they might get more and they told me to call back on Tuesday to see if they were getting any in their next shipment.  I did and they told me they were expecting 10 sets this Thursday, today.  So I drove down last night.  Got there an hour before closing and talked to the staff to get the particulars and I also talked to the mall security about when the doors to the mall would open and which doors would be opened first.  The mall doesn't officially open its doors until 7am but someone from mall security told me some mall employees start showing up at 6:30 and that I might be able to get in with one of them.  So at 6am this morning I got to the entrance they told me should open first and sat on a bench.  At about 6:10am, an employee already in the mall spotted me as came and opened a door and asked if I wanted in.  I said "sure" and I actually got to the LEGO store at 6:15am and was the first person in line.  The second person didn't show up until 6:52am.  By 7am there were already 4 people in line.  By the time the store opened at 10am there were 12 people in line for the 10 kits.  Over all it was actually a rather fun experience.  Everyone was civil and it was nice talking to other LEGO fans.

One other thing I learned while in line... the store manager came out and made a few announcements before letting us in.  One of those announcements was that LEGO has now adopted a policy they they will no longer accept returns of sets over $500 that have been opened.  I thought that sounded odd to me as the second most expensive LEGO set that I am aware of is the Death Star 75159 which retails for $499.99.  So I later asked the manager aside from the Millennium Falcon are their any other sets over $500.  His response was "Not at the moment, but you can assume there will be more."  The way he said it gave me the impression that he was already aware of another set or 2 planned to retail for more than $500 that were in the pipeline or about to be released.  Anyone here know any more?  Just curious what other large sets might be on the horizon.

Carl

[ds760]

started a new thread for mods/mocs

Edited September 21, 2017 by ds760

[BucketWheelExcavator]

Were any other Australians charged a foreign fee on top of the $1300 we had to pay? 

[Markalus]

27 minutes ago, BucketWheelExcavator said:

Were any other Australians charged a foreign fee on top of the $1300 we had to pay? 

Yep. First time. I think the high price tag flagged it. So actual price paid was $1339 AUD. 

[ds760]

4 hours ago, wwwmwww said:

I got one today.  The closest LEGO store to me is in West Hartford, Connecticut and is 105 miles away.  I called over this past weekend asking when they might get more and they told me to call back on Tuesday to see if they were getting any in their next shipment.  I did and they told me they were expecting 10 sets this Thursday, today.  So I drove down last night.  Got there an hour before closing and talked to the staff to get the particulars and I also talked to the mall security about when the doors to the mall would open and which doors would be opened first.  The mall doesn't officially open its doors until 7am but someone from mall security told me some mall employees start showing up at 6:30 and that I might be able to get in with one of them.  So at 6am this morning I got to the entrance they told me should open first and sat on a bench.  At about 6:10am, an employee already in the mall spotted me as came and opened a door and asked if I wanted in.  I said "sure" and I actually got to the LEGO store at 6:15am and was the first person in line.  The second person didn't show up until 6:52am.  By 7am there were already 4 people in line.  By the time the store opened at 10am there were 12 people in line for the 10 kits.  Over all it was actually a rather fun experience.  Everyone was civil and it was nice talking to other LEGO fans.

One other thing I learned while in line... the store manager came out and made a few announcements before letting us in.  One of those announcements was that LEGO has now adopted a policy they they will no longer accept returns of sets over $500 that have been opened.  I thought that sounded odd to me as the second most expensive LEGO set that I am aware of is the Death Star 75159 which retails for $499.99.  So I later asked the manager aside from the Millennium Falcon are their any other sets over $500.  His response was "Not at the moment, but you can assume there will be more."  The way he said it gave me the impression that he was already aware of another set or 2 planned to retail for more than $500 that were in the pipeline or about to be released.  Anyone here know any more?  Just curious what other large sets might be on the horizon.

Carl

When I was in line the lego manager came to talk to us before they opened and told us the same thing about the no returns and again at the till. I found that odd. I said no worries here no one will be returning this set lol but still odd to have that type of policy. Must be a nightmare for them to get a open set since they likely have to scrap it as it can't resell being so big it would be impossible to verify all the pieces are there for a resale. 

[Cyanide-Tipped]

Maybe people were taking out the satellite dish, boat masts, and the Dejarik board out to sell 'em and tried to return the set? *shrugs*

Edited September 22, 2017 by Cyanide-Tipped

[TheLegGodt]

5 hours ago, wwwmwww said:

The way he said it gave me the impression that he was already aware of another set or 2 planned to retail for more than $500 that were in the pipeline or about to be released.  Anyone here know any more?  Just curious what other large sets might be on the horizon

This opening statement in the official description of the MF gives me the same impresssion:

Welcome to the largest, most detailed LEGO® Star Wars Millennium Falcon model we’ve ever created—in fact, with 7,500 pieces it’s one of our biggest LEGO models, period!

What do they know that we don’t if they are already calling it only one of their biggest?

[22kane]

47 minutes ago, ds760 said:

When I was in line the lego manager came to talk to us before they opened and told us the same thing about the no returns and again at the till. I found that odd. I said no worries here no one will be returning this set lol but still odd to have that type of policy. Must be a nightmare for them to get a open set since they likely have to scrap it as it can't resell being so big it would be impossible to verify all the pieces are there for a resale. 

You are correct about the re-selling aspect. It would be too costly to verify and repackage for resale. Many of the Lego stores dump opened set pieces in a bin for the pick-a-brick cups that people can purchase. Lego also has the ability to "write off" a certain amount of sets per year that are returned. With a set like this, it truly is in a class by itself. They don't want to overproduce because the loss would be substantial. They need to make sure they are filling orders for these and they are not sitting around collecting dust... kind of like the Classic Batman set 76502 thats been marked down for some time now. Lego also has a reputation and image to maintain so open box products for sale are not a common thing for Lego. Not only that it would cause a customer service nightmare for their call center (missing parts that aren't really missing and so on). Lastly, this isn't a set you buy on a whim. Its basically an investment in a way... regardless, Lego isn't churning out $800 sets and taking them back just so someone can say that they built it and posting pictures all over social media. Its their way of saying Serious Collectors/ Builders Only and I don't blame them. In todays retail environment the amount of "returns" are staggering because of the amount of people that abuse companies return policies. Lego gets their fair share as well but on a set like this there really is no reason for it. I say good for them!

[Brikkyy13]

5 minutes ago, TheLegGodt said:

What do they know that we don’t if they are already calling it only one of their biggest?

Remember, the last MF was the largest set and was almost immediately surpassed by the Taj Mahal the next year. I was really hoping it wouldn't happen again and the MF would stay on top but it's starting to look less and less likely...

[Robianco]

I think people are looking way too much into this. It is one of the biggest sets period... it just happens to be the biggest. Has anyone read some of the stuff that goes on set descriptions? It literally sounds like Google Translate had a brain fart at times. Chances are this was written by a non-native English speaker (albeit one who is completely fluent) and they just wrote it that way. This isn't one of those leaker codes where people read the capital letters in a sentence to get the name of a future set.

[stumpypete]

21 hours ago, stumpypete said:

I was originally given the 11th October Date, mine is now showing as "in Warehouse" - looks like they had been giving worst case scenario estimates.

My backorder shipped this morning.

 

[chris592]

Surely the people who are buying this set are mostly VIP members (I'm sure even if they weren't before, they signed up as VIP members to get the set early)? Does the general release date of 1st of Oct really have any significance? Cant imagine much more of a demand, suspect after the back log is cleared it will be a slower trickle of sales, maybe a few sale spikes when there are double VIP points and other promotions.

[ic3cold]

When I purchased the MF I was told I could only return it was unopened, but with a 10% restocking fee.  Pretty sure that was done to nullify returns during the upcoming double VIP promotion.  Double VIP = 10%.  I went for the MF on release day assuming it would it not be available during double VIP. I think that was a good call.

[Boba-Fett-13]

25 minutes ago, chris592 said:

Surely the people who are buying this set are mostly VIP members (I'm sure even if they weren't before, they signed up as VIP members to get the set early)? Does the general release date of 1st of Oct really have any significance? Cant imagine much more of a demand, suspect after the back log is cleared it will be a slower trickle of sales, maybe a few sale spikes when there are double VIP points and other promotions.

True. I made a vip account purely to buy this.

[kungpo]

I spoke to customer services this morning - the lady said they've been informed that around the beginning of November they think backorders will ship. But might be sooner. But I think November looks likely,

[axiom]

I was 6th in line for the 5 my local store got in today. Kinda sucked.