lowlead

^^Agreed. I would very much like to sit in on a meeting in Billund when they're deciding on such moves as reissues. I have yet to extract a pattern for their choices - beyond the obvious 'cuz it's been a while.

HA! Great photo - now THAT'S a re-design! They nailed this one pretty well - thanks LEGO. Side-by-side photos like this floor me - the evolution of these sets is amazing, and it reminds me how long we've all been at this (as we close in on 2 decades).

Staggeringly cool, and so rich with detail - every great city needs a Chinatown! I would really like to see this incorporated into a large city or town layout - adjacent to the Palace Cinema, perhaps. This reminds me of visiting Chinatown in Boston - great food, great memories! Very original, fresh idea for city/town MOCs - fantastic!

ANYWAY... Oh heck yeah, I've been waiting a long time for a new shuttle, and the wait was certainly worth it. This re-design gets my hopes up for a new system scale TIE Bomber (hint hint LEGO) just2good: Thanks for that video link. At least the new Infiltrator has some neat features. I'm still undecided on this one, I'll have to wait for a review.

Oh, I have plenty of parts, I'm just 'talent-limited.' I used to MOC quite a bit, and if I was compelled to embark on a particular project, I would take a good, long objective look at my parts level. If said project was possible to complete, or at least close, I could begin and keep any tail-end Bricklink orders to a minimum. Sometimes a particular MOC would start with a part or parts I knew I didn't have, thereby beginning with a small Bricklink order on the front end. Lately, however, I'm 'free-time' limited, so I have delegated the heavy lifting to all the expert MOCers out there, whom I classify as artists with an ABS medium. If I were inclined to take on a big project now, such as a vehicle, I would do a lot of planning and research before I picked up one brick, and settle in for the long haul - really take the time to do the very best job possible, even if it takes months before the big reveal. If that meant dozens of Bricklink orders, so be it - I would have already budgeted for that in the planning phase ;)

Case in point (and at the risk of repeating myself), I would be willing to part with around $400 for a 3500 piece Venator destroyer if the design was anything like some of the MOCs out there. As much as I dislike the PT, I really like that ship, and I hope it's on their list.

Add me to the petition for a big Cloud City set. Leave Hoth alone for a spell, retire 10188, and take my $429.99 already!! ...oh, and a fresh system scale Cloud Car and TIE Bomber, please! Hoth has been hogging the EpV scene for a bit too long now. As mentioned earlier, some tusken raiders with a bantha would be great as well - didn't we see an official LEGO cartoon of this recently??

Great topic for discussion. Am I the only one that actually likes the 10215 set? Granted, it's not the best of the UCS line, but I always thought it was a good looking version of Obi-Wan's ship. I like the design much better than the EpIII fighters anyway. Perhaps it was the price vs size? Either way, I thought it a fun build. Flieger (and a couple others) hit on this point quicker than I could post it: LEGO has a built-in fan base of fanatic adult OT fans with money burning a hole in their pockets - I'm one of them. Although I purchased and enjoyed the 10215, I'm certainly glad that the OT is the primary source for the UCS sets. A Venator would be nice I suppose, or a big Sith Infiltrator, if only to see LEGO finally get the look right With regard to the term 'iconic' or 'icon-factor'- I think it's as simple as time. SW fans have spent nearly four decades steeped in OT lore - the PT hasn't had that much time to stew in everyone's brain... ...thankfully

^^This. I like the 8x8 printed dish. My next thought after seeing this photo was that 7961 should have looked like this, then they could have made room in 2015 for a TIE Bomber or something else with little or no treatment. But I'm in a particularly forgiving mood, as I'm thoroughly enjoying the new Tydirium Shuttle - what a cool set.

Allow me to add another WOW!! This technique...it's a category of its own!! Technic scale with UCS detail? Creator on steroids? Whatever the category, it's a masterpiece of realism, and I envy your skill, sir.

I gotta say, after a bit of skepticism, I believe this set is well worth the price. The build itself was a lot less monotonous than I expected; and using the 'assembly line' method to build the panel sections simultaneously made those steps really quick. The connection points between pylon and panel are quite innovative, and make those heavy panels surprisingly stable! Actually, this set has quite a few clever build techniques. The printed dish elements look fantastic, and I really like how the cockpit interior turned out. If you're on the fence about this one, I would say go for it. A solid 8 out of 10 for me. .02

The promotional card I received in the mail specifies May 2nd through the 4th.

...And I sincerely hope the future discussion goes something like this: I really like how they left out yet another snow speeder and used the piece count to make some cool movie-accurate corridors and rooms! Oh, and they gave us another Wampa!

There's no doubt 10212 is among the best UCS sets to date, but that still didn't stop me from tweaking it a bit. To make the shuttle's thrusters look more like This, I did This And, as Khaled said, the nose isn't quite right. It remains one of the trickiest shapes to achieve with bricks and plates - smooth, sloped and properly tapered. LEGO succeeded in two out of those three with the 10212 model. Not bad, I guess. The new 75094 shuttle addresses this shortcoming with less taper on the nose, and better looking thrusters in back. Not perfect, but still awesome and worth purchasing multiple copies

Jeezum Crow! Very cool. So...does Bricklink have any black left?

Impressive, most impressive! Mad props, Anio. Fantastic model - love the modular design! LEGO! Are you seeing this??

Ha! Agreed, a great topic to revisit. Although I rolled my eyes on occasion, one cannot deny the...err...passion the LEGO Brand creates TLG unwittingly created a monster when they slapped the UCS label on their first big SW set. Flagship Series, or even dusting off the Expert Builder tag may have avoided the notion that LEGO was out to 'reward' certain loyal AFOLs. It's all about making money and attracting newcomers to the brand, and I'm very satisfied with that approach. Can't wait for another Star Destroyer!

Well, I'll reserve judgement until some photos emerge. In the meantime, the shuttle cockpit is probably one of the most challenging shapes in the SW universe to duplicate in LEGO properly. The 10212 version still isn't spot on, depending on the model reference one uses...too tapered when compared to movie references.

Question of the day, this. So very curious to know how they're going to do the cockpit in this version. Thanks in advance to the attendees!

WHOA! Fantastic build! As others have said above, the 'paint job' and the grille really make this MOC pop. I can't recall seeing such a small SW vehicle created in such a large scale - looks great!! I would purchase this from LEGO. One aspect I like in particular is the two 4 length curved wedge slopes that connect to the 2x2 corner brick in each passenger area, it looks just like a supple leather dashboard. Bantha hide? Thanks much for sharing!

Hello mantooth, I don't recall any notorious pitfalls while building this set. Without having your copy of the Sandcrawler in front of any one of us to diagnose, it's certainly difficult to determine the exact problem. But on occasion I have run into similar issues, especially when building large sets with complex instructions. The Sandcrawler is no exception, and I'm guessing you missed a step in the instructions, or placed something one stud off, etc... It doesn't take much to overlook a small detail in an instruction booklet(s) filled with black, dark brown and dark gray elements, or complicated technic mechanisms. Finding a mistake that you made 14 steps back is no easy task, but sometimes it just has to be done. Perhaps a couple photos of the problem area might reveal something obvious to a fresh pair of eyes.

I share your skepticism, but with a $70 - $80 price point I'd like to think it's a worthy top to bottom re-design. I'm hopeful that there's 1) a new windscreen and/or a more accurate cockpit 2) a vertical stab built with the same technique as 10212, only smaller 3) something other than this piece to make up the rounded sides of the fuselage.

DTSJ: Looks fantastic! You have done a great job of capturing the slim look of the legs, and the overall clean appearance of this walker as depicted in sketches and the series itself. I particularly like how you better accomplished the reverse curvature of the bottom aft edges of the cockpit with wedge plates. I'm very curious to see how the 75083 printed dome pieces would look on your MOC - snap an additional pic if you get a chance! How would you describe the stability of the legs? I'm wondering if the added weight of the 75083 cockpit section would buckle a single click-hinge design for each leg joint. I'm guessing that's why TLG elected to use double hinges and a fixed-angle technic beam for the leg design. Great MOC, thanks for sharing!

Artoo Detour, pcsguy88: Here Here! Couldn't agree more with your posts above. As a guy that actually remembers (barely) seeing ep IV in an actual movie theatre - except we had to leave early cuz my sister got sick - I would occasionally catch myself being too critical of emerging sets, getting caught up in the nit picking and hair splitting. Now I just sit back and really marvel at what the designers churn out of Billund. Granted, some are misses, but many are certainly hits. I'll buy multiple copies of the hits, and just leave behind the misses. Either way I try to refrain from complaining - strong or poor sales numbers steer design attributes, not internet rants. In the meantime, I am anxiously awaiting pics of the new Shuttle Tyderium, as it's been too long since we've seen a system scale Lambda shuttle. I hope the wait will be worth it after the upcoming shuttle gets a fresh design - fingers crossed.