Tavis75

Actually it was, local motorway was closed due to an accident so traffic was as busy as S@H! Tried ordering the Falcon from home at 7:30, managed to get one in my basket then checkout failed and it disappeared from my basket and I got logged out and then couldn't log back in, so gave up and headed to work. That took ages but got in and logged on, Falcon showing in my basket and was able to finish the order but it was showing as backorder by that point so guessing I've got a bit of wait. I've got a week off at the beginning of October though, so that kind of works out OK. Only thing is I was trying to order via a cashback site and with all the messing about not sure if that will work or not.

Annoying, that's just after I'd normally leave for work. So do I hang around at home and hope it actually goes up on time or do I head into work and hope it hasn't gone on to backorder by the time I arrive.

The price per part on the Falcon is not actually that bad, works out at about 8.5 pence per part in the UK, which puts it at the lower end of price per part in the Star Wars range as far as I can see (based on the sets in my Star Wars collection), and looking at my collection as a whole the average price per part is 7.6 pence (which is skewed down slightly by a few sets with lots of very small parts such as Big Ben), so it doesn't compare too badly even with non-Star Wars sets. The Falcon also looks to contain a reasonable mix of large and small parts, obviously lots of small parts for the detailing but also lots of long technic beams and large panels for the main structure and hull.

There are already over-priced "pre-orders" on there.

If I don't decide to go mad and drive to London, does anyone know when the MF is likely to become available online in the UK? I was waiting for the VIP release of Ninjago City and checked once or twice overnight but it didn't actually become available till about 8:45am, I assumed it would be midnight on the dot. Is it normal for the release to be late or was Ninjago City an anomaly?

Ha, that is true! Guess I'll just see how crazy I'm feeling when I finish work on Wednesday. When I think about it sensibly I reckon that between the petrol\parking and missed cashback it will probably cost me about £60, which is a bit silly, but I really fancy one of those wheeled boxes!

I'm trying to work out if it's crazy to even consider going to the midnight launch, I see there's a 24 hour car park very close to Leicester square so parking not an issue (apart from London parking prices!), I think the Falcon would fit in my car, though I'd have to strap it into the passenger seat as I know the boot is only just big enough for the current largest Lego box (Ninjago City\Death Star size), but it's still a 2 hour+ drive each way (and the cost of petrol) then need to be up for work the next morning! There's also the possibility of going and there not being enough stock so not even actually ending up with a Falcon. I also hear that although there will be Lego designers there including the designer of the original UCS Falcon, that the designer of the new Falcon itself will not be there, so seems a little odd to get it signed by random Lego designers. Could be a fun experience though.

I'd definitely like a Tie-Bomber UCS set, or a new version of the Y-Wing. Tie Bomber would be a nice companion piece to the Millennium Falcon as that is based around the space slug scene which is where the bomber also appeared. Obviously a Star Destroyer would be nice (though I am considering building Raskolnikov's MOC), though I'd hope it would get a significant redesign over the original. I used to have one and it did suffer from a lot of drooping of the nose and the bottom panels dropping off due to them only being held on by magnets down the centre of the hull.

I am so tempted to attempt this build, got a few sets I'm happy to disassemble which should give me a good start on the required parts (Death Star and the TFA Falcon, plus a few others) and some random bricks from mixed ebay lots, the most expensive items I seem to be missing are the small black 1x2 panel hinge parts (4275b and 4276b) as each hinge half is apparently nearly £2 and there are 32 of them required (though found 8 halfs amongst the ebay haul)! Just wondering what they're used for, is it by any chance the folding wings on the Tie Fighters? In which case I might just skip the Tie's for now.

Does anyone have any idea what the deal is with the Falcon VIP card, the ad just says you get it if you buy the Falcon but is that just if you join the VIP program when you buy the Falcon or would you get the card as an "upgrade" to your existing VIP card if you're already a member?

Hmm, interesting, re-brickable reckons I have 79% of the required parts (probably actually more than that, as I haven't added all my loose bricks and I know there's definitely some of the missing parts amongst them), though would mean taking apart a few sets that I don't really want to, but maybe with a bit of careful planning it could be possible to build this without too massive an expense.

Yep, triple points on the Falcon would be great (and it did happen with the Death Star last year) but unless the rumours about the Falcon release date are wrong or they do some sort of pre-order then looks like it probably won't happen.

I read a rumour on Facebook that the Winter Village Train was being re-released to tie in with the release of the station, is there any truth to that? It sort of makes sense and seems to be backed up by the train being featured on the box for the station along with its set number, would seem strange to push a set that wasn't available. Although I see the train is still available on Amazon for around £80 which doesn't sound like a ridiculous price, how much was it originally?

Aren't there also differences in panel colouring between the original and the TFA versions of the Falcon? Wonder if there will be slight variations in the build to represent those, as presumably would only require some slight changes to the detailing in the appropriate places.

Does seem legit, the similarities to the parts from last week's video are a fairly good clue, unless someone has modified an existing MOC to include them (either in reality or photoshop). The use of the rigging is a bit of surprise, but on the other hand if it works, why change it. Certainly looks pretty impressive and a lot of the detailing looks nice and accurate, with nice representations of the greebling from the real model, think the scale of some parts is slightly off in relation to others i.e. I think the rear engine vents are slightly larger than they should be, but obviously you'll never get everything item perfectly scaled with Lego. Just looking at the text to the bottom right, can see 7500 and 15 (possibly 16), surprised the part count is not accurate but guess it could say "Contains over 7500 parts", could the other number be minifgures? But that would mean a pretty wide range; Old Han, Old Chewie, Rey, Finn, BB-8, C3PO, Han, Chewie, Luke, Leia, Lando, R2-D2? Which is obviously TFA passengers and everyone on board at the end of Empire and still not quite there. edit - Ah yes, of course, the 16 is the age guide as mentioned below.

1/43 is the scale of the DeAgostini model shown above (and also the original smaller filming prop), which is virtually the same size as the original UCS Falcon (I think the UCS Falcon is a couple of centimetres longer), so that would make it minifigure scale.

I suspect if there is an interior it will be limited, I have a non-Lego Falcon model that is almost exactly the same size as the original UCS Falcon and the interior of that consists of just one main room containing the most famous features like the rounded sofa, nav computer and Dejarik table (which is about 5" by 6") and a few short sections of corridor leading off of that, with a removable panel on top for access. Seems like something similar to that could be done fairly easily with just a few hundred pieces. It's not like you really see much of the interior in any of the films beyond that. edit - And while I was typing, a picture of exactly the model I was talking about has been posted!

The minifigures could be displayed as part of the UCS plaque, like they are with the Snowspeeder and Tie Fighter. One of the fake UCS MF images showed something like that with ESB figures one side of the plaque and TFA ones the other.

Does anyone know what sort of time the Ninjago City set is likely to go on sale in the UK for VIPs? Assumed it would probably start at midnight but doesn't seem to be available yet, though have had a few issues with my account recently.

I think the last 2 teasers have been posted on Tuesday (1st one was 1st of August on Facebook), so think we'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Wow, Death Star is only about 300 pages! Obviously that's assuming they are just referring to the page count being 2.56 times bigger, rather than including the larger page size in the 2.56 times calculation. Wonder how long these teases will continue for, one a week till Force Friday? And thinking about what other similar comparisons they could do. I guess part count is an obvious one, weight, length. Can't see them doing price "Destiny's Bounty costs £109.99, but something more expensive is coming, 5.46 times more expensive!" doesn't have quite the same ring!

I would suspect if there is an interior it will just be a small area, rather than a full interior like standard MF, due to the need to make the interior fairly strong. I have a non-Lego Falcon model that is almost exactly the same size as the current UCS one and the interior of that is basically one room, with the navi-computer, circular seating, game table and bed, plus a couple of corridors and the gunnery seats, which is accessed through a lift off section of the top hull. Something like that could work quite well I think, could slot into a space between a sturdy technic frame and contain all the best known falcon interior features, without needing loads of parts or compromising the strength of the model. Also avoids the issue that the interior of the Falcon as seen in the films does not fit correctly within the exterior.

Yep, looking at the picture the box appears to be a similar height and width to the boxes mentioned (original UCS MF, Death Star, Opera House etc.) but at least half as deep again, which matches that. Also means it wont fit in my boot :( (or trunk if you're American) #first-world-problems

I actually wanted the tank, though I like the temple as well so still took the order. Even contacted Argos [/quote] on their website and they assured me it was the tank! edit - I see the website has now been updated with the correct title, no sign of the tank now though, though now the 3 for 2 deal is over I'll probably buy anything else direct from Lego for the VIP points.

I think that might just be random lighting on the wrapping, doesn't seem the right place on the box for the cockpit, if it was there there would be a massive empty space on the bottom left of the box art, plus I think it would end up partially under the logo and set information.