jdubbs

I am a bit surprised that the first wave of Rogue One sets are retiring so quickly... just a year or so on the market. The first wave of TFA is (for the most part) still available... and those sets are a year older than the Rogue One equivalents. They could be keeping sets like the Falcon, Poe's X-Wing, First Order TIE, and Kylo's Shuttle around because they'll be featured in TLJ. But I hope it doesn't mean the Rogue One sets didn't sell well... I still have fingers crossed that we'll see a Rogue One Cargo Shuttle once Kylo's and/or Krennic's shuttles are off the market. I think it's highly unlikely another UCS set would be announced alongside the UCS Falcon... it would be totally eclipsed by the attention paid to the Falcon, and no one would have the budget for two UCS sets at once. The next UCS set will likely come in the first few months of 2018, around the time the Snowspeeder was announced.... but the way I read his comments, the "big" set he's referring to is another system-scale set that he worked on, since those are the sets he warns are retiring.

No, they do a big day-of reveal across all brands. Hasbro's stuff hasn't been officially revealed yet either.

Since they don't increase prices on sets after they've been released, LEGO prices their sets for the (entire) expected lifespan of the set. You can see this at work in sets like the current UCS Death Star, which has a higher price-per-piece than other UCS sets, at least partly because that set will be on the market for years and years (the previous version was sold for 7 years, versus ~3 for most UCS sets). The Winter Village Station won't be sold for that long, but in the US at least, it should be on the market for 2-3 years. It's possible the set was mis-priced for the UK. But it's also likely that LEGO is hedging their bets — with Brexit looming and the uncertainty it has created for the long-term value of the pound (not to mention import/export agreements that will inevitably change against the UK's favor) — they're better off pricing sets higher for the UK as a defense against devaluation down the line.

The train is still available at the LEGO Store, as is the re-released Winter Village Toy Shop from two years ago.

I wonder if LEGO could take a modular approach to Hogwarts, if a large Disney Castle-style set isn't in the cards. One wave could include Dumbledore's Office, the next could include Gryffindor House Quarters, then the dining hall/sorting hat, Snape's Potions classroom, the Room of Requirement, etc. And they'd all be designed to connect together into a larger build. Probably a pipe dream since it would be fairly complicated to plan out, but it would be a great way to get larger, more detailed interior areas (and more of them), it would fit the sprawling architectural style of the castle, and it would keep the line going year after year... rather than releasing a slightly different, vastly undersized version of Hogwarts every few years, which seemed to be the approach a decade ago.

I still see it just fine.

Not to pile on the skepticism, but the one thing that struck me as odd is that the dimensions listed are exactly those of the previous UCS set... down to the cm. I guess if it's built from the same interior framework, it could be the same number of studs on the exterior too, but given the amount of SNOT techniques being used and the increased number of parts, I would expect those dimensions to vary at least a bit in the new version...?

The original UCS MF did not have a finished underside, nor a stand... so the new model could easily chew up an additional 2000 pieces without an interior. And as we saw with the current A-Wing versus the model released several years ago, it's entirely possible to substantially increase the number of pieces without increasing the overall size... LEGO tends to favor smaller pieces now, which increases the piece count but not the dimensions.

The inclusion of Coleman Trebor in that battle pack is a little confusing. Aside from the fact that he shouldn't appear with RotS Clone Troopers, he's not a character that I think most collectors would want more than one or two of... having only appeared in one Jedi Council scene and the Battle of Geonosis. Ki Adi Mundi at least appeared in all three prequels and throughout the Clone Wars series. I'm hoping Trebor is just a placeholder, otherwise I'll only be buying one of this battle pack. Not really seeing the point of the Tatooine battle pack or the Grievous speeder.... really wish they'd updated the Grievous starfighter over a speeder that barely figured into one episode of the Clone Wars. Yoda's Hut seems like the absolute smallest build they could get away with, which is a shame, given this is likely the only version of this location we'll see for a long time. Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but this wave seems pretty meh. Hoping the remaining TLJ and Han Solo sets are more compelling...

I think Hasbro is in much greater jeopardy here than LEGO... Disney's Star Wars Elite line is clearly a shot across Hasbro's bow, being that it competes directly with (and in some cases is visually indistinguishable from) Hasbro's still-newish 6" line of action figures. There's also a lot more frustration and discontent among Star Wars Hasbro collectors than there is among Star Wars LEGO collectors. Hasbro's license is up for renewal in 2 years I believe, and I wouldn't be surprised if Disney scales it back to allow for increased competition from both Disney and other brands, like LEGO.... which I hope will finally allow a Star Wars CMF line.

Yes, it's on the August calendar, available the 16th, at least in the US.

I believe it was Stash who first reported the ESB/TFA focus for minifigs... so, pretty much reliable info. Since the first UCS Falcon featured ANH minifigs, an ESB theme would be an easy way to differentiate the two sets. And I don't believe anyone in the know has stated that the Falcon is specifically to commemorate the 40th Anniversary... we all assume so because of the timing, but it's not like the Snowspeeder appeared in ANH, and it was released this year as well. While it would be a dream to include dozens of minifigs in the set, it only really works if the Falcon has an interior... and a large one at that. And here too, we've heard nothing to suggest that it does (or doesn't, to be fair). While the increased piece count could be a sign that there is some kind of interior area (other than the cockpit), those extra pieces could just as easily be used for added detail, an underside (since the original UCS Falcon was unfinished underneath, other than landing gear), a stand, etc.

I think it's unlikely LEGO would use the number of minifigs as a metric for another teaser. The two teasers so far have emphasized the new set's size as a multiple of other large sets, which is hard to do without, say, comparing it to a set with very few minifigs ("The UCS Snowspeeder has 2 minifigs... but something is coming with 4.5x as many!" just seems silly.) We've heard nothing to suggest that the Falcon has an unusually large number of figs... all we've heard is that it has characters from ESB and characters from TFA. Logically, that puts us at 8-10 minifigs, assuming Han, Leia, C-3PO, and Chewie from ESB and Han, Rey, Finn, and BB-8 from TFA, plus maybe a few Stormtroopers. You could theoretically get to 12 if you included Bespin Luke and Lando, but that would cram a lot of long-sought exclusives into one set.... and it's still below the Sandcrawler, Assault on Hoth, and Ewok Village, and less than half of the minifigs included in the Death Star. To even approach that number, you'd have to include every character who's ever set foot in or near the Falcon across every movie.... which seems pretty unrealistic. (Though also extremely appealing.)

Price is not a reliable indicator of piece count, especially when you look at just one set for comparison. Over the last 3-4 years, the UCS Star Wars sets have ranged from 9¢ per piece to 12.5¢. Lots of factors influence pricing, even within a license/sub-brand, not the least of which being the size of the pieces included. LEGO also seems to charge disproportionally more for more minifigs, and the Death Star had the most ever for a Star Wars set (25+). Unless LEGO is in a very generous mood, the Falcon likely won't have half as many.

The Force Awakens Falcon will likely be retired soon.... it's been on markdown (at most US retailers, anyway) for the better part of the year. >2 years on the market is pretty long for a non-D2C set, and they'll no doubt want to issue another one in the winter/spring for the Han Solo movie.

I'm sorry, but this is just plain rude. There's no reason to talk to, or about, other members of this forum in this way. Your underlying point may be entirely valid, but I give it a lot less credence when you call wesker (and by extension, me) a "whiny man-child". I too have a child that loves LEGO, loves Star Wars, and loves Christmas. And yet I'm somehow able to muster the emotional strength and fortitude to separate my own criticisms of these subjects from my son's (and my) enjoyment of them. This is a forum for adults (not children) to discuss (and yes, sometimes criticize) LEGO products. If that offends you, no one is forcing you to read or participate.

I think part of the problem is that the minifig selection is so homogenous. Five of the minifigs are rehashes of troopers that recently appeared in battle packs (plus two randoms that aren't really minifigs that anyone wants more of). While it's always nice to get more stormtroopers and officers, we already have lots of avenues for those, between last year's regular sets, the last three waves of battle packs, and the TLJ sets which seem to be weighted heavily toward them... For me, 2016 really set the bar for Advent Calendars... a nice variety of figures you'd most likely want to have multiples of, and even a brick-built figure that we'd otherwise never get. Why couldn't we have gotten an ugnaut, tusken raider, and/or a rebel/resistence pilot instead?

I would certainly buy it. And I don't even have any Harry Potter sets!

There will almost certainly be unique minifigs. The last UCS set that didn't have exclusives was the X-Wing, some 4 years ago. Extrapolating from what Stash has reported, we're probably looking at new versions of Bespin Han and Leia (white jumpsuit?) and more detailed versions of Rey and Finn.

I'm happy for arctic because I never bought the previous wave and I haven't wanted to spend eBay prices on it.

The Star Wars moderator (Stash) indicated once or twice that it was coming soon. His sources and information is generally considered to be reliable.

Yes, according to pretty much all of the rumors it's supposed to have two radar dishes and a small set of ESB minifigs plus another set of TFA minifigs.

The "modular" nomenclature is confusing because it means different things to different people. I think it's cleanest to use the term only to refer to the Creator Expert line of interconnecting buildings, since that seems to be the way LEGO uses the term, at least in their designer videos. Similarly-scaled buildings like the Simpsons house/store, Monster Fighters Mansion, and even Ninjago City can be adapted to fit in with the ten official Modular Buildings, but I at least don't think of them as "modular" — regardless of how they're constructed — because they're not part of the line. LEGO tends to construct buildings in one of three ways: open-back (Disney Castle, Winter Village, Arkham), hinged/dollhouse (Monster Mansion, Simpsons, Ghostbusters Firehouse), and stackable plates (all 10 modular buildings, Ninjago City). My guess is that different LEGO designers favor each technique, and that some structures just lend themselves to one or the other. Personally, I prefer the stackable plates method: it allows for complete floors/levels and a 360º exterior (unlike the open-back method) that doesn't have to be artificially split down the middle to be seen (unlike the hinged/dollhouse method). My hope is that a Wayne Manor set uses this building technique. But to be done right, I think it would need to be on the scale of a Disney Castle, Ghostbusters Firehouse, or Monster Mansion... and I don't know that stackable plates would be stable enough when the footprint is that large. Time will tell, I suppose...

In the U.S. at least, the Disney CMF line was also reduced 20%, to $3.19. And Series 17 was just reduced this week to the same price.

Bear in mind the blasters could just as easily be placeholders as anything else in the rendering.