Thanks for the welcomes all.
Man, I've got 'the bug'. Spent the day going around a couple of malls, seeing what sets they have on offer. LEGO 8096-1: Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle seems like the best set available at retail at the moment. But I still think I will wait for the 10212. Would anyone like to predict a price? Idle speculation, I know.
Also, looking at these prices on this website: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=94125 - what's the catch with some of those sets? Seem a lot cheaper than S@H...