Lobot

@bricksmarlin - that looks amazing, well done! I'm still gathering the parts for a couple of GR-75s which has proven to be quite challenging, due to the huge number of different types involved. However, looking at this the effort will be more than worth it!

My 75144 UCS Snowspeeder has just arrived! It feels quite heavy; I'm looking forward to building it this weekend

It could be a bit of clever 'future proofing' assuming that it remains in production until 2020 and beyond. The 40th Anniversary of Episode V is bound to generate another wave of interest in all things Star Wars, and this would help TLG to cash-in on that! However, as mentioned previously it's a good strategy to differentiate it from the original, which should minimise any negative 're-hash' comments, and make it appealing to current owners of 10179 so they'll want both....

@Pomodoro & @Markalus, I think that cavegod is referring to the first couple of seconds of the new 10257 Carousel designer video (screenshot above) which includes a Millennium Falcon being chased by an Exogorth, well sort of! The current rumours for the UCS Falcon mention that it includes Hoth-based minifigures and a mynock, hence the connection.....

@ecmo47 - I've moved the posts as requested. Great work by the way, it's always interesting to see this sort of project. I've just started to collect the parts for a couple of mortesv's GR-75s recently and that's been quite a challenge, mainly due to the 167 different part types required!! If the rumoured new UCS Falcon doesn't materialise by the autumn, I'm seriously debating building my own fleet... although sourcing the parts for the Nebulon B looks like a truly mammoth task!

I'm surprised to see that it's already shown as being a 'Back Order' for the UK, without an expected shipping date. I'm glad I ordered mine yesterday, so I should have it by the end of the week. Hopefully this will be sufficient to convince TLG that there's a strong demand for decent UCS models! I'm proud to be an SW AFOL again, 2016 is now just a bad memory....

The Red 'Generic Error' banner is quite normal, especially when the site is under any sort of load. If you try it again early tomorrow it should be ok; I've found that clearing out your browsing history etc often helps! If you still have problems with it, just submit an order via Customer Services on Monday. Oh, and I'd highly recommend the UCS Slave 1 - it's one of my favourites; I didn't bother to apply the stickers as it looks fine without them The underside greebling is a bit fragile, but it's interesting to build, looks stunning and it's well-priced.

I've just ordered 75144 UCS Snowspeeder - I'm really looking forward to building it!

That's a pretty decent hint in my view; time to start saving for a nice new shiny UCS Falcon

@Brickdad - If the one you're referring to is on Ebay at £41.99, then it's missing bag 4 which is quite a bit of the Catina!! Personally I wouldn't worry about the overlap between 75052 and 75173 - you can't ever have enough Landspeeders and having multiple Lukes etc will allow you to expand your Mos Eisley to include different scenes of Episode IV!

@Brickdad - it's probably achieved by using something similar to 87087 (1x1) or 11211 (2x1) - these will allow you to attach a brick/plate at 90°. 75105 is an excellent set, and will be a bargain at 40% off (although it has been a bit cheaper previously elsewhere if you've wanted multiples of it!). However, due to the demand it's likely to sell out fast online, so it might be wise to order it as soon as it's available (usually 12.05ish am!); I usually login a bit before and just keep refreshing the page every couple of minutes.... be aware though that the main LEGO website isn't very robust so be prepared for it to crash etc at random intervals!! I hope this helps

@Brickdad - It's probably cheaper to buy a used or incomplete set on Ebay, especially if you want some of the minifigures or dewbacks. They seem to appear reasonably often and you should be able to pick one up for a decent price if you look around. You can still get sealed ones for about £80 delivered occasionally, so that might be an option.... it's a great set although a little on the small side. Here's a link to a review you might like! I've merged your thread into the General Q&A to keep the forum tidy, I hope that's ok

Thanks @CopMike - you're amazing! My additional shoal of manatees arrived safely today, after a brief swim in the North Sea

Hi @jameseilers, I've merged your thread with this one to keep the forum tidy

Thanks for the great review, Jim The boxart is almost on a par with other recent UCS sets (e.g Sandcrawler, Slave 1 and TIE Fighter) but the background uses a little too much 'soft focus' to be a 10/10, but I'm probably being a little too picky about that! And, while I'm being overly critical, why can't TLG use black technic pins for the stand - blue looks totally out of place on a set of this quality and price! Overall it looks a very nice addition to the UCS series, and certainly a vast improvement on last year's offerings which were totally underwhelming to say the least. It's the first set I've seen this year that I'm really looking forward to opening; definately a day 1 purchase for me!

New Last Jedi trailer which may be of interest.... (link) As always, please can everyone respect the EB's 'spoiler' guidelines

Yes, actually it does The current 'Gold' UCS logo first appeared on a Star Wars set in around 2014 (75059 - Sandcrawler); all of the sets you mention were available before then, hence why they didn't include it. Brickset have a full inventory of all UCS sets (here) if you're interested. Without getting into the whole 'UCS debate' TLG seem to apply it to all high-end sets at the moment regardless of the quality or target-audience, which makes it fairly pointless as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks @Stash2Sixx, if the Falcon is $800 that will put it in £650 territory for the UK. I paid £750 for my last MISB 10179 just before the price exploded, so it will just be a replacement for it. I'm expecting something really stunning for that sort of price-point; they might do a limited initial run of 20,000 to add to the 'desirability', otherwise some potential buyers might opt to wait for a sale, or triple VIP points etc. I'm hoping that they'll illuminate the Hyperdrive with LEDs, but perhaps that's being a little too optimistic. I'm definitely going to do that for mine, although if I use PFs it will add another £100+.

It's likely to be either 6881 or 10202 (link) For anyone who's not used to Bricklink, I'd strongly recommend that you shop around and possibly keep track of things via a decent Spreadsheet. I've Bricklinked 2 x 10179s plus a 10143 and I found Excel invaluable! A 'Wanted' list is also a great feature and can save a lot of keying. Usually it's best to keep the volume of orders as low as possible and to find stores within your own country, otherwise shipping can become very expensive! My approach was to check the each part cost on the main LEGO website (both 'Pick a Brick' and the 'Replacement' as they often differ!) to find a benchmark price. Typically they're a lot more expensive for smaller parts, but they used to be quite reasonable for larger plates, Technic beams etc so it's worth doing some research. I then trawled through Bricklink for potential suppliers.... my strategy is to initially focus on the parts that you need a lot of, and search for stores with decent prices for them. Often smaller/newer stores are very competitive and I've usually found that their service is on a par to larger/professional ones! If you then open the store (when you're logged in) and click on the 'Shop' tab and 'Wanted List' it should populate with everything that's available which is on your list! There's a setting which allows you to include/exclude lots which don't meet the volumes you need (e.g. if you want 50, but the store only has 40) which can be useful. Each time I've always ordered everything I could from Bricklink, and then made a final 'tidying' order from LEGO for anything that was cheaper, or I'd needed a few of. Bear in mind that plates etc weigh quite a lot so it may be cheaper to source them from LEGO as they have a fixed shipping charge, even if the part cost is actually slightly higher initially....

I spent a couple of hours last night searching for potential suppliers on Bricklink. Most of the parts seem readily available but I'm already feeling guilty about the types of orders I'll need (e.g. high lot numbers & relatively low value) so I'm tempted to order enough parts for a couple of them; it might be a little less awkward..... And, before I forget, @mortesv - are there any alternatives for the 4 x 6192 (2x4 curved top) - they seem to be quite scarce new in decent volumes?

I can understand that a 'conventionally' built set might survive that sort of impact without significant damage, but I'd be amazed if all of the parts for that 10179 were still ok. The internal Technic frame for it is very strong (due to the massive weight of it) and the beams must have been put under horrendous stress especially falling from that sort of height. Anyway, I'll leave it at that, each to their own I guess

Well, according to Excel, it's only 865 parts - but has 167 different types!

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand why anyone would do this?

The Brick Fan has posted a detailed review (link); I'm looking forward to May 4th!

Great work EKAe, your fleet looks very impressive! I particularly like the multiple GR-75s, they really add to the overall look. Are you going to add the Millennium Falcon to the underside of the Nebulon B - it looks a bit incomplete without it? I'm really tempted to give this a bash, especially as the LDD file is now available for mortesv's Blockade Runner!