Faefrost

I know I am going to break down and get this at some point soon. The X Wing is one of my all time favorite spaceships. And the first one of these was deep in my Dark Ages. I probably would have gotten one on release day if A. I hadn't managed to score the last B Wing in the store and B. The wife wasn't with me, as its never good to let her see the actual pricing of these things. But my big question for all is... How the heck do you manage to display something this big? I was looking at the display model again in the Lego store tonight on the way home. And it dawned on me that they were having to put it in the display case sideways at a 90 degree angle, wing tips down. I have no idea how I am going to display something this big? (The B Wing is less worrisome as it can be made to sort of hang vertically on the wall.)

Part of it might also be that the sales performance of evil themed castles has been erratic? I know the Vampyes Castle sold well, but the Ninjago Garmadons Fortress not so well, etc. Whereas the good kings castle has been a steady seller in every version for decades.

The aftermarket is about to crash. They just haven't realized it yet. You can tell from your first sentence there. "Things are different now... The UCS aftermarket really took off in the past five years." And "now you have a whole lot of people buying sets at deals for future resale" This is what is known as a speculator bubble. When you can clearly witness regular people buying up a product because it "will be worth lots more later", then chances are you are already too late in the market. The Falcon sells for $4000 because it was originally bought by fans of Lego and Star Wars for personal enjoyment. Not speculators. Even at the discounted price. Whereas with the B Wing speculators will be lucky to get 10% return on it. They probably lost money on the Obi Wan Jedi Starfighter. The real hope is that Lego takes steps to deflate the bubbles a bit, rather than letting them simply burst. They are in a weird position for this sort of thing. While they see no profit from the aftermarket, they do see the initial increase in sales from speculators. They just have to be careful because these aren't real true growth, and will disappear in a flash if he bubble bursts. This nearly took down Marvel and DC comics in the 90's. the release of a new version of the X Wing seems like a good way to throttle the growing bubble a bit so it doesn't damage them.

I think the speed that this set sold at 50% off, vs how it seemed a slow seller at full price is probably a sign that there is a more reasonable sweet spot somewhere between the two points. Remember we hand over our money to Lego based on our perception of value. I'm betting if they had set this set initially at $150 it would have been a top seller and might have warranted another production run. If the X Wing was $150 they would have trouble keeping them on the shelves. People have mental thresholds of pricing. Hard walls were they balk. The UCS sets have been a bit above those lately.

Lucasfilms probably has a much deeper level of approval for the Star Wars sets. All of the licenses have all sets reviewed and approved by the license holder. But Lucas's entire business has been focused on this merchandising. Final approval is not being given by Ted from marketing. They have very high level people that look at exactly everything so that it shows exactly what they want. Warner Brothers is probably passing it through Ted from Marketing. Disney is somewhere in the middle. And even with it, Lucasfilms does occasionally dip into this sort of territory. See "Darth Vaders Apprentice" and "Jedi Bob" Minifigs.

It isn't necessarily a time frame. Often it is more has a set sold well enough, or fast enough to be worth doing another production run of it. With other scheduling considerations coming into play. They don't make these sets to order or continuously produce a given set. They make them as runs. So every B Wing set ever produced, was probably produced in a matter of 2-4 weeks a year or two ago. The sets were hen distributed from that run. Once the stock gets low they will make a call on whether to do another run. How well did it sell? Do they have to go back and schedule injection molding time to get needed parts for another run? Are the molds needed already committed, or at a different factory? Where in the production chain is this products replacement? Is the replacement expected to sell better? Is doing another production run if this product worthwhile? Is there demand? I'm guessing that it was felt that the X Wing would be a better seller in the same retail space. We have seen sets with shorter lifespans (The Zombies anyone?)

I think Travelers Tales actually did build it. Not in the correct colors, because the pieces weren't available for that, but the design is stable and build'able in the brick.

Fair point. But isn't that a pretty expensive way to do it? I doubt Bricklink pricing will be $4 per crow?

Brilliant!

I like it. It looks like it will stand rather tall when built. The safety stripe pieces add some nice flair, and I love that you were able to get two side by side pilots into it. (If ever anyone feels ambitious enough to try and get the pilots into the head... I seem to recall that the end boss Jokerbot from the Batman 2 video game is actually build able in the brick. That might be an interesting starting point for a real big version of these mechs.) Would this be a good time to mention that it is actually spelled "Gypsy"?

The Tonto polybag seems sort of pointless? It's a minifig that comes in almost every set with a common campfire that comes in a very low cost set. The Ranger with the Gandy Dancer cart seems much better.

They may have also taken the hit on offering the B Wing at cost or as a loss leader in order to get customers to make thir first purchase of a UCS type set. Marketing research shows that once you get a customer to make the mental leap over the price the first time, it is much easier to get him to open his wallet the second time for the next one. They are counting on a certain number of the people that bought their first UCS ship on Saturday will be back to get the matching X Wing at full price. And they are probably right about this.

It's more than simply "looks a bit like" it's almost dead on to the E Wing presented in the artwork in Del Ray Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels books. The actual time period of the show is unclear, beyond "some point after the start of the Clone Wars". It's a Lego show, not a cannon SW story, so like most of the Lego shows it will probably be a mash up of time periods. If you want to mentally rationalize it in an actual timeline somewhere. The E Wing was a fighter the New Republic used to replace the X Wing. Given that, it may be thought that it was developed by the Empire, prior to the Emperors fall (probably as a counter to the hyperdrive equipped X Wings), some prototype models were in testing, or being used for solo special operations, but it had not yet seen full production or deployment. (That's my pile of pure bull plop that I am using to justify it in my hanger, and I'm sticking to it. ; p)

It may be more a factor of where do they have the bulk of unsold sets languishing on the shelves? Plus how is the UCS line doing in that market?

Bobskink, you've got a fantastic project, and one that I think could easily hit the numbers if it is pointed at the correct pop culture obsessed niche. Someplace like Kotaku or the Escapist or some comic book blogs, etc.

The Falcon was created specifically to be a true accurate minifig scale MF. The Shuttle was something of a follow up to that. Those two ships are done deliberately in a smaller minifig scale than most UCS sets, hence they match with and get Minifigs. Most of the UCS fighters are way larger than minifig scale. (Which is often speculated to be not far off from 1/48 in spite of the minifigs?) Probably closer to 1/32 or 1/25. I think you can almost seat Kenner action figures in them. Minifigs tend to look like they need a child seat. I'm convinced the SSD was given Minifigs and the internal play set section to help clearly differentiate it from a coffee table. I'm not sure that it worked.

I think we would get either the Orc or a generic Army of the dead guy. But probably not two villains side by side. The Polybags are pretty much always some combination of minifig parts we have seen before. My best guesses, one of those two or maybe a Rohan Soldier. If we are really really lucky maybe a Ringwraith.

SIGH! Once again you are missing a key point of System Scale Lego sets. They are rarely if ever true scale models of what they are seeking to represent, nor are they very often scaled properly to each other when they represent a licensed subject. The best clearest examples of this can be found over in the Star Wars line. The X Wing is not scaled to the Millennium Falcon is not scaled to the Death Star. Yet they all do a more then passable job of communicating the idea and shape of the subject for play purposes. And even with their scale discrepancies they still have a huge fan following of fans and adults who like their overall charm. If this isn't the type of set you wish, then fine. You are obviously not its target market. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you want your hobby to capture the true scale and magnitude of Minas Tirith then you will have to either MOC it yourself, and dedicate a fairly large amount of space in your house to the project. Preferably someplace with cathedral ceilings, or you will have to go the true modeler and architects route and build yourself a true model at an acceptable scale using Model Railroad type materials such as Plasticard, Plaster and Woodland Scenics products. (They have some really neat foam carving products these days that would work well for much of the layering). To put this all in perspective. The actual shooting miniature of Minas Tirith was 1/72 scale, and at that scale probably filled somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 of a soundstage. Lego System or Minifig scale is actually closest to 1/48 (with the figs slightly oversized for that.) So a minifig scale Minas Tirith would be double the size of the filming model, or the size of a small house. Figure at a minimum it would be slightly larger than the full life size Bag End set that they made. Show of hands... Who here thinks they would box such a thing up to sell to the general public? (Note as a general rule Lego does not issue sets that would require a local building permit to assemble.) Personally I am on the list of those that will be more than happy should they issue a stylized and compressed play set that gives off he wedding cake vibe, and falls somewhere in size between Helms Deep and the Death Star. I also accept hat we will be lucky to get 1 or 2 much smaller sets, with very little of the actual city (note the Rivendell set). Your preferences may vary, but that us certainly no reason to be getting worked up over the possibilities. They will make something or not. If they do you may choose to buy it or not. If you have a clear mental picture of what you want, then rather than simply collecting stuff, start building. Share with us what it is you wish to see. Edit, if you do seek to model it yourself, either as a Lego non play set, or as a scale model I would suggest going for a scale of 1/220, also known as Maerklin Z scale. While I have not done the math, just eyeballing it makes me think that at that scale you could probably get the whole thing within about a meter cube worth of space. So appropriate for a smaller table. Plus at that scale is about the smallest you can really effectively get or make scale human figures for.

Looks great and you have captured the scene really well. The only thing you may want to consider, if you have not already, there is a version of that Fedora in purple. It's from the Space Police 3 Brickdaddy figure. Although I am not sure how well it would blend with the mostly black minifig body, going for he over coat over Jacks purple suit. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=sp114

The Modulars may have a slightly shorter development cycle. They don't require any licensing approval, and at least originally one of the limitations on the designers was to use already existing, already in inventory parts (at least as much as possible) to minimize production facility run time. It's possible that the entire cycle for them, design, approval and production may be about a year. (As opposed to almost 2 years for a Star Wars wave, or 3 for a new theme.) I think the next we see will be some sort of commercial storefront. Maybe a restaurant? Or a bank?

I think it is more in the middle ground here. It is the project creators job to promote their project. But CuuSoo does desperately need some better tools to help them do that. A better search or category system. And some improvements to how projects are presented to the front page or to casual visitors would go a long way. As it stands now your project gets easily seen for the first few days it is new, and if it makes it into the top 25 or so. Between those two points it languishes in a novels worth of barely and badly indexed pages. Just about the only way someone would find your project would be to go through them all.

We've never been abused by our Mods. They are nice kind thoughtful people who work hard to keep this forum reasonably free of some of the more sociopathic and narcissistic dwellers of he Internet here who might seek to stir us up with pointless arguments and of fences meant only to enrage. We do know this dance of the mangy interweb troll around here, and our kind mods are well practiced at dragging them out back and adding the remains to the French and British meat quality problems.

Oh that would have been nice. Here are a few more from the wishlist

And they quite possibly could make a very passable Architecture scale City of Minas Tirith set. But Minifig scale, it's not going to happen. Ever. The best we can hope for is a nice robust play set that communicates the basic shape and feel of the main action. The siege. The beacon. The tomb and precipice. There are really only 2 ways to pull that off. Several completely disjointed play sets with a hunk of white wall and some soldiers and Orc's, ala the horrid Mines of Moria. Or a larger "Wedding Cake" style selectively compressed set ala the CuuSoo project. You say Helm's Deep is accurate. Really it isn't. It is just as much selectively compressed for minifig scale. The new Black Gate set is even worse. How high should those walls be? But it communicates the idea and the scene. Heck I remember he wonderful MOC of Orthanc some AFOLs did for one of the Lego shows. In true minifig scale the tower is over 2 meters tall. Minifig scaled Lego sets are not meant to be scale models of the subject. They are meant to be a representation of the subject balanced for play. (Or weird AFOL swooshing and fondling).

Has anyone figured out what the symbol is on the wings of the E-Wing / JEK 14 Stealth Fighter?