NathanR

Sadly, it seems to be a general rule that when a Lego set retires it's price trebles due to the rarity. Elves especially, given how beautiful all the dragons are. Aside from searching for shops with old stock, you could also try buying the parts individually through bricklink. You can get the list of parts in the set from bricklink by clicking part out on the set description, and then you can pick stores to order from. The site offers an "Auto-finder" search tool to identify the best/cheapest combination of stores, and a quick check suggests the cheapest option is three orders totalling £70 + P&P. However, a lot of these parts are rare or unusual colours which increase the bricklink price. You can buy bricks direct from Lego customer service (bricks and pieces), and some parts are often cheaper from here - e.g brick 1x2 in trans light blue is £0.47 from my bricklink check, but £0.13 from Lego customer service. It can be a bit tricky making sure you actually make a saving on all your orders (make sure you don't order from outside the EU, or you'll get hit hard with import duties), but it might be an interesting project for you and your daughter.

Really excited for this one, the functions are amazing Definitely a day one purchase for me! They showed the sticker sheet in the designer video, I got the impression that the canopy has about 5 stickers (one for each of the stripes) so it should be a lot easier to apply them and get a good result. If the next UCS set is indeed a millennium falcon, it could be a very painful year for my wallet...

LDD doesn't have the correct prints available for the astromech droid, so that may cause an issue. LDD is definitely bad when it comes to handling all the different mood variations that bricklink tracks. I'm not too sure what the problem is with the ldr file, but all the part IDs should be valid. I will see if I can put together a brickstock inventory in the next few days. I have a few in the pipeline, but it's a lot harder to do these refreshes than I'd expected (though I probably shouldn't have tried Yoda, what with all that sand green). Real life has also been getting in the way, I move to a new country next week and will be away from physical Lego bricks for a few months. But I still have LDD... :)

Wow, very dark and dramatic!

It's all part of Lego's quality control. Sealed bags of parts are weighed in the factory to make sure that they contain what they're supposed to, but small parts like 1x1 tiles are so light that one could easily be missed out and not noticed. That's why they give you extras to make sure that you can finish your model, and it's a nice little bonus for the builder (unless you're like me, in which case you leave extras with their set instead of putting them to better use in MOCs). The cost of the parts is probably factored into the price of a set, and it's better for Lego's reputation and cheaper in the long run to avoid having to ship out replacement parts all over the world. I'm kind of curious though, has anyone has ever had a set where the extra parts didn't match with what bricklink claims should be there?

You just saved from digging out my copy to check! 10019 is almost spot on to these specs. Actually the CR-60 corvette came about more or less by accident. In order to help Episode 3 bridge the prequel and original trilogies together, they threw in a few ships from the original trilogy. The Episode 3 rebel blockade runner was supposed to be the CR-90 Tantive IV from the opening of ANH, but the CGI model they built had so many differences that it became a new class of ship, the CR-60. I suspect the schematics were derived from still photos of the original opening - unless you know what to look for, the perspective of the shots after the opening crawl seems to shrink the blockade runner, and hides the length of the mid-section. Theres probably quite a story somewhere...

All new parts released in 2016 are visible here: http://brickset.com/parts/year-2016 You can also look back at previous years I think. The list includes new parts, and new colours of old/existing parts.

Thanks for the suggestions, you've certainly given me a lot to think about. My original plan was to simply update the original model to use modern parts, in the same way that Lego recently updated the 10188/75159 Death Star - replace the old or outdated parts with more readily available alternatives. This is what I have so far, and so far it's only minor alterations to the central body, and a case of rebuilding the display stands: The Rebel Blockade Runner always struck me as an odd ship. While the Rebels TV show and the photos of the original studio model show a long and slender vessel, there's something about the opening star destroyer chase that makes it seem short and chunky, like 10019 and the schematics that have been around for years: I want to focus on preserving the look of 10019 for now, though you've certainly inspired me to a separate MOC with greater accuracy. I'm already thinking along the lines of 6-wide cylinders with a 3-stud gap between them... Good call! I never saw that before! I'll keep that in mind. though I'm still tinkering with ideas for a red ring.

Yep, the 2540 in reddish brown hasn't been made for about 5 years. Your idea might work. Maybe 32028 1x2 plate with rail? You can get that in reddish brown (though it is slightly cheaper from Lego Bricks and Pieces). You can even get it in dark orange for a closer match to the original.

I’ve been working on updating the 10019 Rebel Blockade Runner, which so far has gone quite smoothly apart from the engine block on the back - I could really use some ideas for part substitutions. The original model has many rare parts on each engine: 33211 spoked wheel (long out of production), 2515 Wheel in Light gray (can be recoloured to pearl dark grey), 2903 wheel in dark red (unique), 3961 8x8 dish in light bluish gray (never made), 3934/3933 Wing 4x8 in white (hard to get in bulk). There were also stickers across multiple pieces to provide some additional detailing on the cylinder shells. I’m struggling with rebuilding this, and my attempts so far are shown below: Firstly, replacing the dark red wheel is a nightmare because of the limited number of parts available in that colour. I tried using 1x3 curved slopes (left) to build a circle, but the circle works out at something like 8.2 studs and you can’t sit the engine cylinders next to each other. I also experimented with a pentagon/circle technique I found online (middle) which kind of works but it’s awkward to mount on the cylinder, and I’m not sure how strongly I can attach the 2515 large wheel that forms the engine nozzle. My current preference (right) is for 4x4 round corner plates to build up the red stripe, but I don’t see how to mount the large wheel securely - any ideas? I’d also like to avoid the stickers on multiple pieces, by rotating the 8x8 cylinder 45 degrees - that way, the sticker should fit on just one shell. Problem is, all the turntables seem to spin freely - is there any compact way to lock lego bricks at a 45 degree angle?

You might not get as much nacelle droop as on the original actually. The pin connectors covering the axles are a lot thicker and more rigid than the 7mm ribbed hoses, so they should help stop the axles flexing. Of course! That's what Lego spaceships are for! There are two 1x2 plates with handles, 2540 and 48336, which only come in a handful of colours. If orange 2540 is too bright, maybe consider 48336 in pearl gold? The only other colours for these parts that are easy to get are light or dark bluish grey. Failing that, I just found 32028 Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Door Rail which might be an excellent choice, you can get them in dark tan or reddish brown. If you want to get even closer to the original,then this part was also made in dark orange and can still be bought for around 0.30USD each. Really? How can you attached curved slopes to the bicycle wheel? I thought the only attachment point was for a tyre. The bars are a mix. The 8L copper hose got replaced with 2x 4L lightsaber bars. The 6L copper hoses got replaced with 63965 Bar 6L with stop ring. On the engine pylons, I'd go with manglegrat's suggestion pictured above and use 2x 63965 6L bars to replace the long dark grey hoses. Brilliant, can't wait to see them!

This is awesome, thanks so much for sharing the instruction photos. I definitely want to have a crack at putting this beast together!

That's a really nice touch, I think I'll have to update my plans to match . Yep, I can't wait to try out some of the nacelles in real life and so how they bear up to the weight. It's interesting actually, the original wheel 32077 weighs 12.1g, but the stack of 2x motorcycle wheels 2903 weighs a total of 24.7g. My best shot at a brick built nacelle is this, which comes in at just 20g: Though I'm not sure how solid it will be, it loos pretty fragile. Guess I'll find out in a week or so when my parts show up

Ouch, I can't think how I missed that . The 4L bars haven't been made in Dark bluish grey for around 10 years, I guess I must have muddled it with the black ones when I looked on Lego bricks and pieces. Thanks for letting me know, I've just edited and re-uploaded all the models (LDD, LDraw and mecabricks). This is just a hasty fix, though I'm thinking of adjust the greebling a bit further - it looks a little odd to me at the moment, and I think if I squash the detailing in a little it will better disguise the fact that the whole length of tubing has been shortened. Did you do any other changes? I've also had a few ideas for lightening the weight of the brick built engine nacelles, but it still works out heavier than the original. Got to wait for some parts to arrive before I can try them out though...

Continuing with my project to update and refresh all of the UCS sets to use modern and readily available parts, I’ve adopted a more systematic approach and am now working through the sets in order of release. The first UCS sets were of course the 7181 Tie Interceptor and 7191 X-Wing, but the Tie Interceptor requires so many changes that it would essentially become a MOC and the X-Wing was already updated as 10240 Red Five. I’ve therefore skipped these sets, and moved on to the oldest UCS set included on the UCS 10th Anniversary Poster: 10018 Darth Maul. (Rendered with Blender via Mecabricks) Released in 2001 as a retail exclusive, the model has an interesting build though the two-tone colour scheme gets a little dull and repetitive. The instruction manual was rather unusual, using a top-down view throughout and having the model built up one layer at a time. (Rendered with Blender via Mecabricks) Being a brick-built sculpture, pretty much every part is still in production and I didn’t have to do too much work here. The most visible change is in the cylindrical block that supports the whole model, which I recoloured from black to dark bluish grey - the main component is 30562 Cylinder Quarter 4x4x6, which only appeared in black in one other set. Some of the other parts used in the original model took me by surprise, as I’ve only rarely encountered 4x6 and 4x10 bricks and I never knew 4x18 bricks even existed. These bricks have all had to be replaced with smaller bricks or combinations of other plates. One lovely touch on the original was a chrome silver antenna to represent Darth Maul’s small silver earring. Since Lego don’t do chromed parts any more, I’ve sadly had to replace it with a 4L bar in light bluish grey - though I’d advise anyone actually building this model to get a custom chrome-plated part so that the detail could be done properly. Summary of all changes to the set: You can view the model on mecabricks, and download the LDD file here. I’ve not prepared an LDraw file, because so little has changed with this refresh that the instruction manual for the original can still be used. Please note that I’ve not built this model in real bricks yet, and probably never will. Darth Maul is just a little bit too creepy for my tastes…

Wow, that's a brilliant model! The model has a lovely organic feel and looks fun to play with. I might have to have a go at building one for myself

Ooh, please post some photos when you've finished building it! I haven't had a chance to buy the bricks for this myself yet, so I'm restricted to CGI renders for now. The original dark orange handle bricks added a nice rusty feel, but are unavailable. Reddish brown is a match for the piping and looks too similar, and the bright orange is a little too vibrant. DBG could be quite nice too though... I guess it's just up to you, with what you feel looks better

One thing to keep in mind, don't just blindly use the LDD file to generate your Bricklink wanted list. Most of the time you'll be fine, but LDD doesn't distinguish between part mould variations, while Bricklink does. For example, LDD part 3678 (the 2x2x2 slope brick) won't appear at all if you do a search for it on Bricklink, because it's listed as 3678b or 3678a for with/without a bottom tube. The "a" variant has been out of production for nearly 10 years and will therefore be harder to get hold of, so you have to make sure your wanted list goes for the "b" variant. It's worth checking each brick type you're ordering to make sure you get the most common variant. It's also worth having a look at Lego Bricks and Pieces, as occasionally they sell parts cheaper than most or all bricklink stores (especially useful if you are buying bulk)

I doubt we'll see an update or rerelease of the Falcon any time soon - it was 13 years after the release of the original UCS X-wing before that got an update with 10240 Red Five in 2013, so I'd expect another Falcon in about 2020. In view of the 40th anniversary of A New Hope, my guess would be a UCS model of Luke's Landspeeder as I think it's the only iconic vehicle from the movie that's not been given the UCS treatment yet. That said, my hope is for either a new rebel blockade runner or (please, pretty please Lego) a new Star Destroyer.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I tried brickshelf but the signup seems broken (at least, I never got the email with confirmation). I went with bricksafe in the end, and you can access the models here: http://bricksafe.com/pages/NathanR/ucs-y-wing I include the original LDD file (note, 4x 2L axles are out of place because the pylon is not allowed to flex outwards to mount the engine nozzle), together with an LDraw file that is organised into steps and subassemblies as per the original instructions. Yes, it is way too much weight, according to bricklink the parts are just over twice as heavy as the original wheel. I keep trying to come up with a better way of mounting the engine nozzle on the pylon, but this is the least bad that I've found. I will try and tidy up the list of part substitutions later, but to answer your questions: I use 2540 Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle on Side with a 3023 Plate 1 x 2 above and below, all three parts in orange. This exactly matches the shape of the original part 30236 Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle, and is the closest colour match. the pylon arms use 8L, 10L and 12L technic axles. The axles are held together by 18948 Technic, Driving Ring Connector in white, and the axles are covered by 62462 Technic, Pin Connector Round 2L with Slot (Pin Joiner Round) in white.

Copper hoses are virtually unique to the Y-wing. If you check out Bricklink, you'll see only one other set ever contained them. You could try buying the longer 20L hoses and cutting them down to the sizes you need, but I think this might end up being just as expensive. Alternatively, set 10236 Ewok Village included some 16L and 28L reddish brown hoses and these seem to be going relatively cheap, you could try getting some of those and cutting them down to size. When I did my redesign/update of the Y-Wing (see my separate thread), I replaced the 6L copper hoses with a 6L bar with stop in reddish brown. The 8L copper hoses got replaced with 2x Bar 4L in reddish brown, which is a little more fragile as each bar is only held in place by one clip. I've only built the model in computer so far though, so I'm not sure how well this would fair in real life. You might need to insert additional clips so that each bar is held in place at 2 points. Hope this helps!

Wow, that's a beautiful model!

Thanks guys! Basically I just built the model in LDD checking each brick as it went on to make sure it was either common on bricklink or available through Lego Bricks and Pieces. I did consider the thinner motorbike wheels (2903) for the ends of the pylons, but those are also out of production (at least in white) and don't quite capture the engine profile either. I found some reference images like this one where you can see the rings at the end of the pylon are very chunky, tapering slightly, and with inner rings. Even the original 32077 wheel isn't particularly good on the model, but it did allow the 2x2 dome brick to be recessed into it. Oh I'm happy to share now, I'm just not sure where/how to upload it. What do you guys typically use?

I have a bit of a vague memory that the UCS Jedi Starfighter and the UCS Super Star Destroyer also got reduced when they were retired. The Jedi Starfighter didn't seem to be a very popular model so I guess they were just trying to clear stock. It can happen, but I wouldn't count on it. `You could try waiting for the Black Friday deals, though last year it was just 5% off in the UK .

This is the start of a very ambitious project for me - I intend to bricklink all of the UCS sets, buying all new parts. However, since every UCS set has at least one unique part/colour combination and many key parts in the older UCS sets are long out of production, I intend to “refresh” each one in the same way Lego did when they updated and rereleased the 10188/75159 Death Star playset. My goal is to change as little as possible on each model, preserve the original design and construction techniques, but replace all the hard-to-get parts with more readily available (and cheaper!) ones. I’ve been working in Lego Digital Designer, and the first set on my list is now complete: 10134 Y-wing Attack Starfighter The original model had over a dozen unique or rare pieces which have been replaced with parts that have featured in sets released within the last two years. Minor changes include replacing the unique copper hoses with reddish brown 6L and 4L bars and recolouring the dark orange parts to bright orange (the 1x2 brick with handle is now a 1x2 plate with handle sandwiched between two 1x2 plates). More major changes include the 6x6x3 domes on the front of the engine struts, which only appeared in white in one other set, and have been replaced with a set of 3x3x2 white round corner bricks mounted on white 6x6 plates and held in place using concealed SNOT bricks. The original engine pylons were constructed from technic axles covered with 7mm ribbed hoses that are now insanely expensive, so I’ve rebuilt the whole assembly using the 3L driving ring axle connector and white pin connectors (the current version has a slot in it, which is annoying but can’t really be helped). The overall length of the starfighter remains the same, but the sizes of the axles used have been altered. One part which perhaps should have been replaced is the 30359b “Bar 1 x 8 with Brick 1 x 2 Curved Top End”, which only appeared in white in 2 sets but is relatively plentiful on bricklink (I was surprised to find one German seller with over 1500 of them in stock). However, the most significant change to the model is the replacement of the white wheels forming the engine nozzle (part 32077, unique to the set) with a brick built structure that adds some extra detail Here, some bricks have been removed to better show off it’s construction: I made it as lightweight as I could, but it is still twice the weight of the original wheels . I suspect it will cause the pylons to droop over time, and I’m worried it might be enough to throw the model off balance on its stand. I also hate the way it’s mounted on a single axle, allowing it to spin almost freely, but the distance to the central turbine is 3 technic half-bushes so a pin is incompatible. I'd be curious to hear suggestions for a better version. Full details of the part changes under the spoiler tag. I've got LDD and LDraw files prepared, you can access them on bricksafe. You can also view the model on mecabricks here. Any comments on the model, my CGI images, or suggestions for improvements would be much appreciated! Edit 9/7/17: Migrated all photos from photobucket to bricksafe. I am never using photobucket again...