Blondie-Wan

So I was just checking out Peeron to see if a new set I recently acquired had been added to the database, and I happened to notice the Random Piece of the Day, which as of right now is "'Animal Dinosaur Body Right Side with Holes' (40373)." I happen to have a number of these, both with printed patterns and without, and I'm glad to have them; I've seen some people here lament this particular element (or at least its application in building certain things such as Star Wars' Boga, for example), but I've always been fond of this system for recreating large-bodied animals in LEGO; it seems to just complement the aesthetic of the minifigure universe so well, to me. I checked out the part's page, and noted I actually had all the colors in which it appeared plain, according to Peeron (indeed, I actually have every set it's in - not a bigger deal, really, since every set in which it appears without printing has it in a different color). Then I checked out the patterns... and it turns out I have them, too, all five of them. Huh. Without any particular goal or even awareness of doing so, I somehow managed to get every single version - every color and/or print - of this one odd part, at a time when my Dark Ages were barely over and I wasn't yet chasing after nearly as many new sets and/or themes as I do now. Interesting. Well, to me, anyway. So... What parts can people here claim to have comprehensive assortments of them in their inventories? I'm not necessarily talking about ordinary things like 2x4 bricks, but odd, funky parts with relatively limited appearances, yet which exist in enough variety (different colors and/or decoration) that it might be considered something of an accomplishment to get them all, and yet we've managed to do just that. Let's see what you've got!

If you're talking about the inclusion of minifigures in the Executor, I doubt TLG ever thought they were significantly altering the nature of the UCS line. I further suspect that if they've followed discussion here of that set since it was announced, it's been with a mixture of bemusement, incredulity and "ohhhhhhhh"-like dawning awareness of a different POV of which they were previously unaware.

A few weeks ago I picked up a second copy of Kraken Attackin' from the local Toys 'R' Us, the last item lingering on the shelves here from the '09 Pirates line. I still have very little of the Pirates of the Caribbean line, though I'd love to get those eventually as well.

Yes, it was released in 2007, as a special set to commemorate the 30th anniversary (actually the strongest argument against rereleasing it, I think). We don't normally get to know exactly when a set goes out of actual production at the factory, but in this case LEGO sent out emails in November of 2009 saying the final production run of it was done, so it was in actual production for a bit over two years. It remained readily available at the US Shop at Home until the "May the 4th" promotion the next year (i.e., last year), when it was among the sale-priced items at 25% off (which for this set was a savings of $125, so not a trivial discount), at which point it sold out there. Individual LEGO stores in the US still had stock for at least a few weeks after that, but by around July or August it was finally gone from all of them. When I finally thought I might be able to afford it, I called every single US LEGO Store at that time and learned they'd finally all sold out. I don't know about stores or S@H outside the US, though.

I thought the thing that made the modular buildings so appealing was that they're beautiful with lots of clever, thoughtful touches. The fact that they're not widely available any more means that the desire for them goes unfulfilled; it doesn't cause the desire to exist in the first place.

I took it as well. I, too, was kind of amazed at all the LEGO-related fansites listed there at the end; I'd never even heard of some of them. It's pretty cool that so many made it into the survey.

There's at least one store near me that still had a fair number of Series 3 as well as Series 4 as of a week or two ago; I haven't been back since, but based on what I've observed of this store's sales I believe they still have them. That means I currently can buy Series 3, 4 and 5 in stores near me.

Once again, these are pure win. I'm especially excited about the Mesoamerican warrior, the bagpiper, the hippie and the IT guy, but I very much want them all - at least two of each, in fact, as I've gotten for each of the previous series, and plan to do with Series 6 as well. :laugh:

Ok, so I get that our set boxes in the US have the piece count (and more prominent choking hazard warnings) because of US product packaging regulations, though I still don't know why they're typically left off the European boxes. That said, a bigger question to me is why the European boxes usually don't even have the set names.

I love this set. I'll have to rebuild mine soon, I think. \ Yes, although unfortunately the photos no longer seem to be there. You can get the whole set that includes the elephant for 22 EUR, but the elephant on its own is rare and expensive?

Possibly, though it would depend upon in which direction they fudged things from the already-fudged interior sets and exterior mock-up from the live action photography for the original movies - scaling down the interior or scaling up the exterior, or a mix of both (aside from the usual challenges in recreating for minifigures things designed for the proportions of real human beings).

Indeed; I'd love to get at least a couple of each so that I'd have a pair for myself and another pair to give to my girlfriend for Christmas. That said, at least this promotion is running concurrently with the free shipping and double VIP points promos, which takes quite a bit of the sting out of "having to" spend $99 right now, especially since there are other seasonal sets being offered that I want to get ASAP anyway. I do hope fans in other countries get a way to get these, though.

Yeah, pretty much - the same basic idea, anyway, in that it would be an "ultimate" set that essentially recreated every scene that takes place in or immediately around the Millennium Falcon, anywhere throughout the OT, even featuring alternate parts to build it as it appears either before the addition of additional landing gear (in A New Hope) or afterward (in the other two movies).

Since this thread is more about "stuff I want" than "stuff we're likely to see," here are a few of my pipe dreams: - a truly ultimate Millennium Falcon, one even better than 10179 and with lots more features (a full interior, and everything that would make sense in it), plus a huge complement of minifigures - Han, Chewie, Lando, Luke, Leia (all but Chewie in multiple outfits), Artoo, Threepio, Obi-Wan, Vader, Nien Nunb, the Battle of Endor Rebel gunners, the DS I Imperial scanning crew, stormtroopers, etc. - a Lars homestead / moisture farm - an Ewok village set, with plenty of appropriate minifigures - and, as long as TLG is willing to do EU stuff anyway, I'd like a Z-95 Headhunter.

No Lando? I didn't think that he played too much of a role inside Jabba's Palace, but more on the Skiffs during what was supposed to be the execution of most of the heroes of the OT. That is why I didn't list him in that set idea. As opposed to Zuckuss and 4-LOM, around whom all the action in the palace was centered, of course. For that matter, even perennial fanboy obsession Boba Fett did about as much in the palace as Lando did. I think Lando would be a pretty obvious and desirable part of a set along these lines.

Hm, you think so? It didn't seem that way to me, but then I'm probably biased. Anyway, back to the topic... I do desperately want one of these, but with the price escalation I don't know if I could bring myself to buy one even if I had the money - given the aftermarket markup I'd be afraid I was getting a cobbled-together set with faked parts, though others here seem pretty sure that wouldn't happen. I'd really like to believe them, but...

You may be right about repeating the Endor moon in this line, but as long as people seem to have no issue citing scads of things to go in Tatooine sets, I'm going to go ahead and say I'd really like to see an Endor forest moon set come with an Ewok character (any, but ideally a "generic" warrior, or a named one we haven't officially gotten in a set), which of course would lead to the vehicle being an Ewok glider - a vehicle small enough that it wouldn't necessarily have to be a mini, but instead one that could actually work with the minifigure. Considering Ewoks' prominence in the finale of the cinematic series and the very existence of multiple additional works centered entirely around them (mostly released around two and a half decades ago, granted, but still), it's kind of astonishing to me that there've been only three sets with any Ewok characters, and it took ten years or more into the theme before the second and third of those arrived. I echo this, too. What I said about Ewoks applies to Jawas as well - they're actually in most of the live-action movies and any number of additional stories, and yet they've shown up in just a single set partway through the license (one with just three of them and an MSRP of $139.99 USD). We could really use more.

I think all those of us here who have money concerns picked the wrong hobby. LEGO's been helping to keep me poor for years now...

My most recent LSW purchase: another copy of 8083 Rebel Trooper Battle Pack.

There might not be any SW sets unavailable on the aftermarket, but I'd bet there are more than a couple for which there aren't as many copies in existence as there are people who'd like to own it. If there are, oh... let's say five million LEGO Star Wars fans who want a particular X-Wing set or whatever, and TLG produces only two million copies of that set, then obviously at least three million fans are going to miss out. I was saying I'd be fine with every single person being able to have a copy of every set he or she wants; if a set is nice, it doesn't kill my enjoyment of it for it to be super-abundant. The existence or nonexistence of thousands or millions of other copies of a set doesn't really have any bearing on my appreciation for the construction details, parts selection, color palette, inventiveness, etc., or my inability to appreciate those aspects if I don't manage to get the set myself. I do get that some people get off on having something just because no one else can, I really do; I'm just not one of them, that's all.

Well, that's one of the differences between your way of collecting and many others', I suppose. I for one would be delighted for absolutely every LEGO fan who wanted one of each of those sets to have one. It wouldn't take anything away from my enjoyment at all.

Thanks for the kind words. I think it's possible the secondary market value would be higher if the economy hadn't plummetted to the earth's core a few years ago. There are probably plenty of AFOLs and/or Star Warriors who've been laid off, given pay cuts, seen their 401ks erode, etc. that probably got their priorities shifted a wee bit away from "fancy ultraswanky Star Wars LEGO sets" toward such trifles as "food and shelter" starting not too long after this set was first released. (Then again, it's possible that if the economy hadn't tanked the set would've sold even better in the first place, and stayed in production longer, so that secondary market prices wouldn't have had time to rise so high yet anyway - perhaps it would even still be available new, the way the Imperial Star Destroyer had been around for more than half the lifespan of the theme by the time it disappeared. It's kind of remarkable that the Millennium Falcon, the most expensive LEGO set ever, did so well as it did considering the financial chaos that manifested itself not long after it landed on shelves - perhaps a testament to the set's desirability, I'd guess.) No, indeed, not entirely correct if we're talking about any currency referred to as "dollars"; I was talking about US dollars, but I should have specified such, especially given the distinctly non-US-centric nature of EB. Mea culpa. That said, my actual point was about people who paid above LEGO's standard price, whatever it was in one's country (i.e., ones who bought it on the secondary market), as opposed to some specific number that fluctuates with one's currency (even if I worded it suboptimally), so I think my point stands. "Snuffed it" - really? Is that how you so blithely dismiss the felling of the mighty and noble Jedi? No respect, I tells ya... Leia and Kenobi (and Vader, Han, Chewie, etc.) were all in pretty close proximity to the Falcon and to one another during that scene, so I don't think it's too great a stretch. Moreover, it can also be seen as representive of the ship's complement of passengers and crew on both her arrival at and departure from the station, which I suspect is the actual thinking behind the minifigure selection. For me, the bigger question is why Artoo and Threepio aren't included, since they (like Han, Chewie and Luke) are on board on both trips. It's partly for this reason, in fact, that what I'd really like to see even more than a straight reissue of this set would be a totally new, truly ultimate Millennium Falcon - one that not only matched or surpassed 10179's exterior detail and authenticity, but also had a full interior and a huge range of features, including working lift and top hatch, cargo space, smuggling compartments, concealed surface defense blaster cannon (with some of the moving features being motorized or pneumatic), illumination, alternate parts for the undercarriage refitting between the battles of Yavin and Hoth, etc., including a full complement of minfigures of pretty much all the characters who were aboard her at any time or just outside during the movies, in all their "looks" (so, several versions of Han, Chewie, a few versions of Lando, a few versions of Luke, a few versions of Leia, Artoo, Threepio, Obi-Wan, Nien Nunb, the rebel gunners, the Imperial scanning crew and stormtoopers, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Lobot, Cloud City security forces, etc.) and perhaps a few characters prominently associated with the Falcon in EU lore (Vuffi Raa, Bollux, Blue Max, etc.). After all, if you're going to pay a fortune for a set, why wait for it to be discontinued and increase in value when you can just have TLG issue it at a colossal price to begin with?

Alienating some customers, and indirect ones at that (since TLG didn't sell anyone a Millennium Falcon for $1000 or more; anyone who spent the really huge bucks on it got it second hand), while pleasing others (the ones who would buy the reissue, obviously). Wait, what? Where'd you get this? That may be implied, but I certainly don't recall TLG ever saying outright that these things were supposed to be investments, or even hard to get, for that matter. They're pricey, but they're pricey in accord with sets of their size, complexity and detail, that's all. They're "collector" sets simply because they aim to satisfy a collector market with designs and builds more realistic and substantial than the typical mass-market set aimed at eight-year-olds and laden with play features. But they're not exactly "limited edition" in the sense in which the term is typically applied to collectibles; there's no hard cap on the production runs. Instead, they just produce them for as long as they continue to sell well enough to warrant it. Even this Millennium Falcon, as expensive as it was, was still in production for well over two and a half years, and I'd bet TLG would still be producing it now today if enough people were better able to afford it that it could have continued to sell as well as it did at its full-price sales peak, whenever that was. I don't think they deliberately sought to limit availability duration; I think they just decided to end production when they did according to pretty much the same criteria they use to determine when to discontinue pretty much any other "regular" set, whether it's a $150 modular building or a $5 impulse from some action theme. Now, with this I do agree, and I think it's perfectly natural for such a desirable set to routinely command such a premium on the secondary market given that it's no longer in production and readily available at MSRP. I just think that given that there's obviously enough demand for it that TLG would have no problem selling more if they made it available again (which wouldn't necessarily be the case for every recently-discontinued sets, just a number of specific "special cases" like this one), it wouldn't hurt for them to do one more production run.

I don't see why that's a problem.

Thanks for the "preview notice," krystalKING! They're having additional advance previews this week for annual passholders; my girlfriend and I will be there for the last of those this Thursday, October 13, and return to the park for the official grand opening two days later on Saturday the 15th. We're really looking forward to it, especially me - I wanted to go to LEGOLAND back I first read about it in an issue of National Geographic World magazine when I was a kid, back in the '70s / '80s (when there was just the original Billund, Denmark park), so in a way this is something I've been waiting over 30 years to do, and now I finally not only get to go, but go on opening day. Thanks for the heads-up, though I can't tell from your description whether you're pleased or disappointed with the PAB at the park (though of course I'm sure it will vary from park to park and day to day, as with the PAB selections at the regular LEGO Stores).