Bricklinking a 10212 - Imperial Shuttle

cheekymunk3y

Hey guys,
I only recently started collecting again last October and been working on my Lego Star Wars display and keep coming back to the 10221 which i missed out on. I keep trying to tell myself that I don't need it especially considering the prices they go for now on ebay but find myself looking at it nearly every other day, really is a nice set! I therefore have decided to try and bricklink one to try and save on cost. Just wondered whether anyone has had any experience bricklinking the shuttle and whether there were any parts that proved problematic getting hold of?

Any tips would be appreciated. I've only ever used bricklink to buy instructions or full sets so just trying to get my head around the best way to get the parts.

Thanks!

mountebank

Bricklinking a 10221 as an Imperial Shuttle will be quite a challenge. Good luck with that.

cheekymunk3y

haha oops, I meant 10212!

LegoTT

Have you seen the to be released 2015 version? It might bring the prices of the UCS version down, or could even work for you instead- which would be much cheaper.

http://youtu.be/1C1z37RInW8

cheekymunk3y

Can I edit the discussion title?

iso3200

I'm not sure if any of the parts are particularly rare, but using Brickowl

10212 Inventory Cost

Is shows the current costs for buying all the parts (as a general guide) in new or used condition. Looks similar cost to buying a set in reality, though with careful planning, using your existing bricks etc it could be done cheaper. Postage from different vendors soon mounts up though.

Having Bricklinked a few projects myself it can be a lot of fun/heartache (delete as applicable)

cheekymunk3y

@LegoTT Yeah I've seen that, been looking at images side by side. I was going to settle for that, but part of me wanted the challenge of Bricklinking something, plus I love the 10212. Maybe I should wait till the 2015 version comes out and see what happens. I guess there are other things I still need to buy in the meantime.

iso3200

^Challenge = #10179

cheekymunk3y

Thanks @iso3200
I'm not too bothered about the minifigures so excluding those and the stickers it brings about £60 off the price (guess that's not including the shipping costs though). Plus it means rather than spend the money all in one go I can spread the costs over the year as a bit of a project. Hmmm i'll have to give it some more thought. I should probably start building the SSD, that might distract me for a bit!

LegoTT

Your cost diffusion idea is exactly why I'm brick linking the Town Hall. $450+ All at once just sounds awful...but $50-$100 worth of BrickLink orders per month for several months...well, that's a fun challenge and might save me a $20 or so. Might....

monkyby87

iso3200 said:

I'm not sure if any of the parts are particularly rare, but using Brickowl

10212 Inventory Cost

Is shows the current costs for buying all the parts (as a general guide) in new or used condition. Looks similar cost to buying a set in reality, though with careful planning, using your existing bricks etc it could be done cheaper. Postage from different vendors soon mounts up though.

Having Bricklinked a few projects myself it can be a lot of fun/heartache (delete as applicable)

Having done a few sets myself, I too can say that while fun and exciting, it can be frustrating and sometimes does not lead to any cost savings. But as others have said, spreading the costs out over a period of time may make it an attractive solution. Best of luck though!

BrickDancer

My word of caution on this potential BL project is the problem of color variation, which is amplified for 'white' since even the new sealed IS sets saw lots of color differences between pieces. This will be exacerbated when you start sourcing white parts from different sellers, which may even be coming from different eras of production, even if all are 'new'. Plus on this specific vehicle of this size that is all white with broad flat areas of surface all lined up, it might be very noticeable.

samiam391

Shameless plugin.

I have one that I've been considering selling. I've just been busy and haven't posted about it. If you're interested, feel free to PM me. I'd of course take less than eBay/BL since I'd be saving on fees.

theLEGOman

Someone on a forum i am on is selling a used one, on ebay with no bids at £150.

hoyatables

This is the only set I've ever bought to resell. Happy to part with it for a fair price. It is just gathering dust. If you are in the USA make me an offer and save yourself the trouble.

samiam391

^,^^

All the competition... time to talk mine up.

My Imperial Shuttle has a Class 1.0 SFS S/ig-37 hyperdrive system, only found on the best of models. It's maximum speed is 850 km per hour (in atmosphere) and so far I've only put about 1000 kilometers on it so it's almost brand new.

I haven't even mentioned the weapons yet either, it has got some serious bruisers. Two steerable forward twin Taim and Bak KX5 blaster cannons, two Taim and Bak GA60s twin laser cannons, and 1 aft retractable ArMek R-Z0 twin blaster cannons. Wow!

Have a big family? No worries! My Imperial shuttle is super spacious, and can fit up to 20 passengers + 6 crew if you need help at the wheel! Go on vacation a lot? It can hold up to 80 metric tons of cargo, so you'll never run out of space for your souvenirs.

Not to mention it is made out of only the premium of white pieces.

Be like the emperor and ride with style, and pretty soon you might rule the universe too.

PM me to begin your journey... today.

SumoLego

Forget the Shuttle - get yourself a real starfighter like a UCS B-Wing with a slightly damaged box...

(Just kidding! But not really.)

monkeyhanger

BrickDancer said:

My word of caution on this potential BL project is the problem of color variation, which is amplified for 'white' since even the new sealed IS sets saw lots of color differences between pieces. This will be exacerbated when you start sourcing white parts from different sellers, which may even be coming from different eras of production, even if all are 'new'. Plus on this specific vehicle of this size that is all white with broad flat areas of surface all lined up, it might be very noticeable.

Yeah, whole wings different shades to other parts of the shuttle is a slight issue with the set bought new, but randomising the shading of the parts in BL orders might just give it a more natural "weathered" look.

monkeyhanger

If you do go the BL route, consider using TLG's replacement parts service. When I was BL'ing a #10197 UCS MF, many parts were cheaper through TLG than through BL. You get a "feel" for parts that seem overpriced on BL. I'm talking in GBP (£) here, but any part over £0.80 each on BL, no matter how big it is would almost certainly be cheaper through TLG, as would any specialist part having a rough volume of between a 2x2 brick and a 2x4 brick that costs more than £0.25 etc.

Basic bricks and the smaller beams will almost certainly be cheaper on BL. Many of the parts for the wings are required in large numbers - for those parts where you need 20+ of each one, it is always worth asking TLG for a price. Sometimes a slightly more expensive part that only a few are needed is still worth buying from TLG. Lots of piddly little BL orders with postage charges on each one make the pieces expensive.

If you are only ever going to display it on the stand, you could save yourself a few £/$ by forgetting all of the parts associated with the landing gear.

If you can get someone's set here for less than 1.5x RRP it will almost certainly be cheaper to buy than going the BL route.

cheshirecat

Regarding the stand has anyone come up with anything else? I have an imperial shuttle as a project at the moment but I can't have a black stand , and it always seemed a bit messy to me anyway.

ISDAvenger

If you get lucky you can find a pretty good deal on a used one. I found one on Craigslist albeit it was missing the stand, plaque, stormtrooper, and about 14 pieces which I will have to order from BL Also was missing the first instruction booklet. Got it for $90.00.

mathew

I've thought about selling mine but I'm too lazy to disassemble it. It's a large model and displaying it in my small room is a challenge.

mathew

cheshirecat said:

Regarding the stand has anyone come up with anything else? I have an imperial shuttle as a project at the moment but I can't have a black stand , and it always seemed a bit messy to me anyway.

The stand is perfect for the model.

cheekymunk3y

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I took the plunge and have placed a couple of orders on bricklink, starting with some of the parts that are out of stock with [email protected] and the most expensive one (the 10 x 75 Slope 2 x 2 x3) which is the only part that i can't source enough of from the UK.  

I never really considered the issue with the white, maybe it would have been best to order a majority of the white outer parts direct from [email protected] to keep things matching as close as possible.  Guess it's too late now!  I can see myself having to order a lot of replacement parts because of this and then wishing i'd just bought one from ebay!

I'll keep you updated with how I get on.  My aim is to build for less than £250.  Not been on the forum for a few days - wish i'd seen the ebay auction for £150 before placing £90 worth of orders! 

cheekymunk3y

So I couldn't resist placing a bid on the £150 used one on ebay :smiley: .  Up to £215 now (still not the highest bidder) - going to keep an eye on it.  

suprajames

Really wish I had not seen this thread, now thinking about trying to BL one, buying a few bits every week. Think I have quite a few of the more common parts in my spares collection already. Bit of a long winded way to do it but spreads the cost I guess.

cheshirecat

I started building one yesterday, but with a twist. The white won't be a problem for me. Thankfully most of the pieces I already have, particularly those pesky 2x2x3 double convex slopes. 

mountebank

Look no further than here for inspiration:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/LEGO-Starwars-R2-D2-10225-r2-d2-Exclusive-star-wars-Collectors-Custom-/321634063088?clk_rvr_id=786204696425&rmvSB=true

cheekymunk3y

@suprajames let me know how you get on if you decide to BL one. I unfortunately don't have a spares collection so having to buy everything from scratch.  Going to save some of my budget to buy some of the harder to come by items (from UK BL stores) direct from lego such as the white arches and angular technic beams.

cheshirecat

^^ yep, not quite the look I'm going for.

Brew

^ That's not the droid you're looking for? :)

BrickWolf76

I bricklinked this last year (my first ever ... to ambitious i know :) ).

As other have posted, I didn't think the parts were hard to find (uk based), just the quantities.  Things like the white arches [6183] (32 for this set and no more than 2 in any other) plus the various slopes and white technic liftarms i mainly got from the EU.

Just checked my account and I got 75% from the uk and the remainder from 3 orders from holland, norway and italy.

For my first bricklink experience i must have got lucky reading some of the comments as all of my 14 orders went without problems.

My main tip (as i was learning on the go) would be to don't underestimate the power of partial lots.  I started by placing bulk orders for complete lots in the inventory but you soon realise that when you get down to the last few pieces, there aren't sellers who have the quantities you want.  You then end up placing a few mini orders at the end which is where postage could rack up.  Simply put, if your first order contains 40 complete lots, make sure you hoover up what ever else is available in that shop (subject to price) no matter what the quantity.

I also made sure i bought parts listed as new (me being picky and they were white).  Again maybe I got lucky, you can notice small colour differences when you are checking the orders as they arrive but put together, I can't see it and this shuttle is great.

All in all £300 there or there abouts - could have been cheaper but i enjoyed the challenge.....

....needless to say the wife didn't enjoy the space this took up when complete...

....seems so much smaller in a carrier bag of loose pieces :smile:

suprajames

I will do @cheekymunk3y, thanks for the tip @BrickWolf76, this will be my first attempt to BL any set as well, thought I would start big :) and I do like a challenge.

I had a very quick look through my spares collection last night after printing out the BrickOwl inventory above and have managed to sort out over 300 parts (albeit just mainly axels and connectors) will have another look tonight and hopefully find some more Technic beams, then start on bricks. I am also very picky with white pieces and will replace any parts I have that I do not think are quite white enough.

I had a brief browse of BrickLink last night as well and the most expensive parts seem to be the stickers and the instructions. I know I can easily download the instructions but I really do prefer the paper version and so hoping if I do complete this set I will get the four books and more than likely pick up an original box.

I will take some pictures as I go along in this project in case anyone would be interested.

cheekymunk3y

@BrickWolf76 cheers for the info!  Really helpful.  Definitely more difficult to get the sloped pieces and technic liftarms in the UK, will track those down after pay day Friday.  I can see myself completely going off plan and not budgeting each month and just buying everything straight away!  I've already spent 3 x what i was supposed to just at the beginning this week.  I need to learn to be patient and build it up gradually. 

I've not been able to stick to buying all the white parts new - i've read some tips about cleaning older white parts in a hydrogen peroxide solution so maybe can try this to get them all a bit more consistently white.  

cheekymunk3y

@BrickWolf76 Did you buy anything direct from Bricks and Pieces?

BrickWolf76

cheekymunk3y said:

@BrickWolf76 Did you buy anything direct from Bricks and Pieces?

yeah, i ordered quite a few small pieces that appeared cheap once i factored in using some VIP points.

unfortunately for me I did this through 'Pick a brick'.  I wasn't aware at the time that you could get 'quotes' from lego based on parts not listed.

I have just checked the shop and 'Bricks and Pieces' is now next to Pick a Brick on the site and they have quite a few of the pieces available (with the pices), the white arch for example and lots of the liftarms.

Not sure why they don't combine the lists??

If this had been live on the site when i did it, it would have been easier i must say

cheekymunk3y

Yeah i've found the Bricks and Pieces site quite good as you can put in the 10212 code and it will list all the parts for the set and allow you to see which parts they have in stock plus I use it to check to see whether it's better to get elsewhere.  For some reason there are some price discrepancies between some of the parts between pick a brick and bricks and pieces, i guess they must come from different places.  I imagine i'll end up getting some of the technic parts direct from lego.  

BrickWolf76

^

definitely, i know one of my orders from the EU was probably just white technic pieces.  The bricks and pieces site seems to have a lot of them which were scarce in quantity in the UK when I did it.

Didn't even know you could now list by set and see all the pieces so thanks for that :)

Lobot

^^It may be a good idea to search by the individual part numbers, rather than the set ref, when you're checking 'Bricks and Pieces'.  I found several parts for #10179 by searching for each part individually, that weren't in the main set list.

Billybrown

cheekymunk3y said:

So I couldn't resist placing a bid on the £150 used one on ebay :smiley: .  Up to £215 now (still not the highest bidder) - going to keep an eye on it.  

or buy one from me: new in box £250 cash on collection - stockport