Potential UCS list

Lordmoral

This is the biggest insult to SW fans, we finally get mention of a new Tie Bomber and a new for LEGO SW the Nebulon B Frigate and it's not in a regular set format but in UCS. The only one that makes sense is therefore the LAAT/I Republic Gunship. If we get the Nebulon B Frigate as the 2019 Tantive IV then I am cool with that:
https://brickset.com/article/48534/vote-for-an-upcoming-ucs-set!

drdavewatford

Lordmoral said:

This is the biggest insult to SW fans...

I'm not sure how LEGO asking the fans to vote on an upcoming UCS set could possibly be described as an insult, let alone "the biggest insult", to Star Wars fans....

Lordmoral said:

The only one that makes sense is therefore the LAAT/I Republic Gunship....

Eh? Nebulon B could ONLY really work as a UCS (or possibly in microscale I guess) and the bomber would work fine as UCS too (similar to the other TIE variants that LEGO has made UCS versions of over the years). So either of these would make perfect sense. In fact, I think the Gunship would make LEAST sense as it would surely work better as a playset with a whole bunch of minifigs to make it come alive rather than as a display set?

Lordmoral

drdavewatford said:

Lordmoral said:

This is the biggest insult to SW fans...

I'm not sure how LEGO asking the fans to vote on an upcoming UCS set could possibly be described as an insult, let alone "the biggest insult", to Star Wars fans....

Lordmoral said:

The only one that makes sense is therefore the LAAT/I Republic Gunship....

Eh? Nebulon B could ONLY really work as a UCS (or possibly in microscale I guess) and the bomber would work fine as UCS too (similar to the other TIE variants that LEGO has made UCS versions of over the years). So either of these would make perfect sense. In fact, I think the Gunship would make LEAST sense as it would surely work better as a playset with a whole bunch of minifigs to make it come alive rather than as a display set?

Quote everything, I am all for a Nebulon B if done like the 2019 Tantive IV but we need both a Bomber and the Frigate as regular sets. The Gunship is the most iconic for me.

MrJackson

I would say the Black VIP card was the "biggest insult to SW fans"....

I'm a big fan of the Nebulon B and also think UCS is the only way it will work. The Gunship has been done. I'm trying to think of the order of vehicles in just the OT and what hasn't been UCSed:
ANH: Tantive 4-yes, Star Destroyer-yes, Sandcrawler-yes, Luke's Speeder-NO, Falcon-yes, TIE Fighter-yes, X and Y Wings-yes, TIE Advanced-yes;
ESB: Snowspeeder-yes, SSD-yes, AT-AT-NO, GR-75 Rebel Transport-NO, TIE Bomber-NO, Slave I-yes, Cloudcar-NO, Nebulon-B-NO;
RotJ: Imperial Shuttle-yes, Desert skiff and Jabba's Sail Barge-NO, TIE Interceptor-yes, Mon Calamari ships-NO, speeder bike-NO, A-Wing-NO, B-Wing-yes, AT-ST-yes.

I think that's al of them in debut order. So that leaves us with the NOs, which are Luke's landspeeder, AT-AT, GR75, TIE Bomber, Cloudcar, Nebulon-B, the skiff and sail barge, Home One, the speeder bike, and the A-Wing. 

Luke's landspeeder would be cool, but I don't think it'll be a big seller.  The AT-AT has all sorts of stability issues and they're not doing anything along the lines of Cavegod's AT-AT.  Forget the Rebel Transport. TIE Bomber is definitely an oversight but at a UCS scale it will wind up being comically wide.  Cloudcar doesn't have the cachet of some of the others and would fall into the same category as Luke's Landspeeder and existing B-Wing: completionists or big fans of that particular design will be the only buyers, and once that market is saturated and those people have their sets that'll be it. Which brings us to the Nebulon-B, which I think would be totally awesome. I will say a big Sail Barge would be something I would probably buy.  The Mon Calamari cruisers would have to be along the same lines as the Super Star Destoyer: big enough to capture the scale with a removable section for the bridge. I wouldn't want a Home One without a bridge for my minifigure Admiral Ackbar to yell "It's a trap!"  Speeder bike isn't happening.

The A-Wing is really the glaring omission here: it would sell, it's a compact, sleek design that would be easy to display, unlike the B-Wing's stand, it's an iconic craft from RotJ, I don't think it would be hard to design and engineer one, and we have the other three "letter-fighters" from the OT in UCS form. 

I think this is our only chance to get a Nebulon-B period.

graphite

I agree with @drdavewatford.  The Gunship makes the least sense IMO as UCS.  I actually think the ones they did for it already were well done, and a good size.  Not really sure what else they could do to make it significantly better to warrant a UCS variant.  

I also don't see why any ship *needs* a regular version in order to have a UCS version.  There was a regular tie bomber, just not an updated one.  And the Frigate would be pretty crappy at a system scale size version.

bandit778

I agree that the Nebulon B should only be done at UCS scale and would love to see it happen, provided it was done well as it's a difficult ship to get right (there are some weird and wonderful angles to achieve on both ends of the ship if you look closely). If the level of detail that went into the UCS Falcon is applied I think it could be a remarkable build and display piece. 

The Tie Bomber, as others have said would be better off as a normal set although Tie Fighters of any type are extremely popular so I wouldn't be surprised if it gets through this time.

I have to disagree with the Republic Gunship being the least suitable though.
Yes there have been some excellent renditions in system scale but if you look at a lot of reference pictures, the system scale ships are quite a bit smaller than they should be and I think that if this was designed at a similar scale to the UCS Slave 1 (according to Wookieepedia, Slave 1 was 21.5 meters long and a Republic Gunship was 28.8 meters long so not too different in terms of size) and include a whole bunch of minifigs you have a a damn fine UCS style display piece and an excellent play set all rolled into one. 

TheFew

Argh! How annoying are Lego. I collect all the parts for a UCS Moc of the 1989 Bat Mobile and then they release an official set. The Moc is still better however as it breaks down into the Bat Missile.

I am 96% towards the parts for a circa 5,000 part Nebulon B Moc and now they are likely to release that as a UCS Moc.

What set do you want Lego to make next? I'll start collecting parts for that Moc :-)

Lordmoral

TheFew said:

Argh! How annoying are Lego. I collect all the parts for a UCS Moc of the 1989 Bat Mobile and then they release an official set. The Moc is still better however as it breaks down into the Bat Missile.

I am 96% towards the parts for a circa 5,000 part Nebulon B Moc and now they are likely to release that as a UCS Moc.

What set do you want Lego to make next? I'll start collecting parts for that Moc :-)

A better Venator Cruiser.

TheFew

 Roger that.. I'll start a bricklink wanted list...

TheFew

On the plus side I am about 6 parts short of the Arvo Brothers xenomorph... Can't see Lego doing that one!

Bosstone100

I'm still waiting for an UCS A-Wing fighter myself. 

MaffyD

I'm wondering (rather optimistically, if I'm being honest) if they have already locked in the A Wing for a UCS version already, and this one is the next one they are planning. How far in advance do they start figuring stuff like this out? It can't be for 2020 can it?

Lordmoral

MaffyD said:

I'm wondering (rather optimistically, if I'm being honest) if they have already locked in the A Wing for a UCS version already, and this one is the next one they are planning. How far in advance do they start figuring stuff like this out? It can't be for 2020 can it?

The company may have all three as UCS already but they are asking us for the next one to be released.

samiam391

It may not be the most accurate poll, but I put one together on my instagram and 692 people voted for the Republic Gunship and 325 voted for the Nebulon B. 

As someone that wants the Nebulon B made, I've got a bad feeling about this.

Lordmoral

samiam391 said:

It may not be the most accurate poll, but I put one together on my instagram and 692 people voted for the Republic Gunship and 325 voted for the Nebulon B. 

As someone that wants the Nebulon B made, I've got a bad feeling about this.

We have had all the sets from the OT might as well have some PT sets.

iwybs

Lordmoral said:

The company may have all three as UCS already but they are asking us for the next one to be released.

I doubt it.  It's quite possible that they have all three prototyped already, but there's no reason for them to already be scheduled for release.  Remember that the Creator Expert car line kicked off in 2008 with a VW Beetle after it won a fan vote between prototypes for a Beetle, an Aston Martin DB5, a Mustang, and a DeLorean.  The prototyped Beetle was released in 2008, but the DB5 and Mustang weren't released until 2018 and 2019, after a redesigned Beetle in 2016, and when released they were completely different than the prototypes that were put to a vote, thanks to a decade's worth of developments in Lego parts.  We're still waiting for that Creator Expert DeLorean ... so between the Nebulon B, the Republic Gunship, and the TIE Bomber, I wouldn't count on the two that lose the vote being released anytime soon.

Lordmoral

iwybs said:

Lordmoral said:

The company may have all three as UCS already but they are asking us for the next one to be released.

I doubt it.  It's quite possible that they have all three prototyped already, but there's no reason for them to already be scheduled for release.  Remember that the Creator Expert car line kicked off in 2008 with a VW Beetle after it won a fan vote between prototypes for a Beetle, an Aston Martin DB5, a Mustang, and a DeLorean.  The prototyped Beetle was released in 2008, but the DB5 and Mustang weren't released until 2018 and 2019, after a redesigned Beetle in 2016, and when released they were completely different than the prototypes that were put to a vote, thanks to a decade's worth of developments in Lego parts.  We're still waiting for that Creator Expert DeLorean ... so between the Nebulon B, the Republic Gunship, and the TIE Bomber, I wouldn't count on the two that lose the vote being released anytime soon.

The important part is that they will get released 

The_Rancor

TLG are going to want to make a proportional decision so i’d guess...
• If two sets both get a ton of votes but they battle it out fairly closely for 1st, they’ll definitely consider releasing the 2nd one soon after
• If the 3rd place is lagging behind a lot they might reevaluate and think of another ship
• If only 1 set is massively ahead (seems unlikely) they might just focus on that one and continue to propose other ships

I think the first eventuality is the most likely, possibly encompassing the second.

Lordmoral

Well the winner is......
https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/4632a0cd-a22c-4c21-a18b-b4294a189dc2

560Heliport

"It's time for the designers here at LEGO Group to get designing!" I'm sure they have at least "rough draft" designs already done for all three. 

Lordmoral

560Heliport said:

"It's time for the designers here at LEGO Group to get designing!" I'm sure they have at least "rough draft" designs already done for all three. 

I suspect as much.

560Heliport

Also, if they haven't done any designing yet, why limit the poll to just three choices? Maybe a dozen? It could be that we'd vote overwhelmingly for something LEGO didn't think we'd care about.

The_Rancor

My guess - 50% Gunship, 40% Nebulon, 10% TIE at most. I’m happy that a prequel ship won because, well, TLG aren’t exactly very keen on producing UCS prequel shops normally. Maybe it opens us up to more iconic prequel ships or MBS. I would LOVE a gungan battle MBS complete with some scenery and stone idol, plus shield generators and a raft of droids, maybe with an AAT. An MBS of the Geonosian arena would be good too. Ships wise the ARC 170, Venator, Naboo starfighter, one of the Jedi interceptors (yes I know we’ve already had one) or podracers would be good too.

Although I voted for the Nebulon i’m glad to finally see the tide turn and enough votes come in from prequel fans. I hope it’s a sea change we notice more widely as prequel kids such as myself have more of a voice. For example, Ahmed Best being welcomed like a homecoming hero at fan events is not something i’d have imagined only 5 years or so ago - more likely booed down by OT purists.

Lordmoral

The_Rancor said:

My guess - 50% Gunship, 40% Nebulon, 10% TIE at most. I’m happy that a prequel ship won because, well, TLG aren’t exactly very keen on producing UCS prequel shops normally. Maybe it opens us up to more iconic prequel ships or MBS. I would LOVE a gungan battle MBS complete with some scenery and stone idol, plus shield generators and a raft of droids, maybe with an AAT. An MBS of the Geonosian arena would be good too. Ships wise the ARC 170, Venator, Naboo starfighter, one of the Jedi interceptors (yes I know we’ve already had one) or podracers would be good too.

Although I voted for the Nebulon i’m glad to finally see the tide turn and enough votes come in from prequel fans. I hope it’s a sea change we notice more widely as prequel kids such as myself have more of a voice. For example, Ahmed Best being welcomed like a homecoming hero at fan events is not something i’d have imagined only 5 years or so ago - more likely booed down by OT purists.

I saw the OT before the Prequels but as a kid I connected more with the Episodes 1-3.

Lordmoral

560Heliport said:

Also, if they haven't done any designing yet, why limit the poll to just three choices? Maybe a dozen? It could be that we'd vote overwhelmingly for something LEGO didn't think we'd care about.

Like say, a things they haven't done before.