Rumours about Star Wars UCS models

Legofanscott

monkeyhanger said:

I'm surprised TLG hasn't milked the "Limited edition" boxed numbers angle (a la #41999). Take this set at £250/$300 and everyone is saying "way overpriced", then the box art comes along and all of a sudden, it has been defined as a UCS and it goes to "a little overpriced" and people are saying "i'll buy it, but i'll wait for a discount".

Make it a limited edition run with 20,000 units and it'll be OOS in a few days, make it a 50,000 run and it might be OOS in a month (although most buyers will be resellers).

Would they ever do that with a SW set? Would Disney let them?

Depends if Lego are fine with the aftermath of another limited set, look how silly people went when 41999 soldout.

rancorbait

monkeyhanger said:

I'm surprised TLG hasn't milked the "Limited edition" boxed numbers angle (a la #41999). Take this set at £250/$300 and everyone is saying "way overpriced", then the box art comes along and all of a sudden, it has been defined as a UCS and it goes to "a little overpriced" and people are saying "i'll buy it, but i'll wait for a discount".

Make it a limited edition run with 20,000 units and it'll be OOS in a few days, make it a 50,000 run and it might be OOS in a month (although most buyers will be resellers).

Would they ever do that with a SW set? Would Disney let them?

Its not just the sticker tough, if its limited to 20,000 the first thing everyone thinks is " I gotta get it before they run out" Pretty soon they are sold out and aftermarket prices shoot up, then everyone is trying to get a copy and they're willing to pay for it. So is not so much the model as the model's value.

I can't see LEGO limiting the sandcrawler, there is far too much money to be made with such an iconic set. It would no doubt sell faster if it did, but if they keep it as long as #10188, which I wouldn't be surprised if they did, it could do quite well.

monkeyhanger

^ Yep, crazy money for what it was. Without the limited tag, that set would have probably had slow and steady sales. If TLG hiked the price way above their usual pricing model as some suggested, would we have seen a £140 set sold by Lego at an opportunistic £300, to then see it hit £600/700 on ebay?

Legolooney

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and looking forward to sharing and learning.

I'd like to start by sharing, what I consider to be, some very exciting news.

I had recent cause to visit a new Lego shop in my area to buy a few minifigs for my kids.
I soon got into an in-depth discussion with the proprietor regarding Star Wars kits and what's due for release in the next 12 months. After hearing the disappointing news that the new Sandcrawler may not be available for retail sale here in Australia I then touched on the UCS Millennium Falcon and complained about it's ridiculously high online price. At this point a small smile appeared on his face which forced me to enquire, "is there something you'd like to tell me about that?"

He then revealed that Lego will be releasing a new UCS Millennium Falcon in February 2015. They are doing this in order to squash what's happening on eBay and bring prices back to a more palatable level for their customers.
Apparently Lego have been planning this move for some time as they feel that the prices being asked for on eBay for the original UCS MF are damaging their image/reputation.
He also stated that Lego will be doing the same thing with other sets such as the Taj Mahal and Grand Carousel.

The proprietor had no information to offer regarding the details of the new MF kit, only that it would be comparable in size and piece count to the original set. He estimated pricing at around the AU$750 mark.

He made a point of saying that this news was directly from Lego, via an industry event he recently attended. He alluded to other interesting Star Wars sets due in the next 12-18 months, however he wouldn't be drawn any further on details. I told him I was aware of the new AT-AT, Star Destroyer and Rebels range but his expression implied more besides.

I'd like to clarify that it was my first visit to this store and I had no prior relationship with the proprietor. It may all be just BS, however I feel it was legitimate information from a solid inside source. If it was some random guy I met at a party I'd dismiss the information as baseless rumours, however as it came from the owner/proprietor of multiple Lego retail stores I felt it was worth sharing on this forum.
I don't see what the proprietor had to gain by making such things up. It would actually do him more harm than good.

Anyway, I hope you find this information worthy of discussion and debate. I imagine it's going to polarise people within the Lego community.
I for one am pleased that it's happening as it will allow me to acquire a version of the Millennium Falcon that I've always dreamed of having, without the need to take out an extension on my home loan. I agree that it's still going to be quite expensive compared to other Lego Star Wars sets but it's nowhere near the $4K - $10K prices I've seen on eBay for 10179.


Cheers
Sean

Pitfall69

I thought April 1st was a few weeks ago?

CircleK

Hey... If this news came from an official Lego store employee and was then posted to the internet via a second source then it *MUST* be true!

Pitfall69

Did the Lego employee look anything like this?

ghostmind

Shaking my head at the responses in here... grow up.

Dougout

I believe it to be true. It's already been mentioned a few times in different threads. People have been talking about rehashes for years now, and what better what to piss off resellers once and for all.

Meh, maybe I should think about selling my MISB, might as well as long as the remake will be the same or bigger.

Legolooney

These comments are perfectly understandable.
Healthy scepticism never hurt anyone.

Just to clarify, he is not a Lego store employee. He the owner/proprietor of several retail stores selling only Lego.

Rainstorm26

Oh. That makes it much more believable.

Pitfall69

ghostmind said:

Shaking my head at the responses in here... grow up.

Shake away. Hopefully your head doesn't fall off.

Seriously, every time someone posts information like this in this forum, we all have a little fun with it. We all love and play with Lego, yet you want us to grow up?

Pitfall69

Legolooney said:

These comments are perfectly understandable.
Healthy scepticism never hurt anyone.

Just to clarify, he is not a Lego store employee. He the owner/proprietor of several retail stores selling only Lego.

We don't mean any harm. Just having a little fun. I hope you are right though. I would like another UCS Millennium Falcon :)

Legolooney

I completely understand the nature of the comments.
I'm sitting here with a big smile on my face as I read through them.

I knew a post like that would illicit some fun comments.

y2josh

True or not, I can't fathom any reason they'd release the Falcon in February. If they DID rehash the Falcon, I'd be astonished if they didn't tie its release into the May the 4th hoopla.

legomatt

Welcome to the forum @Legolooney

bobabricks

Lol I thought there was actually another UCS Star Wars set coming this year but this is just an old thread from 2012 :P

Legolooney

y2josh said:

True or not, I can't fathom any reason they'd release the Falcon in February. If they DID rehash the Falcon, I'd be astonished if they didn't tie its release into the May the 4th hoopla.

Makes sense to me

ghostmind

Pitfall69 said:

ghostmind said:

Shaking my head at the responses in here... grow up.

Shake away. Hopefully your head doesn't fall off.

Seriously, every time someone posts information like this in this forum, we all have a little fun with it. We all love and play with Lego, yet you want us to grow up?

Yes, the Mixer Fairground responses were all done in "fun".

Playing with LEGO does not give one the excuse to act like a child.

I am glad that Legolooney took it in stride though - welcome to the forum!


And yes, I have also heard of this rumor before, though not specifically which month.

Legolooney

ghostmind said:

Pitfall69 said:

ghostmind said:

Shaking my head at the responses in here... grow up.

Shake away. Hopefully your head doesn't fall off.

Seriously, every time someone posts information like this in this forum, we all have a little fun with it. We all love and play with Lego, yet you want us to grow up?

Yes, the Mixer Fairground responses were all done in "fun".

Playing with LEGO does not give one the excuse to act like a child.

I am glad that Legolooney took it in stride though - welcome to the forum!


And yes, I have also heard of this rumor before, though not specifically which month.

All good here, and thanks for the welcome.

I'm very used to forums and the sort of responses made to posts of a controversial nature.

To be honest, what concerns me more is the possible unavailability of the new Sandcrawler at a retail level here in Australia. I hope Lego change their mind on this matter.
The price difference in the Lego online shop is also upsetting. $300 in the U.S and $450 in Australia.

bobabricks

ghostmind said:

Yes, the Mixer Fairground responses were all done in "fun".

Playing with LEGO does not give one the excuse to act like a child.

I am glad that Legolooney took it in stride though - welcome to the forum!


And yes, I have also heard of this rumor before, though not specifically which month.

Last time I checked I live in a free country and I can act like a child as I please thank you very much.

graphite

Legolooney said:

To be honest, what concerns me more is the possible unavailability of the new Sandcrawler at a retail level here in Australia. I hope Lego change their mind on this matter.
The price difference in the Lego online shop is also upsetting. $300 in the U.S and $450 in Australia.

How bad are customs taxes in Australia? I would think shipping from the US would get you cheaper than AU prices, especially if you didn't care about the box and had just the contents shipped.

bobabricks

Usually I like the bags taken out of a NIB set if I'm going to build it anyway.

bobabricks

Legolooney said:

He estimated pricing at around the AU$750 mark.

So about $2 US?


Sorry, just had to make that joke :P, it's pointed towards Lego with the insane prices they like to charge Austrailia

Legolooney

graphite said:

Legolooney said:

To be honest, what concerns me more is the possible unavailability of the new Sandcrawler at a retail level here in Australia. I hope Lego change their mind on this matter.
The price difference in the Lego online shop is also upsetting. $300 in the U.S and $450 in Australia.

How bad are customs taxes in Australia? I would think shipping from the US would get you cheaper than AU prices, especially if you didn't care about the box and had just the contents shipped.

A valid question but I don't think it's customs taxes that are the main culprit.

I listened to a radio interview several months ago on the topic of car prices here in Australia, and why we pay so much more than they do in somewhere like the U.S.
There were many callers offering suggestions but one caller in particular stood out to me.
A 20 year employee of Toyota called in and said that Australian consumers are just so used to paying the kinds of prices that we do for cars that there's no reason for the manufacturers/dealers to do anything to bring the pricing more inline with markets like the U.S.
Camry XLE in U.S = $28150
Camry Atara SL (AU equivalent XLE) = $43873
Mercedes C63 in U.S = $62875
Mercedes C63 in AU = $167512

As you can see it's a huuuuge difference.

New car sales in Australia have been increasing every year for the past few decades. Based on that constant growth I can see why the manufacturers have no incentive to do anything about the prices.

I believe the same thing applies to things like Lego sets. The manufacturers know that Australian consumers will pay the price. I'm sure taxes play a small part but I believe that the manufacturers and local distributors are doing it because they can.

I'll buy one through the U.S store for sure and get them to ship it my colleague in Orlando. He can then stick it on a slow boat for me. I'm in no rush. I have 10 other sets to keep me busy in the meantime :-)

Shib

I love how this set is about rumours but some people just dismiss anything they read.

If this does turn out to be true I can completely see the logic. It's not exactly a secret that TLG are doing all they can to put off resellers and this is one of the biggest sets for the resale market. Also let's not forget all the negative response to the Sandcrawler getting UCS status.

Of course I don't believe anything until I see it from an official source so we will have to wait and see.

hewman

In qualified support of the poster of the rumour. A toy seller in Australia is actually more likely to know what is being released in the future than a Lego Shop employee. They do get some information ahead of time, as they need to in order to plan ahead. In the case of Lego Shop employees I imagine that they are more told what they're stocking at a much later date by those higher up.

If true the interesting thing is that it means it wouldn't be exclusive to shop at home or brand stores. Toy dealers here get no early information about those.

graphite

Legolooney said:

A valid question but I don't think it's customs taxes that are the main culprit.

I wasn't asking it as a possible reason for the cost difference, I was asking to find out what you'd have to pay on delivery for a $300 set shipped from the US, if anything. Determining how much cheaper it would be just to have someone ship one from the US.

Pitfall69

Shib said:

I love how this set is about rumours but some people just dismiss anything they read.

If this does turn out to be true I can completely see the logic. It's not exactly a secret that TLG are doing all they can to put off resellers and this is one of the biggest sets for the resale market. Also let's not forget all the negative response to the Sandcrawler getting UCS status.

Of course I don't believe anything until I see it from an official source so we will have to wait and see.

I love listening to the rumor mill. Part of the fun of this forum is the rumors and speculation.

The UCS MF didn't sell that well the first time around and had to be discounted significantly in order to move what they had left. I grabbed mine for $350 USD and free shipping. The Death Star is an amazing set with great play features and makes a decent display piece,yet people are finding it hard to part with $400. There are plenty of people that won't even bite at 15% off this coming May the 4th. What makes you think people are going to pay $5-600 for a new UCS MF?

You say Lego is trying to "put off" resellers. I don't think they care that much about resellers imo. They have made a few examples out of people and have imposed limits on certain items, but I think that is just to keep everyone happy. Mr. Gold and #41999 goes against your theory.

tamamahm

All of this is interesting and really would be an interesting way to deal with the reseller market.
Time will tell how valid this ends up being.

monkeyhanger

I believe TLG cares far more about their own bottom line than resellers harming the brand. Resellers don't harm the brand at all IMO. They justify TLGs (high) prices. "Yes it's a £250 Sandcrawler but I can buy it, keep it until I get bored and still get most/all of my money back 5 years down the line".

A big consideration with my car purchases is residual value, and retained value on my well looked after Lego reassures me that i'm not paying too much for my Lego. If that Sandcrawler was worth £50 down the line, I might be thinking twice about buying it at £250/200/150.

Going by the ratio of AUS$:GBP prices for other large sets, it seems that AUS$750 would equate to around £400. Considering 5 years inflation from last time #10179 was available to Feb 15, that seems feasible, a 14% price rise, on the inderstanding taht they release an exact copy rather than a design change maybe smaller with fewer parts.

If TLG release a limited edition 20k or 50k run of these, they'll fly off the shelves and confirm to me that TLG respect sales turnover more than harming resellers, as many of these bought on day one would be snapped up by resellers. If not, these will probably stagnate on the shelves until sales time - 5 years passed is not a lot to generate new sales in the volumes TLG would expect.

If it's not exclusive then I doubt it would be a limited run.

FollowsClosely

This action would do little to dampen the resale market, and I don't expect it to happen. Most resellers are not in business because they are flipping UCS falcons and such. There are some I am sure but a majority of sellers, and almost all large resellers, will flip a product in months to 3 years, no longer. So re-releasing the UCS falcon will not hurt the smart reseller.
Now a re-release may change the attitude of customers who desire EOL sets and pay double... triple... whatever to get them. However, I bet people who drop 2K on a EOL falcon would not be willing to wait years for a re-release.
It just does not make economic sense to Lego.

Shib

@Pitfall69‌ notice the use of "put off" not completely kill. TLG would never be able to put a complete stop to the resale market it's just impossible and limited edition sets/CMFs still help boost their sales, even though series 10 minifies never seemed in short supply around me they were certainly moving a lot quicker than the rest.

Even if they did have to reduce them to move them in the first place doesn't mean that they haven't appreciated on the resale market. If they did rerelease the falcon on the UCS banner it would definitely have an impact on the resale market, how much of an impact would obviously depend totally on how similar the rerelease is and how many people are still sitting on them etc.

I'm not in anyway saying, TLG are purposely trying to stop all reselling by rereleasing a popular resale set (again even if they discounted to sell before EOL they are a popular high end resale set) but I'm saying TLG has shown that they don't like making the resale market easy and targeting the falcon would be a way to do that.

I still want to stress that I don't believe any rumours until I see something official, even from people with a proven track record so that's just my thought on why they MIGHT consider a rerelease.

Pitfall69

^^Exactly. It doesn't make economic sense; at least not here in the US.

Pitfall69

My take on a re release of a UCS Falcon would be entirely because of resellers. I think because of the aftermarket success of the older one, Lego hopes resellers will by them up hoping for the same return on the previous model. I still don't think the average Joe will shell out that kind of money for another $500-600 Lego set, but some people will because they want to get thei hands on one before they are gone and are 2-4x as much in the aftermarket.

pharmjod

@Pitfall69‌ So essentially play resellers for fools :) I could see that happening for sure.

Shib

That's a fair point, and equally I think they would be far better off giving other ships that haven't had the UCS treatment a run rather than more remakes.

prevere

As much as I would love to see a re-modeled UCS Falcon, I would rather see new ships not done yet.

monkey_roo

I can see this being totally true.

Disney will want the best product tie ins it can get to help push the new movie and it it now a widely known secret that The Falcon is in the new film. Lego want to sell sets and it is widely thought that a rerelease/update of the UC Falcon would sell well, so surely this is a win win set to push out and has nothing to do with after markets, although it could be a good fringe benefit for the Lego group as they see it.

The only oddity is timing, I would have thought September/October during the build up to the December release of the movie would have made more sense?

Dougout

Lego is definitely after resellers, they've banned a few that we know of and declared the ban on exclusives discounts is because of them too. That second part isn't even resellers' fault, it's about padding their wallets. Most likely this is too. Enter your hands in the aftermarket for more $$$.

This move isn't solely aimed at damaging resellers though, there certainly has been a demand for this set ever since they discontinued it, there's a lot more AFOLS and Lego is becoming even more uber popular than it has been. They failed at marketing this set before, maybe they think they can do a lot better now.

BrickDancer

^You mean like the wonderful sales of the rehashed Red Five X-Wing? They should have learned their lesson on this one by now. But if they are foolish enough to rehash the Falcon too, then I quit the UCS line. So many other potential vehicles need the UCS treatment before TLG should get greedy and recycle the choices.

vitreolum

You can't apply the desirability and prices of the falcon in the aftermarket to TLG's type of business. Sure, they sell for insane amounts, but how many of these are sold worldwide every month? That number is probably not 1% of the sales lego are aiming for.

monkeyhanger

I do think we collectively overestimate the demand of UCS MF in the marketplace. We are the fanatics when it comes to Lego, and sometimes we're guilty of assuming others have the same passion for the brick. It wasn't the best seller first time around, due to its price, the average parent will baulk at a £400/$500/€500 pricepoint for little Timmy. A re-release will look cheap next to current ownership options, but it is still a massively expensive box of bits of Lego.

Without limited numbers this will linger on the shelves once the rush of AFOLs who've wanted this ages jump in.

Pitfall69

^...and, if they do produce limited numbers; they are creating demand and catering to resellers.

Dougout

The 1st UCS MF was released in 2007, the same year Lego was going nearly bankrupt. They have done a huge turn around since then and I think part of that is due to much better marketing. Personally I think the UCS series is some of the best marketing Lego can do. I don't think they could do a new UCS SW set and have it be any more relevant than a remake to a UCS Old Trilogy set they already did.

Right now seems early for a UCS MF remake, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Hardrada

I can absolutely see a new UCS Falcon being made, though not early next year. Releasing it when the new SW movie hits the cinemas would make a lot more sense.

But a re-release of the Taj Mahal or Grand Carousel? Why would they do that? This rumour is 99,99% to be false.

Legoboy

After dismal sales of both the B-wing and X-wing, I can very much see them starting to pull away from UCS display sets altogether and put more effort into large playsets.

It will be interesting to see how Slave 1 sales fair. People want minifigures. The world want minifigures.

monkey_roo

^ I sort of agree. That said i think the Slave 1 should do well as it is so iconic and such a fan fav, but that could just mean good initial sales as the hardcore like me buy and then a drop off? A lot will depend on the figure selection and some playabilty, maybe a Han carbonite thing?

The Sandcrawler is great, so many figures and the model is lovely with plenty of features, not quite in Ewok Village teritory but still good. Like you say this could be the future and certainly feeds back into the redo of The Falcon, big ship, lots of figuers and playabilty. Personally i like that, I like the Red-5 and even the B-Wing had charm, but the best sets for me are the ones that offer display, play and figure selection all in one.

TheLoneTensor

Regarding a new UCS Millennium Falcon...

• There are not many SW ships/scenes that could fit the bill of a $400 UCS set, the MF is one of them
  
• It's been a number of years since the last UCS MF came out
  
• New SW movies are coming out in 2015, invariably with the MF in them
  
• The design of the ship already exists (i.e. very little R&D)
  
• The old UCS set is a proven seller
  
• $400 sets sell, so why not a $600 set?
  
• It would reduce (but not squash completely) the reseller market of the old UCS MF
  

I simply think Lego would be silly not to do it.

suprajames

I agree that a new UCS Falcon would be a good release for the new films due out in coming years, sure I read somewhere that they have build a full scale Falcon for the new film, quoted from Yahoo Movies
"A full-scale 1:1 Millennium Falcon has been built as well as the interiors of the ship for filming. The Falcon is done - inside and out. The sets were built off-site, ready to move when Lucasfilm/Bad Robot were ready to move into Pinewood."

So i can wait for that one, but would really love to see a UCS Slave 1 first :)