Rumours about Star Wars UCS models

cavegod

Somebody in the USA, helped to build mine though

canuck

For C-3P0 they could do something along the lines of #3723

mressin

Since Saturday, a rumour seems to be spreading about the next UCS model being 10240 X-Wing Red Leader.

As far as I could see, it sprung up on a few boards:
Eurobricks Star Wars 2013 predictions
Neogaf
what I presume to be a Polish site
It's also mentioned on an obscure Lego Star Wars for 2013 Facebook page.
And of course in our own infamous Reseller Thread.

Although I'd be thrilled if my source would be proven right, I'm not sure if any credibility should be attached to these recent rumours.

Basta

Well I have a spare #7191 X-Wing that I am planning on selling, now might be the time. A new set will have to affect the price of the old one.

cavegod

^^ god i hope not!

Diggydoes

From what i've read so far GRogall stated on eurobricks that there will be a 10xxx numbered X-wing (red leader) coming out,don't know if it MUST be a UCS only because of the # ?

Vortex

In Grogall we trust .

Bumblepants

Well I get it that those of you with the original won't be happy, I for one will get very excited about this if it proves true.

mressin

@Diggydoes Not sure where the rumour of a 10240 X-Wing originated. Strictly speaking, GRogall on Eurobricks only asked if anybody knew anything about it. But that wasn't the beginning. It popped up a few hours earlier in a facebook group.

If we assume for a second that it's true, that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a UCS. Technically speaking, there have been a couple of non-UCS Star Wars sets in the 10xxx range: #10123, #10131, #10178, #10188, #10195, #10198, to name just a few.

Basta

Bumblepants said:

Well I get it that those of you with the original won't be happy, I for one will get very excited about this if it proves true.

Well to be honest, I’m not sure where I sit with this. Obviously as I have one to sell I don’t want this to be true. As far as my own collection, it would be nice for the value to stay high in case I ever need to sell or if my Son decides to sell after I’m gone. Otherwise I don’t care that much about the value of my collection as it’s not for sale.

I would hate TLG to saturate the market and turn people away from the hobby though.

Bumblepants

It will probably be vastly different with more parts and modern build techniques. I think Cloud City Boba Fett is a good example for why the old version will probably still hold value if a new one is coming. Even though the current Fetts are better designed etc the CC version is rare and hard to get and more desirable for collectors.

CCC

Basta said:

Bumblepants said:

Well I get it that those of you with the original won't be happy, I for one will get very excited about this if it proves true.

Well to be honest, I’m not sure where I sit with this. Obviously as I have one to sell I don’t want this to be true. As far as my own collection, it would be nice for the value to stay high in case I ever need to sell or if my Son decides to sell after I’m gone. Otherwise I don’t care that much about the value of my collection as it’s not for sale.

I would hate TLG to saturate the market and turn people away from the hobby though.

I really wonder if it would turn people away from a hobby if they released an updated version. It's what 13 years old now. Would you give up a hobby that you have had for over a decade since the company released another version of an old model you have?

Sure, it might drop in value. But is the hobby worth that little to you that the drop in value of a set that has increased significantly has suddenly gone down a bit. I cannot see someone giving up a decade long hobby for that reason. I can see resellers that hold stuff for over a decade might be annoyed, but then how many resellers do that? If they are in it for the profit, they should have sold it ages ago and reinvested. The only problem is for collectors that were planning to sell off their stuff at the maximum price they could get.

I know it sounds strange, but I'd love it if the value of my collection was halved overnight. I'm not selling it anyway so value doesn't matter too much. Of course it would be nice to say it is worth £10000 (or whatever) and a drop to £5000 would look / feel bad. But it also means that I could buy more of what I love for half the price. In the future I am planning on buying more, not selling off my collection.

It's the same for house buying selling. If you are looking to buy more / upgrade in future, then overall price drops are better than price rises. Price drops are only a problem if you are planning to sell.

I can see that it would affect resellers, thinking why buy a set for resale if they are going to re-release it again in a few years. But that is different. This is over a decade old. Resellers should turn around stuff faster than that. It would be more of a problem if they re-release exactly the same old versions of sets that have been EOL for a couple of years.

Basta

@CCC it was more a comment about a possible direction TLG could take. This set alone probably won't do a huge amount to affect Lego, but once it is done, well, who knows what will follow.

The "collectibility" of Lego is an important part of the hobby even if it isn't a big part. I'm sure lots of people justify buying the larger sets like UCS because they know it will at least hold its value. If the secondary market crashes I'm sure some would not be able to bring them self to buy a $200+ set knowing that in a few years time it's only worth maybe $50.

It's a perception thing, most probably never end up selling but it makes them feel better about spending large sums of money on what is essentially a toy.

That is just one of the potential issues, IMO.

CCC

Basta said:

The "collectibility" of Lego is an important part of the hobby even if it isn't a big part. I'm sure lots of people justify buying the larger sets like UCS because they know it will at least hold its value. If the secondary market crashes I'm sure some would not be able to bring them self to buy a $200+ set knowing that in a few years time it's only worth maybe $50.

I agree with that. But I don't see the market for decent second hand sets dropping in actual value like that.

If a set costs $200 now and it is good enough to re-release in 5 / 10 years time, even if it is an exact copy, then it must be a decent and sought after set. So that $200 set is still going to sell at the going rate for a used copy. The new version will probably be $300/400. It will certainly not be cheaper than $200 unless something serious has happened to LEGO in the meantime. So the old $200 set will still be worth a decent amount, probably 60-70% of the selling price of the re-released version.

If it is a different set, then there will be collectors wanting it, since it is different. Unless the new set is so much better than the old one that all collectors cannot stand to have the old one in their collection, then there is no problem. That seems an unlikely scenario.

jockosjungle

Great news if true as I don't own it and want it!

But please let me know when you collectors are planning on dumping all your lego in a dumpster as a protest and I'll take it off your hands.

I'm guessing the people complaining about a rerelease will be the same ones who'll be buying up as many copies as they can get their hands on.

R

doriansdad

Well at the price point mentioned it is certainly not on the scale of the original X-Wing. At $129 or so I am guessing a bust. Why would they release another X-Wing slighter bigger than the system scale on the shelf? The other option is it could be a smaller technic x-wing. Either way it is a missed opportunity if it is true....Slave 1 before an X-Wing rehash??

Deadareus

Ugh... while talk of a new UCS X wing excites me... the $129 price mark is a little worrisome.

If it turns out to be a smaller UCS set or not up to the regular standards that most have been so far I will be disappointed.

I had my expectations up pretty high for the new sail barge as well... but it looks as though that will be a bust as well.

LegoFanTexas

CCC said:

I really wonder if it would turn people away from a hobby if they released an updated version. It's what 13 years old now. Would you give up a hobby that you have had for over a decade since the company released another version of an old model you have?

I once said they shouldn't do any UCS rereleases.

I've since changed my mind on this. There has to be some period of time where it no longer is a problem. Clearly it shouldn't be every 3 or 5 years. But what about 20 years? 50 years?

Is 13 years enough? It might very well be.

CCC said:

I know it sounds strange, but I'd love it if the value of my collection was halved overnight. I'm not selling it anyway so value doesn't matter too much. Of course it would be nice to say it is worth £10000 (or whatever) and a drop to £5000 would look / feel bad. But it also means that I could buy more of what I love for half the price. In the future I am planning on buying more, not selling off my collection.

Add one or two zeros to both of those numbers and tell me if you still feel the same way. :)

If your collection was currently worth a million pounds and it dropped to half a million pounds, would you still not care?

Either answer is fine, I'm just tossing the thought out. My copy of UCS X-Wing is currently worth about $400. If it drops to $200, oh well, I'll live.

But what if it was worth $4,000 and it dropped to $2,000? I'd be less happy. I'd live, but I'd grumble much more.

doriansdad

Deadareus said:

Ugh... while talk of a new UCS X wing excites me... the $129 price mark is a little worrisome.

Maybe it is a sculpture of the helmet? That could be cool if done right. Maybe the price point mentioned was flat out wrong. Time will tell.

bellybutton290

Disappointing news for me personally if accurate (most rumours seem to be though) we still have AT-AT at minfig scale or close to it, slave 1 etc to be released and would be widly welcomed judging by earlier comments on this thread. These need the ucs treatment as many others have already stated. Why lego's seeming reluctance to produce the oustanding ships etc? Another x-wing is, after 13 yrs, not completly unwelcome for all concerned but to potensially release this over unreleased items seems odd, well to me at least. Could this news, again if true, now mean all the ucs sets they are prepared to release in ucs size are done and redo's are the future, not that this nessasarily bad news in itself just would prefer outstanding stuff first.

Bandit

I don't think this makes any sense. They currently have a $60 price point x-wing out that will presumably be around for years. A $129 UCS model would be smaller and not as cool as the first UCS model. Why would you make a new UCS model that wouldn't be better than the last? If you're going to re-release something, aren't you going to make it at least as good, if not better? A new re-released UCS x-wing should be $180+.

As for the sculpture/bust idea, that makes no sense either. While it would maybe be cool, if they're going to do a new sculpture or something, there's no way they would have picked this over a million other better options.

Assuming this is legit, I have no idea what it is. I just can't believe it's a ship, UCS or otherwise. My guess would have to be some kind of playset. Maybe a hangar, with multiple smaller ships, or something like that. Or maybe something like the TIE Collection. Or maybe a trench run playset of some kind. Either way, something just isn't adding up...

mathew

Food for thought: Since the UCS models are not always ships and are not all minifig scale, wouldn't it be cool to see a mini-scale playset of some kind? For example the battle of hoth:. There would be the hangar, At-At's, multiple snowspeeders, you name it. Just no minifigs because it obviously wouldn't be to scale. Package it all together in a 800-1,000 piece set for $120 and I think it could be popular.

cavegod

^Ahem, All UCS models have display stickers, play sets are just that.

Legoboy

^ Ahem, Yoda, Darth Maul.....?

Bandit

^ They both have the 2x1 lego logo brick incorporated in the model, which I've always told myself makes up for the lack of the display sticker. ;)

Bandit

Given this is a TLG concept, maybe it's something along these lines:

FollowsClosely

Bandit said:

Given this is a TLG concept, maybe it's something along these lines...

For the love of the block, I hope not!

mressin

That is a rejected Yavin hangar prototype (see Lego Star Wars encyclopedia).
Would expect anything like that to have a different name. And a different price point.

samiam391

mressin said:

That is a rejected Yavin hangar prototype (see Lego Star Wars encyclopedia).
Would expect anything like that to have a different name. And a different price point.

...And hopefully a completely different brick structure too.

Sherlockbones

Looks terrible, would never buy it even though it's prototype

monkeyhanger

Bandit said:

If you're going to re-release something, aren't you going to make it at least as good, if not better?

Can I direct your attention to the new Jabba's sail barge?

Maybe a bust/helmet would make sense. After last years UCS R2, maybe we'll start to see one UCS character release and one vehicle release per year. Hope not, I have no interest in a bust/helmet. Howay TLG, get that minifig scale AT-AT released.

samiam391

monkeyhanger said:

Bandit said:

If you're going to re-release something, aren't you going to make it at least as good, if not better?

Can I direct your attention to the new Jabba's sail barge?

To be honest, I'm not impressed at all with that set. In my opinion, it looks worse than the 2007 version. I'm just holding out hope that the picture released of the new Barge was merely a preliminary model, and that vast improvements are to come.

Bandit

monkeyhanger said:

Bandit said:

If you're going to re-release something, aren't you going to make it at least as good, if not better?

Can I direct your attention to the new Jabba's sail barge?

Maybe a bust/helmet would make sense. After last years UCS R2, maybe we'll start to see one UCS character release and one vehicle release per year. Hope not, I have no interest in a bust/helmet. Howay TLG, get that minifig scale AT-AT released.

Sure, but I was talking in the vein of the UCS line. You don't make an 'Ultimate Collector's Series' model of something, and then a decade down the line remake it into something 'not so ultimate'. That's madness. That's the whole point of the UCS line. It's the ultimate. As a collector, I will be mad if TLG remakes the UCS x-wing, yes, but if they do, they better do something to make me want to buy it. What they can't do is make a suckier version of it. It needs to be 'more ultimate' than the first if they're going to do it.

Regarding the sail barge, I agree, the preliminary box art we've seen looks terrible, but I am going to reserve judgement until we see the actual production set in detail. No reason to harp on it now.

As for the bust idea, I like the busts. But there is no way they'd make an x-wing pilot/helmet bust before they'd make Darth Vader, or Boba Fett, or C-3PO, or any number of other characters.

monkeyhanger

Samiam: If TLG release the set seen as is, I will not be buying it for display (could buy it just for the figs to incorporate into a bigger palace - mine is already made from 2 kits). Why TLG would want to take a step backwards like that is beyond me.

Vortex

^
I for one am not too hopeful of much an improvement. What we saw was actual box art . I reckon that takes place in the later end stages of product cycle . I fear what we see is what we will get ... And yet the slave I am will answer my master,s call ...

y2josh

I hadn't even realized The Khetanna had been leaked... but wow. That model is terrible. I typically get all the OT sets, but not even Max Rebo is making that set seem enticing.

samiam391

monkeyhanger said:

Samiam: If TLG release the set seen as is, I will not be buying it for display (could buy it just for the figs to incorporate into a bigger palace - mine is already made from 2 kits). Why TLG would want to take a step backwards like that is beyond me.

Ah, I thought you were supporting it ;-)

With that comment though... You nailed it. It is a step back.. hopefully this isn't a prequel of sets to come modeled after episodes 7, 8, and 9.

y2josh

To a related point, if the new UCS X-Wing is completely inferior to the original in the same way the new Khetanna is, I suspect the original should easily hold its value.

Legoboy

Personally, I think it would hold its value anyhow. Joe Public don't give a flying hoot about the original UCS X-Wing. They certainly aren't going spend obscene amounts of money on one. Collectors will however, and most collectors will as such will feel compelled to complete the UCS range whether there's a second version available - better or worse. I know I would.

y2josh

^I agree to a point, but I consider myself a collector, yet I've never been stricken with the desire to own the UCS Naboo Starfighter, Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter or that ridiculously awful Darth Maul bust. And I know these are all PT examples, but I'm 99% certain I also wouldn't feel compelled to buy a second UCS X-Wing... especially not if wound up being inferior to a 13 year old model.

Legoboy

^ It's a UCS.....my name is already down for one! ;-)

I don't think the people of whom were in the market for an original yesterday, and to potentially spend $1,500 will feel any different tomorrow. Those people NEED that model. They might buy the cheaper, newer version, but hey, they still won't have what they really wanted. Maybe it will have a hit on the market temporarily, but it won't take long for it to recover.

Dougout

y2josh said:

I hadn't even realized The Khetanna had been leaked... but wow. That model is terrible. I typically get all the OT sets, but not even Max Rebo is making that set seem enticing.

I was happy to hear the Khetanna was being redone, but after spending 10 minutes to find a pic of it I can only say I'm glad I have the old one. It is much closer to a UCS model.

y2josh

Out of curiosity, since I can't seem to find any discussion on it (and perhaps that's intentional on Brickset's part), has anyone been able to ID what appears to be the very first minifig on the box (it may be nothing, but there looks to be one minifig shown before Max Rebo and Ree-Yees)?

y2josh

On second glance, the figure I'm questioning is actually between Max Rebo and Ree-Yees. Looks like it could be a Weequay or MAYBE Taym Dren-garen.

Steve_J_OM

I'm hoping that the blurry box-art is highly deceptive, because it does indeed look an order of magnitude inferior to the original. I was so looking forward to putting it side-by-side with the Skiff :(

mressin

I recently heard voices again, which categorically confirmed the infamous "X-Wing Red Leader" set. Release is expected to be 1. June or 1. July. If I understood it correctly, price will be around GBP 120. No word on set number, but it is expected to be the next Star Wars UCS spaceship.

CCC

LegoFanTexas said:

CCC said:

I know it sounds strange, but I'd love it if the value of my collection was halved overnight. I'm not selling it anyway so value doesn't matter too much. Of course it would be nice to say it is worth £10000 (or whatever) and a drop to £5000 would look / feel bad. But it also means that I could buy more of what I love for half the price. In the future I am planning on buying more, not selling off my collection.

Add one or two zeros to both of those numbers and tell me if you still feel the same way. :)

If your collection was currently worth a million pounds and it dropped to half a million pounds, would you still not care?

Either answer is fine, I'm just tossing the thought out. My copy of UCS X-Wing is currently worth about $400. If it drops to $200, oh well, I'll live.

But what if it was worth $4,000 and it dropped to $2,000? I'd be less happy. I'd live, but I'd grumble much more.

If I was considering spending another (!) million on lego for a personal collection, then a 50% drop in the value of my collection would be fine for me, if it meant I could then spend half a million on getting what I would have paid a million for.

FollowsClosely

mressin said:

I recently heard voices again, which categorically confirmed the infamous "X-Wing Red Leader" set. Release is expected to be 1. June or 1. July. If I understood it correctly, price will be around GBP 120. No word on set number, but it is expected to be the next Star Wars UCS spaceship.

Boo. I don't see how anything good could come give the ship and the price point.

jockosjungle

My Shuttle Adventure could be worth £10k or £10, since I'm not selling it, it matters very little to me. I strongly doubt that Lego much care for the resellers and investors, being fundamentally a toy company. I'm sure they'd be happier knowing they are releasing a set that Lego Fans want without them having to pay stupid prices, Lego also make money from it, rather than ebay.

I'd have thought the ebay prices of some of the Star Wars sets is what is letting them see the demand for sets and encouraging the rereleases.

However I'd say there was room for both markets, I'm not paying $2k for an X Wing and I;d doubt those that are will be ripping the box open for the kids to chuck it round the room. So any original release will still hold its value, there may just be fewer people wanting the set.

All i know is $2k would buy me a lot of sets.

mountebank

So using the B-Wing as a base having 1487 pieces for £169.99, a comparable price per piece would suggest around 1000 pieces. That's much closer to Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter at 676 pieces than to Imperial Shuttle at 2503 pieces.

Oh dear.