10227 B-Wing in hand

dougts

Box is the same size as Tower Bridge and Town Hall, despite having a lot of air inside. Weight of box is about modular and Haunter House range - 2860 grams or about 6 and a 1/4 pounds. It does not feel like it has much in the way of inner packaging - sounds pretty standard: sealed bags and cardboard/wrapped instruction booklets. plenty of shifting/movement as you move the box around.

I'll open tonight and update the post (and the other thread) with bag counts.

iancam33

awesome. have fun building it.

dougts

thanks!

it actually is bigger than I thought. Seeing it on display in the store, it looked pretty good actually. well done model. the piece count is low for thee price, but that's always the case with SW.

iancam33

did you get it with the promo through LEGO?

dougts

went into the LEGO store this morning and bought it. double VIP and TC-14 to boot

bellybutton290

@doubts looking to buy from legoland windsor on thursday would be interested in your thoughts of the model aside from price which we all know is WAY to much. Might help me make the decision, though when I see it built in store I think that will sway me somewhat anyway.

iancam33

I agree. 199.99 is way too high even though it is a very well done set. Double VIP sweetens the pot just a touch.

ringleheim

This set just got a rather negative review over at Brothers Brick a few days ago.

LegoFanTexas

Double VIP and free TC-14 helps a lot on an otherwise way overpriced set...

At $149 or even $179, it would be MUCH more interesting. You'd think they would have learned from SSD, or perhaps they did and decided it would be slow at any price so mark it up and leave room for "discounts" later. After all, SSD sold very well once it was on sale online last week.

lulwut

This set is going to eventually go on sale. I'm not paying $200 until it dies and hits the aftermarket.

Demand is pyramidal shaped, the ones at the top are willing to pay the most. Once Lego is done scooping sales from the top, they're going to drop the price to get the rest.

dougts

3 instruction booklets packed with cardboard
1 sticker sheet

1 bag loose big pieces (unnumbered)
2 #1 bags
1 #2 bag
1 #3 bag
2 #4 bags
2 #5 bags
1 #6 bag
2 #7 bags
1 #8 bag
1 #9 bag
1 #10 bag

15 total bags, plus instruction/sticker packet

y2josh

That set is seriously segmented into TEN sets of bags? That's a bummer if so.

BuriedinBricks

y2josh said:

That set is seriously segmented into TEN sets of bags? That's a bummer if so.

R2-D2 is the same way. Depending on the number of small plates in this set, it can be somewhat of a blessing.

dougts

in this case, I'd say serious overkill. there really is not a lot of small parts in this set in general. lots of plates, most of them of the 2x4 and larger variety. about half the bags have the smaller inner bags inside, the other half not. seems like one could speed through this build in a hurry, as there appears to be little need to sort and a lot of larger, easy to find pieces. 15 bags is an average of less than 100 parts per bag.

LegoFanTexas

^ We go from the UCS Falcon, to this... 5,197 parts unsorted in 79 bags, to 10 seperate numbered backs with less than 100 parts per bag.

Bleah, what has Lego come to. Let me guess, in the 3 instruction books, there is one or two parts per "step"? :)

AnseltheCat

^ But nobody says you have to do it bag by bag. There is always the option to empty them into one big pile if you want a deeper sorting experience.

I'm not sold on the set yet. Although I am an OT fan foremost, for some reason the B-Wing has never especially struck a cord with me. Yes, it is a very cool concept but it got such a small amount of screen time I think it was largely unnoticed by my younger self.

I was glad to see it in the Stratford store window yesterday and as with most UCS sets it is much more impressive in the flesh than in a photo. But still, I have niggles with it, especially at it's current price point. I'll have to have another good look next time I'm in Westfield and see if my desire grows.

y2josh

AnseltheCat said:

^ But nobody says you have to do it bag by bag. There is always the option to empty them into one big pile if you want a deeper sorting experience.

This wouldn't be a 'deeper' sorting experience so much as a mind-numbing and frustrating one. What people seem to forget is, back in the day before numbered bags, there was a kind of rhyme and reason to how the bags were put together. It was a nice middle-ground for sorting.

With the numbered bags... and especially to this extreme... your only options seem to be a very basic build that you blitz through, or to artificially jack up the sorting time by dumping everything out at once. Neither is particularly fun. Now... if they wanted to sort it into three sets of bags, I could live with that. That's how the modulars work and it's a nice compromise.

LegoFanTexas

^ This... Before numbered bags, similar type parts were in each bag, so you could dump each bag into its own plastic container, and you'd find similar type parts together.

Dumping all 1,500 parts together, is not the same thing...

The modulars are getting it right. I'm building HH right now, and while it might have too many numbers, it is ok. Should have been 3, but it was rather cool to build all the accessories and funiture first, then guess where it was all going to go. :)

jadeirene

y2josh said:

With the numbered bags... and especially to this extreme... your only options seem to be a very basic build that you blitz through, or to artificially jack up the sorting time by dumping everything out at once. Neither is particularly fun. Now... if they wanted to sort it into three sets of bags, I could live with that. That's how the modulars work and it's a nice compromise.

Why don't you dump out bags 1-3 into one pile, 4-6 in another, and 7-10 into a third pile?

While I agree that this new bagging/sorting makes things too easy and the build process too short, I think it is a good decision by LEGO. I definitely prefer this to digging through thousands of gray plates in dozens of bags (Death Star II). This way at least gives people options on how they want to build.

On topic, I saw the B-Wing in person at the LEGO store today. It is much more impressive in person than in pictures. I wasn't planning on buying one until I could find it at a deep discount, but after seeing it, I now have one sitting in my living room.

beegeedee

5197 in 79 bags is about 66pcs a bag so 100pcs per bag isn't so bad. Ok, they are numbered but still. I have to say I do prefer unnumbered bags. For a challege though you could just mix them all then sort them.

ringleheim

One of my complaints with Lego is that they deliver shockingly bad value for money, based on how much you have to pay for an hour of entertainment.

I am used to working on scale models, where a $60 investment in a kit plus supplies can yield literally months of entertainment enjoyment. The hourly cost for that entertainment is pennies.

The problem with Lego for me is that the true fun is in the build process--seeing how the set is engineered and watching the creation come to life. That process is shockingly short with any Lego kit, no matter how big or expensive.

So I actually like to draw the build process out as much as possible and go as slowly as possible.

I never use numbered bags. All bags go into a giant pile, always. I sometimes even mix them up a bit. I never pre-sort parts. I also no longer follow the part call-outs for each step of the instructions. It is slightly more challenging that way, and it keeps you honest, as it's quite easy to miss a piece if you don't follow the call outs. It forces you to slow down, study the drawing for each step closely, and make sure you have not missed anything before you move on.

Amberyl

Those of us without large tables are incredibly grateful for the smaller bags, I have to say. I have about half a dining room table that I can use for building, and a bag-set's worth of parts sorted into neat piles, plus the manual folded back so only one page is visible, plus the bit of the model I'm working on, generally eats all of that space.

mressin

^^ Some people build the models, then something else. Much better value proposition than any scale model since the possibilities/entertainment is limitless.

ringleheim

mressin said:

^^ Some people build the models, then something else. Much better value proposition than any scale model since the possibilities/entertainment is limitless.

If you mean you do MOCs, me too! The creative process of that far surpasses the joy of just following instructions, and you are right...a MOC worth its salt will eat up weeks of time and that is where the value of Lego starts to come out.

I won't be giving up scale models for Lego though, as they are really 2 different animals entirely. But its nice to do both.

lulwut

ringleheim said:

One of my complaints with Lego is that they deliver shockingly bad value for money, based on how much you have to pay for an hour of entertainment.

Well at least you get what you see on the package with Lego. Still remember as a kid seeing how awesome a F-16 is on the box only to build it and disappoint. Will have to venture back into scale models one of these days.

BrickDancer

I started with Lego as a young lad and moved into scale models during the teen years. It's a totally different animal indeed. I enjoyed the painting process, which is completely absent from Lego. The smell of paint and plastic cement brings back so many memories. My fave model was the F-14 Tomcat 'Playboy' variant in all black. That certainly was cheap fun, but it required so much more time and skill to pull off well. So Lego is more practical on a day to day hobby basis.

mressin

I'm curious, the cockpit canopy doesn't seem to be actually clutched in place. Instead, the rear part of the cockpit fuselage seems to hold it in place. How stable is that?

Interesting to see that they have reshaped the bubble canopy from 50986, leaving out a 2-stud space on the flat sides. Hope Lego is going to make one in trans yellow soon.

thornie

^ It's very stable. Legoboy makes the removable cockpit the focus of his review. It's designed that way so that the cockpit is always shifting in relation to the rest of the ship.

Skip to 2:30.

http://youtu.be/_Mmgekz8dQ0

mathew

mressin said:

^^ Some people build the models, then something else. Much better value proposition than any scale model since the possibilities/entertainment is limitless.

The problem with doing this is you pay so much for having the model that it's really hard to then part it out. That and a set like the B-Wing where so many of the parts are specific to the ship along with the abundance of technic.

brickmatic

^ I know! After you take the Lego model apart you can never quite put it back together again. And don't even get me started on how you can't build anything using Technic pieces. Not to mention those unique pieces, worthless!

Coolsplash

How much does this set weighs? I cannot find this information anywhere...weird...interested to get this one so need to check how much it weighs to get shipping estimate...

mathew

I know you're being sarcastic but the UCS models are pretty much designed to be built once and displayed. Parting them out is kind of a waste of money.

dougts

^^ 6.25 pounds total boxed weight

LegoFanTexas

I just picked up my copy from my local Lego store today...

Wow, seeing it built in person, it is MUCH larger than I expected, and that is after seeing the video online. The pictures and video do not do it justice, this thing is huge!!!

cloaked7

^ Did the double points and Chrome TC-14 tip you over the edge? Did that make it a 'good' deal in your opinion or did you splurge? Just curious. :-)

BrickDancer

For those that have built it, do you think its possible to mod and extend the stand upwards to enable the B-wing to sit fully vertical?

brickmatic

@BrickDancer I can't imagine any reason why this could possibly be impossible.

@mathew Funny you should say that. I bought #10186 specifically for the parts. Of course I built the model, and it was fun. Then I took it apart.

LegoFanTexas

cloaked7 said:

^ Did the double points and Chrome TC-14 tip you over the edge? Did that make it a 'good' deal in your opinion or did you splurge? Just curious. :-)

It pushed me over the edge. There was never a question of "if" I would buy it, just "when".

The double points and TC-14 just pushed me to "now" rather than "later". :)

littletoki

I'm in the process of building mine and I noticed that some of the curved light bley pieces are not uniform in color. It's quite noticeable next to each other - I'll have to take a photo during the day.

I'm not sure what to do about it. MY OCD is kicking in and I'm very bothered by it. Should I call Lego Customer service? But how do I guarantee they will send me the same shade? Take into the store?

Gah.

Bandit

^ I noticed this as well with the various white pieces in the UCS R2 I recently built. They ranged from more of a gray white to more of a cream white.

BrickDancer

^Same here on R2!

mathew

I've seen color variations in all the sets I've purchased. I don't normally worry about it. However, for a $200 set there really shouldn't be.

monkeyhanger

Most of the stuff of the SW universe has that "weathered" look in the films, maybe TLG are trying to recreate it! The worst colour variation I have seen is with the wild variation of whites in the UCS IS, not only through different part types, but even in the same part, from icy bluey-white, to a very creamy white. I had some with my UCS R2, but to nowhere near the same degree as with the IS.

monkeyhanger

I'm waiting for a sale before I nab a B-wing, I need to slow down a little, my SW collection has more than doubled in size this year, although I have £45 in VIP points to contribute towards it.

littletoki

I'm afraid to run around the house with it lest it fall apart. But swooshability factor aside, it's a sweeeeet looking ship and has replaced the Imperial Shuttle on the console.

Now, I just need a UCS Slave 1.

Penkid11

^@littletoki you have one of the wing systems attatched incorectly. All guns should be pointing in the direction of the cockpit. ;o)

littletoki

Oops. Umm. In my defense, I was totally drunk when I built this.

Bandit

^ Hahahaha!

littletoki

Actually, @Penkid11 ~ I am the worst Lego builder you'll ever meet. I'm impatient, don't sort and just glance at the instructions. So, this doesn't surprise me. Thank you! *blush*

I can't tell you how many things I've built backwards or with things missing ,.. "Hey! Did Lego include a 5th wheel?"

My husband looked at the finished B-Wing and commented "huh...". He thought something was odd but couldn't put his finger on it. It's been fixed with a lot of chuckling.

Penkid11

^No set below $100 without numbered bags should be sorted. It's a waste of time, especially for those of us who want the set NOW! :oP