Lego bring back Star Wars UCS favorites!

[SWfanforever]

I am a long time Star Wars fan and recently back into building legos so I started picking up Lego SW sets but it seems I'm a bit late to acquiring some of those awesome UCS sets such as the Millenium Falcon, AT-ST, Star Destroyer as well as others. I wish Lego would reissue these sets. Maybe they could come out with a UCS line like "UCS: Back By Poplular Demand" and maybe tweak the set so it is slightly revised in some way. Then all of us that missed out on some of these great sets would have another chance. Please Lego rerelease these sets!

[cas]

What's wrong with missing something? I believe the UCS should be one-and-done sets. Yeah, it fosters ridiculous aftermarket prices in some cases, well, many cases, but these are for the Ultimate Collectors, right? I'd rather leave it that way than undermine the series. I've missed stuff I wish I hadn't, and I probably will again in the future, but I appreciate the integrity UCS has presented so far.

Now if we're talking complete redesigns, new approaches to vehicles already in the series, such as the X-wing, it'd be less of an issue (though, I'd imagine, still an issue with some). I wouldn't mind seeing a new X-wing presented with greater accuracy to its on-screen counterpart with a better-designed, stable s-foil system.

[SWfanforever]

What's wrong with missing something? I believe the UCS should be one-and-done sets. Yeah, it fosters ridiculous aftermarket prices in some cases, well, many cases, but these are for the Ultimate Collectors, right? I'd rather leave it that way than undermine the series. I've missed stuff I wish I hadn't, and I probably will again in the future, but I appreciate the integrity UCS has presented so far.

Now if we're talking complete redesigns, new approaches to vehicles already in the series, such as the X-wing, it'd be less of an issue (though, I'd imagine, still an issue with some). I wouldn't mind seeing a new X-wing presented with greater accuracy to its on-screen counterpart with a better-designed, stable s-foil system.

I just wish I had been collecting and building legos regularly when the UCS Star Destroyer and Millenium Falcon were available. I would very much like to own these kits. I love those ships and love building legos. Maybe they could refine them or make them more accurate in some way or add more mini figures. I just will not pay the inflated pricing these sets are commanding now. Heck, even the Republic Dropship and AT-TO I wish I hadn't missed.

Now, how much longer will the Death Star, Super Star Destroyer and Imperial Shuttle hang around? I want all three of these sets too but to purchase them all is over $1,000. That is just shocking to me.

[emmtwosix]

I just wish I had been collecting and building legos regularly when the UCS Star Destroyer and Millenium Falcon were available.

Most all of us who missed them do as well. But I wouldn't have been rich enough at the time to afford them anyway.

Now, how much longer will the Death Star, Super Star Destroyer and Imperial Shuttle hang around?

Generally speaking, sets have a shelf life of about 1.5 to 2 years before they're out of production. This isn't always the case, such as with UCS and exclusive or hard-to-find sets which range from about 6 months to 4 years. You'll just have to pay attention to sites like this to have an idea of when sets are going out of production. The Death Star is pretty old at this point...

Actually I just took a trip over to Brickset and saw this concerning the Death Star:

Availability at LEGO.com

United States 21 Jun 08 - now
$399.99
United Kingdom 29 Jun 08 - 28 Mar 12 now (last checked 4/4/12)
£274.99
Canada 24 Sep 10 - now
$499.99

Anyone else know, are they finally winding down production on this guy after 4 years? Seems about right...

EDIT 4/4/12: I guess this was a false alarm. Still in production - for now.

[sparkart]

I remember having a conversation at Comic-Con a coupla years ago with the Weta folks about their $600 District 9 Exosuit. When I asked them, "Why not make more of them and have a little mercy on us fans and reduce the price?" The answer was, "We wanted it to be special."

All companies, to some degree, try to control the value of their products. Some, like DeBeers and Sideshow Toys take it to the extreme, by throttling the distribution of their products to create short supply. As far as I can tell, LEGO doesn't do that. Before sets go on clearance sale, there's a LOT of them that consumers could've picked up at MSRP.

I'm with cas, if you miss it, you missed it, and that's part of the fun, or makes the scores that much sweeter. With 10 years of LEGO Star Wars licensing ahead, there will probably be something else in the future to tickle your fancy, and take away the pang of loss from missing an old set.

[GIR3691]

If they re-release premium items like this, it loses its collect-ability or perceived rarity and people are theoretically less willing to take the plunge and buy it during its initial production run.

[mrfootball]

I would recommend getting the UCS Imperial Shuttle because that IMO is the next instant classic that everyone is going to wish they had in their collection....Star Wars and Lego fans alike.

[emmtwosix]

Here's a good discussion over at Brickset regarding a similar topic: A Petition to Reissue Café Corner.

If you don't want to read through the whole thread, on page 3, Jamie, an actual LEGO employee, explains why reissuing sets is not a good idea or, most of the time, even feasible.

[MisterFubar]

I would recommend getting the UCS Imperial Shuttle because that IMO is the next instant classic that everyone is going to wish they had in their collection....Star Wars and Lego fans alike.

Of all my LEGO SW sets, which I have a good amount of them displayed, that is the set that always draws my eye. Even sitting next to the UCS Falcon, I still find myself staring at the Shuttle.

It truly is a beautiful set.

I've thought about stashing a couple for future resale. If it ever goes on a decent sale again or it hits clearance prices I'll be grabbing as many as I can.

[dWhisper]

That post on Brickset did sum up things quite well from the challenge from LEGO, but sadly didn't touch on one misconception that LEGO doesn't care about the secondary market. To a certain point, it's true, since LEGO never makes a dime on a set when it balloons up in price, but there's also the side of trying to take care of collectors that have those sets on display. Like sparkart talked about with Weta, LEGO needs high-end sets to say "special," because that's what keeps people buying and investing.

Unlike the system line, where sets have a short shelf life, and the target market has turnover of 3-4 years (between starting to play with LEGO and then growing out of them), the high end and adult market has customers that are going to focus on it, potentially, for decades. And they cannot risk alienating a customer base that will spend 5x or more, on average, to get these items (price difference between UCS and high-end sets vs. system stuff you find everywhere). Releasing a redesign of something popular to that market could mean either a) they won't buy it because they already own one or b) they'll get mad and stop buying all together. For LEGO, that wouldn't be worth the risk.

It's also not as if this is something unique to LEGO. Collectors are terrible customers to cater to, and there are more collectibles than even a decent google search can reveal, and chances are, most of the people collecting something haven't been doing it their whole life, and had to come in late. Go ask some of the Transformers collectors we have around here (like half the staff... they're all nuts) on trying to get the old stuff. Same kind of thing here.

I came in to the Modular Buildings line late, starting with the Firehouse and Grand Emporium. I actually went out and built the Green Grocer from Bricklink orders. It took me months to finish, and honestly didn't cost me all that much less than just buying the set would have, but it was still fun. I'll do the same for Cafe Corner and Market Street eventually, but won't bother to complain to LEGO about not getting it back then, or even hope for a reissue. There's always something that was missed, and there's always something new coming out soon... just how life goes in the AFOL world.

[SWfanforever]

I understand that once you miss out on an item that is it...you missed it. Unless, you pay some of these ridiculous prices to acquire one of these sets. No, thanks. I'm fine with that. Being recently back into legos now since a large time away I just wish I could have been collecting when some of these awesome UCS sets were being produced (Millenium Falcon, Super Star Destroyer, etc). I'm not collecting Lego Star Wars because they may go up in value. I'm collecting them because I love Star Wars and legos. I would have liked to have some of my favorite ships from the movies, series, etc. Sure there will always be something new, but what are the chances there will be another UCS Star Destroyer or Millenium Falcon released anytime soon. Hopefully, but doubt it. I'm not trying to have some kind of complete collection of UCS kits. I just love some of the detail they put into some of my favorite ships from one of my favorite collection of movies.

[jeffmace]

I do agree with you and really wish it could happen, but I think it that it would cause a lot of people to get upset as well. The price of the 10179, 10030, etc would drop like a rock. On another note, some people felt the same way about this re-issue of the new camaro hurting the sales of the first generation and i think it may have actually helped the value of them because the originals were still originals. I think there would have to be major distinct differences so that people know they bought an original. I could see issues with "scams" out there. So I think the safe bet is.. LEGO will not re-release them...ever...

[Arkov]

Maybe LEGO could get away with re releasing these sets if they made them a little bit smaller and called it the "penultimate collectors series"

[Ted495]

Personally I'm glad that they don't. Things like the UCS X-Wing are what almost bankrupted Lego, and the release\design model they've been on since then is working well.

I Wish I had every UCS myself, but the 9 or so I have are all ones I really wanted. It'd be great to be able to pick up UCS 10019, but I could have, I just chose not to. It's not like these sets were only in Denmark in the 1950's so it makes business sense to re-release the popular ones. Everyone had a chance to buy them.