FBTB - From Bricks To Bothans

It seems like a lifetime ago when I first saw the very first Ultimate Collector Series set, 7191 X-wing Fighter, on the Toys’R'Us shelf. The silver printed X-wing on a black box looked so slick and looked nothing like the other LEGO sets on the shelf. I was swooning over it and without a second thought bought it, took it home, and built it in a day. And it was awesome. I proudly displayed it on my shelf along with the other UCS set that came out that year, 7181 TIE Interceptor, for many, many years. Fast forward a few years later, and it’s time to pack up our tiny apartment and move into a house and with the amount of LEGO I had at the time, it was no easy feat. Unfortunately, the X-wing along with a bunch of other sets on display had to be taken apart with little time to do it, so I tore it apart and stuffed it inside a couple of Ziploc bags and then stuffed the bags inside a box where they remain to this day. I never bothered to rebuild it for a couple of reasons. It needed and still needs some serious cleaning, and the condition of the stickers was in bad shape. The stickers that LEGO used back then disintegrated over time due to some combination of age, heat, and dust. Try and peel them off and you would regret that action for they would break apart into tiny little pieces and once those pieces got on your fingers, they were really difficult to get off. Surprisingly, the one sticker that survived was the familiar UCS information label. So there it sits in a state of decomposition in box in my office a few feet away from me. Fast forward a few years later, and here we are today on the eve of an epic remake about to be released to the public. Ultimate Collector Series 10240 Red Five X-wing Starfighter is a re-engineered UCS 7191 X-wing Fighter. LEGO has re-released and re-designed several sets before, but this is the first time a UCS set is getting the recycle treatment. There are many fans who fell into the hobby too late and covet the set so much so that it commands a pretty high aftermarket value, ringing up at around $800 at my last check a few weeks ago. So this remake may be welcomed with open arms and smaller budgets, but with 13 years of a legacy to go up against, how does the newer version stack up?

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