A recent email exchange I had with a fan pointed out to me that 10188 Death Star was discontinued. Color me surprised because I had no idea. The Shop@Home listing didn’t have the “Retiring Soon” tag. And the last time it was out of stock its flavor text was “Temporarily Out of Stock” and listed a restock date and not “Sold Out”. However, I did notice that 10188 Death Star is not included on LEGO’s Star Wars theme page. So I made a quick phone call to Shop@Home and they haven’t been able to confirm anything other than the set is back in stock. She said to me like five times. “I don’t know but I do know it’s back in stock.” To her credit though, the rep I spoke to said she’d inquire with the product manager on my behalf and ask about it’s discontinued and/or retiring soon status and then get back to me via email. If I get a response back I’ll either update this post or make a new one.
10188 Death Star has the unique distinction of having an amazingly long production run. The set came out in 2008 and is clocking in at seven years and counting! Awesome sets come and go and should this set be sunsetting, it would make me a sad panda. It’s a cornerstone to the theme. Always there. Waiting patiently to be scooped up. Seeing sets come and go. This set is so old it would sit around and say, “Back in my day, snowspeeders and X-wings were gray!” This set is so old it would sit around and say, “Back in my day, the Falcon still had its round radar dish!” This set is so old it would sit around and say, “Back in my day, minifig magnet sets weren’t glued!” If it is indeed coming to an end, I’m going to miss its cantankerous nature. It is still available on LEGO Shop@Home and Amazon for MSRP at $399.99.
