75098 - UCS: Assault on Hoth

[jgschmieg3]

Maybe this will make everyone feel a little better...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4PkR5hkEo

[bricketycricket]

13 hours ago, fossilrock said:

I agree with you on that!  For the price point, and the amount of minifigs, plus 2 maxifigs that were added into this, there's just a few things i'd like to have seen done to this. 

I think i'd rather have seen them build the base structure a little bit more and skipped the wampa cave, and maybe made the trench piece an add-on.  I think it would have been better to see extended sidewalls added to the large main structure and maybe a little bit of an extended roof (like in Exciters photo a few pages back). Then perhaps the trench segment could have been put in a larger "hoth attack" set.  Also, would have liked to have seen a giant white 64X64 inch white plate included.  Other than that I just dont see what more they could have done.  It's just a hollowed out snowcave that looks like a giant hollowed out warehouse inside.

A lot of the griping going on here that makes little sense, and not many provide solutions on how they would have made it better and kept it at a 250.00 price point.   A lot of people seem to want lego to provide a 10,000 piece set for 199.99, so a lot of the whining is unrealistic.. 

I didn't expect them to make a true replica of the base from the film, but I did hope for a cohesive structure. I think the simplest method would be to build a square snow structure on a large baseplate, with openings on each of the four sides (hangar, control room, wampa cave, etc.) sort of like a single floor of 10188, if you can picture that. Then add scattered figs and vehicles as necessary. No it's not accurate (I'm pretty sure the wampa cave was not on the side of the base) but it makes most of the base one big model that is suitable for both play and display, like the Ewok Village is. Even some sort of a hinged model would have worked for this set. 

I agree that it's something that's challenging to model perfectly but they still could've easily done better.

[mauro23]

The idea with a big white baseplate is great but for whatever reason LEGO does not like to include big baseplates into the sets - even for Ferris Wheel they included smaller baseplates instead of using a big once.

But it would be possible with a white 48x48 baseplate - LEGO has produced them for LEGOLANDs (I own also few of them).

[giannini78]

I'm massively underwhelmed by the UCS Hoth set. It's just a 4 in 1 play set. The AT-AT should feature in some capacity even if it's just a stand alone set.

I thought that UCS sets were stand along vehicles created in much greater detail?

[Alpinemaps]

This is an Assault on Hoth...

[rcdb1984]

really puts the sizes of at-at into perspective

[Muffin Cup]

I am in general very dissatisfied with sets that go for a mishmash of playbits rather than a detailed and focused item. Recent examples would be the new batcave, jokerland, and this. I can understand some handwaving due to the 'playset' justification, but slapping a $250 (or $270 for batcave) price tag on it along with the UCS label doesn't make it an auto-win. I'm not even totally sold on the Ewok Village, but even this seems worse in almost every way. 

If this set was just one large detailed hoth bunker facade with a turret built into the side and an above-average build of a snowspeeder, it'd be better than this mess. Would have been a great way to show off some landscaping and scenery. We've gotten the minimized bunker bits like this before, and the UCS label was the one chance to get a really impressive hoth bunker facade. What a dud. 

[Anomander]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 2:47 PM, Alpinemaps said:

This is an Assault on Hoth...

I'm not seeing any Wampa cave.

 

[Alpinemaps]

I'm not seeing any Wampa cave.

 

Lol. I purposely cut it off. It's to the right, behind the AT-ATs in that photo.

[Huskers1236]

My son checked out the pictures and liked it a lot.  I agree with others that it's basically a combo pack, but for a buyer/collector that doesn't have much hoth stuff it will be a winner to them.  Investment winner?  I'm not betting on it but I'll definitely buy 1 to get all the Hoth stuff as we have a fair amount of stuff but no 7666 at the moment so we do need a blast door.

[biniou]

8 hours ago, Huskers1236 said:

My son checked out the pictures and liked it a lot.  I agree with others that it's basically a combo pack, but for a buyer/collector that doesn't have much hoth stuff it will be a winner to them.

Will your son pay $250 for this set ? ^^

No doubt that kids will like it, but will they (or their parents) pay that much, that's another story...

[HandyHand]

The thing with a bunch of smaller sets that can be combined to create a larger setting is that it's so much easier to buy the several smaller sets in instalments!

With this UCS Hoth set you have to cough up $250 at once, instead of buying a $50 set every now and then and expanding the collection whenever you have some spare cash. For kids who want to create a Hoth scene for their birthday it's much easier to ask one or two smaller Hoth sets as a present from their parents, another one from their grandparents, another one from their uncle & aunt... etc.

Just thinking practically here...

[stephen_rockefeller]

6 minutes ago, Haay said:

The thing with a bunch of smaller sets that can be combined to create a larger setting is that it's so much easier to buy the several smaller sets in instalments!

With this UCS Hoth set you have to cough up $250 at once, instead of buying a $50 set every now and then and expanding the collection whenever you have some spare cash. For kids who want to create a Hoth scene for their birthday it's much easier to ask one or two smaller Hoth sets as a present from their parents, another one from their grandparents, another one from their uncle & aunt... etc.

Just thinking practically here...

That's all fine and dandy but what about when all those small sets aren't available at retail anymore? Even though this new hoth set may be a disaster I think it will be available for many years to come.......certainly outlasting all the separate sets.

[Crustybeaver]

4 hours ago, biniou said:

Will your son pay $250 for this set ? ^^

No doubt that kids will like it, but will they (or their parents) pay that much, that's another story...

The important factor is not whether parents would pay $250 for the set but whether anyone would buy this at any point for $400-$500 

[citymorgue]

After getting a sense of the scale, I feel a little better about it, but honestly, I feel that way only because I don't really own any hoth related items, save for the AT-AT.

As far as investment though, I have to imagine this to be on shaky ground.  If you guys think the Ewok Village is iffy as an investment, this even more so.  It's just so disjointed.  The way I see it, and I would assume a lot of you guys would see this as a potential investment is someone like me.  I buy to collect, and 99% of the way collect.  There are many retired sets I would love to own again, but I don't at the moment have such a vast amount of money to spend on all of the retired sets.  I would love a DSII, ISD, the original blockade runner, taj mahal, Eiffel tower, etc, etc, etc.  I did piece together a 10179 for a lot, but that was my bigger priority at the time haha.  Anyways onto my point.  As far as I'm concerned the prices are justifiable for all of those previously mentioned sets, and even other rare ones worth hundreds of dollars.  But for me, even looking at this set, if I missed out on it and could only get it on the secondary market, I don't think I would even blink an eye at it.  Just not that great enough to buy over MSRP for the set.  Just my view. 

[Huskers1236]

5 hours ago, biniou said:

Will your son pay $250 for this set ? ^^

No doubt that kids will like it, but will they (or their parents) pay that much, that's another story...

Well, at 9 years old, $250 is about all he's got in his little bank, but he's quite the little entrepreneur.  My guess is he'll be in prison for a ponzi scheme when it's all said and done.

1 hour ago, Crustybeaver said:

The important factor is not whether parents would pay $250 for the set but whether anyone would buy this at any point for $400-$500 

I don't have a huge problem buying at $250 but I have the same reservations most others have about big sets that have many smaller builds.  Especially one like this that has very little originality to it.  $500?  No.  Which is why I doubt I'll have more than a couple of these if any kept on the shelf.  Since this is the minimum amount it would have to touch for me to start thinking about selling I don't see this one worth my time. 

[CoastaLego]

I think the box art is hurting it right now. I mean hoth Echo base seems bigger but is like 1/3 the piece count. So something is being lost on us here.  

 

Still. Echo base had more going on inside control panel wise, bacta tank with luke etc..  

 

I was holding out on Hoth sets until this came out..now that I see it I will need a couple At-Ats, the old hoth Echo base for a few critical things, then use the rest of the parts to build up this new set even more.  

Like ewok village was for me..this is more of a gateway to building out a complete scene and needing some older sets and figs to do it.  

So all in all I think it is good for the investment world.   No one is going to buy 6 retired sets to build out a scene..the will be this set though and 1 or 2 retired sets to complete it.  

 

[stephen_rockefeller]

13 minutes ago, CoastaLego said:

I think the box art is hurting it right now.

 

 

Trust me the box art is the least of this stupid sets worries.

[jay4e]

Its obvious they were trying to do to much with one set and failed.  throwing the UCS tag on there makes it even worse.  This really should have been a few play sets, keeping 75049 and 75054 in production, a new wampa set, and a set bigger than 75138 (hoth attack), that included a better generator or ion cannon.  Then 75098 could have dedicated a lot more effort to Echo base.

Further it makes almost no sense for LEGO to blow out 75054 (on sale in store at $60 before christmas), and then release this a few months later.  and looking at the 2016 set lists OT is seriously under represented, and pretty much an after though.  This is great for resellers but you have to wonder what LEGO is thinking.

The only reasonable explanation is that Disney is pulling the strings, and trying to draw all the attention to current IP.  TFA, Rebels and now the Freemaker, all seem to be given the design and production resources.  Normally given current IP the bulk of the resources would make sense, but for Star Wars OT will always be king...

Edited February 16, 2016 by jay4e

[exciter1]

At least this is a good distraction from The Tumbler thread.

[marcandre]

2 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

At least this is a good distraction from The Tumbler thread.

I wonder what everyone's hoth box condition will be???? 

[Sprocket77]

6 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

At least this is a good distraction from The Tumbler thread.

There's a Tumbler thread????

[Mos_Eisley]

Just now, marcandre said:

I wonder what everyone's hoth box condition will be???? 

This is the one set that box condition might actually be the most important factor since the contents suck. 

[dcdfan]

I wonder what everyone's hoth box condition will be???? 

I will never have to post the condition of this set...

[stephen_rockefeller]

It would be utterly hilarious if inside the box was just the boxed sets that have already been released........I'm hoping for this so we can see people's heads explode!