75098 - UCS: Assault on Hoth

[gregpj]

52 minutes ago, inversion said:

This thing looks like as if somebody took a dump among the exclusives. It's pathetic.

So what you're saying is that it's a good thing it's a snow scene and not a desert scene that used a lot of brown bricks?

[Sandwraith]

After seeing the small Attack on Hoth set in stores for the first time; it doesn't feel like this set was designed to compliment the UCS set. I mean first of all it doesn't really offer anything that the UCS doesn't have aside from the probe droid. The main build is a turret with a trench. The UCS set is not lacking in either of those by any means...

Also having Han in both sets is questionable. That would be like the 9474/9471 Helms Deep/Uruk Army combo if both sets came with say Theoden. They had the potential to make this little Hoth set have something more bad guy oriented, or at least more bad guys! Which all leads me to suspect there was some kind of design/concept/whatever issue with the UCS Hoth set.

Either way despite the popular opinion here.. i am actually looking forward to this UCS from a collector standpoint. I sold off a lot of my older Hoth stuff to make room for this set when it was rumored. And frankly it looks way better than mashing up a bunch of older Hoth sets. Is it worthy of the UCS seal? haha no, but i still think most of it's parts are pretty cool (that ion cannon needs to be modified to get rid of the stupid shooters though). it is not without it's faults though that's for sure, and i'm not here to argue against that. looking at you Yavin lookout tower.. you'd need Mr. Freeze manning that, otherwise you'll all just freeze to death.

@citymorgue and @gregpj sort of summed up how i feel about this set. "Playsets" when displayed properly and modified; look so alive and interesting on display Vs. a UCS Star Wars ship in some cases (10179 being an exception for me). 9474 HD is still one of my favourite sets to display, and has taken real estate from my UCS Star Wars Ships which have mostly been put away in storage or sold off.

Anyways just my personal opinion!

[Brickshopper]

[Ocelot456_PC]

I Live In Australia And This Set Is $400 AUD And Getting Released (In Australia) 30th April

[mfortunek]

I have not followed this thread religiously at all. I have glanced here and there at the negative comments and disappointments expressed by my fellow brickpickers, but I just haven't had the time to really check this upcoming SW UCS exclusive out for myself. I've glimpsed photos of the box art and a few other images posted online. That was really the extent of my knowledge of this upcoming (and highly anticipated) set.

Then a few minutes ago I watched the official Lego designers video and I saw the entire thing unfolded before my eyes....

(Keep in mind the following: my wife is out of town on a work trip. I've spent the evening binge-watching "It's Always Sunny..." on Netflix and enjoying the second half of a really fabulous pinot noir) 

This...thing... is a trainwreck. It's a hodgepodge scrapbook stitchwork monster of a UCS set. It's Victor Frankenstein on quaaludes after Igor burned the lab to the ground and ran off with one of the villagers.

It's Fonzie on water-skis.

It's "The Last Airbender" on a 72-hour loop across every channel.

It's an email from a co-worker who can't differentiate between "their," "they're," and "there" and somehow manages to incorrectly appropriate all three of them in a single paragraph.

It's like reading the last 36 hours of the 10188 thread without any mod intervention and continued in perpetuity.

Okay, maybe the last one was too far. Nothing was worse than the recent nerd-fight on the 10188 thread.

Still, what a disappointing set. All hyperbole aside, it's really too bad that the design team chose this over a new UCS Cloud City or a UCS Mos Eisley (or a dozen other options!).  If they wanted another play set, they could have done so much better with a different scene.  And if they were married to the idea of Hoth, that's fine, but it's a shame they couldn't construct a cave-like enclosure with x-wings, etc to "anchor" the whole play set instead of it being ten different battle packs spread out on the floor.

Sigh.

Back to my pinot.

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

7 minutes ago, mfortunek said:

 

It's like reading the last 36 hours of the 10188 thread without any mod intervention and continued in perpetuity.

Okay, maybe the last one was too far. Nothing was worse than the recent nerd-fight on the 10188 thread.

 

ditto

[Lordoflego]

5 minutes ago, brickcrazyhouse said:

ditto

I know lol

[MathBuilder]

12 minutes ago, mfortunek said:

It's an email from a co-worker who can't differentiate between "their," "they're," and "there" and somehow manages to incorrectly appropriate all three of them in a single paragraph.

Don't criticize the poor 75098 designers when there skills and creativity is not quite they're but their trying! /sarcasm /bad-grammar

 

13 minutes ago, mfortunek said:

Back to my pinot.

Enjoy!

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

[Alpinemaps]

That's post of the year

[Mos_Eisley]

The origins of this set have been uncovered by a Disney archivist.  They found an unreleased, 1991 straight to video film by the same name in the Lucasfilm vault.  Now we can understand how an assault by two could be successful.  From the promotion materials:

 

The action is heating up on the ice planet Hoth!  When trooper Kesva Pelon (Steven Seagal - Above the Law, Hard to Kill) discovers that his ex-wife, Toryn Farr (Kelly Le Brock - Weird Science), joined the Rebel Alliance, became chief communications officer for the base on Hoth and has been abducted by a ruthless wampa, he must take matters into his own hands.

But Kesva wouldn't dare assault the Hoth base alone!  He is joined by longtime Imperial Academy friend and the Galactic Empire's finest speeder bike pilot, Squad Leader Brase McRol (Chuck Norris - The Delta Force, Missing in Action)  Together, they are a two-man wrecking crew, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

They must act fast if they hope to rescue Toryn and punish the Rebel scum for letting her be taken!

"Norris and Seagal are an action tour de force!" - LA Times

 

[Brian Briggs]

Let's hope Jean-Claude van Damme makes at least a cameo appearance.

[Mos_Eisley]

19 minutes ago, Brian Briggs said:

Let's hope Jean-Claude van Damme makes at least a cameo appearance.

I think he pulled a Daniel Craig and played the wampa.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Brian Briggs said:

Let's hope Jean-Claude van Damme makes at least a cameo appearance.

A planet like Hoth could make JCVD have a cocaine relapse.

I am going to call this set Insult on Hoth from now on...

[dcdfan]

A planet like Hoth could make JCVD have a cocaine relapse.

I am going to call this set Insult on Hoth from now on...

Technically wouldn't it be an Insult on Lego fans...

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, dcdfan said:

Technically wouldn't it be an Insult on Lego fans...

Yes but it is also an insult to the honor of the greatest battle from the greatest star wars movie. SHAME!

[GiliusThunderhead]

Ok so after reading all the comments on this set and the general disappointment (have to say I'm in that faction too) I did wonder in terms of what you get how good of deal is it actually. First have to say its difficult to rank UCS sets/large SW playsets (but I'm going to anyway) and the metric I decided to use was price per gram (I didnt think I'd read anything on this and if i missed it then jokes on me ). 
(I also looked at inflation adjusting the price but the results came out very similar so I wont go into all that data).
One thing i do come a cropper with is minifigs.  Not sure the best way to account for those so presently I've just ignored.

Unsurprisingly DS (10188) comes out as the best value on a price per gram ratio in the US and UK.  I was surprised that the dropship was actually such "bad" value (heck I even went out and bought one of those recently).  Salve 1 and SC are relative bargains.  + 2 of my fave sets so thats a double thumbs up for me (conformation bias anyone?)

Back to the topic at hand.  Pretty much been said that AoH is not a lame deal and this does nothing to dispute that really. When you look at the intrinsic value of what you get for your $$$ it doesnt scream out "buy me". But its not actually as bad as I thought it would be (the rank is best to worse in terms of price per piece btw - i ordered them by release date).  I actually thought EV would kill it on this metric 

That said I've never known anyone buy a set based purely on ppg and confident end buyers couldnt give a rats  about it (everyone loves price per piece though).  But it does show that TLG arent completely taking the mick with their pricing.

Has nothing to do with how well the set will do (and not sure if it even helps anyone) but being a nerd I am tempted to extend this to the current TFA sets and Hoth Attack to see how the small to medium sets fair on a PPG basis.

Just thought I'd share the fruits of my labor since i was marginally curious (Ohh and it does all depend on the fact that I got the weight of AoH right)

[Armor]

The problem is not that the weight, its that a bulk of the weight is used up on trenches and other small garbage. White bricks is also the most notorious to turning yellow faster than other colors. 

[Mos_Eisley]

2 minutes ago, Armor said:

The problem is not that the weight, its that a bulk of the weight is used up on trenches and other small garbage. White bricks is also the most notorious to turning yellow faster than other colors. 

Agreed. If I were worried about price per brick I'd just be buying creative boxes from Walmart every year not UCS sets. 

[Lordoflego]

Never-ever I bought set for investment thinking of price per brick, maybe that's wrong, maybe that's just more for bricklink sellers, I don't buy as much SW as I use to, I said before that IMO this set sucks, and if talking about figs? Again, IMO at least, Sandcrawler has rare (till now) jawas, ev has ewoks which I like and I think are rarer than bunch of this-and-that hoth troops that come same or similar in other, smaller sets.

just looked at pic of ev, it's like a 1 built, the way the trees are connected-love it. (Sorry for going off topic in this last note especially). 

Edited February 27, 2016 by Lordoflego

[citymorgue]

After figuring out what people meant my PPP, and PPG, I always wondered why people are so stuck on the value of a per piece ratio.  It seems like it can get so mistrued.  I mean look at the Tie Fighter, it has over 300 less pieces than the Slave 1, yet it's the same price.  If you look at just the piece ratio, the Tie Fighter looks horrible compared to the slave 1.  But if you look at the chart, they are actually a good bit closer in price.  They both have their merits, and I would assume most people have stuck to the per piece ratio as it's much easier to calculate than trying to figure out the exact weight of a set.

And so even though Assault on Hoth is average in terms of pricing, it's still a pretty junk set, and I don't even own any Hoth sets, and I may still continue that trend unfortunately, because I ready to throw down money day 1.  It's on the same garbage level (IMO,) as the Batcave....2 exclusives I probably won't touch unless they get significantly marked down.

[The Lurker]

I personally really like this set but then i like playsets and this will be for playing with, i may even let my kids play with it (maybe) lol. The price does seem a tad high, if i didn't know the price was £220 i would have guessed £200 which is a little better from a wallets perspective. My hope is that loads of people don't buy it due to dissapointment so the shops have to discount it down to £160 then i can swoop in and snap one or more up. 

[MathBuilder]

For the one or two people here who said they actually like the set:

Coming Soon on Apr 30 2016.

Info provided by 33Lego. 

20 minutes ago, 33Lego said:

Not sure if this is news.

But I see this listed already.

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Assault-on-Hoth-75098?fromListing=listing

[Codes]

I like this set for some of the individual Hoth-based components that I missed out on, but man, "Assault on Hoth" is just such a poor name.  They should have called this set the "Defense of Hoth" and had a complimentary playset composed of Imperial elements called "Assault on Hoth".  I definitely agree that the individual components aren't detailed enough to warrant the UCS label, and I think it may be a little overpriced, but I am looking forward to the set for its playability.  

[Will 4]

More like minor dispute/altercation on Hoth