75098 - UCS: Assault on Hoth

[oneknightr]

At the VIP event yesterday, I asked the manager if he had any damaged box UCS TIE's or Slave I's and he came out with this. It looks like a rhino sat on it. Out of the 15 or so people at the VIP event, only one person bought this set and it was the damaged one in the picture with the bonus 500 VIP pts. This guy also bought SC, Slave I and IST.

[jaisonline]

1 hour ago, oneknightr said:

At the VIP event yesterday, I asked the manager if he had any damaged box UCS TIE's or Slave I's and he came out with this. It looks like a rhino sat on it. Out of the 15 or so people at the VIP event, only one person bought this set and it was the damaged one in the picture with the bonus 500 VIP pts. This guy also bought SC, Slave I and IST.

 

i purchased a bad conditioned boxed helicarrier with 500 VIP pts added. my box wasn't this bad though. 

good deal for a $250 set but it's still 2 Imperial Solders' ASSault on Hoth.  honestly, i doubt this set will ever be in my collection unless it's on-sale for $150.  i despise 75098 that much and ESB is my fav SW film

[MathBuilder]

.  

2 hours ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

Interesting although maybe not unexpected but after day 1 of AoH release it comes in at number 8 in the UK's top sellers page on LEGO Shop at Home behind (in this order and only the SW sets)... S1, SC, EV, TF, MF.
Will be the sale skewing things but last on the list of every large SW set even when MF can be found a further 10% cheaper atm.  I actually expected it to be higher despite the down beat chatter.

Maybe it is LEGO messing with our minds. It is not like the "top sellers" statistics are supervised by an independent impartial contractor.

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by MathBuilder

[Brian Briggs]

14 hours ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

Interesting although maybe not unexpected but after day 1 of AoH release it comes in at number 8 in the UK's top sellers page on LEGO Shop at Home behind (in this order and only the SW sets)... S1, SC, EV, TF, MF.
Will be the sale skewing things but last on the list of every large SW set even when MF can be found a further 10% cheaper atm.  I actually expected it to be higher despite the down beat chatter.

Today, LEGO also send out an e-mail to promote their "fantastic LEGO reproduction of the Echo rebel base" which allows you to "reenact an exciting battle". Maybe the set doesn't live up to their sales expectations.

[GiliusThunderhead]

44 minutes ago, Brian Briggs said:

Today, LEGO also send out an e-mail to promote their "fantastic LEGO reproduction of the Echo rebel base" which allows you to "reenact an exciting battle". Maybe the set doesn't live up to their sales expectations.

Higher up on the list then bat cave and GBHQ but who knows what statistic massaging we'd find if they let the independent auditors in.  

Now I might not be a marketing expert but I think calling it a UCS set was a major mistake.  A lot of the negative PR is coming from this.  I honestly wonder if it would have done better without that moniker.  And 2 the name...Assault on Hoth with 2 snowtroopers is just a joke.  Again massive source for the bad PR.  If they called it something like "Hoth Eco Base" - which i think has been used before or even "Echo Rebel Base" then that's one less thing for people to jump all over and a better description IMO.

Still - having seen this on display (and i don't know if its because i was expecting the worse) I didn't think it looked too bad. Not good enough for me to justify the price.

[TugaBricks]

It looks good allright, just not UCS good nor 250€ good enough...

Oh, sorry, 249,99€...

[Brian Briggs]

10 minutes ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

Higher up on the list then bat cave and GBHQ but who knows what statistic massaging we'd find if they let the independent auditors in.  

Now I might not be a marketing expert but I think calling it a UCS set was a major mistake.  A lot of the negative PR is coming from this.  I honestly wonder if it would have done better without that moniker.  And 2 the name...Assault on Hoth with 2 snowtroopers is just a joke.  Again massive source for the bad PR.  If they called it something like "Hoth Eco Base" - which i think has been used before or even "Echo Rebel Base" then that's one less thing for people to jump all over and a better description IMO.

Still - having seen this on display (and i don't know if its because i was expecting the worse) I didn't think it looked too bad. Not good enough for me to justify the price.

I agrre that the name itself and the UCS badge are not helping the case of this set. For comparison, Ewok Village contains 2 scout troopers and stormtroopers each. That's 4 out of 18 minifigures representing the Empire. It could have easily been named "Assault on Endor".

Edited May 2, 2016 by Brian Briggs

[jonnyhanukkah]

Might try my luck this week at my Lego store and see if they have any damaged box ones that I can get a deal on.  

 

Do you think there's any chance if I ask for extra Stormtrooper Polybags that they'd give me some if I'm buying ASSault on Hoth? 

[trekgate502]

It has moved up to number 2 on shop at home best sellers overnight.

I suspect the general public feels different.

[Calli]

On 4/30/2016 at 11:21 PM, Phil B said:

I'd be interested in hearing from those who go to the VIP pre-shopping hour how many of the 28 actually buy this set.

I was in the Lego Store in the Chicago Water Tower around 9.30 on Saturday. At that time the store was 'open' to invited VIPs for 1.5 hours already. Luckily my girlfriend and me were the only customers in the store - experiencing silence in a Lego store is unusually pleasant.

I asked the store manager how many AoH they had sold. She said around 10 units. I was really surprised by that number.

The set is bigger than I thought but it still does not convince me even though I have no other Hoth sets. 

[longshot]

The lego store I went to on Sat only had 10 of the 28 invitees show up for the event........CRAZY! I tried to get an extra Space slug since they would have to send the other back but to no avail. I did get the hoth set however even though I feel its pretty fragmented. 

[jstodda]

On 4/30/2016 at 0:32 PM, The Lurker said:

49 minutes ago, trekgate502 said:

It has moved up to number 2 on shop at home best sellers overnight.

I suspect the general public feels different.

And this is what I suspected. While many of us collector/investor folks dont appreciate a set based on our elevated criteria, the rest of america is HAPPY to see a Hoth set "worthy" of its place in the films. Whether or not its better than prior sets is irrelevant, it wont be placed on the shelves next to those sets, so many ignorant Lego fans wont have any baseline to compare to.

If you just look at the set in and of itself, there sure are several things we all would have done to make it better. That said, it has the key parts of the STORY LINE that bring back memories (generators, wampa, etc) and emotion generally drives purchasing, not logic.  I think this set will do well enough for it to be popular, but not overwhelmingly popular to flood the market. Seems to me thats EXACTLY what creates a HIGH VALUE set in the future for collectors/investors, especially if this is the LAST Hoth set ever made (which would make sense as its UCS). What will they try to remake a UCS Hoth set with antoher UCS UCS Hoth set???

 

[longshot]

Lego missed the boat on this one iF its the last Hoth set to be made. They should have made two sets..........one for the rebel defense and one for the imperial attack. NOW that would have been a kewl playset and Lego would have sold twice as many sets. The pieces they could have saved by getting rid of the Wampa and imperial forces (miniamal anyway) could have went into a more uniformed base.

[trekgate502]

 While it is certainly understandable that many people will not want the set there is a lot of individuals who do not have any hoth sets or are new to the Lego community and do not want to pay inflated secondary market prices. So ignorant is not a word I would choose to use.  Maybe they just want to build play and have fun. But I guess that's not what Lego is about. 

[jstodda]

10 minutes ago, trekgate502 said:

 While it is certainly understandable that many people will not want the set there is a lot of individuals who do not have any hoth sets or are new to the Lego community and do not want to pay inflated secondary market prices. So ignorant is not a word I would choose to use.  Maybe they just want to build play and have fun. But I guess that's not what Lego is about. 

Pardon my use of words. Wasnt my intent to sound negative, but I agree with you that there is a huge sector of buyers that see this as a first chance to Battle at Hoth and will absolutely take it.

[GiliusThunderhead]

2 minutes ago, trekgate502 said:

 While it is certainly understandable that many people will not want the set there is a lot of individuals who do not have any hoth sets or are new to the Lego community and do not want to pay inflated secondary market prices. So ignorant is not a word I would choose to use.  Maybe they just want to build play and have fun. But I guess that's not what Lego is about. 

Great point.  There are going to be a boat load of new SW fans coming along, loads of which wont have (or know about) the previous Hoth sets and I'm pretty sure its the most popular SW battle.
I've been trying to hold back bashing this set as i now actually quite like it (just not the price), but you've put things back into perspective here.  There's so much going on in this set (even with only 2 imperials) a kid would have an absolute blast!  
TLG most likely know what they're doing and i imagine the previous Hoth sets sold well. So why not cobble them altogether as an ultimate collection?
 

[trekgate502]

Just now, jstodda said:

Pardon my use of words. Wasnt my intent to sound negative, but I agree with you that there is a huge sector of buyers that see this as a first chance to Battle at Hoth and will absolutely take it.

no problem and I agree certainly with much of your post feelings that because it is new, it is available, and it is Lego it will move considerable volume with the general retail community

[trekgate502]

2 minutes ago, GiliusThunderhead said:

Great point.  There are going to be a boat load of new SW fans coming along, loads of which wont have (or know about) the previous Hoth sets and I'm pretty sure its the most popular SW battle.
I've been trying to hold back bashing this set as i now actually quite like it (just not the price), but you've put things back into perspective here.  There's so much going on in this set (even with only 2 imperials) a kid would have an absolute blast!  
TLG most likely know what they're doing and i imagine the previous Hoth sets sold well. So why not cobble them altogether as an ultimate collection?
 

I do not disagree I like the set a lot now.

What was I wanting ? A actual base that you could fly the full size non ucs millennium falcon into

But that was not in the cards and I love Hoth

[jstodda]

Just now, trekgate502 said:

no problem and I agree certainly with much of your post feelings that because it is new, it is available, and it is Lego it will move considerable volume with the general retail community

Its also a good thing for the investment group. These first timers wont buy the set to keep it on a shelf, they are going to open and play with it. Means that down the road the percentage of sets that are MISB will be more rare (especially since it isnt a homerun in the collector/investment group). 

 

(How many people thought it was crazy to buy a $499 set back in 2007 that was just ONE spaceship in Starwars with little to no play-ability due to size and few minifigures compared to others). And yet, how many of us wish we DID do that.... lol

[c_rpg]

2 hours ago, TugaBricks said:

It looks good allright, just not UCS good nor 250€ good enough...

Oh, sorry, 249,99€...

It's 280€ here. Waaaayyy too much. Should be like 200€.

[maestro]

Not really keen on this set

[Brian Briggs]

6 hours ago, jstodda said:

Its also a good thing for the investment group. These first timers wont buy the set to keep it on a shelf, they are going to open and play with it. Means that down the road the percentage of sets that are MISB will be more rare (especially since it isnt a homerun in the collector/investment group). 

 

(How many people thought it was crazy to buy a $499 set back in 2007 that was just ONE spaceship in Starwars with little to no play-ability due to size and few minifigures compared to others). And yet, how many of us wish we DID do that.... lol

This set is no UCS Millenium Falcon though, and I doubt people will look back that fondly on AoH. It's just a necessary evil for completists.

I don't recall anyone being wowed by AoH when it was revealed. The flaws in its design are obvious at a glance. For me it's just o.k. as a set because I don't own any Hoth-related LEGO-sets besides AT-AT and Snowspeeder. So maybe I will pick up AoH if I can get it for significantly less than 200€. Yet all that considered wouldn't be enough reason for me to pay a high mark-up for it after its EOL. It's just lacking the wow factor that even sets from LEGO themes that I dislike possess, e.g. the new Technic Porsche.

[trekgate502]

Wow

[Buchimuer]

I will only buy this one if I could get one or two AT-AT. Seems hard to build a movie scenes with this set along...

[jstodda]

15 minutes ago, Buchimuer said:

I will only buy this one if I could get one or two AT-AT. Seems hard to build a movie scenes with this set along...

Depends on the scene but I agree "Assault on Hoth" should include walkers (but they are available stand alone). If they added them it would make the set about $399 unless a smaller Walker version was used. Would a walker included entice someone who already HAD a walker to now have two plus a playset for $399? That would be a tough sell that we all would poke even more holes in....

The Ewok Villiage is similar but is probably missing an AT walker itself (two legged version) like the older Endor Attack bunker set (now THAT I would like to see remade). Again, there are various options available to add that as a stand alone set.

Many playset type sets are missing a few of this or that, but if those can be purchased (or probably have been purchased) already, then I think that unnecessary cost. I DO think the name is misleading. I could see "Adventures on Hoth" or "Hoth Base Adventures", I think Assault infers the attack we all remember from the movie.