75159 - UCS: Death Star (2016)

[gregpj]

This one is for you LEGO, inspired by @BrickLegacy and brought to you by Brickpickers everywhere.

[Ed Mack]

Piece count is irrelevant for the most part.  The weight of the ABS plastic is the primary factor in pricing sets, with minifigures playing a factor as well.

[Deadfraggle]

I'd like to point out that while we've been posting, @emazers has already acquired 5 copies of the new Death Star as part of his plan to buy 1 or 2 a month until this retires in 2023.

[ISO8T0]

2 minutes ago, Deadfraggle said:

I'd like to point out that while we've been posting, @emazers has already acquired 5 copies of the new Death Star as part of his plan to buy 1 or 2 a month until this retires in 2023.

"Triple like!" button please.

Gone are the days of emazers shady wholesale acquisitions. Now Darin is taking over.

Edited August 3, 2016 by pstebbing

[exciter1]

"Triple like!" button please.

Gone are the days of emazers shady wholesale acquisitions. Now Darin is taking over.

[jaisonline]

8 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Piece count is irrelevant for the most part.  The weight of the ABS plastic is the primary factor in pricing sets, with minifigures playing a factor as well.

So true. 10227 UCS B-Wing is a perfect example.  Lower piece count but ample elements are larger plates. 

[Stud-Flipper]

Hope it comes with a mini millennium falcon for size comparison.

Or even a host of small mini vehicles, like a squadron of x wings to blow it up

Also, wonder if LEGO will ever do a promotion on some of their larger Star Wars sets, where it includes a free ticket to whatever the latest movie is.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Stud-Flipper

[redghostx]

Just now, Stud-Flipper said:

Hope it comes with a mini millennium falcon for size comparison.

Or even a host of small mini vehicles, like a squadron of x wings to blow it up

A giant - "shoot here to destroy me in one shot" trench decal will be great and the frame collapses if you actually flick a missile into the sweet spot. 

[Stud-Flipper]

Just make the whole thing explodable, like the whole thing is just held together by a dozen of these in certain locations.

[fossilrock]

58 minutes ago, landphieran said:

Over saturation and over evaluation of sets is a huge problem at the moment. The star wars and super hereos rapid release of content seems to be bringing out the worst in Lego. Releasing tons of content at inflated prices with little creativity. Granted there have been some great sets (outside of those theme's) that i have really enjoyed. I anticipate a lot of older/newer sets aren't getting the attention they deserve because of the sheer volume of options and peoples limited buying power.

I believe in order to be successful the next couple of years you are going to need to be lucky and very diligent. Find the clearance deals, guess the correct sets (sets that aren't rapidly recreated, sets that are quickly retired, sets that have a lot of show time), and be very disciplined at not buying everything under the sun.
 

That's excellent advice.  I'm already looking at the Rogue One sets, and seeing a lot of similarities to the Force Awakens sets. When you do an apple to apples comparison 4 of the 5 sets are equivalent to 4 sets that are currently being discounted at walmarts.  This does make me realize that buying those sets at 50% off shouldn't be an issue, but I don't know if there is going to be much profit for those that start purchasing during the final days when the remaining sets of that wave are sitting at TRU for 110% RRP.  Especially when the Rouge One sets will be out, and most of them are too similar to the sets that are retiring, except for the minifigures.

This is also the problem with the new death star in that it's just a too recent refresh. This is where a lot of us could get burned quite quickly if you start investing to deeply into some of these sets.  It's almost like these yearly films are going to just dilute the line very quickly.  While we probably wont see many rehashes of these same vehicles and sets, the similarities to other sets being released will be close enough that it will almost be like a rehash.  So....it's definitely a new phase, I think. I just look at half the sets from this year in the Star Wars wave and there wasn't a lot of creativity.  Disney can ruin this star wars line quickly, and I don't know if I want to be holding a lot of stuff.  I've seen this happen many times before and I think we are starting to see the downside to the lego star wars line as it becomes oversaturated and overvalued.  This death star will be a defining moment in more ways than one.  

[Alpinemaps]

2 hours ago, legoverzamelen said:

Anybody up for building a Lego 43-days-DeathStar-Countdown-Timer?
 

 

You are giving me a really good idea.  Let me see what I can come up with tonight.

[Mos_Eisley]

28 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

You are giving me a really good idea.  Let me see what I can come up with tonight.

 

[exciter1]

 

I just had this weird vision of Alpine in pasties???

[house72]

1 minute ago, Mos_Eisley said:

 

No one Drinks Jo-Boo's rum..  ..  HAHAHAHAHA.

We need a live chicken too!!

[Alpinemaps]

I just had this weird vision of Alpine in pasties???

HAHAHAHHAHA

You're my favorite Brickpicker again.

To contribute my favorite from that movie....

"Too high! Too high!"

[gregpj]

I don't understand where you're getting your references for piece count. If it was a $300 value set, it'd only have ~3,000 pieces. That doesn't line up with other current large sets. The Slave 1 is $200, and has right at 2k pieces. The Sandcrawler is $300 and has ~3300 pieces. The TIE Fighter and Assault on Hoth are a bit less but still 11-12 cents a piece. So, therefore even at the least it can be reasonable be assumed it has atleast 4,500 pieces. Likely, 5k+. 10 years ago roughly, we got the UCS Falcon at $500, and it came with just over 5k pieces. So, piece count wise, especially in the really large sets, nothing has changed.

Minifigures always reduce the piece count. Ewok village at $250 has under 2k pieces buts lots of figures. If the new DS has 24 figures again, it'll cut into the piece count.

[house72]

25 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

 

HAHAHAHHAHA

You're my favorite Brickpicker again.

To contribute my favorite from that movie....

"Too high! Too high!"

 

What do you mean too high?   It's $#$#$#$ gone. 

You may run like Hayes. but you hit like EXciter1!

Edited August 4, 2016 by house72

[Stud-Flipper]

4 minutes ago, gregpj said:

 

Minifigures always reduce the piece count. Ewok village at $250 has under 2k pieces buts lots of figures. If the new DS has 24 figures again, it'll cut into the piece count.

 

Maybe a little bit. 10188 was 3,800 @ $400. At that same rate, the $500 would still be 4,750 pieces. I don't get their minifigure distribution. 4 figures in a $13 set, and maybe only double that, 8 in a $100 set. Back in the '80's you could get a castle with like 14 figures and 4 horses, now it's almost never that a set has more than 1 horse. 

[gregpj]

Maybe a little bit. 10188 was 3,800 @ $400. At that same rate, the $500 would still be 4,750 pieces. I don't get their minifigure distribution. 4 figures in a $13 set, and maybe only double that, 8 in a $100 set. Back in the '80's you could get a castle with like 14 figures and 4 horses, now it's almost never that a set has more than 1 horse. 

I don't really get it either... Those Star Wars battle packs are a great deal for figures.

With inflation my bet is 4200 pieces if $500 is the price point. I'm wondering what the Canadian retail is going to be though... $500 US is $650 Canadian... That's uncharted territory by quite a margin.

[Stud-Flipper]

7 minutes ago, gregpj said:

 

I don't really get it either... Those Star Wars battle packs are a great deal for figures.

With inflation my bet is 4200 pieces if $500 is the price point. I'm wondering what the Canadian retail is going to be though... $500 US is $650 Canadian... That's uncharted territory by quite a margin.

 

But that's only 900 more pieces than the Sandcrawler and $200 more.And the Sandcrawler is relatively recent. That's a complete $100 markup. And the Ghostbusters HQ had 4600 pieces at $350, also pretty recent.

And about the battle packs, I can remember for the longest time them being 9.99. Then all of a sudden 10.99, 11.99, 12.99. Won't be too long before it's a $20 battlepack.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Stud-Flipper

[mezzaluna]

4 hours ago, Ciglione said:

If... 75159 is too much similar to 10188 with just updated figs I will stop buying lego and quit investing. 

can i have your collection then

[BrickLegacy]

But that's only 900 more pieces than the Sandcrawler and $200 more.And the Sandcrawler is relatively recent. That's a complete $100 markup. And the Ghostbusters HQ had 4600 pieces at $350, also pretty recent.

And about the battle packs, I can remember for the longest time them being 9.99. Then all of a sudden 10.99, 11.99, 12.99. Won't be too long before it's a $20 battlepack.

I've been selling $20 battle packs for a while now. LEGO is just behind the curve.

[111ins]

1 hour ago, gregpj said:

 

I don't really get it either... Those Star Wars battle packs are a great deal for figures.

With inflation my bet is 4200 pieces if $500 is the price point. I'm wondering what the Canadian retail is going to be though... $500 US is $650 Canadian... That's uncharted territory by quite a margin.

Well, 10179 was $500 USD or $680 CDN

1 hour ago, gregpj said:

 

 

[tjj1984]

1 hour ago, BrickLegacy said:

 

I've been selling $20 battle packs for a while now. LEGO is just behind the curve.

 

What happens when they catch up? 

[Stud-Flipper]

6 minutes ago, tjj1984 said:

What happens when they catch up? 

He'll be selling them for $40 then

[tjj1984]

Just now, Stud-Flipper said:

He'll be selling them for $40 then

Right because people will pay $40 for four minifigures in six months. Or six years.

Nah man, they'll pay $0.40 today