75159 - UCS: Death Star (2016)

[gregpj]

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

[Manse1001]

If it works for the movies, why not for the merchandising?

Try telling that to Hitchcock when they did a remake of Psycho!! ;o)

[Miami Bomb Squad]

Any good photoshoppers Here?
Lets see what you can do?

[target]

Upon closely examining 2 potential leaked images (same images; one printed on a box; the other on a print; Google keyword: death star lego leaked), something interesting caught my eyes. The position of Star Wars is slightly different in 2 seemingly identical pictures. One is above the laser canon, but other is covering the top edge of the laser canon. Don't know if that means anything...... 

[BearCrash]

1 minute ago, Manse1001 said:

Try telling that to Hitchcock when they did a remake of Psycho!! ;o)

Hitchcock did a remake of one of his own movies so he doesn't get to vote.

[mfortunek]

This thread is a riot. So much intrigue!

Conspiracy theories and phony photos and the fate of the entire Lego world as we know it hanging in the balance...

Reminds me of the opening act of Cyrano de Bergerac. In how many ways can I describe it all?

Obvious: Is that the new Death Star displayed in the window? It looks just like the last one. 

Optimistic: The cheese slopes actually give the new DS more of a finished look. Also Han Solo has blow-dried hair. It won't hurt the 10188. It's a classic!

Hyperbolic: I'll never buy another Lego set as long as I live. Disney has destroyed that which I love the most and investing is forever finished. Rest in peace, Lego investing.

Numerical: Rest in 4,016 pieces.

Vituperative: The new UCS sets are awful. Lego designers have gotten so lazy it's embarrassing. We haven't seen a good UCS set since Slave I. Everything released in the last year has been progressively worse. Toy Shop: sucked. Batcave: sucked. Assault on Hoth: sucked. And now this.

Vulgar: All of this fussing over a pair of old grey balls. Like my grandfather at his urology exam.

Grammatical: The horde of outraged hoarders hollered about hoaxes until they were hoarse. 

I could keep going but now I'm just grasping at straws.

[CM4Sci]

22 minutes ago, Rimmit said:

One of the most elaborate hoaxes in recent memory.  Maybe the reason their lawyers are not circling the forums, is because this is NOT A BIG REVEAL!  What thunder could you possibly be stealing by leaking this early??  If anything, we are doing them a favor, by diffusing the situation now, before the official announcement.  We are already disappointed, so we don't come crashing down on them when they announce 75159.  With the Disney Castle, there was some major thunder to be stolen there, they went for a big reveal and a big bang.  There is NO BIG REVEAL THIS TIME, so why try and cover it up?

 

Actually this makes sense because someone from LEGO contacted me and asked me to take down the Disney Castle pics when I put them on Reddit. Not a single word any of the tons of other times I've posted early stuff on there from them. Just the castle. 

[Miami Bomb Squad]

7 minutes ago, target said:

Upon closely examining 2 potential leaked images (same images; one printed on a box; the other on a print; Google keyword: death star lego leaked), something interesting caught my eyes. The position of Star Wars is slightly different in 2 seemingly identical pictures. One is above the laser canon, but other is covering the top edge of the laser canon. Don't know if that means anything...... 

It means you had one too many at the cantina!

[gregpj]

4 minutes ago, mfortunek said:

I could keep going but now I'm just grasping at straws.

I totally read that last line as grasping at stars.

This thread has been fun.

[LegoEdison]

47 minutes ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

How come they didn't just take a photo of the entire set.
Why just the right corner?
The Photographer must be a peeping Tom.

Maybe the box is from Lepin?

[labfreak7]

Funny how much this thread yoyos. Yesterday almost everyone swore by the photos and predicted gloom and doom. Today there seem to be a glimmer of hope. Either way it is quite a roller coaster ride. Does anyone actually have any facts about this set? I know we are all speculating, but who knows the facts, and what are they?

[BrickLegacy]

Funny how much this thread yoyos. Yesterday almost everyone swore by the photos and predicted gloom and doom. Today there seem to be a glimmer of hope. Either way it is quite a roller coaster ride. Does anyone actually have any facts about this set? I know we are all speculating, but who knows the facts, and what are they?

I know those pics aren't legit. Just waiting for my boy to show up.

[dcdfan]

What I like best about this thread is it takes me away from the Lepin, I mean knock-off thread. Not one bit of good news there.

[Average Guy]

39 minutes ago, dcdfan said:

41 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Once emazers declared he is happy with 50$ profit , everything is fair game 

I want to be on the record to state, I will not accept $50 profit for 10188's. I'll eat them first.

Wait...you can eat Legos? Sweet! I won't need to buy groceries for 10 years!

[Bold-Arrow]

Since everyone is going on record , this thread is now a 

[Alpinemaps]

1 hour ago, BrickLegacy said:

Brickshow still has the pic on Instagram. Surely Lego would have them take it down right?

By now.  It's been over 24 hours since these photos leaked.  And Brickshow isn't the only one to have them up.  Those sites normally get the take down notices within 6-8 hours.  Interesting to note, TheBrickFan has nothing on their site, so I'm assuming they are playing it safe and not posting the images at all.

1 hour ago, BrickLegacy said:

I'm on the record for saying the pics are fake, this is a hoax and 10188 hits $800 by Christmas.

I'm keeping this post, and sending myself a remember at Christmas time.

49 minutes ago, dcdfan said:

I want to be on the record to state, I will not accept $50 profit for 10188's. I'll eat them first.

You wouldn't be the first to threaten that.  I think someone was supposed to eat a Tumbler at some point.

43 minutes ago, DadsAFOL said:

Sort of...  The ambassador forum has a comment that online RLUGs should expect a press release around September 1st with the official set release on October 1st.  But they are dancing around it because they can't officially comment on a set that isn't announced publicly.  Lego has been trying hard this year to manage the leaks, and the ambassador community is trying to help, but at least 50% of the leaks this year have been caused by Lego, or people in its span of control.  For example, like having a set that doesn't officially exist show up to LBR stores so someone can build the display.  Ot the Batcave that showed up on a retail shelf on Europe somewhere.

I'm assuming that they've only said to expect a press release around September 1, but not what the contents of that press release are?

Force Friday is September 4, which is just a couple of days before that.  So....

[Migration]

Funny how much this thread yoyos. Yesterday almost everyone swore by the photos and predicted gloom and doom. Today there seem to be a glimmer of hope. Either way it is quite a roller coaster ride. Does anyone actually have any facts about this set? I know we are all speculating, but who knows the facts, and what are they?

No.

[tjj1984]

42 minutes ago, Rimmit said:

If anything, we are doing them a favor, by diffusing the situation now, before the official announcement.  We are already disappointed, so we don't come crashing down on them when they announce 75159.

Exactly. They're keeping quiet on this because they're hoping it'll blow over before they make their official announcement. It turns out they did learn something from AOH!

God bless you, Rimmit. I thought I was going to have to debunk this lunacy, but I'm already a couple beers into my Friday night, so it was going to be that much more of a chore.

I'd just like add that all of the nitpicking about the box art doesn't make sense. If TLG put ZERO effort into re-designing the set, why would you expect them to put any effort into re-designing the box art? Also, if there's some Photoshop wizard creating fake sets with crazy detail (Eurobricks has been commenting on the lackluster back-printing on some of the officer minifigs), wouldn't you think that the wizard would pay the same attention to detail to the graphic design? Using the unprofessional quality of the box art does nothing to lend credence to it being fake. It just underlines how lazy this re-release is.

[ad2001]

The only hope that I have is the price is really $500 ... I think the last couple big sets was about $50 less than the rumors (Disney Castle was set as $400 in Brickiest for the longest time until the official release)

[CM4Sci]

Just now, tjj1984 said:

they're hoping it'll blow over before they make their official announcement.

Haha ok, then a few days before the announcement I'll go "Hey guys remember the new Death Star is a pile of crap brick-for-brick rehash." 

No blowing over this time! 

[tjj1984]

41 minutes ago, labfreak7 said:

Funny how much this thread yoyos. Yesterday almost everyone swore by the photos and predicted gloom and doom. Today there seem to be a glimmer of hope. Either way it is quite a roller coaster ride. Does anyone actually have any facts about this set? I know we are all speculating, but who knows the facts, and what are they?

Two weeks ago everyone was convinced that TLG's servers were compromised by the Chinese government. Now TLG is leaking fake photos to throw them off. Pretty sure that's not how hacking works.

[lego rules]

1 hour ago, Rimmit said:

For the record, I have absolutely zero stock in 10188.  I came out of my 2nd dark age after this set was retired.

So I want to clarify just what we are proposing in terms of a conspiracy theory that would be required for these pics to fake:

1.  Lego group cares enough about their internal leaks to start an internal affairs/CIA level operation to discover the leak.

2. They are willing to devote the manpower to have two separate sets of design teams, one which is a decoy team that designs "FAKE" 75159 and one that designs "REAL" 75159.

3. They are willing to have find a way to make sure that NONE of the designers, and nobody, but the highest of the highest board and executive members know this, so they can flush out the leak.

4. They then also set two separate design teams to design boxes, and manuals.

5. They send two separate sets of materials to a printer to have them printed.

6. They send out internal memo's showing these materials to everyone, with only the highest executives knowing their plan.  All the while, everyone else is completely in the dark.

7. They ship two separate 75159 out into shops and the wild.  The FAKE 75159 first and then the REAL one a week or so later.

This is TLG we are talking about.  Not the FBI/CIA/KGB/covert operations group of choice.

While all possible, I do not think TLG is willing to devote the manpower necessary to fabricate one of the most elaborate hoaxes in recent memory.  Maybe the reason their lawyers are not circling the forums, is because this is NOT A BIG REVEAL!  What thunder could you possibly be stealing by leaking this early??  If anything, we are doing them a favor, by diffusing the situation now, before the official announcement.  We are already disappointed, so we don't come crashing down on them when they announce 75159.  With the Disney Castle, there was some major thunder to be stolen there, they went for a big reveal and a big bang.  There is NO BIG REVEAL THIS TIME, so why try and cover it up?

Now, onto the pictures.  For the record, I do a very large amount of photography in my spare time, and at one point used to do Pro Photography on the side for fun, and have reasonable experience in photoshop/lightroom. I am not a graphic designer, but I know my way around some programs.

The pics in question.

#1 - The VIP Promo Pic - Of all the pics, this has the highest chance of being fake. That being said, it also has a very high chance of being real.  While people keep stating that it is grainy, well, the reason for that, is because it is a picture taken of a picture if that makes sense.  I do this all the time when I have a spectacular photo I have taken out in the wild, and want to share it with someone. I have Canon 5dMKIII that does not have wifi capabalities, so if I want to send someone a pic real fast, I have to take a photo off the screen off the back of my camera.  When I do this, it looks nearly identical to that photo.  Likely someone took a picture of it with their phone, and then someone took a picture of it from that phone. The lines on the photo is the space between each pixel. While the graphic design is extremely questionable, I have seen worse from Lego, and the fonts, placement of product info in the lower left hand corner, are very consistent with their typical graphic design department.

2. - The instruction manual - This manual looks as though it was placed on a table, and the left side, where the STAR WARS logo and 75159 are, are falling off the table a little bit.  This is what is causing the line to be crooked and the logo, etc.  Take a magazine, lay it 1/4 off the edge at home and try it out yourself.  You will see what I am talking about.

3. - The Box - This is highly convincing.  This would have to be a pretty high end photoshop job, given the light reflections.  It is definitely doable, but you are breaking out some big gun photoshopping.  More likely if it is a fake, lego made a one time run of fake boxes.  There is even the slight creasing on the box in the reflection showing the corrugation of the cardboard.  This is Pixar level detail if you are photo shopping this sucker. The yellow line is consistent with the other placement on the manual as well.  While the explosion is slightly different, that could be just the graphic designer scooting it a smidge for whatever reason.

While I agree the graphic design of the box sucks,  keep in mind for many years Lego had black and white boxes for their flagship sets.  I definitely agree for their flagship it should be more exciting, however, it looks real.  To deny that would be implying that TLG is now the CIA, and I don't think that is the case.

 

 

 

[MathBuilder]

1 hour ago, dcdfan said:

1 hour ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Once emazers declared he is happy with 50$ profit , everything is fair game 

I want to be on the record to state, I will not accept $50 profit for 10188's. I'll eat them first.

[thedingman5]

I wonder if this thread is what "Paul is Dead" was like back when Abbey Road came out...

[Migration]

1 minute ago, thedingman5 said:

I wonder if this thread is what "Paul is Dead" was like back when Abbey Road came out...

Cranberry Sauce. 

[Stud-Flipper]

R.I.P. Lego 1949-2016