Retiring Soon - open speculation

[exciter1]

6 minutes ago, Yinchuan said:

 

I'd fly it!

[Battrax]

42 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

So what's going on with the Sopwith Camel?  It's doing the dance?

 

 

[Crustybeaver]

It's an opinion that it's preparing for the retirement shuffle considering the rumors of 2 or 3 new Star Wars UCS sets on the horizon.

Standard is they release two large Star Wars sets each year and retire two around October-December. Last Year we got Slave and Tie and lost DS and X-Wing. This year however we already know we're getting a UCS Death Star 75159, a UCS Snowspeeder 75144 and UCS Assault on Hoth 75098. There's just no way I see Slave or Tie going so surely just EV and Sandcrawler around Christmas.

[Pomodoro]

18 hours ago, Crustybeaver said:

Standard is they release two large Star Wars sets each year and retire two around October-December. Last Year we got Slave and Tie and lost DS and X-Wing. This year however we already know we're getting a UCS Death Star 75159, a UCS Snowspeeder 75144 and UCS Assault on Hoth 75098. There's just no way I see Slave or Tie going so surely just EV and Sandcrawler around Christmas.

It might be slightly off-topic, but I've seen this reported several times, however here is an excerpt of an interview about 75060 conducted last year by Anio with Hans Burkhard Schlömer:

Quote

Anio: Do you prefer working on UCS or retail models?

Hans: For me the process is pretty much the same, only the UCS is a much bigger set than your normal retail set. And there are not more than 2 per year within one IP such as Star Wars, which makes them certainly special! One gets much more recognition for a UCS set, with the designer video, your portrait and an interview in the building manual. Which is very nice especially for a new designer. With playtheme models, after half a year even your own colleagues hardly remember which sets you have done ...

Am I crazy thinking that one of the three announced UCS might actually be an oversized playset à-la Ewok Village? My guess would be Assault on Hoth if it is anything like the video released last year.

Has it ever been stated that this 2 UCS per year rule has been revoked? Disney might have changed things a bit, but this got me thinking.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Pomodoro

[inversion]

20 minutes ago, Pomodoro said:

Has it ever been stated that this 2 UCS per year rule has been revoked? Disney might have changed things a bit, but this got me thinking.

Was there ever a rule?

[Pomodoro]

Just now, inversion said:

Was there ever a rule?

Sounds very much like so reading Hans' answer, and the only exception is 2002, with 3 sets.

[Val-E]

Hoth is an engima - it should have come out in 2015 and then there would have been 3. We´ll see what shape ot format it eventually has.

[Val-E]

Slave was a Jan 2015 release, but  it just means only one was released in 2014 (Sandcrawler)

[Deadfraggle]

6 minutes ago, Val-E said:

Slave was a Jan 2015 release, but  it just means only one was released in 2014 (Sandcrawler)

You're absolutely correct. I was thinking JAN 2014 launch, but it was absolutely JAN 2015. I stand corrected and have edited the original chart. Thanks for catching my screw-up.

[Crustybeaver]

3 hours ago, inversion said:

Was there ever a rule?

Maybe not but there's a pattern, and that's good enough for me

[cardkid]

Was there ever a rule?

So there is a rule of 2.

Not just for the sith

[Kenxxx]

Wow... thanks for the chart Deadfraggle.  I've been doing this a couple years and still have a lot to learn.  I never realized how many of these sets did not have the UCS label.  I was like..." you mean Red 5 is not a UCS set? ... and the B-Wing?  ... and the SSD isn't either?" Whoa.  I never thought about it much... always just kind of assumed... so the Sandcrawler is the first UCS set released since the UCS MF 10179? I never woulda guessed that.  It's also interesting that there are 3 UCS sets available simultaneously right now... probably hasn't happened in over ten years?

EDIT: OK... I was clearly incorrect about much of what I just wrote... thank you to those who clear this up for me in the following replies

Edited February 7, 2016 by Kenxxx

[Pomodoro]

2 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

Wow... thanks for the chart Deadfraggle.  I've been doing this a couple years and still have a lot to learn.  I never realized how many of these sets did not have the UCS label.  I was like..." you mean Red 5 is not a UCS set? ... and the B-Wing?  ... and the SSD isn't either?" Whoa.  I never thought about it much... always just kind of assumed... so the Sandcrawler is the first UCS set released since the UCS MF 10179? I never woulda guessed that.  It's also interesting that there are 3 UCS sets available simultaneously right now... probably hasn't happened in over ten years?

No, the UCS are the green lines, the yellow are either large play sets or anniversary editions. Anniversary editions are very similar in size and design to an actual UCS but do not have the UCS seal on the box.

[Kenxxx]

Hmmmm... ok .. still confused... for example: 10240 Red 5... how come when I search images, it doesn't actually say "UCS" on the box anywhere?  Nor does it say anything about UCS on the shop.lego website?  Now when I search brickset or brickippedia it does list Red 5 (and many of these others) along with all the other UCS sets... where's the official ruling on this?

[Lordoflego]

6 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

Hmmmm... ok .. still confused... for example: 10240 Red 5... how come when I search images, it doesn't actually say "UCS" on the box anywhere?  Nor does it say anything about UCS on the shop.lego website?  Now when I search brickset or brickippedia it does list Red 5 (and many of these others) along with all the other UCS sets... where's the official ruling on this?

I knew about ewok village, ds 10188, Sandcrawler, but look, I just noticed that my ssd isn't labeled as ucs either...

[Ensche]

Oh no, you just discovered a well hidden secret

[Lordoflego]

4 minutes ago, Ensche said:

Oh no, you just discovered a well hidden secret

Not that at all, (but thank you for your very 'helpful' post) I never paid attention to it and even if some may not think ewok village or even ds 10188 qualifies to be ucs set, my ssd definitely are ucs (at least to me  )

Edited February 7, 2016 by Lordoflego

[Pomodoro]

22 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

Hmmmm... ok .. still confused... for example: 10240 Red 5... how come when I search images, it doesn't actually say "UCS" on the box anywhere?  Nor does it say anything about UCS on the shop.lego website?  Now when I search brickset or brickippedia it does list Red 5 (and many of these others) along with all the other UCS sets... where's the official ruling on this?

Lego refers to Red Five as a UCS in their videos for instance. I shouldn't have oversimplified. Their marketing is not crystal-clear: the Sandcrawler has the UCS seal on the box but it doesn't have the specs plaque, while Red five is the other way around...

All you have to know is that the green references on @Deadfraggle's list are UCS, the yellow are not, strictly speaking.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Pomodoro

[Kenxxx]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.  That was my guess... that there must be Lego company marketing material out there that calls all of these sets "UCS", whether they are strictly labeled as such, or not.  I also found the B-Wing not labeled UCS... but the shop.lego website indicates it in the fine print under the set description... appears to have been almost and afterthought. In fact, in some cases, these could well have been marketing decisions made after box art, and decisions on plaques were already finalized.

[chipbee]

51 minutes ago, Pomodoro said:

Lego refers to Red Five as a UCS in their videos for instance. I shouldn't have oversimplified. Their marketing is not crystal-clear: the Sandcrawler has the UCS seal on the box but it doesn't have the specs plaque, while Red five is the other way around...

All you have to know is that the green references on @Deadfraggle's list are UCS, the yellow are not, strictly speaking.

Yeah, anyway to most people UCS means extra big sets, which i think is good enough definition. No point cracking our brains over lego's internal incoherence.

[Pomodoro]

4 minutes ago, chipbee said:

Yeah, anyway to most people UCS means extra big sets, which i think is good enough definition. No point cracking our brains over lego's internal incoherence.

I agree, I was just clearing up a misunderstanding, there are only a couple of sets that wouldn't appeal to my collector's taste in that list. My original point was that there was either going to be a mini-revolution in the UCS line, or that one of the three 2016 UCS was actually a (presumably very large) play set.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Pomodoro

[Roy vd M.]

You're quite a prolific researcher, especially given the fact that you're a fraggle, and dead. Thanks for this very handy overview; I look forward to reading the blog. 

[Frank Brickowski]

I doubt a cool set sells even one unit less just because it has no UCS label. Also I dont understand why the presence or absence of this label is so important - even more so when even the best-informed collectors have a hard time telling the differences between UCS and non-UCS. Are there even any official criteria for UCS? If not this is a non-topic imo anyway.

Edited February 7, 2016 by rfish

[Deadfraggle]

2 minutes ago, rfish said:

I doubt a cool set sells even one unit less just because it has no UCS label. Also I dont understand why the presence or absence of this label is so important - even more so when even the best-informed collectors have a hard time telling the differences between UCS and non-UCS. Are there even any official criteria for UCS? If not this is a non-topic anyway.

You just peed in my cornflakes

Seriously though, without further derailing this thread, that was my very question when I set out researching my article. What exactly, if anything defines an UCS set, and at the end of the day, does the label even matter?

[mauro23]

OK, I think I have to clarify you how LEGO defines a Star Wars UCS Set - I have sent an email regarding this question to LEGO two weeks ago. Two days later I have got the answer.

They have given me a link to Brickset UCS list:

http://brickset.com/sets/theme-Star-Wars/subtheme-Ultimate-Collector-Series

This list is almost the same as the green entries in table above. The unique exception is the 10188 Death Star. It is listed also as an UCS set in the Brickset list - I don't know why because few years ago it was definitely NOT in this list. I can remember it really good as I have pointed this out to BrickLink catalog admins to change this fact and they have removed this Death Star from UCS list on BrickLink to usual Star Wars set.

So the green entries in table above are exactly the same as the UCS list on BrickLink and in my eyes this is really the true list. I assume that LEGO itself is not aware of the change with the Death Star 10188 to an UCS set and they still give the people this list as the correct one.

Mauro