10212 - UCS: Imperial Shuttle

[hannibal]

I had some to re-sell and one permanently built for display! Love this set, looks spectacular when built and the ship design is iconic in itself. I couldn't recommend it enough. In terms of gains, it fully deserves to be out there with the best and most expensive SW Lego sets.

[Muffin Cup]

On 1/22/2016 at 3:21 PM, Anakin_Skywalker said:

Photos?!

Not sure if HTML works on these forums (put picture in spoiler), but here's a quick picture of my bricklinked model. The worst yellowed bits are the 1x12 bricks on the top fin. I plan to de-yellow them like the good advice in some previous posts, but right now it's the middle of winter, so I'm lucky to see any sun at all!

It actually looks better in the photo than in real life since it's harder to capture the slight color variations and such. 
 

Spoiler

Edited February 3, 2016 by Muffin Cup

[Emielvk]

Cool! Hope to show my bricklinked shuttle soon too!

[Anakin_Skywalker]

Very cool, Muffin!

What was the total cost of BLing it?

[Muffin Cup]

7 hours ago, Anakin_Skywalker said:

Very cool, Muffin!

What was the total cost of BLing it?

I believe it was right around $300 USD, but I used some of my own parts and also bought some extras of a few bits. If I only bought new parts and didn't have any of my own, it may have cost just as much as a used one! (~$500 I imagine). I guess that helps justify its price. 

Overall it was a fun project, though. I was planning on getting the parts slowly and incidentally from bricklink orders I'd be placing anyway, but once I got close enough I went all out and ordered the rest from a few shops, which probably made it slightly more expensive (I was willing to pay more for higher quantities and selections). 

The large quantity of some parts can make this a difficult project, particularly the smaller white plates and the white technic liftarms (seems like there's not a great quantity of some parts within the USA, I had to do one international order). 

[TheGallows]

After the empire. Or someone messed up their bricklink order.

 

[wolfenn]

do you guys think this set will grow in value any more or has it reached it's peak at around 650 ? 

[MarleyMoose]

If Rogue One features the IS I believe the price will climb. Hopefully the 75094 will follow suit.

[tomazed]

So....

 

This set was not particularly high on my wanted list but I found this offer on eBay and was like, OK, let's try the adventure of buying a lot and bricklink a set

Seller said that he bought 3/4 of the parts off the pick a brick in the LEGO Shop at Home. I think it's a terrible way to go unless you're buying rare pieces. Told me that it cost him 300 euros.

Bought this for 95 euros with shipping. I already know that the minifig and the sticker will set me 100 euros. Now It's a bet on whether the missing part are pricey or not.

I read intensely Brick by Brick, Breaking Down Expensive Lego Sets: 10212 UCS Imperial Shuttle post by @thoroakenfelder (Thanks a lot) and I know that the pricey 32 White Technic Lift Arm 1X7 Bent  and 8 Light Bluish Gray 40 Tooth Technic Gear  are included as you can see in the picture. If seller stick to the part list, 4 Trans Clear Technic Gearbox 2x4x3 1/3 should also be inside. I think the last pricey element would be the 10 White slope 2x2x3 Double Convex which most of them form the nose of the shuttle and the support and which I do not see in the picture I'll take the bullet on that.

Anyway, I'll let you guys know how how it goes once I'll have my hands on it and did the full inventory

 

Thanks again for this great community!

[thoroakenfelder]

2 hours ago, tomazed said:

So....

 

This set was not particularly high on my wanted list but I found this offer on eBay and was like, OK, let's try the adventure of buying a lot and bricklink a set

Seller said that he bought 3/4 of the parts off the pick a brick in the LEGO Shop at Home. I think it's a terrible way to go unless you're buying rare pieces. Told me that it cost him 300 euros.

Bought this for 95 euros with shipping. I already know that the minifig and the sticker will set me 100 euros. Now It's a bet on whether the missing part are pricey or not.

I read intensely Brick by Brick, Breaking Down Expensive Lego Sets: 10212 UCS Imperial Shuttle post by @thoroakenfelder (Thanks a lot) and I know that the pricey 32 White Technic Lift Arm 1X7 Bent  and 8 Light Bluish Gray 40 Tooth Technic Gear  are included as you can see in the picture. If seller stick to the part list, 4 Trans Clear Technic Gearbox 2x4x3 1/3 should also be inside. I think the last pricey element would be the 10 White slope 2x2x3 Double Convex which most of them form the nose of the shuttle and the support and which I do not see in the picture I'll take the bullet on that.

Anyway, I'll let you guys know how how it goes once I'll have my hands on it and did the full inventory

 

Thanks again for this great community!

Glad I could help. It's funny how the amount of analysis I did changed. I looked at that one and wondered why I had so few parts listed and why I didn't have price guide values for everything.

Anyway, I think the windshield is something to look out for. I just checked and it's still pretty cheap. Many sellers are less than $1 on it. Be on the lookout for incorrect colored pieces. I see one straight off in the cockpit section. Obvious piece of old gray.

[tomazed]

8 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

Glad I could help. It's funny how the amount of analysis I did changed. I looked at that one and wondered why I had so few parts listed and why I didn't have price guide values for everything.

Anyway, I think the windshield is something to look out for. I just checked and it's still pretty cheap. Many sellers are less than $1 on it. Be on the lookout for incorrect colored pieces. I see one straight off in the cockpit section. Obvious piece of old gray.

Yep, The windshield does not seem expensive, but indeed, that part in the cockpit seems odd compared to other Dark Bluish Grey. It's 2 Technic, Brick 1 x 14 with Holes. It's very common, should not cost more than 10 cents...

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll be carefull extra carefull distinguishing between old Grey and Bluish Grey.

Edited May 23, 2017 by tomazed

[tomazed]

As promise, an update!

So with my girlfriend we took it all appart. Some pieces are new, but not all are. some looks veeeeery old and time has work it's dark magic on those little bricks...

You can see here the two bottom piece being new and the two top one being yellowed by time...

Here the difference is so important, but I think those old gear are Old Light grey and not light bluish grey like the gear on the left...

Here it's clearly some old grey... well, I was buying some parts anyway so

 

Now I've sorted all the parts, I need to update my inventory on the wanted list I made on bricklink and then I'll know what remains to buy... I already bought the sticker for 45 euros, it was the cheapest listing on bricklink and the seller was only selling stickers so that was taken care of. One happy surprise is the Windscreen was in the blue box, Yay!

Now I have to find a way to un-yellowed all those old pieces to see if I can give them their long forgotten smooth feeling. ?

[jaisonline]

57 minutes ago, tomazed said:

As promise, an update!

So with my girlfriend we took it all appart. Some pieces are new, but not all are. some looks veeeeery old and time has work it's dark magic on those little bricks...

You can see here the two bottom piece being new and the two top one being yellowed by time...

Here the difference is so important, but I think those old gear are Old Light grey and not light bluish grey like the gear on the left...

Here it's clearly some old grey... well, I was buying some parts anyway so

Now I've sorted all the parts, I need to update my inventory on the wanted list I made on bricklink and then I'll know what remains to buy... I already bought the sticker for 45 euros, it was the cheapest listing on bricklink and the seller was only selling stickers so that was taken care of. One happy surprise is the Windscreen was in the blue box, Yay!

Now I have to find a way to un-yellowed all those old pieces to see if I can give them their long forgotten smooth feeling.

it does look like someone use a mixture of gray elements. 

this set was released w/ the newer bley elements (light blue gray) so buy these if needed.  i wouldn't worry about trying to undo the yellowing.

[tomazed]

 

Last batch of inventory. 400 missing parts over 2482, I think that's good

Now on to the bricklink order, I'll have to see how I optimzed them because Bricklink auto-finder creates 13 order so I have to find a better way...

any tips on bricklinking??

[jaisonline]

1 hour ago, tomazed said:

Last batch of inventory. 400 missing parts over 2482, I think that's good

Now on to the bricklink order, I'll have to see how I optimzed them because Bricklink auto-finder creates 13 order so I have to find a better way...

any tips on bricklinking??

Did you choose "any" for condition?

[Pebble&Park]

 
Last batch of inventory. 400 missing parts over 2482, I think that's good
Now on to the bricklink order, I'll have to see how I optimzed them because Bricklink auto-finder creates 13 order so I have to find a better way...
any tips on bricklinking??

Are there any legitimately expensive or rare parts? If not then I'd just start with the store that has the most lots and see if I could get it down to 2 or 3 stores manually. Also I'm sure you're ok with used parts since it's a rebuild but if you set it to either new or used you might be able to save a few orders since a lot of stores carry new and used.

[tomazed]

Yup, I choose any on the condition. The most expensive part missing are the minifig. Although they are not required to build the set, I really want the correct minifigures. If I drop the minifig and their accessories, I go down to 26 euros in 6 orders. Most expensive parts are Slope 45 2 x 2 Double Concave 3046a , Windscreen 7 x 4 x 2 Round Extended Front Edge 89762 ,

with the minifig I'm at 72 euros in 13 orders... I might as well order the minifig separately :/

Just tried with parting out the minifig, I'm at 58 euros in 10 orders... I fear the shipping cost damn!

I'll refine the Grand total tonight because I want to adjust add some bricks that are heavily used...

[thoroakenfelder]

On 6/1/2017 at 4:20 AM, tomazed said:

As promise, an update!

 

So with my girlfriend we took it all appart. Some pieces are new, but not all are. some looks veeeeery old and time has work it's dark magic on those little bricks...

You can see here the two bottom piece being new and the two top one being yellowed by time...

Here the difference is so important, but I think those old gear are Old Light grey and not light bluish grey like the gear on the left...

Here it's clearly some old grey... well, I was buying some parts anyway so

 

Now I've sorted all the parts, I need to update my inventory on the wanted list I made on bricklink and then I'll know what remains to buy... I already bought the sticker for 45 euros, it was the cheapest listing on bricklink and the seller was only selling stickers so that was taken care of. One happy surprise is the Windscreen was in the blue box, Yay!

Now I have to find a way to un-yellowed all those old pieces to see if I can give them their long forgotten smooth feeling.

I feel like the "discolored" gray pieces that you are showing are instead old gray. There is a way to decrease if not eliminate yellow, but it's not a permanent solution. However, it is cheap and repeatable. Put the white/gray pieces that need to be cleaned into a jar. pour hydrogen peroxide in the jar. Set it in the sun for a day. Sounds crazy, but it works.

 

[mizeur]

Depends on whether you value your time or your money more. If time is the bigger constraint, then just choose whatever's cheaper between the fewest stores and best value option in the auto-finder.

If the money matters more, you might find a better value by splitting up the wanted list into smaller searches and doing some manual checking of stores and terms.

[thoroakenfelder]

2 minutes ago, mizeur said:

Depends on whether you value your time or your money more. If time is the bigger constraint, then just choose whatever's cheaper between the fewest stores and best value option in the auto-finder.

If the money matters more, you might find a better value by splitting up the wanted list into smaller searches and doing some manual checking of stores and terms.

I wouldn't try to build one thing at a time. If you have more stuff to find, it spreads out your shipping charges,because if one person has one item from your set, maybe they would have a bunch from another set. For some that could lead to more chaos though.

[mizeur]

4 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

I wouldn't try to build one thing at a time. If you have more stuff to find, it spreads out your shipping charges,because if one person has one item from your set, maybe they would have a bunch from another set. For some that could lead to more chaos though.

I'm not suggesting finding one thing at a time. But it is possible to find better order combinations than the auto-finder recommends, particularly after looking at store shipping and handling terms.

For example, I went looking for 3 lots yesterday. The cheapest 1-store price was about $21 with shipping and handling. The multi-store best value option auto-finder put together was $15. With some additional searching I ended up getting them for $13 total. Wouldn't have been worth spending hours looking for the best deal but it was worth a couple minutes of fiddling with the search.

 

[thoroakenfelder]

2 minutes ago, mizeur said:

I'm not suggesting finding one thing at a time. But it is possible to find better order combinations than the auto-finder recommends, particularly after looking at store shipping and handling terms.

For example, I went looking for 3 lots yesterday. The cheapest 1-store price was about $21 with shipping and handling. The multi-store best value option auto-finder put together was $15. With some additional searching I ended up getting them for $13 total. Wouldn't have been worth spending hours looking for the best deal but it was worth a couple minutes of fiddling with the search.

 

I wasn't trying to say you were wrong, I was adding to what you said.

[gregpj]

43 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

I wasn't trying to say you were wrong, I was adding to what you said.

I was confused initially by what your wrote too.

To paraphrase .. "I wouldn't try to build one thing at a time" 

"Most of the time, reducing your shipping costs can be achieved by trying to buy parts for multiple sets/projects at the same time. Maybe the store that has that one rare part for your shuttle also has some other parts you need for another set/project and will help justify the shipping expense."

[tomazed]

1 hour ago, thoroakenfelder said:

I feel like the "discolored" gray pieces that you are showing are instead old gray. There is a way to decrease if not eliminate yellow, but it's not a permanent solution. However, it is cheap and repeatable. Put the white/gray pieces that need to be cleaned into a jar. pour hydrogen peroxide in the jar. Set it in the sun for a day. Sounds crazy, but it works.

 

I have ordered my H²O² and also some sodium carbonate  as recommended on http://www.retr0bright.com/ I'll give it a try this Week End. Apparently the time depends on the concentration of your hydrogen peroxyde... I'll monitor...

 

1 hour ago, thoroakenfelder said:

I wouldn't try to build one thing at a time. If you have more stuff to find, it spreads out your shipping charges,because if one person has one item from your set, maybe they would have a bunch from another set. For some that could lead to more chaos though.

I have other Lego project on the table, and it's a good idea to include them, especially when I have store order for 0,20 euros.... I'm gonna pay 4 euros of shipping for 3 little tiles, come on Bricklink, I'm sure you can do better on your algorithm!

 

1 hour ago, mizeur said:

For example, I went looking for 3 lots yesterday. The cheapest 1-store price was about $21 with shipping and handling. The multi-store best value option auto-finder put together was $15. With some additional searching I ended up getting them for $13 total. Wouldn't have been worth spending hours looking for the best deal but it was worth a couple minutes of fiddling with the search.

 

3 lots is not a big deal, I have 56 Lots, 400 parts, I understand what you do, but it's getting exponentially harder when the number of lots increase... I think I'm going to use a spreadsheet on the side lol!

[Phil B]

45 minutes ago, tomazed said:

3 lots is not a big deal, I have 56 Lots, 400 parts, I understand what you do, but it's getting exponentially harder when the number of lots increase... I think I'm going to use a spreadsheet on the side lol!

Give BrickOwl.com a try. Their shopping cart algorithm is pretty cool. Plus, they will include shipping costs in the calculation (as long as the seller has set up shipping rates, but every serious seller does). And as you add vendors to the list, it will re-optimize your purchases across all selected vendors, giving you the best deal. Most BL sellers are also on BO, and with the same prices, so you're not missing out there.