Today LEGO announced their largest and most expensive set to date, the new 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon.
The earlier record holder was the 10189 Taj Mahal with 5,922 pieces, released in 2008 for US$299. It was part of a slew of large LEGO sets starting the year before, including the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon which was released in 2007 with 5,197 pieces for US$499. The new set, on the other hand, has an incredible parts count of 7,541 pieces and will sell for US$799! While the previous UCS model was in honor of the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, the new one celebrates the 40th (and the 10th of the earlier set).
That comes to a price-per-piece of US$0.0505 per piece for the Taj Mahal, US$0.0960 for the old Falcon, and US$0.1060 for the new Falcon, without adjusting for inflation. But the old Falcon’s price of US$499 in 2007 dollars is worth US$597 in 2017 dollars, which means US$0.1149 per piece, so the new Falcon is actually cheaper per piece! Both UCS sets are nearly double the price per piece of the Taj Mahal, but of course the Taj was almost entirely basic elements, while the Falcons have a large number of more complex parts, including unique minifigs and printed parts. [Edited 9/6/2017 to add adjusted price for the old Falcon]
Of course both the Taj and the old Falcon have been discontinued for many years, and if you were to buy either of them now it would cost you a lot more than either of those figures. These are among the most highly prized collectible LEGO sets, and regularly appear for sale for thousands of dollars. The old Falcon is available from a seller on Amazon for only US$5,750.99 and the Taj Mahal is similarly available there for US$2,760.48 … at least they both offer free shipping!
Will the new Falcon demand such a high price after it is discontinued? Time will tell – it is a significant upgrade over the previous version, which may appeal to collectors, but the first Falcon will probably end up still being more valuable in the long run I think, just because it’s the original one.
Anyway, so what’s in this amazing new set? Well it’s a lot like its predecessor, but it’s got more interior details, takes advantage of new parts, and includes alternate parts to build either the original trilogy (Empire Strikes Back to be specific) version, or the Episode VII/VIII version with the rectangular antenna instead of the round one seen in the first three movies. It includes minifigures for both versions as well, so you can choose to display it either way.
But in the end, I’m not much of a Star Wars enthusiast, nor can I give you much of a review without having a copy of the set. So I’ll refer you to the excellent articles from The Brothers Brick and Rambling Brick for more details about what’s in the set. Or just watch the designer video from LEGO:
Are you excited about this? Do you think $800 is too much for a LEGO set?
