IMHO, the Imperial Shuttle is one of the best spaceships in the OT (what makes it one of the best of SW in general), and UCS is its ULTIMATE recreation of it.

I start with this stash (bricklinked before for MOCs):

5x White Slope 55 6 x 1 x 5

6x White Slope 75 2 x 1 x 3

And I have ordered 1141 pieces, for 85€ (shipping included).

My main objetive is to get the ship under 0,10c/p.

I'm open (and really really needy ) to advices.

Hi hachiroku

I've heard of a few people Bricklinking the Imperial Shuttle, but if you've only got a few parts to start with it could be quite a challenge. In theory, it's only 2,500 parts, but there's around 220 types so I'd guess that you'll need to make a lot of orders unless you are lucky enough to find stores that have parted-out the set. I may be wrong, but I doubt that you'll save much compared to buying a decent used one (and that's likely to include the minifigures, box & instructions). I don't want to discourage you, but before you commit yourself I'd recommend that you spend some time on Bricklink and see if it's viable. It's a great model and one of my favourites (although it's disassembling the wings was a rather painful experience for me!).

Good luck if you go ahead with the project

Hi hachiroku

I've heard of a few people Bricklinking the Imperial Shuttle, but if you've only got a few parts to start with it could be quite a challenge. In theory, it's only 2,500 parts, but there's around 220 types so I'd guess that you'll need to make a lot of orders unless you are lucky enough to find stores that have parted-out the set. I may be wrong, but I doubt that you'll save much compared to buying a decent used one (and that's likely to include the minifigures, box & instructions). I don't want to discourage you, but before you commit yourself I'd recommend that you spend some time on Bricklink and see if it's viable. It's a great model and one of my favourites (although it's disassembling the wings was a rather painful experience for me!).

Good luck if you go ahead with the project

Thanks!

I was looking for a used set and the cheapest is for 330€ (and it's in an auction in ebay, so it could become more expensive).

I have explored a lot of stores in bricklink, and it's very viable. The good thing is that the bricks are very common, so most of the stores has a good amount of them. It's easy to find around 300/500 bricks in one store.

I've been looking at Bling this set too. I went through my parts and had around 300 or so of them already although mostly smaller parts.

I added the inventory into my wanted list although I don't know how to use Brickefficiency... I think when I was planning the orders I ended up with three stores that had everything I needed which totalled around £260 although one of those was in the US so I would have incurred duty charges when it arrived in the UK.

I'm waiting to sell a couple of large sets I'm putting on eBay (that I completed from incomplete eBay purchases... hence making a profit and paying for most of the set) before ordering. I'm hoping that I'll just have everything in Paypal to make the orders so I don't need to use any other money to complete it.

One thing I would say is because most of the external brickwork is white I'm going for completely new pieces... I think any ageing on those white pieces is going to stand out like a sore thumb.

Bricks and Pieces does seem much more expensive for most of the new items than they are on BL so I'm thinking getting your orders down to a few decent prices stores on BL is the best way to go. The problem is also that some of the pieces have hundreds of the same piece so finding a store that had all of them can be quite tough.

First time poster long time reader.

I started collecting the UCS models back in May so a lot of the older ones that I want are hard to come buy at a decent price so last weekend started Brinlinking a 10212 but after several hours realised it would be quite difficult to get all the required pieces unless I was prepared to order from all over the world and even then the price was quickly approaching that of how much the sets sell for on eBay so I decided to watch a few auctions and last night to my surprise won a brand new sealed set for £380

Have I paid over the odds sure but having watched sealed sets sell for £430-460 throughout the week I feel I got a good deal and can't wait for it to arrive, just need to find a home for it now.

Well, I don't know if I'm to positive or what, but I have listed in bricklink more of the 60% for 140€ (without shipping cost, it could be around 15/20€, I'm only buying in the UE). In this 60%, the "controversial" bricks like the white roof tile corners or the white cockpits are included.

I think I will be far of the 300€. At least, I hope

Edited October 3, 20159 yr by hachiroku

As far as my experience from bricklink goes, I usually obtain great number of parts for decent price but the remaining 'few' (sometimes less than 10%) can almost double the cost.

I.e. right now I'm getting parts for my midi scale Venator - I got around 900 parts in my first order for ~$100, yet the remaining 200 elements seems to make up for almost another $100 with all the shipping cost. The worst case come when you need just several parts from certain store but have to fulfill the min buy :/

I found a LDD file of the set by yellost over at the Official LEGO Sets made in LDD topic (scroll down to comment #664). There is a few discrepancies according to the original set, likewise the windscreen on the cockpit and the minifigures—simply delete or replace those. I would then export that file into LDD Maneger, Brickstock (for me a Mac user), etc. and generate a XML wanted list of all those parts to shop by shop on Bricklink.

Very interesting... a shame this could only be build with new white bricks or there will be different shades of yellowing among them... I don't know, if that would look good...

Yellowing is rather ugly, especially if you have some snow white pieces to compare the older with :/

As far as my experience from bricklink goes, I usually obtain great number of parts for decent price but the remaining 'few' (sometimes less than 10%) can almost double the cost.

I.e. right now I'm getting parts for my midi scale Venator - I got around 900 parts in my first order for ~$100, yet the remaining 200 elements seems to make up for almost another $100 with all the shipping cost. The worst case come when you need just several parts from certain store but have to fulfill the min buy :/

That's what I found, could get around 2000 pieces for £180 but those last 500 were going to cost almost that much again.

I find utilizing old color bricks, for representing areas that have been weathered down overtime by natural causes or constant use, appropriate for vehicles such as AT-ATs, T-47s, X, Y, A, B wings, etc. Though imperial shuttles are rather very light gray in appearance, but given the current available colors, a Lego imperial shuttle should be uniform white, which would be guarantee if the elements are purchased in new condition. I don't know if this is a case with white elements, but upon my experience with new light gray elements, I have notice that some can be warmer/cooler in color than others, yet again I presume this is not the case with white colors—so it would not be much of a issue.

Some time ago I was planning to bricklink that great set but in the end I have found auction on ebay with used one for 330€.

Edited October 3, 20159 yr by La Chupacabra

Very interesting... a shame this could only be build with new white bricks or there will be different shades of yellowing among them... I don't know, if that would look good...

That's a good point H_Solo, but I think it could still be a potential issue if you're sourcing new white parts from a variety of different sellers. I remember when I built mine for the first time I was surprised how 'off-white' it looked, almost more of a cream colour. I guess there's always going to be a range of different shades in different sets, simply due to manufacturing tolerances. That's why I think it's best not to Bricklink it unless you really want to do it for the challenge, and I can understand that if anyone does!

I have the UCS and love it. I just wanted to add though that even brand new, I found that a number of plane 1x1 bricks with holes (and there are a lot) were slightly off white compared to other pieces in the same set. I assume this is differing batches, as there were some differences in the exact same pieces. Having said that, I built it outdoors in the garden on a sunny day, and when I look at it now inside, I can hardly see any difference.

I would def look to get new pieces though. Good luck. Ben

I realise that I'm late to this conversation, but here goes:

I bricklinked an Imperial Shuttle eighteen months ago. I used about 1000 bricks from my own lego collection and bought the rest on Bricklink.

I placed ten orders in the end. The total cost was about £250.

The parts which cost the most (and had to be posted from Spain IIRC) were:

White Slope 75 2 x 2 x 3 Double Convex (x6)

White Technic, Liftarm 1 x 9 Thick (x25)

White Technic, Liftarm 1 x 2 Thin (x36)

White Technic, Brick 1 x 1 with Hole (x51)

- these four innocent-looking items cost a third of the price of the build: so be warned!

The resulting shuttle IS rather patchwork, and has some yellowing: mainly on the wings. However, I think it looks OK - weathered, like it's been in use.

I hope this helps!

Here is the Shuttle now:

I have another order with 700 bricks (including 6 2x2x3 white corners) for 90€.

New order received. Really cheap, less than 0,12€/piece, including shipping (and with the flower for free )

I am thinking about bricklinking 10212 imperial shuttle but switching the white for light bluish grey. Really for 3 reasons. The bricks are about $100 cheaper, I dont have to worry about yellowing and lastly while watching ROTJ it appears to be grey and not white anyhow.

There only appears to be 2 parts not available in grey, but I can paint those to match.

Any thoughts? Has anyone made a 10212 in different color?

I am thinking about bricklinking 10212 imperial shuttle but switching the white for light bluish grey. Really for 3 reasons. The bricks are about $100 cheaper, I dont have to worry about yellowing and lastly while watching ROTJ it appears to be grey and not white anyhow.

There only appears to be 2 parts not available in grey, but I can paint those to match.

Any thoughts? Has anyone made a 10212 in different color?

I splurged on a sealed set for around $600 (AUD) about 11 months ago. So obviously I can't comment on the challenge on getting all the parts for this from bricklink.

Lots of ships in Star Wars fit somewhere in between light bluish gray and white in Lego colours. Snowspeeders, X-wings and Lambda shuttles are perfect examples of this. I wish the "very light bluish gray" colour was produced en masse, it would really complete the palette in my opinion. It's pretty frustrating trying to produce an accurate representation when of the two colours you have to choose from, neither really look quite right.

Edited November 16, 20159 yr by atlas

Including shipping I can get a bluish grey version done for $350 (not including minifigs). A white version is $500-600. So the same as buying a complete set online.

Interested to see the progress of this...

I am as well looking forward to seeing the progress. I bricklinked Jabba's Sail Barge. (I say that as it's the first one I did) and it was a great challenge. I never documented it like this and enjoy seeing the guys that do.

LMW

Good luck with this. I remember really wanting this set when it came out, but in the end, I never got to have it. (Taught me a lesson to not leave behind a UCS set I really like)

What I'm curious about is, are there any people here who are having thoughts of attempting to create a grey version of this Shuttle? Might be interesting to see.

I'm really intrigued by the idea of a LBG Imperial Shuttle... Anyone tried this?

Perhps this would make a nice BL project after I finished the UCS AT-ST and the DS II I'm BL'ing right now...