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Interesting. I got mine a few weeks ago for about 5$. If you're out to buy one, better wait for the market to "relax" a bit ... (but of course there's only one other set that has this piece, the 10215) Regarding the substitution: clearly it could be replaced by 2 or 3 other plates, as one can see on pages 50-51 of the instructions. I think the color is just there to indicate that it goes to the starboard (right) side of the ship. But it is also visible from below. Any idea if the "real" ship has such a colorful belly ?

If it is of any help, I bought my satellite dish at PolBricks (I'm not affiliated in any way). "Used" condition, 40$ ==> good as new, no scratches, totally satisfied. I was skeptical at first (will I receive my items etc), but in the end I've had a great bricklinking experience with sellers from eastern Europe (and every other country I've had to deal with), prices are attractive and the quality is really good. Feedback reviews help a lot.

Nice to know. I live in Switzerland and what I've found is the MPrint-Shop located in Geneva, you can send the file to be printed, but you have to go there in person to get the stuff. And it's not that cheap. So that's a no-go for me. The reason why I removed the background is to print it at home and consume less ink.

I don't know how you manage the frustration of not being able to build to the end and waiting on pieces to complete the next part. I know I couldn't. BTW I have all my pieces now, bagged and tagged, ready to build ! Don't know when I'll begin, will have to schedule a long and dedicated week-end for this. To those interested, I've started a new topic about printing large manuals such as the 10179's, please share your experience there !

I've bricklinked a 10179 Falcon, finally got all the pieces bagged and tagged. What about the instructions ? The price of the real stuff is around 300$, no way I'm paying this. What I ended up doing is take the official PDF and remove the useless background on every pages, so that I can print it at home without wasting too much ink. I should have asked the question earlier, but how do you print the instructions when you have to ? Does anyone know a printing service where one can print 300 color pages (duplex) at an affordable price (and get it shipped by Post) ?

Hi, I thought I'd share my experience in BrickLinking the 10179 ... several months ago, a thread on another forum (google "DIY - LEGO 10179: Ultimate Collector Series - Millennium Falcon") convinced me that it was a feasible operation. So about 1 month ago, I started to place orders on BL and now I'm waiting for the last ones to arrive in the mailbox. I bought mostly pieces in New condition, and always the right color except the boat mast riggings (min 125$ / pce on BL right now) that I have got in black, to be painted. The rationale was that if I have to sell it in the future, having the original parts will preserve its value. The first two orders I placed allowed me to gather 80% of the most common pieces pieces (166 and 65 lots respectively, 'New' condition), for about 900 USD (including shipping and taxes). Some 30 orders later, I ended with the most rare/overpriced parts: - 100$ for 47 dark bluish gray 1x16 bricks - 40$ for a used 10x10 radar dish (printed pattern) - 180$ for 60 all light bluish levers So, it's feasible, the parts are out there, but if you target New pieces whenever possible, and the right colors, be prepared to spend at least 1500$ (*excluding* shipping and taxes). I estimate that I could have saved 1/3 of the total price if I had taken mostly Used parts, and of course if the colors don't matter, the price can be further lowered to achieve the ~800$ target that you can hear about here and there. Also, if time is no issue, and you can wait for months that some piece "surfaces" at an affordable price, the better you'll be. You can also split the quantities, ordering 10 here, 20 there, lowering the cost per piece but increasing the shipping. In the process of this mad 1-month BL session, I placed several other orders and I'll also be able to build a 10178 (in New condition) for about 1/2 the current Used price of the set (250$) which comforts me in my BrickLinking skills ;-) I think that it will become harder and harder to BL the 10179 at a reasonable price. There are not much unique parts, but some are found only in a couple of other boxes and you need such a quantity (not 3 or 4 but 40 or more) that the prices are inevitably driven upwards. Sounds depressing ? That's not the goal. I encourage anyone to try to do this. I'll try to post pics when the last parcel arrive and I can start to build !