75098 Assault on Hoth

[brick-fu]

Is there any precedent for Lego moving up the release date of other sets in order to recoup the losses of an under-performing set? In other words would they release the upcoming Cinderella castle or Death Star sooner to try and control the damage? It just seems that this thing is a total bomb....like nuclear blast scale. I bet Lego was really counting on this to carry them through the summer, at least for the star wars fans.

[Cwetqo]

Yes, they can do that. As a matter of fact, they already did: 75098 was scheduled for relase in october 2015 (by more than one source), but it was postponed to this year, probably to catch some of "may the fourth" frenzy and get at least a little bit help with sales. Than means that TLG most likely anticipated that it will not be recepted that well (long faces of designers on designer video somehow confirm that

[HawkLord]

Remember with as little new material (let's face it, the set is mostly just white bricks), there's not that much financial loss here. This set would be easy to produce, since most of it has been done before. This is really just a cut-and-paste effort from Lego, so it's not that bad of a loss.

And that really is the beauty of their business model. With bricks being so interchangeable, it's not like Lego loses too much on new molds. For example, I consider Kylo's Shuttle to be a loss, but it's not because all it is are grey bricks and plates - Lego makes tons of those.

[krucialstyle]

I purchased this on S&H along with the Hoth Attack mini-set...personally I don't feel it is UCS worthy...but that's just me. I ended up shipping it back to Lego for a refund. Although they did make me pay $30USD for return shipping ...

Oh well, I'll use the $250 on town/modular/city sets !

[YellowCorvette]

I purchased this on S&H along with the Hoth Attack mini-set...personally I don't feel it is UCS worthy...but that's just me.

You're not the only one that feel like that......

[Mutant Orc]

Here's a Jang video with the UCS Hoth and the 2011 version together.

[Yeow]

I liked Jang's take on the negativity surrounding this set.

He pretty much condensed it into what a lot of us have been saying about this set. But also took into account what the actual LEGO demographic would think of it and I think he pretty much has it right there too.

Basically, for kids this is awesome. A huge good-guy play set complete with action features and fun figures.

Jang uses this argument a lot in his videos, that for kids, X is an awesome set, and I generally agree with him. 95% of the sets he reviews, a kid could go out to their local Wal-Mart, Target, or Toy shop and buy right now for a reasonable price. But when you have a $250 dollar price tag on a product that can only be bought online or in an official Lego store, you're kind of not targeting kids anymore, at least from a marketing stand point.

[Vodnik]

Here's a Jang video with the UCS Hoth and the 2011 version together.

And now for the first time I actually started considering getting the 75098 set, seeing how these two work together (and having the old set still unopenedned)... But not at a full price, no way.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Vodnik

[Forresto]

You know as a kid it was very hard for anything Star Wars Lego realated to not be awesome to have. I remember loving the heck out of sets I knew even then that were not accurate or very good.

So yes the set would be awesome for a kid, that in my book does not make it any better of a set. Kids can be very smart and discerning but I imagine most wouldnt have a negative thing to say if you bought them this set.

Being awesome for kids is not that difficult to do ezpecially with what amounts to being a playset. Besides I fhought UCS was meant for an older audience so the kid arguement is realatively moot at Lego's own branding.

[BrickAddict90]

While not exactly what I would consider to be a UCS set, this is still something I would probably buy if I had the desire to purchase SW sets right now despite there being certain design flaws with it. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't buy it and then complain about how terrible it is. There's plenty of reviews out there. Jangbricks did two reviews on it. It definitely is a little bit pricey. I would have preferred more of a "complete" Echo base rather than just a partial hangar. Contact Lego and pass along your dissatisfaction. The reviews on the S&H site are pretty bad. Lego will realize this and I wouldn't be surprised if they did something to rectify it. But for the love of Brick, stop with all the "I just bought it and I hate it" type of complaints.

[jdm44]

I purchased this on S&H along with the Hoth Attack mini-set...personally I don't feel it is UCS worthy...but that's just me. I ended up shipping it back to Lego for a refund. Although they did make me pay $30USD for return shipping ...

Oh well, I'll use the $250 on town/modular/city sets !

Did you ship it back after building it or was it still new in box?

[Midlife-crisis]

The AFOL and maybe their childs are the group which UCS was designed for. People would not care if this box doesn´t have this UCS Logo.

A Snowspeeder we know in this version from 4 or 5 Sets with minor changes while there are really awesome but less playable mocs out there! => Lars!

The Ion Cannon, the missing fins, the unfinished inside all this facts are objective!

This set shows imho what Lego thinks about Star wars fans. They think give them the UCS Logo and they buy every s***y brick pile.

The very often compared Ewok village is a really great design, you can "FEEL" the heart blood of the designer to bring in nice details, that piece was

designed with love and you can see it with the first blink of an eye.

The UCS Hoth is not in the same league - its not even the same sport ;) (pulp fiction)

[lanesteele240]

I totally passed on the Ewok village. It was silly and looked like a kid build. It is no more UCS than this hoth set is. I like the hoth base way better (it was my favorite sceen of all the movies). As for the high price, It looks like every new set they come out with has a higher and higher price. Some of the force awaken sets has 14 cents per piece. But it is very simple. Dont like dont buy. It will never be marked down to 150 so give up on that too.

My favorite argument aginst this set is it is just a rehash of old kits put together. Buy all the sets on ebay and see what your cost is. Way more than 250 bucks. Every body forgets they were just

[Thelonious Sparke]

I don't think it's that horrible, but I can't say I woud buy this, even half-price. My favourite part is probably the small droid.

[ChiefPie]

I'm actually happy to have a new a-wing and tie advanced. And if I didn't already have a turbo tank I would be really happy to have it.

[Vodnik]

I'm actually happy to have a new a-wing and tie advanced. And if I didn't already have a turbo tank I would be really happy to have it.

And how is this related to the 75098 set?...

[Lobot]

As for the high price, It looks like every new set they come out with has a higher and higher price. Some of the force awaken sets has 14 cents per piece. But it is very simple. Dont like dont buy. It will never be marked down to 150 so give up on that too.

My favorite argument aginst this set is it is just a rehash of old kits put together. Buy all the sets on ebay and see what your cost is. Way more than 250 bucks.

That's a fair point, the cost of sets seems to be creeping ever upwards for both current sets and those in the aftermarket.

However, you need to bear in mind that although the set is $249.99 in the US, it's considerably more expensive elsewhere. For example, the UK price is £219.99 which is currently $317.46 US according to Google! In the UK, the set is also £20 more expensive that the Ewok Village which isn't helping; it just makes it look ridiculously overpriced. If it had been around the £180 mark ($260 US) I'd have probably ordered it straight away, but I've decided to wait until the inevitable sale in 6 months as a matter of principle

Interestingly, there's been several new 'negative' reviews of the set added to the LEGO website in the last 24 hours, with the overall rating at 2.2 and only 38% recommending the set... I don't recall ever seeing figures that low (even 75096 scores 3.6 and 56% which looks quite good in comparison, and it isn't the best set!). I'll be interested to see if TLG respond to all of the negativity about it; hopefully all this will be forgotten about when images of the new Death Star & Snowspeeder surface.

[Midlife-crisis]

However, you need to bear in mind that although the set is $249.99 in the US, it's considerably more expensive elsewhere. For example, the UK price is £219.99 which is currently $317.46 US according to Google! In the UK, the set is also £20 more expensive that the Ewok Village which isn't helping; it just makes it look ridiculously overpriced. If it had been around the £180 mark ($260 US) I'd have probably ordered it straight away, but I've decided to wait until the inevitable sale in 6 months as a matter of principle

totally agree with you, even based on the averages! EUR/USD exchange rate over the last 12 months: 1€ = ~1.1094$

calculated with 249.99$ would be around ~225€.

or 12Months average GBP/USD ~1.49310 - ~167pound

This are just ridiculous price ranges in a globalized market/world.

[Forresto]

Wow I didn't realize how inflated the prices were in other countries, I assumed it would've been whatever was analogous to $250.

$317!! That is Darth Vader level pricing

[MartinCliffe]

That's all because in the EU prices include VAT / sales tax. Which is 20% in the UK. So it's more like $265 excl VAT.

[Japanbuilder]

Wow I didn't realize how inflated the prices were in other countries, I assumed it would've been whatever was analogous to $250.

$317!! That is Darth Vader level pricing

You think that is bad? Try 64,800 yen, then ask how Darth Vader that price really is.

http://www.amazon.co...words=UCS 75098

Edited May 9, 2016 by Japanbuilder

[Midlife-crisis]

You think that is bad? Try 64,800 yen, then ask how Darth Vader that price really is.

http://www.amazon.co...words=UCS 75098

holy marie!!

[Forresto]

You think that is bad? Try 64,800 yen, then ask how Darth Vader that price really is.

http://www.amazon.co...words=UCS 75098

That is horrible! That really sucks man, even half priced and your still paying more then us. Geez. Darth Vader indeed.

[YellowCorvette]

Wow I didn't realize how inflated the prices were in other countries, I assumed it would've been whatever was analogous to $250.

$317!! That is Darth Vader level pricing

It's even worse at Malaysia with the price tag of 1002.29 ringgit, and I didn't include the tax yet!

[Robianco]

I popped into my Lego store last Friday just to have a catch up and see if it was worth spending £50 to get the promo figure... which I didn't end up doing. I was chatting to one of the staff there who said that when Slave 1 was released they had a queue outside the door waiting and they sold out their stock on day one. They've since only sold 1 of the 75098 while it's been in stock... even the staff there look at it as a bad set, which he actually stated. It's part of their job to be positive about sets but they're finding it very difficult with this one.

I think all the arguments have been made on this set... I've sold all of my previous Hoth sets, keeping the figures, but I still don't feel I can pull the trigger at this price. It doesn't help, as Lobot said, that Ewok Village is lower priced and is actually on sale so was almost £50 cheaper on shelf. The Sandcrawler is also cheaper with the sale price. I've got 75054 along with 75049 to add to the build but I'm hoping 75098 drops to somewhere around £180 to make it a worthwhile purchase.