Bricklinking a 10179

[FlowingWaters]

Hello there guys,

I recently decided, that my budget finally allows me to attempt something bigger in terms of LEGO Star Wars than it ever has. This something is going to be a bricklinked UCS Falcon, a model which I have always dreamed of owning. When it came out, I was in my early teens, so I did not have the financial power to get one and by now, prices have skyrocketed... Then I read about the people who have already bricklinked it and thought: Hey, why the hell not?

To start the whole thing of, I have set up an excel file with all the necessary parts and already looked through quite a couple of shops, added their prices and avaible quantities as well as shipping costs etc so I can figure out the cheapest way to get everything together.

There are quite a few parts I will replace, due to costs. These are:

3456 - Dark Red Plate 6 x 14: If i can get a good deal on one, I will get it, but since it is only visible from the bottom, I might just replace it with a different color

4095 - 6.6L Bar: I have read, that it can be substituted with the shorter 6L version without problems (63965), which is avaiable for lower prices

47996 - the infamous light bluisch gray boat rigging: going to replace that with the black version for obvious reasons...

50990pb03 - the printed radar dish: will replace it with a normal version and see how that looks. if i do not like it, i will get me the original

4592c05 - lever with light bluish gray base and lever: will order 60 levers with the right base color and 60 with the right lever color and just assemble these myself. still cheaper than buying 60 of these for 2-3€ each

75535 - pin connector with no "gap": will replace this with the one that has a gap cause it is much cheaper (62462)

So these are the parts I will definitely replace. If i can get good prices on some of the techic beams on the inside that you will not see anyway, than i might get those in other colors than the original as well, just to keep the total low.

Do you, especially those, that went this way before me, have any other tips on pieces that can easily be replaced with cheaper versions? Or parts that are usually cheaper to get at PAB (I check most of the parts there anyway, except the ones that are realy cheap on BL)

Hope, that you guys can be of assistance and thanks in advance already

FlowingWaters

[TK-949]

I saw selfmade stickers for the 10 x 10 radar dish a couple of days ago on ebay.

http://www.ebay.de/i...n-/181281439827

The auction has ended, but maybe you can contact the seller to get another one.

For the levers: I bought black bases with light bluish gray levers last year, before everyone on bricklink found out that these were used to do the same thing you're about to do, and prices rised. If you think that these are also too expensive, take old light gray levers with light bluish gray bases. You almost can't recognize the difference.

The non limited edition of the Falcon was also sold with the pin connectors with gap and 6L bars, so I don't see any problem there.

Looking at the prices for the levers, the dish and the boat rigging as well as the 6.6L bars I'm glad I bought mine last year a lot cheaper.

Edited December 19, 2013 by TK-949

[ReflectioN]

This is actually almost exactly the same route I took when Bricklinking this set.

The prices for the boat masts in light bluish gray, and for the printed radar dish are really obscene these days.

I also build the inner Technic structure completely black. So no combination of dark and light bluish gray with yellow. That is just my preference tough.

And I'm still looking of adding some further 'greeble' on the outer hull plates. You can perfectly personalize your Falcon that way.

[Lobot]

Hi, and welcome to Eurobricks!

I don't know if you've seen my thread, but it includes a list of the colours I changed: (link).

Good luck with the build

[FlowingWaters]

Hey guys,

thanks for your input so far.

@ReflectioN: I also had in mind to change the color of the inner technic frame. Maybe not to complete blac, but rather to whatever color is currently cheapest (which often is black anyway).

@Lobot: Yeah, your thread, along with some others is actually the one that really showed me, that doing this is possible.

I right now have a little problem with bricklink, since I do not have the most experience with using large wanted lists. I have all items on my wanted list displayed. They are sorted by color, then item name, since that is how my excel chart is set up as well, though that will probably change to something more structured. I now want to sort the stores it displays for best price. If I do that, most of the shops I get are in the USA and since I am in Germany that is obviously inconvenient, since I do not want to pay half the money for shipping it here :D.

So long story short, is there a way, to permanently tell it not to show me shops that are not from Europe?

FlowingWaters

ninjaedit: I just found the option for that myself in the settings... Maybe I should open my eyes or get a second pair of glasses, cause thee ones do o not seem to work -.-

Edited December 19, 2013 by FlowingWaters

[Bellicose]

Just out of curiosity - what is the average total cost in USD of going with this method? I have a decent budget as well, but I cannot justify paying much over the original retail price of the set, and I certainly don't need one in collector's shape - I just want the ship.

[slinashang]

I'm still looking of adding some further 'greeble' on the outer hull plates. You can perfectly personalize your Falcon that way.

Edited December 21, 2013 by slinashang

[russs15]

I originally built my 10179 using 47 black 1 x 16 3703 bricks instead of DB Grey but ended up buying 6 of the correct colour for the front mandibles is it looked wrong. The other 41 are hidden so any colour would be OK in my opinion.

[TK-949]

The stickers for the radar dish are available again:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sticker-Aufkleber-fur-Radarschussel-fur-LEGO-10179-Millennium-Falcon/181285028754?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D3549913098242854908%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D181281439827%26

[monkeyhanger]

Don't forget to contact Lego on their brick replacement service. Many parts are cheaper though them than Bricklink, especially the longer technic beams, the 3 x 2 and 4 x 2 wing wedges. General rule is that anything that costs more than 20p on Bricklink that is considered very small will probably be cheaper from Lego, anything medium more than 40p will probably be cheaper than Lego and anything very big (plates, large wings, beams etc) will be cheaper with Lego. Some parts have had very minor changes like hollow pins, chamfered edge tiles etc so the lego part number will have changed slightly for the new version available. If you have plenty of parts of your own in the wrong colour they may come in useful as there are lots of internal parts or undersides of large plate assemblies that will be unseen. Sometimes it's cheaper overall to order a few parts that are slightly more expensive via Lego because as you get more parts you find fewer parts from one seller and postage outweighs savings on parts via bricklink.

I bricklinked mine for about £250 about 18 months ago and it is 99% proper (including grey rigging and printed dish), although I did already have about 1800 common parts. If i'd have beenless fussy on the colour for unseen parts, i'd have done it for about 1/2 of that. I expect the cost of doing it with no parts already is close to £450 now with rigging/dish substitutes and £600 to do it properly. Yellow angles are considerably cheaper through Lego.

[FlowingWaters]

I'm not sure, if I'm just not using it right, but the LEGO PAB seems to have a ridiculously small variety of bricks... So far, I think I haven't found a single one of the bricks I was looking for there.

[TK-949]

Try to contact them via phone. I did it to get the yellow 5x5 technic bricks and the DBG 3L Bars (the phone thingies).

[Lobot]

I'm not sure, if I'm just not using it right, but the LEGO PAB seems to have a ridiculously small variety of bricks... So far, I think I haven't found a single one of the bricks I was looking for there.

That's odd, there should be an option on the main Shop at Home website.... I used it when I built mine, but it's not currently available. I'd guess that they've stopped it due to Christmas? If I remember correctly there was a 'I want to buy a part' (or similar) which allowed you to enter the set number and it listed all of the main parts that were available. I'd recommend using it as it saved me a lot overall.

[FlowingWaters]

Yeah it says there, (roughly translated from German) that their parts and pieces special catalog will be available again from January 15th, so maybe because of Christmas and the holidays it is not right now.

[monkeyhanger]

I ordered about 1000 parts from Lego's brick replacement service (which is different from their PAB service) much cheaper than bricklink. I paid about £110 for that set of parts that were priced up at around £300 via the cheapest bricklink suppliers (excluding postage) - there are huge savings to be had on some parts. When you phone them, be prepared to have the proper Lego number for the parts you want (download the manual and refer to the back pages for the parts list), not the 4 digit lego design number you see on bricklink. From the proper number (7 or 8 digits I think I remember), the Lego advisor can tell you if that part no longer exists, but an alternate part is available e.g. 6.6L bars not available but 6L bars are etc. On bricklink you may also find some parts hard to find, but the newer part is widely available e.g. part 1234A isn't available or is massively expensive, try looking for part 1234B instead which will have the tiniest of differences.

Worth waiting until the service resumes on 15th Jan for all but the most common and cheap of parts such as your small plates and blocks which will almost certainly be cheaper through bricklink.

Here are some price comparisons from the last set of parts bought in Sept 2012 for mine (so Lego direct prices might be slightly out of date, but only slightly, bricklink prices may have gone up significantly if those parts are pretty much only needed for 10179 and no new sets have come through with them). Most other parts can be bought cheaper through bricklink (1st price bricklink price, second price Lego price):-

4210815 Gun Bar Dark Stone 8p 28.8p

4211887 * Umbrella stand Mid Stone 175p 4.95p

4502460 2 Rigging Black 58p 121.1p

4211522 1 x 12 brick Mid Stone 29p 46.37p

4211366 1 x 16 brick Mid Stone 97p 48.68p

4260409 Curved special 4 long Mid Stone 48p 26.64p

4211527 Round brick with holes Mid Stone 76p 56.57p

4509865 Lattice Dish Black 12p 34.4p

4211694 2 x 1 brick V fingers Mid Stone 72p 25.47p

4166618 8 x 8 plate Mid Stone 108p 83.7p

4176959 1 x 2 plate with stud Dark Red 6p 6p

4293876 2 x 2 plate with peg White none available 18.76p

4249039 1 x 1 round stud Chrome 79p 1.2p

4509915 4 x 2 slope Mid Stone none available 18.38p

4256828 1 x 16 technic brick Dark Stone 115p 48.675p

4257699 Technic 90 angle Yellow 134p 67.75p

4211450 Gear rack 1 x 4 Mid Stone 37p 16.92p

4211560 * 3 x 2 wing wedge L Mid Stone 68p 25.46p

4211559 3 x 2 wing wedge R Mid Stone 78p 25.82p

4250256 4 x 4 special wedge Dark Stone 11p 32.4p

4211361 3 x 3 cut corner plate Mid Stone 5p 15.21p

4211735 4 x 2 Wing plate L Mid Stone 67p 14.47p

4211732 4 x 2 Wing plate R Mid Stone 66p 14.87p

* Replacement part number 4538098

** Replacement part number 4527767

If you're after any dark red items, they will have an alternative number that the operator will have to search for as there is a newer shade of dark red.

Some of the parts cheaper on bricklink were either very hard to get a hold of or required so few that the postage costs and the fact that the sellers had very little else I wanted made tagging them onto a Lego order economically viable.

[kr-lik]

my question is... does anyone have a list of bricks that can be replaced with different colors so that it's not seen from the outside ?

maybe that way it can be way cheaper...

[monkeyhanger]

kr-lik: There's not many parts there that are so rare or specific to the MF that buying in an alternative colour will save you a wedge of cash.

If you've got little or no parts already that could be suitable in an alternative colour, you might as well buy them in the proper colour, especially if they are LBG, DBG or black. General rule is that the main structure/technic beams can be pretty much any colour apart from a few technic beams on show along the inner edges of the mandibles. Most of the underside layers of the plate sections could also be in any colour you like. Exceptions to the rule for being more expensive in the "right" colour or print are the levers, the dish, the masts and the large red plate on the underside.

If you have a decent loose parts inventory then you could refer to the downloadable manual, see what parts you have in the "wrong" colour, separate them and then study the manual to see where they get used to determine if they won't be seen on the finished article. Around half of the parts in the set won't be seen on the finished article.

[russs15]

One alternative is to go for something like this...

[wsmit99]

Good luck on Bricklinking this one! Did it earlier this year and, being the purist that I am, I mostly got original parts. With the exception of those light bluey bars you mentioned. I do advise on getting the original dish though. I got mine from a seller in Poland for €40 or something, which is quite a lot, but this is a very important detail on the MF.

The boat rigging: black is fine. Looks great one mine! I never bought those silly levers though. Just can't get myself to paying €120 - €150 for 40g of plastic... I do not miss them at all.

In the end I paid about €900. I know, way too much; I got carried away ;). Too much PAB and at first I searched BL for shops with the most available, complete lots. Trust me, those sellers know and their prices are ridiculously high. In the end I changed tactics and searched for the cheapest seller of a rare part and then just added as much other available parts from the same seller.

Be prepared to invest a lot of time and money in this one. I did it for the build experience and it was totally worth it! This set is awe inspiring... And HUGE! Had fun in collecting the individual parts too! Good luck and enjoy!

If someone has an idea with respect to that elusive sticker sheet: reply!

For dutch people: NEVER buy from lossestenen.nl!

[Lobot]

If someone has an idea with respect to that elusive sticker sheet: reply!

Hi, I've got a decent quality scan of the UCS sticker if you want it. However, you won't be able to contact me via the PM system until you've made 10 posts

[wsmit99]

Hi, I've got a decent quality scan of the UCS sticker if you want it. However, you won't be able to contact me via the PM system until you've made 10 posts

Better start chatting then... Great to hear, I'll post some gibberish in other topics and get back to you

[kr-lik]

In the end I changed tactics and searched for the cheapest seller of a rare part and then just added as much other available parts from the same seller.

i think this might be the best way to do it no ?

oh and thanks monkeyhanger ;)

[sealslip3]

I'm seriously considering doing this too, but the potential cost is giving me second thoughts. I'd definitely change the colors of parts such as the dark red plate, the boat mast riggings and the levers, plus maybe some of the interior technic frame. I'd prefer not to change any visible parts with the exception of the really expensive ones I listed above, and I'd shoot for new pieces wherever possible. Would anyone be able to give me a rough estimate of how much it would cost to do this? I've done some research but the totals I've seen have varied greatly.

[Lobot]

Hi, I built one 12 months ago using new parts (and a few replacements) and it cost me £600 or approximately $985. I doubt that you could do it for much less, but I'd highly recommend it if you want an interesting project

[russs15]

I also did mine 12 months ago and it came in at £540. I used both new and used and replaced the usual expensive parts. Most of it was via Bricklink but I also used Lego Pick a Brick and the Lego Replacement Parts service. A very big spreadsheet is essential to allow comparing prices from all the sources as well as keeping track of what is needed, what is ordered and what has arrived.

I too recommend doing this as it is an amazing build. I just need to get the thing wall mounted so it can be seen and not under a table as it currently is!!! My only problem is finding something equally good to do next...........