A Month Of LEGO - Star Wars UCS and the Mandalorian

So, I’ve been meaning to highlight the Star Wars UCS series (a subset of the Star Wars theme) for most of the month, but kept pushing it off. As I only have two days left and tomorrow is somewhat spoken for, I best give it a go today.

In 2000, the LEGO group released the first of 33 sets designated as UCS - the Ultimate Collector Series. The first two sets were the Tie Interceptor and the X-Wing Fighter.

The series is focused on larger and more detailed builds. The smallest UCS set contains only 187 pieces - the Special Edition Naboo Starfighter. While this set is small, it has appreciated significantly because it contains elements that were only released in this set. Also, many chrome pieces.

Generally, there are three types of models in this subtheme - vehicles, figures, and scenes. Of the figures, my personal favorite is the R2D2, but there is also a bust of Darth Maul, Yoda, and General Grievous. There have been a few sets that are similar to the UCS (included a display and plaque), but didn’t seem to get the designation (Porg, D-O, BB-8).

In the scenes category, there are only two - Ewok Village and the Assault on Hoth. I missed getting the Ewok Village (one of the kids wanted it and I wasn’t quite ready to spend that much) which I would say is my favorite. There are three Death Stars and I would put two of those in this category as well because they are more geared towards play (come back to that in a minute). The Death Star II is more of a display model.

Recently, they broke out what I am calling the scenes under a new designation - Master Builder Series. These include Betrayal at Cloud City and the Mos Eisley Cantina. Both the UCS and MBS series are complex and larger builds, but the difference is that the UCS is meant to be displayed while the MBS is more geared towards play.

The last grouping is vehicles and wow what a collection. Hard to pick just one, so I’ll highlight a few of my favorites. Of the smaller Rebellion craft, I’ve always loved the Y-wing, B-Wing and Snowspeeder, but I would lean towards the Snowspeeder.

Oh yeah, there were two of those.

On the Imperial side, there is a solid rendition of Slave I (Boba Fett’s ship), several Tie Fighters, and my personal favorite, the Imperial Shuttle.

As for the larger craft, there are several star destroyers (two Imperial and a Super) and the Rebel Blockade Runner. This set was redone recently as the Tantive IV, but not under the UCS branding. I do have to go with the Super Star Destroyer here (which includes a scale Star Destroyer for size comparison)

There are also even a pair of land based vehicles - the Imperial AT-ST and the Sandcrawler. Gotta love the Jawas.

All in all, some amazing sets in the series, but as today marks the release of the Mandalorian season two, I have to highlight the Razor Crest. This is the way!

And I bet you thought I actually was going to leave this one out. No freaking way. Currently the largest set sold ever by the LEGO group, we have the largest of the two Millennium Falcons in the series. The smaller one is 5197 pieces and if you are lucky can be purchased for around $2K. The larger is 7541 pieces and was assembled in a world record time of 2 hours 51 minutes and 47 seconds by four AFOLs from Germany.

For normal people, it takes upwards of 30 hours to build. this gives you an idea of the scale.

This set was released in 2017 and just recently retired. If you are lucky, you can still find them for $799 at the Lego store on Amazon, but good luck, they wont be around long.