Fervour peaked on April 1st when a number of internet denizens posted what were claimed to be leaked internal LEGO documents and trade flyers. Amusingly many fans let the significance of the date slip by, and it was only a day or two later that the OPs came forward to debunk their own pranks.
What do we actually know about the replacement for 10179? Nothing. Be clear – we know absolutely nothing about it. LEGO have neither confirmed, denied or issued a no comment statement and every detail LEGO Star Wars fans have been discussing has been guess work.
Where is all the hype coming from? The back bone of this excitement stems from LEGO archive juggernaut Brickset.com adding an entry to their database. This gave the rumour train permission to leave the station. There’s a fair amount of circumstantial evidence – which many fans believe are Easter Eggs dropped by LEGO itself – to suggest that the UCS set is real:
- a silhouette of the Falcon on the 75159 Death Star box (bottom right corner)
- the new (though sketchy) Falcon depicted as part of the 75180 Rathtar Escape box art (right hand side)
- the space slug puppet chasing a mini Millennium Falcon in the 10257 Creator Expert Carousel developer video
- the LEGO May The Fourth Be With You sales had 40% off the 75105 Millennium Falcon set on May 4th
- the screenshot of the LEGO brand store stock system showing the set number and price
- and the slip-up in search term results at the Shop@Home website
Is that enough evidence to convict? Only if you believe in the Chewbacca Defense.
What do we think we know then? A number of LEGO fan forums and Facebook groups have also seen a number of posts purporting to be the truth, with the most consistent rumours claiming it will have a detailed interior, the minifigs will include Original and Sequel Trilogy characters and the ship’s radar dish will be interchangeable between a round and a rectangular one, a new canopy piece that will replace the brick-built one the first one came with, the price will make it by far the most expensive LEGO set in history and that it’s due out on August 1st.
There are people out there who can confirm none/some/all of the above – outside of LEGO there are those who have attended the toy fairs early in the year or have worked on promotional and marketing material for it – but so far, if this set is real, they’re keeping mum. Remember that anyone putting forward the claim that they know, for a fact, that any of the details above are true will be breaking an NDA. And anyone breaking an NDA must have their trustworthiness put into question. It’s a Catch 22 situation for certain.
That aside, if fan speculation could power the LEGO factory then they would have had to invest nearly US$1 billion in renewable energy sources and this set would have been designed, manufactured and put out on shelves months ago. Here’s hoping all the hype pays off! If it doesn’t turn out to be true this will go down as the greatest LEGO conspiracy theory since LEGO helped NASA fake the moonlandings – or can you think of another reason why LEGO would roll out an Apollo Saturn V set?
Be the first to comment