After the disappointing announcements at LEGO Con, many fans wondered when the official release of the UCS Republic Gunship would be revealed. The rumor began floating yesterday that news would be coming on Thursday July 15th, and this has now been confirmed.
Over a year and a half ago, an official LEGO poll was held to determine what would be the next UCS set. With the choices of a TIE Bomber, Nebulon B Frigate, or Republic Gunship many adult fans thought the numbers would fall with the Original Trilogy. Less than a week after the poll closed on January 30th, the news broke that the Republic Gunship had taken Gold while the Neb B came in second, and the Bomber finished last.
Although speculation continued to stir throughout LEGO Star Wars fandom, except for a few interview questions from Brick Fanatics it was near silence from LEGO for over a year. In March of this year, the Recognized LEGO Fan Media Roundtable was held which finally shed some light on the model. The size could only be estimated by the cockpit element that was shown, but it was expected that a new coffee table would be needed to hold the model. The two rumored minifigures that would be included (Mace Windu and a Clone Commander) were not mentioned.
Well the wait is finally over. An email sent from LEGO Ideas to those who voted in favor of the Gunship popped into inboxes today. Interesting to note is that anyone who voted for either of the other two models did not receive the email!
Chosen by you, it is!
The latest LEGO® Star Wars™ Ultimate Collectors Series set – The Republic Gunship – is mission ready and about to take off in support of the Galactic Republic!
And as you are one of the more than 30,000 LEGO Ideas voters who made sure the Republic Gunship beat the competition and became a reality, we’re offering you this world exclusive sneak peek of what’s coming!
We of course know you want to see this behemoth in all its glory. We therefore invite you to tune into our special YouTube Premiere that starts on the 15th of July, 2021 at 9.00 (EST) / 15.00 (CEST), where the full set will be revealed!
The YouTube Premiere will be hosted by ultimate LEGO Star Wars AFOL, David Hall, featuring LEGO Designers Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Hans Burkhard Schlömer.
The message closes with a link to LEGO’s YouTube page where the reveal will occur.
A clever edit by fan Aaron F. gives us a better look at the ship.
While LEGO had mentioned previously that the Republic Gunship had garnered “over half” of the more than 40,000 votes, the official number had not been shared until now. It looks like the Gunship had a clean sweep by getting nearly 75% of the votes. This suggests two takeaways: the power of social media and pushes by those with large number of followers can influence LEGO products and the Prequel Trilogy fanbase is growing as those fans get older and become more involved.
What do you think of the preliminary image? Are you excited for the official reveal tomorrow and will you be tuning in?
Founder and owner of The Holo-Brick Archives, Kevin Downard maintains and curates the Database Catalog as a collecting resource for all fans and covers new product releases.
Getting in at the ground floor when the LEGO Star Wars theme first launched, Kevin has been collecting ever since. He is a self-proclaimed minifigure guru and has a passion for tracking down and cataloging every minifig variation – no matter how obscure. He has assisted Rebrickable and Bricklink in maintaining their set inventories, helped overhaul the rebelscum.com LEGO forum, and created the LSW Collector mobile app.
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