The LEGO UCS Christmas Tree: A Holiday Build Journal

The LEGO UCS Christmas Tree: A Holiday Build Journal

LEGO announced the 10,001-piece 10307 UCS Christmas Tree, and BrickNerd was lucky enough to be sent an early copy ahead of the holidays. What follows is an epic stream-of-consciousness build journal of the set while lighting and decorating it for Christmas.

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Jedi Starfighter

There’s a few prerequisites for what has become UCS (Ultimate Collector Series): It has to be big, it has to be detailed, and it has to be beautiful. This Jedi Starfighter from builder thire5 ticks all the boxes. I mean, just look at that cockpit interior, this thing is awesome. While I’m not a fan of the prequels I do like some of the ship designs, and this is one of them. You can see visual ties to what became later ship designs, like Darth Vader’s TIE, it’s actually pretty brilliant. Although, I do wonder what the heck happens to the bottom of the astromech.

Start Saving Your Pennies Kids!

After much anticipation, after much debate, after endless arguing among the fans, it can finally be revealed that the rumors are true...there's a new UCS Millennium Falcon on the way, and it's glorious. Not only is it way more accurate and detailed than the original, it's got two configuration, as it appeared in Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens (and The Last Jedi). There's also some limited interior details you can access through removable panels.

At 7541 pieces it's also the largest LEGO set ever produced. So large in fact they've developed special packaging to allow you to actually wheel it out of the LEGO Store like carryon luggage. But you'll have to wait just a bit for it, it's not out until October 1st. And I was serious about the saving the pennies part, it costs a whopping $799US. But hey, the biggest set ever should have the biggest price tag ever right?

Here's some features...

• Includes 4 classic crew minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO.
• Also includes 3 Episode VII/VIII crew minifigures: Older Han Solo, Rey and Finn.
• Figures include a BB-8 droid, 2 buildable Porgs and a buildable Mynock.
• Exterior features include intricately detailed and removable hull panels, a lowering boarding ramp, concealed blaster cannon, 4-minifigure cockpit with detachable canopy, interchangeable round/rectangular sensor dishes, upper and lower quad laser cannons, and 7 landing legs.
• Main hold features a seating area, Dejarik holographic game, combat remote training helmet, engineering station with turning minifigure seat and a doorway build with passageway decoration.
• Rear compartment features the engine room with hyperdrive and console, 2 doorways, hidden floor compartment, 2 escape pod hatches, engineering console and an access ladder to the gunnery station.
• Gunnery station features a minifigure gunner’s seat and detachable hull panel with fully rotating quad laser cannon. An additional quad laser cannon is also mounted on the underside.
• Also includes an informational fact plaque.
• Features a new cockpit canopy element.
• Classic crew weapons include Han’s blaster pistol and Chewbacca’s stud-firing bowcaster.
• Episode VII/VIII crew weapons include Han’s blaster, Rey’s small silver blaster and Finn’s medium blaster rifle.
• Change out the features and crew characters to switch between classic and Episode VII/VIII versions of the Millennium Falcon!
• Open individual hull panels to access the detailed interior while retaining the overall exterior appearance.
• Slide the panel to reveal the concealed blaster cannon.
• Turn classic Leia’s and Han’s head to reveal their breathing mask decoration.
• Makes the perfect intergalactic toy or flagship display model.
• Measures over 8” (21cm) high, 33” (84cm) long and 22” (56cm) wide.

Colonial Viper

When I was about 10 years old, the Sears Wishbook came out and some noob had labeled the Colonial Viper and Cylon Raider Revell model kits backwards. Well, I wasn't going to stand for that and wrote them a letter. To my surprise several weeks later I got a letter back from someone at Sears. He expressed his regret for the error, and explained that clearly someone at the catalog department wasn't as big of a science fiction fan as me and him. In addition to his kind letter he sent me both models as a thank you for spotting the error! Yes, that has very little to do with this jaw-dropping UCS scale rendition of a Viper MKII (I mean, it's not even from the same series) by builder Davdup but every time I see a Viper or Raider, that fond childhood memory is always the first thing I think of.

LEGO Colonial Viper MkII
LEGO Colonial Viper MkII

UCS Sith Fury-Class Interceptor

Markus19840420 recently discovered The Old Republic theme, and created this Ultimate Collector's Series ship for the German Star Wars Moc-Olympics contest.  You may recall there was an official minifig scale ship a few years back.  What I like about this is that it looks like a mash-up between a TIE Fighter and a Star Destroyer.  So my question to Markus would be, what noise do you make when you swoosh it? 

BrickNerd LiveBuild - Star Wars UCS Assault On Hoth

That's right LEGO Star Wars fans, we've seen a communication from a probe droid in the Hoth system and have it under good authority the rebels are there. Join me and James Morr as we build LEGO 75098 UCS Assault On Hoth live! So use your harpoons and tow cables and go for their...I mean come watch a couple dorks play with LEGO.

Building starts at 11am PST, join us!

Falcon Coffee Table

Just last night I was having a snack while watching Star Wars The Force Awakens and lamenting the fact that I don't have a coffee table. That got me thinking about what kind of table I would want, and I really had no clue. But thanks to builder lysanderchau I have a better idea. Check out this UCS Millennium Falcon coffee table! When faced with the difficult challenge of available space in small Hong Kong apartments lysanderchau solved the problem by building this combination display/table. And sure, you could just put your Falcon in a glass box and have a place for your cheese and crackers, but he also decked it out to look like docking bay 327 on the Death Star! 

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UCS Landspeeder

When we walked out of the theater as kids after seeing Star Wars, every one of us had a new wish list. Some wanted a lightsaber, some wanted Stormtooper armor, we all wanted Princess Leia as a girlfriend. This was on my new list, Luke's Landspeeder. This version by fresh-out-of-his-dark-ages Aaron Fiskum is a beauty, measuring in at over 22 inches long, it has proper UCS scale and detail. And it can be a reality with your support.

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