How to build ANY discontinued Lego set.
Legos and Star Wars are two of my hobbies. And wonderful things happen when I combine those two.
I wanted to build a big set, and display it at my house. So, off to google we go, and search Biggest Lego set EVER. Mmmhh… the Taj Majal it's not what I have in mind for a Star Wars related set. Ok, let's look at the second biggest one. A-HA! We have a winner!. At 5195 pieces, the Ultimate Collection Series Millennium Falcon is what I was looking for! Let's buy that one…
OMFGWAT? US$ 6400 for that set on Amazon? What is it made of? Carbonite? Well… apparently I'm not the only one that came up with this idea of building one of the MOST AWESOMEST FREIGHT CARGO SHIPS EVER, that happens to be discontinued. But there's no way I'm going to pay that.
So, after much investigation I came up with a workaround to build EVERY discontinued Lego set. Just follow this instructions.
Install BrickStock
Just go to http://brickstock.patrickbrans.com/ and download, install, clickity-click. Easy (it's available for both Mac and Windows).
Run this software and the first thing you do is going to Extras > Update Database. This will update your software with all the information about every brick and lego set ever.
Load an inventory
Now you need to go to File > Import > Bricklink Set Inventory. On Category choose [All Items] and on Filter type the Millennium Falcon set number 10179. BOOM. Done. You have a list with all the parts that form this set.
Calculate the price
Select all the pieces by pressing Cmd(or Control)-A and then go to Edit > Price > Set to Price Guide. Just select the Average of the Last 6 months Sales, and you're done (for the second time). Now you have all the pieces required plus the price to order them.
Optional: Reduce the price by finding replacements
After calculating the price for the entire set, you can now order all the pieces by price so you can see which are the ones causing the greater damage. So, for my example, the UCS Millennium Falcon still costs US$ 3800. We're now US$ 2600 down from the original price, but still, a lot of money.
I can see now that the most pricey element is the Certificate of Authenticity, for a whooping US$ 800. Let's remove that, I'm not creating an authentic piece. Next it's a Sticker Set for the Falcon holder, at US$ 170. Let's get rid of that.
You can search online for replacement guides for the most expensive sets, and you're always going to find great tips. For example, most of the internal parts of the Millennium Falcon were some technic yellow parts, that were also created for other much common sets at the time. But now, those sets are scarce, so those yellow pieces (that you'll never see) are pricey as hell. You can replace them by the same piece, but in another color, and you'll save literally 150 dollars, in only 16 pieces.
Another easy way to reduce the price: Just order your pieces by Status, and scroll down until you find the pieces marked with a blueish cross. Those are the extra pieces that come in every set. Delete them immediately. In my case, those were US$ 20 less.
Buy the pieces
When you have a list of pieces with a pricetag that satisfies you, it's time to buy them. You can either register on Bricklink or BrickOwl. It's fast, easy, free, etc, etc, etc.
Once you have an account, then you have to find the section in those websites where you can upload your wanted pieces list. In BrickStock you'll first need to create a compatible XML file by selecting all pieces and going to File > Export > BrickLink XML.
- In BrickOwl you find it at http://www.brickowl.com/wishlist/import
- In BrickLink at http://www.bricklink.com/v2/wanted/upload.page
These two websites are going to make your life a lot easier while buying pieces, just matching the stores that sell the pieces you still need, and will automatically remove them from your wishlist as you buy them.
Build your set
So, after some time you received all your pieces, and now you're ready to have a lot of fun building your set, but we don't have the building instructions!
Fear not. Let's head to Lego and their Building Instructions Search. Enter the set model and you can download it as a PDF File. Here's the one for the USC Millennium Falcon.
This kind of project is definitely take a lot of resources, both on time and money, but isn't that what hobbies are for? I already started ordering a couple hundred euros on the first pieces, and I'll keep on this until I completed it. I'll keep you posted.
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