News of the release of the Empire’s Weapon has surfaced since December 2015, and today we are all convinced of it with the new photos spreading around in a LEGO store somewhere out there in the good ol' US of A.
First and foremost, I own neither of these glorious sets - but usually when I write up something like this, I usually do my due diligence. Spend a lot of time googling, watching video builds, and researching. I do so to feed my LEGO hunger and at usually the by-product is what you get to read after my own analysis.
I like to scour the "internets" for opinions, and then formulate my own thoughts. So let’s go through these thoughts that all AFOLs have, and analyse them one by one.
I’ll start with my favourite opinion: “LEGO is greedy! They’ve raised the price by $100 dollars!"
You just got to love this, as most of us don’t like to admit inflation or understand how to calculate. So, here’s some quick math based on the US inflation rate. Technically, $52.92 is the premium, and not $100, and that’s before looking at the additional 213 pieces. How much does a 213 piece count cost to LEGO? Again, technically, lets be fair, let’s pick a recent release of Star Wars set that hovers around that piece count and compare. How about 75135,Obi-Wan's Jedi Interceptor Released in 2016, 215 pieces, and comes with the premium of the royalties that need to be paid? That works out to be $24.99. So technically, here’s the math. 447.07+24.99 = 472.06 = $27.93. Yes, so in my illogical own mind, that’s the premium you are paying for the new Death Star. $28 American Dollars. Argue-away! I don’t want to defend LEGO (I don’t work for them, but imagine how good I’d be if I did? - you know where to reach me) , but if businesses were to keep selling stuff at the same price forever, they would need to close shop sooner than later.
I move on to my next favourite opinion: “LEGO is Lazy!! They’ve released the same darned thing!”
This is one that we all like to throw stones at. I think what most AFOL forgets is that, there is a far larger set of NON-AFOLs that LEGO actually builds and target the market for. My estimates (with some research) is that only 3-5% of LEGO buyers are AFOLs. While 95% of their customers are happy buying and building this new set, 5% are b****ing about it. (Pardon my French). And if I put myself into LEGOs shoes as a businessman, a corporate and especially as an owner, I can live with that 5% of noise in the market. And as for my own opinion, I love it, I fit into that new AFOL category, and it grows more and more on me everyday. I never had the chance to get the 10188, but this looks like a good time to get the 75159. There’s a saying that goes “Why mess with a good formula?”… in a way, sounds lazy, but I don’t quite agree with it and yet agree at the same time. Technically the 10188 was on the shelves for 7 years(?) someone correct me if I’m wrong, and if it’s in such a good demand, why not carry on with it? The better argument would be that the movies did not change, so why should the diorama and build change? Each “room” on the Death Star tells a story, and a very crucial part of the movies at that - if LEGO were to make improvements on it, how much better can it get? I don’t know…
I’ve got a lot more to say about the Death Star, but I’ll leave that for another day (maybe a Part 2?). I don’t want to bore anyone to death (pun intended) with a lengthy write-up. I just want everyone to remember, LEGO is a hobby, it’s primarily meant for kids, and adults just happen to invade this space. So, place nice, don’t bite and share your constructive thoughts to the community.
There you have it for now, signing off from this edition of "My 2 Bricks…."
* For those of you who want to do inflation the easy way (like I did):
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com