Cavegod, Eurobricks forumer and well-known MOCeur in the community, embarked on a new project: A Republic Attack Shuttle UCS (Seen at LEGO in a classic set, reference 8019, which I had also found disappointing) .

The results already obtained are nice, we find the characteristic red and yellow colors of this model and the overall proportions are well respected.

If you want to follow the progress of this project and participate in the discussion, go to here at Eurobricks.

The LEGO group has cracked an accessible letter here in pdf format explaining why no one should or should no longer publish documents or visuals stamped "Confidential".

This document explains that LEGO wants to control the launch of its products and decide when to release visuals of new products.

Some more or less credible arguments are advanced, such as the fight against the possible counterfeiting of sets by third-party companies or the modifications that may occur on the final sets after the publication of preliminary visuals.

Finally, LEGO calls for the denunciation of offenders by email and asks fans for their cooperation in this fight.

If the letter has the merit of being clear, the arguments put forward are a little less so: For many years, photos of sets have filtered well before their arrival on the market, and sometimes very long months in advance.

These leaks are fueling community conversations on blogs and forums, and LEGO reap the benefits in terms of marketing and visibility.

If the official position is given in this letter, one can legitimately wonder if these leaks are not sometimes largely orchestrated and manipulated to allow an assessment of the interest of AFOLs and fans for the ranges to come.

LEGO has been slow to recover from its dark years, and the best way to anticipate the market is to survey it through the most active community of potential customers .....

Here's what appears to be a first visual of the 5 collectible minifigure series due out in August.

Series 4 is slated for April / May, and Series 3 is just starting to be widely available.

Apparently LEGO seems to want to release these series at a brisk pace, which is certainly not a bad thing except for the wallet.

While waiting for more information about this Series 5, rumors are rife about the possible color of the bag and the methods of identifying the content.

We do with what we have while waiting for real confirmed information .....

Are you looking for ideas to create mini dioramas, or are you running out of space to display your UCS?

The site http://sw.deckdesigns.de/ is made for you: You will find there nearly 200 original creations, with the very very small scale reproduction of all the ships and vehicles of the Star Wars universe.

Each mini set is documented and the instructions are downloadable.

Christopher Deck, the creator of this amazing collection recalls on his site, that the instructions and sets are not intended to be marketed, and that he offers them in free access for personal use only.
 

Note that DeckDesign also offers creations for the Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate or 2001: A Space Odyssey universes.

Like all collectors, I have a problem with the stickers. My last purchase, the Rebel Blockade Runner 10019 is complete, in great condition (after washing the parts), with its box and documentation, but I had to remove all the stickers that had aged badly.

Considering the price of sticker sheets on BrickLink or eBay, I went hunting for scanned sheets.

But almost impossible to find boards scanned correctly.

I have found some, I put them here, as well as a template to make your UCS stickers yourself.

By the way, if anyone has a scan of the 10019 board, I would gladly take ....

7191 - UCS X-Wing Fighter sticker (Identification plate)
7191 - UCS X-Wing Fighter Stickers
7181 - UCS TIE Interceptor sticker (Identification plate)
10030 - UCS Imperial Star Destroyer sticker (Identification plate)
4504 - Millennium Falcon Stickers
0000 - UCS Template