LEGO Star Wars UCS Sets: The Ultimate Collector Series
The LEGO Ultimate Collector's Series, also known as UCS for short, is a series of LEGO Star Wars sets that are aimed primarily at collectors and include large and complicated models that are particularly popular with adult LEGO fans.
On this page you will find all information and news about the Ultimate Collector’s Series. This page is intended to serve as a small collection guide, but also to provide information, because there are many myths and half-truths surrounding the LEGO Star Wars UCS series.
Table of Contents
The latest articles about the UCS series
Back to the Future Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown
Back to the Future Marty Mcfly and Dr. Emmett Brown Marty McFly and Doc Brown are best friends. The freaky Doc is constantly developing other crazy inventions. With his latest idea, a time
Back to the Future DeLorean
Marty Mcfly and Doc Brown with outfits from 1985. With a plutonium case, skateboard, remote control and Einstein.2x 1.5 V micro batteries (AAA) / not included Vehicle dimensions: 25 x
Advent calendar „Back to the Future“
With characters from 1955 and 1985 as well as many other details for recreating iconic scenes from the cult film. Incl. Diorama (diagram made of cardboard) of the town hall with tower
The LEGO Star Wars UCS sets table
In the following two tables you will find all LEGO Star Wars UCS sets that have been released to date. Currently (depending on your perspective) there are either 30 or 36 sets. I will explain why this is so below. The UCS set table can be easily sorted and contains all information about the set number, the release year (for the newer sets also the month), the number of parts, the number of minifigures, the RRP and the „Recommended Retail Price“ (RRP, something like the German EIA) from the USA.
"Classic" UCS sets
First of all, the sets that are generally considered to be LEGO Star Wars UCS sets:
More UCS sets
The following 6 sets were originally sold by LEGO as UCS sets, but are no longer considered as such by some collectors today. The reason for this is probably that the sets are not listed in Brickset’s UCS list. Many LEGO fans consider Brickset’s list to be the „official list“ – but it is not. Therefore I would like to list these 6 „additional“ sets here. Because in the former Shop at Home online shop, these 6 sets were all sold under the label of the Ultimate Collector Series:
LEGO Star Wars UCS poster
On the occasion of the “May The 4th” event in 2011, LEGO released a poster limited to 35,520 pieces that contains (almost) all LEGO Star Wars UCS sets published up to then. The poster is titled „Over 10 Years of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars Sets“ and contains, with the exception of the three sets 7181, 7191 and 7194, all collectible sets of the LEGO Star Wars series that have been published up to then. The three sets mentioned were probably left out because they do not have a five-digit serial number, which LEGO set as a criterion relatively indiscriminately at the time.
In addition, the release of the 10221 Super Star Destroyer was teased on the poster, the silhouette of which was shown on the poster:
In the meantime I’ve got the poster and scanned it in for you as best I can in high resolution in individual parts and put it together. So if you want to print the poster, you will get a high-resolution file of the UCS poster here – albeit with clearly visible creases.
LEGO UCS Set Reviews
You can find my previous reviews of some LEGO Star Wars UCS sets here:
FAQ about the LEGO Star Wars UCS sets
The LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Series poses many questions to buyers and LEGO enthusiasts. I will try to answer the most common questions here. If your question isn’t answered here, please ask in the comments below . I will then be happy to try to answer the question and include it in my little FAQ.
What does UCS mean?
In the context of LEGO, UCS stands for “Ultimate Collector’s Series”, which means “Ultimate Collector’s Series”. In the past, LEGO first coined the name “Ultimate Collector Series”, without the apostrophe and the “s” after the “Collector”.
Are LEGO UCS sets limited?
No, LEGO UCS sets are basically not limited – at least not in their number. The sets are not sold forever, however, as naturally after a few years the sales figures at LEGO drop and it is no longer worthwhile to continue producing the set. Then the sets of the UCS series go the same way as any other LEGO set: They are removed from the range and are then EOL (“End of Life” or “End of Line”) .
The sometimes very high prices of the UCS sets are due to the fact that the sets have not been on the market for several years and not because there are only a limited number of sets. Incidentally, this also means: The LEGO Group can also republish long-expired sets in an updated form at any time.
How long are UCS sets produced?
That is very different and depends on the demand for the set. There are very popular UCS sets that have been produced over many years. The best example is the 10188 Death Star, which was in the program from 2008 to the end of 2015, only to be replaced immediately afterwards by the almost identical 75159 Death Star. The Death Star has now been available from LEGO for exactly 10 years.
However, due to insufficient demand, other sets are sometimes withdrawn from the range quite quickly: The LEGO 10227 B-Wing Starfighter was only available for a little over 1 year before it disappeared from the shelves again.
Here is a list of the approximate lifetimes of some UCS sets from 2007 to 2020:
- LEGO 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon: 2.5 years
- LEGO 10188 UCS Death Star: 7.5 years
- LEGO 10215 UCS Obi Wan’s Starfighter: 1.4 years
- LEGO 10212 UCS Imperial Shuttle: 2.3 years
- LEGO 10221 UCS Super Star Destroyer: 2.8 years
- LEGO 10225 UCS R2-D2: 2.5 years
- LEGO 10227 UCS B-Wing: 1.1 years
- LEGO 10236 UCS Ewok Village: 3.3 years
- LEGO 10240 UCS X-Wing: 2.6 years
- LEGO 75060 UCS Slave I: 3.9 years
- LEGO 75095 UCS TIE Fighter: 2.9 years
- LEGO 75098 UCS Assault on Hoth: 1.8 years
- LEGO 75159 UCS Death Star: 3.5 years (still available)
- LEGO 75144 UCS Snow Speeder: 1.8 years
- LEGO 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon: 2.3 years (still available)
- LEGO 75181 UCS Y-Wing Starfighter: 1.6 years
- LEGO 75252 UCS Imperial Star Destroyer: 0.3 years (still in range)
On average (if you only include the sets that are now EOL) a service life of around 2.7 years for UCS sets. The spread is relatively large.
Are there clear rules as to which set is a UCS set?
The question of which set is a „real“ UCS set and which is not occupies a surprising number of collectors in the LEGO community. Often questions are asked like:
- Does a set have to have an Ultimate Collector’s Series logo?
- Is every set with a black badge a UCS set?
- Is there an official UCS list from LEGO?
Unfortunately, the answer is a bit sobering: Although there are now relatively clear rules at LEGO as to which set is an Ultimate Collector’s Series Set and which is not, this was not dealt with so clearly in the past. Only since 2014 with the UCS Sandcrawler (75059) has there been a real logo for the coveted collection series, since the end of 2017 with the UCS Millennium Falcon (75192) this logo has already disappeared and a (at least easily recognizable) packaging design is used .
In the years before, LEGO treated mostly all LEGO Star Wars sets with a 10xxx set number as UCS sets. An exception are the three very old sets Tie Interceptor (7181), X-Wing (7191) and Yoda (7194), which were released in 2000 and 2002. However, these are clearly marked with a lettering on the box as „Ultimate Collector Series“ sets.
From around 2004 there were sets that were called “Original Trilogy Edition”. This has nothing to do with the UCS series, but was also used for normal LEGO Star Wars sets, the settings of which come from the films Episode IV to Episode VI.
The nameplates or badges do NOT determine whether a set bears the Ultimate Collectors Series seal or not. The discussion was held in many forums and Facebook groups in 2017 due to the release of the LEGO 75187 BB-8. However, LEGO has made it quite clear and made it clear that the BB-8 is not a UCS set, even if it has a type plate and fits perfectly with the LEGO 10225 R2-D2.
Incidentally, there is no official list from LEGO. For the creation of the tables, I evaluated the old names of LEGO Shop at Home (the predecessor of today’s online shop) and saw which sets were sold in the category for the Ultimate Collector’s Series Sets. The two tables above should therefore be the best place to go at the moment.
The following basic rules for UCS sets can be stated:
- If the box says either “Ultimate Collector Series” or “Ultimate Collector’s Series”, then it is a UCS set
- If it is a LEGO Star Wars set and has a 10xxx set number, it is a UCS set
- A badge is not enough to turn a set into a UCS set
More articles on the UCS series
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