Review: U2-CB - Ultimate UCS Collector's Book
Posted by CapnRex101,
The marvellous Ultimate Collector Series range was introduced during 2000, comprising numerous superb models which display tremendous detail. Their diverse branding has proven periodically controversial though and tracing the series can therefore prove challenging.
Rafael López has undertaken this challenge, authoring U2-CB - Ultimate UCS Collector's Book which discusses the Ultimate Collector Series and details distinguishing such products from others.
Read our review and an interview with the author after the break...
Before discussing any actual content, the presentation of the cover should be acknowledged. This design takes obvious inspiration from Ultimate Collector Series plaques and looks lovely, surpassing the majority of LEGO books in my opinion. The cover material feels reminiscent of the various No Starch Press works which have been produced recently.
The book is divided into several sections, beginning with discussion of the Ultimate Collector Series concept and its development. I found this section both comprehensive and interesting, summarising the different factors which distinguish UCS products and the regular changes to their branding. The references to marketing language are particularly intriguing.
Having established the Ultimate Collector Series brand, the book describes the models which are frequently considered within this range. This information is available elsewhere, although I greatly appreciate the presentation and the continued analysis of how products were marketed, especially surrounding earlier sets.
However, the factor which really elevates U2-CB is the outstanding photography. High-quality photos of older Ultimate Collector Series models are relatively rare and other books, including those published by DK, seldom introduce new images. This book contains excellent images of every UCS model and several beyond, produced by Rafael López and José Carreño.
Rafael also comments upon products which relate to Ultimate Collector Series sets, including the new selection of large-scale character models. These are described using the term 'LUCS' which appropriately stands for 'Like Ultimate Collector Series'. I do agree with their inclusion in the book and their classification because such models share notable similarities with UCS sets.
Moreover, the coverage extends beyond Star Wars to encompass other themes which contain products resembling UCS sets. 76023 The Tumbler, 76042 The SHIELD Helicarrier and 75936 Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage are therefore included, among other models. Unfortunately, this does omit the newest such products, including 76161 1989 Batwing, but that is an unavoidable limitation of any reference book.
Ultimately, I am impressed with U2-CB - Ultimate UCS Collector's Book, especially given the fantastic photography. The arrangement of different items seems logical and I appreciate that Rafael has acknowledged each product which even enters the conversation surrounding UCS, rather than restricting his focus to the undisputed examples.
My only hesitation concerning this book relates to its price, costing £50.27, $68.76 or €48.10 from Amazon, dependent on your location. This does seem expensive, although the quality is great and I think this would make an enjoyable gift for any seasoned Ultimate Collector Series fan.
You can find out more on U2-CB.com and purchase the book at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.es.
This book was provided for review by the author but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
Brickset: Tell us about yourself and your experience with LEGO.
Rafael: I am passionate about the LEGO universe, especially the LEGO Star Wars UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) sets, which I have been collecting since 2004. My love for anything connected to the little plastic bricks has taken me to Billund on several occasions, where I was able to visit Legoland and LEGO House. In 2015, I took part in the LEGO Inside Tour. In 2017, I found about the LEGO Serious Play world, and I was trained as a facilitator with The Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY Method.
What inspired you to create U2-CB - Ultimate UCS Collector's Book?
Rafael: A few years ago, on the occasion of a relocation of my collection of assembled LEGO sets, I considered cataloguing it and documenting some features that I thought could be useful to me as a collector in managing it. I thought of it as an art catalogue, but private, for personal use.
I drew up a draft that was polished to what in the end are the technical sheets of the book. But the entire creative process matured as I was documenting, assembling (some sets weren't on the market when I started this 'journey') and photographing the sets over the course of more than two years. Under normal circumstances it shouldn't have taken me so long, but the location of the sets (at my hometown, over 600 km away from where I currently live) prevented me from doing it any faster. On the other hand, this enabled me to make decisions with a time enriched perspective, as the content evolved.
The book idea emerged as such at the end of that process. It was a consequence, not something sought from the beginning, it was not the initial goal.
How did you define the UCS range for this book?
Rafael: This book is not intended to establish a list of UCS sets in a revisionist way towards the past (establishing a criteria and checking which sets fit), but rather to serve as a reference guide through a historical journey from its origins through to the latest LEGO Star Wars UCS sets (at least those that the fan community has recognised as such at some point).
I use and apply the UCS concept from a collector's point of view rather than exclusively a marketing label. In fact, TLG has been criticised at times for labelling sets as UCS 'against' collectors' criteria (75098 Assault on Hoth, for example).
The UCS label surpassed its initial commercial significance to become a LEGO collector's universal concept beyond the marketing label (although it has to be considered, of course).
In addition, sets of other LEGO thematic lines that incorporated the UCS concept are included, as well as those that, without being considered as such, “look like UCS” (LUCS).
Do you think LEGO should officially clarify which sets belong to the Ultimate Collector Series and which do not?
Rafael: In my opinion, that would have a “revisionist effect” and I don't see anything good in that for either the brand or the fans. It would provoke even more speculative movements in the market for the sets on that list and would create great disappointment for fans and collectors who owned the ones that were left off that list.
It would have a disruptive consequence on a concept that is deeply ingrained in LEGO collectors. I think that when TLG wants to make a clear statement on this issue, it does so and there are several recent examples (75059 Sandcrawler, the Master Builder Series, 75244 Tantive IV, etc.) but never in a revisionist sense, rather from now on…
I think TLG knows that, as I explain in the book, nowadays UCS is a concept in the fan community and (not only) a marketing label: both have to coexist.
What are some of your favourite UCS sets?
Rafael: 10026 Special Edition Naboo Starfighter, 10143 Death Star II and 75192 Millennium Falcon.
What would you most like to see in future UCS sets?
Rafael: My vote in last year's poll was for the TIE Bomber! :-)
Many thanks for speaking with us.
106 likes
35 comments on this article
Is it just me or is this post a bit... off? All the text seems to be highlighted in different ways that make it (at least to me) unreadable?
@thatsaltyninja said:
"Is it just me or is this post a bit... off? All the text seems to be highlighted in different ways that make it (at least to me) unreadable?"
Not here... Odd.
And more on topic, this does look like a very well-executed book filling a decent gap in the market.
@thatsaltyninja said:
"Is it just me or is this post a bit... off? All the text seems to be highlighted in different ways that make it (at least to me) unreadable?"
Are you using dark mode on Brickset? I am using DM and yeah, it looks funky to me too.
Or me. It all looks to be the normal HTML markup we always use.
on dark mode, most of the text in this article seems to be highlighted in white. Makes it pretty hard to read
Definitely off in dark mode. Light mode seems fine.
The text is looking strange in dark mode for me as well.
Cool book, but not really my thing. The photography is great though, especially for the Naboo Starfighter!
@CapnRex101 checked the formatting in dark mode? That mode seems to have broken formatting
Thank you for the information everyone. I must have made a formatting error when copying the interview text from Microsoft Word. The highlighted areas seemed normal when viewing in light mode, hence I missed the error before publication.
Anyway, everything should be fixed now!
Sounds like a good idea,but £50 for a book?
Some parts are also written in dark gray, as well as highlighted white sections, when in darkmode. Nice article though, the UCS type sets are such great sets.
@CapnRex101 said:
"Anyway, everything should be fixed now!"
I'm still seeing one section that looks weird in dark mode.
"Ultimately, I am impressed with" and then a span HTML element with color specified encompases the rest of that paragraph, starting with "U2-CB"
@Robertsargeant said:
"Sounds like a good idea,but £50 for a book?"
You can buy it at amazon.es at 35£ shipping to UK included.
I have it. Well worth the money...
Looks nice, but a bit pricey.
Oh wow, wouldn’t it be great if you could get these types of books in a nice binder type form? And then you could purchase supplements later on with the newer releases to add in.
A definite purchase for me then
Man this looks and sounds awesome.
Ultimate UCS Collector's Book...
Ultimate Ultimate Collector's Series Collector's Book...
That seems like a bit of a pleonasm to me
Is there also a digital version available?
The book looks very well done! I don’t collect UCS sets, but I think it would be a handy guide.
looks interesting and presents nice but who needs such book, while probably everything you can find online.
On the subject of Rebel Blockade Runner 10019, in the context of the text preview above, to my amazement the stickers on mine still look absolutely pristine, to this day. Mine is stored, fully built and kept in relative darkness. And whenever I do venture to check on it, I always expect to find some peeling or discolouration to have begun to occur (I am psychologically ready for it now, after all these years), especially where the stickers are applied to the cylindrical pieces, but nothing yet, it just hasn't aged in that respect, no yellowing, nothing. Of course, the elastic bands, I found perished and disintigrated some time ago and the engines droop somewhat (but they did that on day one). I love the old UCS sets, they do seem to have their own character. Similarly, I loved the ingenuity of Imperial Star Destroyer 10030, the way that the underside plates were being hung from the magnets, such an elegant solution and I never had any trouble with them de-coupling. The engines would fall off though, with just a slight knock. I think that must have been a running theme with the older UCS sets. Ever loose and travelling engine builds/pieces.
Wonderful idea for a book! Everything looks great, though I may wait for a discount in the US considering it's near $70 through Amazon. Glad to see people are publishing stuff like this!
Happy about those HD pictures
"This design takes obvious inspiration from Ultimate Collector Series plaques and looks lovely, surpassing the majority of LEGO books in my opinion."
Our opinions differ greatly. When I saw the cover image, I really hoped that it was just some sort of prototype. Of course, the old axiom "Don't judge a book by its cover" holds true, and I think that the contents are great.
Use of the UCS label certainly did get messy over the years. I've read that The LEGO Company has pointedly stated that only SW sets are UCS, but releasing 7784 Batmobile as "Ultimate Collectors' Edition" combined with inconsistency for what "UCS" actually meant muddied the waters pretty badly. It started out with "Ultimate Collector Series" printed on the box, then nothing, then "Ultimate Collector's (set name)", then "Ultimate Collector's Series" with a gold UCS bug, and now it's back to "Ultimate Collector Series".
In terms of revisionist history, it's a bit late for that. Most of what Bricklink recognizes as "UCS" has some variant of the name or the UCS gold bug right on the box, including everything from 2000, 2002, 2007, and from 2014 to the present. The two sets produced in 2012 have Retired Product pages up on LEGO.com, where the description states that they are UCS even though the boxes don't. Earlier sets probably had press releases that went out making similar statements.
Is it wrong that I’m laughing at someone being aghast at paying £50 for a book? That alone is surprising to me, but more so on a Lego website where £50 buys you a small amount of plastic stamped with the Lego logo.
I suppose books just aren’t seen as important these days when everything is readily available online. I must be old school :-)
@GeordiePaul:
If I've ever spent $50+ on a book, it was probably a college textbook, a hardcover graphic novel, or some sort of coffee table book. Mass Market Paperback is by far my preferred format for reading, as it's more affordable and easier to store (keeping in mind that I have several hundred MMPs in my collection), and it's physically easier to manage an MMP vs a hardcover with a dust jacket. But last year I did finally chase down an unused 1st Edition 1st Printing of my favorite novel, which I don't even plan to read. Even then, I think I was able to find it a lot cheaper than $50 (neither the book, nor the author, are wildly popular, so there are still some surplus copies floating around).
It's getting harder to be a bibliophile, though. The same author had a short story published in an anthology, but if you wanted the MMP you basically had to pay hardcover price for what was equivalent to a Kickstarter project. After that, the plan was to only publish it as a "quality paperback", which is basically a softcover book the size of a hardcover. Since the project was funded a year before I ever found out about it, I missed out. A couple times I've bought "part one of..." MMPs only to find out that the next book in the series is unlikely to ever see an MMP release. That really sucks, because when you buy bookshelves, they're sized for hardcovers, but several years ago I figured out that MMPs are about the same height as VHS/DVD cases, and you can buy storage shelves for those. But you can't really fit anything larger than MMPs on them (and in fact, with a lot of books being released in an MMP format that's about 1" taller, sometimes it can be difficult to fit them on the shelves as it is).
The Book looks neat. But at $ 70 in the U.S. ? L 50 in the U.K. ? Yes, People who collect Lego spend money, but over $40 for a Fan created book is way too high........
This book is absolutely beautifully made. I ordered it the day it was released and am still happy that I did. The only thing I absolutely dislike is the cover. Not the design but the material. Not sure how this is called, as it is a soft hardcover or rather a hardcover which is padded. It feels weird, it feels cheap. The content however is top class!
While my son can read the same DK Lego books every night for months, I feel that I would only glance at a few pages of a book like this maybe once or twice. Paying a UCS price for something that I ultimately won’t look at much seems a bit foolish when I could instead buy a set in this book and really enjoy it.
If I know nothing else about Rafael, the fact that he voted for the Tie Bomber is a big thumbs up from me.
Looks pretty neat! The photographs are particularly nice.
On one hand I do hear the complaints about the pricing, but on the other hand this is very clearly a product aimed at a very niche market so I think it's at least understandable why it's so pricey.
I've always been curious with how the licensing works with things like this? Obviously something can't be branded as an official Lego book, but cna a book just freely use the term Lego so long as it doesn't present itself as an official product?
To my knowledge UCS is a term created for LEGO Star Wars sets. Other themes had the Ultimate Collector Editions of iconic vehicles, but I do not recall any non-LEGO SW set being branded as UCS at any point. Though I could be remembering it wrong. An interesting book no less and I would love to get a copy to read and enjoy at some point.
@KimT:
That's the point of the "LUCS" section. The fan community has slapped "UCS" on tons of non-SW sets. I know I've heard other people refer to the "UCS Batmobile" for 7784, or "UCS Tumbler" for 76023. The LEGO Company created confusion on this point by using "Ultimate Collector's Edition" for non-SW sets, but they have apparently restricted the "UCS" branding to SW exclusively. Currently the official use of "UCS" has been winnowed down to large-scale SW vehicles, and excludes any form of character build, as well as large playsets that got split off into their own Master Builder Series.
There are far worse books that cost a lot more.
We may be spoiled because many great LEGO related books by publishers like No Starch Press or DK are tremendous value for money.
Books like this with excellent quality and low print runs do often command a premium. But it my well be worth it.
I'm currently building 10134. I get it MiSB on Ebay auction. Initially, I thought about buying it on Bricklink, but the price was the same and shipping was cheaper.