9494 - Anakin's Jedi Interceptor

[exciter1]

I have a feeling Star Wars Anakin's Jedi Interceptor 9494 is nearing EOL. I don't think they'll be in Target stores anymore and once they sell out on the website, they're gone from Target. I did see that Lego S@H was still selling them.

[fieldbricks]

Is it worth it to buy this set at full retail (USD)? I've never seen this set go on sale much, and given that its a hard to find set, has some pretty rare minifigs, and that it's going to go EOL pretty soon, should i give it a shot (and get a clone trooper lieutenant in the process)?

[Anakinisvader]

Is it worth it to buy this set at full retail (USD)? I've never seen this set go on sale much, and given that its a hard to find set, has some pretty rare minifigs, and that it's going to go EOL pretty soon, should i give it a shot (and get a clone trooper lieutenant in the process)?

 

If you feel it.  I am very different from many people here but I will NEVER pay retail for something unless it has been retired for a while and the secondary market has doubled in price.

 

It also depends on what you are going to do with it.  Part it out?  Sell sealed?  Hold for 20 years?  Open and display?

[brickolodon]

I am very different from many people here but I will NEVER pay retail for something unless it has been retired for a while and the secondary market has doubled in price.

Agreed, try at least 30%off....will be 50 % OFF soon @Target this holiday season....just before summer (as I remember) was on sale around 35.00....

[fieldbricks]

If you feel it.  I am very different from many people here but I will NEVER pay retail for something unless it has been retired for a while and the secondary market has doubled in price.

 

It also depends on what you are going to do with it.  Part it out?  Sell sealed?  Hold for 20 years?  Open and display?

I'm planning on selling it sealed a few years after it reaches EOL. I do feel that this set is a better investment than most non UCS Star WArs sets out there.

[TheOrcKing]

I have never seen this go on sale like most other store exclusives. Well, you could print out one of the recent "$5 off Lego" coupons from their site and use it. Plus if you have their red card the 5% from that could net you an extra $2 off for a total of $7 all around.

[fieldbricks]

For $33 at target? Right now, I'm more thinking of buying two on LEGO Shop at Home, get free shipping + clone lieutenant, repeat.

[Darth Nader]

Do you guys have any hope in this set doing well once it's out of stores. Currently it's sold out on lego.com but you can still get it from target.com and in few target stores, since it's a target exclusive set. If you ask me I think it has a decent chance, so far the prices on ebay are fairly high but I'm not sure if anyone is buying them. I have this set fully built and I think it's a very cool ROTS set, and I'd recommend it even with the slightly-high price tag. But what do you guys think?

[@rtisan]

Hate to burst your bubble, but honestly, I don`t think very much, if any, investment potential. The set design has been almost cookie-cutted, with minor changes, over and over again. There really isn`t too much to this set that makes it "desirable" in comparison to the many similar versions out there. 9494 is probably retired now, and has/is being replaced with this model (75038), which as you can see by looking at it just illustrates my point. Same ship, tiny changes, different paint job, not very much investment value or desirability for previous versions. One more thing to note is the mini figures. 9494 has several, but 3 are very common (neimoidian, droid, r2-d2) and the remaining two are also common, but have some small details changed. Every Lego SW collector and his/her dog has some version of Anakin and Obi-wan, making these figures desired only by completists (for the most part). 

 

Bottom line, most just by what is on the market. Many consumers of Lego are parents, grandparents, the target audience, kids, then there are collectors, AFOLs, investors, and a whole whack of others. Only reason I mention that is to say that pretty much the only people who will want this set now that is is (presumably) EOL are the last few groups mentioned who missed the opportunity to get them. Pretty much everyone else is going to go for 75038 as it is soon to be readily available. That does mean 9494 is a bad set, it`s just that there is little need for people to buy it now that EOL is coming. It does not offer very much more then 75038, and it is less money, so why should people pay a premium?

 

So to recap: remake, very similar to previous models, minimal desirable mini figures, and 75038 replacing it = not very much desirability and thus little investment value. That`s just how I look at it. Value will remain constant, and rise slightly with age. I`d be very, very surprised if it went any other way. 

[Veegs]

Hate to burst your bubble, but honestly, I don`t think very much, if any, investment potential. The set design has been almost cookie-cutted, with minor changes, over and over again. There really isn`t too much to this set that makes it "desirable" in comparison to the many similar versions out there. 9494 is probably retired now, and has/is being replaced with this model (75038), which as you can see by looking at it just illustrates my point. Same ship, tiny changes, different paint job, not very much investment value or desirability for previous versions. One more thing to note is the mini figures. 9494 has several, but 3 are very common (neimoidian, droid, r2-d2) and the remaining two are also common, but have some small details changed. Every Lego SW collector and his/her dog has some version of Anakin and Obi-wan, making these figures desired only by completists (for the most part). 

 

Bottom line, most just by what is on the market. Many consumers of Lego are parents, grandparents, the target audience, kids, then there are collectors, AFOLs, investors, and a whole whack of others. Only reason I mention that is to say that pretty much the only people who will want this set now that is is (presumably) EOL are the last few groups mentioned who missed the opportunity to get them. Pretty much everyone else is going to go for 75038 as it is soon to be readily available. That does mean 9494 is a bad set, it`s just that there is little need for people to buy it now that EOL is coming. It does not offer very much more then 75038, and it is less money, so why should people pay a premium?

 

So to recap: remake, very similar to previous models, minimal desirable mini figures, and 75038 replacing it = not very much desirability and thus little investment value. That`s just how I look at it. Value will remain constant, and rise slightly with age. I`d be very, very surprised if it went any other way. 

 

That pretty much sums it up - the only thing that might help is that it was a target exclusive.  It was listed at 50% off for Boxing Day in Canada but I was able to get to three different Targets and it was nowhere to be seen - in fact, even before the holiday season I hadn't actually seen one in Canadian Targets at all (or even a spot for them on the shelves).  Even with this 'exclusivity' I see very minimal gains here, but I would have grabbed a few at 50% off if I had found some.

[TheOrcKing]

That pretty much sums it up - the only thing that might help is that it was a target exclusive.

That and the three minifigures exclusive to the set but even so, I find it difficult to see good gains on the set if at all. It was pricy to start with and, aside from the unique Nute Gunray, I just liked the color scheme.

 

9494 has several, but 3 are very common (neimoidian, droid, r2-d2) and the remaining two are also common, but have some small details changed. Every Lego SW collector and his/her dog has some version of Anakin and Obi-wan, making these figures desired only by completists (for the most part).

I agree with everything you said in your original post except for the Neimoidian being common. If anything he is the only truly special minifigure to the set and I do not see anything else including him at this point same as his one previous incarnation. Just me being picky or really anal. :cheese:

[Darth_Raichu]

Hmm why did they call 75038 Jedi Interceptor ?  Shouldn't this be called Jedi Starfighter because yellow color scheme = pre-Sith Anakin ?

[Darth Nader]

Hate to burst your bubble, but honestly, I don`t think very much, if any, investment potential. The set design has been almost cookie-cutted, with minor changes, over and over again. There really isn`t too much to this set that makes it "desirable" in comparison to the many similar versions out there. 9494 is probably retired now, and has/is being replaced with this model (75038), which as you can see by looking at it just illustrates my point. Same ship, tiny changes, different paint job, not very much investment value or desirability for previous versions. One more thing to note is the mini figures. 9494 has several, but 3 are very common (neimoidian, droid, r2-d2) and the remaining two are also common, but have some small details changed. Every Lego SW collector and his/her dog has some version of Anakin and Obi-wan, making these figures desired only by completists (for the most part). 

 

Bottom line, most just by what is on the market. Many consumers of Lego are parents, grandparents, the target audience, kids, then there are collectors, AFOLs, investors, and a whole whack of others. Only reason I mention that is to say that pretty much the only people who will want this set now that is is (presumably) EOL are the last few groups mentioned who missed the opportunity to get them. Pretty much everyone else is going to go for 75038 as it is soon to be readily available. That does mean 9494 is a bad set, it`s just that there is little need for people to buy it now that EOL is coming. It does not offer very much more then 75038, and it is less money, so why should people pay a premium?

 

So to recap: remake, very similar to previous models, minimal desirable mini figures, and 75038 replacing it = not very much desirability and thus little investment value. That`s just how I look at it. Value will remain constant, and rise slightly with age. I`d be very, very surprised if it went any other way. 

 

Well I never thought it would do that well myself. I think it's a cool set though and I wanted to know if you guys would think whether or not it would do well. I guess the reason why I like it a lot more than the other people on here is because I think ROTS is the best prequel and dark green is my favorite color, so really it's just my opinion. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my first topic on brickpicker, I really appreciate it to be honest.

[@rtisan]

That pretty much sums it up - the only thing that might help is that it was a target exclusive.  It was listed at 50% off for Boxing Day in Canada but I was able to get to three different Targets and it was nowhere to be seen - in fact, even before the holiday season I hadn't actually seen one in Canadian Targets at all (or even a spot for them on the shelves).  Even with this 'exclusivity' I see very minimal gains here, but I would have grabbed a few at 50% off if I had found some.

Hmm, sounds an awful lot like Lego.com/ca recently, listing items for sale that really aren`t available. Oh ya, at 50% there really is little risk, oh course it`s usually safe to buy in at that discount, just not for much more of a price. 

 

I agree with everything you said in your original post except for the Neimoidian being common. If anything he is the only truly special minifigure to the set and I do not see anything else including him at this point same as his one previous incarnation. Just me being picky or really anal.

Nah, neither picky or anal. It`s a fair point. Honestly I had the advent calendars in mind when I typed that   Now that I think about it, it isn`t even the same version is it? Ok, so the Nute Gunray may add a bit more oomph to the set, but I still don`t think he`ll be able to carry the value. 

 

On a side note, it`s really a shame that Lego does this, cookie-cut their sets that is. Of course they don`t have any real need to remodel them. A few small changes, couple minor tweaks to the minifigs and box and away it goes. Pretty sure we talked about this somewhere else on the forum in the past, just can`t recall where 

 

Well I never thought it would do that well myself. I think it's a cool set though and I wanted to know if you guys would think whether or not it would do well. I guess the reason why I like it a lot more than the other people on here is because I think ROTS is the best prequel and dark green is my favorite color, so really it's just my opinion. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my first topic on brickpicker, I really appreciate it to be honest.

 

Haha, that`ll do it! Everyone`s got their taste, and of course, it isn`t a bad set by any means. Just not as unique as someone who is investing would usually hope for. And yes, I agree with you on the dark green, it`s a hard colour to come by in bunches in sets. Still need to get a Sopwith Camel for the dark green!

[TheOrcKing]

Nah, neither picky or anal. It`s a fair point. Honestly I had the advent calendars in mind when I typed that   Now that I think about it, it isn`t even the same version is it? Ok, so the Nute Gunray may add a bit more oomph to the set, but I still don`t think he`ll be able to carry the value.

Not on his own, he won't. There are a few characters good enough to pull such a feat off but who ever said "You know who I need? A Nute Gunray! My life would be complete then." Ha. I do remember the first one appearing in an advent calendar two years later. Hmm, actually that last bit would make me question if this current Nute Gunray may appear in a future Star Wars Advent Calendar?

old - left / new - right

[allen9917]

I'm a bit surprised to see the secondary market value for this set has been steadily increasing over the past few months. It seems the new Jedi interceptor doesn't have much of impact on the old one. Are the minifigs the driver here? I believe this set was target exclusive. It is already retired but somhow target still have some overstock. If they ever put it on sale again to clear their stock, is it wise to grab a few for investment?

[JoshTX]

If the discount is decent, it might be worth biting. The fact that it's an exclusive might give it a chance, though other exclusives like this have sometimes failed (Home One) for example. I didn't buy many of these and probably won't get anymore unless there is a significant discount, but that's just because there is so many other sets around this price that it didn't beat the competition. As far as Target, I was zoning in on Orc Forges until they were gone.

[TheOrcKing]

I feel like the key driver here is the color scheme odd as that sounds. Every version of Anakin

[Darth Nader]

I think the reason behind the increase in this set's value is that it a way it's sort of unique compared to most Star Wars sets out now. Most are for army building and some are just redesigns, while this one is original, has good figures, and the set itself looks appealing. The only problem with it IMO is the price point, but that will probably help it do even better in the secondary market. With that said I would not consider it surprising that it will do well in the future.

[templesweeper]

Funny thing.  I was standing in TRU yesterday, trying to figure out which sets to buy...I maybe stood in the isles for 15 minutes or so.  And no joke, at LEAST 5 of the 75038 sets were taken off the shelf by separate customers during that stretch.  Two were kids, three were adults.  I know that is a small sample, but still.  If it's a big seller, that tells us why there are constant variations on this set.  I would even say that the new one will make decent profit one day.  Kids like good-guy Anakin and this was his ship.  My son, who is 11, LOVES Revenge of the Sith.  I think that is the one movie that holds over the best from the prequels, and therefore, I think the sets are still attractive to kids.  My son REALLY wants the General Grievous Wheel Bike 75040 set.  Kids love getting all those lightsabers.

[biniou]

 

Any clue of what happened on april with this set ?

Thanks.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Could be messed up data - but I think if I remember one of the major companies had a firesale on some of them. I didn't buy but I think there was a crapload that went. maybe target? They sell on Ebay as well.

[terrymc4677]

I didn't buy or sell any because it doesn't fit my strategy, but wasn't it available at a great price from somewhere in March? I'm guessing it was a bunch of quick flips.

Edit...ninja'd by DNIIM

[Pseudoty]

It is a Target exclusive and neither Target or LEGO Shop at Home had this on sale. Actualy once it was retired Target marked the price up online and on eBay. Unless I missed a fire sale by Target eBay

[cladner]

target had this on sale on ebay for a few hours 1 day for like $35 dollars instead of its usual TRU-like bloated over MSRP price for the aspirational sw lego collector.

it was a few days before the Umbaran hiccup.  

i have one of these and don't see the big deal about this set i saw on the shelf at a target marked on clearance 6 months ago.