Every time I see that statement about the Ulysses probe, this bit jumps out to me as a blatant lie: "We do our best to make sure items like this one are available to as many LEGO fans as possible,"
I understand there were just 300 sets available for the whole of Europe. That is not a typo or missing any zeros - three hundred. For the whole of Europe.
That is a long way from making sure items are available to as many fans as possible! If they actually meant that statement, then they'd produce a load more sets.