Pedilego

A clear objective or Lordhelmet’s post was to address those concerns. Don’t you see that your post is more likely to create/continue the factional strife? Boba’s really disappointing. I too think the set appears to be overpriced & I’ve never been a huge fan of any of the skiffs. However; I’m trying to keep MandoKnight’s point about the Pit being deceptively large in mine & wait to see how it all scales with the Sail Barge before coming to any final conclusions. Peridia has a lot of stickers & Ahsoka the White isn’t looking very white but I still like the set. I’d actually be interested in it for more than the figures, which is more than I can say for most sets these days—and all of the rest of the sets from this wave. Finally, this beach loser Luke seems like a weird choice since it evokes the Ep. 8 depiction turned a way a lot of fans. Are they purposefully leaning into it as satire, or did it not just cross their mind? I’m not trying to be edgy or provocative, just sharing my personal thoughts/impacts. I wouldn’t like seeing him in my collection, so I’m not going to collect him—and that gives me license to stop being a completionist with all the new minifigs. Funny the impact one fig can have.

This isn't about any one of us individually: There are clear markers that the popularity of Star Wars is in decline (many of them have been covered in this thread already); noticing it & hypothesizing why isn't intended to be a personal attack on anybody who still likes the franchise. The criticism I have is denying that the decline exists. I do lots of the things you mentioned. My son's first theater movie was A New Hope last year. We saw RotJ just last weekend. Both my kids have now seen/been introduced to the entire OT in theaters. I'm eagerly anticipating RotS next May 4th and, in the interim, we'll watch the Disney+ Mando & Ahsoka shows and continue buying Lego sets. I don't think being realistic about the declining state of the franchise prevents (most) people from continuing to appreciate it. Lol Yep, raise prices, lower costs, or increase volume - which is a way of lowering cost per unit since incremental units only create additional variable costs & not additional fixed costs. Kind of difficult for theme parks to increase volume but Disney seems to think it's obtainable for TV/toys and breath of TV/toy consumers. IMO Disney does a good job of continuing to give us the things that we love about Star Wars (e.g. action/adventure, sci-fi/fantasy world-building, consistent yet expanding lore, immersive story-telling, etc.) but it's seldom all (or even most) at once and, when you're missing something like an adequate level of coherent story-telling, it doesn't matter how much action/adventure they give us (e.g. Book of Boba Fett); some people just aren't going to stay tuned in.

I had a fairly lengthy DM discussion some time back about Lego's approach to LSW & it felt like everything kept coming to "Yeah, but does it optimize short-term profits?" So many younger folks have heard that Q for so long they've become numb to anything else. Yes, that is how most corporations currently operate... is should it be? As religion has become less influential (it's not just capitalism 'maturing' into its later stages) & society's moral bearings have become self-directed, it's much more difficult to definitively say why profit shouldn't be the ultimate motive. Rather, upholding certain principals should be the primary motive, and profit should operate within that sphere: Does the profit-maximizing strategy align with our principals? Whereas now that's been reversed: Does acting on this principal align with profit? That's why we see examples of Lego "acting on their values" sometimes (when they align) but not universally. On one hand, the long-term implications should be obvious. I don't think it's acted on because (a. late-stage capitalism) the difficulty to push back against the corporate culture (especially for public companies with stockholders - Lego doesn't have as much of an excuse, other than that they hire people that've climbed the ladder in the culture of public companies) and (b. moral ambivalence) the individuals wanting to maximize profit performance in the short-term (over the company's long-term) for themselves (and deluding themselves into thinking what's good in the short- is good for the long- through cognitive dissonance because, of course, nobody wants to see themselves as selfish or working for/acting on behalf of selfishness). On the other hand, it seems like maybe it's not so obvious since a lot of people in this thread, and in the Star Wars fandom in general, have a difficult time accepting the downward trajectory of Star Wars.

So an Advent Calendar minifigure lineup with an off-colored Falcon and a price tag to match? I'd have assumed Darth Dev Greebling is a Gonk with a red lightsaber if not for Sig Greebling being human. At least Vader should look cool & I don't mind getting another Clone Trooper. It's almost certainly a shiny like in the trailer, but it'd be cool if it were a new rank in the new style (nothing like setting oneself up for disappointment - it's what us LSW fans do). X-Wing & ISD are skips for me. (There's that disappointment thing again... but for real, a DS playset would've been cool. I'm looking forward to building a big rock wall fortress with my kids using the Mando S3 Battle Packs. I understand I must be in the minority but I'm game for most locations & an Imperial stronghold would've been great.) I'll be on the Bricklinking Fig(s) bandwagon. Good chance it's the same on the Falcon/Vader.

I'm using that torso but backwards plus the old Han Solo legs (black with brown holster). Cara Dune hair in red (too bright?). I need to add that tan cloth piece LordHelmet is using - that's good. I'll have to pick some of those legs up - thanks!

One last “hurrah” for Clones would be great IF they could do Bly & Star Corps effectively. (I’m setting aside my Phase 1 & Clone Wars desires for the ROTS anniversary.) Unfortunately I'm expecting a Zombie Stormtrooper Battle Pack so I doubt this happens for numerous reasons. Besides, if that mobile game is any indication, we're more likely to get Gree & the 41st yet again. I’m curious if non-Lego anniversaries are going to become more front-loaded in order to be part of the May the 4th & Celebration festivities, like how all the Pahtnom Menace sets were this year. In any case, I expect TLG will give us a smattering of ROTS sets like with TPM. Mostly adult stuff (e.g. ARC-170 poly, midi-scale ship [Venator?], a diorama [but nothing as grand as we'd hope e.g. Anakin instead of Kit, Tiin, & Kolar]*, and a May the 4th ROTS UCS [Jedi Interceptor(s), perhaps]). It's been enough time since the micro-scale Hogwarts that I think they could've pipelined a Temple and circled the ROTS anniversary for the synergy. If they continue the scaled buildable characters (e.g. Chewy, R2, 3PO), Yoda seems like a natural choice (history of buildable Yoda and, again, ROTS anniversary synergy). And then, unfortunately, just 1-2 system scale sets (imo Obi & Boga vs. Crab Droid & Cody would hit a lot of boxes). And of course a roughly equal smattering of OT sets (been a while since Vader's Tie, for example) plus 1-2 for the various shows (maybe that Bad Batch V-Wing). Overall, yeah, I'd expect a similar release format. * an Ani v. Obi falling pillar tensegrity build could be great but it seems far fetched. ***Revised to focus more on why I'm expecting certain things to more-so answer the CloneCommando99's Q and come off less wish-listy.***

I’m at least expecting an upgraded helmet for Paz. Mando (Dura & Baskar variants) both look way better, and Bo’s latest helmet is a work. His current looks a bit derpy compared to his latest remnant-era counterparts.

TheBrickFan is reporting the BARC Speeder Escape is $21.99. Unless I missed it here, it was thought to be $29.99. That certainly makes it more bearable. I’m more OK paying $16.50 (standard 20% discount) for the figs. I might’ve read future Battle Packs are being bumped up to the same price (?), too. Since both have “four” figures, this price point makes much more sense.

Maybe how the piece(s) interact with the Sail Barge? Welp, I saw the thread had the "HOT" tag and assumed whatever I was about to read about was going to be an April Fools... so I didn't get excited... until your post. Thanks for confirming (as much as can be confirmed on 4/1, anyways lol). This is easily the best news of the year for Lego. As much as I like collecting minifigures, what really makes it enjoyable are builds to dis/play with them. Hope these Jabba sets look worthy of the UCS/MBS tag.

I’m not saying the designers didn’t to the best they could within the parameters they were given. I’m saying Lego didn’t do they best they could. The organization’s own processes & rigidity forgives the designers on some level, but not TLG.

BARC Speeder Escape is exactly what I expected yet I'm still disappointed for some reason. Maybe it's the lamp post. I realize MandoKnight is a stan (you're not just saying this for the memes??) but, really, if they're trying to max out the value why not another figure or a new figure/mold instead of the 501st Troopers? Are you sure that lamp is going to add as much "world building" as you think it is when you take away all of the marketing & just have the set in hand/on a normal table? I wanted more fig(s) from the Infiltrator but I'm not surprised, just disappointed. I'll BrickLink Beq, Saw & some extra poncho(s) eventually - along with Malak. I think there's 3 sets this whole year that actually have me interested from a build perspective: Tantive, Jabba's Sail Barge & Jabba's Desert Skiff - and the last two are TBD. Maybe the Death Star, Paz vs. Moff, and/or the Peridia sets will surprise me. That's 10-20% on 30+ sets. Jang does/did these videos where he steps back & compares what you can get in Lego for $X compared to another non-Lego toy and I think it's brought to consciousness the best way of Star Wars collecting for me. Like yesterday I found the Hasbro Black Series Captain Rex helmet on sale for $79 (score!). My 3-year old has been running around in it non-stop. Yes, I got a little lucky finding it on clearance so early (it just came out) but if you're patient & pay attention, you can find most non-Lego products at fairly deep discounts. Here in the USA, while 20% off Lego is practically a guarantee sometime within 6-12 months... it's a game of chicken trying to get anything for less than that (e.g. Black Friday the year its retiring). Respect to you guys that collect the Lego helmets but under no circumstances does it make any sense, personally, to spend, say, $56 on a Lego Captain Rex helmet when I knew eventually I could get the Black Series version for under $100. And now you have Micro Galaxy Squadron, too. I'm going to be selling a few of my Lego ships because MGS is way more accurate than Lego while being less money & space. (e.g. How somebody said Lego downsized the big stuff & upsizes the small stuff so the scales aren't even close.) Lego starfighters like the '18 X-Wing, RO Y-Wing, & RO U-Wing are legitimately great builds but they're so big & there's not a lot of playability with the size (my kids can attest). So I'm transitioning to a collection of minifigure scale locations & MGS spaceships. (Yavin might be my favorite way of putting this off - microscale on the outside, minifig on the inside. Picture below.) Funny thing is, I don't think that even affects how I would've spent on this year's lineup (except maybe the Interceptor if I'd been a non-minifig scale UCS collector) as we've had better versions of the Infiltrator, X-Wing & Tie (most likely), and Falcon already. Shame so much of Lego's Star Wars portfolio has become non-minifigure scale adult stuff & the minifigure scale stuff is fairly weak.

"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have our revenge." works on a number of levels. It's not in the scene but it's about the Duel in a lot of ways. The first "reveal" is a sneak attack. Darth Maul truly reveals himself to the Jedi on Naboo. It's after that duel that the truth of the Sith still being around is revealed to the Jedi. Darth Maul begins their revenge on Qui-Gon, which sets up the long-term revenge through Anakin. And on revenge, well, this quote probably puts it best: "While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself." I've seen some MOCs. I think something as simple as one of the catwalks around the glowl-y pillar would be cool but the scenes around the shaft works, too.

I would guess Lego sees this as either a counter to or an opportunity because of all the factory Rex minifigs that didn’t/don’t include pauldrons. I bet there’s a lot of people that bought the factory minifig & reported to Lego that “their Venator” was “missing” the pauldron. So it’s like, OK, well, let’s just make it available on PAB & charge a mark-up on it. Regardless of my speculation, I do hope you’re right about the piece being included in the Y-Wing. It’d become a rather slimy move on their part to omit it & simultaneously have it on PAB for $7–effectively expect people to spend $20 to get the full figure. I mean, it’d be better than not being able the cloth at all, but it still wouldn’t be a great look.

It looks like the Padme hair (13251) piece. Who's the Hoth rebel on the left supposed to be? The guy from Cheers or another character?

Both arguments are valid enough to say that Rey, Vader, or neither are all possibilities. Hopefully it's neither so we can have one more Anniversary figure but I'm keeping expectations low & assuming Vader until we receive more information: - Non-Skywalker Saga Films: Rogue One Saw - Lucas-era TV: TCW Fives - Lucas-era Gaming: KOTOR Malik - Disney-era TV (Live Action): Kenobi Leia - Disney-era Gaming: Fallen Order Cal - Literature (Novels/Comics): Comics White Vader* * I'm going to guess that if it's not Vader, it'll be from Disney-era TV (Animation), so either Rebels, Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi, or Visions. RIP I knew he's been around a while but I didn't realize he was 76. (I had the same thought about Fennic's age.) Hollywood, man.

Gosh. I wonder if the Chewy is going to be in scale with them. The horrors...

It looks like you could slide a red & yellow Tile, Round 1 x 1 Quarter (25269) into the hangar of the Invisible Hand to represent the Jedi Interceptors. I prefer playscale but the ship looks nice and would be a nice background piece in the display area. I may consider it and, as a result, the SSD. We'll see. I already have the Falcon & Tantive represented in the collection at different scales and, while solid, they both look just a bit off to me. *Han Solo salute* to you. Yeah, you kind of have to know what you're looking for and then squint lol. The jagged printing around the fin is the eel's body, the arch above the visor are the jowls (with 'teeth' in the center), and two red dots just below the body & above the jowls are the eyes. I'm not sure if the red triangle is supposed to represent something (e.g. Cutup) or what. Boil has the same/similar red triangle on his helmet.

Thanks for organizing/summarizing. As for my opinion goes on each of these... Debatable Helmet Holes: Yep, unfortunately that's the insurmountable argument in favor of the location of the helmet holes themselves (unless you factor in their suspected impact on print quality...). I can begrudgingly accept this on its own. 2014 vs. 2020: Yep. It's subjective. 2020 torsos are perfect for P2 animated. I don't like it but, again, I can and have begrudgingly accepted it. I'm just disappointed we never got the 501st in the 2014 style. Disappointing Kamas: This stinks for kids. Fortunately I have accumulated enough over the years where it's not a problem for me personally (except for odd colors like the niche 187th Airborne Trooper). I'll say this on behalf of Lego: neither cloth or dual molded legs are viable solutions for a minifigure like Fives who has a multi-colored Kama. They'd really have to go the extra mile to pull that off (e.g. multi-colored kama or side-leg printing) & none of us are naive enough to expect that. Do Better (underlined emphasis for the tl;dr people) Lack of print by fin Helmet Print Quality Regression: To clarify: Yes, fins are one of many things that could be improved. The problem is Lego's quality has regressed. I'll continue to contrast the Wolf on the Wolfpack helmets vs. the Rishi Eel on the Fives helmet. To anybody that hasn't already done so: Go look at them side-by-side. The Lego Wolfpack Wolf is one image. The Lego Fives Eel is five separate disjointed marks. And, yes, it's supposed to be an Eel. It's an homage depicting the monster that eats his brother Cutup in the "Rookies" episode. The TLG helmet doesn't make discerning that any easier. I won't beat the dead horse that is the 212th helmets, too... Attention to Detail: Lego just isn't doing enough to ensure trueness to the source material (e.g. Commander Fox & Captain Vaughn). YES, it's hard. But Lego is appealing to Clone fans and it's basically a pre-requisite to have an attention to detail as a Clone fan because there are so many variants & the differences can be really subtle. It's the die-hards that are responsible for a significant amount of the army building/buying. Nice & succinctly made points. Now that you've been buttered up... I apologize for continuing the discussion & risking further fallout but I felt like there was still some value I could (cordially) add. The last thing I'll say regarding the broader discussion is "You can be right, but wrong at the top of your voice." How you communicate matters.

This is an excellent point. I don't have much more to add but I do want to acknowledge it since we don't have an upvote system & this certainly merits it. I believe the technique only becomes illegal if you're using it to connect other pieces together. I don't remember the 1st "controversy" but the TLG community has had it a few times. Another way of looking at it might be era amd/or media. So far we'd have these, then: - Lucas-era TV: TCW - Lucas-era Gaming: KOTOR Malik - Disney-era TV: Kenobi - Disney-era Gaming: Fallen Order If TLG is casting as wide a net as possible, other potential categories could include - Literature (Novels/Comics): White Vader? (Potentially too niche of a category for Lucas-era vs. Disney-era.) - OG OT-era TV: Holiday Special Boba Fett? (Likely too niche, though, I do expect them to make that minifigure eventually.) - Disney-era TV (Animation): Ezra from Rebels? (They could have both Live Action & Animation for Disney era since there's been so much more content.) - Non-Skywalker Saga Films: Saw from Rogue One? Not to beat a dead horse but I certainly I hope not. The rest of the guesses so far would be welcome possibilities - especially Saw & Ezra. Ezra is the one character from the show that really does need the late season look. We already have Kanan & the rest of the crew is close enough as-is. (Sabine would be nice but I'm fine without.) It'd be amazing if they could pull off his crazy-colored Scout Trooper helmet too but, well, I won't take the conversation back there hahah. Maybe when/if they ever create a Scout Trooper helmet mold that flips open. For now, I just have Ezra in a standard Scout Trooper disguise to represent his late season appearance.

I can’t speak for Flawless_Cowboy but ^you and I agree on my biggest issue: printing around the fin. Please look up the old Wolfpack Trooper helmets & remind yourself what TLG was capable of a decade ago. If they can’t do that with helmet holes, that in itself validates the argument that they need to keep both variants around until, as you say, they can perfect the printing enough to do stuff like accurate 332nd prints, Star Corps (?), etc.

100% I could live with everything else, including the printed Kama & helmet holes, but the printing falls remarkably short of Lego’s own standards. (TBD on the pauldron.) After this & the 212th Clones, it’s apparent that their latest molds are not capable of correctly printing close to the fin on their helmets—which has effectively killed my hopes/desires for new Wolfpack troopers (no way the new helmet prints would best their old ones) or any other troopers without basic printing. As for the rest of the set, it’s weird: There are disappointments but I’ve planned for/expected all of them. I already have dual molded legs & Rogue One Stormies set aside. A screen accurate Vader torso would’ve been preferred but it doesn’t bother me too much, nor do the faces or stickers. The main thing I wanted out of this set was them to nail the Hallway itself & I think it looks great. I’m looking forward to building one-or-more, depending how I like it in person & how multiples look on YouTube. I’m also glad they included Antilles since he’s so expensive & I didn’t have one to add to the scene. Overall, it looks like a solid 8.5 or 9.0. Great looking build & minifigure selection but the minifigure execution could’ve been better. I also think R2 looks very good for the price. I like him better than the UCS versions. Of course, there was never really a chance I’d buy it anyways. (I’d much rather have bought an accurate looking, functioning Galaxy’s Edge R2 online before Christmas.) Still, it actually has me curious for the showcases with him & his counterpart, the buildable C-3PO.

It looks like Vader’s entrance is connected using technic pins—so it could be removed if you buy dupes. I’m also guessing there are going to be technic connections behind the doorway that Antilles is running out of on the box art. Hasbro did a Tantive hallway for The Vintage Collection. It’s well done & has a surprising amount of variations/configurations for expansion. I imagine/hope the set will have roughly the same variability.

Agreed. Neither would be the right size in playscale anyways. "This set doubles as all versions of the Turbo Tank!" Yeah, there's not a lot of "cross-media synergy" options for these - and I think that's really important to Lego. It really reduces their risk when it already ties into other moves & shows. Arguably, we already got our Bad Batch Battle Pack. But unfortunately/fortunately (depending how you see it), it came Clone Wars branded. 3 Shiny 1 Shock (almost) perfectly represents the Imperial-era Clones we see in Bad Batch and the droids make it even better for Clone Wars & ROTS. (Whereas a 327th homage to the 2007 BP or a BB Elite Trooper would've taken away from that.) I would buy a Fondor, maybe the BoBF set (depending on the new Rancor vs. the old one), and a lot of that legit BB Battle Pack... I just don't think these options are likely unless those characters/troopers appear in more prominent media.

Yeah, based on the leaks especially, this year is unlikely. Lucasfilm seems to keep TLG in the dark a lot. Based on recent sets/years, it's possible Lego just sometimes only receives hints about vehicles/characters to revisit (e.g. Mandalorian Starfighter for Clone Wars + Mando Season 2, Cad Bane for Bad Batch + Book of Boba Fett, maybe even the Republic Gunship for the Grogu-Coruscant flashback). Since the Justifer presumably didn’t go so well previously, they might've been hesitant BUT given that the larger vehicle is already popular on its own, and smaller vehicle is a low-priced ship that's been in a fair amount of media now... I could see the BBS3 appearance(s) making them topical enough for TLG to give them the green-light for 2025.

Bad Batch Season 3 trailer dropped.