Daddy_Stardust

Awesome, looking forward to it! Need to put in a big Firestar order, my Wilson Brothers of the Beach Boys needs a new second surf board for the roof of their palm-leaf covered 75875 Model A Ford Hot Rod, cos I hate one having stickers, so been holding off on the Tiki board for these helmets ;) But I digress, thanks for the heads-up! And just out of curiosity, do all these characters you keep mentioning like Chutney Jim and Wooly Bully Handbag actually have lines in the movies?

When do these new helmets come out??? Keep checking every day! Your line-up there is looking very nice. Was thinking earlier, it'd be nice if Firestar released some old dark grey Imperial caps (that match the new ones), for anyone who's got vintage imperial officers.

I literally have *no* idea who all these crazy-named characters are that you all keep referencing. And I thought I loved Star Wars! I just build “pilot people” haha.

Yeah maybe not, just looks like the poor chap has had a stroke.

God... I'm going to be poor! Who's the pink pilot? My EU knowledge is rudimentary at best, hence why I've never minded Disney rebooting it!

From Firestartoys' latest newsletter regarding more pilot helmets (absolutely can't wait!!! Although I know I'll be poor after this haha) in reference to their Jaina Solo figure - "The custom print helmet was a real challenge, it requires three individual prints that have to line up with a 10th of a millimeter +/- accuracy. The good news is, now that we have perfected the technique, we will be releasing some very exciting new pilot helmet designs in the near future." Anyway, on another subject, are there any flesh-coloured heads with a single mechanised eye? I know there's a few yellow-headed options, but not sure there's much (if any) choice when it comes to flesh-heads. Want to make an Admiral Screed from Droids, maybe stick him in Beckett's Imperial uniform, but not sure there's a decent head for him.

Well even if they did change the shape, they'd have to raise the height which would throw the proportions off.

I've just realised something about the new pilot helmets that I don't think anyone else has brought up - there's actually going to be a few ships they won't be even compatible with. The Snowspeeders and Sandspeeder for example have such tiny amount of head-space clearance between the helmet and canopy that there's no way the canopies would close with these new helmets on the figures.

Yeah it's annoying as hell, especially since obviously I've spent so long building up a collection of them and am only four away from having them all at present. Hell they've released 4 new ones in the classic style this year alone (updated UCS Gold Leader, both Sandspeeder pilots and Antoc Merrick in the upcoming advent calendar), it's absolutely ridiculous that they've brought in a new style for just one set that's being released at the same time as an old helmet in the calendar. However it's taken 19 years before they've updated them and both are just an update on two previously released ones, it'll be a LONG time before they replace all the others. Is there a close-up image of the new helmet yet?

Thank you, but sadly by mentioning the Clone Wars, you've just reminded me of one of my most frustrating absences from the Rebels line - an Imperial gunship to follow up the Coruscant police gunship from the Clone Wars. It not only appeals to the Clone Wars fans, but it's also an Imperial fleet-builder and it appeals to new fans of Rebels... surely it's an obvious choice alongside TIE Bombers, but nooo, we got a second version of The Phantom (why???) and an AT-TE that is nothing more than a wacky fan-mod downgrade of the old version (are there many kids out there who want a demilitarised rendition of a previously-released walker that's been turned into a treehouse?).

Very nicely done, great job. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it frustrates me to no-end that this was never given a proper retail set and instead we got the ridiculously pathetic battle-pack version that is borderline microbuild scale. Even more so now that the Sandspeeder has been released; it'd be a lovely vintage Kenner-tribute companion to that set. Releasing this would have made a lot more sense than that hideous Swiss Family Robinson Wookie gunship they released instead. I'm guessing the Rebels range is at an end now and it's a shame because it would have been a perfect line to both release and re-release so many Imperial ships like the Interceptor, the Defender etc. that would have sold like hotcakes alongside such a classic kids toy such as this that has nearly 40 years of Star Wars history. Instead they kept insisting on releasing daft things such as the aforementioned wooden Wookie plane, the treehouse-and-scaffolding update of an AT-TE and an ugly Imperial freighter featuring Christmas Cracker-gift TIE Fighters. I know the latter has at least been around since Episode 1, but it's hardly a fan-favourite. The AT-DP and A-Wing Vs Vader's TIE sets are what the Rebels range should have consistently been. Sadly, they're the exceptions not the standards. I truly hope no one at Lego is asking themselves *why* the Rebels range didn't take off. You only have to look at the ships featured in the show; the physical renditions of so much McQuarrie and Johnston concept art and the beloved history that they carry, and then look at what was released to do the maths.

Haha, very well put. I think I've ended up with 20+ sets of black and grey Imperial arms... jeez that's £40 on little pieces of plastic. Seems justifiable down the pub spending that much on booze, yet when I look at what I've accomplished for that money in buying pieces of custom-printed Lego that my son doesn't particularly care about the details of (he'd rather just smash the AT-M6 over again during our 'walker assaults'), I sometimes think I've gone mad haha. It began with just the black jumpsuit crewmen and the death star troopers. Then it extended to the death star gunners and ground crew. Then the TIE pilots. Then they released the grey ones! AAAGGGHHH!!! Somehow it doesn't seem like a waste of money when I do it gradually haha, but wow, first world problems eh? What's more annoying is I just made an order yesterday for two more sets of black arms, wish I'd seen this coming, I'd have held off a day just to save a bit of postage to get an aforementioned set of stormie arms for our lone tank pilot. The two black pairs of arms being for 1) the TIE pilot in the TIE Fighter Solo movie set which we've not even bought yet (got to think ahead!) and 2) after having counted up all we needed, for the tenth time over to be sure and being absolutely 1000% certain I accounted for everyone before ordering... then the order arrived, I picked up the TIE Advanced Prototype to remove the pilot and bestow him with his new set of appendages, only to discover a V-Wing pilot armed with a wrench performing maintenance work behind it. I begrudgingly typed their address back into my browser whilst swearing unholy things under my breath as i did so... then I discover these new ones a day later. I need to stop being so anal retentive about the movie details on my son's toys haha.

They're on Firestartoys now, 10 for £16.95. They've also got Blue Squadron arms, available in packs of 5 for £8.95. All are absolutely great, but I can't justify it myself. Got too many to buy even in those pack volumes (well at least in regards to the stormtrooper) and they don't bring 'enough' to it for me to justify the cost. Those of you with deep pockets though, I'll be very envious of. I justified it for the imperial black and grey arms, simply because they had the insignia specifically and I felt that element really brought to life some of the plain jumpsuit-wearing characters, but with these now available and we've got so many stormtroopers and pilots, it just becomes a case of "when do you stop?" Do I buy these stormtrooper arms for the First Order? Clone Troopers? Old Republic Troopers? Are those going to come out in the future? Our snowtroopers, shore troopers, shadow troopers etc would look pretty plain alongside them after such an upgrade. Plus likewise the rebel ones aren't available for red pilots, green pilots (both shades) and grey pilots - personally I'd rather have all or nothing. The only rebel ones I've bought are for my really old school X Wing pilot torsos, to bring them up to date a bit more so as not to waste them, which alongside snowspeeder pilot legs, Firestar heads and newer helmets really did help a great deal, but if I kitted up all our other little guys with them, then these newer stormtrooper and blue squadron ones on-top of those and the silly amount i've already spent on imperial crew arms would just be a wallet-killer for me... and what can I say... I've also got to eat!! Doesn't mean I'm not grateful though!!! Keep on going Firestar, love what you're doing... if you fancy making custom printed Rebel Pilot helmets, I'll just give you my bank account details ;)

Shi... Where from? Those aren't Firestar this time are they? Nothing on their site?

Actually they're screen accurate for the scanning crew :)

Nooooooooooooooooo! I literally only checked that page yesterday and they weren't there! Wallet time... Thankfully I only have 4 crewmen (2 of whom are AT-ST drivers), but still, ugh, this isn't fair haha! I see they've also got a pretty nice custom Kyle Katarn now too (way too expensive for me though when the only things custom are the head, arms and torso)): And although I have no use for these at all, they're cute little accessories for those who want to inject humour into their collections (got the old Aurebesh Twi'Lek girl poster tile they did, however these are too daft for me, although I do find them amusing):

Nicely done, where are the custom parts from?

Updated the collection of Rebel pilots, 20 pilots all with unique helmets (well two are updates of one another - Luke and Gold Leader, but different enough to be different) with 16 unique faces among them (8 being Firestar Toys customs). No one's been missed out this time! Got a plain white and a plain brown helmet too, but they both look rubbish so they're just in a spares box. Really want to get the two helmets from the Assault on Hoth UCS set and am waiting for another of Luke's heads from the 75049 Snowspeeder from Bricklink so i can use its reverse on one of these pilots. Also need to get another of the heads of the sand speeder female pilot too so I can use her reverse head on another one of these as well. That'll get us up to 18 unique heads!

Whilst I loved your post and found it both very amusing and accurate to the production of the original trilogy, to be fair I actually don't think Disney's at quite the level of anal-retention you suggest it is either. Just watch the street scenes on Jedha in Rogue One, the guy with the crap bucket helmet is literally on *every single* street corner, he's practically photo bombing every scene. I'm torn between finding it delightfully 70s and at the same time irritatingly immersion-destroying haha.

I stand corrected... said the man in the orthopaedic shoes! Although I doubt Lego was intending on being screen-accurate to just random guys in the background and the truth is more likely that they just stuck a new hat on the Star Destroyer Microfighter minifigure to save costs (they didn't even bother to change the head) - not to mention both figures were released in 2014. Plus even when it comes to Lucasfilm, I doubt there was any major reasoning behind it either - Return of the Jedi is infamously sloppy with its Imperial costumes and rankings.

There's nothing in-universe about it, it's just a simple case of the left torso being the correct screen-accurate one that Lego included with the UCS Death Star (a similar one had previously been produced for the UCS TIE Fighter), and the right merely them being cheap in other sets by sticking that helmet on a standard Imperial shuttle pilot (who should have a cap).

Dark-bluish grey for Bodhi Rook would be wonderful too... I'd finally buy him for use just as an Imperial cargo pilot.

Yeah as said above, it's from the Resistance Bomber set. And aside from a few like Biggs and Porkins where they have special faces, I don't make them with any intention to be specific pilots, they're just our 'rebels' like the ground troopers :)

The arms are absolutely flawless, as good as Lego in my opinion. As I've stated before, the facial prints aren't as seamless as Lego, but the prints themselves are lovely and *look* like Lego faces (as in the art style), they just have a slightly raised finish which you can notice up close when the light hits them. However to have 8 more unique faces in our array of Rebel pilots, I really don't mind at all that the light hits their faces slightly differently. Here's some close-ups (well, as up-close as my iPhone camera will take): A gathering of Alliance pilots (wish I could justify the cost of getting the helmets from the UCS Assault on Hoth and UCS Snowspeeder, but not spending £15 on a mini figure just for a helmet)... and annoyed because I just realised I didn't include the T-16 pilot helmet here, but can't be bothered taking a new photo haha: Waste not want not; our array of flight-suit bodies - updated as best as possible to all co-exist with one another, plus I actually like the variety of them all being a bit more individual, they're scrappy rebels, not conveyor-belt stormtroopers: Firestar Toys Rebel Pilot arms (used them only for our very vintage torsos, because I don't like wasting them, wanted to update them instead - plus just can't justify buying 20 packs of tiny arms at £2.00 a pair!): Lego John D meets Firestar Biggs for comparison of quality: Firestar female pilot meets Lego female pilot for comparison of quality: Firestar Toys Imperial crewman arms: Needless to say I think Firestar Toys did an amazing job with the arms and I think the faces are equally an excellent addition your squadron if you're sick of 90% being the smiley pilot or the frowning pilot. I just wish they'd produce their own array of rebel pilot helmets too, sick of Lego only including new ones with UCS sets.

They're just from the Imperial crewmen you can see literally right above your post.