Sabre-aN

A Yavin-style ARC-170 would be a bizarre choice especially since the seperatists are practically crying out for a vehicle or large droid to challenge the clone vehicles that are currently/imminently available. I would've thought a slightly downscaled Corporate Alliance Droid or Homing Spider Droid might work better, or a Vulture Droid. Or even a couple of Crab Droids or Octuptarra Tri-Droids.

Looking at the latest Rex pictures, to nitpick his arm printing perplexes me a bit - it has a weathering effect with missing bits of blue paint on the shoulders in the blue stripes, yet the rest of the figure has no weathering like this at all (though in the skywalker saga dlc there was actually similar paint weathering on the helmet). And then the blue striping does not follow the minifig arm's bend at the elbow, instead the stripe changes angle too early then goes straight across the elbow, matching neither the bicep nor the forearm. It makes those parts of the print look rather weird to me, as the striping should be in line with each armour piece on the arm. Design confusion aside though it is impressive how well the print seems to have been applied, with the blue going right to the top of the arm. I do also find it a little strange how Rex doesn't have a black brow line printed on his helmet whereas every other 2020 style clone so far using the standard P2 helmet mould has it (besides Hunter and Echo but their helmets are so different I wouldn't compare them). He would fit in better with the rest of the clones with it and there appears to be room for it, though perhaps the visor print might have had to be shortened slightly for tolerance purposes. I'd guess it was either due to that or due to the designer sticking more closely to the Clone Wars animation for their reference, where he doesn't have it. Ultimately though I think it's a good figure and I'm very glad they're making it - it's not perfect in my eyes with the brow line, helmet holes (a futile complaint, the mould's almost certainly here to stay for every clone now), kama, oversized pauldron and arm oddness all being areas for improvement in my opinion, but nonetheless it will fit in well enough with the rest of the current 2020-style clones, especially compared to the 2014 Rex who really doesn't. I'd like to get the Venator at some point if I can (assuming the builld is good) but hopefully Rex will be in a standard early 2024 set (either the super battle pack or one of the unnamed set numbers) so I can pick up a few and customise one to use with the rest of my 501st - I'd like to swap the arms for standard blue ones, give him a cloth kama, and drill a hole in the helmet in the proper place for the rangefinder, but there's no way I'm doing the arm swap and helmet hole mod to a UCS-Venator exclusive figure Speaking of the 2024 sets, the super battle pack has me very interested (hopefully the clones are good and I expect the SBDs will be updated so I hope they aren't open at the back of the torso this time, and that the rocket launcher arm from some of the old SBDs can be used on the new ones without looking odd), and the Grogu temple escape has a good chance of having at least a coruscant guard and/or plain P2 in it so that's got me interested as well as I'd like to get at least a squad of each (and don't currently plan on getting the new gunship for any coruscant guard as my 2013 gunships seem superior). Though I wouldn't mind a standard 501st, and I would not be at all surprised if one turns up in one of these sets given that a complete standard 501st figure is not currently available in a set currently on shelves, but all the parts to do so are spread across 2 current sets in production. I think it's good to have them be widely available anyway since the 501st are arguably the most important legion and not everyone will have managed to amass an army from the 2020 501st set, and not everyone will be willing to kitbash them from the 2 current clone battlepacks if they're just starting out. Just so long as they don't turn out to be the only trooper type in the super battle pack or something, that would be a let down.

Have Promobricks (or anyone else) confirmed that the other 3 figs in the swamp speeder are indeed all standard 332nd, or is it still their earlier guess based on them knowing Vaughn will be in it? Could be potential for a plain P2 in there if it's not yet fully confirmed, they did appear in the Mandalore arc, though I wouldn't count on it. Really impressive lineup of CW sets to fit in their 'anniversary' theme, the Venator is a fitting tribute, might have to get that if it can fit in my cabinet. If the gunship build looks good I'll probably get a couple to replace my 2013 ones, I would actually like it if they're a little smaller in exchange for more detail & better shaping, that way they'll fit better with the 2022 AT-TEs. Will certainly pick up at least 1 swamp speeder for Vaughn, probably more unless I bricklink extra figures from it instead

I hope the atrocious swamp speeder PPP is due to having more figures than we're used to, but perhaps part of the atrocious PPP is down to a bunch of printed cloth pauldrons (if it is Felucia based then the 327th and Bly would want them), and/or new or returning moulds for some included droids (SBDs would be nice, not had them in ages and it was never a great mould). Maybe there's even some new arm printing (TSS Rex did have it uniquely), though I'd be surprised if so.

Well if the swamp speeder is based on a particular scene then if based on its brief Coruscant appearance in Ep3 then it could mean getting 41st Clones in their light grey markings - they don't have any extra markings on their helmets (just the arms torso and legs) so the helmets would be plain and could easily be used to make plain P2s together with the recent P1 bodies we got. Those grey 41st have had a fair few Hasbro action figures in the past too, so considering how Lego has seemingly liked to used Hasbro figures as inspiration in the past for obscure clones (Kashyyyk camo clones in standard P2 armour and the purple 187th) then there is a chance we'll get them... but I do think we could get almost any clone type (501st based with that Rex anyone? ). If we do get something based on a particular scene I'd bet on the 327th from Felucia as others have - helmet mould currently in production unlike Kashyyyk scouts, the 327th are less obscure than the grey 41st, & we have the macros needed for Bly brand new & in production too. I'd just hope we get Bly and at least one standard 327th rather than say just Bly and Aayla or something. I'd definitely want to try and build up at least a squad of standard 327th, they were always one of my favourite clone designs

A V-Wing remake certainly could fit those descriptions, and could sensibly come with a plain Phase 2 clone too. Not expecting it, but it would be brilliant for me, I've not had a V-wing since the 2006 one and I could really do with a plain Phase 2 helmet and would prefer not to butcher a 212th helmet to get one

Nice to get a better look at the 501st - I was surprised to see they've (correctly) coloured the detail box on the Officer's back in blue but left it plain on the other troopers. I'd presume that's because his blue belt meant they'd already have to use blue printing on both sides of the torso to make it look right, so they went ahead and filled in the box too since they were already using blue there. Personally I'm actually glad the heavy still just has the plain back box instead, as that way it'll match the upcoming Hot Toys figure of him! The heavy's backpack piece print is also really rather nice, liking that. Macrobinoculars whilst not perfect look fine, including when flipped up by the looks of things which is the main thing for me, as long as they're not moved all the way back. Some embossed writing (probably the Lego copyright & the part number) looks a bit thick on the underside but that could the angle & lighting from the video making it look worse than it is. Still looking forward to it, and great to get a spare, look's like I'll be giving them to my 2022 212th squad after all

The quality of that mini AV-7 cannon build in the 501st set is a really nice surprise, I'm not going to use it for anything due to the small size but nonetheless I think it's a nice really nice representation of it. Looking forward to building it several times! Good to see the heavy troopers with their visors, shame about the inaccurate legs on them (and the specialist) but that was expected from the original rumours, it makes them look a little bit too plain IMO. I'll probably swap the arms for blue ones to try and 'fix' that, whilst the actual EA BF2 / Hot Toys 501st Heavy Trooper's arms are still mostly white they do have a bit more blue than the standard 501st there (extra blue on the elbow strap and on the hands, in addition to the standard blue shoulder and wrist band) so I think I can justify the arm swap to myself on that basis. Kind of strange weapon choice with that double barreled blaster they've got though, I'd guess it's meant to be a generic heavier weapon or the assault class's shotgun. I was expecting either long blasters or perhaps something like what Paz Vizsla got in the Mandalorian Forge set to represent the rotary blaster. But I'm not bothered anyway as I'll just replace them, and those pistols and black binoculars pieces will come in handy for other plans Excited for the specialist's macrobinoculars & to see how they look flipped up, they'll be great for equipping an Umbara squad of 212th as well as the 501st, especially if we get a spare in the set. Would have been nice if they were printed or dual moulded so that they could have had the black viewport, but for a small visor part like that it would have been difficult and in a battlepack like this that would have probably been too expensive, so I'm just happy we're getting it at all. Hopefully there's a small recess there so that the shadows can fill it in instead, can't really tell from the photos we have so far Not a massive fan of the officer especially with the rangefinder in the 'high' position on the real figure, but that was expected - it's a strange mistake they've made in the box art render, where they accidentally put it where it should be to be accurate where it looks a lot better, I mean there isn't a hole there so when putting together the assets for the render you'd think it would be obvious where it actually fits. It'd be funny if against all odds it turned out the specialist & the officer actually do have different helmet moulds and the real officer fig we've got a photo of was put together with the wrong helmet, but whilst it'd be great I don't think that's the case, it'd be too much cost & I doubt Lego would want two near identical helmet moulds with identical prints in production, let alone in the same set. Looks like the chap who's got the 501st set is planning on doing a review of it on his YouTube so that should give us a better look at everything anyway TIE bomber looks great, though I don't think I'll pick it up as I don't really have a space for it in my army & I'm still using the old 2012 TIEs anyway

Taking that latest 501st helmet & blue sunvisor leak to be real (if it's not it's certainly a high quality fake, assuming the photos haven't been touched up I can't spot any clues that it's been decalled and the colours and print look like Lego's work to me), I'm glad the visor is normal blue to match the helmet markings, and it looks like Lego have been able to print closer to the sides of the fin again after having left larger gaps between it and any other printing on the clones from the AT-TE with the new helmet mould compared to what they did on the old mould before. So that's good, it'll match the 2020 501st quite well by the look of things. I hope it's just the officer and specialist that use that helmet print though - the heavy should have a slightly different helmet print really, as he should have extra padding printed on the upper part of the helmet like Cody does but coloured blue instead of dark tan (he could potentially also have Cody's extra black 'arrow' design beneath the mouth area if based on the prototype Hot Toys figure rather than the BF2 game, but I highly doubt it). I could certainly believe they've simplified things and just used the same helmet print for all of them though, especially if the original rumour that the heavies also incorrectly reuse the standard 501st leg print is true as well. I hope we get the full leaks / reveals of these 501st soon, I'm not too bothered about the officer but I really want to see the full heavy trooper figure and the specialist's binoculars -EDIT- Looks like there's been confirmation of this being fake, nevermind! Guessing the photos were touched up after all. Wonder what the real deal looks like then

Ha no worries, that game has had loads of mods made for it over the years

The only phase II clone trooper types we've had at all in Lego form from Battlefront II 2005 are the basic 501st trooper and the ARC-170 pilot, are you thinking of a mod for that game instead? The rest of the phase II troopers from that game would be less obscure choices than the purple 187th clones from the recent fighter tank given how popular that game was, whereas the 187th were originally created by hasbro as 3.75" action figures and never appeared in any media with that design at all, though they did appear as merchandise a couple more times. I reckon Lego chose them for the Fighter Tank because they already wanted Mace Windu in the set (presumably as an alternative to his UCS gunship appearance, though of course the figures are slightly different) and then tried to find unique clones that would fit with him (and then picked the old purple hasbro design instead of his clones from CW S7 on Anaxes) A set with the real original Battlefront II 2005 phase II clones would have been neat, and in a way perhaps better if the upcoming battlepack was based on them instead of the BF2 2017 501st, as then we could have potentially gotten some still missing Ep3 designs (Galactic Marine and an almost-Bacara) and some neat designs that were based on unused Ep3 concept art as well (Blue Airborne, the Jet Trooper who was an Appo/Gree concept, and the Engineer who was based on the concept for Commander Faie and his troops). But that would never happen - they were a strange collection of designs back then and they'd still be strange now (Galactic Marines acting as Clone Commanders fighting as part of the 501st was always a bit weird. The devs were mainly working off concept art during development to be fair though, and the concept of clone legions at all was still new). The troopers in the upcoming EA Battlefront II 2017 based 501st battlepack work a lot better as a group, even if the exact designs of the troopers is still pretty obscure given they're from class skins that were only released in-game well after the game launched.

Some of the info on the 501st figures seems strange, namely that apparently the heavy troopers use a dark blue visor (The visor should be the same colour as the blue paint on the armour which has always been the basic Lego blue) and that the heavy and specialist just have standard 501st legs (I can see it happening but it would be disappointing to have happen yet again after they did the same thing for the 2020 jet trooper - they should have unique legs, the heavy in particular has a lot more blue on him which I was rather looking forward to). Hopefully it's just a mistake / misinterpretation from low-res pre-production pictures or translation or something. I'll still get the set mind you as they'll still be 'good enough' by the sounds of things, but I'm a little less enthusiastic and might not get as many. I also hope they don't just print backpacks onto the heavies, if there indeed aren't brick built backpacks then personally I'd rather they just left them off, gives us more options

Exactly what I was thinking - wonder if he might sneak into the upcoming Rex helmet set? That in-game figure sure looks like a real figure Lego would put out next year, otherwise why would they bother modelling the new helmet mould & using a printed kama instead of just using the custom p2 helmet with rangefinder & cloth kama that they already had on the 501st and shock trooper officers seen in gameplay? If we do get a Rex figure soon I reckon he'll be exactly as shown in game - shame about the printed kama but it does seem to be the trend

That 501st battlepack sounds great to me as an army builder - I reckon the heavy will most likely be the EA BF2 heavy trooper design as already speculated, since Hot Toys recently announced a figure of him as well and as we know Lego do like to use figures as references for their clone designs (2014 Kashyyyk standard Phase 2s, 187th). I do really like that design so I'll probably be picking up at least 4 or 5 of this set to complement my 2020 501st army. Though I'll be interested to see if he matches the Hot Toys offering with its Cody-style arrows beneath the mouth area on the helmet, or if it will follow the EA BF2 design and just have a standard 501st stripe there instead. The other 2 clones, the sniper and the commander, will be interesting - the BF2 specialist and officer designs are probably most likely but since they haven't been named as such in the leak maybe there's a chance they'll be different, after all the specialist would need a new mould for the macrobinoculars which probably wouldn't see much further use unless they did Bly (though I would really like such a part). Perhaps the sniper could be a 2005 BF2 style Airborne, Lego have gotten a surprisingly good amount of use out of that helmet recently. For me the ideal commander would be better as a legends style Commander Vill design with cloth kama and pauldron, though I expect this commander whichever design he uses will probably have a printed kama sadly. One interesting thing is the heavy should, in theory, have a different leg print with more blue on it - this could be good for replacing the legs on the 2020 Jet Troopers, since they incorrectly used standard 501st legs. The heavy's legs would be closer to what they should look like (though still not perfect). If we get the EA BF2 specialist his legs are a good match for Captain Rex as well. Really looking forward to seeing pictures of these figs. Also that Captain Rex helmet might be the first helmet set I'd buy if it looks good

I think it's the the box art / official images' visors that are wrong in a way, because they're using renders again. If you look at the box art and equivalent images for the recent Republic Fighter Tank, which used renders for this 2020 style of phase 2 clone in such images for the first time, the 187th visors (and also cheek printing) are the same as we see the 212th renders, with the visor & frown area looking more horizontally stretched out with the edges of the frown getting closer to the cheeks, and the cheek printing looking more rounded than what we got on the real thing. In comparison the actual production 187th matched the production 501st prints as you would expect, and similarly so do the 212th helmets we've seen from the sets given to reviewers. In fact looking back at the instruction booklet for the 501st set the helmet prints looked to match these 212th / 187th renders there as well (though the renders are to a much lower standard of course). So I think it's just Lego's 3D models not 100% matching what they'll make.