26 minutes ago, caiman0637 said:

Probably another TIE.  An Outland TIE would be cool, at least.

Actually that would be nice. Even TLG isn’t stupid enough to have two identical, similar sized TIEs on shelves simultaneously, but a different model would be sweet. 

Brickfanatics' Tie Bomber article is interesting. https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-star-wars-magazine-teases-potential-new-tie-bomber/

15 minutes ago, ArrowBricks said:

Brickfanatics' Tie Bomber article is interesting. https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-star-wars-magazine-teases-potential-new-tie-bomber/

Very interesting. Very, very, interesting. I could see another retail exclusive, coz’ there’s no way it will be thirty dollars. 

5 minutes ago, Brickroll said:

Very interesting. Very, very, interesting. I could see another retail exclusive, coz’ there’s no way it will be thirty dollars. 

Agreed. I wonder what it could be...

Edited March 30, 20213 yr by caiman0637

It seems to have a new cockpit piece, but maybe that’s just the angle from which we can see it.

18 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

501st Battle Pack in an Aussie store in my area

Saw it once, bought one of them, all gone the next day. I wish I had picked up the AAT or the second 501st which was there too.

 

18 hours ago, MaximillianRebo said:

Speaking of low stock levels, I'm noticing that the new X-Wing seems to be out of stock in quite a few locations

Never seen it in stock anywhere yet! I don't mind since the pricing at retailers is only a couple of dollars cheaper than S@H, which I think has stock, but still.

3 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

There was one more unknown set at a $30 price point for this summer, it's supposedly a Target exclusive in the US (Not sure why the Mandalorian Starfighter got leaked if that one is also apparently an exclusive and this one didn't?) but we've had no info other than I believe a price, set number and piece count.

The Mando Fighter is not an exclusive in my understanding... 

14 minutes ago, Childish_Landino said:

The Mando Fighter is not an exclusive in my understanding... 

Supposedly a Walmart exclusive. Re: TIE Bomber, I seem to remember some product numbers missing from the Summer leaks sooooooo

1 hour ago, Brickroll said:

It seems to have a new cockpit piece, but maybe that’s just the angle from which we can see it.

The cockpit glass looks like the same part that's been used since 2015.  The drawing shows the glass as a bit more bulbous, less flat, than the real part, but that's just because it's a simple hand drawing for a magazine.

2 hours ago, ArrowBricks said:

Brickfanatics' Tie Bomber article is interesting. https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-star-wars-magazine-teases-potential-new-tie-bomber/

Intriguing...

1 hour ago, Brickroll said:

It seems to have a new cockpit piece, but maybe that’s just the angle from which we can see it.

Look like the same one, just a bit out of shape due to the angle from which it was drawn. Still interesting though!

 

17 minutes ago, hondohnaka said:

Supposedly a Walmart exclusive. Re: TIE Bomber, I seem to remember some product numbers missing from the Summer leaks sooooooo

That could be the Mando and Grogu Brickheadz and the Grogu Buildable Figure. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what you're thinking of (no offense, of course, just stating my opinion.)

I still can’t believe how bad they screwed up the Bespin Duel set. That was without a doubt the most requested set since 1999 and they go and make it a convention exclusive. Don’t forget that it wouldn’t have been available to the North American public if it weren’t for the pandemic, if the convention had gone ahead I can only imagine the price of the set on the secondary market.

1 hour ago, Brikkyy13 said:

I still can’t believe how bad they screwed up the Bespin Duel set. That was without a doubt the most requested set since 1999 and they go and make it a convention exclusive. Don’t forget that it wouldn’t have been available to the North American public if it weren’t for the pandemic, if the convention had gone ahead I can only imagine the price of the set on the secondary market.

Here's what they could have done to make it a better product:

1. Hold on to them for a year (or longer) and release them at a time when the Empire 40th sticker no longer makes sense.
2. Throw a wrench into their production schedule and make this a wide release that requires them to crank out more copies heading into the holiday shopping season.
3. Take the limited quantities that they've already shipped to the US, ship some of them back to Europe, and release them with even more (effectively) limited quantities to a wider market.
4. Send them ALL back to Europe, crack the boxes open, and feed all the parts into the grinder to recycle the plastic into other sets.
5. Or do what they did and just dump whatever stock they had available as efficiently as they could manage while getting on with their regular operations.

But instead, this is what they did:

1. Release it in NA only so that the price goes up exponentially!

   -

Edited March 31, 20213 yr by Stuartn
Incorrect facts

56 minutes ago, Stuartn said:

I’m pretty sure the fighter was a Walmart exclusive, but i’d certainly like it not to be, I don’t think anything can be fully confirmed regardless of which leaker said it until it’s official release, and while I believe the leak I am still suspicious that there is a Target and Walmart exclusive running in parallel.

I think it's happened before, if I recall right, in the early 2010s there were years when we'd have a Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target exclusive all in the same wave.  Before Toys R Us went under in the US () I seem to remember there pretty consistently being a TRU exclusive almost every year in quite a few themes, and then Target would often get an exclusive as well.  Walmart exclusives seem to be on a bit less of a regular interval, I can only think of a couple off of the top of my head (2007 Sith Infiltrator, I'm 99% sure that was a WM exclusive, I know in like 2012 or so either Ahsoka or Mace Windu's fighter was a WM exclusive, forgot which one).  Either way, I think they've had multiple exclusives on shelves at once.  

6 hours ago, Childish_Landino said:

The Mando Fighter is not an exclusive in my understanding... 

Good to know, I wasn't sure but I thought the initial leak that got pushed through YouTube then copied by a lot of Instagram accounts (like, a lot) said it was an exclusive but I'd be more inclined to trust you on this one.

Edited March 31, 20213 yr by Kit Figsto

8 hours ago, ArrowBricks said:

Brickfanatics' Tie Bomber article is interesting. https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-star-wars-magazine-teases-potential-new-tie-bomber/

Is it just me that thinks this is a stretch? There's loads of ships in the video games that were 'made of LEGO' but never saw sets; I'm not very familiar with the comics so I don't know if this is unusual in them, but I don't see why it would be any different. It could also be just a sketch - it sounds like the designers made one in that infamous interview.

I'd happily be proved wrong, but it would feel odd to have LEGO employees go on the record explaining why we're not getting a TIE bomber only to release one less than a year later.

49 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Is it just me that thinks this is a stretch? 

As much as I would like (a lot) to get a TIE Bomber I agree it’s a stretch. If a minifig-compatible TIE Bomber was released today it would be smaller, in line with the recent TIE Fighter. The TIE Bomber in the magazine is large, very similar to some MOCs, and showed with the older and larger X-wing.

1 hour ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Is it just me that thinks this is a stretch? There's loads of ships in the video games that were 'made of LEGO' but never saw sets; I'm not very familiar with the comics so I don't know if this is unusual in them, but I don't see why it would be any different. It could also be just a sketch - it sounds like the designers made one in that infamous interview.

I'd happily be proved wrong, but it would feel odd to have LEGO employees go on the record explaining why we're not getting a TIE bomber only to release one less than a year later.

I am not familiar with the comics either, but I don’t think TLG would allow what would be a set to be leaked in such a way. It could be some prototype that never become a set. I as well would love nothing more than to be proved incorrect.

21 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

So Bad Batch trailer just dropped, Rex is in it, I’m so so so hopeful that the rumored sixth character in the shuttle is him

Kind of weird. Why shoud Lego add all characters just in the only one set? I guess  we will get more Bad Batch sets in the future,so it's better to expect Rex,Tarkin and others in the future sets

The TIE Bomber thing is giving me shades of the Bantha thing from a couple of years ago.  As others have said, I'd happily be proven wrong, just because I know how many people want an updated TIE Bomber, but there's been examples in the past of minifigures or builds that make an appearance in either a video game, animated short film, or other mediums that never end up materializing.  

13 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Is it just me that thinks this is a stretch? There's loads of ships in the video games that were 'made of LEGO' but never saw sets; I'm not very familiar with the comics so I don't know if this is unusual in them, but I don't see why it would be any different. It could also be just a sketch - it sounds like the designers made one in that infamous interview.

I'd happily be proved wrong, but it would feel odd to have LEGO employees go on the record explaining why we're not getting a TIE bomber only to release one less than a year later.

Is what you're saying something like the tiled - off DS1from TSS?

Pictures of the 40451 - Tatooine Homestead May 4th GWP leaked. Not a great picture, but you can get an idea of what it will look like. Same style as the Hoth, Endor, and DS2 dioramas. 

1 hour ago, Childish_Landino said:

Pictures of the 40451 - Tatooine Homestead May 4th GWP leaked. Not a great picture, but you can get an idea of what it will look like. Same style as the Hoth, Endor, and DS2 dioramas. 

I can't wait until they stop with these GWP's. Have just never been a fan of this type for some reason. I hope Tatooine is the last, and they move to something else in the future.

2 hours ago, Childish_Landino said:

Pictures of the 40451 - Tatooine Homestead May 4th GWP leaked.

It seems quite nice, much more depth than previous sets (and probably piece count). 

1 hour ago, Frizzlefry25 said:

I hope Tatooine is the last, and they move to something else in the future.

There should have been only three of these, Tatooine, Hoth and Endor. No sense in making (an ugly) DS2. I guess they wanted to cover A new hope, and now that the OT is covered they can move to something else... unless they decide to make the same for the PT and ST.

43 minutes ago, storskogen said:

It seems quite nice, much more depth than previous sets (and probably piece count). 

There should have been only three of these, Tatooine, Hoth and Endor. No sense in making (an ugly) DS2. I guess they wanted to cover A new hope, and now that the OT is covered they can move to something else... unless they decide to make the same for the PT and ST.

Agreed, those three will look great on a shelf together. DS2 was an odd choice.

I hope we get some of these for the PT at least, but I'm not holding my breath. Lots of people are clamouring for a Jedi Temple and I think this is the most likely place for it to pop up, although I'm sure some would be upset at a miniature one.

The homestead gwp definitely looks even better than I expected. I do hope they do these for the PT next.