LEGO Star Wars 2021 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[McMurder_them_softly]

4 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

I'm guessing LegoCon's reveal for us is probably just going to be the Gunship and nothing else knowing how Lego runs. The timing is right with what that designer said in that interview about a "big reveal" in August. Also, if they reveal a UCS set like that they're going to want to have it front and center, so they won't distract with system sets. 

I agree, that makes the most sense. I could see some system scale sets, but confident in thinking it'll be a gunship. Also ready to inevitably disappointed when that does not hold true.  

[hondohnaka]

1 hour ago, Prometheus87 said:

It does have arm-printing for Vader. So it has that going for it! 

Which makes the decision with the Imperial Shuttle even stupider IMO granted what they’ve told us about the whole “piece box” system. I think there’s a decided attempt to keep this Vader limited to adult collectors, even including the DS duel set which has a higher price tag and doesn’t appeal that much to kids. Very weird, annoying decision, but it’s about three lines and a half circle of grey. What really worries me is the precedence this sets for Beskar Mando to only have his arm printing in some sets, artificially inflating the price of say ToT and being generally crappy. 

[Prometheus87]

24 minutes ago, hondohnaka said:

Which makes the decision with the Imperial Shuttle even stupider IMO granted what they’ve told us about the whole “piece box” system. I think there’s a decided attempt to keep this Vader limited to adult collectors, even including the DS duel set which has a higher price tag and doesn’t appeal that much to kids. Very weird, annoying decision, but it’s about three lines and a half circle of grey. What really worries me is the precedence this sets for Beskar Mando to only have his arm printing in some sets, artificially inflating the price of say ToT and being generally crappy. 

I completely agree. Makes me wonder what Lego is thinking these days with their decisions. Between this and  HP putting nearly all their minifigs from the Diagon Alley D2C in smaller cheaper sets for 2021, I've lost first-day enthusiasm . I like the Meditation Chamber enough I'll get it eventually, unlike the Imperial Shuttle, but I had expected a lot more for the price, and will get it on sale. 

[JaHawk2009]

I'm a big fan of the meditation chamber, honestly! Really nice set, if a little on the expensive side. 

[Sarah_H7744]

I'm not too sure about the new Darth Vader's Meditation Chamber set. I think it's overpriced, doesn't seem to close up properly & a bit too big.

The Admiral Piet minifig is okay. I like the Darth Vader minifig, the arm printing is nice. I'll probably get them through Bricklink. 

[Utinni Utinni]

1 hour ago, Sarah_H7744 said:

I'm not too sure about the new Darth Vader's Meditation Chamber set. I think it's overpriced, doesn't seem to close up properly & a bit too big.

The Admiral Piet minifig is okay. I like the Darth Vader minifig, the arm printing is nice. I'll probably get them through Bricklink. 

Veers minifig. Piett is behind Ozzel on the video screen sticker

[Tariq j]

I actually quite like that set. The screen with Ozzel and Piett is a nice touch. Wonder if it’ll have the option to pick up Vader’s helmet. 

[Stuartn]

10 hours ago, Stefanisimo said:

Well this ain't no 700$ Star Destroyer, why would you expect something like that in this very cheap and affordable display stand?!?

It's US$70 which could easily be AU$150 for not all that many pieces with only two figures, of which one is not new. I would have expected more details as it is an 18+ set and dual moulding is commonly done in CMF figures.

[lowlead]

I like the Meditation Chamber set because it's new and different - in similar fashion to the Probe Droid.  Yes we've seen both before, but only as minor ancillary builds.  Credit to LEGO for surprising me after 20+ years of LSW.  I'll pick one up  

[benderisgreat]

6 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

Grievous is expensive. His pieces are very complex and are only ever made for him, they have no use outside of his fig so the price rises. I have a feeling Lego takes advantage of how infrequently they make him tho. 

Is he though? He appeared in 25$ Wheelbike set in 2014 and 30$ Speeder set in 2018. 2014 set was very reasonably priced so this “grievous is expensive” argument doesn’t work in this case. LEGO just choose to overprice certain sets for some reason.

[avengers777]

I just found this RFLM day article from Jay's Brick Blog. They said that revisiting Clone Wars and Rebels ships are "niche," but "nothing is ruled out." I guess that this is just more evidence of the disconnect between the designers and what fans want. They also mentioned there are more female characters in the source material now to put into sets. I think this is a valid point, however, it's frustrating to see how dirty they've done Padme over the past 20+ years. She's only been in 7 sets and only had 4 different outfits...

Edited June 1, 2021 by avengers777

[Agent Kallus]

Didn't seem to see it mentioned in this thread so I'll spread the word but we will see some set reveals, including star wars (might be one set, might be the whole wave, might even be the meditation chamber that we've seen now anyway) on the 26th between the hours of 5pm and 7pm (UK time).

[PsychoBuilder]

23 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

Didn't seem to see it mentioned in this thread so I'll spread the word but we will see some set reveals, including star wars (might be one set, might be the whole wave, might even be the meditation chamber that we've seen now anyway) on the 26th between the hours of 5pm and 7pm (UK time).

I think that is when the sets were revealed last year, right?

[Brikkyy13]

Meditation chamber is $110 in Aus... I was expecting $120 so not as bad as I first thought, but still pretty bad. And of course, not available for preorder in Australia . At least I didn’t want to buy this one. 

[Prometheus87]

37 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

Didn't seem to see it mentioned in this thread so I'll spread the word but we will see some set reveals, including star wars (might be one set, might be the whole wave, might even be the meditation chamber that we've seen now anyway) on the 26th between the hours of 5pm and 7pm (UK time).

Meditation Chamber is officially revealed already by LEGO due to it being currently available for pre-order. If something's coming, then it's definitely not this set. 

[Alex_South]

17 minutes ago, avengers777 said:

I just found this RFLM day article from Jay's Brick Blog. They said that revisiting Clone Wars and Rebels ships are "niche," but "nothing is ruled out." I guess that this is just more evidence of the disconnect between the designers and what fans want. They also mentioned there are more female characters in the source material now to put into sets. I think this is a valid point, however, it's frustrating to see how dirty they've done Padme over the past 20+ years. She's only been in 7 sets and only had 4 different outfits...

With the bad batch shuttle coming out and with the success of the Razorcrest (I think it's got the most reviews of any other star wars set on amazon and on lego.com right now), you would hope LEGO realizes the value in other main hero ships besides the falcon, like the Ghost. I understand their fear that obscure niche sets from the animated shows wouldn't sell but I think there is a huge market for revisiting the animated shows, an updated Ghost with the whole cast would sell well if they released it. We always get a ton of OT ships. I've been rewatching rebels and it's a tough pill to swallow that LEGO will only ever do one round of sets for that show. Meanwhile X-wings and Tie fighters get a release every odd year.

[Agent Kallus]

7 minutes ago, Prometheus87 said:

Meditation Chamber is officially revealed already by LEGO due to it being currently available for pre-order. If something's coming, then it's definitely not this set. 

Ah, I've seen the pictures but I didn't  know they were from official channels. 

And I do think something is coming because the lego con ( and I thought the increasing cmf prices were the lego con) announcement implied set reveals for a whole bunch of themes, star wars included.

[hondohnaka]

6 minutes ago, Alex_South said:

With the bad batch shuttle coming out and with the success of the Razorcrest (I think it's got the most reviews of any other star wars set on amazon and on lego.com right now), you would hope LEGO realizes the value in other main hero ships besides the falcon, like the Ghost. I understand their fear that obscure niche sets from the animated shows wouldn't sell but I think there is a huge market for revisiting the animated shows, an updated Ghost with the whole cast would sell well if they released it. We always get a ton of OT ships. I've been rewatching rebels and it's a tough pill to swallow that LEGO will only ever do one round of sets for that show. Meanwhile X-wings and Tie fighters get a release every odd year.

There's rumors of a Rebels sequel tied to Ahsoka so they might do another round then but it's very very sketchy rumors right now so I didn't say anything. 

[Clone OPatra]

7 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

And I do think something is coming because the lego con ( and I thought the increasing cmf prices were the lego con) announcement implied set reveals for a whole bunch of themes, star wars included.

Given that in other interviews they said a Republic Gunship announcement would be coming, I think that's a good bet for LEGO con.

7 minutes ago, hondohnaka said:

There's rumors of a Rebels sequel tied to Ahsoka so they might do another round then but it's very very sketchy rumors right now so I didn't say anything. 

Pretty sure it was said in official interviews that the Rebels sequel show ideas are being wrapped into the announced live action Ahsoka show. Sets tied to these live action shows will probably be the way LEGO gets a variety of ships out, since the people making the shows seem to be happy to include prequel stuff and stuff from the previous animated shows now and then.

[Alex_South]

1 hour ago, hondohnaka said:

There's rumors of a Rebels sequel tied to Ahsoka so they might do another round then but it's very very sketchy rumors right now so I didn't say anything. 

I hope so!!! Judging on how they went with an updated bad batch shuttle set for the new show instead of a clone wars version I think it's decent speculation that we would get a new updated ghost with the Ahsoka show if that's the ship she is flying around in. Who knows, but I wish I could get that OG rebels crew in minifig form, they are so awesome. I missed out on those years for sure. This is why we need a CMF so we can get releases of old characters from shows LEGO won't make product for anymore.

[MaximillianRebo]

3 hours ago, Brikkyy13 said:

Meditation chamber is $110 in Aus... I was expecting $120 so not as bad as I first thought, but still pretty bad. And of course, not available for preorder in Australia . At least I didn’t want to buy this one. 

$110 aud isn't the most ridiculous currency conversion I've heard recently (hello Probe Droid going from $60 usd to $120 aud), it's just that the $70 price tag is way too much in the first place.

These price conversions make no sense. The recent Imperial shuttle was also $70 with almost exactly the same piece count - probably larger pieces though - and similar figs (Vader and an imp officer) but also Luke and was $130 aud. I can almost get why the shuttle and meditation chamber are different prices in Aus but not why they're the same price in US. Then there's the helmets that are all the same price here but different prices in the US. 

As a general question - is there a 'base' currency (eg. usd or euro) that all sets are priced in then foreign markets base their prices on the original currency, or are all markets priced individually? When sets are announced/leaked we always hear the price first in usd but is that because the people doing the reveals are often from the US and use their local currency for pricing info?

[LarryBoy]

1 hour ago, MaximillianRebo said:

As a general question - is there a 'base' currency (eg. usd or euro) that all sets are priced in then foreign markets base their prices on the original currency, or are all markets priced individually? When sets are announced/leaked we always hear the price first in usd but is that because the people doing the reveals are often from the US and use their local currency for pricing info?

The USD is the global standard of currency regardless of product or industry, with few exceptions. There will be things that affect the price from one market to another, though. Australia, for instance, has much more complicated distribution requirements than other parts of the world; and that will drive the price up. (I suspect some of those specific discrepancies in price are more to do with how many sets can be packaged per container and the physical space their box takes up, as opposed to the usual metric of parts determining price. Are all the helmet boxes the same size, and is the shuttle bigger? Because that would be evidence in favour of that).

When you look at CAD vs. USD when it comes to LEGO, you see a fairly clean scaling of LEGO prices based on the value of the currencies. (Canadian prices are pretty much in line with the exchange rate between the two currencies). And that's because Canada and the US are essentially the same market and rely on the same production and distribution network, so you can get a much simpler breakdown of what goes into pricing LEGO on a global scale. In Europe, pricing for sets can be all over the board because of any number of reasons: taxation, population, and distribution requirements, etc.  Despite the LEGO manufacturing in Europe being more robust and spread out than the single North American plant in Mexico, there's no telling what a set will cost from one country to the next, even when they use the same currency there. And I think the complexity of the European market as a whole really muddles the waters when it comes to determining which price is the defining one that LEGO uses. But it's pretty rare that you see sets that are undervalued in foreign markets compared to what you can get them for in the US from LEGO; at least when you factor in the exchange rate. 

That's all an assumption on my part, but I feel like it's in line with how the rest of the global economy uses the USD as its base standard of currency. And if LEGO does design sets according to a pre-determined price point, then I suspect they do so with the USD in mind. Any changes in price after the fact are going to be made with specific requirements or additional costs that each market requires.

But bringing it back to the Meditation Chamber - I definitely don't think that price is worth the value of the set. Buying something for the purpose of display, should not entail the vast majority of the cost to be put into the stand that's displaying said item. LEGO's part allocation for this set is just weird - especially for a set catering to adults. The chamber itself lacks the presence, excitement, or inherent value of something that I want to put up on a shelf and show off to my friends or myself. I had my reservations about it when it first leaked, but I'm pretty disappointed with the actual set itself. Especially for a $100 CAD price tag! (There's that 30% difference in the value between the CAD and USD, btw. Which is the conversion that LEGO has been using for a number of years since the CAD dropped to 0.70 to the USD a while back. And no, they very rarely adjust it if the CAD rises, since they set their pricing months in advance and can't predict valuation changes.) That's just absurd.

Edited June 2, 2021 by LarryBoy
Conversion/Pricing info

[Stuartn]

1 hour ago, LarryBoy said:

. . .

I think you’re correct as to why pricing is diffferent here in Australia, since helmet boxes are the same size it would make sense due to difference in price between helmets in other countries not being prevalent here due to transport.

I think Australian pricing fluctuates relative to other countries also because our dollar is very stable, whereas changes in other countries make our pricing differences seem strange.

I also won’t be buying this set, to me it isn’t worth $110, even though it seems like a fair conversion for here, not be a se of PPP ratios but just as I don’t really like the subject and the figures can not justify it.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Stuartn

[Sarah_H7744]

14 hours ago, Utinni Utinni said:

Veers minifig. Piett is behind Ozzel on the video screen sticker

Ahh, I already have a General Veers minifig with my AT-AT (75288) set.

I'll definitely just buy the arm printed Darth Vader minifig from Bricklink. 

[Alpha Draconis]

8 hours ago, Stuartn said:

...since helmet boxes are the same size...

first-hand observation: Scout trooper's box is a bit slimmer than the other helmet boxes (which are all of the same size), by about 3 cm. Other dimensions of the scout trooper box are the same to other helmet boxes. Not sure about probe droid, I don't have it