LEGO Star Wars Set Discussion 2025 - READ FIRST POST!!!

[BrickPrick]

3 minutes ago, CallumPears said:

For real? If they're supposed to have pauldrons and backpacks... then they'd better kriffing have their pauldrons and backpacks.

Zero excuse to not have them. 

The fact that from what we've seen so far the new helmet mould doesn't extend down the back of the torso does give me hope that they'll at least have their backpacks (as that's the reason Snowtroopers don't have theirs now: the new neck bracket piece isn't compatible with their helmets), which I actually think is much more important than the kamas (though of course they should really have everything). 

I totally get you. But what they are supposed to look like and what Lego does, can or want to do, are unfortunately two different things. Which doesn't make things any better, i know. Just trying to be realistic here. Other than that, what can i say... I don't care too much about accuracy to the source material. If they end up being exactly that, well, that's great. I obviously won't argue against it. But if not, i won't be too fussed about it either. I just need them to look awesome. To me, they can look like that without pauldrons and a backpack. Printed karma on the other hand looks awful. This is where i draw the line. And even then i can be hardly upset about no physical cloth piece, too. If memory serves, the last clone one has happened half a decade ago. 

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, CallumPears said:

For real? If they're supposed to have pauldrons and backpacks... then they'd better kriffing have their pauldrons and backpacks.

Zero excuse to not have them. 

The fact that from what we've seen so far the new helmet mould doesn't extend down the back of the torso does give me hope that they'll at least have their backpacks (as that's the reason Snowtroopers don't have theirs now: the new neck bracket piece isn't compatible with their helmets), which I actually think is much more important than the kamas (though of course they should really have everything). 

I'd be fine without the pauldrons as they're pretty small and don't stick off the body much, but the backpacks are important.

Really? I swear I have stormtroopers with the printed helmet mold that also officially came with backpacks, and IIRC the reason given when they phased them out was something like "They have to sit down". Did lego just not notice until a few years into the new helmet mold?

1 hour ago, BrickPrick said:

Yes, like you said, it's appearant Lego is slowly but surely phasing out cloth pieces. But if specialized moulds gonna stack up this fast, can there even be some sort of middle ground? This is going to be interesting.

I certainly won't care if the Galactic Marines come with neither backpacks nor pauldrons. Personally, the biggest glaring omission will be the lack of physical waist capes. 

I think we've seen the middle ground with boba- just omitting the cloth element entirely

Ooh, right. Kamas are definitely the most important of the three. Though given how cheap backpacks are- it's just a neck bracket and a printed 1x1 tile- I'd be pretty annoyed if they skipped out on them again, even though I'm sure they will. A look at the back of the galactic marine torso would let us know whether or not we were getting physical backpacks, but the leakers seem to be in some sort of competition as to who can leak the smallest possible portion of a set, so I'm sure it'll be awhile before we see anything concrete on that front.

[CloneCommando99]

6 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I'd be fine without the pauldrons as they're pretty small and don't stick off the body much, but the backpacks are important.

Really? I swear I have stormtroopers with the printed helmet mold that also officially came with backpacks, and IIRC the reason given when they phased them out was something like "They have to sit down". Did lego just not notice until a few years into the new helmet mold?

We haven’t seen the pauldron from the back yet. Maybe Lego’s been smart and considerate of future uses and placed a stud on the back to accommodate future backpacks. It would also help the stability of the pauldron on the fig and stop it from spinning around if the head’s loose.

 

Day #37 of Tie Avenging - “In a dark place we find ourselves and a little more knowledge lights our way.” 

Edited May 31 by CloneCommando99

[CallumPears]

7 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Really? I swear I have stormtroopers with the printed helmet mold that also officially came with backpacks, and IIRC the reason given when they phased them out was something like "They have to sit down". Did lego just not notice until a few years into the new helmet mold?

When they made the new Snowtrooper helmet back in 2014 they put a slot in it which is exactly the size of the 42446 neck bracket. The helmet was specifically designed with backpacks in mind.

In 2018 this bracket piece was replaced with 28974, which is thicker and doesn't fit under the helmet. Snowtroopers haven't had backpacks since then, which was long before the UCS AT-AT came out and people used the sitting down excuse (I don't remember whether that was an official statement or just fans coping). Also plenty of AT-AT sets in the past had them sitting down fine. If that really was the reason then they should've used a different design for the seats in the UCS set, but really it had been going on for several years before that. 

The new Stormtrooper helmet doesn't affect the neck bracket so as far as I'm aware all Stormtrooper variants which need backpacks have had them (Sandtroopers and the Artillery Trooper) (though sidenote I really hate the 2-wide bracket they use for modern Sandtrooper backpacks. Way too bulky and why the kriff is it transparent? Still better than not having them though). 

As for the Hoth Rebels... no excuse there. 

7 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

A look at the back of the galactic marine torso would let us know whether or not we were getting physical backpacks,

We actually have seen this already; the first leak of the torso showed both the front and the back. It just has the same standard back detailing as regular Clones do. 

However, that wouldn't stop them since Snowtroopers also don't have their backpacks printed; they're just missing entirely. 

Edited May 31 by CallumPears

[BrickBob Studpants]

4 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

We haven’t seen the pauldron from the back yet. Maybe Lego’s been smart and considerate of future uses and placed a stud on the back to accommodate future backpacks.

I was thinking the same thing since they‘ve done that before with armor pieces! However, this would limit the versatility of the piece since they‘d have to create a mirror version for characters who wear a pauldron on their right shoulder instead  Then again, mirrored pieces are hardly a rarity!

[BrickPrick]

9 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I think we've seen the middle ground with boba- just omitting the cloth element entirely

Ooh, right. Kamas are definitely the most important of the three. Though given how cheap backpacks are- it's just a neck bracket and a printed 1x1 tile- I'd be pretty annoyed if they skipped out on them again, even though I'm sure they will. A look at the back of the galactic marine torso would let us know whether or not we were getting physical backpacks, but the leakers seem to be in some sort of competition as to who can leak the smallest possible portion of a set, so I'm sure it'll be awhile before we see anything concrete on that front.

Yes, that's a fair point. I'm just wondering whether or not there will or even can be a new middle ground, if Lego decides to be done with cloth pieces for good. They might differentiate between pauldron pieces and capes (including Boba's shoulder one), though. 

And we have not even reached the UCS Death Star wave... The craziest leak season ever could be upon us. 

 

Plo Koon's Jedi Starfighter Microfighter, despite the price increase, might be my first Lego day and date purchase since like forever. A presence i have not felt since... i don't know, probably Yoda's Hut from 2018. Just extremely excited for the Plo Koon minifigure. 

Edited May 31 by BrickPrick

[saibot]

Looking forward to the PLO microfigther too, I've nearly all the piece's assembled for the rebrickable Plo starfighter from the Jedi Bob & Plane sets, will see which pieces can also be used here.

 

As for the 327th, time for these lads to vacate, there is a new legion in town 

[Mandalorianknight]

12 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

We haven’t seen the pauldron from the back yet. Maybe Lego’s been smart and considerate of future uses and placed a stud on the back to accommodate future backpacks. It would also help the stability of the pauldron on the fig and stop it from spinning around if the head’s loose.

That causes other issues though- namely, now it doesn't work as well for anyone who has a kama but no backpack, and goes from "stupidly long neck" to being entirely unable to fit on any character who has a pauldron and jetpack (unless we want the jetpack printed on a 1x1 tile), with the additional issue of requiring another mold for any character who wears their pauldron the other direction.

And regardless of whether or not there's a stud on the back, ARC trooper style pauldrons would require another new mold. One of the benefits of the cloth pieces was that the tooling costs were significantly lower for things like this- it's a lot cheaper to make a cutting pattern and dye than to manufacture a set of molds this precise. With them being actual molded parts, all the variants mean we need a fair chunk of new molds.

8 hours ago, CallumPears said:

When they made the new Snowtrooper helmet back in 2014 they put a slot in it which is exactly the size of the 42446 neck bracket. The helmet was specifically designed with backpacks in mind.

In 2018 this bracket piece was replaced with 28974, which is thicker and doesn't fit under the helmet. Snowtroopers haven't had backpacks since then, which was long before the UCS AT-AT came out and people used the sitting down excuse (I don't remember whether that was an official statement or just fans coping). Also plenty of AT-AT sets in the past had them sitting down fine. If that really was the reason then they should've used a different design for the seats in the UCS set, but really it had been going on for several years before that. 

The new Stormtrooper helmet doesn't affect the neck bracket so as far as I'm aware all Stormtrooper variants which need backpacks have had them (Sandtroopers and the Artillery Trooper) (though sidenote I really hate the 2-wide bracket they use for modern Sandtrooper backpacks. Way too bulky and why the kriff is it transparent? Still better than not having them though). 

As for the Hoth Rebels... no excuse there. 

We actually have seen this already; the first leak of the torso showed both the front and the back. It just has the same standard back detailing as regular Clones do. 

However, that wouldn't stop them since Snowtroopers also don't have their backpacks printed; they're just missing entirely. 

Huh, I had no idea that neck bracket change was in 2018, I could've sworn it was much earlier, but you're right.

I'd always assumed it was just to shave a bit more off costs and they didn't want to admit it, hence the "sitting down" thing. (Though lego might've said that about why they were missing Kamas?)

The two wide transparent bracket is really annoying. It first came out in the superhero sets and I feel like the idea behind it being transparent is to seem unobtrusive, but as you say it's also wide (and a full plate thick rather than the 1-wide brackets) so most of the time if you're using it for a physical backpack and not energy effects, it either looks like the backpack is floating behind them or they just have a giant transparent apparatus connecting the backpack. I think a black or grey color would have worked much better, but then again I also think it would have been better at one stud wide and thinner, in which case we're back to the other neck bracket.

Yeah, so still no way of knowing. I would say they'll cheapen out and omit them entirely, but then again we've already got at least 4 new clone trooper molds this wave alone (even if I maintain half of them were unnecessary) so who knows, maybe we are starting to see some more effort put into the figures.

7 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

Yes, that's a fair point. I'm just wondering whether or not there will or even can be a new middle ground, if Lego decides to be done with cloth pieces for good. They might differentiate between pauldron pieces and capes (including Boba's shoulder one), though. 

And we have not even reached the UCS Death Star wave... The craziest leak season ever could be upon us. 

 

Plo Koon's Jedi Starfighter Microfighter, despite the price increase, might be my first Lego day and date purchase since like forever. A presence i have not felt since... i don't know, probably Yoda's Hut from 2018. Just extremely excited for the Plo Koon minifigure. 

That's true, but we unfortunately already have a number of rubber capes, so we know the loss of cloth isn't limited to pauldrons. The only way I could see it working for lego without cloth is if they created a new specialized half-plastic, half-rubber mold for boba's jetpack and shoulder cape, but even in that scenario it feels more likely that they just keep conveniently forgetting the cape entirely.

Oh, man. At the rate they're leaking, if the fig count is real, they could release a picture every day right up until release and still keep most of the build a secret.

 

That's definitely one I'll be looking out for. I'm not especially attached to plo myself, I think he's cool but he's not one of my favorites so I'm ok waiting for it to hit ~$10 before picking it up, but I get why people are buying it day one.

To be honest I forgot the june wave was tomorrow. This'll be the first time since I was a child I didn't buy any 1HY sets around release (I'll probably pick up the plo fighter and some night trooper packs when they hit discount, but not for their current prices, and so probably not anytime soon). Looking back on brickset I think it's my first time in a decade, since before Poe shooting down all the Ties over Takodana and the Black One T-70 X-wing starfighter set turned kid me into a star wars diehard. 

[BrickPrick]

37 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

That's true, but we unfortunately already have a number of rubber capes, so we know the loss of cloth isn't limited to pauldrons. The only way I could see it working for lego without cloth is if they created a new specialized half-plastic, half-rubber mold for boba's jetpack and shoulder cape, but even in that scenario it feels more likely that they just keep conveniently forgetting the cape entirely.

Oh, man. At the rate they're leaking, if the fig count is real, they could release a picture every day right up until release and still keep most of the build a secret.

 

That's definitely one I'll be looking out for. I'm not especially attached to plo myself, I think he's cool but he's not one of my favorites so I'm ok waiting for it to hit ~$10 before picking it up, but I get why people are buying it day one.

To be honest I forgot the june wave was tomorrow. This'll be the first time since I was a child I didn't buy any 1HY sets around release (I'll probably pick up the plo fighter and some night trooper packs when they hit discount, but not for their current prices, and so probably not anytime soon). Looking back on brickset I think it's my first time in a decade, since before Poe shooting down all the Ties over Takodana and the Black One T-70 X-wing starfighter set turned kid me into a star wars diehard. 

For other themes, yes. Which of course (still likely) doesn’t necessarilly have to mean anything for Star Wars right now. Because if we look the other way, while we might mourn the lack of cloth karmas for SW, other themes still get them like nothing changed at all. So for better or worse, we have to keep that in mind. 

Yep, like i said, they could spread the entire minifigure selection across three and a half months, if they so please. 

To be fair, i wasn’t a fan of that many characters during the PT to begin with. All that came around when TCW was firing on all cylinders. You know... when they actually took advantage of the TV Show format over Movies and could take their sweet time to develop all these characters, turning plot devices and extras into fully fledged personalities of their own. 

Other than that, what can i say, i am a huge sucker for all these unique alien head moulds. In my eyes, this natural variety is one of the biggest strenghts Star Wars has over other licensed themes, where the minifigures are rather limited and much more predictable in comparision. 

But funny to see that we are (in terms of timing) on complete opposite ends in finally getting or not getting a Lego Star Wars set at day one again.

Ten bucks was my typcial price point for a Microfighter in the years prior. But this time, i don't wanna wait at all, so i won‘t. 

[CloneCommando99]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

since before Poe shooting down all the Ties over Takodana and the Black One T-70 X-wing starfighter set turned kid me into a star wars diehard. 

Well, 5 years old, the first time my father showed me ANH. I was taken in by the pure majesty of the universe. Cool soldiers, stunning spaceships, laser swords.

Then Empire and ROTJ solidified my adoration. Followed by TCW and Prequels a few years later. And reaffirmed by Rogue One, Rebels and Battlefront. The plot thickened this decade with the Jedi Games, Andor, TCW S7, Crosshair parts of TBB, Mando S1-2 and when I finally read the Thrawn (HttE, Ascendancy and canon trilogies) and Aftermath books. Lego has always been a constant in how I enjoy the SW brand as well.

 

To say that Disney killed SW is just blatantly wrong imo. Sure, we’ve had some awful things. But I’ll be damned if we haven’t had some of the best SW content ever since 2013. Also Andor S2 pulled the ultimate redemption arc with the fandom after Acolyte (as seen with BF2 resurgence)

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Oh, man. At the rate they're leaking, if the fig count is real, they could release a picture every day right up until release and still keep most of the build a secret.

We need an over ambitious leaker hunting Meero at Lego to accidentally get added to the Death Star group chat/ have all the files dumped on their desk. And before you know it FalconFan1414 and LegoMinecraftGoat are standing somewhere in the Caribbean embracing each other and the great beyond. Which then miraculously leads to some 6 year old named Luke kissing their sister and destroying their Dad’s Death Star 2 days after they’d finished building it.

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

That causes other issues though- namely, now it doesn't work as well for anyone who has a kama but no backpack, and goes from "stupidly long neck" to being entirely unable to fit on any character who has a pauldron and jetpack (unless we want the jetpack printed on a 1x1 tile), with the additional issue of requiring another mold for any character who wears their pauldron the other direction.

Huh. Good point. Lego’s backed themselves into an unnecessary corner now. Haven’t they?
I’m not sure whether we’ll get any more sand-troopers now as they’d need a backpack/ pauldron combo.

Behold! The list of all sets that Lego’s probably required to remake in some form within the next 3 years.

• A-Wing (last released in 2019)
• Y-Wing (last proper one in 2019)
• B-Wing (last released in 2014)
• Imperial Shuttle of any kind (last released in 2021)
• Luke’s Landspeeder (last released in 2020)
• AT ST (last released in 2022)
• AAT (last released in 2020)
• Vulture Droid (last released in 2014)
• Emperor’s Throne Room (last released in 2020)
• Buildable Grogu (last released in 2025, but you know the rules and so do I)
• Corporate Alliance Tank Droid (last released in 2013)
• Endor Bunker (come on, it’s been 16 years man)
• X-Wing
• ETA Jedi Interceptor
• Delta 7 Jedi Starfighter
• Tie Fighter
• Millennium Falcon

 

[Mandalorianknight]

53 minutes ago, BrickPrick said:

For other themes, yes. Which of course (still likely) doesn’t necessarilly have to mean anything for Star Wars right now. Because if we look the other way, while we might mourn the lack of cloth karmas for SW, other themes still get them like nothing changed at all. So for better or worse, we have to keep that in mind. 

Yep, like i said, they could spread the entire minifigure selection across three and a half months, if they so please. 

To be fair, i wasn’t a fan of that many characters during the PT to begin with. All that came around when TCW was firing on all cylinders. You know... when they actually took advantage of the TV Show format over Movies and could take their sweet time to develop all these characters, turning plot devices and extras into fully fledged personalities of their own. 

Other than that, what can i say, i am a huge sucker for all these unique alien head moulds. In my eyes, this natural variety is one of the biggest strenghts Star Wars has over other licensed themes, where the minifigures are rather limited and much more predictable in comparision. 

But funny to see that we are (in terms of timing) on complete opposite ends in finally getting or not getting a Lego Star Wars set at day one again.

Ten bucks was my typcial price point for a Microfighter in the years prior. But this time, i don't wanna wait at all, so i won‘t. 

That's a fair point, but it's important to note that A: Boba's cape has disappeared- now whether it's because they're phasing out cloth, they're too lazy to add it, or both, it is gone and B: These moves are almost unilaterally in the direction of removing cloth. The only time I can remember cloth coming back and replacing formerly plastic parts was when they phased out the TCW pauldron and kama pieces. (The pauldrons weren't bad, but those Kamas were ATROCIOUS). Lego might still put a cloth waistcape on the girl from Dreamzz or cloth wings on the Destiny's bounty (That's a guess on my part), but while some characters keep cloth, the Balrog gets vinyl wings, or Thor and loki and batman get rubber capes, or the 327th get plastic pauldrons. The march is unilaterally in one direction.

20 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

*sic quote*

Well, 5 years old, the first time my father showed me ANH. I was taken in by the pure majesty of the universe. Cool soldiers, stunning spaceships, laser swords.

Then Empire and ROTJ solidified my adoration. Followed by TCW and Prequels a few years later. And reaffirmed by Rogue One, Rebels and Battlefront. The plot thickened this decade with the Jedi Games, Andor, TCW S7, Crosshair parts of TBB, Mando S1-2 and when I finally read the Thrawn (HttE, Ascendancy and canon trilogies) and Aftermath books. Lego has always been a constant in how I enjoy the SW brand as well.

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, my earliest memories of watching star wars are from when I was four, I want to say for most of my childhood the original six films played almost constantly on the tv over the weekends, but that scene in TFA is what took me from star wars being one of those things I liked to star wars being THE franchise for me. 

26 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Huh. Good point. Lego’s backed themselves into an unnecessary corner now. Haven’t they?
I’m not sure whether we’ll get any more sand-troopers now as they’d need a backpack/ pauldron combo.

To be fair, they aren't clone troopers, which means we weren't going to see them in system sets anymore anyway. I'm sure we'll get a sandtrooper helmet (stormtrooper helmet with a ton of tan stickers) and an 18+ buildable sandtrooper on dewback at some point.

28 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Behold! The list of all sets that Lego’s probably required to remake in some form within the next 3 years.

• A-Wing (last released in 2019)
• Y-Wing (last proper one in 2019)
• Imperial Shuttle of any kind (last released in 2021)
• Luke’s Landspeeder (last released in 2020)
• AT ST (last released in 2022)
• Emperor’s Throne Room (last released in 2023)
• Buildable Grogu (last released in 2025, but you know the rules and so do I)
• X-Wing
• ETA Jedi Interceptor
• Delta 7 Jedi Starfighter
• Tie Fighter
• Millennium Falcon

I think this (I removed a couple, but in general) is pretty much the list of lego's evergreen vehicles that they wanted some version of on shelves more or less constantly, but at this point I think a lot of those OT vehicles have been chopped off in favor of more clones. Combined with increasing prices meaning that Luke's Landspeeder is no longer the "cheap way to get luke+droids+ben" it used to be, I'd hazard a guess it looks more like this now.

• AT ST (last released in 2022)
• Emperor’s Throne Room (last released in 2023)
• X-Wing
• ETA Jedi Interceptor
• Delta 7 Jedi Starfighter
• Tie Fighter
• Millennium Falcon

Important to note, I didn't add any clone vehicles, and I removed the two separatist vehicles. The republic has a much larger and more varied selection of vehicles due to the order 66 montage and TCW show being so integral to the era- the prequels don't have any single vehicles on the level of X-wing/TIE fighter/Falcon (again aside from the jedi starfighters), they have a much larger number of individually less iconic vehicles.  (And the separatist just don't get many sets in general.)

[Max_Lego]

1 hour ago, CloneCommando99 said:

To say that Disney killed SW is just blatantly wrong imo. Sure, we’ve had some awful things. But I’ll be damned if we haven’t had some of the best SW content ever since 2013. Also Andor S2 pulled the ultimate redemption arc with the fandom after Acolyte (as seen with BF2 resurgence)

Classic Star Wars died after ROTJ. Lucas' Star Wars died after ROTS. The franchise as a whole finally died after TROS (stood long enough). Now most people (except die-hard fans, of course) think that star wars always have been stupid from the very beginning. Nothing like that could be even imaginable before the realise of TFA. The sad result of Disney's "work".

Oh well, Star Wars gone, carry on

[Darth_Bane13]

2 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

To say that Disney killed SW is just blatantly wrong imo. Sure, we’ve had some awful things. But I’ll be damned if we haven’t had some of the best SW content ever since 2013. Also Andor S2 pulled the ultimate redemption arc with the fandom after Acolyte (as seen with BF2 resurgence)

I still think the bad outweighs the good. If I had the choice of erasing or keeping everything Disney I'd erase it. Andor was amazing but I still need more to convince me it wasn't just an anomaly.

[CloneCommando99]

7 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

Classic Star Wars died after ROTJ. Lucas' Star Wars died after ROTS. The franchise as a whole finally died after TROS (stood long enough). Now most people (except die-hard fans, of course) think that star wars always have been stupid from the very beginning. Nothing like that could be even imaginable before the realise of TFA. The sad result of Disney's "work".

Oh well, Star Wars gone, carry on

Yet you are still here? If Star Wars was truly dead then you’d either have to be completely disinterested in the brand, or refuse to consume new content.

News flash: new Lego sets themselves, even OT ones, count as new content. And if you really wanted to send Disney a message for ‘killing’ SW then you’d just stop buying their products and letting them profit, including Lego.

6 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I still think the bad outweighs the good. If I had the choice of erasing or keeping everything Disney I'd erase it. Andor was amazing but I still need more to convince me it wasn't just an anomaly.

I disagree, but that’s a respectable opinion. I’d personally keep the canon and make some alterations to keep anything before Mando S3 and canonise the HttE trilogy.

 

8 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Tie Fighter

Day #38 of asking for the next Tie Fighter to be a Tie Avenger.

8 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

To be fair, they aren't clone troopers, which means we weren't going to see them in system sets anymore anyway. I'm sure we'll get a sandtrooper helmet (stormtrooper helmet with a ton of tan stickers) and an 18+ buildable sandtrooper on dewback at some point.

Dank ferrik

 

Next evolution of Lego’s strategy is… Buildable clone troopers. 10 buildable clone troopers of different legions instead of play-sets a year.

8 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I think this (I removed a couple, but in general)

You may be suprised.

Edited June 1 by CloneCommando99

[MKJoshA]

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

My theory is they are testing the waters with rubber accessories much like they tested the ill-fated X-Wing pilot helmets. Sure, it's a much wider test in scope. But I'm wondering if they are just checked to see what consumer response is overall. If positive, they'll continue. If not, we'll get cloth back.

[Max_Lego]

1 hour ago, MKJoshA said:

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

I think TLG is trying to make them easier for kids to attach or something. Besides, the vulnerability of cloth capes may not be an issue for adults, but is when it comes to children. I think it's also the reason behind printed leg Kamas. Thankfully, Lego SW didn't replace cloth capes with rubber ones (yet), like they did with Super Heroes and Harry Potter. Those now rubber capes look horrible.

2 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Yet you are still here? If Star Wars was truly dead then you’d either have to be completely disinterested in the brand, or refuse to consume new content.

News flash: new Lego sets themselves, even OT ones, count as new content. And if you really wanted to send Disney a message for ‘killing’ SW then you’d just stop buying their products and letting them profit, including Lego.

Disney doesn't care about me as a consumer, like, at all. I won't make any difference because, surprise surprise, I am not much of a consumer. There is nothing wrong in acquiring nice lego sets with good-looking minifigures, even if they are based on a movie I didn't like. For example, the Dark Trooper set was nice, and had pretty useful minifigures.

Besides, acquiring more OT-based sets could theoretically demonstrate that those movies are well-remembered. I am looking forward to the Death Star even knowing that I can't afford buying it.

[BrickPrick]

23 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

To say that Disney killed SW is just blatantly wrong imo. Sure, we’ve had some awful things. But I’ll be damned if we haven’t had some of the best SW content ever since 2013. Also Andor S2 pulled the ultimate redemption arc with the fandom after Acolyte (as seen with BF2 resurgence)

Behold! The list of all sets that Lego’s probably required to remake in some form within the next 3 years.

• A-Wing (last released in 2019) Yes.
• Y-Wing (last proper one in 2019) Yep.
• B-Wing (last released in 2014) Yeah.
• Imperial Shuttle of any kind (last released in 2021) Gimme.
• Luke’s Landspeeder (last released in 2020). Go away.
• AT ST (last released in 2022) Oh yeah.
• AAT (last released in 2020) Good get.
• Vulture Droid (last released in 2014) Do it.
• Emperor’s Throne Room (last released in 2020) Okay.
• Buildable Grogu (last released in 2025, but you know the rules and so do I) Just don't. 
• Corporate Alliance Tank Droid (last released in 2013) How about now?
• Endor Bunker (come on, it’s been 16 years man) WHERE IS IT, LEGO? PLEASE PROCEED TO THE HAPPENING BUNKER IMMEDIATELY! 
• X-Wing Fine.
• ETA Jedi Interceptor Yes... with some interesting figs.
• Delta 7 Jedi Starfighter Same as above.
• Tie Fighter Alright. 
• Millennium Falcon Yes, OT based again please... 

While i wouldn't say that Disney outright killed Star Wars, they didn't do enough to do it justice either. It feels like for every good thing you get two to three mishaps. The consistency definitely isn't there. Too many people doing so many different things. 

I like your edited list quite a lot. 

22 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

That's a fair point, but it's important to note that A: Boba's cape has disappeared- now whether it's because they're phasing out cloth, they're too lazy to add it, or both, it is gone and B: These moves are almost unilaterally in the direction of removing cloth. The only time I can remember cloth coming back and replacing formerly plastic parts was when they phased out the TCW pauldron and kama pieces. (The pauldrons weren't bad, but those Kamas were ATROCIOUS). Lego might still put a cloth waistcape on the girl from Dreamzz or cloth wings on the Destiny's bounty (That's a guess on my part), but while some characters keep cloth, the Balrog gets vinyl wings, or Thor and loki and batman get rubber capes, or the 327th get plastic pauldrons. The march is unilaterally in one direction.

Yep, both goes in both directions. So going from all that data, nothing is set in stone for sure. Although the phasing out - at least temporarily - is more likely than not. I always perceived Lego's PR "we want kids to let the minifigures sit, so we didn't include any capes/kamas" as a way of saying "we don't wanna do those things anymore". As figures can obviously sit just fine with their kamas on. 

On second thought, i will wait a little before getting the glorious Plo Koon minifigure. Seeing the 15 bucks on the shopping page is messing with my head. Can't bring myself to spent almost the same money for a Microfighter as the new Battle Pack is gonna be. The price gap is just too little. In this case, given they are just five bucks apart, it will always be too small or even smaller in a few weeks, but the discounts will make it more bearable, i guess.

21 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I still think the bad outweighs the good. If I had the choice of erasing or keeping everything Disney I'd erase it. Andor was amazing but I still need more to convince me it wasn't just an anomaly.

Yeah, the bad outweighs the good. Yet given the choice, i wouldn't go as far as to erase everything on the spot. I gotta say, before Andor this would have been kinda tempting. But now... it becomes much more difficult. 

13 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

My theory is they are testing the waters with rubber accessories much like they tested the ill-fated X-Wing pilot helmets. Sure, it's a much wider test in scope. But I'm wondering if they are just checked to see what consumer response is overall. If positive, they'll continue. If not, we'll get cloth back.

Yes, i've got the impression they are testing the waters as well. Got reminded of the dual moulded X-Wing pilot helmets, too. Depending on fan feedback, they will continue or dicontinue the new plastic pieces. 

 

Day #27 of asking Lego to not minimize the upcoming Clone Turbo Tank. 

Edited June 1 by BrickPrick

[Coryo]

2 hours ago, BrickPrick said:

Yes, i've got the impression they are testing the waters as well. Got reminded of the dual moulded X-Wing pilot helmets, too. Depending on fan feedback, they will continue or dicontinue the new plastic pieces. 

I do wonder how much of an impact fan feedback actually has on Lego's decisions, it seems like the recent eye designs for Sith characters haven't been received well, yet it doesn't look like they have any intention of reversing it. Hopefully they change their minds by the time the Maul show comes out.

Maybe there was another reason for the Rebel Pilot helmet to be discontinued so quickly, like not being able to fit in certain cockpits.

 

I was just looking into how the dual-molded helmet was viewed by fans back in 2018, and I did find this part kinda funny, knowing what comes next:

Spoiler

 

[Meaf]

6 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

My theory is they are testing the waters with rubber accessories much like they tested the ill-fated X-Wing pilot helmets. Sure, it's a much wider test in scope. But I'm wondering if they are just checked to see what consumer response is overall. If positive, they'll continue. If not, we'll get cloth back.

I'd be inclined to agree, but I still am not convinced it's going to stick. Like you said, cloth is cheaper, and it's also a lot more versatile. I think the main benefits to rubber and plastic stuff is that it's just harder for kids to break/ruin by accident, and in the case of the rubber capes they come easier which is good for play sometimes. But the cost thing just seems like it'd be an issue, especially since we live in a time where companies are going to be looking to cut costs anywhere they can. And maybe I'm wrong but I can't imagine the AFOL fanbase is too happy with the change either for the most part, it's just a huge departure from what's come before and will probably make a lot of people's collections seem incongruous. Lego changes stuff all the time though, so I guess maybe this is just another one of those things we'll have to live with. I actually like the new pauldron piece quite a bit, it just irks me because it'll look weird with the existing cloth ones I have.

[Max_Lego]

20 minutes ago, Coryo said:

Maybe there was another reason for the Rebel Pilot helmet to be discontinued so quickly, like not being able to fit in certain cockpits.

That or some problems with molding the visor into the helmet. Such a shame. This helmet looks better on Luke Skywalker than the original IMAO.

On the other hand TLG didn't stop the production of Family Guy Stormtrooper helmets. I think it's due to the high risks of misprints on the original. 

[Llewop]

9 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

My theory is they are testing the waters with rubber accessories much like they tested the ill-fated X-Wing pilot helmets. Sure, it's a much wider test in scope. But I'm wondering if they are just checked to see what consumer response is overall. If positive, they'll continue. If not, we'll get cloth back.

I feel like in other themes armour pieces have come on so well especially in some of the more recent Castle/Viking sets, ninjago as well carrying the torch for new armour/weapons. I thought cloth would be more expensive to mass produce and print on compared to plastic? Also Lego seem to like to change the clones every few years. 2020 they bring back phase 2 and ditch angry clone head, 2022 they do the helmet holes and 2025 they now have the plastic pauldrons. Maybe they did some market research and their sample of people said they don’t like the cloth ones? 

change is good hopefully they come out well I for one can’t wait.

hopefully the feedback comes from response by fans not through sales data as clone bros buying 20,000 of the BP will sabotage any proper or true feedback.

i don’t know why Lego changed the stormtrooper helmet so much, I had loads of the rebels ones which I swapped out for the ones that came before the current family guy ones and now I have a load of them. It’s odd especially when other things in the theme have never had a redesign. 

Edited June 1 by Llewop

[ArrowBricks]

Not sure they need actual fan feedback to work out the pupils is a bad decision, as is the lack of cloth. I’d be a bit concerned at anyone that thinks it’s the best decision. 

Edited June 1 by ArrowBricks

[Mandalorianknight]

13 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Day #38 of asking for the next Tie Fighter to be a Tie Avenger.

Next evolution of Lego’s strategy is… Buildable clone troopers. 10 buildable clone troopers of different legions instead of play-sets a year.

You may be suprised.

I can no longer condone your crusade. I could support the avenger releasing alongside an advanced/reaper/defender, but not in place of. 

Ironically I think we're largely safe from that particular hellscape. Lego seems to think that in general the fandom is split into middle aged adult-but-not-afols who want ship and character models instead of traditional system sets, and gen Z and millenials who want traditional sets, but only for clones. We've largely avoided mixing the two- the majority of 18+ buildable tend to be OT.

Do you have some information we don't, or is it a hunch?  I could see you being right either way- the AAT has shown up roughly every 5-6 years and as such is due a remake, for example.

12 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Regarding the move from cloth to plastic, what do you all think is the reason behind this? Cloth capes are cheaper to produce. Cloth is also made of more sustainable products, not plastics or rubbers. There is neither reason nor environmental reason that I can see. Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed. But that doesn't seem like reason enough to phase them out.

My theory is they are testing the waters with rubber accessories much like they tested the ill-fated X-Wing pilot helmets. Sure, it's a much wider test in scope. But I'm wondering if they are just checked to see what consumer response is overall. If positive, they'll continue. If not, we'll get cloth back.

I just don't know. The only thing I can think of is that some designer thinks these look better and has managed to convince the team through force of will. It's gonna cost lego more money, so it's not a cost-saving measure, as you say, and there's no way for them to tie it up as some sort of environmental thing.

I think you're right that they're testing the waters here, but they've been doing these tests for a long time in other themes- I don't think negative response to the pauldrons will be enough to stop the deathmarch against cloth elements.

5 hours ago, Meaf said:

I'd be inclined to agree, but I still am not convinced it's going to stick. Like you said, cloth is cheaper, and it's also a lot more versatile. I think the main benefits to rubber and plastic stuff is that it's just harder for kids to break/ruin by accident, and in the case of the rubber capes they come easier which is good for play sometimes. But the cost thing just seems like it'd be an issue, especially since we live in a time where companies are going to be looking to cut costs anywhere they can. And maybe I'm wrong but I can't imagine the AFOL fanbase is too happy with the change either for the most part, it's just a huge departure from what's come before and will probably make a lot of people's collections seem incongruous. Lego changes stuff all the time though, so I guess maybe this is just another one of those things we'll have to live with. I actually like the new pauldron piece quite a bit, it just irks me because it'll look weird with the existing cloth ones I have.

The thing is they've been testing the waters for years now, and it keeps getting wider and wider in scope. This is the first time it's really come to star wars (unless we're counting the printed kamas and boba's missing cape as part of the phasing out, which I would), but in general it's been happening for years in other themes. Maybe if we're vocal enough we could keep it out of this theme, but in general I think they've set too much in motion, created too many new molds to just stop now.

54 minutes ago, ArrowBricks said:

Not sure they need actual fan feedback to work out the pupils is a bad decision, as is the lack of cloth. I’d be a bit concerned at anyone that thinks it’s the best decision. 

I mean look I'm glad to have an ally in the Cloth Defense Force fight, but I can understand the idea that there are some benefits to the other pieces that cloth doesn't have. I think cloth is for sure better than rubber or plastic for stuff like pauldrons and kamas, but at the same time I wouldn't say it's concerning for anyone to think the other way.

[ArrowBricks]

21 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I mean look I'm glad to have an ally in the Cloth Defense Force fight, but I can understand the idea that there are some benefits to the other pieces that cloth doesn't have. I think cloth is for sure better than rubber or plastic for stuff like pauldrons and kamas, but at the same time I wouldn't say it's concerning for anyone to think the other way.

I will change concerned to surprised. I believe it’s an inferior product, but I do think the reason is to enhance play and longevity for the figure. 

[CallumPears]

1 hour ago, ArrowBricks said:

Not sure they need actual fan feedback to work out the pupils is a bad decision, as is the lack of cloth. I’d be a bit concerned at anyone that thinks it’s the best decision. 

Adding my sword to the pupils fight too. Hate the glossy eyes and they're so inconsistent with it. The excuse was that it makes them more consistent but it's the complete opposite when they do it on characters like Ezra, Ahsoka, Hera, Barriss, etc. who should all have the regular black eyes anyway. 

At least with the Sith I can understand giving them coloured eyes, but I still think the ones with pupils look better. 

And the consistency argument makes no sense anyway because regular figures have pupils without irises. These new ones (I say new; they started doing it over a decade ago but I hated it then too) have irises with no pupils. It is the complete opposite of being "consistent". 

If for whatever reason they wanted to get rid of the pupiled eyes then I would legitimately prefer for Sith to just have the regular black eyes like all other figures do. That'd look better than these weird glossy ones. 

13 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Sure, the cloth stuff gets crinkled, bent or sometimes frayed.

To this point, let's not forget that rubber isn't exactly indestructible. Scratches easily, holds dust onto it, and in the wrong conditions it can straight-up disintegrate into a gooey mess.