What you think of the Star Wars EP VII Sets after watching the movie..

[bootz]

Most of the sets look good as they are. But some of them are begging for modifications to look great!

Specifically Kylo Ren's Shuttle, which should be black and with the proper wing function, and the FO Transporter, which, although TLG had reasons not to do so (it's targeted towards kids), should be a bit longer.

I wouldn't be surprised if TLG decided to remake Kylo's Shuttle ASAP.

I saw Ren's shuttle on the cover of a book last night and it was clearly light grey. Perhaps TLG got early images, hence the color.

[Daphatty]

I was honestly underwhelmed with the first round of TFA lego sets and was hoping the release of the movie would yield more interesting designs. Now my only hope are the potentially unannounced UCS sets. Here's to hoping...

[Ed9217]

Having bought the resistance trooper battle pack 75131 I am very pleased with this set, the only quibbles are the legs are the wrong colour on the troopers (they should be dark brown not dark grey) and the fact that two of the troopers are light tan and only one is dark tan. From what I saw in the movie the dark tan uniform is standard infantry uniform, wearas the tan one seems to be of some rank/in charge of the resistance infantry sections. This is all easily rectified though as I plan to do, but as a battle pack it is an excellent starter base and the figures have brilliant detail. The helmets are prob the best part bar the wrong colour. I plan on buying a few of these and making a full correct infantry section and possibly making a resistance base moc using the exces figures without helmets.

Also after seeing the film a few times the resistance transporter 75140 looks spot on, can't wait for that one.

The first order battle pack 75132 is also a nice set especially for the two first order storm troopers (some of the best detail I've seen in a Lego figure) , shame there could have been more of those than the star killer base Krew.

[Only Sinner]

EDIT: By the way, thinking about this shuttle in general, I can't get rid of feeling that it's shape is all but meaningful and efficient :). I wonder whether they have some explanation for these enormous wings and inproportionally small 'utility section' (Lambada class already had this but at least the wings were smaller, thin and claimed to be either stabilizers or some heat radiators). From logic point, these wings are easy target, making the ship harder to operate, easier to crash... plus the retraction, which seems like pointless self punishment from an engineering point of view :D I know, we are talking science fiction, but there has always been nice explanation for SW ship design. I wonder what we get in this case then :)

In regard of the utility or lets say the advantages of the design of the craft in general, I honestly dont know.

From the previous Star Wars logic those huge Wings doesnt really make a lot of sense besides looking intimitading as hell (Which totally works for me). But maybe they will come up with some sci-fi explanation

The Shuttles large wings have been fitted with multiple sensor suites and extended deflector shield projectors, so the counter-intuitive design actually has a distinct tactical advantage.

[Kristof]

^ Cool :D I can live with that :)

[Dameronian]

(Lambada class already had this but at least the wings were smaller, thin and claimed to be either stabilizers or some heat radiators).

But....that's the FORBIDDEN class of shuttle!!!!

(Cough...Google Lambada and forbidden ...cough ...)

;)

[Kristof]

Lol, did I write lambada? :D Jeez really, that's some kind of dance isn't it?

Edited December 25, 2015 by krisandkris12

[MrHerofan]

I saw Ren's shuttle on the cover of a book last night and it was clearly light grey. Perhaps TLG got early images, hence the color.

Nope in the movie it was clearly a black/extremely dark gray color with red windows. TLG needs to remake the set so it looks accurate to the movie.

[bootz]

Nope in the movie it was clearly a black/extremely dark gray color with red windows. TLG needs to remake the set so it looks accurate to the movie.

My point was tha when designing the set TLG probably used reference photos like the one on that book cover where the shuttle was grey. And I don't think TLG *needs* to remake it just because people aren't pleased with the color, though I would be surprised if the set doesn't get an update for one of the next two movies.

[Artemis78]

My point was tha when designing the set TLG probably used reference photos like the one on that book cover where the shuttle was grey. And I don't think TLG *needs* to remake it just because people aren't pleased with the color, though I would be surprised if the set doesn't get an update for one of the next two movies.

Yeah, in The Art of The Force Awakens, there's a concept art of that scene where Kylo Ren goes back to his Star Destroyer and you can see that the ship is slightly darker than the First Order Troop Transported, and has vertical wings, a shame, because everything else they did with that model is almost UCS level.

[Kristof]

^ The more I think it's a shame that TLG drives that mainstream 'fast release' wave.

[rollermonkey]

No... Disney drove the toy lines to be released early for Force Friday as part of their marketing. Can't blame TLG for doing what their licensee requires of them.

[Kristof]

Really? Are you sure they were legally bound to release on that date? Otherwise they wouldn't get the license? I'm not sure abou that, I'd rather believe it was a mutual deal and every toy compayny had their own business interest on selling that early. But even though - why didn't they got propper reference materials from Disney?

[rollermonkey]

Because the movie wasn't done when LEGO started development a year before sets were released. Special effects are one of the last things produced, and whether models or CGI, Star Wars vehicles are a special effect. Those wings may have been fixed position for a very long time after TLG got the drawings they worked from.

Heck. The toys were out 2 months before the final edit of the movie was complete. This is how we got a snowspeeder toy with less than 2 seconds of screen time.

Legally bound or not, no licensee was going to miss the release date if they didn't have problems. Not having product on shelves when promotion says so means lost sales and risks angering a licensee that is pretty frickin' powerful. We are talking about Disney. How many product lines does TLG make for Disney? Whether or not they produce on demand will effect future contracts, and between Marvel, Star Wars and Princesses, do you think TLG would jeopardize that relationship by releasing sets a year after asked to, just so they can wait to see final movie scenes before starting to design sets?

Hasbro also has toys out there that are based on the same drawings, with the same flaws. People can't even modify those to be more accurate. I'd say we're pretty lucky in that regard. Although, Constable Zulio figures may end up way more valuable as a result of him not being in the movie if history repeats itself.

Edited December 26, 2015 by rollermonkey

[Kristof]

I don't really care who's fault it actually is, whether toy companies or Disney corp. I simply think it's stupid to flesh out half baked toys months early which turn out inaccurate eventually. Not to mention that such products spoil some possible surprises that movie could have offered.

But still, I have some doubts about your interpretation. I always thought that toy companies pay for license so they can make movie related products, not that film maker would 'hire' toy companies as you describe it.

[BigEl]

I don't really care who's fault it actually is, whether toy companies or Disney corp. I simply think it's stupid to flesh out half baked toys months early which turn out inaccurate eventually. Not to mention that such products spoil some possible surprises that movie could have offered.

But still, I have some doubts about your interpretation. I always thought that toy companies pay for license so they can make movie related products, not that film maker would 'hire' toy companies as you describe it.

Its stupid for the customer, not for the company that stand behind the license/ production. And that is because people are going to buy the merchandise anyway, even if it is as inaccurate as the Lego Kylo Rens Shuttle. That can have multiple reasons. Not only because it can be the case that they are simply no other, more accurate toys of the same thing out there (which in this case is definitely the case ), but also because a lot of parents or even their children dont even care about those inaccarute details. I mean the booming sales would absolutely solidify this argument.

And if the companies realize that they dont even need to be accurate to create hot-selling merchandise, why waste time and lose potential sales due to a late release window, when the Hype already starts to calm down (In this case after the release of the movie)? Its just a perfectly fine and wise business decision from TLG/Disney. And I dont even have the feeling that a lot of hardcore collectors or AFOLs are overly critizing inaccurate details, since with Lego toys you can always mod it to look more proper or how you want it to look. Of course all this leads to a lot of unfinished products that have a lot of missed out potential, but again it doesnt matter for the overall business...

Edited December 26, 2015 by BigEl

[Kristof]

^ I do realize all that. Should I accept that fact quietly then? I know that all these companies are profit based but exactly as you say - without demand for better accuracy (or higher quality or whatever related), all those corporations will typically do the minimum necessary, not a shade more. Therefore I wonder why so many people act as advocates, finding any possible excuse for the lacking products. Moreover I really want to believe that Lego is somewhat better than Hasbro or other similar brands.

[Artemis78]

^ I do realize all that. Should I accept that fact quietly then? I know that all these companies are profit based but exactly as you say - without demand for better accuracy (or higher quality or whatever related), all those corporations will typically do the minimum necessary, not a shade more. Therefore I wonder why so many people act as advocates, finding any possible excuse for the lacking products. Moreover I really want to believe that Lego is somewhat better than Hasbro or other similar brands.

Because Lego prepare their model 1 year and a half before release, with plan that were supposed to be definitive but changed during the production of the movie. It's not 1 guy making MOC in his basement, he just goes there and change stuff, it's a company, they have a quality standard, things in a company of this scale takes time, production had probably started when we finally saw the ship in the trailer. So while i don't forgive them because it's sad that the model doesn't match the one in the movie, i understand why and i accept it.

[Dameronian]

In all fairness, no toy company got Kylo's shuttle right, so it's fair to assume the companies received preliminary source material to work with...

[BigEl]

^ I do realize all that. Should I accept that fact quietly then? I know that all these companies are profit based but exactly as you say - without demand for better accuracy (or higher quality or whatever related), all those corporations will typically do the minimum necessary, not a shade more. Therefore I wonder why so many people act as advocates, finding any possible excuse for the lacking products. Moreover I really want to believe that Lego is somewhat better than Hasbro or other similar brands.

Im with you on the matter. I recently got pretty fired up about the generic angry clone face that Boba Fett got in the Carbone Freeze Chamber Im just afraid there cant be done too much, aside from not buying Lego. As to Lego being better than Hasbro or other toy brands.... hm while Lego definitely earned a reputation for high quality materials and low quality tolerance, I always had (and still have) the feeling that they were one of the most greedy companies on the planet

Edited December 26, 2015 by BigEl

[AndyC]

In all fairness, no toy company got Kylo's shuttle right, so it's fair to assume the companies received preliminary source material to work with...

Yeah, most likely the design was changed near the end of production. Perhaps the original just didn't look right on screen, so the tilting wings were added to give it a more familiar look and the colours tweaked to make it stand out better. Expecting any toy manufacturer to wait until after the movie is finalized to start design work is just foolish, the hype (and potential sales) would be long gone by the time it gets onto the shelves.

[Kristof]

Because Lego prepare their model 1 year and a half before release, with plan that were supposed to be definitive but changed during the production of the movie. It's not 1 guy making MOC in his basement, he just goes there and change stuff, it's a company, they have a quality standard, things in a company of this scale takes time...

Really? I had no idea that TLG and the basement guy are so much different... Well, no seruously, everyone keeps teaching me some facts I'm well aware of. From the very beginning, my complaint is about toy companies rushing to release their products early to concieve some shopping spree and get huge sales, which results in both spoilers and lower product quality (my oppinion). You all sound like it takes infinite ages to create lego set, but ship design in movie can be changed overnight. It's certainly not that extreme on either side, Second trailer is 7 months old and I honestly believe they must have had that shuttle design finalized some months ago. Therefore If toys were released after the movie, I'm quite sure that these extra months would be enough to tweak the set properly. I may be wrong though.

In all fairness, no toy company got Kylo's shuttle right, so it's fair to assume the companies received preliminary source material to work with...

That makes sense, yea.

Im with you on the matter. I recently got pretty fired up about the generic angry clone face that Boba Fett got in the Carbone Freeze Chamber Im just afraid there cant be done too much, aside from not buying Lego. As to Lego being better than Hasbro or other toy brands.... hm while Lego definitely earned a reputation for high quality materials and low quality tolerance, I always had (and still have) the feeling that they were one of the most greedy companies on the planet

I keep the faith that they do care about fan feedback at least a little. But if people go and buy their products like locusts just because advertisement tells them to do so, there is really not much need for them to do better.

[Tariq j]

Really? I had no idea that TLG and the basement guy are so much different... Well, no seruously, everyone keeps teaching me some facts I'm well aware of. From the very beginning, my complaint is about toy companies rushing to release their products early to concieve some shopping spree and get huge sales, which results in both spoilers and lower product quality (my oppinion). You all sound like it takes infinite ages to create lego set, but ship design in movie can be changed overnight. It's certainly not that extreme on either side, Second trailer is 7 months old and I honestly believe they must have had that shuttle design finalized some months ago. Therefore If toys were released after the movie, I'm quite sure that these extra months would be enough to tweak the set properly. I may be wrong though.

But that's the point, Lego need to be generating sales and boosting income, and to do that they need to release the wave of sets at the best possible moment, which in this case was Force Friday. Also, TLG did not set any release dates, Disney wanted the sets to be released along all the other merchandise in September, they can't just release the products a few months later. It would certainly not be a good stepping stone for the future of Lego and Disney.

I fail to see how the new sets gave the customers "spoilers", nothing, not even remotely in the new sets I would consider a major spoiler. The majority of content in the sets we had already seen in the trailers, so Lego had not spoilt anything for anybody. Thing is, when Disney gave them a release date, Lego, as per usual like all other sets, began the design process 18 months in advance and were given concept art to work off, which we can safely assume had a different colour and did not imply wing rotation, and even if the color and design did change overnight Lego cannot just change the design with the click of a finger, they would have had to consider the piece count, the instructions, the cost etc. And on top of that the release date would have pushed forwards, something Disney would have not been happy about. Designing a Lego set is like playing with Dominos, if you change something like wing rotation lots of other key things get affected as well. And really, I wouldn't consider any of the sets lackluster in quality, with the exception of the shuttle its fair to say TLG have done an excellent job in recreating the ships we saw in the movie.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Tariq j

[Kristof]

So it is, for certain, that Disney dictates the time where certain sets shall be released? That's something I didn't really consider before. But the more I hear it, the more you convince me that it actually is true.

Regarding the flaws in the sets, ther really isn't that much to complain about and I was being overly excessive before, talking about low quality. Yet this shuttle issue, then the TIE cannon/antena thing (which I think is even funnier and somewhat more dumb :) ) and missing net on rey's speeder are good examples of thing's that could have been avoided if it weren't of the rush.

About spoilers, again my argument is weak. There really wasn't much more in the sets than in the trailer and I'm not sure why do I actually feel it like that... these aren't spoilers which would reveal the plot but somehow ruin the atmosphere of mystery and expectation.

I don't know, perhaps I just don't like this whole pre-movie hype that is being augmented, and lego sets being part of it. Maybe there aren't many individuals like me who'd be much happier to see these sets come after the movie so one can better put them in the context of the actual storry.

Edit: How about names? Doesn't toys reveal them? I just realized that I had no idea about all these character names or 'first order' for example before seing these on lego sets. I'm not saying that it's some disaster but I think I felt a bit weird about it since it never happened to me before :)

Edited December 27, 2015 by krisandkris12

[rollermonkey]

Disney is an enormous company, with a huge amount of influence. TLG and Hasbro have held licenses for SW products since before Disney bought everything from Lucas, so things were different before. Disney is very interested in brand synergy, and now that they have Star Wars, they are applying their marketing knowledge to the intellectual property. LEGO may not have been required to release sets on Force Friday, we don't know 100% for sure. The truth is that by falling in line with Disney's request, they got some of that marketing synergy to boost sales of their product. That's hard for a business to ignore, and hard to say 'no' to, especially considering the amount of $$$ we're talking about.

It sucks that resulted in toys with flaws, but that's the way things go now.

When Star Wars was originally released, you could not buy a Luke Skywalker action figure for MONTHS after the film was released. Can you imagine that now? The world has become a much more demanding place where everyone wants to have everything NOW, if not five minutes ago.

There was so much demand for SW toys that Christmas, Kenner was able to sell a piece of cardboard with pictures of the action figures that would be delivered 3-6 months later!

Is that better than what we see now?

Edited December 27, 2015 by rollermonkey