Battle Packs - Better models?

[Flandy]

member of what and from where?

Forum members, and Sainsburys: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/lego-star-wars-first-order-battle-pack---75132

In my excitement I forgot to post the link..... DURRRR!

[HawkLord]

However Hasbro were quick to call foul as they have the exclusive licence for "action figures", and LEGO's licence is for "construction toys". As long as Hasbro have their licence (and really, the only way to get it off them would be a takeover), I don't think that's going to change. The battlepacks were LEGO's way around that, as they provide a reasonably cheap route to minifigs but have a minimal building component.

I think the current Hasbro contract continues until 2020 or at least that was what was mentioned a few years back. Disney ultimately controls that contract so at that time, if Lego pushes for it and Disney accepts, we could see more minifigure packs. But also remember that main characters or exciting characters are what push the sales of sets and Lego doesn't want to lose out on being able to offer new models with new minifigures.

[mon-o-mat]

It seems to be more a problem with the OT Battle Packs. All recent Clone Battlepacks had a build that was actually quite close to some things in the films, like the really good ISP for the Kashyyyk-Troopers.

[KevinYoung]

Battlepacks are fine just wish they come out with a 501st.

[Joemmo]

Forum members, and Sainsburys: http://www.sainsbury...le-pack---75132

In my excitement I forgot to post the link..... DURRRR!

thanks - just discovered this and bought the resistance pack for £8, FO for £6

[Lucifer]

It be happy if they would just release a battlepack containing some regular non Rebels Stormtroopers and maybe a Scout Trooper and a Sandtrooper or Imperial Officer(a proper one not the crewman version from the Battlefront pack)

[DarthHank]

I don't mind if there's a crappy build so long as the figures are great. I love the current Galactic Empire pack, despite its useless build (although the pieces are somewhat useful for me), because I need a few more technicians to man the Death Star and Star Destroyer, and the jumptroopers and shocktrooper are just cool. Sure, I would have preferred a couple of normal stormtroopers, but I'm still content. The FO battlepack, on the other hand, has a crappy build and bad figures. The normal sets come with too many officers and crew to begin with, so getting just one in the pack would have been bad enough, but to get two officers/crewmen and only one normal FO stormtrooper is crazy. And it comes with a lame turret.

Kashyyyk, Geonosis, and Utapau troopers were all great packs in my opinion, with a cool mini swamp speeder that doesn't look too silly, a nice walker, and our first tri-droid, respectively. They had detailed figures that were great for army building (although the Geonosis troopers were made up).

Anything that includes a decent-looking normal-scale build and decent figures is a winner for me, but there are just some awful ones. The Imperial Troop Transport is a joke - it's just a microfighter with extra figures (and Rebel-style at that). The rebel battlefront pack is weird - that speeder is oversized; why couldn't they have given us a normal speeder and reduced the price (or added an extra figure)? The weird speeder combined with undesirable figures meant I only bought one (No need for a pack of Duros, and plain human rebels are boring to me), but I appreciate the effort TLG put in trying to make it interesting by including aliens; I'll probably buy an army of Rodians off BL.

I like that idea of making Battlepacks modular or having alternate instructions for a larger model online; it would work particularly well for something like the Episode II clone pack with the lame small command center. One other thing TLG might do is make not-battlepacks with background characters, like a set of the Max Rebo band or Modal Nodes say - I'd buy dozens of those!

[KevinYoung]

8014 is another great battle pack.

[Bricknblue]

Battle packs are just because LEGO legally can't sell individual Star Wars mini figures. So buy the mini figures you want and then throw the pieces away then. I just built one that had Senate Commandos (I think, they were blue) and had a machine gun torrent thing with it. I thought it was really well done.

[Flandy]

Wasting bricks on a poor build is very unsatisfactory for us AFOL's, but my 8 and 10 year old nephews kind of like them. That said, they don't stay intact for long. and parts get used for other things.

Maybe if there was one bigger build you could complete if you collected all the currently available battlepacks? Not so much a modular build as 4 collections of parts that go toward one bigger build.

[Vectormatic]

Im torn TBH

Small vehicles such as in 8014 and 75078 are excellent for army building imho, as they add decent looking (if somewhat generic/nondescript) small assault vehicles to ones army. Especially considering otherwise you end up with a huge bunch of stormies and no viable way for them to ride into battle! Good gun emplacements also work well for setting up a defense perimeter somewhere

There was a MOC posted here as well which combined two 75078 transports into one bigger, more screen accurate version which carries 6 stormies, i have two of those big ITTs in my imperial ground forces.

But there are some stinkers too, stuff like the small base/console on the imperial battlefront BP, or the console bit on the snowtrooper BP, although that particular BP has a nice speederbike

[Joemmo]

I don't mind getting a turret type build but a little vehicle is always better. I just picked up the Resistance pack and its a good one IMHO - the speeder is cool enough and the figs are great - the helmet design is really nice. Flandy's idea of a mixels type combined build is good but tricky to design I would imagine.

[Richpepperell]

I love the idea of combining a wave of battle packs into something more substantial. My son collects bionicle sets which often feature an online set of instructions for putting 2 or 3 sets together. I really hope TLG check this thread out!

[PLP]

Wasting bricks on a poor build is very unsatisfactory for us AFOL's, but my 8 and 10 year old nephews kind of like them. That said, they don't stay intact for long. and parts get used for other things.

Maybe if there was one bigger build you could complete if you collected all the currently available battlepacks? Not so much a modular build as 4 collections of parts that go toward one bigger build.

As an Adult fan of lego you should surely be seeing bricks as potential for MOCs ...If you don't your probably not a fan of lego just an adult fan of starwars

[Joemmo]

It's not up to anyone to define what criteria qualify someone as an official Fan Of Lego and it's certainly got nothing to do with whether you want to build MOCs or not.

[PLP]

If you don't build MOCS you are not a fan of Lego ...FACT. Lego is a system not a collection of models

[PLP]

oh and nobody mentioned the word official until you did ...probably another symptom of your problem

why don't you knock on about " minifigure scale" and tell me about how the "real" thing is? get a grip

[Brickdoctor]

If you don't build MOCS you are not a fan of Lego ...FACT. Lego is a system not a collection of models

It's fine to have a differing opinion, but there's no need to insult other members by saying that they aren't real AFOLs.

Besides, by your logic, if you don't write fanfiction, you aren't a fan of Star Wars.

[Joemmo]

Thanks for the chuckle PLP. It looks like you can probably just run with this argument without anyone elses input so please go ahead.

[Mesabi]

I don't think any of the battle packs have particularly bad models. And it's not the models you usually buy them for.

[RetroInferno]

I don't think any of the battle packs have particularly bad models. And it's not the models you usually buy them for.

My gripe is that they add to the cost and are often casted aside for the mini-figs only. The reason I came up with the thread was too see if they could come up with something better.

[lostcarpark]

My gripe is that they add to the cost and are often casted aside for the mini-figs only. The reason I came up with the thread was too see if they could come up with something better.

I disagree. Remember we are not LEGO's primary market. For children, a battle pack is a nice "non-birthday" present, or an affordable set to save up for. If it was only minifigs, it would really go against the spirit of LEGO, in my opinion. A small model ensures the sets have a building element and keeps it a true LEGO set. I think the fact that it's a small model and not a great display model is one factor that may encourage children to be creative and try to make something out of the pieces (there's a certain reluctance for some of the more expensive models).

For AFOLs, keeping an interesting mix of parts should be the priority. If we're planning a MOC using minifigs from a battlepack, we're likely to want a whole stack of them, so providing useful parts really helps us out. If we don't have use for the parts, they should be easy to sell on Bricklink. I'd love to see parts that are overpriced on Bricklink because they've only been in expensive sets targeted for inclusion in battlepacks. But, of course, all this should be a lower priority than making the battlepack a fun set for the primary audience, children.

James

[Mesabi]

For AFOLs, keeping an interesting mix of parts should be the priority. If we're planning a MOC using minifigs from a battlepack, we're likely to want a whole stack of them, so providing useful parts really helps us out. If we don't have use for the parts, they should be easy to sell on Bricklink. I'd love to see parts that are overpriced on Bricklink because they've only been in expensive sets targeted for inclusion in battlepacks. But, of course, all this should be a lower priority than making the battlepack a fun set for the primary audience, children.

James

Agreed. Battle packs are nice because they often are a cheap way to get new parts. I got my first http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=98100&idColor=86#T=S&C=86&O={%22color%22:86} in the kashyyyk battle pack, and the other pieces were very all pretty useful too. As long as Lego keeps it up, I'm happy.

[PLP]

It's fine to have a differing opinion, but there's no need to insult other members by saying that they aren't real AFOLs.

Besides, by your logic, if you don't write fanfiction, you aren't a fan of Star Wars.

I don't believe I made any personal insults ...If I did it was entirely unintentional and as far as your fanfiction comment goes I don't understand it. Lego is a construction toy that's main purpose and selling point is its a bunch of bricks that you buy to make a model then break up to make a new model. As you get more Lego you put it together to make MOCs that are awesome to yourself and your own creativity. Its very easy to be a Star wars fan without writing about it.. its very pointless to be a Lego fan if you don't build stuff.

[Flandy]

As an Adult fan of lego you should surely be seeing bricks as potential for MOCs ...If you don't your probably not a fan of lego just an adult fan of starwars

Any lego set is a source of bricks for MOCs, I've bought 2 of many sets for just that reason, but that's so i can display the set, or a MOD'd version of it, and use the same parts for something else, or to just increase the parts stock for future projects. What I'm saying is that I'd like to display the battlepack builds, but they're frequently so crappy compared to the regular sets that they go straight into the parts trays.

What I don't understand from your comment is that you have to build MOCs to be a lego fan? How do you figure that? I like building the sets as they are, but if there are any ways I feel they can be improved, I'm not shy about remodeling them, after all they can be rebuilt to original specs any time. At the moment money and spares quantity is what has limited my MOC building. I have other interests outside lego (the 4 wheeled variety) that do like sucking up spare cash.

Not that I feel I have to justify myself here, but if a MOC is merely a build you came up with yourself, then my first MOC was probably about 1982, and I stil have every bit of lego I've ever owned, and I'm sure I'm far from unique here. If that's insufficient to be called an AFOL then so be it.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Flandy