LEGO Star Wars 2019 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[Bricky Dee Williams]

3 hours ago, legolandia said:

I tend to use the Brickset database for this however I have noticed that they have not listed the minifigures for most of the sets from the new wave of releasses. Not sure if they add them as they go along?

If you look directly by name, rather than sw#, they should all be on there.

[Sneakguest]

4 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

Bricklink is in the process of adding all the new minifigure parts for the new SW sets. I'd guess they'd have it done by next week if you want to try checking there.

They added all SW figures on monday directly, parts tend to take some more time I guess

[Brikkyy13]

I just watched a comparison video between the 2016 AT-ST from Rogue One and this year's AT-ST from The Mandalorian. It's pretty clear to me where the extra pieces in this year's model have gone, they're in the extra detailing on the legs and the sides of the head, as well as making the "hip" section bulkier. The new AT-ST definitely takes a step towards a more screen accurate looking model, but again I have to ask if it was worth adding in the extra pieces and a price hike when a simple recolour of the last one would've been enough?

[legolandia]

Does anyone know if this bit from set 75229 is a droid of some sort or just part of the structure?

 

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, Brikkyy13 said:

I just watched a comparison video between the 2016 AT-ST from Rogue One and this year's AT-ST from The Mandalorian. It's pretty clear to me where the extra pieces in this year's model have gone, they're in the extra detailing on the legs and the sides of the head, as well as making the "hip" section bulkier. The new AT-ST definitely takes a step towards a more screen accurate looking model, but again I have to ask if it was worth adding in the extra pieces and a price hike when a simple recolour of the last one would've been enough?

Are you saying you'd prefer a recolor instead of a more accurate one? In my opinion getting a more accurate vehicle is always better than a recolour, and since it's likely lego had a $50 price already marked for this set, I'm glad we got what we got instead of some random side build or just the set being $10 more expensive for 1 extra figure.

1 hour ago, legolandia said:

Does anyone know if this bit from set 75229 is a droid of some sort or just part of the structure?

Part of the structure.

[Brikkyy13]

19 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

 Are you saying you'd prefer a recolor instead of a more accurate one? In my opinion getting a more accurate vehicle is always better than a recolour, and since it's likely lego had a $50 price already marked for this set, I'm glad we got what we got instead of some random side build or just the set being $10 more expensive for 1 extra figure.

Considering the 2016 version was as good as it was, yes, I would’ve preferred a recolour if it meant only getting 3 figures and keeping the cost down. $40USD was already pushing it for an AT-ST IMO. In my mind LEGO is a product for children, and to me that means that products should be affordable as toys. Just because I can afford to spend all my disposable income on toys doesn’t mean that families with children can. 

I understand that LEGO prices their sets before designing them, but I’m really not a fan of this trend of sets becoming more expensive, even if they are more accurate. Sets from the early 2010s era were almost perfect the way they were, accurate models with good figure selections and were priced well. We don’t see sets like that anymore.

Do you remember the AT-ST from 8038 Battle of Endor? That was an extremely accurate model built out of less pieces... and also had more play features than the new one. If that AT-ST was a set by itself... oh man. If LEGO could release sets like that I don’t see many people complaining about price or quality. 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Brikkyy13

[lego_guyon02]

1 hour ago, Brikkyy13 said:

In my mind LEGO is a product for children, and to me that means that products should be affordable as toys. Just because I can afford to spend all my disposable income on toys doesn’t mean that families with children can. 

You can say that about 80% of LEGO's products, and definetely for every single Star Wars set. But besides the sets becoming more detailed you also need to have inflation in mind

[Brikkyy13]

10 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

You can say that about 80% of LEGO's products, and definetely for every single Star Wars set. But besides the sets becoming more detailed you also need to have inflation in mind

$40 USD in 2016 will be worth $43 USD in 2020. Not enough to justify changing pricepoints imo. 

[lego_guyon02]

13 hours ago, Brikkyy13 said:

$40 USD in 2016 will be worth $43 USD in 2020. Not enough to justify changing pricepoints imo. 

Inflation was more targeted at you mentioning sets from 2010, though I do know inflation only plays a small part in lego hiking up their prices

[Darth Caedus]

One thing that I think folks often forget is that LEGO sets aren't priced in a vacuum - the wave they release in is a huge factor. Waves rarely have any 2 sets at an identical pricepoint, regardless of comparable value or P2P ratio (seen frequently in Ninjago, where you'll find a ridiculous 400-500 piece bargain for $30 and then some overblown ATV somehow clocking $40 or $50). In any given wave, you get some really decent deals, and you get some questionable ones - this has increased in recent years where LEGO seems willing to price some $20-$30 sets more aggressively at the tradeoff of having pricier midrange/highrange kits. Star Wars, in addition to all the other factors, plays with this concept as well. Recall last summer's wave, where you had some really strong deals: 75214 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter was a measly $20 in an era where we commonly see that general tier of starfighters hit $25-$40 depending on what they entail. The 75215 Swoop Bikes was a pretty solid deal too for $30 with 3 unique minifigs - and to balance it out, other sets in that wave took the price hike (the Imperial Landing Craft, while actually a pretty good build, clocking an absurd $90 for the piece count, along with the frequently-bargain-binned Conveyex Train). 

A similar thing is going on in this wave. The A-wing followed a similar path to the Jedi Starfighter of last summer, costing $10 less than we'd come to expect ($30 for this edition vs. $40 or effectively $43 for the TRU exclusive that was the previous release). The higher end of the line also saw some pretty fair pricing: the Kylo Shuttle is in almost every way a definitive upgrade to the 2015 dud, costing only $10 more with some exceptional minifigures. The Falcon is in fact a major upgrade with an overall good figure selection (some strong some wasted) and managed to be $10 *cheaper* than the previous Falcon (a rare phenomenon indeed for LEGO). It's the middle of the pack where they lumped the biggest inflation - AT-ST and Y-wing being $10 more than most would expect, but still far from the misfire of last summer's wave (the Conveyex has hit rock bottom discounts in many Targets, for example - they pushed the scales a bit too far that time). They're clearly doing what they can to keep the "affordable" $20-$30 pricepoint alive as it's a crucial one to attract casual buyers - having worked for years in retail, I can attest that the $20 pricepoint in particular is almost a "magic number" as to being the maximum that a parent will indulge their kid on while on a shopping trip: anything higher and you start to hit the birthday gift, special occasion territory. This gets lost in the hardcore fan community since every set is micro-analyzed for P2P ratio fidelity, quality of minifigures, comparison against all extant iterations of a model...for us, the $40 pricepoint of the Rogue One AT-ST feels like it was just yesterday, but for a huge chunk of the rapidly refreshing target audience (many of the 8-year-olds of 2016 have long since moved on to Fortnite, etc.) they don't even know that one existed. 

All in all, I think there's far too much hemming and hawing over MSRP in this day and age where it matters astronomically less than it did a decade ago. In 2009 if a set was $100 you were quite likely gonna be paying that $100 unless it was a dud and went on sale. But now, you've got Target, Walmart, and most importantly Amazon immediately discounting sets right out the gate - I don't always agree with everything on Jangbricks' channel, but he's been doing a great thing lately in accounting for the "actual" price to piece ratio of new Star Wars releases in his reviews, commenting on how many of them received healthy Day-1 discounts so the sticker shock is a much more of a non-factor - when in the past, an otherwise decent set might have been hammered into the dirt for a $20 markup when in reality it could be found 20% off in a variety of venues. 

Of course, this largely applies only to North America - deep condolences to anyone with the horror of being a LEGO fan and trying to buy sets in almost any other part of the world...

[lego_guyon02]

11 hours ago, Darth Caedus said:

Of course, this largely applies only to North America - deep condolences to anyone with the horror of being a LEGO fan and trying to buy sets in almost any other part of the world...

Yup, pricing for lego sets is pretty damn stupid here. A 100$ set should cost ~90 euro, not ~110/120 euro. 

At least we Europeans got lucky with the new pricehike of the CMF Series

[Lfm55]

Only a little more than two weeks after the release i found the y-wing, priced 75€ here in Belgium, for 54€ on amazon.de

 

It more than 20% off..

[LegoFjotten]

I dropped by a local shop today (kinda random, was just waiting for my wife to do finish her shopping), and they had 30% on all LEGO including the latest sets.

Picked up the Death Star Cannon set on impulse since I was intrigued by the new hood piece, and it does look great! Haven't been paying too much attention, anyone knows if it is available in more colors / sets?

[lego_guyon02]

9 minutes ago, LegoFjotten said:

I dropped by a local shop today (kinda random, was just waiting for my wife to do finish her shopping), and they had 30% on all LEGO including the latest sets.

Picked up the Death Star Cannon set on impulse since I was intrigued by the new hood piece, and it does look great! Haven't been paying too much attention, anyone knows if it is available in more colors / sets?

It comes in black in Kylo's shuttle

[Digger of Bricks]

 

[steveLego]

I can't wait to see the movie 

Edited October 22, 2019 by steveLego

[Sneakguest]

Still no visuals of the other knights of Ren. Can make one question how prominent their role will be.

[lego_guyon02]

43 minutes ago, Sneakguest said:

Still no visuals of the other knights of Ren. Can make one question how prominent their role will be.

Did you honestly expect them to be prominent characters? I'm calling it now, they're the TROS version of the Praetorian Guards (the PG were originally even supposed to be the KoR but Johnson switched them out because he wanted to kill all guards off)

[Sneakguest]

5 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

Did you honestly expect them to be prominent characters? I'm calling it now, they're the TROS version of the Praetorian Guards (the PG were originally even supposed to be the KoR but Johnson switched them out because he wanted to kill all guards off)

Well at least a few scenes, like they be apart of some missions N like 15-20 minutes total screentime 

but good that he did that switch then, that was all to little + it would make more sense if the KoR would chose Kylos side than Snoke

Edited October 22, 2019 by Sneakguest

[AManofNoConsequence]

Now that the new trailer is out, I'm even more irked we got the Death Star turret instead of a Orbak set at the same price point.

[Drewsko]

Has there been any updates on when/if (a sad possibility) the 20th Obi-Wan polybag will be distributed? Been expecting it as a store giveaway, even the Force Friday incentive, but no sign of it yet officially. Is it still going to come up within the year? Given the buzz about upcoming giveaways for other theme's I'm a little worried some things are getting squeezed out.

[Mandalorianknight]

On 10/22/2019 at 4:42 PM, AManofNoConsequence said:

Now that the new trailer is out, I'm even more irked we got the Death Star turret instead of a Orbak set at the same price point.

The orbacks will likely show up in wave 3 as whatever scenes they appear in could be considered spoiler material, since these would have leaked long before the second trailer gave us 2-3 seconds of the space horses. They also require pretty detailed new molds.

1 hour ago, Drewsko said:

Has there been any updates on when/if (a sad possibility) the 20th Obi-Wan polybag will be distributed? Been expecting it as a store giveaway, even the Force Friday incentive, but no sign of it yet officially. Is it still going to come up within the year? Given the buzz about upcoming giveaways for other theme's I'm a little worried some things are getting squeezed out.

No, nothing.

[lego_guyon02]

Highly recommend reading Brickset's new interview with Henrik Andersen (designer of the UCS ISD). They go deeper into the designing process and why there is no interior included.

https://brickset.com/article/46208/interview-with-henrik-andersen-designer-of-75252-imperial-star-destroyer

[Bartybum]

> Interior could compromise the structure and would add even more parts and cost

Yep, that’s hardly surprising

[dvogon]

I find this weird, as the inclusion of some interior in the UCS MF was a very welcome feature that was well advertised in the box and even displayed as such in Lego stores with some of the panels out to see the interior.

To me choosing from start to avoid having any kind of interior is a step back on quality for a UCS set of this kind. Even the Superstardestroyer had one and with a way better selection of minifigs.