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LEGO Star Wars 2020 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

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Just now, 2maxwell said:

I don't disagree with your overall point that their decisions can be confusing at times and it's surely not unquestionable, but I do think there's one very important market you're forgetting about here: teens and young adults. This is the first AT-AT in I believe 6 years. There are a lot of people out there who couldn't afford this set as kids or couldn't convince their parents to shell out over $100 for a Lego set who now might be working and making their own money. When I was in my early 20s and working my first big boy job, I bought a number of sets (or their re-releases) that my family couldn't afford when I was younger.

I think some sets will always welcome a rerelease, such as the AT-AT. The problem comes in the fact that many sets that should get a rehash, don't. 1 Venator to 3 Grievous fighters is criminal. And if the set was at least decently priced? Then fine. But, at the end of the day, live with excitement, some disappointment, and hope for the future.

Also want to point out that it wouldn't even be that bad if certain older sets weren't (a) terribly built compared to today, or (b) horrendously overpriced on the secondary market.

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Just now, 2maxwell said:

I don't disagree with your overall point that their decisions can be confusing at times and it's surely not unquestionable, but I do think there's one very important market you're forgetting about here: teens and young adults. This is the first AT-AT in I believe 6 years. There are a lot of people out there who couldn't afford this set as kids or couldn't convince their parents to shell out over $100 for a Lego set who now might be working and making their own money. When I was in my early 20s and working my first big boy job, I bought a number of sets (or their re-releases) that my family couldn't afford when I was younger.

Haha yeah, actually, that's exactly my age group. I try to be conscientious of Lego having a difficult time trying to please everyone and different age group having different interests. But to speak to my own interests for a minute, I grew up with the prequels and TCW, so that's where all the nostalgia is for me. I'd happily shell out $250+ for a Jedi Temple, that absurd $90 price tag on Palpatine's Arrest if they re-released that, or for a re-release of the Venator. (I even went back and bought Palpatine's Arrest without the figs on ebay years later.) I have no hate for OT or even the Sequels, but I'm just not invested in spending that kind of money on them.

I mean, if Lego can sell AT-AT after AT-AT, more power to them, I'm not trying to be grumpy lol. I just know people my age in general are primarily invested prequel-era, and from what I can tell those younger are invested in the sequel era since that's what they're growing up with. Lego's affinity for Hoth will never cease to puzzle me, but hey, if it sells, it sells.

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10 minutes ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Hey, it's all personal opinion. I feel that Lego is given a lot of passes, sometimes unnecessarily. I don't always agree with Lego's decisions, and I don't have to. For years, Lego's shafted multiple parts of the community, be it the PT crowd, the CW crowd, even the OT crowd. Sure, they throw bones here and there, but overall, Lego does what it wants. Plain and simple. And that's their right, of course.

Personally, I like a good chunk of the wave, 6/9 sets are solid to me.

You can have your own opinion (and trust me, I think they make plenty of mistakes too), I just think that saying you find it insulting that some sets weren't to your liking when you admit yourself that you think 6/9 sets this wave are solid is maybe a tad excessive.

Also, consider the groups you just named: PT, CW, OT, and now ST. That's four crowds, plus take into account they need to make sets for children and AFOLs. Suddenly that's 8 different audiences demanding your attention (7 if you want to say the OT is mostly just AFOLs, but 7 is still quite a few). With 9 sets a wave and 7 audiences, I'd say they're doing a decent job overall. They could always do better, but it's not a poor job.

2 minutes ago, ARC2149Nova said:

I think some sets will always welcome a rerelease, such as the AT-AT. The problem comes in the fact that many sets that should get a rehash, don't. 1 Venator to 3 Grievous fighters is criminal. And if the set was at least decently priced? Then fine. But, at the end of the day, live with excitement, some disappointment, and hope for the future.

Also want to point out that it wouldn't even be that bad if certain older sets weren't (a) terribly built compared to today, or (b) horrendously overpriced on the secondary market.

No I agree, not a lot of people care about the Grievous fighter and it is stupidly overpriced. I said that myself in my last post. But like you said, 2/3 of the sets by your own measure are solid sets.

1 minute ago, 2lazeetomakeaname said:

It comes with 2 new Knights

I was referring specifically to the Grievous fighter in that reply.

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5 hours ago, Guyon2002 said:

It's yet another example of LEGO not really knowing what angle of a set they should use in promotional material

If it's a $70-80ish set like you speculated, maybe they chose the boxart to make it look bigger than it is.

51 minutes ago, 2maxwell said:

Honestly, I do think this community can be a bit out of touch. These are toys for kids, so it seems obvious to me that there would be a lot of re-releases. Something released 5 years ago hasn't even been seen by the majority of kids playing with legos in 2020. Something as popular as the Jedi starfighter needs to be on store shelves every year. I get that it's Anakin every time and I'd love to get my hands on Kit Fisto or someone in a cheaper set, but most kids want Anakin. You don't like TROS? That's fine, but it's also the latest movie so it's obviously going to get the new sets, because that's the one that Lego's core audience has actually seen most recently.

Everyone's wants are valid of course, and I get the frustration of not seeing the sets we think are obvious winners year after year. But we also have to remember that the Lego company exists as a business, and we as adult fans still make up a pretty small proportion of their audience. They're trying to make a little bit of everything for everyone, and part of that means continually re-releasing certain sets. There's no need to be insulted. In fact, I've seen a lot of AFOLs request that the Lego company make more vehicles that havent been made yet, and many have asked for the Night Buzzard, so clearly they are trying to appease that segment of the audience too. It just didn't happen to be the one you wanted this time.

I 100% agree. We're getting multiple CW sets, including a 501st battle pack. A literal 501st battle pack, the one set that fans have (it could be said to an annoying extent) campaigned for. We also got two other prequel sets, meaning prequel era sets take up the same amount of spots for the august wave as the OT and ST era sets combined. I also agree with that bit at the end about how it's not a certain strategy of legos people are upset with, just that it's not the vehicles they wanted. 

2 minutes ago, 2lazeetomakeaname said:

It comes with 2 new Knights

I think he was referring to the soulless one.

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12 minutes ago, ARC2149Nova said:

It's about spreading the love, something Lego does have trouble with. And no, simply making an era-related set doesn't count.

I'm not defending Lego's actions when I say this, but it is much more challenging to please everyone now that there is more Star Wars media. Back when the main stuff was the PT, OT, and CW, Lego could just release a couple of things from each media and call it a day because there wasn't as much ground to cover. Now we have way more Star Wars media (ST, Rebels, Mandalorian, etc.), which isn't a bad thing, but it makes it harder to spread the love when there is that much more distance to cover. Lego definitely has their favorites (Luke's Landspeeder), and there are definitely things that don't need to be remade as often as they have in recent years. All I'm saying is that there is more media, which creates new fanbase media preferences, which makes releasing a combination of things that please everyone harder. Lego could definitely try harder (and Disney probably isn't helping) to release things that more fans want to buy, but it is much harder than it used to be.

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3 minutes ago, 2maxwell said:

You can have your own opinion (and trust me, I think they make plenty of mistakes too), I just think that saying you find it insulting that some sets weren't to your liking when you admit yourself that you think 6/9 sets this wave are solid is maybe a tad excessive.

I think you misunderstand. When I said "insulting" I meant the fact that only TROS got something really new: the Night Buzzard and the IT-S (though that's technically just Galaxy's Edge). And I suppose the Razorcrest counts as something new, but considering the whole wave is essentially rehashes (yes, even the 501st set), it could've used some fresh blood. Or long lost blood at least. :wink:

@MGS6735 Completely agree. It's a difficult juggle, to be sure. I do believe Lego can find a balance, but who knows.

Funny thing is, many sets we clamor for do get made, to be fair, but others seem like far off pipe dreams, with everything and the kitchen sink getting made before them.

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I usually take every wave for what it is but this years summer wave is not justifiable at all.

Remakes are fine but this iteration of anakins jedi interceptor barely looks different from the previous model at all. I'm struggling to find design changes or new pieces used on this model (something lego had done already with obi wans variant that released a few years later prior to the last anakin interceptor). I get that these ships need to stay on shelves but the whole idea of redesigning them with updated catalogue pieces always justified their price points.

The throne room is exactly the same as the previous version but now the side rooms have swapped places and the shaft is angled pieces instead of the nicer looking round 1/4 pillars? And they added a 100 pieces worth of details and slapped a 100$ price tag for this 700 something piece set? I can barely justify this also especially when the only change they have given minifigures is the new hood mold for palpatine which doesnt even suite him at all, the old hood works well for alot of figures in terms of accuracy and this is one of those examples.

And then you have sets like the AAT which have actually had design attempts made to be accurate to the source material but have ended up working against the model, this one looks like something I would build in minecraft using my limited knowledge.

Like seriously, the knights of ren set and the resistance transport are the only proper sets that are designed to legos standards and ren transport is extremely tiny for its scale and doesnt look like it will fit more than 4 figures tops. We dont even know the piece count or price of the resistance transport but I cant assume it will be affordable.

The price for all these sets are 20$ too much imo, there isnt a justifiable reason for these price hikes as these were known before the pandemic, there arent any new prints, moulds or anything new done to all these sets that entice even a newcomer to want to buy any of these. The clones, ahsoka and the two KoR are probably the only nice new thing introduced but they dont justify their sets price points one bit.

I dont know what lego is banking on to get people to buy these sets, whether it's the lego movie or the tv shows that are out, I'm not sure but I cannot see myself spending money on any sets without serious price slashes.

Edited by SCREDEYE

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7 minutes ago, SCREDEYE said:

Remakes are fine but this iteration of anakins jedi interceptor barely looks different from the previous model at all.

This is something that I've noticed with a lot of the more recent sets, but I don't know if it is solely due to the Lego being lazy. A lot of the builds in those sets are so refined and close to accurate with the parts that were available last time it was released that not much more can be done to the model with parts released since then to make much of a noticeable change while maintaining accuracy. I think we should expect to see this plateau in the quality of set design get more and more common as more specialized/small parts are created that lead to more model accuracy.

11 minutes ago, SCREDEYE said:

And then you have sets like the AAT which have actually had design attempts made to be accurate to the source material but have ended up working against the model, this one looks like something I would build in minecraft using my limited knowledge.

That sums up the AAT's design pretty well. It also looks kind of like what a Juniors AAT might end up being. I'd rather have rereleases/reissues that look very similar to what was released last time than inaccurate sets that look awful just for the sake of changing it up compared to the last version. The AAT is not a vehicle where design has plateaued; I'd say its design has regressed.

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1 hour ago, DarkLordSauron said:

Haha yeah, actually, that's exactly my age group. I have no hate for OT or even the Sequels, but I'm just not invested in spending that kind of money on them.

I hope you aren't in a vocal minority.  For a long time many people have focused on the OT at the expense of the PT.  

TCW sets already failed once.  PT sets have historically not sold as well as OT sets over the last couple decades but there seems to have been a shift lately.

Hopefully, for Legos sake, there are a few hundred thousand of you who will put their money where their mouth is.

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3 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

Complaining is definitely ever-present in the AFOL community, but there have been quite a range of reactions to this new wave here from positive to mixed to negative. It isn't like one big consensus groan, even about particular sets.

Some rereleases are always justified with Star Wars since there are always new kids coming into the right age. At the same time, the Star Wars team at LEGO are certainly aware of the adult market and should be aware of what they haven't done before, even minifigure-wise.

There are a bunch of opportunities with these sets to at least include new minifigures if these have to be the set choices:

Grevious' Ship: include an accurate Cody and an Utapauan, and could include a Separatist leader.

Anakin's Starfighter: could also include a Separatist or at least a new, more accurate Buzz Droid build?

Final Duel: a moff, or sure, one or two of Palpatine's aides. They've done characters as obscure with as little screen time before!

Stuff like that.

But personally Grevious' ship is a waste of a spot anyway since it's so unimportant and appears so very little. The Night Buzzard is at least new and relevant since the film is still pretty fresh.

 

Well said, I know this may seem a bit contradictory towards my previous comment, and again, I'm not saying people have no right to complain/feel disappointed/dislike the sets.  I've definitely done the same.  I think my point was mostly that I don't think LEGO's gotten lazy or that the entire wave is worth complaining about.  I too would love to have gotten Rex somewhere in this wave.  The DS Duel definitely wasn't in my top 5 choices for what the exclusive would've been.  I do tend to agree a little bit about the Grevious ship.  It seems to me like the Wheelbike would make more sense for a set if they wanted to represent that duel, since it gets more than ten seconds of screen time.  
 

But overall, I think this wave is definitely good, mostly since it's got something for just about everyone.  

1 hour ago, MGS6735 said:

This is something that I've noticed with a lot of the more recent sets, but I don't know if it is solely due to the Lego being lazy. A lot of the builds in those sets are so refined and close to accurate with the parts that were available last time it was released that not much more can be done to the model with parts released since then to make much of a noticeable change while maintaining accuracy. I think we should expect to see this plateau in the quality of set design get more and more common as more specialized/small parts are created that lead to more model accuracy.

Definitely agree here.  At a certain point, just due to the physical limitations of the medium, you can't really get any more detailed without either resorting to stickers or techniques that only work in MOCs (that is, not sturdy/easy enough to build).  Like, even the 2008 version of Anakin's TCW ship vs. the one that's currently out, the differences are pretty subtle, in all honesty.  They cleaned up some angles, made the guns look better, that's really about it.  At a certain point, I don't think they can get any better.

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1 hour ago, lego the hutt said:

TCW sets already failed once.

Debatable. I know for a fact that the first clone wars battle pack (clone walker) sold like hotcakes. And most of the TCW sub-theme did just as well as their wavemates in any given year up to about 2012, when merch for the show as a whole plateaued. It was and is a popular series, merch for it should print money.

13 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

The DS Duel definitely wasn't in my top 5 choices for what the exclusive would've been.

It wasn't in anyone's top 50. :laugh:

Also, I hate that the new hood piece is replacing the old classic. Usually I love updated molds, but certainly both can be interchangeably utilized. Like was mentioned, the old piece was perfect for Palps. The new hood is just, eh. It's still a nice mold, but I prefer the old hood.

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1 hour ago, lego the hutt said:

TCW sets already failed once.

This statement keeps popping up now and then, but what is the evidence? Is there an interview somewhere in which a LEGO employees says this? If not, where did this come from?

LEGO produced wave after wave of Clone Wars sets from 2008 to 2013. I suppose one could argue that the last wave might not have done so well on the evidence that only two sets came in 2014 and then only dribs and drabs since, but that hardly equates to "Clone Wars failed". It sure did well enough for at least four years to keep being made! By the end, attention was turning to whatever the new Star Wars was going to be.

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35 minutes ago, ARC2149Nova said:

It wasn't in anyone's top 50. :laugh:

Also, I hate that the new hood piece is replacing the old classic. Usually I love updated molds, but certainly both can be interchangeably utilized. Like was mentioned, the old piece was perfect for Palps. The new hood is just, eh. It's still a nice mold, but I prefer the old hood.

This duel wasn't on my radar as something I'd want, but neither is the deul on exegol set people were clamoring for. I'm sure there's a market for this set, but it just isn't for me.

As for that hood, totally agree. I have yet to see a figure where it looks better than the old mold.

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11 minutes ago, 2maxwell said:

As for that hood, totally agree. I have yet to see a figure where it looks better than the old mold.

I agree that the new hood piece looks strange. Is there a reason that they made a new part? Or did Lego just make it because they could? If there isn't an actual reason for making it besides "because we can", I'm sure that there are other things they could have made instead, like a Phase II Commander Cody helmet.

That's not what they did though, so oh well I guess. I don't intend to steer us off-course with alternate mold speculation, but I'm genuinely curious if there was a good reason for the new hood.

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9 minutes ago, MGS6735 said:

I agree that the new hood piece looks strange. Is there a reason that they made a new part? Or did Lego just make it because they could?

I mean, Ap'lek uses it pretty well, but Obi-Wan and now Palpatine, it's just too prominent. I liked what they tried back in 2014-2018 for old Ben, the printed robes, while not perfect, worked. The cape + new hood just doesn't. Look at any image of Palpatine, even TROS, and the old hood is the more accurate piece. I get what they were going for, but it's better suited to other sci-fi/action themes, like DC for instance.

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I like the new AAT, but I feel that the hinged front panel should be Dark Blue instead of LBG. Pretty much every image of a Clone Wars era AAT I've seen on the net features a vertical blue stripe at the front. The LEGO version from 2009 has it too. Also, I think the base of the main cannon looks a bit bulky compared to the source.

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Hi, I'm also one of those lingerers who have been watching the thread for a while and decided to make an account for the new wave. I was just wondering about the size for the AAT as that is the one I really care about. It looks like it has seats for both drivers but it looks like you have to have the hatch open for the turret to squeeze one in and is it gonna be the same size as the tan one from a couple years back? 

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5 minutes ago, Ringwraith said:

Hi, I'm also one of those lingerers who have been watching the thread for a while and decided to make an account for the new wave. I was just wondering about the size for the AAT as that is the one I really care about. It looks like it has seats for both drivers but it looks like you have to have the hatch open for the turret to squeeze one in and is it gonna be the same size as the tan one from a couple years back? 

Based on the pics it looks a tad bigger, not massively so though. Maybe two studs wider and two or three higher as well. That said I didn't own the previous one so maybe someone who did will have a better idea.

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Ah okay, and it has a price hike of I think $5 which I'll take seeing as we get a clone fig which is always good 

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Lot of good points being floated here. Personally, I like the variety of different sets, although I agree some are strange choices. 

As for the sets themselves...

I think the AAT and 501st pack will be the first ones I pick up. They compliment each other well, and that Ahsoka :pir-love: The new clone design isn't my favourite but if this is the design they're sticking with, it'll do. The only clones I have atm are from the 2008 CW sets after all. 

I picked up the 2014 Anakin's interceptor along with Obi-Wan's for about £15 a year or two ago, so that's a pass. At this higher price point I wouldn't buy it anyway, but I think it's a good set to have on shelves. 

I like the left field choice of the Galaxy's edge set. Is it the ship you board for the Resistance ride? Or is it just something that's part of the scenery? Hopefully this paves the way for more non-movie/TV sets in future. 

Grievous' starfighter has been discussed loads already. It's overpriced. I have nothing to add. 

The Night Buzzard is a cool design. I'm still unsure how I feel about the Knights and their general irrelevance during the ST. I may pick it up at a later date if I don't sell the two Knights I have beforehand. It would look good next to Kylo's shuttle... 

I started collecting again in 2015/16, so I don't have an AT-AT. That's another one I'm considering. A classic, that I think definitely deserves a space, despite there being several iterations prior to now. Getting that will depend on how my wallets doing after buying the Razor Crest though. Love the figures in that set especially. 

The only set I don't appreciate on some level is the Throne Room. It just baffles me, considering proximity to TRoS that this is the Palpatine duel they chose, over Exogol. 

Still, as I said, I appreciate that this wave caters to (nearly) all fans in some way, even if its not the exact sets some people wanted. They'll come around eventually, no doubt. 

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4 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Debatable. I know for a fact that the first clone wars battle pack (clone walker) sold like hotcakes. And most of the TCW sub-theme did just as well as their wavemates in any given year up to about 2012, when merch for the show as a whole plateaued. 

 

I question your involvement in the hobby 10 or 15 years ago if you think it's debatable.  Clone wars sets were constant shelf warmers and would hit deep clearance and still not get purchased.  There was a general consensus within the afol community of disliking the large, anime style eye printing that didnt match other type of figures.

The point is, there seems to have been a shift lately.  People seem to be clamouring for clone Wars and PT sets. 

We dont need to get to off topic and go into why that ^ is (we can have that conversation in pms if you want).

I'm interested to see if waves that are a majority PT/CW continue to be produced in the future.  There is definitely untapped potential there for sets.

Edited by lego the hutt

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Anakin's interceptor needed one extra figure, it could've been any random jedi that we haven't gotten yet. Just like when we got Kit Fisto in Obi-Wan's interceptor. LEGO can afford to give us an extra figure every now and then, I don't know why these interceptors don't get it.

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20 minutes ago, Brikkyy13 said:

Anakin's interceptor needed one extra figure, it could've been any random jedi that we haven't gotten yet. Just like when we got Kit Fisto in Obi-Wan's interceptor. LEGO can afford to give us an extra figure every now and then, I don't know why these interceptors don't get it.

But the set with Kit Fisto was a lot larger and came with the hyperdrive ring, can't really compare the 2

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