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

[jdubbs]

1 hour ago, Flieger said:

Apparently Lego did shift their approach to secondary media and did make a big leap of faith this year. They release a top-of-the-line 100€ set with characters that rank as obscure even among die-hard fans, from a medium that hardly warrants the term 'secondary'.

I do have a hard time believing Lego would prioritise it over any Fallen Order/Mandalorian set, however small, without incentives offered by Disney.

Yes, retailer exclusives (which all signs say the Resistance IT-whatever either is, or was intended to be, pre-COVID) are subsidized by those retailer partners, who have some say in selecting/developing the exclusives they carry. This happens with Amazon, with Target, with Walmart, with TRU (RIP) and so on. Saying "Disney is to blame because they co-financed a GE set instead of a JFO set" is no different than saying "Amazon is to blame because they co-financed the Razor Crest" or "Target is to blame because they co-financed a TIE Pilot Helmet". If you're gonna blame Disney, you gotta blame all these other guys too. Which translates to: "none of LEGO's largest resellers saw a market for a JFO set, so LEGO didn't either."

Disney no doubt threw a bunch of money at Hasbro to produce toys for Galaxy's Edge too (they produced not one, but three GE sets). Hasbro still managed to put out JFO toys.

[Darth Malgus]

9 hours ago, jdubbs said:

There is a vast difference between cancelling a behind-the-scenes book detailing the ups and downs (and apparently there were a fair number of "downs") of a movie being produced and telling a licensee like LEGO that they can't produce merchandise to support one of Disney's flagship properties. Especially when Hasbro was clearly given no such edict.

Is there some amount of corporate drama? I"m sure. Is it harder for for licensees to deal with Lucasfilm post-Disney? I actually know this to be true, first-hand.

But actively sabotaging one licensee's products over another's? Saying "yes" to Hasbro but "no" to LEGO? When there is no conceivable business reason to do so, even if you try to imagine some kind of nefarious corporate politics at play? This kind of thinking is so illogical it borders on paranoia.

Disney is a corporation, whose guiding principle is to make money. LEGO selling Disney-licensed products makes Disney more money. There is no business reason for Disney to actively thwart LEGO's ability to make money for them. It's not simplistic; it is simple. If you want to blame someone for LEGO ignoring Fallen Order, blame LEGO. The far more plausible explanation is that LEGO just didn't foresee it being the hit that it became, and chose not to support it with sets. (Bear in mind they barely supported Mandalorian out of the gate either, and have never thrown much money at video game tie-ins in the past... a battle pack or so, long after games are released, is the norm).

And while I love the Making Of books that Rinzler wrote this far, you also need to take what Rinzler said with a healthy dose of salt. He's made no secret of the fact that he was unhappy his book was shelved, so it's entirely possible some of this is just sour grapes. 

I was referring to the marketing aspect between LFL and the licencees pre and post Disney: https://www.jeditemplearchives.com/2020-07-09-what-changed-at-lucasfilm-after-disney-bought-the-company/ its worth a read and it seems to reflect some of what people believe. I'll take the word of a guy who worked there for 15+ years at face value.

[ToaDraco]

I'm very happy to see the end of angry clone! It's so nice to see the AT-AT Drivers and Snowtroopers all with completely different heads from each other. Hopefully future sets will not just include variety in the faces but also the skin tones. That's something I appreciated with some of the FO Stormtroopers. Even though the helmets remain on most of the time it's still nice to see some attention to detail and variety in collecting/troop building. 

Edited July 12, 2020 by ToaDraco

[Mandalorianknight]

21 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

I love new face prints for AT-AT 2020 set.

Between this and the 501st battle pack, I think we can say the reign of angry clone has come to an end! 

It's great! 4 different face prints for helmeted troops! This piece, this one, and this head are great as generic trooper heads, I'm glad we're getting different ones for the troopers in a set so it's not like all the imperial and first order troops are clones. I think one of the AT-AT pilots has a new head print, too!

22 hours ago, Flieger said:

So the people who think Disney and Lego can do no wrong and always make the best business decisions, including the choice of sets, are not the fanboys here?

I don't want to fully wade back into this, but I feel like @jdubbs's logical comment that disney has no reason to sabotage it's sales isn't thinking "disney can do no wrong", it's thinking that a company that big isn't going to purposely shoot itself in the foot. As others have said, they didn't anticipate the success of fallen order, and lego may have been cautious to make another video game set. EA, Respawn, Lego, Disney, lucasfilm, blame whoever you want, I still don't think that pointing out disney isn't likely to try to malignantly sabotage a game they themselves are licensing is thinking they can't do any wrong.

[Flieger]

16 hours ago, Darth Malgus said:

I was referring to the marketing aspect between LFL and the licencees pre and post Disney: https://www.jeditemplearchives.com/2020-07-09-what-changed-at-lucasfilm-after-disney-bought-the-company/ its worth a read and it seems to reflect some of what people believe. I'll take the word of a guy who worked there for 15+ years at face value.

Some of what he says can be seen in official Lego interviews and promotional videos, too. The Lego Patrol Trooper designers e.g. anticipated a much larger role of those troopers, hence the elaborate dual moulded helmet. They were very disappointed that they were almost completely cut. That is probably not malevolence by Disney but it certainly does not help Lego, and definitely proves Disney's incompetence to handle the production of the movie and its merch correctly. (And yes, that has something to do with the reshoots of Solo, but again: who's fault is that, if not Disney's?).

 

57 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

@jdubbsEA, Respawn, Lego, Disney, lucasfilm, blame whoever you want, I still don't think that pointing out disney isn't likely to try to malignantly sabotage a game they themselves are licensing is thinking they can't do any wrong.

If you break it down to that, one cannot disagree. However neither does it represent my argument, nor was it my main concern. That would be your highly toxic language, calling others "fanboys".

 

18 hours ago, jdubbs said:

Yes, retailer exclusives (which all signs say the Resistance IT-whatever either is, or was intended to be, pre-COVID) are subsidized by those retailer partners, who have some say in selecting/developing the exclusives they carry. This happens with Amazon, with Target, with Walmart, with TRU (RIP) and so on. Saying "Disney is to blame because they co-financed a GE set instead of a JFO set" is no different than saying "Amazon is to blame because they co-financed the Razor Crest" or "Target is to blame because they co-financed a TIE Pilot Helmet". If you're gonna blame Disney, you gotta blame all these other guys too. Which translates to: "none of LEGO's largest resellers saw a market for a JFO set, so LEGO didn't either."

Ok, I can agree with that, even though I never focussed exclusively on FO sets, I was speaking about a relative lack of sets for other media, like the Mandalorian.

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Flieger

[PreVizsla]

3 hours ago, Flieger said:

I was speaking about a relative lack of sets for other media, like the Mandalorian.

Not just the Mandalorian,we only got 1 set for the end of CW which is AAT. I understand they wanted to keep mando stuff secret ,but there is no excuse for CW where most episodes were already done but not animated ages ago and it was most streamed show in the world beating mando and stranger things numbers combined. Also gonna mention how stuff like mandalorian BP felt rushed especially with Paz Vizla by splashing purple death star on his helmet where he only has small silver bullet mark and no purple at all,they didnt give him jet pack and even though he is buff heavy infantry didnt give him any armor. Jon Favreau who created The Mandalorian voiced Paz Vizla and voiced Pre Vizsla and his dark saber speech was written by George Lucas himself,that figure had to be perfect and is perfect with competitive companies like hot toys,hasbro,funko and even lego knock off like koruit.

[ARC2149Nova]

5 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

 Also gonna mention how stuff like mandalorian BP felt rushed especially with Paz Vizla by splashing purple death star on his helmet where he only has small silver bullet mark and no purple at all,they didnt give him jet pack and even though he is buff heavy infantry didnt give him any armor. Jon Favreau who created The Mandalorian voiced Paz Vizla and voiced Pre Vizsla and his dark saber speech was written by George Lucas himself,that figure had to be perfect and is perfect with competitive companies like hot toys,hasbro,funko and even lego knock off like koruit.

To be fair, that blue Mando is not supposed to be Paz Vizla.

 

Also gonna echo sentiments of Angry Clone's departure. Jang might just have a heart attack.  I'm not huge on the individual faces (it creates too many "variants" of essentially the same fig on brickset/bricklink), but it is a nice touch. I've personally thought the Naboo Pilot's face should've replaced the Angry Clone ages ago (at least Imperial wise), so here's to more of such useful heads. We might even get female stormtroopers/biker scouts (it's just a head swap after all).

[Sneakguest]

On 7/9/2020 at 11:08 AM, TeddytheSpoon said:

On this at least, I think we are all agreed.  

I reckon the Child is a pretty safe bet to be revealed at SDCC, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bespin or Ponda Baba hints were related to it as well. Especially Bespin, it would make a lot of sense to reveal another ESB set at a convention.

What is SDCC? 

[TeddytheSpoon]

9 minutes ago, Sneakguest said:

What is SDCC? 

San Diego Comic Con. I think it's happening virtually this year but LEGO were due to have a stand there I believe.

[samsz_3]

There are English reviews out for the AT-AT and 501st BP on this guy's channel. He appears to be a German retailer, and you can buy the sets early and get them shipped to anywhere in the EU

[Mandalorianknight]

9 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Also gonna echo sentiments of Angry Clone's departure. Jang might just have a heart attack.  I'm not huge on the individual faces (it creates too many "variants" of essentially the same fig on brickset/bricklink), but it is a nice touch. I've personally thought the Naboo Pilot's face should've replaced the Angry Clone ages ago (at least Imperial wise), so here's to more of such useful heads. We might even get female stormtroopers/biker scouts (it's just a head swap after all).

Someone break the news to him gently, he might die of happiness. 

The idea that imperial head variation could lead to female stormtroopers/biker scouts makes a lot of sense. More variation in heads is always good. On the other hand... according to the battlefront 2 devs, all stormtroopers must be male and all biker scouts must be female.  

15 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

Not just the Mandalorian,we only got 1 set for the end of CW which is AAT. I understand they wanted to keep mando stuff secret ,but there is no excuse for CW where most episodes were already done but not animated ages ago and it was most streamed show in the world beating mando and stranger things numbers combined. Also gonna mention how stuff like mandalorian BP felt rushed especially with Paz Vizla by splashing purple death star on his helmet where he only has small silver bullet mark and no purple at all,they didnt give him jet pack and even though he is buff heavy infantry didnt give him any armor.

I mean, for mandalorian we 100% are getting/got at least 4 sets, all of which seem pretty accurate to me. (the blue mandalorian isn't meant to represent paz vizla, just a random mandalorian). And we also got two TCW sets for season 7. I'm guessing the reason we didn't get more is because sets for the animated shows don't seem to sell well. It's possible that anakin's interceptor and grievous's starfighter are there because although film sets the characters and vehicles are also in the clone wars, or that much like the mandalorian there are more to come.

I hope so, I really liked that last season.

20 hours ago, Flieger said:

If you break it down to that, one cannot disagree. However neither does it represent my argument, nor was it my main concern. That would be your highly toxic language, calling others "fanboys".

You seem to have been somewhat offended by my joke. Just so you're aware, it was A: a joke, which wasn't even directed at you, and B: "fanboy" wasn't meant as "highly toxic language". I'd consider myself a star wars fanboy.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[GalacticHippo]

Looks like the people who wanted a Lego Bad Batch set this year will most likely get their wish, just a little bit later than expected...

[samsz_3]

3 minutes ago, GalacticHippo said:

Looks like the people who wanted a Lego Bad Batch set this year will most likely get their wish, just a little bit later than expected...

? I saw a bad batch logo on one LEGO fan Instagram but couldn't find a source

[Kit Figsto]

It looks like it’s a new animated D+ show about the Bad Batch that’s been announced, not specifically any LEGO products, just for anyone confused like I was (unless I missed something at one of the usual leak spots). 

[samsz_3]

Just now, Kit Figsto said:

It looks like it’s a new animated D+ show about the Bad Batch that’s been announced, not specifically any LEGO products, just for anyone confused like I was (unless I missed something at one of the usual leak spots). 

Yeah that's what I thought I saw there was a new show, but there's been no confirmation of LEGO sets for it - it's still too early in development

[GalacticHippo]

2 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

It looks like it’s a new animated D+ show about the Bad Batch that’s been announced, not specifically any LEGO products, just for anyone confused like I was (unless I missed something at one of the usual leak spots). 

Yep, sorry for the vagueness...I got overexcited ?

[lego_guyon02]

Extra info: Star Wars: Bad Batch is a TCW spinoff set to release in 2021. It'll follow the Bad Batch after Order 66 and the end if the clone wars.

I'm looking forward to it, even if I don't think the BB can carry a full show on their own.

[ARC2149Nova]

Yawn. Bad Batch is okay, but wake me up when Delta Squad gets a show.

Don't get me wrong, I love new characters, but Filoni tends to market his creations over pre-existing ones.

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Yawn. Bad Batch is okay, but wake me up when Delta Squad gets a show.

Don't get me wrong, I love new characters, but Filoni tends to market his creations over pre-existing ones.

I'm not sure about this show either, the bad batch are good as side characters, but I'm not sure they're strong enough to carry a show. The "right after order 66" bit of time is somewhat overused, but it will be interesting to see it from a clone perspective, which we've only seen in rebels 16+ years after Rots.

This pretty much guarantees a few bad batch sets in 2021, which also means unless one is far along enough in the development pipeline we probably won't get one until them.

[TeddytheSpoon]

47 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I'm not sure about this show either, the bad batch are good as side characters, but I'm not sure they're strong enough to carry a show. The "right after order 66" bit of time is somewhat overused, but it will be interesting to see it from a clone perspective, which we've only seen in rebels 16+ years after Rots.

It's basically gonna be a Star Wars A-Team, isn't it? Not something I'm especially excited for, but then that was what I thought about the three previous animated series, and they all exceeded expectations (even if Resistance wasn't anywhere near the standard of TCW and Rebels). If it follows the same principle as the Knights of Ren, it does probably mean that we'll get the Bad Batch spread over multiple sets instead of all being in the shuttle, for instance, which is a shame.

[Kit Figsto]

15 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

It's basically gonna be a Star Wars A-Team, isn't it? Not something I'm especially excited for, but then that was what I thought about the three previous animated series, and they all exceeded expectations (even if Resistance wasn't anywhere near the standard of TCW and Rebels). If it follows the same principle as the Knights of Ren, it does probably mean that we'll get the Bad Batch spread over multiple sets instead of all being in the shuttle, for instance, which is a shame.

I dunno, the one thing that I feel makes this more likely to get the Bad Batch in one or two sets as opposed to like four or five is that TV shows generally don't get big waves ever since Rebels.  If it's a huge hit, I could see it getting a handful of sets, but I feel like it being an animated show means LEGO will proceed with caution and maybe just go with one or two sets to start, which would more than likely contain the full crew.

[Renown]

Negola dewaghi wool dugger?

[BigGuy4U]

3 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Yawn. Bad Batch is okay, but wake me up when Delta Squad gets a show.

Don't get me wrong, I love new characters, but Filoni tends to market his creations over pre-existing ones.

For what it's worth, the Bad Batch was George's idea.

38 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

It's basically gonna be a Star Wars A-Team, isn't it? Not something I'm especially excited for, but then that was what I thought about the three previous animated series, and they all exceeded expectations (even if Resistance wasn't anywhere near the standard of TCW and Rebels). If it follows the same principle as the Knights of Ren, it does probably mean that we'll get the Bad Batch spread over multiple sets instead of all being in the shuttle, for instance, which is a shame.

I can't see them being spread across multiple sets, that would mean there would most likely be 3-5 sets before the series even launches, which I can't see happening with Lego's treatment of The Mandalorian and TCW season 7. I would expect them to start off with a medium sized set with all of the members of the Bad Batch and see how it sells or how popular the series is, if they even do anything.

[TeddytheSpoon]

13 minutes ago, BigGuy4U said:

I can't see them being spread across multiple sets, that would mean there would most likely be 3-5 sets before the series even launches, which I can't see happening with Lego's treatment of The Mandalorian and TCW season 7. I would expect them to start off with a medium sized set with all of the members of the Bad Batch and see how it sells or how popular the series is, if they even do anything.

You're probably right, actually, especially given those two will likely get at least a set in the next wave (certainly in the case of Mando). I retract my previous statement!

[Flieger]

1 hour ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

It's basically gonna be a Star Wars A-Team, isn't it? Not something I'm especially excited for, but then that was what I thought about the three previous animated series, and they all exceeded expectations (even if Resistance wasn't anywhere near the standard of TCW and Rebels).

I too would have preferred a Delta series, but I have to admit the Bad Batch is a great source for new minifigs. The helmets alone are pure gold.