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

[josebricks]

4 hours ago, storskogen said:

Could anyone who got the Razor Crest please measure the distance (preferably cm) between the front landing gear and the end of ship tail? Just want to make sure I can display it on my Lego shelves (i.e. I have enought depth).

I have it at 36cm/14.5in from where the tail hits the wall and the landing gear sits on my shelf :)

I’ll join in as a fellow lurker/new arrival: as someone coming out of their dark age and getting back into the Star Wars line, Mos  Eisley is darn near perfect. Can’t speak as much to the price creep which seems to be a big concern to some, but it will give me a great starting point of alien figs to use in MOCs. Older alien heads/molds are $$$ to come by obviously

[jdubbs]

1 hour ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Personally, I don’t mind repeats that much. If it’s a good enough update (which the AT-AT, Grievous Ship, and Jedi Interceptor all are IMO) then I’ll get them even if I already have previous versions

I don't mind repeats either, when the previous build was seriously lacking and the new one represents a substantial upgrade. I have a hard time seeing how Grevious' ship fits this description, though... it just seems to be different for the sake of being different, and pretty overpriced. I can't tell any difference in the Jedi Interceptor.

The AT-AT is a case where I totally get why they did it — it's the 40th Anniversary after all — and with the exception of the neck, the build is the best ever. But I also can't help but wish they had done a Rogue One AT-ACT or a Fallen Order AT-AT instead, as these would have given us more unique figs and a new variation on the walker. And the price inflation (nearly 50% in 5-6 years) is absurd. 

1 hour ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

There’s so much more they need to make but there’s plenty of time to make them

There's more they need to make, absolutely. But time? This is what concerns me. As the number of sets each year contracts (as it did from 2019 to 2020, and appears to again from 2020 to 2021), and we get further from the non-OT movies and shows, the less likely anything other than the same "core" sets is going to get made. LEGO will never stop making the same snow/land speeders, X-Wings, TIEs, walkers, Jedi starfighters, etc. that get recycled every few years. When we get to a point where there are only 10-12 proper system sets each year (which may well happen in 2021) most everything else will get pushed out of the margins, and just won't get made. 

[Balrogofmorgoth]

41 minutes ago, jdubbs said:

I don't mind repeats either, when the previous build was seriously lacking and the new one represents a substantial upgrade. I have a hard time seeing how Grevious' ship fits this description, though... it just seems to be different for the sake of being different, and pretty overpriced. I can't tell any difference in the Jedi Interceptor.

The AT-AT is a case where I totally get why they did it — it's the 40th Anniversary after all — and with the exception of the neck, the build is the best ever. But I also can't help but wish they had done a Rogue One AT-ACT or a Fallen Order AT-AT instead, as these would have given us more unique figs and a new variation on the walker. And the price inflation (nearly 50% in 5-6 years) is absurd. 

There's more they need to make, absolutely. But time? This is what concerns me. As the number of sets each year contracts (as it did from 2019 to 2020, and appears to again from 2020 to 2021), and we get further from the non-OT movies and shows, the less likely anything other than the same "core" sets is going to get made. LEGO will never stop making the same snow/land speeders, X-Wings, TIEs, walkers, Jedi starfighters, etc. that get recycled every few years. When we get to a point where there are only 10-12 proper system sets each year (which may well happen in 2021) most everything else will get pushed out of the margins, and just won't get made. 

After building the Jedi Interceptor, I have to say the build is very different from the previous version. It’s structured differently, and looks more accurate because of it. Pictures don’t really do it justice, but in hand it’s very nice

[BrickBob Studpants]

39 minutes ago, jdubbs said:

When we get to a point where there are only 10-12 proper system sets each year (which may well happen in 2021) most everything else will get pushed out of the margins, and just won't get made. 

This sounds like there are quite a few non-system sets. I assume Microfighters, more helmets and 4+ sets? 

44 minutes ago, jdubbs said:

LEGO will never stop making the same snow/land speeders, X-Wings, TIEs, walkers, Jedi starfighters, etc. that get recycled every few years.

I don't mind remakes, as long as there's at least a 3-year gap in-between. So another Snowspeeder would be really annoying since we've just had a 4+ version this year and the 20th anniversary version last year. At least most of the usual suspects are still on shelves, so the remakes in the upcoming wave should be based on sets we haven't seen in a while 

[jdubbs]

15 minutes ago, Lego-Freak said:

This sounds like there are quite a few non-system sets. I assume Microfighters, more helmets and 4+ sets? 

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment. 

[TeddytheSpoon]

3 hours ago, T21Typhoon said:

Has anyone in the U.K. had any success acquiring the 501st and AAT sets? I’m aiming to order them from Shop@Home but they’ve been out of stock since August 1st. Funnily the Death Star Final Duel set was also OOS but was restocked recently.

AAT yes - although I picked up the last one from John Lewis, which had a pretty sparse selection.

As for the 501st... No chance. I spoke to someone in a LEGO store who said that they'd ordered another 3 batches of 50 odd sets each after they sold out of the initial order, and they all went before the day was out. Even some of the employees can't get their hands on them. I was told the best bet is to check S@H to see when it changes from out of stock to on back-order and check LEGO stores the next day, as that's when the orders get sent out.

[MGS6735]

1 hour ago, jdubbs said:

When we get to a point where there are only 10-12 proper system sets each year (which may well happen in 2021) most everything else will get pushed out of the margins, and just won't get made. 

I hope not, but I won't be surprised if we get there. But like @Balrogofmorgoth said, this isn't the worst thing because it will allow us to get the sets we want easier due to the smaller selection. As long all the sets aren't remakes of the usual things, that is. I already have Snowspeeders, X-Wings, and TIE Fighters. If they are only going to be remaking those sets constantly and they are the only sets released, I won't have a reason to keep collecting Lego Star Wars because the medium can only get so good.

[Redroe]

27 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

AAT yes - although I picked up the last one from John Lewis, which had a pretty sparse selection.

As for the 501st... No chance. I spoke to someone in a LEGO store who said that they'd ordered another 3 batches of 50 odd sets each after they sold out of the initial order, and they all went before the day was out. Even some of the employees can't get their hands on them. I was told the best bet is to check S@H to see when it changes from out of stock to on back-order and check LEGO stores the next day, as that's when the orders get sent out.

Amazon is the only place I've found either, and that was limited AAT's. 501st was on two months shipping time and now is on none at all. Argos show 501st as in stock but not available to deliver to my postcode, and not in store for 120 miles......

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 hour ago, jdubbs said:

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment. 

Figured as much  

[Redroe]

24 minutes ago, Lego-Freak said:

Figured as much  

This is just wild speculation but the current license expires in 2022 does it not? While non-renewal seems like a complete doomsday scenario might they be renewing under a rather reduced arrangement and winding down a bit now the Disney hype has passed.

[azzer86]

5 hours ago, T21Typhoon said:

Has anyone in the U.K. had any success acquiring the 501st and AAT sets? I’m aiming to order them from Shop@Home but they’ve been out of stock since August 1st. Funnily the Death Star Final Duel set was also OOS but was restocked recently.

I was lucky and got 2x 501st from Amazon. 

My wife has ordered me the AAT from Amazon but it's up to 2 months for delivery (luckily my bday is Dec so I can wait). I did tell her to order it from Smyth's - it's still in stock online there. Act fast 

[jdubbs]

17 minutes ago, Redroe said:

This is just wild speculation but the current license expires in 2022 does it not? While non-renewal seems like a complete doomsday scenario might they be renewing under a rather reduced arrangement and winding down a bit now the Disney hype has passed.

I believe both Hasbro's and LEGO's Star Wars/Marvel licenses were renewed in the last year.

[lego_guyon02]

9 minutes ago, jdubbs said:

I believe both Hasbro's and LEGO's Star Wars/Marvel licenses were renewed in the last year.

Afaik that was only Hasbro, I haven't heard anything about LEGO's licenses  

[storskogen]

4 hours ago, josebricks said:

I have it at 36cm/14.5in from where the tail hits the wall and the landing gear sits on my shelf :)

Thanks @josebricks, much appreciated! My shelves are 30 cm deep, so I’ll have to either mod the landing gear or get larger shelves. I would preferably exclude the option of not buying the set :D

[TheScaryDoor]

1 hour ago, Redroe said:

This is just wild speculation but the current license expires in 2022 does it not? While non-renewal seems like a complete doomsday scenario might they be renewing under a rather reduced arrangement and winding down a bit now the Disney hype has passed.

I also red that the license last untit 2022. I think it will be renewed. As for now the new Star Wars Trilogy will start in 2023.

[dvogon]

I guess for Lego renewing the SW license is a no brainer.

Edited September 6, 2020 by dvogon

[Mandalorianknight]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:19 PM, Sneakguest said:

I hope that you have taken some drastic measures like heaviliy police escorts and closed down airports (if your local corona measurement haven't already taken this precautions. 

I'll be buying an underground bunker in new zealand to store the baby yoda fig. 

5 hours ago, Lego-Freak said:

This sounds like there are quite a few non-system sets. I assume Microfighters, more helmets and 4+ sets? 

I don't mind remakes, as long as there's at least a 3-year gap in-between. So another Snowspeeder would be really annoying since we've just had a 4+ version this year and the 20th anniversary version last year. At least most of the usual suspects are still on shelves, so the remakes in the upcoming wave should be based on sets we haven't seen in a while 

Similar thing here. Getting another anakin's interceptor doesn't annoy me too much as it's a hero ship and it's been 6 years. But the constant landspeeders and snowspeeders are annoying, like you said.

@jdubbs I believe said that the april 2021 wave won't be system sets, which would lead to the idea that the helmets would come back.

4 hours ago, MGS6735 said:

I hope not, but I won't be surprised if we get there. But like @Balrogofmorgoth said, this isn't the worst thing because it will allow us to get the sets we want easier due to the smaller selection. As long all the sets aren't remakes of the usual things, that is. I already have Snowspeeders, X-Wings, and TIE Fighters. If they are only going to be remaking those sets constantly and they are the only sets released, I won't have a reason to keep collecting Lego Star Wars because the medium can only get so good.

I agree. We definitely don't need massive onslaughts of sets, and smaller selections can be good because we can get everything we want. I would say that the x-wings, snowspeeders, and TIE fighters need to be remade every few years so kids can get them, but you're right in that the snowspeeder and x-wings at least are new-constant. The tie fighter is a bit different, as unlike x-wings TIES have a huge amount of design variance, so it makes sense that we'd have so many.

[Frizzlefry25]

Finally got my Razorcrest order yesterday, and after building it, really have few complaints especially for a non UCS. It was a fun build, looks great on the shelf, and the emptiness on the inside really doesn't bother me. The pictures make it look so huge, but as it is not the biggest build in the world, if you put a few figs in there its basically full.

I was worried I made a mistake after some reviews (especially as I mainly buy UCS, or build UCS sized MOC's, but it gets my vote!

The only thing I think they should have included was Kuill, and a Blurrg! The Blurrg could have filled the space, and Kuill would have completed the main characters who were in the Razorcrest at one point or another.

[BrickBob Studpants]

3 hours ago, dvogon said:

I guess for Lego renewing the SW license is a no brainer.

There’s no way the license will not be renewed  Or imagine going to a store during Force Friday 2023 and seeing MegaConstrux sets based on the new movie  

[wesker]

Not sure how I feel about having a smaller selection of sets next year. It will be a lot easier on the wallet but the downside is that all the non-OT content is going to be stretched pretty thin.

[MGS6735]

48 minutes ago, wesker said:

Not sure how I feel about having a smaller selection of sets next year. It will be a lot easier on the wallet but the downside is that all the non-OT content is going to be stretched pretty thin.

That's my main concern also. I can't think of much that I want for new OT sets besides a couple of TIE Fighter variant remakes (the ones we haven't seen in system scale recently) and a couple of small to medium-sized vehicles that I would like new versions of. More or less everything else on my wanted list is from the PT and CW, and if we only get a dozen or so system sets next year with the current amount of OT stuff we're receiving, the chances of any of getting them are rather slim. CW S7 just came out this year, so the potential of new CW sets is getting less and less as time progresses.

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

The tie fighter is a bit different, as unlike x-wings TIES have a huge amount of design variance, so it makes sense that we'd have so many.

I was referring specifically to the basic Imperial TIE Fighter (probably should have clarified that), but I do agree we need some variants. The X-Wing and Snowspeeder are different because it is basically an updated version of the same thing every time it comes out. If they only made basic TIEs I'd lump them in there too. I hope that if we continue to get TIEs frequently, we don't get new versions of the basic TIE repeatedly, but rather some remakes of the older TIE variants. There will eventually need to be remakes of the X-Wing and Snowspeeder like you said, but they don't need to come out at nearly the pace they have been in recent years.

5 hours ago, TheScaryDoor said:

I also red that the license last untit 2022. I think it will be renewed. As for now the new Star Wars Trilogy will start in 2023.

I did a bit of digging and that seems to be the current end date of the license.

[Kit Figsto]

5 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I believe said that the april 2021 wave won't be system sets, which would lead to the idea that the helmets would come back.

Purely anecdotal, but at least in my neck of the woods, these seem to be selling really well.  I've seen the Stormtrooper on shelves a few places, only seen Fett once, haven't seen the TIE pilot at all.  There's so much potential, Vader and a biker scout seem logical next, I'm not sure if the typical prequel fan demographic is as into the display pieces, but they could at least do a Phase I or Phase II clone, I'm not sure if a Snowtrooper is doable just because they have that kind of cowl thing that makes it a bit larger than a normal helmet, but I'm curious to see if this continues, because I think it has potential.

My region as a whole actually seems to buy a lot of anything remotely cool, though.  Mando Battle Packs are still scarce, haven't even caught a whiff of the AAT or 501st, the Helmets have been selling well, haven't seen the AT-AT either...

3 hours ago, Lego-Freak said:

There’s no way the license will not be renewed  Or imagine going to a store during Force Friday 2023 and seeing MegaConstrux sets based on the new movie  

At this point I feel like LEGO and Star Wars are almost synonymous.  There's a lot of overlap between fans of both, and now we're at a point where people have grown up having licensed LEGO their entire life, where a lot of these people didn't grow up with Star Wars action figures, but SW minifigures.  Behind the Hasbro toys, I think LEGO SW stuff is probably the second most popular among either people who collect or just casually buy the SW stuff.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Kit Figsto

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

At this point I feel like LEGO and Star Wars are almost synonymous.  There's a lot of overlap between fans of both, and now we're at a point where people have grown up having licensed LEGO their entire life, where a lot of these people didn't grow up with Star Wars action figures, but SW minifigures.  Behind the Hasbro toys, I think LEGO SW stuff is probably the second most popular among either people who collect or just casually buy the SW stuff.

At least from my experience, I'd go even further; lego star wars is more popular than the action figures nowadays. My neighbors kids all have legos, but I don't believe they have action figures. When I was younger, all my friends had the lego star wars sets, but only one or two had the action figures. Looking at the shelves supports this too. The lego star wars sets have about a quarter aisle at my target, the action figures usually have a few pegs next to the masks and toy sabers. A big part of this might be how the figures are sold nowadays: with the good ones being $20 each, it really restricts a kid's selection. Compare this to legos, where you can currently get four clones, two droids, and two vehicles for $30. (of course smaller, and with a bit less articulation).

 

Built the bespin duel and razor crest, and I have to say they both exceeded my expectations. The razor crest is a solid build structurally and a pretty dang large ship, and it looks much better in person than it does in images. The interior is certainly bare and there are a few other areas begging to be modded, but overall it's well worth the price. A few more random things:

I can definitely see how it was originally a gunship in-universe, I have a slight urge to try and make a concept build for what it could have originally looked like. 

There's no way that the escape pod is from canon, right? I know the alien in the first episode mentions one, but there's no way it's where it is on the build.

As for the bespin duel, I honestly believe it's one of the greatest lego sets of all time, certainly the greatest one under $100, and seriously hope that lego realizes this and makes more sets in it's vein.

[Kit Figsto]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

At least from my experience, I'd go even further; lego star wars is more popular than the action figures nowadays. My neighbors kids all have legos, but I don't believe they have action figures. When I was younger, all my friends had the lego star wars sets, but only one or two had the action figures. Looking at the shelves supports this too. The lego star wars sets have about a quarter aisle at my target, the action figures usually have a few pegs next to the masks and toy sabers. A big part of this might be how the figures are sold nowadays: with the good ones being $20 each, it really restricts a kid's selection. Compare this to legos, where you can currently get four clones, two droids, and two vehicles for $30. (of course smaller, and with a bit less articulation).

That could very well be true, I'm legitimately not sure.  LEGO seems to have more offerings out than Hasbro figures, since most of Hasbro's stuff these days seems to be more collector-focused (the Vintage collection is like $13 per figure and Black Series is roughly $20.  I very, very casually will check the figures, though I almost never buy, and I've noticed that stores seem to get one or two cases in at a time, sell out fairly quickly of the popular figures, and then don't really get much in for a little while), and gets re-stocked constantly, there isn't necessarily that rarity that you find in a lot of other collecting niches, it's more rarity once the set retires, whereas other collectibles are rarer to track down initially.  Although, if you count Funko Pops as action figures, those seem to be all the rage these days.  I agree though, I think a lot of action figure collectors tend to be actually older, especially since a lot of the characters being made are really collector focused in terms of having a ton of details and accessories, or even some breakable/fragile parts.  I know that they'll make some cheaper small figures, but they tend to get pushed to the back burner.

Anyway, point is, both Lucasfilm and LEGO would be pretty crazy to not renew that licensing, even if Harry Potter may have surpassed it at the moment, I would definitely think it's a safe bet that it's their most successful licensing partnership in terms of actual money made by quite a bit.  They've built something that managed to rival what was basically 25 years of the most successful licensing/merchandising effort of all time with Star Wars figures.

[Redroe]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

There's no way that the escape pod is from canon, right? I know the alien in the first episode mentions one, but there's no way it's where it is on the build.

Any comment on how easily that escape pod might be removed and modded to make a second (first) floor of useful accomodation?