Lego SW encyclopedia in April: is it worth it ?

[macaron35]

In April, DK Books will be releasing the LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: New Edition

has it been some previous versions ? is it worth the purchase ?

 

thanks

[Daddy_Stardust]

Well the last one went up to Rebels in 2015, so presumably this one includes additional Rebels figures released since that book was released along with Force Awakens, Freemakers, Last Jedi, Resistance, Solo, Rise of Skywalker, Mandalorian and any of the figures released for the prequels, Clone Wars, OT and expanded universe ever since too. 

So that should be a fairly largely amount of additional content, especially as it's a lot more than just a figure catalogue, it goes into trivia about the characters, the parts and prints used etc.

Plus I'm really liking that Crimson Dawn Maul. About time we got another character from Solo and he'll go perfectly with my Crimson Dawn characters:

 

 

Edit - My own post just justified my purchase, just pre-ordered it haha.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Daddy_Stardust

[Daddy_Stardust]

Ok so just got hold of the book... a few weird random observations.

It goes as far as The Rise of Skywalker, but only a few of its figures are included.

Although TROS figures were released in October, it still features the hideous old visor-less pointy-nosed Scout Trooper helmet as its representation of the Scout Trooper even though it was replaced with the new helmet in April? It has the new Stormtrooper helmet, yet only the old Sandtrooper helmet, even though it came out January last year.

No Mandalorian material, Resistance (other than a picture of Vonreg's TIE on General Leia's page), Sandspeeder pilots, Freemakers or Battlefront's Inferno Squad.

Page 14 calls a battle droid a "clone commander", page 29 says "imperial symbol" instead of "republic symbol" and page 129 says "imperial uniforms come in black, dark and light grey, dark and light tan, and blue..." (in reference to officers, not troopers), I'm sorry when did the last two happen? Come on, proof-reading guys! 

It's a nice enough update and the Crimson Dawn Maul figure is a lovely little guy (great to have a new and important Solo figure with movie-exclusive prints, although would have probably preferred Dryden Vos if given the choice since Maul's had so many figures at this point), but feels like it really rushes on the more recent material from 2019 with some bizarre omissions. Would have really liked Freemakers in there, not that we watch the show or even collect them, but as a Lego production would have liked them to have included some insight into a few things like how they designed the characters and basing the Tracker 1 on a TIE Phantom etc in their little vehicle feature sections.

[Mandalorianknight]

8 minutes ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

Ok so just got hold of the book... a few weird random observations.

It goes as far as The Rise of Skywalker, but only a few of its figures are included.

Although TROS figures were released in October, it still features the hideous old visor-less pointy-nosed Scout Trooper helmet as its representation of the Scout Trooper even though it was replaced with the new helmet in April? It has the new Stormtrooper helmet, yet only the old Sandtrooper helmet, even though it came out January last year.

No Mandalorian material, Resistance (other than a picture of Vonreg's TIE on General Leia's page), Sandspeeder pilots, Freemakers or Battlefront's Inferno Squad.

Page 14 calls a battle droid a "clone commander", page 29 says "imperial symbol" instead of "republic symbol" and page 129 says "imperial uniforms come in black, dark and light grey, dark and light tan, and blue..." (in reference to officers, not troopers), I'm sorry when did the last two happen? Come on, proof-reading guys! 

not to mention the fact that all of the real information there can be found on bricklink. It's basically $20 for a crimson dawn maul figure, unless you've got a kid to give it to, so I'll wait to see the figure on bricklink.

[Daddy_Stardust]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

not to mention the fact that all of the real information there can be found on bricklink. It's basically $20 for a crimson dawn maul figure, unless you've got a kid to give it to, so I'll wait to see the figure on bricklink.

My boy's 10 and really enjoys the books and it was his birthday last Friday so this was a slightly late bonus present, so it was a worthwhile purchase for him to enjoy flicking through, he often finds ones that he thinks are cool and wants me to track down and add to his collection.

But if it wasn't for him, I'd totally have waited for Bricklink!

Edited March 19, 2020 by Daddy_Stardust

[Mandalorianknight]

3 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

My boy's 10 and really enjoys the books and it was his birthday last Friday so this was a slightly late bonus present, so it was a worthwhile purchase for him to enjoy flicking through, he often finds ones that he thinks are cool and wants me to track down and add to his collection.

But if it wasn't for him, I'd totally have waited for Bricklink!

My only worry is given the aforementioned fact that the book itself only has any worth if you have a kid (happy birthday to yours, by the way), maul will still be about $20 on bricklink.

[TeufelHund]

Book is pretty disappointing as it only goes up to the first wave of the RotS sets despite being released months into 2020. Also would have loved a minifig lineup like in the Ultimate Lego Star Wars book because many figure variations are missing here. A decent book for kids I guess but otherwise not really worth the bother.

Edited April 7, 2020 by TeufelHund