Unpopular Opinions related to Lego Star Wars

[Mandalorianknight]

4 hours ago, Archer said:

Here my unpopular opinion. People who complain about updates to figs "ruining" their army, or "forcing" them to restart their army building are whiney and its just obnoxious. Nobody is telling you to go out and amass 1000+ clones / stormtroopers, its a completely personal goal. Right now you see it with the 501st Battlepack, People are amassing ungodly amounts of the set. I would get a bit of sick pleasure if they were to release a 501st clone with armprint or dual molding next year. 

Yup. Figure designs get updated, that's how progression works. If you were expecting lego would never change the print from the 2013 501st trooper, that's on you.

[Kit Figsto]

6 hours ago, Archer said:

Also, while I think everyone does have a right to buy as much as they want of a set, the people who are amassing certain sets by the double digits, including several youtubers who are just using unopened sets as set dressing at the moment are causing the scarcity as much as the scalpers are. It's certainly not as bad as scalping sets, but because of it, I seriously doubt there are many children who have a 501st BP right now due to the craze of hunting these things down to extinction faster than the dodo bird.

I agree totally here.  I mean, I know I'm going to be able to find the sets eventually, but it's getting a bit ridiculous how much these are being hoarded, specifically the AAT or 501st.  Legitimately every Target, Walmart, and Kohl's within a 30 mile radius is sold out and has been for close to a month now. 

[MaximillianRebo]

Personally I don't get the appeal of army building. If you have plans to build a big battle setting that makes sense, but a lot of the time it seems to be just rows upon rows of figures lined up on baseplates. Maybe it's because I don't have a huge amount of money to spend on Lego so I'd rather get a variety of what's available rather than umpteen of the same box.

[Csaba]

18 hours ago, Archer said:

It's certainly not as bad as scalping sets, but because of it, I seriously doubt there are many children who have a 501st BP right now due to the craze of hunting these things down to extinction faster than the dodo bird.

Ecologist here. The extinction of the dodo has more to do with the introduction of rats than humans hunting them. Sorry, couldn't let that one pass 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Csaba

[Mr. Cube]

14 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Yup. Figure designs get updated, that's how progression works. If you were expecting lego would never change the print from the 2013 501st trooper, that's on you.

I don´t think that anybody expected that old 2013 501st trooper. But army builders expected that LEGO will release new 501st troopers with better printing, using existing visor design (used before for Phase II clones, Kashyyyk troopers, Commander Gree, 212th Battalion, Geonosis troopers and Clone Gunners). Instead of that, they made completely new design.

[Archer]

5 hours ago, Mr. Cube said:

I don´t think that anybody expected that old 2013 501st trooper. But army builders expected that LEGO will release new 501st troopers with better printing, using existing visor design (used before for Phase II clones, Kashyyyk troopers, Commander Gree, 212th Battalion, Geonosis troopers and Clone Gunners). Instead of that, they made completely new design.

No one expected the CW styled printing, but expecting the 501st version of those 2014 prints is in a sense an expectation of things not changing. Don't get me wrong I wish they would leave it alone so everything matched, but its just not Legos way of it. Look at the Ep I Anikan printing, 2019 print was slightly altered from the 2015 print, not better not worse but for some reason they altered it.

Edit: I'll add the Rebel Hoth Troopers and poor Snowspeeder Pilots to the list of weirdly altered figs. Hoth troopers from 2016 are IMO more accurate than 2019, and Lego has decided that they no longer distinguish between Snowspeeder and X-Wing Pilots despite almost a decade of doing so, and despite a perfectly good existing print. For better or worse Lego will always change things.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Archer

[jimmynick]

I think my most unpopular opinion about the theme is that the best clone troopers are the original Phase I ones.

[Paul11283652]

Another one I just thought of.

The rate of Landspeeders and Snowspeeders is nowhere near as common as everyone thinks. According to Brickset, there has only been 4 Landspeeders since 2004 and it had been 3 years since the last Snowspeeder before the 2019, apart from the UCS version. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Paul11283652
Forgot 2010

[MAB]

17 minutes ago, Paul11283652 said:

Another one I just thought of.

The rate of Landspeeders and Snowspeeders is nowhere near as common as everyone thinks. According to Brickset, there has only been 3 Landspeeders since 2004 and it had been 3 years since the last Snowspeeder before the 2019, apart from the UCS version.

Presumably you mean LUKE's landspeeder, and minifigure scale (so not the teeny ones from advent calendars or comics). Even so, there have been five:

4501 2004

8092 2010

75052 2014

75173 2017

75271 2020

Plus the 2012 comic con mini one.

 

Edit: PS. these are on brickset if you use the X-34 tag ...  https://brickset.com/sets/tag-X-34-Landspeeder

Edited September 9, 2020 by MAB
added brickset tag

[azzer86]

Too much printing on a minifig can look horrible.

I don't like the over detailed figures in the UCS star destroyer set because if unnecessary. Arm printing yes, all the extra creases etc, no thanks.

[Daddy_Stardust]

2 hours ago, azzer86 said:

Too much printing on a minifig can look horrible.

I don't like the over detailed figures in the UCS star destroyer set because if unnecessary. Arm printing yes, all the extra creases etc, no thanks.

I do certainly agree on that, there are some custom figures that just go too ridiculous with all the front and side printing on the feet and legs and hands and arms etc.

Don't get me wrong, a little bit of added detail here and there looks tremendous (I can't stand completely plain legs) and am a big supporter of things like Firestar Toys and their lovely custom arms, but there's a certain degree of simplified caricature that actually makes a minfig a minifig. These aren't 'Black Series' realistically sculpted poseable action figures; these are cute little Lego people who will always have stumpy bodies, square feet, clips for hands and silly faces. I think when you push it too far in capturing every intricate detail down to the sides of the shoes it ceases to have that sweet Lego charm anymore.

 

But on that note... here's a zinger of an opinion!

I literally don't understand those who are complete purists when it comes to customising existing minifigures or creating all-new ones with only original Lego parts.

If there's a third party out there who makes a more accurate head, torso, legs, weapons, arms, hair piece, headgear or whatever (hell even a whole custom figure if they do them), and it's of a decent quality that would pass for real Lego (or close enough)? Just indulge, stop caring so much! 

There's a whole squadron of multiracial and mix-gendered X-Wing pilot heads on FST (among many other great heads and custom figures), you can get a Darth Nihil (hell you only need the head, which you can stick onto real Lego) off eBay for like $1, Clone Army Customs and Arealight make some great helmets, Brickarms do excellent weapons, Si-Dan can suit up your Death Troopers with actual shoulder pouches, capes4minifigs are there to dress up your little warriors for a big night out (especially in the great new Mandalorian cape-shape) etc. 

You don't only wear one brand of clothing, so your minifigs don't have to either! Let your OCD go and just get shopping haha 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Daddy_Stardust

[Curbthetide]

10195 is one of my favorite sets, and I agree that it does need to be updated.  The walker is particularly bad; it doesn't look good on its own.  It suffers from a lack of detail, I'm assuming this is because they were trying to keep the part count and price point down.  The dropship is a little more detailed, but could use some more greebling.  I've been waiting for them to remake this set in the same way they remade the Y-wing and Millennium Falcon, but from what I've seen so far it's not even rumored to be re-released.  All things considered, it is a big, sexy set but has not aged well and needs a serious update.  

[Archer]

17 hours ago, Daddy_Stardust said:

But on that note... here's a zinger of an opinion!

I literally don't understand those who are complete purists when it comes to customising existing minifigures or creating all-new ones with only original Lego parts.

If there's a third party out there who makes a more accurate head, torso, legs, weapons, arms, hair piece, headgear or whatever (hell even a whole custom figure if they do them), and it's of a decent quality that would pass for real Lego (or close enough)? Just indulge, stop caring so much! 

There's a whole squadron of multiracial and mix-gendered X-Wing pilot heads on FST (among many other great heads and custom figures), you can get a Darth Nihil (hell you only need the head, which you can stick onto real Lego) off eBay for like $1, Clone Army Customs and Arealight make some great helmets, Brickarms do excellent weapons, Si-Dan can suit up your Death Troopers with actual shoulder pouches, capes4minifigs are there to dress up your little warriors for a big night out (especially in the great new Mandalorian cape-shape) etc. 

You don't only wear one brand of clothing, so your minifigs don't have to either! Let your OCD go and just get shopping haha 

There are a multitude of reasons, the easiest being it's a "Lego" collection, so people want real "Lego," To many using non lego is "cheating".

But then it comes to looks and personal taste, even within the legit lego products there was some pushback when minifigs turned to flesh color, when guns got more realistic, when molds and prints got more and more detailed. Many, and I'd say most welcomed these changes but there will always be people who prefer the simpler stuff. That leads the fact that most custom stuff is hyper realistic, or overly detailed (when compared to Legos actual designs) which often sticks out like a sore thumb in a collection. Many of the custom clones have a ridiculous amount of fiddly cloth bits that just imo overcomplicate the figure, I'm collecting Lego, not the Hasbro Black Series.

I will say though if anything is going to make me break my purist streak it will be the arealight Cody Helmet, area ight and firestar do seem to mostly try and match legos asthetic.

 

 

[JintaiZ]

I think UCS sets should be large sets instead of Small Sets. (Please don't get me started on Assault on Hoth)

If I'm being entirely honest, I'm not opposed to UCS playsets. Death Star and Ewok Village were both really nice sets.

However, UCS sets should be accurate in my opinion, and Assault on Hoth isn't the most accurate one...

[Kit Figsto]

On 9/9/2020 at 12:47 PM, azzer86 said:

Too much printing on a minifig can look horrible.

I don't like the over detailed figures in the UCS star destroyer set because if unnecessary. Arm printing yes, all the extra creases etc, no thanks.

I agree with this, I think a lot of obsession with dual molding or arm printing gets a little over the top.  I think at times it's really nice, like in the case of Boba Fett with printed arms and legs, but there are other times when it's just printing for the sake of printing.  I don't think we need every single fold in the fabric represented.  If it's a character that has very distinct armor or whatever, by all means, print it, but otherwise, it just seems like too much.

Like, take the last two MBS sets for example.  People want Greedo to have arm printing.  That one I agree with because he had a distinct jacket sleeve print that would look nice.  However, people also wanted more arm printing or dual molded legs for every other character when it's just not as necessary.  Dual molded legs on Han might be nice but the figure isn't terrible without them.  Similarly, with Cloud City or even the Star Destroyer, I saw some people wanting dual molded legs on Vader or the Imperial Officers, which is just unnecessary.  With Vader, you wouldn't even be able to tell, it's black boots on black legs, how are they going to make that more detailed (honestly the leg printing on that figure is unnecessary to me as well, it's fine but it's just printing for the sake of printing to me)?  With the Imperial Officers (and most figures, for that matter) I feel like if the character doesn't have distinct footwear, having dual molded legs just makes it look off, especially if you've got a stark contrast between gray and then suddenly black on the lower half of the legs.  With Han in Cloud City, it's fine because it's dark brown and black, plus the boots are noticeable in the movie.  With Imperial Officers, I have no idea what footwear they have on and I don't think it's distinct enough to warrant a dual mold.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Kit Figsto

[Commander_Rob]

On 9/11/2020 at 9:34 PM, Kit Figsto said:

With Imperial Officers, I have no idea what footwear they have on and I don't think it's distinct enough to warrant a dual mold.

With very few exceptions, knee-high black riding boots. Our man Capatin Needa demonstrates:

A pretty distinctive part of the costume, I think, and perfectly represented by some dark bley/black dual-moulded legs.

[MAB]

Plus dual moulding is essential for those characters since they don't wear capes. I'm not a fan where decoration is printed on the front and sides but not the back, whether it is footwear or tunic. If they wear a cape at least it can be covered.

[LurkingEhlek]

While there is more to Star Wars than X-Wings and Ties I will go on the flip side and say that I am just as close to Clone Wars burnout and am happy we are getting a wave long break from it.

The Clone Wars has been guilty of dominating Prequel content more than Hoth or Luke's Landspeeders ever have dominated OT content. I would love a Bounty Hunter Pursuit remake, more podrace sets, redone location duels and Wookiee vehicles. Instead Lego rehashes BARCS, Jedi Starfighters, and out of scale Clone Walkers yet they don't get a fraction of the criticism because they often come with a clone with a unique paint job.

I feel like the late TFOL and early AFOLs, particularly those who subscribe to Star Wars Youtubers, look at Lego Star Wars with a very strong good or bad with no in between mentality. I grew up with the Prequels and TCW, so I have just as fond of a nostalgia for the era. Yet there are others in my demographic that throw a fit if they do not get their fix of clone army building to line up on a base plate for Reddit/Instagram clout with all the sets they scalped.

[JekPorkchops]

2 hours ago, LurkingEhlek said:

While there is more to Star Wars than X-Wings and Ties I will go on the flip side and say that I am just as close to Clone Wars burnout and am happy we are getting a wave long break from it.

The Clone Wars has been guilty of dominating Prequel content more than Hoth or Luke's Landspeeders ever have dominated OT content.

This is an odd comparison. Hoth is definitely way too dominating, that is just one location (lots of AT-ATs, snowspeeders and white bricks, it gets boring pretty quickly). TCW as a subtheme offers so much that can be pulled from. The initial TCW waves mostly consisted of remakes of sets that were previously prequel sets, but they hadn't been released in quite a while. Then they focused more on the CW specific stuff, though they did not nearly reach the potential of what they could've done.

I don't see why you'd have a CW burnout now, there's only been 2 sets from season 7 and pretty much nothing in the last couple of years.

[LurkingEhlek]

11 minutes ago, JekPorkchops said:

This is an odd comparison. Hoth is definitely way too dominating, that is just one location (lots of AT-ATs, snowspeeders and white bricks, it gets boring pretty quickly). TCW as a subtheme offers so much that can be pulled from. The initial TCW waves mostly consisted of remakes of sets that were previously prequel sets, but they hadn't been released in quite a while. Then they focused more on the CW specific stuff, though they did not nearly reach the potential of what they could've done.

I don't see why you'd have a CW burnout now, there's only been 2 sets from season 7 and pretty much nothing in the last couple of years.

I am going to admit I was a little tired and did not articulate my thoughts in a good way, which is going to cause misinterpretation. When I said Clone Wars burnout, I did not necessarily mean The Clone Wars burnout.  I was trying to frame my point on Clone Wars era vehicles and not necessarily sets that are based on the show. That was my fault. It's actually the fact that Clone Wars sets are mostly remakes that irks me. I was going to extent my point to include Geonosis and Kashyyyk as offenders of over exposed battlegrounds but cut it for space. Kashyyyk in particular is a better comparison as the Prequels Hoth because how many camo troopers, droids and dwarf spider droids does one need.

I also agree with you about the Clone Wars not reaching potential, that is why I posted this opinion. There are some vehicles that would be good (A Trident Droid Sub, A red Mandalorian Starfighter, any Separatist warship), but I would still rather Lego tread new water with sets from the Prequel Films themselves (a remade Bounty Hunter Pursuit, A Yoda Sidious Senate duel, a Kamino landing platform battle, etc.) compared to stuff from a supplementary TV series.

[Kit Figsto]

20 hours ago, LurkingEhlek said:

I feel like the late TFOL and early AFOLs, particularly those who subscribe to Star Wars Youtubers, look at Lego Star Wars with a very strong good or bad with no in between mentality. I grew up with the Prequels and TCW, so I have just as fond of a nostalgia for the era. Yet there are others in my demographic that throw a fit if they do not get their fix of clone army building to line up on a base plate for Reddit/Instagram clout with all the sets they scalped.

I think you have a point, although I'd add that in addition to TCW vehicles, there's a few "staples" that we seem to get from the prequels, either the Naboo speeder or starfighter, and then there's those few Kashyyk sets that they seem to make every few years as well.

I also agree that there's a certain sect of fans who seem to view a wave as exclusively good or exclusively bad, which is annoying because I think waves like this past summer got a lot of hate (from fans of any trilogy) because it wasn't exclusively based around one era.   Everyone's more than entitled to hold an opinion, but I feel like there are some people who don't look at the other side of it.  OT fans don't necessarily get new and exciting things every year either, yes, in terms of volume there's typically more OT stuff but this year, for example, the only new system scale set that the OT got was Ben's hut.  

And the hoarding of sets get a bit ridiculous.  I see it all over Reddit or Youtube or whatever with people that buy like 50 of a battle pack (especially the AAT or 501st ones recently) and leave a bunch of them sealed anyway.  Why?  

[jimmynick]

2 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

Why?

To capitalize on FOMO and the generally increasing price of collectibles. The OG droids and clones packs go for for £30-40 BL in MISB condition, the 9488 is £50+ and the 8014 is £40. The S&P has 3 times the cap it had in 2007, so honing in on the right battle pack can offer a not-insubstantial ROI.

It does mean there are fewer for the rest of us, though

[JekPorkchops]

23 hours ago, LurkingEhlek said:

I am going to admit I was a little tired and did not articulate my thoughts in a good way, which is going to cause misinterpretation. When I said Clone Wars burnout, I did not necessarily mean The Clone Wars burnout.  I was trying to frame my point on Clone Wars era vehicles and not necessarily sets that are based on the show. That was my fault. It's actually the fact that Clone Wars sets are mostly remakes that irks me. I was going to extent my point to include Geonosis and Kashyyyk as offenders of over exposed battlegrounds but cut it for space. Kashyyyk in particular is a better comparison as the Prequels Hoth because how many camo troopers, droids and dwarf spider droids does one need.

I also agree with you about the Clone Wars not reaching potential, that is why I posted this opinion. There are some vehicles that would be good (A Trident Droid Sub, A red Mandalorian Starfighter, any Separatist warship), but I would still rather Lego tread new water with sets from the Prequel Films themselves (a remade Bounty Hunter Pursuit, A Yoda Sidious Senate duel, a Kamino landing platform battle, etc.) compared to stuff from a supplementary TV series.

I personally am not bothered by the fact that the early CW sets were remakes. Now, one reason is that I was a child so I did not yet have most of the movie versions of those vehicles. But even when I got for instance the CW Republic Gunship I still wanted the 2002 Gunship because it was slightly different and the minifigures were very different too of course. So from 2008 onwards I hoped to see many new CW vehicles but also CW remakes of PT sets. I just liked the distinction between animated ships and their minifig counterparts vs movie ships and minifigs.

Kashyyyk indeed seems like it is the Hoth of the prequel sets, yet it is still nowhere near as bad. They remake the clone vehicles way too much and of all troopers there is indeed an overflow of Kashyyyk camo clones (they are even more common than plain phase II clones), but they could still make some of the trees / Wookiee architecture and make remakes of the Wookiee vehicles. Those are long overdue.

[OCD_Chad]

I love remakes.  They mean I don't have to go to ebay/bricklink/etc. to get what I want.  I couldn't care less if the secondary market for complete sets is destroyed.

[Samppu]

On 9/13/2020 at 4:56 AM, Commander_Rob said:

With very few exceptions, knee-high black riding boots. Our man Capatin Needa demonstrates:

A pretty distinctive part of the costume, I think, and perfectly represented by some dark bley/black dual-moulded legs.

Yep, hail the double molded everything and excessive printing and detailed guns!  The more detailed, the better I think.

But this is the thread for the unpopular opinions after all. And if one wants to get rid off printing, it is generally relatively cheap to buy plain arms or legs or simply remove the printing quite easily. The other way around requires somewhat more effort and skill by using water decals, and the boots effect does not work with the decals anyway.

There is also such a thing in psychology of collecting that the new innovations face resistance by established collectors, because no one wants to feel their personal collection to lose value by the introduction of better competitors. However, there is nothing wrong with either policy, of course. Stick with the originals or go for the as detailed parts as possible, one decides. Though, some more influx of the more detailed parts, especially the double molded ones, would be helpful, as the originals can be found everywhere.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Samppu