LEGO Star Wars 2021 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[Pirean_Grammaticul]

like that lego's trying to fix the x-wing's nose but it seems they forgot the indent anyways lol, shouldn't be a hard fix; the leadup to it, however, could use some work, starting with a modification of the nose technique from 2004 to save 2 studs' space and get the flow right. back could've used the 2018 windscreen technique (which could really have saved parts and space ironically) but overall it's on the right path

tie on the other hand is just a microfighter promoted to $40: im fine with it but my only thoughts on it are that lego needs to get a 4X4 canopy out there: with how the hulkbuster this year turned out a 4X4 dish with clips would be more than welcome.

[BrickBob Studpants]

25 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Tons of new prints at least, and I can't tell if those are new molds for the gray on the x-wing engines? haven't seen those before.

They were introduced in the Minions theme 

I'm glad you guys enjoy these sets, but to me it's easily the worst wave since the inception of the theme. That may sound hyperbolic, but I can't think of any other wave that had this little to offer in terms of anything NEW. Not a single new mould, one recolored piece, only one new character, and a handful of prints. Great. Affordable X-Wings and TIE Fighters are nice, sure, but they're just so mindnumbingly BORING to people who've been there from the start. I know I'm not the target audience, but this is still a sad sight. I've mentioned this before, but can't wait for the affordable-sized Snowspeeder, Y-Wing, A-Wing, and ISD next summer  Oh, and a Landspeeder too, for good measure. Don't have any of those yet  

Yeah, I may be exaggerating a bit, but this is so utterly disappointing to me after the recent waves, which were very diverse in what they had to offer, instead of being this inexplicably laser-focused on the OT. I really thought they would continue like that rather than going 20 steps back.

[Kit Figsto]

1 hour ago, PreVizsla said:

I dont mind new "affordable-scale" sets personally,but i have a problem of them being all OT which excludes half a fan base.  And even if you are OT fan and you have ucs imperial shuttle and smaller shuttle Tydirium do you really need to spend 80$ on 3rd,4th of 5th shuttle which is smaller,uglier and bulkier? Also this is like 12th x-wing? And why are they rebooting the sets? All new recent fans either came back to LEGO cause of clone wars ending,mandalorian or little kids that grew up with sequels and there is like 1 set for them to buy from September of 2020 to maybe august of 2021 if that wave even gets a non ot set.

I think you're looking at it in too much of binary terms.  There's plenty of overlap between people that buy sets from all trilogies or movies, people don't necessarily stratify along trilogy lines.  Of course, there are some that heavily favor one era or type of set over another, but that's not representative of the entire consumer sector buying sets.  On the subject of the Shuttle, that was like 7-8 years ago, that set was due for a remake regardless.  In the time between then and now, there's a lot of people who either stopped or started collecting.  The last full-scale TIE was in 2018 for SOLO and cost $70.  I know that we don't know sales, but that had to put off a lot of customers.  Same deal with the X-Wing, that thing was getting close to $80 which is insane.  Even if someone is a kid, they've almost assuredly seen the OT and would recognize/want Luke's X-Wing, now it's actually affordable.

As far as the sets, I'm loving the TIE, it looks really good and the price point is perfect.  I would've liked to get a boarding ladder of some kind but that's sort of a minor critique at this point.  Love the protocol droid as well.  The X-Wing's back half looks incredible, the front looks kind of skinny to me but it's not terrible, I think it's just different than what I'm used to seeing with previous models.  The figure selection is great though, a rare Leia and brand new Dodonna will make that set appealing to a lot of people.

[JRBricks]

Can someone kindly point me to info on NI-L8 protocol droid? My limited Star Wars knowledge and lack of info on typical searches leads me to nothing lol. 

[Redroe]

It's almost funny to see that lovely, lovely X Wing at that lovely lovely price with the little box under it advertising that old, huge, ugly, sad, so sad £90 TRoS version.

[Mandalorianknight]

54 minutes ago, icm said:

*snip*

On the whole, then, this new one is a real improvement - even without looking at the lower price.  I think I'm gonna buy three, two for myself and one for a friend.  Plus one of the TIE fighters and one or two of the Han Solo microfighters.  And there's ANH Leia!  That's another figure I've been wanting that I now won't need to get from Bricklink for an arm and a leg.

Good breakdown. I agree with your assessment, it's an improvement even without taking the fact that it's half the price into account. I'm also going to have to summon a lot of willpower to not get this one. It looks so good and has great figures, but I have the 1999 and 2018 x-wings.

29 minutes ago, Lego-Freak said:

They were introduced in the Minions theme 

I'm glad you guys enjoy these sets, but to me it's easily the worst wave since the inception of the theme. That may sound hyperbolic, but I can't think of any other wave that had this little to offer in terms of anything NEW. Not a single new mould, one recolored piece, only one new character, and a handful of prints. Great. Affordable X-Wings and TIE Fighters are nice, sure, but they're just so mindnumbingly BORING to people who've been there from the start. I know I'm not the target audience, but this is still a sad sight. I've mentioned this before, but can't wait for the affordable-sized Snowspeeder, Y-Wing, A-Wing, and ISD next summer  Oh, and a Landspeeder too, for good measure. Don't have any of those yet  

Yeah, I may be exaggerating a bit, but this is so utterly disappointing to me after the recent waves, which were very diverse in what they had to offer, instead of being this inexplicably laser-focused on the OT. I really thought they would continue like that rather than going 20 steps back.

What set are they in? I looked up the theme and I don't see the part in either set.

I explained this about a half hour ago, but the reason these new sets are OT is because OT sells the best and is the most iconic, so to test the waters without risking complete failure of a set they're putting out the most iconic vehicles they have. I gurentee that the next system wave will have some prequel and sequel era sets, and if these sell well we'll start seeing arc-170s, vulture droids, and tri-fighters in this style.

This is also literally just 4 sets, 5 if you count the mandalorian, which is definately new material, so it's not like the summer wave that was something like 2-3 times as many sets.

12 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

I think you're looking at it in too much of binary terms.  There's plenty of overlap between people that buy sets from all trilogies or movies, people don't necessarily stratify along trilogy lines.  Of course, there are some that heavily favor one era or type of set over another, but that's not representative of the entire consumer sector buying sets.  On the subject of the Shuttle, that was like 7-8 years ago, that set was due for a remake regardless.  In the time between then and now, there's a lot of people who either stopped or started collecting.  The last full-scale TIE was in 2018 for SOLO and cost $70.  I know that we don't know sales, but that had to put off a lot of customers.  Same deal with the X-Wing, that thing was getting close to $80 which is insane.  Even if someone is a kid, they've almost assuredly seen the OT and would recognize/want Luke's X-Wing, now it's actually affordable.

As far as the sets, I'm loving the TIE, it looks really good and the price point is perfect.  I would've liked to get a boarding ladder of some kind but that's sort of a minor critique at this point.  Love the protocol droid as well.  The X-Wing's back half looks incredible, the front looks kind of skinny to me but it's not terrible, I think it's just different than what I'm used to seeing with previous models.  The figure selection is great though, a rare Leia and brand new Dodonna will make that set appealing to a lot of people.

As for your first part, completely agree. The whole idea that this wave is evidence of the "LeGo HatEs ThE pReQuElS" conspiracy is laughable, there are clear reasons that these sets were chosen, and it's not some sort of weird anti-clone wars prejudice, it's because they know these sets will sell.

As for the second part, I also agree. I do think the X-wing does a better job of this style than the TIE, but the TIE is still a good set. All it needed was a boarding ladder and/or a new, desirable figure to take it to the level of the x-wing.

5 minutes ago, JRBricks said:

Can someone kindly point me to info on NI-L8 protocol droid? My limited Star Wars knowledge and lack of info on typical searches leads me to nothing lol. 

According to wookiepedia, this is some hunting droid from an old comic, but...the droid in the TIE is clearly the RA-7 "death star droid". Not sure why it's called an NI-L8.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Mandalorianknight

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

Since the takeover we have only gotten OT rehashes and uninspiring sequel sets - in always the same colour schemes and style.

Say what you want but the prequels had lots of interesting and at least slightly more colourful designs. Since years we pretty much only get spider droid and Jedi Starfighters from Anakin Obi-Walker.

Not saying its TLG's fault - they are bound by the movies and some of the sets were indeed great (Ressistance Bomber, FO ST).

But yeah since TCW I dont feel like we got much colour or difference in sets. And no, putting lots of (dark) tan on grey sets doesnt help.
So why complain now? - this is at least this wave is a fresh chance in redesigns. And I think the last Tie was horrible, colour scheme, studs, weird proportions which used lots of studs but didnt fit the actual style at all.

Come to think of it - other than Kylos first shuttle I didnt get any proper set from the sequels...

Edited November 23, 2020 by Kim-Kwang-Seok

[Gontron]

The X-Wing looks fantastic, especially at the 50$ price point. The Tie Fighter still bugs me at its scale, but I'll wait for an in-depth review on it. 

[Ozkabot]

I'm genuinely impressed by the new X-Wing. In fact, I may even prefer it to the 2018 version! For all of 2018's details, 2021 is far sleeker and the wings seem more proportional too. Considering 2018 was a little oversized, any thoughts on whether this could actually be minifig scale?

TIE Fighter looks great too too. 2018 version in this case definitely seems more proportional, but there's something nice about this new scale that looks better with minifigs. Again, thoughts on how close this could be to minifig scale?

I honestly love this new direction. A £60 TIE Fighter and a £90 X-Wing that are intended as playsets and not UCS style sets is ridiculous. I hope we see a genuine soft-reboot of the Star Wars line and see some prequel era ships revisited in this manner too.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Ozkabot

[BrickBob Studpants]

Just now, Mandalorianknight said:

What set are they in? I looked up the theme and I don't see the part in either set.

They're part of the goggles 

Just now, Mandalorianknight said:

This is also literally just 4 sets, 5 if you count the mandalorian, which is definately new material, so it's not like the summer wave that was something like 2-3 times as many sets.

I know, but this doesn't lessen the blow for me. Just take any January wave of the last 6-7 years, remove the BPs, all non-OT stuff, and all the new moulds and minifigs introduced and you get basically this wave  This could have been a good wave if they did the same thing as usual, i.e. adding BPs + 3-4 sets based on new material. Don't tell me Mando S1 or TROS didn't have enough material 

[JintaiZ]

I'm pleasantly surprised by how good these sets are, especially considering the price. Now I'm just waiting for the imperial shuttle to be revealed...

[lego_guyon02]

Honestly pleasantly surprised with these sets. I'm saving up for different themes so I likely won't get any of these but they're pretty good. 

The MF Microfighter is whatever, we've had so many of those that it's getting really boring and old. I do like that this ANH Han figure is finally available in a cheap set! 

The X-Wing looks great, not all that different from previous iterations but a lot cheaper which is fantastic! Dont really care about the Luke figure but Dodonna looks good and it's great to see this Leia figure being reused from the Tantive.

The TIE Fighter may not have the most exciting figures but just like with the X-Wing it's great that there's finally a properly priced TIE. Minor nitpick is that those DBG balljoints really annoy me, would it really have been that hard to recolor those or just use clips? 

[BrickBob Studpants]

9 minutes ago, Guyon2002 said:

Minor nitpick is that those DBG balljoints really annoy me, would it really have been that hard to recolor those or just use clips? 

Good point. It couldn't have been that hard to recolour this part, especially in a useful colour like LBG  I wonder why they still don't do it. Maybe it has something to do with color-coding (like pins)

[Makin Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Lego-Freak said:

Good point. It couldn't have been that hard to recolour this part, especially in a useful colour like LBG  I wonder why they still don't do it. Maybe it has something to do with color-coding (like pins)

I suspect that's exactly the case since all of the recent towball parts have been DBG, with all the recent sockets being done in LBG

[TeddytheSpoon]

47 minutes ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Since the takeover we have only gotten OT rehashes and uninspiring sequel sets - in always the same colour schemes and style.

Say what you want but the prequels had lots of interesting and at least slightly more colourful designs. Since years we pretty much only get spider droid and Jedi Starfighters from Anakin Obi-Walker.

This is demonstrably untrue. Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012, remember.

As for the colours, I think it's only really TPM where you can make the argument the prequels were more colourful than the OT. Monochrome and muted colours are a big part of the Star Wars lived-in aesthetic, there's no getting around that fact in LEGO sets.

Anyway - now seen TIE pics, it looks great. I haven't picked up a TIE of any kind since 2006 (!!) so I'm super excited to pick this one up. I'm not sure why they didn't just use clips instead of the towball joints though. Unless there's a slight misalignment that prevents it that'll be the first change I make when I grab it.

[ginja]

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised with what they managed at the price point. And I have to say I really welcome this move and if it is a soft reboot of sorts, I'm hoping that the future sets will focus on scale. The a wing and snowspeeders in particular are always over sized in my opinion.

Xwing- though I appreciate the improvements, the engines sticking out from the wings for instance, am I the only one that finds it kinda ugly? Maybe it will grow on me. But I'm not a fan and much prefer the 2018 version. Which is not to say it isn't a fantastic set at a great price point.

 

The tie. Anyone feel the missed the ball on this. Its almost a perfect recreation of the ties in rebels. They could have made that explicit, and the design choices would have been perfect.

[Artizan]

1 hour ago, mediumsnowman said:

I am intrigued by the Lambda shuttle, but I do not have high hopes after seeing the X-Wing and TIE Fighter in this scale. Hopefully it includes a new Imperial officer rank or something similar.

Very unlikely since all officers from Return of the Jedi wore the same insignia.

[Brikkyy13]

Massive step in the right direction for LEGO Star Wars here. Sets were getting too many parts for smaller builds, the value for money had really gone down in the last few years. I still reckon they can get these sets smaller and more affordable, anyone who says that they’d be “too small” can go away because they are toys. As long as you can fit the figures in and they don’t look out of place the ships are the right size. My dream is that one day we’ll see a line of sets akin to the TIE Advanced in the Death Star.

 

Anyone else notice that the X-Wing doesn’t have its landing gear retracted on the box? I hope that they didn’t remove that play feature.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

7 minutes ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

This is demonstrably untrue. Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012, remember.

As for the colours, I think it's only really TPM where you can make the argument the prequels were more colourful than the OT. Monochrome and muted colours are a big part of the Star Wars lived-in aesthetic, there's no getting around that fact in LEGO sets.

Anyway - now seen TIE pics, it looks great. I haven't picked up a TIE of any kind since 2006 (!!) so I'm super excited to pick this one up. I'm not sure why they didn't just use clips instead of the towball joints though. Unless there's a slight misalignment that prevents it that'll be the first change I make when I grab it.

Pretty grey yeah. But still, there were other colour combinations; like from the Clone vehicles - if we'd get the same Clone vehicles every 1,5 years it would be a Snowspeeder situation.

Again I'm not complaining - or OK I am complaining about people saying now the wave is bland. I feel like they do the best thing possible with what they can do within the frame. I think simply the sequels failed to deliver both compeling story and sets connected to them. Time shall prove me wrong but will we get a bunch of remakes from the Snoke throne room, Maz Kanatas caste? Or remakes of the updated OT vehicles? I rather believe we'd get another OT AT-AT or -ST, instead of a sequel remake. I dont wanna start bashing the sequels now but to point out that Lego didnt get lot of reserves in the last years since the movies didnt have much of a (strong) identity.

[NathanR]

47 minutes ago, Guyon2002 said:

Minor nitpick is that those DBG balljoints really annoy me, would it really have been that hard to recolor those or just use clips? 

31 minutes ago, Lego-Freak said:

Good point. It couldn't have been that hard to recolour this part, especially in a useful colour like LBG  I wonder why they still don't do it. Maybe it has something to do with color-coding (like pins)

It's a common complaint that the ball joints should come in more colours. Unfortunately, a designer interview from a while back (appeared on newelementary I think) reported that something as simple as changing the part colour changes the clutch power of the ball joints. As it is absolutely critical that the ball joints have the correct amount of friction to be easily moveable and to hold a pose, and the most data they had was on the behaviour of LBG and DBG, those were the only colours the joints would be appearing in. I suspect Lego have now colour-locked the part, like the technic pins. Clips probably wouldn't work in this case, because the pivot point of the clip/bar hinge is offset from the plate, whereas the ball joint is in line with the middle of the plate.

Really liking these new sets, I think it's wonderful that Lego are making the X-Wing and TIE fighter models as toys rather than miniature UCS sets. They're simple, but they do a great job of capturing the vehicles. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

5 minutes ago, NathanR said:

It's a common complaint that the ball joints should come in more colours. Unfortunately, a designer interview from a while back (appeared on newelementary I think) reported that something as simple as changing the part colour changes the clutch power of the ball joints. As it is absolutely critical that the ball joints have the correct amount of friction to be easily moveable and to hold a pose, and the most data they had was on the behaviour of LBG and DBG, those were the only colours the joints would be appearing in. I suspect Lego have now colour-locked the part, like the technic pins.

Thanks, that would explain it  Though couldn‘t they swap the colours between LBG and DBG then? Or does it only work in the particular combination we have right now (i.e. ball in DBG and receiver in LBG)? Or maybe they‘re afraid some sneaky AFOLs might try to swap the parts if they were available in two colours, causing them to break  

Anyway, it‘s a bit annoying but it doesn‘t look all that bad on the TIE. Could be worse, e.g. if the ball part was black or white instead of DBG. Or blue, would fit right in with the dreaded pins 

[storskogen]

The new X-wing exceeds my expectations! The X-wing had been so far one of the most oversized SW models. This one will scale better with other rebel ships, such as the Y-wing (in universe, the Y-wing is about 16 m long while the X-wing is 12 m). I only have the grey-blue resistance X-wing mostly because I like that colour combination, but now I’m sure I’ll get this new one. The minifig selection is also excellent with the inclusion of Dodonna.

The TIE Fighter is very good as well! My only concern there is how well it can be displayed with other existing TIEs, which are all in scale with each other.

 

[RogueTwo]

52 minutes ago, Artizan said:

Very unlikely since all officers from Return of the Jedi wore the same insignia.

My favorite comment of the day 

[wesker]

Great finally seeing these sets in high res. They did an excellent job at scaling down the X-Wing. The set looks well proportioned next to other minifigures and the build itself is much cleaner compared to the 2018 version thanks to the reduced piece count. Its great to also finally have a mechanism for opening the wings that isn't dependent on the use of rubber bands. Another thing I like is that even at a reduced price they haven't sacrificed the extra detailing like on the cannons and greebling at the back. The redesigned nose also looks better in the new pics. I really have no complaints about this one.

The TIE Fighter also looks amazing! I love that the cockpit actually looks round this time - unlike the 2018 Solo version. The scale looks great next to the other figures and I like the way they designed the controls in the cockpit. Shame about the discolored ball joints but its really a minor nitpick.

Pity there's nothing new with the Imperial Shuttle. Still curious as to which figures will be coming in that one.

[Paul11283652]

Why is R2 sitting up perfectly as a target for Vader?

Is the 2x6 tile a new piece?

Most importantly, what is the wing folding mechanism?

Enough about the X-wing. I don’t expect every other OT craft will be getting new smaller versions soon. As has been said, the Shuttle was due for a remake and the new version looks to scaled the same as the 2018 Sentinel. The Snowspeeder speeder is already small enough. Perhaps a TIE Interceptor? An A-wing with a shorter nose and longer engines would be enough.