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

[Anak]

To me it looks like the probe droid was built from dark grey parts, not black pieces. I'm curious why the designer chose that color for this build.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Anak

[Eaglefan344]

29 minutes ago, Anak said:

To me it looks like the probe droid was built from dark grey parts, not black pieces. I'm curious why the designer chose that color for this build.

in universe probe droids are dark gray, I am not sure why people are thinking it would be black.

[Anak]

3 minutes ago, Eaglefan344 said:

in universe probe droids are dark gray, I am not sure why people are thinking it would be black.

Ooops...my bad. Thx for the clarification.

[hondohnaka]

1 hour ago, Eaglefan344 said:

in universe probe droids are dark gray, I am not sure why people are thinking it would be black.

The one from Empire looks black against the snow so I think that's what it came from. Also, every single minifig-scale probe droid has been black so...

[Mandalorianknight]

10 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

I agree, DBG seems like an odd choice especially when every other probe droid LEGO has produced is black. Still looks neat though, excited to get some more pictures.

EDIT just realised the UCS plaque has snow on the edges as well. That's a really cool touch.

It does look pretty cool, that extra bit of detail for it is nice.

9 hours ago, ArrowBricks said:

Sorry, I was talking in a Lego context. Thought it was pretty obvious, clearly not. Lego + Sequels = failure. 

Is there any actual proof on that? I know some people say that certain sequel sets were usually still on shelves at their local store, but I've seen sets from other eras shelf warming as well, and that type of evidence is more speculation than anything, certainly not enough to draw the "lego + sequels = failure" conclusion.

2 hours ago, Eaglefan344 said:

in universe probe droids are dark gray, I am not sure why people are thinking it would be black.

Lego uses black for the probe droids normally. I'm glad this one is DBG.

[Flieger]

7 hours ago, The Stud said:

I’ll just say that I don’t know why people would want Commander Cody to be locked behind a $350 set. I’m sure he’ll come eventually but why do it in a set that’s prohibitively expensive to a lot of people?

I guess it is because some are not as sure as you are. Lego had 16 years to give us a P2 minifig Commander Cody and did not. After such a long time, people jump at any set that might include him and simply hope it does.

 

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Is there any actual proof on that? I know some people say that certain sequel sets were usually still on shelves at their local store, but I've seen sets from other eras shelf warming as well, and that type of evidence is more speculation than anything, certainly not enough to draw the "lego + sequels = failure" conclusion.

Of course there is no definite proof because this is not the stuff any company would make public. This could damage business relations and appear rather unprofessional. Thus it was actually stunning to me when Diamond toys openly stated there was no demand for sequel characters. You can also read between the lines when Hasbro releases a number of 50th LFL anniversary figures, including OT, PT, TCW, R1 and even EU ...but the ST is not there.

Maybe Lego faces a different situation but just as there is confirmation about the failure of ST sets, there is no confirmation about their success. The next years will be quite telling because the ST is still fresh and the PT fans are only beginning to come out of their dark age. When they start rediscovering Lego, I doubt they will turn to the ST.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Flieger

[mirkwoodspiders]

7 hours ago, Stefanisimo said:

Didn't they say after the vote that they had some prototypes of the other 2 sets but not the Gunship implying that they are starting from scratch? Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do somewhat remember reading this in one of the interviews.

They did.

https://www.brickfanatics.com/exclusive-lego-star-wars-ucs-republic-gunship-deep-in-development/

From the article:

"Jens: To be quite honest we didn’t have anything before the poll, we had done a little bit of thinking on the Nebulon-B and also on the TIE Bomber – but that was more coincidence. I would say the Nebulon was more to be sure we could deliver it, because of the structure. We were very much in doubt if it was at all possible to make at that size, so we were experimenting a little bit.

But with the Gunship we were sure we could do it and we hadn’t started any work. Our development side takes time at LEGO, so we hope that people will just be a little bit patient. It is going to happen, but we can’t mention the launch date yet."

This is one of the reasons I think they'll end up making at least the Nebulon B eventually... why not if you have a prototype and offer it as an option in the poll? 

[Captain_MKA]

On 3/18/2021 at 2:33 PM, ood0 said:

Please stop calling the sequels failed. They reintroduced Star Wars into cultural relevance and made billions of dollars, irrespective of quality they succeeded in doing exactly what they set out to do.

All due respect but in regards to toy sales, diamond select says there isn’t a large demand for Sequel Era merchandise.

23 hours ago, Gontron said:

I understand why he wouldn't be included in an AOTC based UCS set but I'm saying he could be slotted into any other CW based vehicle set. We don't see Cody in an episode where something like Z-95 Headhunters appear, yet they could plop him in reasonably if they don't think it would sell well. 

I think during the Youngling Arc, there are headhunters in the space battle

20 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

In that case we agree then. A p2 cody could easily be added to any generic GAR vehicle. 

Or any CIS vehicle 

8 hours ago, The Stud said:

I’ll just say that I don’t know why people would want Commander Cody to be locked behind a $350 set. I’m sure he’ll come eventually but why do it in a set that’s prohibitively expensive to a lot of people? If they had included him, people would be complaining just as much.

 

If anything, I find the exclusion of clone pilots far more egregious.

I think people thought that this vote was a way to coerce lego into producing an accurate helmet mold for Cody. That’s why when I voted I voted for Republic Commandos so we could hopefully have the mold available for more commandos down the line. Hopefully Hunter’s helmet and gun (or at least just the helmet) will be new molds so we can get Clone Commandos in the future

[The Stud]

Cody requiring a new helmet mold is part of the reason I wasn’t expecting him to be in the UCS. Unless it’s a playset, Lego rarely makes new molds for minifigures in their UCS ships, as they’re usually not really the highlight of the set.

Lego really needs to just make a new helmet for P2 Clones that allow for attachments like with the P1 helmets. Hopefully we’ll get that with Hunter and/or Crosshair in the Bad Batch Shuttle, since the latter needs a rangefinder on his helmet.

[jdubbs]

20 minutes ago, Captain_MKA said:

All due respect but in regards to toy sales, diamond select says there isn’t a large demand for Sequel Era merchandise.

Diamond Select makes statues, busts, and other pricey display pieces, all targeted squarely at adult collectors. While there is no doubt some small overlap with LEGO's target market (primarily, kids... secondarily, parents of kids... tertiarily, AFOLs), the two companies are by no means selling to the same customer as a whole. What sells for Diamond (or Hasbro, or Funko, or...) is not necessarily the same as what sells for LEGO.

[Brikkyy13]

1 minute ago, jdubbs said:

Diamond Select makes statues, busts, and other pricey display pieces, all targeted squarely at adult collectors. While there is no doubt some small overlap with LEGO's target market (primarily, kids... secondarily, parents of kids... tertiarily, AFOLs), the two companies are by no means selling to the same customer as a whole. What sells for Diamond (or Hasbro, or Funko, or...) is not necessarily the same as what sells for LEGO.

I think it’s pretty well documented that there is no demand for sequel toys across the board. I still see shelves full of unsold Hasbro Rose Tico, Jyn Erso and other Disney era figures when I go to the store. As for LEGO the two most recent sequel sets that have made it to stores here, night buzzard and D-0 statue, my stores still have plentiful stock despite seeing nearly 50% discount. 

[wesker]

8 hours ago, The Stud said:

I’ll just say that I don’t know why people would want Commander Cody to be locked behind a $350 set. I’m sure he’ll come eventually but why do it in a set that’s prohibitively expensive to a lot of people? If they had included him, people would be complaining just as much.

I agree with you there. Cody is long overdue for a minifigure but throwing him in a $350 set is the wrong way to go about it. A better solution would be to include him in the next round of Utapau themed sets whether it be a new Wheel Bike, Obi-Wan's Interceptor or another Grievous Starfighter.
 

1 hour ago, Flieger said:

Of course there is no definite proof because this is not the stuff any company would make public. This could damage business relations and appear rather unprofessional. Thus it was actually stunning to me when Diamond toys openly stated there was no demand for sequel characters. You can also read between the lines when Hasbro releases a number of 50th LFL anniversary figures, including OT, PT, TCW, R1 and even EU ...but the ST is not there.

Maybe Lego faces a different situation but just as there is confirmation about the failure of ST sets, there is no confirmation about their success. The next years will be quite telling because the ST is still fresh and the PT fans are only beginning to come out of their dark age. When they start rediscovering Lego, I doubt they will turn to the ST.

This year's Lego line up is quite telling as it is. Like Hasbro most of their product is based around the OT, Bad Batch, Mandalorian and PT/TCW.

The only new ST set we're getting this year is a cheap 4+ X-Wing that's been recycled from 2019. Nothing else.

[jdubbs]

59 minutes ago, Brikkyy13 said:

I think it’s pretty well documented that there is no demand for sequel toys across the board. I still see shelves full of unsold Hasbro Rose Tico, Jyn Erso and other Disney era figures when I go to the store. As for LEGO the two most recent sequel sets that have made it to stores here, night buzzard and D-0 statue, my stores still have plentiful stock despite seeing nearly 50% discount. 

Yes we've all got anecdotal evidence to support whatever narrative we're peddling. But rows and rows of peg-warmers are only a testament to Hasbro's horrid distribution and lopsided case assortments — and anyone who's been collecting action figures for more than five minutes can tell you they've hardly been unique to the sequel-era toys. (And again, Hasbro ≠ LEGO.)

For every "The Star Wars merchandising sky is falling and it's all Disney's fault" story I see on JTA, etc., there is yet another quarterly report saying Hasbro's sales are through the roof, Star Wars is among LEGO's top-selling lines, etc. At the end of the day, I put more stock in what the companies making the toys say, than in the "well-documented" reporting of fan sites pushing a particular agenda. 

51 minutes ago, wesker said:

This year's Lego line up is quite telling as it is. Like Hasbro most of their product is based around the OT, Bad Batch, Mandalorian and PT/TCW.

The only new ST set we're getting this year is a cheap 4+ X-Wing that's been recycled from 2019. Nothing else.

Right, LEGO is producing sets to support the media that is current/active right now, just as they were producing ST sets when those movies were current, and PT sets when those movies were current, and Clone Wars sets when that series was current. Saying "LEGO stopped selling ST sets because ST toys didn't sell" is no different (and no more true) than saying "LEGO stopped selling CW toys because CW toys didn't sell." Fact is, the sequel trilogy ended, and other things began, and so LEGO moved on. When The Mandalorian ends, or Bad Batch, or whatever, LEGO will move on again. That doesn't mean those products failed, or that they won't ever grace toy shelves again.

We had 5+ years of near non-stop ST sets; it's only natural that LEGO would now hit pause for a while and give some love to other media. 

 

[Gontron]

11 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

They really decided to put knockoff Captain Fordo instead of an actual pilot for the darn ship. LoGiC. 

I mean, you can just slap a paudron and kama on him and he'll be Fordo. 

[The Stud]

Lego has kept a lot of The Rise of Skywalker sets in production, so there’s still a decent balance of each era on store shelves right now. They don’t necessarily need to make more sequel sets right now. Besides, there’s not really many more sequel sets left to make other than starting to remake some of the sets we’ve already gotten.

[Flieger]

1 hour ago, jdubbs said:

I put more stock in what the companies making the toys say, than in the "well-documented" reporting of fan sites pushing a particular agenda.

The toy companies themselves have agendas when "saying" something. And "saying" in that context usually means carefully crafted press releases intend on keeping good relations with Disney and painting a success story, even if there was no success. That's how those things work. The fact that one company openly addressed the lack of interst in the ST is stunning in and of itself. It is also one of the few hard facts ever provided regarding the popularity of ST toys relative to other eras, even if it cannot be applied 100% to Lego.

It is ok to state a lack of evidence when it comes to ST era merch selling less than that of other eras, as long as one keeps in mind the evidence for the opposite is even thinner. Again, time will tell. Also, it is plain wrong to dismiss the possibility summarily, and not just for ontological reasons.

[hondohnaka]

1 hour ago, Gontron said:

I mean, you can just slap a paudron and kama on him and he'll be Fordo. 

Tbf Fordo is an awesome character so I’m not as annoyed as I could be but the more I think about it the more I’m leaning towards skipping the Gunship entirely and going for the AT AT. On that note, anyone else worried that the AT AT won’t have an interior or movable legs? The past couple 800 dollar sets have been basically statues, which is fine, but the AT AT’s legs are an iconic part of the set and they’ve straight up said not being able to figure them out is why we haven’t had one in 22 years, so I’m a tad worried. 
 

edit: also the Rise of Skywalker discourse is stupid. They’ve always focused on what’s currently out. Prequel sets were wildly successful (ex. the fabled 2013 line) but they’re no longer culturally relevant in the same way. That’s like saying that because they didn’t make many R1 sets in 2017, R1 sets failed. TLJ was the focus. Sequels sets sold really well with the exception of the Dorito Tie and the TLJ wave because the TLJ wave was mishandled IMO. Star Wars is just going into a more TV focused era and the fans have screeched for TCW for long enough to get Lego to do it. 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by hondohnaka

[AIex]

24 minutes ago, hondohnaka said:

On that note, anyone else worried that the AT AT won’t have an interior or movable legs? The past couple 800 dollar sets have been basically statues, which is fine, but the AT AT’s legs are an iconic part of the set and they’ve straight up said not being able to figure them out is why we haven’t had one in 22 years, so I’m a tad worried. 

 

Richboyjhae's model, which is of a similar piece count, has an interior but no moving legs. Every other "minifig scale" (or larger) AT-AT has had static legs, so I'd be very surprised if this model is different

[wesker]

4 hours ago, jdubbs said:

Right, LEGO is producing sets to support the media that is current/active right now, just as they were producing ST sets when those movies were current, and PT sets when those movies were current, and Clone Wars sets when that series was current. Saying "LEGO stopped selling ST sets because ST toys didn't sell" is no different (and no more true) than saying "LEGO stopped selling CW toys because CW toys didn't sell." Fact is, the sequel trilogy ended, and other things began, and so LEGO moved on. When The Mandalorian ends, or Bad Batch, or whatever, LEGO will move on again. That doesn't mean those products failed, or that they won't ever grace toy shelves again.

We had 5+ years of near non-stop ST sets; it's only natural that LEGO would now hit pause for a while and give some love to other media.

I think its important to note that lack of demand isn't the same thing as bad sales. The ST sets could have sold well and met Lego's sales expectations - but the level of demand for them can still fall short compared to other Star Wars properties.

It isn't really a matter of Lego (or any toy company) only producing products from the latest Star Wars media. The Clone Wars wrapped up its final season a year ago and already received tie-in sets last summer. The prequels have been over for 16 years and the Original Trilogy came out four decades ago. None of them are currently active or relevant yet are still able to receive new merchandise because there's enough fan interest to justify it. Even during the years where the ST, Rogue One and Solo were in the spotlight the older material still maintained a retail presence.

The sequels are by no means failures. As someone else mentioned they made over a billion and reintroduced the franchise into cultural relevancy. I personally enjoyed them and would love to continue to see more merchandise based upon them. But the films still did not seem to resonate with fans as much as other parts of the saga and its clear that's played a part in the direction a lot of toy manufacturers have been taking.

[Brickadeer]

14 hours ago, jdubbs said:

Right, LEGO is producing sets to support the media that is current/active right now, just as they were producing ST sets when those movies were current, and PT sets when those movies were current, and Clone Wars sets when that series was current. Saying "LEGO stopped selling ST sets because ST toys didn't sell" is no different (and no more true) than saying "LEGO stopped selling CW toys because CW toys didn't sell." Fact is, the sequel trilogy ended, and other things began, and so LEGO moved on. When The Mandalorian ends, or Bad Batch, or whatever, LEGO will move on again. That doesn't mean those products failed, or that they won't ever grace toy shelves again.

We had 5+ years of near non-stop ST sets; it's only natural that LEGO would now hit pause for a while and give some love to other media. 

I think that because of Disney+, the destinction "current" and "not current" can no longer be made. It's all available and current. And to some extend, even older stuff like TCW is new:

As Dave Filoni pointed out in an interview, there are Star Wars fans who learn about Ahsoka the first time in The Mandalorian, and if they become curious, they can move on to TCW to learn more about her story. For children, the animated series will most likely the first things they will see of Star Wars.

With Disney+, all stories playing in the SW universe are available at the same time, in the present. New series and films are enhancing or expanding this universe. In the past, it made sense to focus on what you call "the current stuff". In times of Disney+, that may have changed. But that's an empirical question.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Brickadeer

[Fuppylodders]

6 hours ago, AIex said:

Richboyjhae's model, which is of a similar piece count, has an interior but no moving legs. Every other "minifig scale" (or larger) AT-AT has had static legs, so I'd be very surprised if this model is different

Mine had posable legs. But required at least a non glossy, preferably carpet, or cloth surface to sustain that pose. Brickplumbers (who's mine was based on but varied considerably) also had posable legs (using the same pieces) and his worked fine as far as I'm aware. 

While possible, I'd say its not essential. Most atat's had their legs in one of 2 poses. Something that big, you certainly won't be playing with it 'walking it'.

What would be nice is how it could be displayed. It'd be awesome if there were in fact 2 methods of display to which the legs were designed to be situated as. So either, stood up as though walking, or, 'pop them out' of their shoulder joint, tip the atat forward onto its head and pop the legs back in so it's like the hoth crashed one. That'd be an awesome little surprise! 

[Graupensuppe]

12 hours ago, Captain_MKA said:

A p2 cody could easily be added to any generic GAR vehicle. 

Or any CIS vehicle.

Lego could have put him in just about any GAR or CIS set, but they didn't. Not once in 16 years, not even in the 2020 Grievous' Starfighter where it would have made perfect sense. So one could get the impression that they don't want to release him in a regular set and that they are waiting for something else. Now the very first PT UCS set with minifigures has been announced, so some probably think that this is the only possibility that's left.

[MKJoshA]

It's not so much that all the discussion is off topic as much as it's just beating a dead horse at this point. Maybe give the Sequel Trilogy success or lack or success talk a rest for a day or two?

[hondohnaka]

3 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

It's not so much that all the discussion is off topic as much as it's just beating a dead horse at this point. Maybe give the Sequel Trilogy success or lack or success talk a rest for a day or two?

Yes thank you sequels discourse is exhausting. 

So MandR said the Gunship is probably set for 9/15 release, does that have historical precedence? 

[FeepoGerbin]

Per Landino’s insta story, when asked if he thought we’d be seeing single fig poly bag movie tie ins (IE Shoretrooper, DJ) ever again in the future:

”No..... I have a feeling the are OTHER ways we will see single mini figures releasing...”

HMMMMMMMM