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

[PicnicBasketSam]

I'm not surprised that the set isn't called Slave I. These are the same marketing people who renamed the Razor Crest set to "The Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport" 5 months after the set was revealed and put up for pre-orders. Even if we set aside the fact that they never use the actual names of ships anymore in Star Wars, LEGO is no stranger to awkward set names. Most of this year's Harry Potter sets have "Hogwarts: " preceding a more conventional name, and all of the 2021 Jurassic World sets have the word "dinosaur" following the actual name of the dinosaur in question. In the Superheroes lines we have titles like "Iron Man: Iron Monger Mayhem," "Iron Man Hulkbuster versus A.I.M. Agent," and "Batman vs. The Joker: Batmobile Chase." There's something to be said for European packaging not plastering word salad all over the box.

[jdubbs]

3 minutes ago, PicnicBasketSam said:

I'm not surprised that the set isn't called Slave I. These are the same marketing people who renamed the Razor Crest set to "The Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport" 5 months after the set was revealed and put up for pre-orders. Even if we set aside the fact that they never use the actual names of ships anymore in Star Wars, LEGO is no stranger to awkward set names. Most of this year's Harry Potter sets have "Hogwarts: " preceding a more conventional name, and all of the 2021 Jurassic World sets have the word "dinosaur" following the actual name of the dinosaur in question. In the Superheroes lines we have titles like "Iron Man: Iron Monger Mayhem," "Iron Man Hulkbuster versus A.I.M. Agent," and "Batman vs. The Joker: Batmobile Chase." There's something to be said for European packaging not plastering word salad all over the box.

1. The Razor Crest had to be temporarily renamed in certain markets due to a trademark issue in the EU, which was subsequently resolved.

2. Most of those sets have awkward or redundant names for SEO purposes... they load up the product names with common search terms to make them rank higher or get grouped together in search results. 

I know most of you, in your infinite wisdom and years of experience running multi-billion dollar companies, think LEGO (or Disney, take your pick) is run by complete idiots. But sometimes, ocassionally, there is a rhyme and reason to what they do.

[vgsprites]

Yeah, the name change is probably to match the current name system of starships like 'Luke Skywalker's X-Wing.' Maybe it will get an official name change in BoBF. 

Either way I'm excited for the set since I currently don't own a Slave 1 and the small size is great for my limited shelf space. I'll probably wait on a discount for it, same with the Mandalorian Starfighter. Need to add more Mandalorians to my growing collection. 

The Trexler Marauder looks good to me and the minifigs look great. Most likely will be a day one purchase for me.

Edited June 26, 2021 by vgsprites
Grammar

[Meaf]

I don't really have much to say about the sets, might get the Trexler, definitely not getting the Slave I (don't need it just for Boba since he'll be in more sets next year), and I'm leaning towards getting the Cruiser but I'm not totally sold yet.

One thing I just feel like briefly venting about is the fairly poor minifig selections in some of these sets. I think the Trexler is fine, but the Slave I and the Cruiser both really should have each had at least one or two more figs, especially the Slave I. I'll never understand why Star Wars doesn't get minifig counts similar to that of Ninjago when they could just by throwing in a few more generic characters. I doubt it'd affect battlepack sales and I can't think of any other reason why they'd do it, so it just seems pointless to me.

[Brikkyy13]

13 minutes ago, Meadius said:

I'll never understand why Star Wars doesn't get minifig counts similar to that of Ninjago when they could just by throwing in a few more generic characters.

I want to get Gamers Market if only for the fact that it looks like amazing value next to a similarly priced Star Wars set like anakin’s starfighter or the 501st battle pack (not that I could buy either of those sets if I wanted to since they’re apparently exclusive to any country that isn’t the one I live in). I’ve always wondered this about the figures too, but I think we finally got the answer. If the recent batch of designer interviews is anything to go by then my interpretation of the answer given is that the number of figures they’re contractually allowed to include in any given set is directly affected by the number of pieces in the set. This of course doesn’t explain why battle packs with less than 100 pieces will have four figures and starfighters with 300 pieces will only get one fig and a droid, but the designer alluded to the paperwork being pretty full on so there’s a ton of clauses we don’t know anything about. Short of reading the agreements between LEGO and Lucasfilm we’ll never know for sure but we can always speculate. 

[TheMainBricker]

Probably since BLM Disney have been loathed to have the word "Slave" in anything. Disney+ has a whole load of warnings on a lot of its films. So I imagine it's due to stuff like this, which doesn't actually address any of the problems that the movement is actually about.

[TobyAis]

I have two theories for the "Boba Fett's Starship"
First, I think the name is only for toys, they have no plan of changing the ship's name (I've heard people say that so..)
So, first option, it's because it makes the set more "kid friendly" which is kind of understandable (imagine you've never watch Star Wars and your 9yo kid comes to you and tells you that "for Christmas I want the Slave 1".. "excuse me.. slave what now, you want a slave?") I know you get my point xD
And second option, Boba Fett is a more known name than Slave 1, simply, a lot more people knows Boba Fett name and less would know the name of the Slave 1 (another exemple, if you take people that have just watched The Mandalorian, they will know Boba Fett because he's a named character in the show but they won't necessarily know what is a Slave 1, since the name is not pronounced once in the show)

Either way it's just a marketing decision that have pretty much no impact on Star Wars what-so-ever.

[wesker]

4 hours ago, ToaDraco said:

The ship is never once referred to as Slave I in the show(and if my memory serves it was never referred to by name in the films) and perhaps the name might put some people off.

The name has been used on screen before during The Clone Wars second season. Aurra Sing refers to it as Slave I on at least two separate occasions.

[kidtheboss611]

15 minutes ago, TheMainBricker said:

Probably since BLM Disney have been loathed to have the word "Slave" in anything. Disney+ has a whole load of warnings on a lot of its films. So I imagine it's due to stuff like this, which doesn't actually address any of the problems that the movement is actually about.

While I don't agree with the name change since the series is called Star "Wars" I think its generally a good thing that Disney is supporting BLM and trying to remove words like Slave from their work. The Slave 1 should still be the Slave 1 but things like slave Leia could use a change. 

On another note I think Lego decision making regarding Lego Con and set reveals shows they don't quite understand who their fan base is. The people who are diehard lego fans who will take 2 hrs to watch the Con don't want to watch fast interviews and the Lego version of Dora the Explorer. I know the Lego is still a kid's toy but its consumers in 2021 are not. The fact that they don't understand that coupled with the fact they don't seem to want to listen to fan demand (prequel UCS, CW sets, clones etc.) is really disheartening. 

What's worse is that this wave is fantastic and I really love the builds this year. The design team are doing great work but I think that Lego needs to make large scaled changes at the top to fix these issues. 

[TobyAis]

1 minute ago, kidtheboss611 said:

While I don't agree with the name change

Then it's great, since they're not changing the name, it's just called that for marketing reasons

[ARC2149Nova]

41 minutes ago, kidtheboss611 said:

 I think its generally a good thing that Disney is supporting BLM and trying to remove words like Slave from their work. The Slave 1 should still be the Slave 1 but things like slave Leia could use a change. 

But Leia was a slave? Jabba's a bad dude, he did bad things. Slavery is bad. Censoring the word "slave" doesn't do anything productive. Actually, the fact that Leia took out the galaxy's most vicious crime lord whilst in said position is quite the triumphant metaphor of overcoming one's oppressor.

But what do I know?

These sets are really good. Still getting the Light Cruiser and Slave-1 on release day if possible. And I'm quite happy to see that Moff Gideon does indeed have his glorious 'stache!

I've gathered my new stormtroopers in preparation for the Trexler figures. But the vehicle itself (or three ) will look good on my Imperial shelf. I am among those disappointed with the reveal, but at least we have better set pics.

[oodan]

This discourse over Slave One not being called Slave One on the box is dumb, they're constantly calling ships by things other than their names and it's hurting literally nobody to not say "Slave". If something completely insignificant like this makes someone's life better in some way, then good change. Anyway, Gideon's face print sucks megablocks, his moustache looks like a mouth and his mouth like a chin

Edited June 27, 2021 by ood0

[Agent Kallus]

11 minutes ago, ARC2149Nova said:

 I'm quite happy to see that Moff Gideon does indeed have his glorious 'stache!

I never understood why there was any doubt. 

9 minutes ago, ood0 said:

This discourse over Slave One not being called Slave One on the box is dumb, they're constantly calling ships by things other than their names and it's hurting literally nobody to not say "Slave".

Seconded

[ARC2149Nova]

13 minutes ago, ood0 said:

This discourse over Slave One not being called Slave One on the box is dumb, they're constantly calling ships by things other than their names and it's hurting literally nobody to not say "Slave". 

It's just a lazy naming convention. "Knights of Ren Transport Ship" and "Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport Ship" rolls off the tongue so much better than "The Night Buzzard" or "The Razorcrest".  (I do understand the copyright shenanigans regarding the latter). General Grievous' Starfighter is a valid counter, but "Soulless One" is much less known than the Slave-1. It's just a bit jarring since they've been using the name since the beginning.

I do agree it's not really important, but it is noticeable.

Edited June 27, 2021 by ARC2149Nova

[BigA_7]

Why do people care so much about the names of sets? It makes it much easier for parents and kids looking for things and for us we get mad for a minute then buy the set and move on

[MKJoshA]

First, we're getting close to getting off topic here guys.

On 6/25/2021 at 5:58 PM, Kit Figsto said:

Super happy with the set, it's actually my first X-Wing Fighter (I've now got a Y-Wing, A-Wing, U-Wing, and V-Wing, so the only alphabet fighter I'm missing is a B-Wing), and I also didn't have an ANH Leia prior to this, as I've never owned a Falcon/X-Wing/Tantive and didn't buy the Death Star swing set.  The figures are great, the wing functionality is awesome, and I think the scale of the model and level of detail are pretty perfect for a system-scale set.  My only real complaint is with the landing gear - the ones on the wings are easy enough to remove, but the front landing gear is both loose and yet also kind of tricky to get off, since the Technic pin holding it in place can kind of get stuck. 

I too loved the set when I first built it. A month later I have a complaint though. My 3 year old son (who does really well with Lego even at 3) plays with it a lot and it's always breaking. None of the other sets he plays with breaks as often as the X-Wing! The wings snap off, the laser canons are almost always missing, and most recently he dropped it and it shattered. The Razor Crest on the other hand has taken more beating than any set should ever go through and it's still in great shape.

[Mandalorianknight]

23 hours ago, ToaDraco said:

It's not perfect, it's missing the passenger deck of the ship but it's an absolutely glorious set and well worth its weight in plastic(at least at retail) it's quite heavy and detailed. UCS sets are very pricey, Slave I is the only one I have and that probably won't change until/unless we get a UCS ETA-2 Actis-Class Interceptor or a UCS Venator.

On a side note, I love that they're standardizing the arm printing for Din Djarrin in every set he appears in and I would love if they did the same for Boba. I think it would be really smart of LEGO do do this with certain characters throughout the theme that are main characters deserving of distinction and extra detail ie, Din for The Mandalorian, Boba for The Book of Boba Fett, and I absolutely think Darth Vader is worthy of having his arm printing standardized in every appearance, same with future Anakin figures, even if it's just printing for his robotic arm, same with Luke. Hopefully this is the start of a wonderful trend.

Sounds great! i'm going to start hunting for it on ebay.

I definately agree with the overall sentiment about arm printing, but I don't think luke and anakin need it, since it's really only the hand. (Never mind, I looked it up and anakin's arm definately could use printing for the robotic parts.)

10 hours ago, lego_guyon02 said:

Well that was a massive waste of time. Honestly LEGO CON in it's entirety was a hot steaming pile of garbage.

Yeah...

7 hours ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

Disney has been trying to rebrand 'Slave Leia' to 'Huttslayer Leia' for a couple of years now, so it's not a complete shock that they'd be backing off the Slave I as well.

I disagree even with their stance on the leia thing...but this is even something else IF TRUE (I talk about this below). It's not even a character that's been imprisoned, it's a word referring to a ship? What's next, decanonizing slave circuits? (from thrawn books, a code that allows ships to be called to and fly towards their pilots)

3 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

But Leia was a slave? Jabba's a bad dude, he did bad things. Slavery is bad. Censoring the word "slave" doesn't do anything productive. Actually, the fact that Leia took out the galaxy's most vicious crime lord whilst in said position is quite the triumphant metaphor of overcoming one's oppressor.

But what do I know?

These sets are really good. Still getting the Light Cruiser and Slave-1 on release day if possible. And I'm quite happy to see that Moff Gideon does indeed have his glorious 'stache!

Exactly. I find it hilarious that they're washing away that part of the story when the whole point (ok, the narrative point besides the obvious costume one) was that leia is so cool that even at her lowest point, being taken prisoner, she can kill the biggest crime lord in the galaxy. This sort of pretending and rewriting is 1984-like if true. That said, it could be like the kor transport and hunter transport where it's done for marketing reasons, though slave one is a pretty iconic ship at this point, so it's possible we're all reading too much into this.

They are great sets, definately buying slave one day one. (I would get the light cruiser but I already have an ISD and a custom remnant ISD, I dont want a third imperial cruiser). 

[Brikkyy13]

4 hours ago, ARC2149Nova said:

Censoring the word "slave" doesn't do anything productive.

This. In fact, it actively works against the cause. Ignoring topics like this is the same as acting like they never happened, I learned that from the warnings Disney slapped on its older movies and shows that were deemed unacceptable. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

7 hours ago, kidtheboss611 said:

The fact that they don't understand that coupled with the fact they don't seem to want to listen to fan demand (prequel UCS, CW sets, clones etc.) is really disheartening. 

UCS Gunship, Duel on Mandalore, and Mandalorian Starfighter: “Are we a joke to you?” 

I think some of the Slave One arguments are a bit far-fetched. The name change being the result of marketing decisions (easier to google) is a good enough explanation already  

[Max Rebo]

Okay time to stop lurking, here are my thoughts on the new set pictures:

Imperial Armored Marauder: I just freakin love this set, will get it multiple times for the figures. Greef Kargas torso is also very useful for medieval stuff. The build is good for this price point, looks like a good part-out to me. I also love the fact, we are getting two of the imperial crates from 75290

Slave I: Well done, really well done. I own the older versions too, but at this price point, you cant do anything wrong, at least a good part out value. Besides that I think there is a good chance, the Boba Figure might be exclusive. There is no way, Boba looks the same in the upcoming Book of Boba Series, They will not miss the opportunity to sell more action figures, so Boba will most likely get a new outfit, something like "Crimelord Boba" Regarding the helmet colour. Dark green would be better, the problem may be the contrast to the "cheeks", a full dark green helmet might look odd. Migs Mayfeld would have been a great addition.

Imperial Light Cruiser: It´s okay, I think they did a good job, it isnt an easy target. Its hard to compare it to the star destroyer playsets, because u only can use half the model for interior space. Looking at the pictures I´m sure the figures can stand upright in the closed model, look at the two 2x8 LBG Slopes as reference. Fennec Shand is gorgeus, Moff Gideon is okay. Love the Tie Fighter shooting function in the Front!

Edited June 27, 2021 by Max Rebo

[TeddytheSpoon]

The Trexler has gone up in my estimations from the latest pics - that might be the first set I pick up. I'm torn on the light cruiser - some of the proportions are a bit off, but it is still a pretty nice-looking set... Just not sure I could put my money somewhere else.

The whole Slave I name thing will only be an issue if its name changes in the show, IMO. What it's called in marketing material is neither here nor there, and in fairness most other LEGO ships aren't called by their name (Soulless One, Night Buzzard, The Executor, even the Tantive IV at one point).

If it does become an issue for the Mouse they should just change the canon pronunciation. "oh it was always meant to be pronounced 'slah-vay', didn't you know?"

[CF Mitch]

Glad to finally see Moff Gideon's Light Cruiser in HD!
I'm still not pleased with the cannons and I kept wondering if they were even canon (gna), 'cause I don't remember seeing them on screen, but evidently they are. 
They're just a lot smaller in the show. And apparently the light cruiser isn't an Arquitens-class but a 'Class 546 cruiser' resembling the Arquitens.
So, I'm just gonna do some modding to make it look like an Arquitens anyway and put a Captain Brunson on it 

Aside from that, the minifigures are really amazing! Glad to see Moff Gideon has a mustache after all and I love that Dark Trooper 

Regards,
Mitch 

[V-2929]

Ah man, I'm going to risk going off topic here. Slave is a loaded term. It carries a lot of weight, and the extent of that weight will vary from person to person who hears it used. It's a term of racial oppression. Across North America and Europe companies (I can't speak for other parts of the world) companies are trawling through code to rename processes and remove references to slave systems and master systems in recognition of the burden the word carries, what it represents and what it may mean to people. We're still not that far from the abolition of slavery, the impacts of it are still felt throughout the world, and these companies, including Lego, have black and other POC employees who won't have to look too many generations back to find family members who were slaves. In a society striving to do better, removing the word slave from the lexicon is a simple step and one that should happen

As other people have said, the name of the ship is barely mentioned in the movies and cartoons. Lego haven't renamed the ship; they've just, possibly for a variety of reasons, chosen to not use that name for this kit. That may continue in the future, and if it does it's a sign of progress. You want Lego, both for kids and AFOLs, to be an inclusive community you're going to have to stop using terms like slave. If you don't want it to be an inclusive community, then you're running counter to Lego's own stated aims

Anyway, those new kits eh. I think I've gone off the Light Cruiser having seen more of it, though I am going to need Fennec Shand. I'll have to wait for video reviews of the Trexler to make a decision there, but I seem to find myself becoming less excited about the kits the more I see of them, though the figures remain outstanding

[ToaDraco]

10 hours ago, wesker said:

The name has been used on screen before during The Clone Wars second season. Aurra Sing refers to it as Slave I on at least two separate occasions.

That I do remember which is why I referred to just the Mandalorian and the films.

On a related note, wow the amount of artificial outrage people are having around the internet over the name of the set is hilariously absurd. People just love to jump to wild conclusions.

I finally had a chance to read a bunch of reviews(and watch a couple I found posted on YouTube) and I have to be honest, while I was definitely interested in the Trexler Marauder, it got overshadowed by everything else in this incredible wave but now it's one of my most anticipated. The incredible amount of detail and purpose in design, the space for figures and cargo with lots of opening hatches and just overall how perfectly executed it is for being a floating grey box is far more impressive than it has any right to be and it's now jumped up the list for me. 

Edited June 27, 2021 by ToaDraco

[TheMainBricker]

Disney requested Lego not to use the word "slave". It seems that no one here remembers the fact that Anakin was a slave in TPM, and slavery was discussed in that film. I guess sets of Anakin and Watto will now be taboo too.

Boba Fett was a bad guy, so would have a ship with a name like that. But it seems that Disney are making him one of the good guys now and are removing references to him being bad.

Expect to see the Space Station set instead of the Death Star.

It is very much on topic because it now appears that a lot of Star Wars is now becoming off-limits for being made into Lego sets by Disney.