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

[PreVizsla]

22 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

he was influential enough to get a set made that wasn't even a fan vote (501)

Honestly it's insane that we even got that set, but to me it's more impressive that he made the entire community call 30$ set a battlepack than that he made that set happen at all.

[Archer]

Not trying to wish list here, but if they follow up the Mando Fighter and Duel set with a Battlepack that has two nameless mandos from each faction then lego will have done what I've always thought would be the best money making strategy for regular sets / BPs. Put nothing but grunts in the battlepacks and then release alongside sets that contain the Officers / Leaders / named characters related to the BPs theme. More multiple BPs sold and more incentive to buy a larger set. 2014 did this well in my opinion, and most waves that released with a new movie did this as well, but I don't think TLG ever used this strategy to its full potential.

[Azraloth]

I've bought the new Slave 1, and I can't tell if my Mando have a new print or a misprint. The helmet seems new, anyone can confirm?

(Left is from #75299 Trouble on Tatooine and Right from #75312)

[Mandalorianknight]

10 minutes ago, Azraloth said:

I've bought the new Slave 1, and I can't tell if my Mando have a new print or a misprint. The helmet seems new, anyone can confirm?

(Left is from #75299 Trouble on Tatooine and Right from #75312)

The printing on the 75312 figure is a misprint, the helmet print is too low. Contact lego customer service and they should ship you a new part for free.

[storskogen]

8 minutes ago, Azraloth said:

I've bought the new Slave 1, and I can't tell if my Mando have a new print or a misprint. The helmet seems new, anyone can confirm?

(Left is from #75299 Trouble on Tatooine and Right from #75312)

From what I’ve seen in reviews, it seems the printing of the new mando helmet is slightly different as it happened to you. My mando from the Razor Crest looks like the one on the left, while the new one seems to have the «visor» printed lower. In my opinion the bigger gap over the visor doesn’t look good at all.

[The Stud]

I finally got my August 1st order! Really excited to build the Mandalorian Fighter and Duel on Mandalore along with all of the other sets I got.

[hondohnaka]

Finally shipped! 

[MSY-MSP]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:53 AM, MKJoshA said:

I finished building the Bad Batch Shuttle yesterday. It's a nice build and I love the techniques. But it does not hold up to the 3-year-old-boy test. The side panels keep falling off. And it drives me nuts that you can't hold it by the top fin! Love the figs though. My copy did NOT come with an extra Wrecker armor piece. Anyone else have that?

I gave up on my S@H order ever getting shipped in good time, and picked up the shuttle at the local toy store.   I built it and did get an extra Wrecker armor piece.  However, I ended up with two parts that are not even on the parts list and was down one of the 4 back fins. Really like the build and now am trying to figure out where to display it in my office. 

On 8/6/2021 at 10:48 AM, ToaDraco said:

Then I guess it's a good thing the set is rated 9 and up 

I've seen a couple complaints about the side panels falling off but I have yet to have that happen once. I also don't understand the complaints people seem to have that you can't hold the ship by the middle fin,  aka the thinnist, most structurally weak part of a design like this, LEGO or otherwise. I have no idea why you'd want to do that. If anything, it makes it more unwieldy to swoosh than just holding it from the center mass. Not even as a little kid did I swoosh ships like that, did other people actually do that?

Mine also did not come with an extra Wrecker armor piece unfortunately. It must just be a lucky few.

I guess I was one of the lucky few.  

[Stuartn]

6 hours ago, Archer said:

Not trying to wish list here, but if they follow up the Mando Fighter and Duel set with a Battlepack that has two nameless mandos from each faction then lego will have done what I've always thought would be the best money making strategy for regular sets / BPs. Put nothing but grunts in the battlepacks and then release alongside sets that contain the Officers / Leaders / named characters related to the BPs theme. More multiple BPs sold and more incentive to buy a larger set. 2014 did this well in my opinion, and most waves that released with a new movie did this as well, but I don't think TLG ever used this strategy to its full potential.

I agree, they did a great job of this with the RO sets, which had named rebels and imperials in sets followed by troopers in BPs, I think a mandalorian version would work brilliantly. I wish that they would go back to the days of two figures from each side like they did in 2012, with the Endor and Elite troopers packs

[Brikkyy13]

8 hours ago, PreVizsla said:

Honestly it's insane that we even got that set, but to me it's more impressive that he made the entire community call 30$ set a battlepack than that he made that set happen at all.

At least it sets precedent. After the 501st set, an ITT at the same (or similar) pricepoint with 6 stormtroopers seems much more likely. 

[Gontron]

In all fairness, he was far from the first to ask for a 501st Battlepack. That's literally been requested ever since the start of Battlepacks back in 2007. Honestly I'm kind of worried that with how well it sold, it gives Lego the impression that there's no point in making 15$ Clone BPs anymore when they'll sell as well in 30$ ones. 

[hondohnaka]

19 minutes ago, Gontron said:

In all fairness, he was far from the first to ask for a 501st Battlepack. That's literally been requested ever since the start of Battlepacks back in 2007. Honestly I'm kind of worried that with how well it sold, it gives Lego the impression that there's no point in making 15$ Clone BPs anymore when they'll sell as well in 30$ ones. 

I mean honestly, I like the 501st battle pack. It’s out of scale, yeah, but the builds look great (imo), the troopers are really well done and if they were able to keep up the level of interesting, massable characters with good builds, I’d be fine with it. Tbh I just like having the pieces to faff around with and build different ships and stuff for the 501st. I can definitely see it getting annoying, however. 

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, Gontron said:

In all fairness, he was far from the first to ask for a 501st Battlepack. That's literally been requested ever since the start of Battlepacks back in 2007. Honestly I'm kind of worried that with how well it sold, it gives Lego the impression that there's no point in making 15$ Clone BPs anymore when they'll sell as well in 30$ ones. 

While he wasn't the first, he was the most vocal, had the most reach, and was the most...shall we say...intense.

Luckily they did confirm that the normal battlepacks are returning, so I'm not worried about that.

1 hour ago, hondohnaka said:

I mean honestly, I like the 501st battle pack. It’s out of scale, yeah, but the builds look great (imo), the troopers are really well done and if they were able to keep up the level of interesting, massable characters with good builds, I’d be fine with it. Tbh I just like having the pieces to faff around with and build different ships and stuff for the 501st. I can definitely see it getting annoying, however. 

I'm too lazy to link it but there's a thread somewhere where @Per_SW and later, I, built random 501st ground vehicles out of spare battle packs, as well as modding the AT-RT and BARC.

[Clone OPatra]

5 hours ago, Stuartn said:

I wish that they would go back to the days of two figures from each side like they did in 2012, with the Endor and Elite troopers packs

From personal preference, I disagree. I get the positives of vs packs - a battle within a box, LEGO able to cover multiple eras in a single wave if there are only two BPs - but to me I'd rather have the option of which faction I want. Especially in the prequel era, when the villains are usually droids, I'd really not want half the figure spots in a BP to be taken up with droids.

LEGO had already started losing the plot with BPs before temporarily moving away from them, with named unique characters that serve nearly no purpose in multiples. I hope when they bring BPs back that they get back to basics: solid mass-able troopers with at least a couple of plain ones and one or two more specialised but still mass-able ones.

[Kit Figsto]

1 minute ago, Clone OPatra said:

From personal preference, I disagree. I get the positives of vs packs - a battle within a box, LEGO able to cover multiple eras in a single wave if there are only two BPs - but to me I'd rather have the option of which faction I want. Especially in the prequel era, when the villains are usually droids, I'd really not want half the figure spots in a BP to be taken up with droids.

LEGO had already started losing the plot with BPs before temporarily moving away from them, with named unique characters that serve nearly no purpose in multiples. I hope when they bring BPs back that they get back to basics: solid mass-able troopers with at least a couple of plain ones and one or two more specialised but still mass-able ones.

I think I'm in the minority where I really enjoyed the name character packs.  I get that it's kind of redundant and more difficult to mass tons of figures, but on the flip side, I loved the chance to get the bounty hunters and Ki-Adi-Mundi/Barriss Offee for cheap.  I also loved the Tatooine Battle Pack, which apparently a lot of people disliked too, so maybe my opinions are just weird 

I do think if they do any name character packs in the future, they should be more in the vein of the Bounty Hunter pack - that way it's not kind of in a weird limbo between named characters and mass-able characters, like the Jedi + Clone pack.  Cheap and easy way to get desirable characters, and you don't have 30 of one Jedi sitting around because you wanted to get more Clone Troopers.

[Gontron]

3 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

I mean honestly, I like the 501st battle pack. It’s out of scale, yeah, but the builds look great (imo), the troopers are really well done and if they were able to keep up the level of interesting, massable characters with good builds, I’d be fine with it. Tbh I just like having the pieces to faff around with and build different ships and stuff for the 501st. I can definitely see it getting annoying, however. 

Its not a bad set by any means, I'd just prefer a cheaper way to fill in my existing Clone vehicles and MOCs. 

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Luckily they did confirm that the normal battlepacks are returning, so I'm not worried about that.

Did they confirm them for next year or just "soon"? 

[CodeNameGoldMember]

16 hours ago, hondohnaka said:

Called Lego and they said they’re working to get August 1st orders out today! So hopefully my order finally gets done. 

I got my email Saturday night saying it had been shipped but it didn't actually get out till yesterday and estimated by the end of the week I'll have it (I'm in the US). Safe to say they are finally getting through that back log. I can't imagine how backed up they must be, this is my first time ordering the night of release so this is all new to me, but I'm happy I don't have to wait months to get a hold of the Gunship so that is very relieving .

Edited August 11, 2021 by CodeNameGoldMember

[Bobbtom]

35 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

I think I'm in the minority where I really enjoyed the name character packs.  I get that it's kind of redundant and more difficult to mass tons of figures, but on the flip side, I loved the chance to get the bounty hunters and Ki-Adi-Mundi/Barriss Offee for cheap.  I also loved the Tatooine Battle Pack, which apparently a lot of people disliked too, so maybe my opinions are just weird 

I do think if they do any name character packs in the future, they should be more in the vein of the Bounty Hunter pack - that way it's not kind of in a weird limbo between named characters and mass-able characters, like the Jedi + Clone pack.  Cheap and easy way to get desirable characters, and you don't have 30 of one Jedi sitting around because you wanted to get more Clone Troopers.

there's no reason not to put 4 rare named characters in a $20 or $25 set instead of placing them in a BP and wasting the opportunity for army builder figures

Edited August 11, 2021 by Bobbtom

[The Stud]

The 501st set is fantastic and honestly one of my favorite non-UCS sets. I mean, I own ten built copies which speaks for itself. That being said, I honestly feel like it’s going to be a one and done sort of thing. It’s tricky to think of many other battle packs they could do at that size aside from the ITT and reskins of 75280, unless Lego makes up the builds like they did with most of the $15 ones. Personally, I think Lego taking a break from Battle Packs was a good thing and I think that they have taken note of what people were displeased about with the last few years of battle packs. Hopefully 2022 or possibly 2023 kicks off a new era of battle packs, whenever they return.

[Stuartn]

1 hour ago, Clone OPatra said:

LEGO had already started losing the plot with BPs before temporarily moving away from them, with named unique characters that serve nearly no purpose in multiples. I hope when they bring BPs back that they get back to basics: solid mass-able troopers with at least a couple of plain ones and one or two more specialised but still mass-abl

In a way I did like being able to get more alien moulds which we would only get with specific characters, while it is unlikely I would like to revert to the 2012-2014 arrangement where there were the two regular BPs ( which could be changed to single faction) and two sets which were slightly larger with four figures (some   massable) and a small BP like build, or the four battle packs at a time which continued a little later 

[Clone OPatra]

In a way we're almost talking across different points.

I'm certainly not against cool named figures coming in small, Battle-Pack size/price sets. How great would the Ahsoka Maul set have been if it only included a smaller, less detailed throne but also had two more figures, for instance?

It does come down to expectations a bit. When we were in the habit of expecting Battle Packs that were good(ish) for faction building each year, it got annoying to see non-army-building sets take up their spots. Now that we've had nothing in the BP size, anything will be better than nothing.

At the same time I agree with part of @Kit Figsto's sentiment that it's also not good when the army-building figures are locked in a set with named characters, like in the Mundi and Barriss set. That's the same point I was basically making with my tendency to dislike VS packs, because in that case also one faction I may want will be locked into a set with one I don't.

[Archer]

4 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

At the same time I agree with part of @Kit Figsto's sentiment that it's also not good when the army-building figures are locked in a set with named characters, like in the Mundi and Barriss set. That's the same point I was basically making with my tendency to dislike VS packs, because in that case also one faction I may want will be locked into a set with one I don't.

Agreed, do all Jedi, Bounty Hunters, or Cantina Patrons, or do all generic troopers / mass-able specialists from a single faction. It's been my observation that most trooper based BPs sold well until maybe a year after their release. I do think lego did a few too many First Order BPs and that those warmed shelves after the third iteration in like 5 years, possibly making it seem like the desire for BPs was dead. Never saw the Solo or Rogue One BPs warming shelves though, only recently do I see the Mando BP consistently in stock. 

[PreVizsla]

14 hours ago, Brikkyy13 said:

At least it sets precedent. After the 501st set, an ITT at the same (or similar) pricepoint with 6 stormtroopers seems much more likely. 

I mean we did get a similar thing in Marauder for 10$ more and it only came with 3. The real precedent should have been the 75014: Battle of Hoth from 2013 which was basically a Hoth minifigure pack with great builds, molded animal, droid etc. 

My problem with 501st is strictly the value. Figures are perfect and characters are perfect in the universe and they teach kids about brotherhood etc. so it makes it even more meaningful that fans got together through MandR and that's how we got it, but we are paying double for oversized vehicles and the number of figures stay the same. It would be more worth it if just 1 of the builds were close to size accurate and there is no one to actually drive the AT-RT so just pull it out and sell the set for 15$. It just feels like a greedy anti-consumer thing.

[Meaf]

3 hours ago, Archer said:

Agreed, do all Jedi, Bounty Hunters, or Cantina Patrons, or do all generic troopers / mass-able specialists from a single faction. It's been my observation that most trooper based BPs sold well until maybe a year after their release. I do think lego did a few too many First Order BPs and that those warmed shelves after the third iteration in like 5 years, possibly making it seem like the desire for BPs was dead. Never saw the Solo or Rogue One BPs warming shelves though, only recently do I see the Mando BP consistently in stock. 

I don't know whether the FO BPs sold poorly or not, but if they did I imagine it was probably more the fault of a lack of overall interest in the sequels than anything else, though if I remember right the first one they ever did was pretty bad for army-building (it only had one regular Stormtrooper). I also rarely saw any of those BPs you mentioned, so I suppose Lego might just be taking a break to reassess the concept, and not necessarily because of poor sales (I can't imagine that's the case considering how the Mando BP was rather hard to get when it released). 

[Prometheus87]

42 minutes ago, Meadius said:

I don't know whether the FO BPs sold poorly or not, but if they did I imagine it was probably more the fault of a lack of overall interest in the sequels than anything else, though if I remember right the first one they ever did was pretty bad for army-building (it only had one regular Stormtrooper). I also rarely saw any of those BPs you mentioned, so I suppose Lego might just be taking a break to reassess the concept, and not necessarily because of poor sales (I can't imagine that's the case considering how the Mando BP was rather hard to get when it released). 

That's what sometimes gets me about Lego. They make assumptions on something not selling well for what seems to be incorrect reasons. This and the Obi-Wan Starfighter seem like prime examples of this. I was in my dark ages during the Starfighter but that seems to me as a very unappealing set itself. Certainly isn't indicative of the fact I wouldn't jump at other Prequel sets or since one Sequel BP didn't appeal to me that I wouldn't buy other BPs.