LEGO Star Wars 2023 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[Darth Shadowthrone]

There's extra information on the 501st soldiers too! I like that we're getting helmet accessories in more colours

[ArrowBricks]

The 501st set also doesn’t include a dwarf spider droid. 

Instead a small AV-7 cannon; 2014 release, whilst it will be more like the 2012 elite clone trooper BP I reckon. 

As per Promobricks, of course. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by ArrowBricks

[Sabre-aN]

Some of the info on the 501st figures seems strange, namely that apparently the heavy troopers use a dark blue visor (The visor should be the same colour as the blue paint on the armour which has always been the basic Lego blue) and that the heavy and specialist just have standard 501st legs (I can see it happening but it would be disappointing to have happen yet again after they did the same thing for the 2020 jet trooper - they should have unique legs, the heavy in particular has a lot more blue on him which I was rather looking forward to). Hopefully it's just a mistake / misinterpretation from low-res pre-production pictures or translation or something. I'll still get the set mind you as they'll still be 'good enough' by the sounds of things, but I'm a little less enthusiastic and might not get as many. I also hope they don't just print backpacks onto the heavies, if there indeed aren't brick built backpacks then personally I'd rather they just left them off, gives us more options

Edited September 12, 2022 by Sabre-aN

[azanderk]

Interesting if the Rae rumor is true.  Hopefully we get a lot more named officers etc in the future.  I wonder how they will handle the hat/hair component.  I assume the will go the Tala route, but that made sense as her hair was "up" when in uniform.

Edited September 12, 2022 by azanderk

[1340cc]

Getting Sloane as an official minifig is a pleasant surprise. Will be interesting to see what rank she has in minifig form. Could be admiral with a dark grey uniform as she appeared in Squadrons?

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, azanderk said:

Interesting if the Rae rumor is true.  Hopefully we get a lot more named officers etc in the future.  I wonder how they will handle the hat/hair component.  I assume the will go the Tala route, but that made sense as her hair was "up" when in uniform.

Sloane just doesn't wear a hat all that often, my guess is they just do hair.

As far as book/comic/game characters go, this is a weird choice and I would have preferred, like, Cal or someone, but if this means we're getting more figs from stuff besides the movies and shows, I'm in.

 

I'm a little conflicted on the unique torsos for the troopers, but I suppose the only part we really needed was the helmet. Also great to have the macrobinocs and blue visors confirmed. The AV-7 is nice as well. I prefer undersized builds to nonsense builds. 
Actually, now I'm on a tangent and here's my ranking system:

Best: Canon, correctly sized vehicles, or terrain. (I.E the patrol speeder from solo or the speeder bike from the snowtrooper pack, the snow mound from the snowtrooper pack, the debris from the mandalorian pack)

Nice: Undersized/oversized canon vehicles (new AV-7 for example)

No: Weird non canon speeders (most battle packs, but the inferno squad speeder sticks out in my mind as the worst offender)

[The Stud]

4 hours ago, The Stud said:

That makes the set substantially more interesting, especially because she'll likely have a more accurate badge on her torso that can be used for Thrawn. (Now to just find Thrawn's head and hair for cheap on Bricklink...)

I stand corrected. Apparently she’s wearing a standard gray outfit, not her Grand Admiral uniform…

Still exciting nonetheless!

Edited September 13, 2022 by The Stud

[Kdapt-Preacher]

I'll be delighted to see Rae Sloane, but be careful of reading too much into that. This isn't actually the first time LEGO has released figures based on book/comic material. The first ones were the shadow stormtroopers released in 2007, which were even in an entire set based on a comic (7664 TIE Crawler), but obviously nothing else ever came of that; it did not herald a new era of LEGO acknowledging EU content. So be happy about Sloane, but it's probably not worth making any larger predictions based on this.

[Gontron]

I'll gladly take a small cannon over another BARC speeder or Spider Droid. 

[MaximillianRebo]

I'm more interested in the news about the rumoured size for the TIE Bomber - apparently similar to the 2003 model. According to the Brickset article from last year about minifig scale vehicles, the 2003 Bomber was fairly close to scale - about 2-3 cm (1") too short. If the new model is around the same size (hopefully not smaller) that would make it scale well with other OT ships. Funnily enough, the same article says that the Solo TIE Fighter, generally considered to be oversized, is the closest LSW TIE Fighter to minifig scale (although still slightly on the big side) and Luke's X-Wing from last year, while being downsized from previous models, is the closest X-Wing to scale.

[Big_Daddy]

9 hours ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

I'll be delighted to see Rae Sloane, but be careful of reading too much into that. This isn't actually the first time LEGO has released figures based on book/comic material. The first ones were the shadow stormtroopers released in 2007, which were even in an entire set based on a comic (7664 TIE Crawler), but obviously nothing else ever came of that; it did not herald a new era of LEGO acknowledging EU content. So be happy about Sloane, but it's probably not worth making any larger predictions based on this.

Well that's not entirely true, there were a few EU sets released in that period after the release of 7664. From the top of my head the 7667 Stormtrooper BP which contained a shadowtrooper, the Rogue Shadow from The Force Unleashed and the 8087 TIE Defender. Also the first version of the Republic Fighter Tank if I recall correctly. So who knows?

[Kdapt-Preacher]

9 hours ago, Big_Daddy said:

Well that's not entirely true, there were a few EU sets released in that period after the release of 7664. From the top of my head the 7667 Stormtrooper BP which contained a shadowtrooper, the Rogue Shadow from The Force Unleashed and the 8087 TIE Defender. Also the first version of the Republic Fighter Tank if I recall correctly. So who knows?

No, there's never been another set based on a book or comic. The shadow stormtrooper figure was reused in 7667 and 'remastered' in 75262, in sets based on non-canon vehicles, but that's the closest they've come. Since 2007 there have been numerous sets based on recent video games (the TIE Defender, Republic Fighter Tanks, Rogue Shadow, TOR sets, BD-1, multiple Battlefront sets, etc) and a very very few sets based on other media (the Sandspeeder, Azure Angel, and IT-S, maybe one or two others), but nothing else pulling from print sources at all.

[Graupensuppe]

34 minutes ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

No, there's never been another set based on a book or comic. The shadow stormtrooper figure was reused in 7667 and 'remastered' in 75262, in sets based on non-canon vehicles, but that's the closest they've come. Since 2007 there have been numerous sets based on recent video games (the TIE Defender, Republic Fighter Tanks, Rogue Shadow, TOR sets, BD-1, multiple Battlefront sets, etc) and a very very few sets based on other media (the Sandspeeder, Azure Angel, and IT-S, maybe one or two others), but nothing else pulling from print sources at all.

The 2017 Republic Fighter Tank with Aayla Secura may have been inspired by this comic panel:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TX-130_Saber-class_fighter_tank/Legends?so=search&file=Saber_tank.jpg

[Kdapt-Preacher]

4 hours ago, Graupensuppe said:

The 2017 Republic Fighter Tank with Aayla Secura may have been inspired by this comic panel:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TX-130_Saber-class_fighter_tank/Legends?so=search&file=Saber_tank.jpg 

I guess I can't say that panel didn't inspire them to include Secura, since we have no way of knowing that either way, but the Fighter Tank in the set definitely isn't based on that image, since that one's almost completely white and the set uses the traditional white-and-red color scheme. But Secura and the Fighter Tank have both appeared in enough places that I'm not sure we have evidence to tie that set to any single source.

[Gontron]

It was probably the result of "Hey, we need a 25$ Clone set that isn't a walker, we also have this Twilek head mold we spent a ton of money on". Tbh none of the TX-130s have been directly inspired by a specific game or movie.

[Classic_Spaceman]

According to Promobricks, Rae Sloane will be wearing a grey uniform, so she is probably based on her appearance in Squadrons. 
 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Classic_Spaceman

[Big_Daddy]

15 hours ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

No, there's never been another set based on a book or comic.

I know, but...

On 9/13/2022 at 4:33 AM, Kdapt-Preacher said:

I'll be delighted to see Rae Sloane, but be careful of reading too much into that. This isn't actually the first time LEGO has released figures based on book/comic material. The first ones were the shadow stormtroopers released in 2007, which were even in an entire set based on a comic (7664 TIE Crawler), but obviously nothing else ever came of that; it did not herald a new era of LEGO acknowledging EU content. [...]

...you weren't that specific

[Mandalorianknight]

15 hours ago, Graupensuppe said:

The 2017 Republic Fighter Tank with Aayla Secura may have been inspired by this comic panel:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TX-130_Saber-class_fighter_tank/Legends?so=search&file=Saber_tank.jpg

Like @Kdapt-Preacher, I suppose we can't 100% say that it's not, but you understand how ridiculous that sounds, right? 

I think it's most likely that it was a case of them wanting to do a GAR vehicle around that price point, then putting a random jedi with it. But even if they for some reason decided to have them both together, you could just as easily say it's from battlefront 2005, a game featuring both of them.

9 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

According to Promobricks, Rae Sloane will be wearing a grey uniform, so she is probably based on her appearance in Squadrons. 

So still game-based. Seems like an odd choice to me, but if it means we get more game-based characters (CalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestis), then I'm all for it.

[Classic_Spaceman]

7 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

So still game-based. Seems like an odd choice to me 

A bit, since the presence of Vader in the set would make Admiral Piett the more expected choice. That said, I am glad that we are finally getting Sloane, and I VERY much hope that LEGO gives her a new head (rather than just a reuse of the Vi Moradi head)! 
 

[Gontron]

9 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Like @Kdapt-Preacher, I suppose we can't 100% say that it's not, but you understand how ridiculous that sounds, right? 

I think it's most likely that it was a case of them wanting to do a GAR vehicle around that price point, then putting a random jedi with it. But even if they for some reason decided to have them both together, you could just as easily say it's from battlefront 2005, a game featuring both of them.

So still game-based. Seems like an odd choice to me, but if it means we get more game-based characters (CalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestisCalKestis), then I'm all for it.

I know Sloane is a big character in the comics but surely we will get Cal soon, its almost comical we're getting a Squadrons tie-in before FO. 

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

A bit, since the presence of Vader in the set would make Admiral Piett the more expected choice. That said, I am glad that we are finally getting Sloane, and I VERY much hope that LEGO gives her a new head (rather than just a reuse of the Vi Moradi head)! 

I think it'd more likely be one of those random snowtrooper heads than the Vi Moradi head. That said, neither head looks old enough to be Sloane at the point of time she's in Squadrons at. Maybe for a figure based on her A New Dawn appearance or something.

Edit: No, wait, there's a short story or something where she meets vader. I never read it but they reference it in one of the books.

22 minutes ago, Gontron said:

I know Sloane is a big character in the comics but surely we will get Cal soon, its almost comical we're getting a Squadrons tie-in before FO. 

It's such a weird choice, especially since a character like Piett or Ozzel would fit the set better. I honestly have no idea why they chose her. I'm not really complaining, since I wasn't gonna buy the bomber anyway and the lack of a new piett or ozzel is offset by the excitement at an EU character like Sloane, but I don't understand what's going through lego's mind there. 

That said, they've made a lot of baffling decisions lately, so if a weird choice isn't a bad choice, I'm fine with it. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by Mandalorianknight

[The Stud]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Edit: No, wait, there's a short story or something where she meets vader. I never read it but they reference it in one of the books.

I reread that short story over the summer, it’s kind of a weird one because it takes place in the middle of another book but that other book doesn’t really reference it.

To be honest, I only played Squadrons like twice before giving up on it so I keep forgetting that we got a non-book/comic appearance of the character. The one upside to no Piett or Ozzel is that they’re fairly easily to make purist customs of.

[QuiggoldsPegLeg]

11 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Edit: No, wait, there's a short story or something where she meets vader. I never read it but they reference it in one of the books.

8 hours ago, The Stud said:

I reread that short story over the summer, it’s kind of a weird one because it takes place in the middle of another book but that other book doesn’t really reference it.

To be honest, I only played Squadrons like twice before giving up on it so I keep forgetting that we got a non-book/comic appearance of the character. The one upside to no Piett or Ozzel is that they’re fairly easily to make purist customs of.

Sloane also meets Vader in his meditation chamber on the Executor during the events of the Empire Strikes Back, while the Empire are searching for the Falcon in the Asteroid Field. Which makes a lot of sense why they’d both be in a TIE Bomber set then.

[Mandalorianknight]

9 hours ago, The Stud said:

I reread that short story over the summer, it’s kind of a weird one because it takes place in the middle of another book but that other book doesn’t really reference it.

To be honest, I only played Squadrons like twice before giving up on it so I keep forgetting that we got a non-book/comic appearance of the character. The one upside to no Piett or Ozzel is that they’re fairly easily to make purist customs of.

Squadrons was just.... the worst. It somehow still felt like a waste of money despite being 2/3rds the cost of a standard game. There is not a single aspect of it that I liked, and I gave it a chance, I was hyped enough for it to make multiple mocs of the alphabet squadron ships.

But yeah, I guess the others are pretty easy to make customs of. But that said, so is Sloane, unless she would need a new torso. (Have we gotten a good Ozzel face yet?)

[Kdapt-Preacher]

8 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Squadrons was just.... the worst. It somehow still felt like a waste of money despite being 2/3rds the cost of a standard game. There is not a single aspect of it that I liked, and I gave it a chance, I was hyped enough for it to make multiple mocs of the alphabet squadron ships.

Squadrons isn't really a game so much as a tech demo to show that they could deliver the experience of flying an X-wing in VR. And they could, and it's great! It's absolutely worth playing if you have a VR headset. If you're just on a PC, probably not so much.