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

[Archer]

Bomber looks good on its own. I need to see better photos to see if the windscreen works. I can’t tell if it’s going to look too small.

[mirkwoodspiders]

TIE Bomber looks great. The cockpit windshield looks ever so small in proportion to the pieces surrounding it, though. I can't wait for better pictures.

[Brickroll]

Looks good. I wasn't really thinking about getting this, but at this point I'm tempted since I quite like it and I still don't have the new version of Vader. In addition, I'm really happy to see new (relatively) stuff from Empire, I think that's a good sign. 

[Classic_Spaceman]

The 501st battle pack looks great! The Heavy Troopers’ helmets look better with the visors attached, and they actually do have backpacks (with a third printed backpack tile likely, since those pieces are normally included as extras!). The macrobinoculars are excellent, though I hope that they are able to flip up onto the ‘forehead’ of the helmet (as well as fit P1 helmets). 
I do think that the Heavies needed a new leg printing, though, since the regular legs have too much white. I am very curious to see what the Officer looks like in-hand, since a second new Clone helmet with a lower attachment-point would be greatly appreciated! 
 

[CodFather1]

Well, the Slave 1 has flick fire missiles, so that's a thing. The 501st battle pack looks good though, although it is a bit of a hard pill to swallow considering that the exact same cannon with only 20 less pieces and the same number of minifigs retailed for $13 back in 2012 (9488), but I guess that's what a decades worth of inflation will get you. I'm also glad to see the normalisation of the new Phase II helmets. The Tie bomber looks phenomenal as well, but also appears to be using flick fire missiles, and seems to be in an even smaller scale Than the 2021 Tie Fighter. Can't tell if that Vader has arm printing or not.

[Classic_Spaceman]

There TIE Bomber looks good; from what I can see, it has nice greebling and non-shooting blaster cannons (finally!). The Imperial officer may be Rae Sloane, but it is a bit difficult to tell without a clear picture of the torso and hair (Sloane does seem to be the most likely option, though), and the TIE Pilot seems to have a new helmet mould that covers the back of the head. 🤔
 

[The Stud]

Very excited to finally see these pictures.

 

The Boba Fett Microfighter is definitely one of the Microfighters of all time. I get why they didn’t include it, but having Boba without his range finder here is so weird. I’ll still buy it though just cuz it’s cheap and it’ll go nicely with my Falcon and Razor Crest Microfighters on my dorm room desk.

The new 501st Battle Pack is pretty stellar. All of the figures are nice and I like the little AV-7 cannon build. The only thing I dislike are the guns used for the Heavy Class Troopers, which should be simple enough to replace. I look forward to expanding my clone army even more, as I plan to get ten of this set before it retires. (Which will go well with my 15+ 501st sets.)

Lastly, the TIE Bomber looks fantastic. I really like how the build looks and though the minifigure selection is a bit eh, I’m still looking forward to getting that Rae Sloane figure. (And who doesn’t love adding more Gonkies to their collection!?)

I plan to get all three at the Lego Store on Jan. 1st, along with some Series 24 packs.

 

And oh yeah, the X-Wing polybag and Tusken Raider Brickhead are cool as well. I’ll probably get em at some point cuz they’re cheap.

[Kdapt-Preacher]

3 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

I don't know about the battle pack... The Specialist visor needs printing.

I tend to agree that it would look better with printing, but in this one case I'm glad it doesn't have it. The macrobinoculars typically have a legion-colored stripe painted on them, and if that was printed on the part it would tie it to the 501st and make it much more awkward to use with other clones. An all-white one is a more useful part to have.

[Lemerbrix]

Slave 1 looks silly, he’s literally shooting his guns out. 501st battle pack 2 I like, kinda wish they threw in a generic 501st trooper, but I guess I’ll have to resort to Walmart clearance, canon looks nice though. Tie bomber, I don’t get why Vader is included, but looks like a clearance buy for me, as are most tie fighters

[Mandalorianknight]

11 minutes ago, Kdapt-Preacher said:

I tend to agree that it would look better with printing, but in this one case I'm glad it doesn't have it. The macrobinoculars typically have a legion-colored stripe painted on them, and if that was printed on the part it would tie it to the 501st and make it much more awkward to use with other clones. An all-white one is a more useful part to have.

My friend is hyped because he just bought the AT-TE and now he can have every class for the 212th as well. (no special printing of course, but what can ya do?)

2 minutes ago, Lemerbrix said:

Slave 1 looks silly, he’s literally shooting his guns out. 501st battle pack 2 I like, kinda wish they threw in a generic 501st trooper, but I guess I’ll have to resort to Walmart clearance, canon looks nice though. Tie bomber, I don’t get why Vader is included, but looks like a clearance buy for me, as are most tie fighters

I agree that the Slave 1 looks silly, I'd go so far as to say it looks stupid.

For the 501st pack, I was gonna say I'm very happy there's no new generic trooper since we just got a ton, but then the new helmet mold.... but then there are generic 501st helmets in the set. You're out of your mind if you think this will ever hit clearance, though. I'm not sure I'm gonna manage to get any opening day.

20 minutes ago, The Stud said:

Lastly, the TIE Bomber looks fantastic. I really like how the build looks and though the minifigure selection is a bit eh, I’m still looking forward to getting that Rae Sloane figure. (And who doesn’t love adding more Gonkies to their collection!?)

The TIE bomber has no right looking as good as it does. I'm really suspicious that we're not seeing something, because that's solid value for a $65 set if it is as big as it looks.

 

I'm not rating the bomber until we get more angles, as like I said it's suspiciously good, but it does look really nice. Looks like there is a large new piece to connect the wings to the cockpits.

[ForgedInLego]

I'm glad the sniper's binoculars are white and unprinted, hopefully it comes with an extra so I can pretend all of my extra clone commanders from command stations are just Bly and the 327th 

[Clone OPatra]

48 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

You're out of your mind if you think this will ever hit clearance, though. I'm not sure I'm gonna manage to get any opening day.

I think Lemerbrix is talking about the previous 501st set being on Walmart clearance, for plain 501st figures. It has been on clearance, or at least discount.

This one could go on clearance too, you never know. If LEGO supplies as much to the US as they tend to, and keep it on shelves for a year or more, the average consumer will have gotten it and there will be plenty left. Here in Australia I guarantee it will be on shelves for less than a month and then never again, just like the previous 501st set and Mace's non-canon purple Clone tank.

[Gontron]

12 minutes ago, ForgedInLego said:

I'm glad the sniper's binoculars are white and unprinted, hopefully it comes with an extra so I can pretend all of my extra clone commanders from command stations are just Bly and the 327th 

I just wish it had the black line printed. Hopefully more than one is included.

 

The bomber does indeed look almost too good to be true for the price. The 4 stud wide window piece has me a bit worried scale wise.

[icm]

On first glance, the TIE Bomber looks terrible. Way too small. Ick.

On closer inspection, I see that it's actually exactly the same size as the original TIE Bomber, so there's really nothing wrong with the scale. Much more interested now. $65 now is only $15 above the inflation-adjusted price of the original $30 TIE Bomber from 2003, so the price is reasonable given the increase in complexity and detail, and likely mass and stability.

The X-wing polybag looks pretty good. I might pick it up - it would be a good update to the mini X-wing that I do have, way back from 2003.

The Slave 1 microfighter makes me glad I finally picked up the BoBF Slave 1 for $40.

The 501st BP makes me glad I finally picked up the original 501st BP for $24.

[AD_Bricks]

Sooooo... I guess the 20th Anniversary of The Clone Wars logo is on the side of the box? I wonder why the person who found it early didn't let us see it 

[1340cc]

Bomber looks pretty good for the size/price, Sloane appears to be accurate to her appearance in Squadrons and the comics, just wish they gave her dual molded legs (and other officers outside of UCS sets). Will be picking one up for sure.

3 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

Here in Australia I guarantee it will be on shelves for less than a month and then never again, just like the previous 501st set and Mace's non-canon purple Clone tank.

Same issue in NZ, any small set with clone troopers flies off shelves on release and is hardly ever restocked. Planning to get 2 on release then never seeing them in stores again.

[THELEGOBATMAN]

TIE Bomber looks really well built from what I can see, it's awesome.

[CF Mitch]

Well, there they are....

The 501st battlepack looks very decent. Not sure if I'll buy it yet, but the macrobinoculars are definitely an interesting addition  

I can't say much about the TIE Bomber yet, but I'm very interested in the (probable) Rae Sloane minifigure, even if it does turn out to be a more generic female Imperial officer.
Plus, I don't have a TIE Bomber yet, so it might be nice to finally get one 

Regards,
Mitch

[Tariq j]

The 501st Battle pack looks really good. I like the new binocular piece. Slave I looks alright, though it is odd they left out Boba's rangefinder. The flick fire missiles appear to have made a return though!

[Nilker]

Has anyone noticed that the gonk droid is probably using the container element with the empire logo and the word "cargo"?

[ArrowBricks]

Overall, a good wave of sets even if it’s painfully (and I’d argue, wrongfully) small. 

501st Battle Pack feels like a set that belongs in the “golden age” of Lego Star Wars. The build is fantastic. 

Tie Bomber looks really nice. Admittedly I’m not too familiar with the accuracy of the ship, but I imagine in hand and on display this will be a winner. I’m looking forward to seeing the functions on this thing! 

Slave One Microfighter does what it says on the tin. Certainly could be worse! 

The Tusken Raider Brickheadz is tidy, shame it didn’t come out with the hype of BoBF. 
 

 

It will be a while now before we see the March-May sets sadly (Feb), but I can’t wait for that, and for the leaks for the summer wave. 

I have a very good feeling about this year! 

[AD_Bricks]

1 hour ago, Nilker said:

Has anyone noticed that the gonk droid is probably using the container element with the empire logo and the word "cargo"?

I did see that! I thought that finally, with the 1x3 tiles on the side of the Santa Gonk in the advent calendar, that they had finally found a design worth keeping consistent. This version doesn't have the tiles on the side at all, and the feet use the clip pieces instead of the 1x2 rounded plates used in the calendar, so it can't connect to studs, and IIRC it uses a rounded 1x2 brick (dunno what they're called) for the legs as opposed to two studs for each leg to get the nicer height and look. Disappointed with this one.

The set itself looks great, though.

Edited December 6, 2022 by AD_Bricks

[Big_Daddy]

I'll buy the 501st troopers as soon as they're on discount on Amazon, it looks like a delightful little set.

The Slave 1 Microfighter looks fine as far as microfighters go, my biggest gripe with it is the wings... they should have used those 3x3 plates with one rounded corner for those.

Since I'm perfectly happy with my TIE bomber from 2003 I didn't really think much of the upcoming update, but I must admit that it looks really nice. For some reason I'm really invested in the original TIE fighter windshield design and I wanted to avoid buying the newer ones because they break the continuity of my old TIE versions. Somehow the fact that they used a smaller windshield makes it better for me... if that will mean that I will buy it, I don't know. Interesting by the way to see that the main colour of the wings seems to be light bluish grey instead of black.

[storskogen]

The TIE bomber looks nice! Yes, it is scaled down, as they were the last X wing and TIE Fighter, but the compromise size-price is overall good. The main difference from previous models and mocs is the windscreen. Here we have a 4x4 dish, while previous ones had a 6x6 dish with bar handle. So, the body of cockpit and left secion is actually 6 studs wide. There you can picture the different proportions. Now I wonder, will a pilot actually fit in the cockpit? Hopefully there is enough space if the whole front section is attached by studs on the side.

[Mandalorianknight]

11 hours ago, ForgedInLego said:

I'm glad the sniper's binoculars are white and unprinted, hopefully it comes with an extra so I can pretend all of my extra clone commanders from command stations are just Bly and the 327th 

Smart idea.

10 hours ago, Gontron said:

The bomber does indeed look almost too good to be true for the price. The 4 stud wide window piece has me a bit worried scale wise.

Yeah something's off with that. I wonder if the price is wrong.

8 hours ago, AD_Bricks said:

Sooooo... I guess the 20th Anniversary of The Clone Wars logo is on the side of the box? I wonder why the person who found it early didn't let us see it 

We had already been told about that a few weeks ago, so whoever it was might not just have deemed it necessary. (I mean either way it's a box decoration.)