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

[QuiggoldsPegLeg]

54 minutes ago, Falcrum said:

I still hope the mech thing is a bad taste joke. There's a reason why we haven't had mechs, zombies (aside from a few unholy exceptions) or superheroes in Star Wars - those things just don't belong in the universe, and this fact needs no explanation. 

I mean there is Seripas, the Geonosian & Nightsister zombies, and Jedi are essentially superheroes in most sense of the word. And I don’t think that they don’t belong in Star Wars, but I do get what you mean in that mech sets make no sense for Star Wars Lego. I’d love a Seripas set, but I dislike the mechification of normal characters for no reason.

(I agree I don’t like the cultural of idea of a superhero shaped by DC and Marvel in Star Wars, but Star Wars’s whole thing is playing off of pulpy tropes from movies and shows that came before it, and zombies and mechs certainly aren’t that far of a departure.)

[TeriXeri]

 R2-D2 in a C-3PO mech and a C-3PO in a R2-D2 mech would be hilarious.

[Hhalcyon]

53 minutes ago, Gontron said:

With the discussion on Clones and army building in general I don't know why Lego hasn't gone back to the two Battlepack per year system yet. If last year was any indication with the accessory packs they would still sell incredibly well.  

My guess would be that they want to try and space them out for long term reliability knowing they're some of their most reliable sellers. How often can they release the same kinda battlepack?

Let's say the main battlepack themes are/could be:
Clones (501st, 212th, 327th, 41st, 91st? 187th? (sorry investors) 104th?? Coruscant Guard??, shiny white bois. All in Phase 1 or 2, or airborne with even specialist options now apparently too.)
Droids (Battle, super, commando, magna?, assasin, Droideka maybe?)
Rebels (Hoth, Fleet, Endor, Battlefront)
Storm Troopers (scout, snow, sand, shore, death, shadow)
Resistance (very very distinct from rebels of-course)
First Order Storm Troopers. (Flame, Jet, Sith, Those guys with the stunny things)
Mandalorians (Super commandos, death watch, generic/differing clans)

So there's no shortage of themes they can potentially sell. Definitely 10 years worth of 2 packs per year. So unless they don't want to repeat battlepack themes for like 30 years (which would be insanity) they have no real idea limitations for packs. I can only imagine that they're testing how the sets sell when you only make one. Do they sell the same as 2 packs at a time? Do they sell less but make more profit due to not having to produce/design a second set? Do they have a set amount of money per year they can charge for their entire line and apparently think we need 3 helmets 1 display set and 3 mechs rather than swapping any of those out for a battlepack?

Questions i doubt anyone outside of Lego themselves could give an answer too. Has anyone seen any interviews talking about why they went down to 1 pack/year?

On the plus side, if the mechs don't sell well they'll hopefully bring the second battlepack back (after trying 5 other dumb things first of-course) oh and maybe bring back an extra microfighter per year. IDK why lego doesn't just always sell those 2 types of sets in VS themes. (Stormtrooper and Rebel battlepacks, X wing microfighter, Tie Fighter microfighter, all released on Jan 1st of a year for example. I can't see that not being a beloved wave that would sell well)
 

 

[wesker]

Part of the problem with battlepacks is half the factions don't sell. The Resistance in particular were notorious shelf warmers even when the Sequel Trilogy was at the height of its popularity. If hardly anyone wanted them back when they were relevant then who's going to buy them today?

Battle Droids usually didn't do too well on their own back in the day either. Mandalorians start out strong by selling out quickly in the first month or so but once the initial rush period is over they'll pile up the shelves for the remainder of the year. Even the Rebel Alliance is very hit or miss with the latest Hoth blister pack being incredibly slow moving.

Its mainly the Clones and Imperials that consistently do well.

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, Falcrum said:

I still hope the mech thing is a bad taste joke. There's a reason why we haven't had mechs, zombies (aside from a few unholy exceptions) or superheroes in Star Wars - those things just don't belong in the universe, and this fact needs no explanation. 

Don't look up the Obi-Wan and Anakin comic.

But I agree, at least about the standard mech archtype. Serpias works because he's a little dude in what looks like a humanoid armor shell. Zombies I think are a fine trope to include, and I totally agree that the superhero concept doesn't need to be in SW.

To try and stop myself from getting off topic, I do think the mechs are a stupid idea from a fan perspective. From a business perspective, I imagine they'll do fairly well, but I do wonder if they'll do better than just, like, small $15ish sets that include those characters.

[Hhalcyon]

49 minutes ago, wesker said:

Part of the problem with battlepacks is half the factions don't sell. The Resistance in particular were notorious shelf warmers even when the Sequel Trilogy was at the height of its popularity. If hardly anyone wanted them back when they were relevant then who's going to buy them today?

Battle Droids usually didn't do too well on their own back in the day either. Mandalorians start out strong by selling out quickly in the first month or so but once the initial rush period is over they'll pile up the shelves for the remainder of the year. Even the Rebel Alliance is very hit or miss with the latest Hoth blister pack being incredibly slow moving.

Its mainly the Clones and Imperials that consistently do well.

Honestly I think the context of the sets can help a lot. I have to imagine the snow troopers pack out now (which doesn't even seem to be selling fantastically at the moment) would have sold even worse if there wasn't also a hoth rebel blister pack, a "hoth" at-st and 2 AT-AT's to fill available at the same time.

I honestly didn't know the rebel/resistance sets sold poorly but i can kinda see why. The rebels themselves were always shown as a bit of "The bad guys will now wipe the floors with these guys so that it looks cooler when Han and Luke kill them all" kinda role. We were also never really presented with huge standing armies of rebels so that desire to have loads of them would be low.

But I am curious about battle droids. Yes, the B1 Battledroids are not gonna sell a battlepack today because we get, judging by my collection, 39.5 of them from every Clone set BUT surely commando, super and magna guards would be able to sell a battlepack? I could see a specialist droid pack with like A magna guard, 2 commandos and a captain selling okay but maybe that's just me cus I really like the clone wars and desperately want more droid-themed sets. I have all these grey and red vehicles lying around then I have my sad collection of small beige skeletons as their opposition beside them. But that's an issue for another discussion.

Do you all think a seperatist droid battlepack with droids we haven't seen in a decade would sell? Or is there a reason we haven't seen them since 2013/2014ish and I'm just a weird lil' guy with strange star wars tastes?

I would add that I think it'd need a second battlepack to help it along, maybe some type of clone battlepack. I'm thinking it'd be mostly kids who would ask parents to buy them some bad guys. OH or a split battlepack like with the 2012 Elite Clone vs Elite Droid pack?

[Gontron]

3 minutes ago, Hhalcyon said:

Honestly I think the context of the sets can help a lot. I have to imagine the snow troopers pack out now (which doesn't even seem to be selling fantastically at the moment) would have sold even worse if there wasn't also a hoth rebel blister pack, a "hoth" at-st and 2 AT-AT's to fill available at the same time.

I honestly didn't know the rebel/resistance sets sold poorly but i can kinda see why. The rebels themselves were always shown as a bit of "The bad guys will now wipe the floors with these guys so that it looks cooler when Han and Luke kill them all" kinda role. We were also never really presented with huge standing armies of rebels so that desire to have loads of them would be low.

But I am curious about battle droids. Yes, the B1 Battledroids are not gonna sell a battlepack today because we get, judging by my collection, 39.5 of them from every Clone set BUT surely commando, super and magna guards would be able to sell a battlepack? I could see a specialist droid pack with like A magna guard, 2 commandos and a captain selling okay but maybe that's just me cus I really like the clone wars and desperately want more droid-themed sets. I have all these grey and red vehicles lying around then I have my sad collection of small beige skeletons as their opposition beside them. But that's an issue for another discussion.

Do you all think a seperatist droid battlepack with droids we haven't seen in a decade would sell? Or is there a reason we haven't seen them since 2013/2014ish and I'm just a weird lil' guy with strange star wars tastes?

I would add that I think it'd need a second battlepack to help it along, maybe some type of clone battlepack. I'm thinking it'd be mostly kids who would ask parents to buy them some bad guys. OH or a split battlepack like with the 2012 Elite Clone vs Elite Droid pack?

I think a CIS Battlepack is long overdue, at least for droids like the SBD, security and commander B1s, and Commando Droids. I think the issue is most of the older non-B1 droids are using the SBD legs which... aren't well made to say the least. They would probably require a redesigned mold of some sort which I don't see Lego investing in given the only battle droids we see now commonly are B1s (or maybe they will). I think a Pathfinder or Fleet Trooper Battlepack is long overdue since neither of those figures have had their updated versions buyable in mass and they're among the more iconic Star Wars troopers. Even if you limited it to Clones and Imperials there are a plethora of ideas they could do for only two a year and still not run out. 

[Rwbricks]

3 hours ago, Hhalcyon said:

But I am curious about battle droids. Yes, the B1 Battledroids are not gonna sell a battlepack today because we get, judging by my collection, 39.5 of them from every Clone set BUT surely commando, super and magna guards would be able to sell a battlepack? I could see a specialist droid pack with like A magna guard, 2 commandos and a captain selling okay but maybe that's just me cus I really like the clone wars and desperately want more droid-themed sets. I have all these grey and red vehicles lying around then I have my sad collection of small beige skeletons as their opposition beside them. But that's an issue for another discussion.

Do you all think a seperatist droid battlepack with droids we haven't seen in a decade would sell? Or is there a reason we haven't seen them since 2013/2014ish and I'm just a weird lil' guy with strange star wars tastes?

I would add that I think it'd need a second battlepack to help it along, maybe some type of clone battlepack. I'm thinking it'd be mostly kids who would ask parents to buy them some bad guys. OH or a split battlepack like with the 2012 Elite Clone vs Elite Droid pack?

I don’t think that a set consisting solely of droids would be met with a good reaction, especially today. Aside from the inevitable comments that “we could/should have gotten this or that instead,” there’s just something not as exciting about droids as there is minifigures, but maybe that’s just me. Now, if they make a pack and threw in a tactical droid, it might be different story, as with your ideas of an accompanying or split battlepack. At the end of the day, however, I feel like kids would be more likely to want a battlepack with minifigures or more recognizable characters if they had to choose one. 

[ToaDraco]

3 hours ago, Gontron said:

I think a CIS Battlepack is long overdue, at least for droids like the SBD, security and commander B1s, and Commando Droids. I think the issue is most of the older non-B1 droids are using the SBD legs which... aren't well made to say the least. They would probably require a redesigned mold of some sort which I don't see Lego investing in given the only battle droids we see now commonly are B1s (or maybe they will). I think a Pathfinder or Fleet Trooper Battlepack is long overdue since neither of those figures have had their updated versions buyable in mass and they're among the more iconic Star Wars troopers. Even if you limited it to Clones and Imperials there are a plethora of ideas they could do for only two a year and still not run out. 

We are definitely long overdue for a CIS bp. I could see heavy battle droids from Battlefront 2 being included in the same way we got heavy troopers in the new 501st bp. We're long overdue for a Crab Droid so that would be perfect for the build of the set and throw in a Droideka too. I don't know if they would consider more SBD, Commando Droids or Magna Guards but they would be great too. While it likely won't matter to LEGO since they're being weirdly allergic to Star Wars video games, the fact that CIS droids are being heavily featured in Jedi Survivor at least makes those droids relevant in 2023, not to mention a recent episode of the Bad Batch. 

[Agent Kallus]

I mean regular B1s cost so much less to produce than minifigs we really should get a ton included in clone packs.

I mean their parts are all simple unprinted parts ( simple as in unlike minifig torsos and legs where they have to fit the arms into the torsos, the hands into the arms and the legs into the hips) and other than the head (and to a lesser extent the legs) the other b1 parts are used as common parts across themes. Though TBH the B1s could do with being more sturdy.

 

[BrickBob Studpants]

A Nikto head just leaked! Must be Vane

[josebricks]

I’m really not a fan

Spoiler

Unless his cap/headset from the fighter chase scene complements it well,

I’d call this one a fail, missed opportunity for a molded neck or headpiece that they could re-use in a Jabba-related set

[Agent Kallus]

1 minute ago, josebricks said:

I’m really not a fan

  Reveal hidden contents

Unless his cap/headset from the fighter chase scene complements it well,

I’d call this one a fail, missed opportunity for a molded neck or headpiece that they could re-use in a Jabba-related set

A molded head for a nikto would be overkill. I do think it could've been more expressive though.

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 minute ago, josebricks said:

I’d call this one a fail, missed opportunity for a molded neck or headpiece that they could re-use in a Jabba-related set

I think Niktos are too humanoid to warrant a unique new piece. Give this one a cap and it’s perfect

[OCD_Chad]

On 2/22/2023 at 12:33 PM, Kit Figsto said:

I feel like a lot of people are looking at the UCS X-Wing from the perspective of an AFOL that's been collecting Star Wars for 5-10+ years (probably because most people on this forum fall into that demographic).  For someone that only recently got into LEGO or LSW, this makes a lot of sense.  I feel like the X-Wing and Millennium Falcon are the two "staples" of the theme that pretty much have to be on shelves in some form or another at almost all times.  Obviously they can do more re-releases at system scale, since UCS models only get one or two per year, but seeing that it's been a decade since the last UCS X-Wing, there's probably a very sizable portion of buyers that either missed the last one or weren't even into LEGO at the time.  Plus, the secondary market prices for UCS stuff are such that you basically have to buy any UCS/MBS model when it comes out or else pay 2-3x or more of the original price.

It's more like 20 years.  There has not been a UCS labeled X-Wing since 7191.

[Kaijumeister]

Head looks great! Realistically, how many figures can we expect in the Snubfighter and Fang Fighter vs, TIE Interceptor sets?

For the former, 2-3 sounds sensible if we look at other sets with similar price points. Getting a new Greef variant would be pretty cool, his outfits get better with every season. Perhaps an updated Mando (as in, the) too? Plenty of options with generic pirates as well. 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Kaijumeister

[Mandalorianknight]

14 minutes ago, Kaijumeister said:

Head looks great! Realistically, how many figures can we expect in the Snubfighter and Fang Fighter vs, TIE Interceptor sets?

For the former, 2-3 sounds sensible if we look at other sets with similar price points. Getting a new Greef variant would be pretty cool, his outfits get better with every season. Perhaps an updated Mando (as in, the) too? Plenty of options with generic pirates as well. 

My assumption is no more than Vane, Mando, and one other fig. I would say they'd need someone desirable to sell the set, but another recently revealed $35 spaceship literally just has Rocket Raccoon, so who knows. Most likely it'll be either a second pirate or Greef with the new drip.

[Kaijumeister]

19 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

My assumption is no more than Vane, Mando, and one other fig. I would say they'd need someone desirable to sell the set, but another recently revealed $35 spaceship literally just has Rocket Raccoon, so who knows. Most likely it'll be either a second pirate or Greef with the new drip.

That’s a good point, but to be fair I don’t see this theme stooping to the new levels of low that Marvel does just yet, of course I may be wrong.

I’m looking at these sets from the same viewpoint as the two TBoBF / Mando S2 sets we got last March, even if the pricepoints aren’t identical. 3 minifigures for the Snubfighter sounds about right - honestly an updated Mando with darksaber mould and an Anzellan figure would make the set pretty desirable. As for the larger set, a sizeable complement of new and interesting figures like what we got with Boba’s Palace would be great to see. I still haven’t opened my Mandalorian Fighter from 2021 but might sell it if that set is good enough.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Kaijumeister

[jdubbs]

50 minutes ago, OCD_Chad said:

It's more like 20 years.  There has not been a UCS labeled X-Wing since 7191.

Here we go! The bi-annual hair-splitting debate about what constitutes a UCS set...

[ToaDraco]

4 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

I think Niktos are too humanoid to warrant a unique new piece. Give this one a cap and it’s perfect

I totally agree, save the new alien molds for something more deserving--- like Gorian Shard! Seriously, I hope we get him and his pirate ship at some point.

Edited March 5, 2023 by ToaDraco

[Mandalorianknight]

3 hours ago, Kaijumeister said:

That’s a good point, but to be fair I don’t see this theme stooping to the new levels of low that Marvel does just yet, of course I may be wrong.

I’m looking at these sets from the same viewpoint as the two TBoBF / Mando S2 sets we got last March, even if the pricepoints aren’t identical. 3 minifigures for the Snubfighter sounds about right - honestly an updated Mando with darksaber mould and an Anzellan figure would make the set pretty desirable. As for the larger set, a sizeable complement of new and interesting figures like what we got with Boba’s Palace would be great to see. I still haven’t opened my Mandalorian Fighter from 2021 but might sell it if that set is good enough.

I don't think we see an Anzellen or darksaber mold. Darksaber feels like something we should have already, but for some reason they seem really confident on keeping it as the standard lightsaber design. The Anzellen just feels like too much effort for something not really even related to the set (and before anyone brings up the BD-unit, that was clearly designed for the BD-1 set)

I think the larger set definately has potential for upwards of 6 minifigs. Here's what I'd speculate based on what we know:

Confirmed/basically confirmed: Mando (has been in all but two smallish Mandalorian sets), TIE pilot (given the tie interceptor), Unnamed Mando (The figure literally leaked)

Then likely around 3 of the following: Bo-Katan, Grogu, other unnamed mandos, 

Spoiler

Gideon in his rumored mando armor

12 minutes ago, ToaDraco said:

I totally agree, save the new alien molds for something more deserving--- like Gorian Shard! Seriously, I hope we get him and his pirate ship at some point.

Hypothetically, Gorian would just need a hair/beard piece, no? 

I agree that his ship is totally coming. Excellent design, 

Spoiler

seems like we'll definately see it again in the show, probably when- just what seems like it'll happen from the trailers- gorain takes over Navarro and Mando brings mandalorians to save it.

and has clear play-feature potential with the retracting features.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Mandalorianknight

[1340cc]

7 hours ago, Kaijumeister said:

Head looks great! Realistically, how many figures can we expect in the Snubfighter and Fang Fighter vs, TIE Interceptor sets?

For the former, 2-3 sounds sensible if we look at other sets with similar price points. Getting a new Greef variant would be pretty cool, his outfits get better with every season. Perhaps an updated Mando (as in, the) too? Plenty of options with generic pirates as well. 

My guess is 3 minifigs in the Snubfighter. The leaked Nikto pirate is most likely Vane, an updated Greef seems likely and then either Din or another pirate.

At least 4 minifigs in the starfighter twinpack based on other recent similarly priced vehicle sets. Blue mandalorian already leaked, TIE pilot is obvious. Din & Grogu will almost certainly be included as Lego loves putting them in sets based on the show. Maybe an updated Bo Katan based on her live action appearance instead of animated like the current one.

[Agent Kallus]

6 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

 The Anzellen just feels like too much effort for something not really even related to the set (and before anyone brings up the BD-unit, that was clearly designed for the BD-1 set)

 

  Reveal hidden contents

seems like we'll definately see it again in the show, probably when- just what seems like it'll happen from the trailers- gorain takes over Navarro and Mando brings mandalorians to save it.

 

I'd agree if I thought the Anzellen needed a new mold but they don't, just a printed baby or maybe a statuette (mircofig) with the baby head so that they are smaller than Grogu.  Could even have the workshop table as a side build.

[BrickBob Studpants]

A picture showing part of the boxart of the pirate starfighter leaked! Vane and that pirate pilot look excellent  Seems to be another Nikto. Or maybe it‘s the Klatooinian pilot?

Edited March 5, 2023 by BrickBob Studpants

[omegabadbatch]

I think third minifigure is Greef Karga or maybe general of pirates?

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by omegabadbatch