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

[SketchBrick]

27 minutes ago, The Stud said:

Lego would’ve been better off doing a normal playset for like $30 with just two speeder bikes and a tree. If this were a few years ago, we probably would have gotten just that: just compare the 2018 Yoda’s Hut to the 2022 diorama. Or the new Final Duel diorama that’s the same price as the last two for a smaller model with less figures and less of the throne room itself. 

I feel the same way. The selection of scenes is great but we could have easily seen these both as playsets at much lower price points.

Take the same figures and bikes and one tree/scenery piece, and charge $30-35.

Condense the throne room to something a bit bigger/more complex than the Mandalore Duel set, include the Royal Guard figs, and charge $40-50

By the sounds of things, we won't be getting any other Endor sets this year, which leaves us with an overpriced 4+ set from last summer, and now an overpriced diorama as well. I understand some level of price increases is inevitable, but it's obvious LEGO is doing everything it can to inflate that even faster.

Maybe in their minds the black base and quote tile = $30 added value, but people are really gonna need to vote with their wallets unless we want this to continue.

[NoOneOfImportance]

15 minutes ago, omegabadbatch said:

death star duel diorama and endor diorama are 180$. 10 $ less and you have yavin 4 base

It does have to be said that these are very different. On one hand, you have a playset that will probably have a less interesting build but a lot of figs, and on the other, you have two high-end display models (that are definitely a bit more pricy this year).

[Clone OPatra]

No ponchos. Boo. I'll stick with my Shuttle Tyderium version of Leia, one of the best.

I was watching a store walk through from an independent store here in Australia recently and it really struck me how not cohesive the Star Wars assortment is now and how that kind of sucks from a fan excitement perspective. I used to love waiting to see a the cheaper January wave and then big glorious summer wave each year, with all the same packaging design, and often some theme tying some sets together (a film wave, Clone Wars, Rebels, etc), and even though I haven't bought a lot of Star Wars in years, it looked awesome on a shelf.

Now it's just weird dribs and drabs. Sets releasing at all different times, a lot of the black boxes mixed with other stuff. There's no shelf appeal to the Star Wars lineup anymore since it's all so disparate.

[ArrowBricks]

25 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

I was watching a store walk through from an independent store here in Australia recently and it really struck me how not cohesive the Star Wars assortment is now and how that kind of sucks from a fan excitement perspective. I used to love waiting to see a the cheaper January wave and then big glorious summer wave each year, with all the same packaging design, and often some theme tying some sets together (a film wave, Clone Wars, Rebels, etc), and even though I haven't bought a lot of Star Wars in years, it looked awesome on a shelf.

Now it's just weird dribs and drabs. Sets releasing at all different times, a lot of the black boxes mixed with other stuff. There's no shelf appeal to the Star Wars lineup anymore since it's all so disparate.

I have been trying to articulate my feelings on the matter for some time, and I might add unsuccessfully. 

I think the way you’ve described it here makes a lot of sense. 

I am still trying to attribute the weight of nostalgia to my frustrations with Lego Star Wars. Your observations only reduce that weighting. 

The summer wave feels the same. It’s just disparate sets all over the place. As a child I’d love sets that connected with one another in an obvious, or otherwise, way.

I think the different times is a great point. For some reason it really bothers me. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by ArrowBricks

[Brickroll]

43 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

No ponchos. Boo. I'll stick with my Shuttle Tyderium version of Leia, one of the best.

I was watching a store walk through from an independent store here in Australia recently and it really struck me how not cohesive the Star Wars assortment is now and how that kind of sucks from a fan excitement perspective. I used to love waiting to see a the cheaper January wave and then big glorious summer wave each year, with all the same packaging design, and often some theme tying some sets together (a film wave, Clone Wars, Rebels, etc), and even though I haven't bought a lot of Star Wars in years, it looked awesome on a shelf.

Now it's just weird dribs and drabs. Sets releasing at all different times, a lot of the black boxes mixed with other stuff. There's no shelf appeal to the Star Wars lineup anymore since it's all so disparate.

Actually, you make a really interesting point here that until now I had not really considered, but I think I agree with you. I suppose there's a good chance we will have this again at some point due to a movie coming out eventually, but I do miss the waves of sets combined. 

[The Stud]

1 hour ago, Clone OPatra said:

No ponchos. Boo. I'll stick with my Shuttle Tyderium version of Leia, one of the best.

I was watching a store walk through from an independent store here in Australia recently and it really struck me how not cohesive the Star Wars assortment is now and how that kind of sucks from a fan excitement perspective. I used to love waiting to see a the cheaper January wave and then big glorious summer wave each year, with all the same packaging design, and often some theme tying some sets together (a film wave, Clone Wars, Rebels, etc), and even though I haven't bought a lot of Star Wars in years, it looked awesome on a shelf.

Now it's just weird dribs and drabs. Sets releasing at all different times, a lot of the black boxes mixed with other stuff. There's no shelf appeal to the Star Wars lineup anymore since it's all so disparate.

That's a very good point I hadn't thought of before. Lego's set selection and release schedule is kinda all over the place. The set selection tends to primarily be a bunch of random stuff coming out around the same time: this recent January wave is a great example. We got a "ROTJ 40th Anniversary" OT set, a "Clone Wars 20th Anniversary" Battlefront 2 battle pack and a BOBF Microfighter. That's not to say that we don't still occasionally get waves with a consistent theme: last January, there was a bunch of Hoth related stuff following the UCS AT-AT and we got a strong Disney Plus-centric wave in summer 2021 focusing on Mando Season 2 and TCW/TBB. These waves seem to be far and few between though, and it's usually only a small number of sets around at a given time with a common theme.

The release schedule is kind of all over the place too. We used to get a January wave, a spring/early summer wave and then a wave in the fall to go with the new film. Now, it's a few random releases of sets periodically throughout the year. This year we have the aforementioned January wave, the helmet wave in March, the May 4th wave (with two Mando S3 sets, some ROTJ 40th Anniversary sets and the UCS X-Wing), the August wave (with the Swamp Speeder, Yavin IV, the remaining Mando S3 sets, the mechs), a September wave (with the two Ahsoka sets and two mystery sets) and the fall UCS coming out in October or November. On one hand, it's kind of nice to have these releases more spread out but it's also hard to keep track of when everything's supposed to be coming out, especially with the August and September waves being so close together. I can't even remember which month buildable Chewbacca is supposed to be releasing. And personally, I feel like there's just more hype when there's a few decent-sized waves periodically versus a bunch of tiny ones throughout the year.

[Koaleu]

The figs in the Endor diorama are extremely disappointing. Not having ponchos is one thing, but both Luke and Leia have incorrect leg colors. Luke is supposed to have his black clothes under the poncho, yet the figure on the back of the box looks like it has dark tan legs, and Leia seems to have olive green legs when the sand blue color that both previous version of her had was perfectly accurate to the trousers she wore. I was thinking of grabbing this set but honestly those strange inaccuracies really put me off.

[ArrowBricks]

3 hours ago, Koaleu said:

The figs in the Endor diorama are extremely disappointing. Not having ponchos is one thing, but both Luke and Leia have incorrect leg colors.

Just carelessness. It’s an 18+ set, too. 

[BacktoBricks]

3 hours ago, Koaleu said:

The figs in the Endor diorama are extremely disappointing. Not having ponchos is one thing, but both Luke and Leia have incorrect leg colors. Luke is supposed to have his black clothes under the poncho, yet the figure on the back of the box looks like it has dark tan legs, and Leia seems to have olive green legs when the sand blue color that both previous version of her had was perfectly accurate to the trousers she wore. I was thinking of grabbing this set but honestly those strange inaccuracies really put me off.

I totally agree. I feel like I'm just looking at miscellaneous Endor Rebel Troopers when I see these minifigures. Luke clearly has his black outfit under his poncho in the movie and as much as this minifigure's torso is going to be dominated by the printed poncho, seeing tan legs from the side just totally spoils it. Did they not think they could print the bottom of the poncho onto black legs without it being poor quality I wonder? And yet the same goes for Leia; she is clearly wearing blue trousers in the movie and every previous Endor Leia has honoured this. So her green legs are jarring and inaccurate again and I can't see any reason why printing onto sand blue instead of olive green would be an issue. 

Overall, whilst I am always aware of the fact that designers are constricted by elements we are unaware of, considering past ability to produce accurate minifigures, buying this set now would just feel like giving Lego a licence to print money, because objectively the set itself is a lot of money for the amount of plastic and the minifigures are a poor representation of the movie material. This was the set I was most looking forward to this year, but now I'm out.

As for the I the poncho on Leia in the Tydirium set, I thought it was so cute and really added character to the minifigure, but I understand why they might want to stick to prints, especially when characters are being seated on vehicles. That being said, I just wish they would stay consistent with it. Prints seem to be dominating this year and that's fine to me, so long as next year they don't start going for printed cloth pieces and kamas again. Visually I would just like to see some consistency.

Which leads me on to what @Clone OPatra said. Cohesion has become a problem with the theme and partly this is not Lego's fault; the variety and wealth of new material and the fact that it is formed from television series rather than movies means that as Lego can only produce a limited amount of Star Wars sets each year this is inevitably going to split the content they create. Their ability to create a wave largely dominated by the content of a single new movie has passed. However, they can control the boxes and whilst I haven't got a toy store near me so I can walk in and appreciate the products on shelves, you only have to look at a online web page to appreciate the disparity in designs.

Edited March 28, 2023 by BacktoBricks

[Clone OPatra]

31 minutes ago, BacktoBricks said:

Which leads me on to what @Clone OPatra said. Cohesion has become a problem with the theme and partly this is not Lego's fault; the variety and wealth of new material and the fact that it is formed from television series rather than movies means that as Lego can only produce a limited amount of Star Wars sets each year this is inevitably going to split the content they create. Their ability to create a wave largely dominated by the content of a single new movie has passed. However, they can control the boxes and whilst I haven't got a toy store near me so I can walk in and appreciate the products on shelves, you only have to look at a online web page to appreciate the disparity in designs.

To clarify what I meant about cohesion a little bit, I certainly don't expect waves all revolving around one film/show in Star Wars - that'd be ridiculous given the wealth of new and old material to draw from!

LEGO hasn't done that in years (besides when it was for a new film), but what they did used to very commonly do is pair sets within fully fledged waves. For the past couple of years, we haven't gotten many fully fledged waves like I already touched on, AND sets are often random and one-offs for their source material.

Looking back over the last few years of releases, 2020 was the last year to have that traditional type of fully fledged wave I'm talking about, with internal pairings of things. In Jan '20 we had two RoS microfighters and a VS 2-pack, two battlepacks (not paired but ok), two small battle-in-a-box sets that don't really need pairings, two ANH sets, and two RoS ships. Without commenting on the quality or desirability of all those individual sets, that's a full wave right there covering a variety of Star Wars content while also pairing some sets.

The non-playset stuff in 2020 came out in April as its own wave, which makes sense since it's different. The August wave didn't have everything paired and did have some weird stuff like the I-TS transport, though at least was a full wave with a variety of mostly higher pricepoints, as was traditional for summer/August waves.

2021 was where things started shifting toward what they are now. It did have a legitimately great August "Disney+" range that released together, though the Mando forge released a month later for no understandable reason. Which is fine, but weird. The January 2021 wave did have a pair of sets (X-Wing and TIE), but a standalone Mando set, and then other scattershot sets releasing in March. Also, some of the non-playset stuff started releasing at the same time as playsets, with both the Meditation Chamber and UCS Gunship releasing on August 1st.

In 2022 for January, sure there was some Hoth Stuff, but also Episode II Clones that go with nothing else, and a Mando microfighter by itself. March had two Disney+ sets and helmet. Dioramas came out in April along with... the random non-canon Fighter Tank (which I like, it just goes with nothing else releasing around the same time). August had a full wave I guess, though some of the choices do feel quite random and just have little else to go with them.

Now, I'm not reading into this any more than what it is. They could go back to the old model in the future. They could knock us out with some awesome waves. I'm not predicting anything. But what they are doing right now, last year and this year, just generates way less excitement in me as a fan than what they used to do for many years, and makes for a pretty random-looking shelf display in stores.

[BrickBob Studpants]

Personally, I like they way they‘ve been handling new waves since 2020, for the most part. I don‘t mind the scattered releases as it gives us more to discuss and more reveals to look forward to  

What I don‘t like is the imbalance between waves. In 2021 and 2022, the 2HY sets were so much more interesting than the 1HY stuff, it wasn‘t even funny.

This year is decent overall, but nothing has REALLY managed to grab my attention so far. Hoping for the unknown ones to turn the tide

[Kaijumeister]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Personally, I like they way they‘ve been handling new waves since 2020, for the most part. I don‘t mind the scattered releases as it gives us more to discuss and more reveals to look forward to  

What I don‘t like is the imbalance between waves. In 2021 and 2022, the 2HY sets were so much more interesting than the 1HY stuff, it wasn‘t even funny.

This year is decent overall, but nothing has REALLY managed to grab my attention so far. Hoping for the unknown ones to turn the tide

Yeah I concur. For the most part, Summer 2021 and 2022 had solid set lineups and huge swathes of new minifigures. I felt like that was the new ‘standard’ to expect following the overall variety of sets we saw between 2015-2019 and was all for it.

I do agree that in terms of cohesion, things could be better though. It’s a double edged blade - on one hand getting a richer diversity of mostly unrelated sets is nice to see, but at the same time it can feel quite disparate.

My overall thoughts on the year will hinge on the quality of the September sets, which are ‘meatier’ in terms of piece counts compared to what we’re receiving in August without venturing into UCS territory. For the new Ahsoka figure, a new montrail piece and printed arms are a must, and I’m somewhat confident we’ll get those seeing how much detail has been put into Disney+ show minifigures thus far. For anyone keeping up with the reputable leaks from the show, you’ll know of the potential for some stunning minifigures.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Kaijumeister

[jdubbs]

The problem with the current approach — a Mando set here, a CW set there, an OT set or two mixed in —  is that, without at least 4-5 sets from a single movie or show out at once, LEGO is inevitably gong to concentrate on the same "hero" vehicles/characters in each of those sets. The likelihood of getting an obscure character or ship/location goes way down when there are just a few sets from a given show/series out within the year. Say what you want about TFA sets dominating the lineup for over a year, but that approach allowed virtually every conceivable ship/character from that movie to get released. Contrast that with Andor or Obi-Wan Kenobi or Book of Boba which got just one or two sets each... if all you want are X-Wings and TIEs and Jedi Starfighters, the current approach is great. Otherwise, very limiting... 

[Calanon]

These new dioramas just look... disappointing, honestly. Besides the given of them being overpriced for what they are the playset of the playsets of the DS2 duel are all a lot more comprehensive. The window build looks nice though.

The speeder chase though... well, everyone's already said about the figs. On top of that though the trees don't look great - admittedly it's a scale thing but whilst I think the trunks look okay the canopies look sparse and uninteresting. The vanes look good but the back is ugly, it's very wide and looks disproportionate. The build to accommodate two figs also does not look great.

[GlacierPhoenix]

Speaking of obscure sets there's been talk around Yodas jedi starfighter being a remake of the one from a few years ago from the one episode of the clone wars. Now I think we may actually be looking at an entirely different ship entirely. The poster for Young Jedi Adventures has just been released and on it it has both a transport and a Jedi Vector starfighter. Could we be seeing this as Yodas Starfighter? 

The show also seems to have 4 new jedi, a droid, and Yoda. They're not going to put everyone into a $40 set but if they put 3 in that and 2 in a starfighter.... 

Yes, the other set for the show is a 4+ one but that doesn't rule out them doing a 7 or 8+ set based on the show and Yoda himself is enough of a draw to bring in casual fans who may not know or be interested in the show. 

Also one of the newly released shorts from the show is them on a speeder in a bit of a swampy area. Swamp speeder perhaps?

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by GlacierPhoenix

[Hhalcyon]

6 minutes ago, GlacierPhoenix said:

Speaking of obscure sets there's been talk around Yodas jedi starfighter being a remake of the one from a few years ago from the one episode of the clone wars. Now I think we may actually be looking at an entirely different ship entirely. The poster for Young Jedi Adventures has just been released and on it it has both a transport and a Jedi Vector starfighter. Could we be seeing this as Yodas Starfighter? 

The show also seems to have 4 new jedi, a droid, and Yoda. They're not going to put everyone into a $40 set but if they put 3 in that and 2 in a starfighter.... 

Yes, the other set for the show is a 4+ one but that doesn't rule out them doing a 7 or 8+ set based on the show and Yoda himself is enough of a draw to bring in casual fans who may not know or be interested in the show. 

Also one of the newly released shorts from the show is them on a speeder in a bit of a swampy area. Swamp speeder perhaps?

 

oh good, the worst lego star wars year in history if true.

[GlacierPhoenix]

Just now, Hhalcyon said:

oh good, the worst lego star wars year in history if true.

Hey, there would be some cool alien characters if true... 

[Hhalcyon]

Just now, GlacierPhoenix said:

Hey, there would be some cool alien characters if true... 

If the swamp speeder doesn't have clones Lego can keep it.

[MKJoshA]

10 minutes ago, GlacierPhoenix said:

Speaking of obscure sets there's been talk around Yodas jedi starfighter being a remake of the one from a few years ago from the one episode of the clone wars. Now I think we may actually be looking at an entirely different ship entirely. The poster for Young Jedi Adventures has just been released and on it it has both a transport and a Jedi Vector starfighter. Could we be seeing this as Yodas Starfighter? 

The show also seems to have 4 new jedi, a droid, and Yoda. They're not going to put everyone into a $40 set but if they put 3 in that and 2 in a starfighter.... 

Yes, the other set for the show is a 4+ one but that doesn't rule out them doing a 7 or 8+ set based on the show and Yoda himself is enough of a draw to bring in casual fans who may not know or be interested in the show. 

Also one of the newly released shorts from the show is them on a speeder in a bit of a swampy area. Swamp speeder perhaps?

 

Oh man, my kids are going to love that show. If Lego releases sets attached to it my wallet is doomed!

[BrickBob Studpants]

Just now, GlacierPhoenix said:

Hey, there would be some cool alien characters if true... 

Agreed. While the show itself is aimed at young kids, the set does have potential! Probably the most interesting minifig selection we have all year  

In terms of brand-new characters, I mean. The Ahsoka sets will likely feature some desirable minifigs, but they‘re still just variants at the end of the day

[GlacierPhoenix]

2 minutes ago, MKJoshA said:

Oh man, my kids are going to love that show. If Lego releases sets attached to it my wallet is doomed!

And honestly from LEGOs perspective what would sell better, a Yoda starfighter that is based on a clone wars episode from 9 years ago and only seen in 3 episodes or a new kids property that is brand new and being hyped by Disney. 

Of course YJA is going to be getting a lot of hype, it's the perfect reintroduction for kids to Star Wars animated shows. Yes there's The Bad Batch but that is certainly an older kids show, lots of violence, 30~ minute episodes, entire season long story arcs.

Meanwhile YJA will be short episodes, young audience, single episode stories. Much more accessible to younger kids. 

[Mandalorianknight]

30 minutes ago, jdubbs said:

Say what you want about TFA sets dominating the lineup for over a year, but that approach allowed virtually every conceivable ship/character from that movie to get released. 

And we're still missing a standard first order TIE. Not that I want them to make one anytime soon, but it's hilarious to me that after as many waves of sequel sets as we got... we never got it.

12 minutes ago, GlacierPhoenix said:

Speaking of obscure sets there's been talk around Yodas jedi starfighter being a remake of the one from a few years ago from the one episode of the clone wars. Now I think we may actually be looking at an entirely different ship entirely. The poster for Young Jedi Adventures has just been released and on it it has both a transport and a Jedi Vector starfighter. Could we be seeing this as Yodas Starfighter? 

The show also seems to have 4 new jedi, a droid, and Yoda. They're not going to put everyone into a $40 set but if they put 3 in that and 2 in a starfighter.... 

Yes, the other set for the show is a 4+ one but that doesn't rule out them doing a 7 or 8+ set based on the show and Yoda himself is enough of a draw to bring in casual fans who may not know or be interested in the show. 

Also one of the newly released shorts from the show is them on a speeder in a bit of a swampy area. Swamp speeder perhaps?

The show is 4+. I can't see them making sets for an age range above the show's. The yoda starfighter is at least something you could conceivably draw a line to the show with, but the swamp speeder... c'mon, man. Really? 

4 minutes ago, Hhalcyon said:

oh good, the worst lego star wars year in history if true.

This is laughably hyperbolic. By almost any metric, this is a fine year. Not the best, but far from the worst ever. (For the OT, we're finally getting Yavin, we got our first bomber in 20 years, the return of midi-scale, and an excellent, if a little overpriced, diorama. Clone fans get Rex and Cody helmets alongside another clone battle pack that finally includes macrobinocs, as well as rumors for rex. Mando fans have a variety of sets coming, ahsoka fans have two large sets right off the bat, and there are still multiple large unknown sets coming.) You can find a much worse year for any of those even WITHOUT the unknown sets.

7 minutes ago, GlacierPhoenix said:

Of course YJA is going to be getting a lot of hype, it's the perfect reintroduction for kids to Star Wars animated shows. Yes there's The Bad Batch but that is certainly an older kids show, lots of violence, 30~ minute episodes, entire season long story arcs.

I don't deny that YJA is going to be much more accessible to a preschool aged audience, but really, for kids in general, Bad Batch is no worse than clone wars or rebels. I don't think this is exactly what you meant, but I see people say often that BB/rebels/clone wars "isn't a kids' show" because of x dark moment, which I think stems from some desire to claim that they aren't watching or obsessed with kids' shows. All three of those shows are primarily for children. That doesn't mean adults can't enjoy them. (Same goes for most lego sets, actually!)

12 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Agreed. While the show itself is aimed at young kids, the set does have potential! Probably the most interesting minifig selection we have all year  

In terms of brand-new characters, I mean. The Ahsoka sets will likely feature some desirable minifigs, but they‘re still just variants at the end of the day

I feel like it's not a spoiler to say that based on the rumors, there are definately new characters coming. Two new major characters, a very cool-sounding armor design, and some significantly different oufits/variants of existing desirable characters. 

[EvanHnuel]

I am almost glad Jabba's is delayed, so long as it is delayed and not cancelled. 

The rumored description sounded pretty lackluster and while i was tunnel visioned for a new Boushh fig, if they are gonna delay it, I hope they rework it. 

I would pay so much as $100 for a proper rendering of this. That being said, they need to include at least 2 more figs. The absence of Salacious B Crumb and a Gamorrean Guard was a bit strange from that rumor.

Are either of the mystery sets for fall 18+? If so, it could totally be a Temple of Golden Idol sized diorama of Jabbas Palace + maybe even a Rancor Pit included, since we now know diorama series is not just confined to a small cubicle.

That's probably just wishful thinking, but if they are 18+ I dont think its a 0% chance. If not, I really hope Lego drops this in 2024 especially in light of how poorly received these new 2 dioramas are. 

[Brickroll]

23 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

This is laughably hyperbolic. By almost any metric, this is a fine year. Not the best, but far from the worst ever. (For the OT, we're finally getting Yavin, we got our first bomber in 20 years, the return of midi-scale, and an excellent, if a little overpriced, diorama. Clone fans get Rex and Cody helmets alongside another clone battle pack that finally includes macrobinocs, as well as rumors for rex. Mando fans have a variety of sets coming, ahsoka fans have two large sets right off the bat, and there are still multiple large unknown sets coming.) You can find a much worse year for any of those even WITHOUT the unknown sets.

Potentially hot take, but I think that this year has a reasonable potential to beat out 2021 in terms of sets, depending on how the sets look. I get that that year introduced a lot of new minifigures, but the summer waver had kind of a mediocre build quality in my opinion. I liked the 1HY sets moderately well, but I think this year has already beaten those out too. 

[Kaijumeister]

Oh wow the Young Jedi Adventures poster has Jedi Vectors on it. I’ve been wanting that ship ever since the High Republic books first debuted - imagine getting that ship for the first time as a 4+ set, unlikely as that would be!