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

[BacktoBricks]

34 minutes ago, Agent Kallus said:

What do we actually know about the Jabba's diorama?

Was it Bossk, moulded Jabba, 1*2 brick Carbonite Han in the Mando sets style and did we know the quote?

Edit: not Bossk, Boushh 

From memory it was Boushh, Chewbacca, moulded Jabba and brick built Han in Carbonite. Quote unknown.

Edited March 1, 2023 by BacktoBricks

[Mandalorianknight]

11 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

I think that this wouldn't be too outlandish, although is it insane if I said that I actually would prefer Aayla + Bly + two 327th troopers?  I just say that because Rex is inevitable at some point, but I feel like we're less likely to get Bly thrown into a set.

No, I totally agree. Rex is great, but the 327th would be better than our third 501st troop builder in 4 years. (Also hence why I think it won't necessarily be an army builder if Rex is involved)

9 hours ago, SketchBrick said:

Yeah, I agree the price point seemed too low for this set. A mod on r/legoleak commented that a bunch of numbers have been moved around for the first half of the year, and also mentioned having seen an Endor helmet (possible confirmation?) due for May.

We've been hearing about the Endor helmet for awhile. It seems that they are really planning on celebrating this anniversary for once.

 

Executor looks a little expensive, but otherwise excellent. I think I'll wait on a sale, but it's definately something on my radar.

[Lordhelmet]

10 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

No, I totally agree. Rex is great, but the 327th would be better than our third 501st troop builder in 4 years. (Also hence why I think it won't necessarily be an army builder if Rex is involved)

We've been hearing about the Endor helmet for awhile. It seems that they are really planning on celebrating this anniversary for once.

 

Executor looks a little expensive, but otherwise excellent. I think I'll wait on a sale, but it's definately something on my radar.

Nice to see the Executor this morning.  I think it looks great, and not owning the UCS one, it is a welcome set (and will fit on shelves better than the UCS one).  I agree that its a bit on the pricier side, but worthy of a purchase on sale or during a VIP event (maybe May 4th depending on how the dioramas look).  I figure I will need to pick up two sets to reach whatever the promotional item will be for the event so may the best diorama, executor, or tie interceptor sets win that day.

[omegabadbatch]

rex shoud be this year at every cost. Releasing another 501 set, his buildable helmet but not rex minifigure?

[wiley]

28 minutes ago, omegabadbatch said:

rex shoud be this year at every cost. Releasing another 501 set, his buildable helmet but not rex minifigure?

I agree this would be very odd - glad he wasn't in the battle pack because I know people want to mass those, and I understand they want to stay consistent on not including figures in helmets. That being said, on the anniversary year, plus it just makes sense to have p2 cody and rex on the market at the same time.

[Classic_Spaceman]

Spoiler

We get a better look at the pirate snubfighter in the S3 premiere of The Mandalorian - Do we know how many Minifigs will be included? While I expect LEGO to take the easy route and just include characters that can represented with regular heads (Vane (Nikto), Klatooinian pilot, etc), I do hope that they take the opportunity to reuse the Quarren headpiece from Boba's throne room. 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by MKJoshA
Don't talk about the show yet.

[Kaijumeister]

19 hours ago, wiley said:

lego_insider_news has been rumoring about some upcoming 18+ stuff and just announced that the republic swamp speeder could have rex. cautiously optimistic.

Just saw this post, they seem to be quite confident it’s happening in the comments too. That would certainly make the Swamp Speeder more appealing and redeem the summer wave a little in my opinion.

The Executor looks fantastic! Probably won’t buy it at the onset given how overpriced it is, but I love how the dioramas can explore set formats that we wouldn’t otherwise get. 

For the Mandalorian S3 sets, I hope Lego goes the extra mile with them. New prints for Mandalorian figures won’t really cut it this time in my opinion, so I’m holding out for a new darksaber mould at the very least. Really excited to see that Pirate Snubfighter.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Kaijumeister

[MKJoshA]

And we've already had a spoiler fail. I've hidden the comment. Everyone, please follow the rules about sharing anything relating to a new episode.

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

Nice to see the Executor this morning.  I think it looks great, and not owning the UCS one, it is a welcome set (and will fit on shelves better than the UCS one).  I agree that its a bit on the pricier side, but worthy of a purchase on sale or during a VIP event (maybe May 4th depending on how the dioramas look).  I figure I will need to pick up two sets to reach whatever the promotional item will be for the event so may the best diorama, executor, or tie interceptor sets win that day.

Forgot about the GWP, you're right that it'll most likely take multiple sets to hit it. Maybe I will get the executor at release then.

28 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

  Reveal hidden contents

We get a better look at the pirate snubfighter in the S3 premiere of The Mandalorian - Do we know how many Minifigs will be included? While I expect LEGO to take the easy route and just include characters that can represented with regular heads (Vane (Nikto), Klatooinian pilot, etc), I do hope that they take the opportunity to reuse the Quarren headpiece from Boba's throne room. 

 

Spoiler

My guess is it'll be Mando, one or two pirates, and S3 Greef.

 

[BrickBob Studpants]

I hope

Gorian Shard

is included somewhere. Such a cool design!

What a way to kick off the new season! The sets cannot be revealed soon enough

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

I hope

  Reveal hidden contents

Gorian Shard

is included somewhere. Such a cool design!

What a way to kick off the new season! The sets cannot be revealed soon enough

It would be nice, but I doubt that character is in either of the revealed sets. Maybe the $44.99 one, though I'd love a $100+ set of that character's ship.

Spoiler

Gorian Shard is Swamp Thing's estranged cousin, by the way.

 

[SketchBrick]

The more I think about, it's kind of crazy how expensive the Executor actually is.

If you compare it to another recent $70 set, Ambush on Ferrix from last summer, the Tac-Pod in that was also a detailed grey ship with a similar total mass at a similar piece count (650ish). That set also came with a speeder bike and 3 exclusive minifigures, not to mention integrated play features, a printed windshield, and large moving parts. And even that was arguably overpriced.

Taken another way, a lot of small display-oriented sets like last year's mini seasonal line-up (e.g. Valentine Lovebirds) can easily present 300 piece models for less than $15. So along that same scale, a 630-piece midi-scale ship should be... $35?

Why are they asking double that price? Large pieces? Nope, mostly small generic parts. Recolours? It's just black/grey. Special prints? Only the small display plaque. Figures? Nada.

It seems like this is another experiment on LEGO's part to see how far they can push the "18+ tax" without turning customers away entirely. I agree with many that the model itself looks very good (well executed, one might even say), but I implore those interested in buying it to wait for a considerable sale.

[Hhalcyon]

8 minutes ago, SketchBrick said:

The more I think about, it's kind of crazy how expensive the Executor actually is.

If you compare it to another recent $70 set, Ambush on Ferrix from last summer, the Tac-Pod in that was also a detailed grey ship with a similar total mass at a similar piece count (650ish). That set also came with a speeder bike and 3 exclusive minifigures, not to mention integrated play features, a printed windshield, and large moving parts. And even that was arguably overpriced.

Taken another way, a lot of small display-oriented sets like last year's mini seasonal line-up (e.g. Valentine Lovebirds) can easily present 300 piece models for less than $15. So along that same scale, a 630-piece midi-scale ship should be... $35?

Why are they asking double that price? Large pieces? Nope, mostly small generic parts. Recolours? It's just black/grey. Special prints? Only the small display plaque. Figures? Nada.

It seems like this is another experiment on LEGO's part to see how far they can push the "18+ tax" without turning customers away entirely. I agree with many that the model itself looks very good (well executed, one might even say), but I implore those interested in buying it to wait for a considerable sale.

I think if you compare it to the other sets in that same "display" line like the helmets it does seem a bit more reasonably priced.

They're all +18 display sets, they cost the same. It seems fairly logical. Now if the prices of helmets are also way too high in your opinion then I can see why you would also be annoyed with the Destroyer.
I personally just don't really like the helmets or the destroyer.
 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Hhalcyon
word

[SketchBrick]

2 minutes ago, Hhalcyon said:

I think if you compare it to the other sets in that same "display" line like the helmets it does seem a bit more reasonably priced.

They're all +18 display sets, they cost the same. It seems fairly logical. Now if the prices of helmets are also way too high in your opinion then I can see why you would also be annoyed with the Destroyer.
I personally just don't really like the helmets or the destroyer.
 

You're completely right, so I can see why they're going this way with the pricing for it. I agree the helmets are also overpriced (in my opinion), especially with the latest increases. I don't buy them as a result, but it is still cool to see what designs LEGO comes up with.

[Kit Figsto]

24 minutes ago, SketchBrick said:

The more I think about, it's kind of crazy how expensive the Executor actually is.

If you compare it to another recent $70 set, Ambush on Ferrix from last summer, the Tac-Pod in that was also a detailed grey ship with a similar total mass at a similar piece count (650ish). That set also came with a speeder bike and 3 exclusive minifigures, not to mention integrated play features, a printed windshield, and large moving parts. And even that was arguably overpriced.

Taken another way, a lot of small display-oriented sets like last year's mini seasonal line-up (e.g. Valentine Lovebirds) can easily present 300 piece models for less than $15. So along that same scale, a 630-piece midi-scale ship should be... $35?

Why are they asking double that price? Large pieces? Nope, mostly small generic parts. Recolours? It's just black/grey. Special prints? Only the small display plaque. Figures? Nada.

It seems like this is another experiment on LEGO's part to see how far they can push the "18+ tax" without turning customers away entirely. I agree with many that the model itself looks very good (well executed, one might even say), but I implore those interested in buying it to wait for a considerable sale.

I'm not defending the price, but you do have to consider that licensed sets are almost always more expensive than unlicensed, I assume because of the cost associated with using an IP.  So comparing it to, say, the holiday sets, they're always going to be cheaper because there's fewer costs associated (this is pure conjecture, but it also might be simply cheaper to produce them because of simpler packaging/instructions, and likely less time to design.  I'm not sure if those costs are factored in, but I would imagine on a large scale, they would add up over time.  But, I digress).

It also seems as though there's a lot of 18+ sets lately that have been priced higher than they probably should, but after a few months, end up getting marked down at Target or wherever to a better price.  For example, a lot of the diorama sets are constantly on sale, and I don't think it's because they're selling poorly, but I think it's just one of those things where they might price it higher than it actually should be, but mark it down so that subconsciously, you feel as though you're getting a much better deal if you buy it.

So, I agree that this is overpriced, hopefully it ends up marked down to $50-60 or so, which seems a little reasonable in my opinion.  

 

On the subject of Mando S3, what info do we have so far on the sets?  I know that a Mandalorian figure leaked a few weeks ago, do we know what sets we're getting?  I saw some people speculating above about one of the sets which would've been featured in today's episode, are we confirmed getting that? 

Is it one of the small, individual fighters, or the large pirate frigate?

[wiley]

8 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

I'm not defending the price, but you do have to consider that licensed sets are almost always more expensive than unlicensed, I assume because of the cost associated with using an IP. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Is it one of the small, individual fighters, or the large pirate frigate?

 

Actually, licensing costs are spread throughout Lego's portfolio. In this case, Lego is charging more because they know people will pay more. 

Regarding your questions about Mando sets, the May sets have had their names leaked, and there's no additional info for the summer Mando s3 set aside from price/piece count.

Edited March 1, 2023 by wiley

[Kit Figsto]

10 minutes ago, wiley said:

Actually, licensing costs are spread throughout Lego's portfolio. In this case, Lego is charging more because they know people will pay more. 

Interesting, so how does that work?  I'm not arguing, I'm legitimately curious.  Do you mean that the licensing costs are essentially averaged out and divided among their total costs per year/cycle (not sure if they would look at that quarterly or what, since they're not a public company, so I assume they can just sort of do whatever as far as their accounting methods).

EDIT: Actually, I found their balance sheet from 2021 and looked into it a bit.  It looks like they just lump licensing costs in with production costs, but I'm not sure how that gets reflected into an individual set's production and/or a theme's budget, since it doesn't seem like the balance sheet goes that deep into it.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Kit Figsto

[Matichado]

My new theory on the swamp speeder: 

 

Mostly same build as the 2014 set and include 5 minifigs: P2 Rex, 2 501st clone troopers and 2 plain p2’s I think it will have more than 4 figures to justify the price

Ok don’t kill me, but I wouldn’t mind a 3rd 501st army builder set, the new battlepack is lacking a regular 501st trooper and that annoys me cause I wasn’t able to have as much 501st troopers as I wanted to do if the new set comes with at least 2 501st troopers il receive it with open arms tbh, btw any news on the 1083 pieces set?

[SketchBrick]

10 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

Interesting, so how does that work?  I'm not arguing, I'm legitimately curious.  Do you mean that the licensing costs are essentially averaged out and divided among their total costs per year/cycle (not sure if they would look at that quarterly or what, since they're not a public company, so I assume they can just sort of do whatever as far as their accounting methods).

EDIT: Actually, I found their balance sheet from 2021 and looked into it a bit.  It looks like they just lump licensing costs in with production costs, but I'm not sure how that gets reflected into an individual set's production and/or a theme's budget, since it doesn't seem like the balance sheet goes that deep into it.

I have heard the same. As far as I'm aware, they do divide the costs of licensing in general across the whole portfolio. Of course, this doesn't mean they can't charge more for certain sets/themes because that's simply how much people will pay, so I'm sure that plays a role.

You're right though, that many of these types of sets go on sale a few months down the line, so hopefully this will be available at a better price later this year (thus my original proposal that those interested wait for the inevitable discount).

[wiley]

39 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:

Interesting, so how does that work?  I'm not arguing, I'm legitimately curious.  Do you mean that the licensing costs are essentially averaged out and divided among their total costs per year/cycle (not sure if they would look at that quarterly or what, since they're not a public company, so I assume they can just sort of do whatever as far as their accounting methods).

EDIT: Actually, I found their balance sheet from 2021 and looked into it a bit.  It looks like they just lump licensing costs in with production costs, but I'm not sure how that gets reflected into an individual set's production and/or a theme's budget, since it doesn't seem like the balance sheet goes that deep into it.

Yes to my understanding this is how it works, I think LEGO has directly stated this in a few interviews. I imagine otherwise original themes would be significantly cheaper. Briefly back on topic: I think plain P2 clones would be a nice addition to the speeder and gets the figure in production if they wanted to do either a battle pack or include 4-5 in a potential future gunship.

[Frizzlefry25]

14 hours ago, Big_Daddy said:

I'm positively surprised about the return of midi scale ships. To be honest this model looks like it's not correctly proportioned, it looks a bit too pointy. Also a bit expensive, which sucks if it's a Lego exclusive. But overall a positive development, here's to a midi ISD that takes away my regret of never picking up 8099.

As for Rex in the swamp speeder, it would be positive that TLG would put such a desirably figure in a relatively cheap set, just like they did with Phase II Rex in 75012. I just hope it won't be another 501st army builder apart from that, except if it were a Phase I set of course. I wouldn't mind that at all. And there's also the possibility of only named characters, like they did with the Bounty Hunter Battle Pack.

Oh well, we'll see. For me, this year in LSW is looking a bit better already.

You should pick up Flynspaces  Torment for a midi scale ISD!

Definitely intrigued with the SSD Mini, if they ever redid a full size one, I would skip for size and new prices, but this is the type of ship that works well at this scale. I agree with the bad price though, could have been a little bigger, or included a mini figure for display for that price. Hopefully something I can pick up at sale down the road, or later from other stores which tends to happen for some of these exclusive sets sometimes.

Only problem is it won't look as good next to FlyInSpace's Venator Midi. I will have to put it next to something else!

[AD_Bricks]

2 hours ago, SketchBrick said:

If you compare it to another recent $70 set, Ambush on Ferrix from last summer, the Tac-Pod in that was also a detailed grey ship with a similar total mass at a similar piece count (650ish). That set also came with a speeder bike and 3 exclusive minifigures, not to mention integrated play features, a printed windshield, and large moving parts. And even that was arguably overpriced.

Peculiar... over in Australia, the Tac-Pod is AUD$130, but the Executor is only AUD$100. Is the Andor set absurdly priced with the Executor being a bit over average, or did we get a good deal for the Executor?

[Hhalcyon]

1 hour ago, Matichado said:

My new theory on the swamp speeder: 

 

Mostly same build as the 2014 set and include 5 minifigs: P2 Rex, 2 501st clone troopers and 2 plain p2’s I think it will have more than 4 figures to justify the price

Ok don’t kill me, but I wouldn’t mind a 3rd 501st army builder set, the new battlepack is lacking a regular 501st trooper and that annoys me cause I wasn’t able to have as much 501st troopers as I wanted to do if the new set comes with at least 2 501st troopers il receive it with open arms tbh, btw any news on the 1083 pieces set?

Honestly my hope that Rex is kinda involved in some way with the Ahsoka sets (maybe a flashback rebels era scene or something, maybe with a blue y wing hehe) and then the swamp speeder is just some 327th or 212th or maybe 41st elite corps (if they fix that horrible scout helmet) pseudobattlepack maybe with a named character like Bly, Cody or Gree that prevents them from just calling it "Extra expensive 327th clone battlepack lmao" after the backlash from that Jedi and Clone battlepack.

---At this point i kinda just deviate from the message i'm quoting and go on a rant about army building---

I think i've had my fill of 501st Clones for a couple years atleast. I'd also personally really hate for the speeder to be like Anakin, Rex, a 501st Trooper and a wookie or something weird like that. I'm kinda considering my lego budgeting for August around the idea that I might be buying up to 10 of those speeders and i'd hate to be left high and dry on that. I really want a real army builder set this year. The 501st Battlepack seems like it's just a cash grab to capitalise on the last dregs of goodwill from that original 501st pack. Does lego really think most of us want an army comprised of officers, heavies and snipers? and that we're gonna buy 5+ of these? It's certainly not ACTUALLY supposed to be promotional for SW:BF2, a game that came out 6 years ago now. They're cool but i'm not gonna build a 501st Sniper army and have like 50 of them. They're a nice addition, in-fact the officer really makes me want to see more of those kind of troopers in future but it's disappointing to me as someone who just likes to accumulate standard clones and droids (and sometimes other figures like storm troopers or rebels) but an army builder set, they are not.

Despite the fact that there are 3 sets with multiple clone troopers available in retail and legodotcom right now, none of them are really "clone army builder packs" The Tank is £40 and you get 2 clone troopers, 3 if you actually do want to build a 187th airborne army, which fair enough if you do lol. Which isn't the best way to accumulate a lot of figures especially with all those extra Windu's you'd have, that sucks for kids and collectors alike, only really benefitting investors(which I assume lego doesn't cater for?) The AT-TE is £120 and it comes with 3 clone troopers (not inc. cody) All those figures are going for £10+ on the secondary market rn. And the 501st battlepack, while lego will probs disagree just isn't an army builder, it's an army supplement if anything. So despite having 3 whole sets with clone troopers in it available right now, it feels like I can't actually build armies of clone troopers for any kind of reasonable rate. Again, lego may disagree but my hope is still there for a true army builder battle pack in that swamp speeder. Although for us Europeans we can get those foilpacks of 212th Troopers in magazines later this month which i'll definitely be doing just to get my battlepack hit.

So my fingers are crossed for it just being an army builder style set with a silly name out of fear of backlash and/or so they can put the price tag up on it ever so slightly. (It's like £2 more than the 501st (current) battlepack)

[SketchBrick]

26 minutes ago, AD_Bricks said:

Peculiar... over in Australia, the Tac-Pod is AUD$130, but the Executor is only AUD$100. Is the Andor set absurdly priced with the Executor being a bit over average, or did we get a good deal for the Executor?

That's a rough price for Ferrix. $70 USD is about $105 AUD, so it would seem like they just jacked the price up for the Andor set in comparison to what it should be. In Canada, both are $90 CAD, but I know LEGO can be weird about currency conversions.

[QuiggoldsPegLeg]

34 minutes ago, AD_Bricks said:

Peculiar... over in Australia, the Tac-Pod is AUD$130, but the Executor is only AUD$100. Is the Andor set absurdly priced with the Executor being a bit over average, or did we get a good deal for the Executor?

It could be that the conversion rate was worse in Australia when the Andor set released? Since Lego usually sets the prices close to what the conversion rate is in the time leading up the release of a set.