LEGO Star Wars 2024 Set Discussion - READ FIRST POST!!!

[PreVizsla]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I'm interested to see how much Fives goes for on bricklink. Malak will likely be $20-30 minimum, since he's in a more expensive set not a lot of people are excited for, and is the only minifig in that set besides the $1 R2.

Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see. Previous anniversary figures were repeats with prints on the back and these ones are actual unique figures so I can't really compare them to anything. I am hoping for OT purists, sales and people buying multiple sets (to make them into one big one) to drop the price at least to the point where I don't feel like I have to get the set cause it's worth more than just getting a figure.
 

2 hours ago, Llewop said:

but what do you do for an anniversary? Do you remake the classics like they did before or do You try something new? 

In my mind all these anniversary figures should be a celebration of fans, people that work on the theme and celebration of the franchise. Instead LEGO is throwing anniversary figures in sets that they shouldn't be in while increasing the set prices. Han Solo should have been a free figure as a token of appreciation from LEGO for the 20th anniversary and instead they threw him in a battle pack while increasing the sets price by whooping 33% and now they are doing things even worse and releasing sought after figures like Malak and Jesse in sets they don't belong in while increasing not only the prices of these sets, but also earning additional money by getting percentage of bricklink sales from people that are forced to buy them separately. They could have put all these figures in polybags like they did with 20th anniversary Obi Wan and no one would complain about having to pay $5 or why not just give figures for free, not increase the set prices and earn money by selling a display case for the figures. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

@PreVizsla: Expecting figures with prints like these and brand-new parts even to be given away like that is not even remotely realistic. I'd rather they be included in sets than not have them at all

[Minishark2000]

To be fair it doesn't seem like Fives or Malak raised the price of the R2 or Tantive sets, 55 bucks for 500 pieces and 100 for 1050 is pretty good for Star Wars. I would have also expected these prices if they didn't come with anniversary figures

Edited January 28 by Minishark2000

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, PreVizsla said:

In my mind all these anniversary figures should be a celebration of fans, people that work on the theme and celebration of the franchise. Instead LEGO is throwing anniversary figures in sets that they shouldn't be in while increasing the set prices. Han Solo should have been a free figure as a token of appreciation from LEGO for the 20th anniversary and instead they threw him in a battle pack while increasing the sets price by whooping 33% and now they are doing things even worse and releasing sought after figures like Malak and Jesse in sets they don't belong in while increasing not only the prices of these sets, but also earning additional money by getting percentage of bricklink sales from people that are forced to buy them separately. They could have put all these figures in polybags like they did with 20th anniversary Obi Wan and no one would complain about having to pay $5 or why not just give figures for free, not increase the set prices and earn money by selling a display case for the figures. 

As others have pointed out, these really don't seem to have increased the prices of their respective sets. Tantive IV is good value part wise (and ESPECIALLY figure wise) even without Fives, and R2 is that $100 price point many of the buildable characters have been at.

"Lego should just give us stuff for free" is kind of a wild take and not at all how companies work (Also, it's Fives, not Jesse.), but these sets are good enough value that it's essentially what it is. And if your argument is literally speaking that they should just distribute these figures individually for free.... dude. That's not really how economics works in any capacity. The "good will" or whatever from your customers is not offsetting the cost of designing, producing, and distributing a product. It's why lego's "freebies" are price-gated- they act as incentives to purchase more sets.

1 hour ago, TheUnusualBuilder said:

I mean, I do think there's a bit of a difference between "this toy for children has playability for children" versus "two characters in this set have the exact same face". Aside from Fives it seems there are only two new prints in the entire set (Antilles's face and torso), so I don't think wanting a different Rebel face is crazy unrealistic.

So aside from the 4 new printed parts- including an arm-printed torso- and also the printed cloth, there's only two new prints.

Also, they're grunts, who don't look all that different in the movie when we're talking about the level of detail lego puts on faces, and they have double sided faces, so if you're really that annoyed, just rotate one of the heads 180 degrees. This isn't exactly like if they gave Luke and Han the same face print or something.

I swear I see MORE complaints about these sets that are generally pretty solid value than I do the overpriced ones. 

[SketchBrick]

5 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I swear I see MORE complaints about these sets that are generally pretty solid value than I do the overpriced ones. 

Honestly! We've gotten some reasonably priced sets so far this year for a change (4+ notwithstanding). I'm still shocked Lego didn't release the Tantive hallway as a $70 set with 4 figures 

[MaximillianRebo]

I get the complaint about putting anniversary figs in sets that they have no correlation with (just as was done with the 20th anniversary sets). It's pure economics, trying to capture more than one segment of the market - in this case OT and CW fans. I mean yes they could make an 'Attack on Kamino' set and include Fives as an anniversary fig but then people would just say 'but that's just a regular fig in the set'. Or include him with the 501st battlepack and listen to all the 'no named characters in battlepacks' complaints.

I'm not sure what the ideal situation is - how to make the anniversary figure 'special' - either they go in a matching set and blend in, or in a completely unrelated set and look out of place. Probably the only answer is 'polybag' but apart from the Obi-Wan anniversary fig and some May 4th promos a long time ago, that seems to be a grey area that TLG is touching at the moment, for reasons known only to them.

[NoOneOfImportance]

1 minute ago, MaximillianRebo said:

I get the complaint about putting anniversary figs in sets that they have no correlation with (just as was done with the 20th anniversary sets). It's pure economics, trying to capture more than one segment of the market - in this case OT and CW fans. I mean yes they could make an 'Attack on Kamino' set and include Fives as an anniversary fig but then people would just say 'but that's just a regular fig in the set'. Or include him with the 501st battlepack and listen to all the 'no named characters in battlepacks' complaints.

I'm not sure what the ideal situation is - how to make the anniversary figure 'special' - either they go in a matching set and blend in, or in a completely unrelated set and look out of place. Probably the only answer is 'polybag' but apart from the Obi-Wan anniversary fig and some May 4th promos a long time ago, that seems to be a grey area that TLG is touching at the moment, for reasons known only to them.

I think part of the reason for the lack of figure polys is simply because LEGO can just throw them in sets and ultimately make more on them. If they release a fig polybag on May 4th, and people clamor for it for the 24 hours it ends up being around, making it a $300 fig on the aftermarket, how much more can LEGO make if they put it as an anniversary fig (or normal fig) in a $50-$90 set that sell exponentially more because of the minifigure over the course of 4 years of the set being on shelves. 

And as far as anniversary figs being in sets that they don't "go with," I would agree on this point. This is a way to make both CW and OT fans interested in this $55 set, and ultimately sell more. Economics 101. Demand, availability, etc. 

[Minishark2000]

39 minutes ago, NoOneOfImportance said:

If they release a fig polybag on May 4th, and people clamor for it for the 24 hours it ends up being 

Man I wish they still had minifigs for may the 4th, I don't think I've ever bought any sets on May the 4th since they stopped doing the polybag figs.

[JohnTPT17]

1 hour ago, NoOneOfImportance said:

I think part of the reason for the lack of figure polys is simply because LEGO can just throw them in sets and ultimately make more on them. If they release a fig polybag on May 4th, and people clamor for it for the 24 hours it ends up being around, making it a $300 fig on the aftermarket, how much more can LEGO make if they put it as an anniversary fig (or normal fig) in a $50-$90 set that sell exponentially more because of the minifigure over the course of 4 years of the set being on shelves. 

I think a part of it is also that Lego is trying to do less highly desired, hard-to-get minifigs only available at certain times and places (like the Comic-Con Figures and May 4th Polybags). I have a vague memory that someone from Lego might have even directly stated that? I could be misremembering though. 

Now, that obviously isn't an all-inclusive statement or anything - rarity sells and all, and some minifigs stay exclusive to their multi-hundred dollar sets -  but there are probably more instances of minifigs like Omega, Rex, and even the goat, available to the masses in more sets at a cheaper price down the line. It even has the snowball effect of keeping the prices of these minifigs down on the aftermarket - I don't know if that is Lego's intention or not, but it is an interesting consequence. I personally love the shift, intentional or not. It makes it a lot more affordable to get those minifigs in either their mass-produced retail sets at MSRP, or somewhere on the aftermarket, which equates to more sales on Lego's end (and increases brand loyalty/less of a desire to get offbrand substitutes, like I may need to do for Zeb). 

Eh, I'm probably just overthinking the whole situation... As long as I can find Fives for a fair price on Bricklink, I'm good.

[Kit Figsto]

1 hour ago, JohnTPT17 said:

I think a part of it is also that Lego is trying to do less highly desired, hard-to-get minifigs only available at certain times and places (like the Comic-Con Figures and May 4th Polybags). I have a vague memory that someone from Lego might have even directly stated that? I could be misremembering though. 

I think after the whole Cloud City duel/Nebulon-B exclusive debacles in 2020, they said that they were going to stop with regional exclusives (and to my recollection, they have?), so you might be thinking of that?

I believe they also implied something about not locking exclusive characters behind UCS sets during the UCS Republic Gunship debacle (there's been a lot of debacles in the LSW community recently, now that I think of it), and it seems as if the philosophy there has been that they'll still do exclusive variants in UCS sets (C-3PO, for example, with the Landspeeder) but might be trying to make desirable characters more available (which would explain why they're putting Rex in a microfighter but keeping Yularen exclusive to the Venator for the time being, since one of those has been highly requested for like ten years and the other, while a character that people like, isn't on the same level of popularity, and at the end of the day is a much less exciting minifigure design than Rex).  

[TheUnusualBuilder]

18 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

To try to be a little on topic, the obvious next hallway scene is Maul, right? Lego loves spamming clones, and that scene's got 3 different types. If they wanted to add desirability for fig collectors they could even throw in Jesse, even if it's not accurate- make it a much more direct parallel to this hallway set.

Yeah, I think there's a very good chance of that. The only two big "hallway" scenes left (excluding Vader in Rogue One, since that's too similar to this Tantive IV set) are Maul in the TCW finale and then the opening of Phantom Menace on board the Donut Ship with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and probably some security droids and Droidekas. 

While I would personally prefer the latter (we don't get nearly enough Phantom Menace sets and there are some great opportunities for play features, plus Droidekas are objectively awesome), I do agree that the potential of a hallway scene with a bunch of Clone Troopers is an opportunity LEGO can't pass up on - to be frank, I'm a bit surprised we haven't gotten it already.

Edited January 28 by TheUnusualBuilder

[BrickBob Studpants]

12 hours ago, NoOneOfImportance said:

I think part of the reason for the lack of figure polys is simply because LEGO can just throw them in sets and ultimately make more on them. If they release a fig polybag on May 4th, and people clamor for it for the 24 hours it ends up being around, making it a $300 fig on the aftermarket, how much more can LEGO make if they put it as an anniversary fig (or normal fig) in a $50-$90 set that sell exponentially more because of the minifigure over the course of 4 years of the set being on shelves. 

Also, had they released the anniversary figures in polybags instead of sets, we would *never* have gotten more than two of them, and they definitely wouldn‘t feature new parts. So we would‘ve had an inferior Fives and either no Malak or a downgraded one with a printed mask rather than a moulded piece.

And as far as I‘m concerned, these figures *are* bonuses as I can’t imagine the sets being much cheaper without them  

[ArrowBricks]

I actually can’t believe in a world we are seeing people moan about having these anniversary figures in sets. 

I respect people countering those complaints but even then it’s so tiresome. 

[Flawless Cowboy]

27 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Also, had they released the anniversary figures in polybags instead of sets, we would *never* have gotten more than two of them, and they definitely wouldn‘t feature new parts. So we would‘ve had an inferior Fives and either no Malak or a downgraded one with a printed mask rather than a moulded piece.

And as far as I‘m concerned, these figures *are* bonuses as I can’t imagine the sets being much cheaper without them  

“Inferior fives”

shudder

[BrickBob Studpants]

25 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

“Inferior fives”

shudder

Every single print is new and exclusive, including the faceprint, he has a new cloth pauldron, a backpack, and twin blasters. What more can you ask for?  

41 minutes ago, ArrowBricks said:

I actually can’t believe in a world we are seeing people moan about having these anniversary figures in sets. 

We live in a world where we get minifigs fans have been asking for FOR YEARS as anniversary bonus figures and people still complain. I'm not surprised though:

• 20th SW anniversary with classic minifigs: people complain.
• 20th HP/10th Ninjago anniversary with golden minifigs: people complain.
• 25th SW anniversary with highly requested minifigs: people complain.

I swear, they could have the ghost of Ole personally bring every fan a bonus minifig to their door and people would still find something to complain about

[Flawless Cowboy]

13 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Every single print is new and exclusive, including the faceprint, he has a new cloth pauldron, a backpack, and twin blasters. What more can you ask for?  

A helmet that doesn’t look like a printing error

[Pedilego]

24 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

A helmet that doesn’t look like a printing error

100%

I could live with everything else, including the printed Kama & helmet holes, but the printing falls remarkably short of Lego’s own standards. (TBD on the pauldron.)
 

After this & the 212th Clones, it’s apparent that their latest molds are not capable of correctly printing close to the fin on their helmets—which has effectively killed my hopes/desires for new Wolfpack troopers (no way the new helmet prints would best their old ones) or any other troopers without basic printing.

 

 

As for the rest of the set, it’s weird: There are disappointments but I’ve planned for/expected all of them. I already have dual molded legs & Rogue One Stormies set aside. A screen accurate Vader torso would’ve been preferred but it doesn’t bother me too much, nor do the faces or stickers.

The main thing I wanted out of this set was them to nail the Hallway itself & I think it looks great. I’m looking forward to building one-or-more, depending how I like it in person & how multiples look on YouTube. I’m also glad they included Antilles since he’s so expensive & I didn’t have one to add to the scene.

Overall, it looks like a solid 8.5 or 9.0. Great looking build & minifigure selection but the minifigure execution could’ve been better. 
 

 

I also think R2 looks very good for the price. I like him better than the UCS versions. Of course, there was never really a chance I’d buy it anyways. (I’d much rather have bought an accurate looking, functioning Galaxy’s Edge R2 online before Christmas.) Still, it actually has me curious for the showcases with him & his counterpart, the buildable C-3PO.

[Mandalorianknight]

32 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

A helmet that doesn’t look like a printing error

First off, and I know you said printing so this one's more about all the fives complaints in general, everyone's harping on the helmet, and I find it hilarious, because Fives actually DOES use a more standard P2 helmet for a good chunk of the clone wars show. I also forgot this, but to be fair, I wasn't crying about how inaccurate it was.

As for the printing, I also really don't understand this. Every clone lego's produced has shown that they can't print that close to the fin. Look at literally every trooper they've done with this mold. The 332nd trooper, where it should be over that entire area, or even troopers like the 501st trooper where the printing should go all the way up to the fin but doesn't. It'd be nice if lego figured a way around it, but it's not really out of the ordinary when it comes to lego clones. They always have that, and I feel like people are just harping on fives more because they want the fives figure to be terrible, so it can fit the whole "lego hates clones and prequel fans" nonsense MandR and his clones like to pretend is a thing.

Really the only thing you can get the Fives figure on that isn't- a: Actually accurate to the character or b: something that all clones with this helmet mold have and no one cared about until fives- is that the printing for that curved bit above his eyes is a little wonky. And I feel like when "the curved bit above his eyes is a little wonky" translates to "his helmet looks like a printing error", you've got to take a step back for a minute.

[Pedilego]

I can’t speak for Flawless_Cowboy but ^you and I agree on my biggest issue: printing around the fin. Please look up the old Wolfpack Trooper helmets & remind yourself what TLG was capable of a decade ago. 

If they can’t do that with helmet holes, that in itself validates the argument that they need to keep both variants around until, as you say, they can perfect the printing enough to do stuff like accurate 332nd prints, Star Corps (?), etc.

Edited January 28 by Pedilego

[CallumPears]

7 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Every clone lego's produced has shown that they can't print that close to the fin

Every Clone *since 2020. 

They managed it perfectly fine with the older figures, e.g. the Wolfpack and 212th troopers in 2014 and even as recently as 2019 with Commander Gree. 

[Flawless Cowboy]

49 minutes ago, CallumPears said:

Every Clone *since 2020. 

They managed it perfectly fine with the older figures, e.g. the Wolfpack and 212th troopers in 2014 and even as recently as 2019 with Commander Gree. 

This. Lego doesn’t struggle with printing around the fin, this is a recent phenomenon. Examine the notable differences in the printing between the old 212th and the new 212th, or the 2020 Ahsoka Clone with the 2023 Ahsoka clone, how warped and spaced out the new prints are. I don’t mind helmet holes for the aesthetic disruption they create, but I do mind them because they are clearly causing some severe issues in printing around the crown. 

Fives doesn’t look “wonky”, I had no idea what the hell I was even looking at when I first saw a picture of the figure, until I read it was titled “fives leak”. It looks atrocious, not bad, not wonky, atrocious. I don’t even care much for TCW but it’s sad to see nonetheless.
 

We’re not asking for unreasonable, hot-toys level attention to detail here. We’re asking Lego to meet the benchmark of quality they were hitting a decade ago

Edited January 28 by Flawless Cowboy

[CallumPears]

3 hours ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

I don’t even care much for TCW but it’s sad to see nonetheless.

Same. Aside from the fact that any inaccuracies are bad, I'm mainly annoyed about the issues with Fives since I'm getting him basically by default since I want the boarding set. 

 

Honestly not caring for TCW is part of what makes me not care for modern Clones in general. They're using a hybrid design for the armour which mixes animated and realistic designs and as someone who's not really a fan of TCW it's annoying that I can't get figures based solely on the movie designs of Clones. Even back in 2014 when I absolutely loved TCW I tried to avoid the animated-style troopers since I want all my troopers to be consistent; to me they should never have made the animated design for the LEGO Clones back in 2008. Since in 'real life' all Clones would look the same, I want all my LEGO figures to be based on the realistic design. Same goes for stuff like the weird animated eyes the old figures had and the exaggerated proportions of the Rebels Stormtroopers. 

Forget the current issues with helmet holes and cloth kamas, to me they haven't made a good Clone since 2019 as they introduced the hybrid style in 2020. It stopped me from buying multiples of the 501st battle pack (a set I'd wanted for years since the 501st were previously only available in the animated style and I was hoping they'd be made in the 2014 realistic design) and has put me off any of the other Clone figures produced in the past 3 years. 

Edited January 28 by CallumPears

[Mandalorianknight]

 

1 hour ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

I had no idea what the hell I was even looking at when I first saw a picture of the figure, until I read it was titled “fives leak”.

Ok c'mon man this is just absurd.

 

This all speaks to my wider point. When everyone complains about the slightest issue like it's so bad you can't even tell who it's supposed to be, more legitimate issues like the extreme pricing of some sets, or even other figure based issues like the kamas, get lost in the shuffle.  I know if I was in charge of the fig designs, I'd be a lot more invested in fixing the kama issue if it was the main issue people had, rather than constantly hearing "WE NEED NO HELMET HOLES ON EVERY FIGURE WITHOUT AN ANTENNA OR VISOR AND WE NEED EVERY LEGION BUT EVERY LEGION LOOKS TERRIBLE AND THESE ARE THE WORST FIGURES LEGO'S EVER MADE THEY'RE SO BAD I CAN'T EVEN TELL WHO THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE" filling every social media comment section and forum.

We know lego listens to fans on a lot of this stuff- look at how many clones we've had over the last 4 years. Look at the fact that the battle packs went back to "real" blasters instead of stud shooters for the characters. We're getting P2 Rex in a $13 set, and he has arm printing, as does Fives. If they were hearing concentrated "we need better kamas", I think there'd be a much better chance of getting at the very least dual molding or side leg printing, as compared to right now, where there's a billion different "campaigns" to "fix" every aspect of clones, half of which are non issues.

[Flawless Cowboy]

36 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

 

Ok c'mon man this is just absurd.

 

This all speaks to my wider point. When everyone complains about the slightest issue like it's so bad you can't even tell who it's supposed to be, more legitimate issues like the extreme pricing of some sets, or even other figure based issues like the kamas, get lost in the shuffle.  I know if I was in charge of the fig designs, I'd be a lot more invested in fixing the kama issue if it was the main issue people had, rather than constantly hearing "WE NEED NO HELMET HOLES ON EVERY FIGURE WITHOUT AN ANTENNA OR VISOR AND WE NEED EVERY LEGION BUT EVERY LEGION LOOKS TERRIBLE AND THESE ARE THE WORST FIGURES LEGO'S EVER MADE THEY'RE SO BAD I CAN'T EVEN TELL WHO THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE" filling every social media comment section and forum.

We know lego listens to fans on a lot of this stuff- look at how many clones we've had over the last 4 years. Look at the fact that the battle packs went back to "real" blasters instead of stud shooters for the characters. We're getting P2 Rex in a $13 set, and he has arm printing, as does Fives. If they were hearing concentrated "we need better kamas", I think there'd be a much better chance of getting at the very least dual molding or side leg printing, as compared to right now, where there's a billion different "campaigns" to "fix" every aspect of clones, half of which are non issues.

*Lego makes a figure that is near-unanimously panned*
”cmon man that’s absurd”

nah bro you’re in the minority on this one. Just because Lego is guilty of other issues like bad pricing, poor color consistency, poor prints, doesn’t mean people aren’t allowed to voice their concerns about individual points that you don’t consider to be “real issues”

[Horation]

27 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

*Lego makes a figure that is near-unanimously panned*
”cmon man that’s absurd”

nah bro you’re in the minority on this one. Just because Lego is guilty of other issues like bad pricing, poor color consistency, poor prints, doesn’t mean people aren’t allowed to voice their concerns about individual points that you don’t consider to be “real issues”

nah "bro", YOU are the one in the minority, the vocal minority. Most people don't appear to be complaining much, it sounds like a Star Wars fan issue, AKA a non-issue, and nobody said you aren't allowed to voice your concerns.

The (couple of) hardcore fans are constantly complaining about : helmet holes (useful for play, not important for display when you have an army of 2000 of them which you look at from a meter away), printed kamas (which make it easier to pose figures and which make it easier to make them sit), and then the fact that Lego won't make XYZ figure (and when Lego makes it, they complain endlessly about it...), I don't think kids mind, "bro"

3 hours ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

Fives doesn’t look “wonky”, I had no idea what the hell I was even looking at when I first saw a picture of the figure, until I read it was titled “fives leak”. It looks atrocious, not bad, not wonky, atrocious. I don’t even care much for TCW but it’s sad to see nonetheless.
We’re not asking for unreasonable, hot-toys level attention to detail here. We’re asking Lego to meet the benchmark of quality they were hitting a decade ago

I don't know what you people are looking at, but I don't really see any major quality decrease or increase, could you post a few examples, the examples you gave seemed fine to me. 

P.S, Leaks generally look atrocious, not wonky, atrocious. That's normal. 

1 hour ago, CallumPears said:

Honestly not caring for TCW is part of what makes me not care for modern Clones in general. They're using a hybrid design for the armour which mixes animated and realistic designs and as someone who's not really a fan of TCW it's annoying that I can't get figures based solely on the movie designs of Clones. Even back in 2014 when I absolutely loved TCW I tried to avoid the animated-style troopers since I want all my troopers to be consistent; to me they should never have made the animated design for the LEGO Clones back in 2008. Since in 'real life' all Clones would look the same, I want all my LEGO figures to be based on the realistic design. Same goes for stuff like the weird animated eyes the old figures had and the exaggerated proportions of the Rebels Stormtroopers. 

Forget the current issues with helmet holes and cloth kamas, to me they haven't made a good Clone since 2019 as they introduced the hybrid style in 2020. It stopped me from buying multiples of the 501st battle pack (a set I'd wanted for years since the 501st were previously only available in the animated style and I was hoping they'd be made in the 2014 realistic design) and has put me off any of the other Clone figures produced in the past 3 years. 

Can you show what the issues are, what makes the modern ones so bad? I mean yes there's a difference, but it is literally hot-toys level of detail you are looking for, it is completely unnoticeable except if you are looking at them from up-close, again, I don't think kids mind.