ArrowBricks

I might have a sealed Finch Dallow version of the Resistance Bomber waiting to be sold…

Head over to brickset, type in the 202- Star Wars sets and you can see some of the designers explain the final outcome of the set that is on the shelves. Super interesting! César Soares - Mandalorian Fighter: “This was fun to design and also challenging in some parts. The wings were a bit of a nightmare because of the multiple layers. Making it easy to build by a 9 year old was not easy. Then there is the 2 elephants in the room: the gaps on the cockpit and the lack of landing gear. The cockpit had to be able to accommodate 2 figures, with helmets and jet packs. This meant that they had to seat straight inside the cockpit. And for that, the Minifigure arms have to fit inside the 4 available modules in width, so the sides of the cockpit where lower, leaving an unsightly gap. So, sadly, the gap was a compromise in favour of 2 Minifigures fitting inside the cockpit. A retractable landing gear, that was sturdy enough, would always be tricky here because it would always get in the way when you rotate the cockpit in flight mode. We chose tot to put one for the sake of simplicity.” Meditation Chamber: “Where does the Darth Vader meditates? On his chamber of course. Built almost exclusively for display the canopy does have the ability to go up and down, so fans can display it either closed or in open mode. The canopy function also means that some gaps are present to allow for a smother integration when moving it up and down. Perhaps some of them could have been smaller, but we felt that most fan will display it in open mode, so those wouldn't be as noticeable.” Main takeaway is that Lego seems to be making too many of these trade-offs instead of rectifying both. Either way super interesting and appreciate stuff like this majorly.

Imagine the days of 4 battle packs, often useless. We are currently presented with many army building options: A mix of an old and new style wave for 2022: Battle Packs: Imperial Remnants Battle Pack £12.99: Dark Trooper (x2), Stormtrooper, Incinerator Stormtrooper Imperial Clone Forces Battle Pack £12.99: Phase 1 Stormtrooper (x3), Imperial Commando Anaxes Troopers Battle Pack £12.99: 212th Clone Trooper (x2), Mace Windu Clone Trooper (x2) Elite Squad Clone Troopers £12.99: Special Ops Clone Trooper (x3), Phase II Clone Trooper Normal sets: Darth Vader’s Tie Advanced £34.99: Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Imperial Astromech Rebel Y-Wing £44.99: Dutch Vander, R2-BHD, General Willard, Rebel Honour Guard Republic Shuttle £79.99: Crosshair, Clone Shock Trooper, Phase II Clone Trooper, Hunter Cad Bane’s Justifier £89.99: Cad Bane, Fennec, Todo, Omega Exclusives: Rebel Snowspeeder £19.99: Luke Skywalker, Dak Ralter Ice Spider Attack £24.99: Beskar Mando, Grogu, Frog Lady Coruscant Airspeeder Chase £54.99: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Zam Wessell

Some cracking ideas last few days ladies and gents, Lego sign us all up! 2022 is super difficult to predict, I have not got a clue. I would imagine they will continue with the downscaled classic ships from the OT. If they go ANH again it’s clear it will be a Y-Wing and Vader’s Tie Advanced. A-Wing/B-Wing and a Tie Interceptor for ROTJ. I’m also confident in a downscaled Snowspeeder, seems like a good time once again. Other downscaled vehicles from the OT are few and far between. Maybe a Falcon or Star Destroyer later on in the year. Next, I think Bad Batch will resume. Obviously they won’t leave out Omega. My hope is they also find a way to get some Phase II Clone Trooper’s in the sets! We need them!! Plenty of choices here, some really solid ones! Cad Bane’s Justifier, Republic Shuttle, Imperial Turbo Tank are some of my favourites. Heck even an AT-TE! Hopefully we get a few this year, the sets will be refreshing! The Mandalorian season 2 also has a place in next years waves I think. Not too much, but I think a Darktrooper army builder set could be a possibility, a Moff Gideon’s Tie, or even the imperial Transport that would have supposed to have the Mortar trooper. A New Republic X-Wing Microfighter/4+ could easily be released. Maybe they’ll release the Juggernaut tank for the summer, could see that for sure. Book of Boba Fett. Probably a set or two. The fact they released a Slave One and Fennec suggests not too much from this, unless there is something vastly different. The Clone Wars S7 - my own personal preference is that these sets continue, after all I think a Rook Kast, a Mandalorian Super Commando, a Rex and Cody is needed. Gunship, Venator, AT-TE, Tank Droid all could be. But my gut tells me that’s it for Clone Wars. Andor + Kenobi - honestly no idea. Wouldn’t expect too much currently. 20th Ann AOTC - Again maybe the odd set from this film, but I wouldn’t expect anything major. Probably a Coruscant Airspeeder Chase is the most likely here. For the remaining prequels, I doubt anything will come from them at this stage. OT - I would imagine we see a resurgence of sets from here this year as the second half of 2021 was not kind. As above each will be downscaled. Sequel Trilogy - I would love some downscaled sets from these movies, but sadly I can’t see anything here. I am intrigued to know all, what the biggest surprise inclusion will be next year come 2022 - winter or summer. Let me know!

My dream set. I’d probably change the figures slightly to get two of Sora Bulq/Pablo-Jill/Tarados Gon in. I doubt they will do this anytime soon sadly. If they did a Sail Barge instead I wouldn’t mind to be honest. Or even a palace. Shame about the controversy.

It’s a solid idea. The only issue I have with a set like this is the lack of options for exclusive figures. Apart from the Ewok’s and Luke there’s is nothing new. They’d have to change some of the designs of existing figures etc.

You have the movie scenes on the back too. But the Gunship could have easily worked for episode 2 and 3 - all you need is to remove the ball turrets. The UCS Falcon had this with the radar dish and separate minifigures from completely different time periods let alone the following film like they do with AOTC/ROTS. I don’t mind no Cody at all but this is a fair argument I have heard recently.

AOTC 20th anniversary wave. Would be my dream. The Jedi will have the little specs of Geonosis terrain alike Windu in the Gunship. Movie accurate Geonosians etc. 75XXX Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter £24.99: Obi-Wan, R4, Lama Sue 75XXX Homing Spider Droid £29.99: Shaak Ti, Clone Trooper, Geonosian Battle Droid (x2) 75XXX Geonosian Starfighter W/turret £29.99: Geonosian Pilot, Winged Geonosian, Luminara Unduli (new cloth/skirt brick) 75XXX Coruscant Airspeeder Chase £49.99: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Zam Wessell 75XXX Jango Fett’s Slave One £49.99: Jango Fett, Boba Fett, Taun We (EXCLUSIVE) 75XXX Petranaki Arena £74.99 (Watchtower spire, stands, one pillar, gate, brickbuilt Nexu + Orray): Anakin Skywalker, Padme, Count Dooku, Poggle the Lesser, Bultar Swan, Sora Bulq, Geonosian Picador, Geonosian Battle Droid (x2) Republic AT-TE Walker £84.99: Ki-adi-Mundi, Pablo-Jill, Clone Sergeant, Super Battle Droid (x2), Droideka Republic Gunship £139.99: Yoda, Kit Fisto, Clone Pilot (NEW MOULD) (x2), Clone Trooper (x2), Geonosian Battle Droid Commander, Geonosian Battle Droid

Erm… Is it though?

Well yes of course, but ‘assume’ does not work when I explained it. Instead people jumped down my throat and belittled me. The point is the figures exist, I regard them as ‘the set’ and hence it warrants criticism from that perspective. Won’t lie I’d love to see how the OT UCS fans react when we get a Tie Bomber next year and a Death Star Gunner and a Stormtrooper are included. Or how about the AT-AT with a Tie Pilot!! How exciting. Anywhere that’s enough, appreciate the discussion with you all regardless of my complaints with the conduct. No worries. Irrespective doesn’t mean I still could not complain.

“What that means colloquially…”Christ almighty, what I am saying is fact. That is, minifigures are part of the set because they are the same as the bricks; you can’t differentiate between the two. I explained this, nothing to do with what you have chosen to infer. At no point have I said they are the main point of the set. Ever. Hence in my mind I can criticise the UCS ‘set’ in two ways: the main build and the figures. Why would I want it behind a huge price? Because I genuinely believe forking that amount of money warrants a special figure like the Clone Pilot. Is it going to be released in the future? Who knows. Likely not considering the prequels are barely touched upon.

Not quite sure what you are saying here. At no point have I said the figures are the point. The point is the figures are ‘the set’ because they are the bricks. Anyway… Yeah maybe. It has been though with any other ‘Pilot’ of UCS set. It’s like throwing Mon Morgan to Pilot the UCS Millennium Falcon. This is fair but Atleast it was a Clone Pilot. I’d like to think a new helmet mould for £330 could be possible.

Lego probably saw how badly that sold! It’s a conspiracy against the Prequels !! ;) Figures are the set. That’s not to say the bricks aren’t the set also. The figures are plastic just like the bricks in my mind. I get it UCS is about the model but imagine a snowspeeder pilot in the recent A-Wing. That’s how I view the use of a Clone Commander for the Pilot of the Gunship.

Never thought I’d agree with MandR (his friend Sands too) in their recent videos about the Gunship figures. Bang on the money. I’m tired of half-baked sets and out of touch designers within the Star Wars department. Get some young guns in there who know how passionate many of us are about new Lego Star Wars products. Lego in the past have proven how excellent they can be with their sets (FIGURES ARE THE SET). In other news I can’t believe it’s mid-July. Surely a month until we hear rumours right? I love rumours, I always go in so optimistic with what they could be doing for the following year!

OT UCS stuff I expect to see in the near future: Nebulon B Frigate Tie Bomber Jabba’s Sail Barge Death Star II MBS Endor Bunker + Generator AT-ST Walker