Brikkyy13

There's no doubt in my mind that Episode IX will under perform. I know a lot of Star Wars fans, and I can count on one hand the number of people who are interested in seeing TRoS. You can try and claim that it's a vocal minority, but there is a very large group of fans who disliked TLJ. I do believe that poor marketing and the May release date was part of the reason Solo performed terribly at the box office, but TLJ definitely has had a larger impact than anyone wants to admit. Solo has been available to watch through numerous avenues for about a year and a half now, and there are still several Star Wars fans who have not watched it and have no intention of watching it because of TLJ. Of the fans I've spoken to both online and IRL, I'd say only 25% have seen Solo. What does that mean for LEGO Star Wars? I don't think it's going away any time soon, the toys are still profitable. As others have said the market for the younger audience has moved towards gaming, and with that in mind I think the next LEGO Star Wars game next year is sure to be a hit. LEGO has already demonstrated a shift towards the digital market with hidden side and boost, if those perform well I'm sure we'll see something similar start to appear in other themes including Star Wars. It will be very interesting to see what sort of products LEGO releases over the next couple of years. If anything I think we'll see a reduced number of Star Wars sets and focus shifting to other themes. I think our biggest concern as fans should be Disney asking for more money in licensing fees and set prices going up as a result. Considering how sleazy Disney's business practices have been these last couple of years it's a very real concern.

I don’t understand all this fuss about hairpieces for Anakin and Obi-Wan, the hairpieces they have now were created specifically for them. The two new pieces being suggested aren’t accurate at all. Mad eye moody’s hair piece is okay, but it’s a mirror of anakin’s actual hairstyle (it’s parted the opposite way). The commissioner Gordon hairpiece is an alright fit, but it’s far too square shaped when compared to a lot of the reference photos out there.

$40 USD in 2016 will be worth $43 USD in 2020. Not enough to justify changing pricepoints imo.

The new skyhopper pilot face print is fantastic! I hope this becomes the new standard pilot face print as really dislike the current one, the smile/scared look just seems wrong to me.

Considering the 2016 version was as good as it was, yes, I would’ve preferred a recolour if it meant only getting 3 figures and keeping the cost down. $40USD was already pushing it for an AT-ST IMO. In my mind LEGO is a product for children, and to me that means that products should be affordable as toys. Just because I can afford to spend all my disposable income on toys doesn’t mean that families with children can. I understand that LEGO prices their sets before designing them, but I’m really not a fan of this trend of sets becoming more expensive, even if they are more accurate. Sets from the early 2010s era were almost perfect the way they were, accurate models with good figure selections and were priced well. We don’t see sets like that anymore. Do you remember the AT-ST from 8038 Battle of Endor? That was an extremely accurate model built out of less pieces... and also had more play features than the new one. If that AT-ST was a set by itself... oh man. If LEGO could release sets like that I don’t see many people complaining about price or quality.

I just watched a comparison video between the 2016 AT-ST from Rogue One and this year's AT-ST from The Mandalorian. It's pretty clear to me where the extra pieces in this year's model have gone, they're in the extra detailing on the legs and the sides of the head, as well as making the "hip" section bulkier. The new AT-ST definitely takes a step towards a more screen accurate looking model, but again I have to ask if it was worth adding in the extra pieces and a price hike when a simple recolour of the last one would've been enough?

Holy crap, those Aussie prices for the IX sets are awful. $45 for the two brickheadz? The last two-packs were only $30.

The Eta-2 is my favourite ship out of the whole saga, a UCS version would be a day one purchase for me. Good opportunity to bring back printed astromech heads, too

I never understood why LEGO does this. Is one extra piece really going to make that much of a difference? Especially considering all the instances where they use two parts instead of one, like them using two cheese slopes next to each other instead of using a 1x2 cheese slope

Just had a look at the Episode IX sets again, and man that A-Wing is disappointing. Good figures but the ship itself looks more like an RZ-1 than an RZ-2. In fact, it’s more or less the same build as the last A-Wing from 2016. Unless IX is bringing back the RZ-1 that’s a pretty bad move on LEGO’s part. As similar as the ships are, there is a big difference in the shape of the hull and it looks like no attempt has been made to replicate it.

I feel like we’re more likely to see the TIE Interceptor remade over Vader’s TIE Advanced, but hey I’m not LEGO so I don’t I own what would be the better move on their behalf. Someone mentioned a UCS Speeder Bike? Would be cool, but there’s other smaller-scale UCS sets that should come first... especially since we just got the constraction figure + vehicle set (which is great btw, I display it with the rest of my UCS sets) How would a UCS speeder bike be any different to that one? Also, it would look kind of naked without the pilot. I’d love to see more sets that have multiple ships in them, but only if they’re available in Australian retail stores. The A-Wing/TIE Advanced was online only, and at the RRP of $160 it wasn’t happening. LEGO needs to find a way to produce quality sets with less pieces (like they were doing 10 years ago) because the prices are getting insane. The designers are more than capable of designing the same ships with less pieces, just look at the A-Wing. 75175 from 2016 was 389 pieces and cost $80. 389 pieces is good, but just look at what it builds... it’s tiny. Now look at 75248 from this year. 268 pieces and will probably cost $45. It’s the same ship, more or less the same size and proportions, but has 100 less pieces and costs half as much.

Has anyone been paying attention to what time the D2C sets have been going on sale lately? Or are LEGO still as sporadic as always?

The first image of him without his helmet was from the Vanity Fair shoot. Here it is.

I’m in the A-Wing for May 2020 boat. I have no insider info but I’d be willing to put money on it, these last few UCS sets have been so predictable, I know myself and several other people on this forum were calling the Y-Wing when the snowspeeder came out, the Tantive/ISD combo when the Y-Wing came out... you get the idea. Another TIE has to be on the way too, probably a Bomber but I could see either an Interceptor or Advanced rerelease. Both are due for an update. Assuming LEGO keeps the trend of 2 Star Wars D2Cs a year, I could see the AT-AT being next. LEGO knows we want it and when it comes to UCS it’s pretty obvious that LEGO listens to our requests (we did just get the MILF and the ISD). I don’t buy the stability excuse anymore, a couple years ago I did, but their current designers are more than capable of designing an AT-AT. The problem with it is that we all want it to be minifigure scale, and I don’t see LEGO attempting a large AT-AT without trying to put space for, at the very least, 2 figures sitting side by side in the cockpit. Considering the size of some of the MOCs out there, yeah the price tag will come at something similar to the Falcon and Star Destroyer. I believe Cavegod’s AT-AT is minifigure scale and has around 6100 pieces. I wouldn’t be surprised if an official UCS AT-AT became the new largest set of all time (even if it only beats 75192 by a handful of pieces). But if LEGO wants to go the playset route, there’s no knowing what they’ll give us. If I had to guess, I’d guess they’d do another attempt at echo base. Nobody wants it but I’m sure it’ll come eventually. I hate jumping to conclusions from set patterns, but since the Death Star was in 2016 and Cloud City was in 2018 one could be forgiven for expecting something from RotJ. An Ewok Village rerelease would be nice, but I’d rather see Jabba’s palace or sail barge. Not to mention all the prequel era stuff they could do. I won’t make a list of it all, but in response to some of the posts here: Geonosis and Kamino would be amazing but they need the figures to back it up. Geonosians and Kaminoans obviously, but there needs to be more. I’m talking Death Star levels of figures, so 20 at the minimum. If we get Geonosis, it needs lots of Jedi and droids out the wazoo. Especially the droids. I know minifigures cost a lot to produce but the old MTT sets prove that battle droids are exceptions. If we get Kamino, the figures need to be clones, clones and more clones. Leave out Lama Su, Jango, Kenobi and all the rest, give us an army of shinies and their commanding officers, give us squads of battalions like the 212th and 501st. Give us the clones that we see eating in the lunch room, the clones that are still in their growth pods, hell even kid clones. And 99 of course. They can leave out every other important character from AotC and TCW but they can’t leave out 99.

A new UCS Imperial Shuttle would certainly be welcome, especially since the last one’s price is starting to creep upwards. I’d also like to see TIE Interceptor and TIE Advanced remakes since the old models look pretty dated. I hope they bring out something new first, like an A-Wing or a TIE Bomber. Dare I ask for something from the prequels?

There's probably a ton of reselllers who share your viewpoint. I anticipate supply to exceed demand, meaning little to no gain on investment, much like every other UCS set from the last few years. You can still pick up 10240 for close to retail. To me this is proof that the AFOL market isn't as large as we like to think it is. For years people on these forums asked for a new cloud city, and now it's going away just as fast as it came. I know it's not what a lot of people want to hear, but the OT doesn't resonate with the younger audience as much as it did with the older audience. I know when I was younger I found a lot of what happened in ESB to be boring, especially the cloud city parts.

While we’re at it we should probably nip the Death Star 2021 speculation in the butt right now.

No rumours just yet. We can make guesses but it’s best not to post those here because people can’t tell the difference between rumours and wishlists.

And so the Death Star’s 12 year long reign will come to an end. I was beginning to expect that set to be around for ever. I did not expect to see 75192 on that list either. I thought for sure LEGO would keep it around like the Death Star as the flagship of the line (and as a big middle finger to anyone sitting on one for an investment)

I don't think its fair to dismiss countries outside of the US when it comes to stuff like this. As far as I'm concerned the first set with a $1k price tag was 10179 because of its NZ RRP

So, the size of the original 10030? Before the reveal I was fully expecting it to be the same size as the last one, so having it be bigger was a nice surprise. The last one was fine but I believe its shape was slightly off, and this one has fixed the proportion issues with the extra length? I don't know Star Destoryers well enough to tell. I have to look into what IKEA has to offer. At the moment I'm using some modular metal/wooden industrial shelving from Bunnings, they give me plenty of space but no protection from dust. Something like this ISD will easily fit, and if it's too tall I'll just be able to change the height of the shelves so it does.

As in a set with a $1000 price tag? The UCS Falcon already broke that, and this one is $1100.

The SSD was $700, same as the original Death Star 10188. A $700AUD UCS ISD wouldn’t come close to the standard set by the last one

I’m sorry but no. When it comes to display models, bigger = better. Especially when the model in question is of a ship that’s known for setting a new standard in spectacle. I never saw the original run of Star Wars in cinemas, I grew up watching the OT on DVD. I was always told there was nothing like seeing that Star Destroyer in the opening scene on the big screen for the first time. I was lucky enough to catch a rerelease a couple of years back, and even though I knew it was coming it was still a sight to behold. People always say the Falcon is a more iconic ship, but nobody ever rambles on about how awesome it was to see it escape a star destroyer by drifting slightly to the left. My honest opinion is that 1.1m isn’t enough to do the ISD justice. Both the snowspeeder and y-wing rereleases were smaller than their predecessors, and I hated that fact. They only gain the edge over the old models because they are 1000 times more accurate to their on screen counterparts. If TLG decided to do an 80cm UCS ISD I would’ve just bought the old one. I would even go as far as saying an 80cm long ISD as a UCS set would’ve been insulting to collectors, considering the last one was 1m long and the playsets have all been around 60cm long.

The Death Star II uses a couple of them as well. I wonder if LEGO has that one on their list of potential rereleases because I've been considering bricklinking it.