Magmafrost

Or you could make a vip account and hit refresh on sep. 15th.

Lego confirmed that its only available online and through Lego stores. We do usually get D2C sets in regular stores here, yes, but this was in response to someone asking if it would be available in Mexico, and their answer was no, so I'm thinking it probably wont be available in Australia except online and at the certified store in Dreamworld and the discovery centre in melbourne. IN any case, we can probably get it cheaper by importing it from the US here anyway, at least once its readily available and the scalpers have moved on.

Nobody will ever have such a clue, Lego doesn't publicly discuss such things. Or much of anything else for that matter. But basically, the answer to any "does anyone know why lego did x" will always be "no"

Exchange rate is not, nor should it be, the only deciding factor in pricing between different regions. Australia has a higher minimum and median wage than the US, as well as higher import and sales taxes. Its also a small and isolated market, meaning shipments here are more expensive and less profitable. Also note that you'd be hard pressed to find a country which gets lower lego prices than the US, and also that US RRP doesnt even include sales tax.

IMO there's no reason to at this point. The falcon's the last lego Star Wars set to be announced for 2017. From there on out, its all 2018, which already has a separate discussion and news thread. Once the falcon's officially announced, there's nothing left to leak for 2017, so its not like anyone needs to stick around here for news.

Personally Ive been burned too many times by all D2C set selling out in seconds the moment there's any discount on them. 10% off just isnt worth waiting for IMO, especially on a set that size (like, if I can pay $1440 for it, I can just as much pay $1600 for it)

His sources are probably the same ones we have on this thread.

Lego did it themselves back in 2000 with 3340, 3341, 3342, and 3343.

I believe CM4Sci was the first credible person to suggest it, saying it was "likely" over on reddit. That was some time before Stash2Sixx said anything about it. There were one or two other reliable leakers in-between who said we'd see a new largest set ever this year, but I've forgotten who.

Went and picked up half the summer star wars sets today. The battle packs are starting to show up in many Australian stores, but so far the only place Ive found the rest of the wave (except for the freemaker sets, which I cant find anywhere) was at the discovery centre in melbourne. Prices are what you'd expect; $45 for the fighter tank and vader's transformation, $90 for the quadjumper and scout trooper + speeder bike, $23 for the battle packs. I think the rathtar escape was $130, its the only one I didn't pick up. This sure is a nice change from their usual August release. Also finally got krennic's shuttle from david jones for 20% off. That thing's getting real hard to come by in Aus. The speeder bike is gorgeous, the tank is pretty great too. I definitely dont recommend picking up the quadjumper at RRP though, this thing is a $60, maybe $70 tops, set. Definitely not worth $90.

That's not universally true. Here in Australia, buying star wars sets from the US on ebay is sometimes still cheaper than the Australian retail price, even despite insane shipping costs. Best examples being the TIE advanced vs A-wing or Rex's AT-TE, since they were only available to us on S@H. Its not like that's all there is to the rumor though. If it was, sure, the rumor would be rubbish, but its been supported by numerous reliable leakers, people who have been right far far more often than they've been wrong about upcoming sets.

Really not liking that hyperspace ring. The fighter itself is... whatever, but the ring is such a disappointment, its not a significant improvement over the 2last one from 10 years ago! And I'd say the docking area on the 2007 one looks better. The fighter just doesn't mesh nicely with the ring, which is completely contrary to what we see in the source material. What a disappointment.

What Im saying is that if someone cant buy both the snowspeeder and the falcon, its in Lego's best interest that they chose the falcon. Not to mention its in the best interest of the consumer to know about both before making a descision. Wouldnt you be a little bit very annoyed if the falcon is announced and you cant buy it because you bought the snowspeeder earlier?

So what you're saying is that people not buying a $200 set so that they can buy a $600 to $800 set = lost profit?

There's hardly any shortage of scalpers at these events. Probably most of them are picked up by those scum anyway.

Its probably very much a minority of customers who buy several copies of a battle pack anyway

The complaints about the snowspeeder being a remake seem a bit ill considered IMO. The old one is 14 years old, its not a set many AFOLs have, its not a set many AFOLs could ever hope to have.

Not even just that it might not exist, but that Lego could delay or cancel a set at any point until they announce it

Yeah, that was discussed here a while back, someone posted some concept art where Thrawn had the same rank insignia as he does in the set. It definitely wasnt Lego's fault, they were as always working from concept art. Same with any number of other recent sets.

That's not really true, the reason its being given a chance is because its been supported by numerous reliable leakers. We have as much evidence for it as we had for the snowspeeder not too long ago, as well as every SW set we saw at NYTF.

I can tell you right now that beyond a shadow of a doubt they wont be in Australia by June first anyway. August at best, every time. The difference there being that TLG probably isn't doing this on purpose, where Nintendo almost certainly is

I'd like the bottom to at least try to approximate the curvature of the bottom of the ship

You say that like anything confirmed belongs here in the first place...

Well here's a crazy thought: what if, just maybe, it got an underside

It has also since occurred to me that if Chief Togusa consistently only repeats rumors which turn out to be true, then that would be some evidence in favor of them without them having to leak anything new. However, the majority of rumors that have come up in this thread have turned out to be true, so it wouldn't be very strong evidence, although it would certainly be better than nothing.