The Stud

I've gotten a decent number of items since the last time I posted in this thread in mid-December. 75347 TIE Bomber and five copies of 75359 332nd Battle Pack (bringing my total number of that battle pack to 12 currently) as Christmas gifts. 75365 Yavin IV Rebel Base for about $60-70 off on eBay. Some more custom minifigures: Lothal Sabine from BrickDaddyMinifigures and Rebel Kallus and Rukh from BlackMarketBricks. Various Bricklink and custom minifigure accessory orders, including some Arealight Mandalorian helmets and Firestar Toys printed arms. My first copy of 75372 Clone Trooper and Battle Droid Battle Pack. Finally got one of my white whales: 75021 Republic Gunship used and complete off of eBay. 715152 Imperial Assault Hovertank used from eBay. This particular listing included a complete copy of the set, and an extra copy of the Hovertank build as well.

The Battle Droid Carrier sounds cool but it makes zero sense to me to have something like that as a GWP. It'd be a great cheap set, which we could honestly use more of in this theme. I skipped May the 4th last year, but I might try to get some stuff this year. Assuming this promo is in the $150-200 range, I'll probably wind up getting the Tantive IV Hallway, Sith Infiltrator and a copy or two of the Clone/Battle Droid Battle Pack (depending on if its available). I'm also not usually a Brickhead fan but the characters included make this TPM set a lot more interesting for me.

I don't think the Dark Falcon will stick around for much longer than a single year. So if it retires around until the end of 2025, I could see Lego holding off on having a play-scale Falcon on shelves for a year so they can do a new "special" classic one for the 50th Anniversary of Star Wars/ANH in 2027, and then that one can stick around for a few years like TROS one did. I'm honestly surprised that they didn't replace TROS one with one with OT characters sooner honestly. I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I'm interested to see how Season 3 ends The Bad Batch storyline. Very little chance that Lego will do anything else for TBB sadly, so here's to hoping that the next ongoing animated series, whatever it may be, will have better luck. Tin foil hat time, but the fact that it ends right before May the 4th makes me wonder if we could get an announcement for the next animated project after the finale ends (not counting TOTJ Season 2). Similar to how TCW S7 partially served as a backdoor pilot of sorts for The Bad Batch series, I wonder if the reappearance of a certain character will lead to another TCW spinoff of sorts if you catch my drift.

That was my assumption for the longest time since we started hearing 2024 rumors, but it's looking more and more unlikely. Seems like a bizarre choice to only do one diorama next year, a microscale podrace at that. Kind of a bummer if Lego's slowly ending that subtheme. The prices for a lot of the diorama sets were absurd and a lot of them really took away from what should've been small and/or affordable sets, like the Trash Compactor or the Endor Speeder Chase, but I still liked the concept and felt the line had promise. This is a very good and nuanced outlook on the theme, and similar to my feelings. I feel that there have been steps backward in some regards (Lego's current ambivalence towards cloth accessories for instance) but generally speaking, I think the theme is doing a generally good job at the moment. I've been too busy to share my thoughts on here but these recent rumors were not even close to what I was kind of expecting for next summer. Some sets seem kinda safe/dull, some seem really cool and some seem just straight up bizarre. The Sith Infiltrator would probably fall into the dull category, though it is a set I'll most likely get since I don't have any of the previous versions. Definitely not my first choice for a set I'd like to see for TPM's 25th anniversary but oh well. Kinda cool that it has the same character selection as the 2011 version, with our first Panaka and Qui-Gon figures in a while. The fact that Qui-Gon and Maul both come in this set really pokes holes in my retail exclusive Duel of the Fates diorama theory though. The X-Wing and TIE Fighter set sorta falls into the dull category as well, but even the fact we're getting another dual starfighter set and the wing switch feature in this set makes it stand out for me. That gimmick really reminds me of old school Lego Star Wars sets where they'd encourage you to do wacky things with the pieces, plus the concept of switching the ship parts around does exist in the lore. The scale and look of these iterations of the X-Wing and TIE will be the ultimate decider on whether I get this set or simply Bricklink the desirable figures from it at some point. Whatever the creature build set is will probably fall into the dull category for me, but I'll probably Bricklink the young Leia figure on Bricklink, especially if she comes with LOLA. The buildable C-3PO is kinda sandwiched in between the dull and cool categories for me. I'm surprised it's taken Lego so long to do a buildable Threepio honestly. The fact that it'll probably look and scale better with this new buildable R2 than the UCS version(s) means that I'll probably skip on this set unless it really blows me away. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes with some sort of anniversary figure as well since the R2 set is. Despite the high price, the Desert Skiff and Sarlacc set would probably fall into the cool category for me. I have the 2017 version, so getting some of the same figures here (Han, Chewie, Boba) isn't super exciting, but I am curious to see how the piece count has risen so drastically. I saw someone throw out the idea of the set including the Sarlacc Pit and both of the Desert Skiffs which is certainly possible. I'd probably prefer to see that piece count going towards improving the Sarlacc Pit build, especially since I already have one Skiff and there's only two in the scene as I recall, but I wouldn't be mad getting an additional one here. I'll probably wind up getting this set regardless but my excitement will greatly depend on how they handle the Sail Barge. As someone who liked the Ahsoka show, or season rather, the Peridia set is very exciting to me for the figures alone. I would have preferred getting the Chimera with these particular figures but seeing as how this set will be significantly cheaper, I'm not complaining. I guess we will probably have to wait for the Filoni movie to get that particular ISD after all. I'm just curious what the build here will be exactly? The piece count and figure selection rules out the Imperial Dropship or one of the Noti pods, so I worry it'll be similar to the Obi-Wan vs. Vader set where it's just a super bland location build you're just buying for the figures. Still, I'm excited to get all of the figures in this set as they're including basically every major character/variation still missing from Season One. I imagine we'll still get the Night Troopers and Great Mothers with Season 2 or something down the line. The Death Star playset sounds like it could be very cool but like the Peridia set, I wonder what they're even going to be able to do for the build. I was thinking maybe something similar to one of the old Kenner playsets, but the lack of hero figures besides Luke and Han possibly being in their Stormtrooper disguises here is a bit of a headscratcher. It's also going to be very cool to get an official Cal Kestis FINALLY, though I already bought custom printed figures of both his Fallen Order and Survivor appearances this last summer. Hopefully he has his poncho here to differentiate him from those other figures I have. The Jedi Bob Starfighter falls into the straight up bizarre category for me. Getting him as an anniversary figure would have already been a neat surprise, but getting a whole set dedicated to him is glorious. The $40 price tag is a bit steep, and I wonder how well this set will do with more casual fans of Lego Star Wars, but I know I'll be grabbing one. Lastly, the evil Millennium Falcon is probably one of the most bizarre sets I've ever heard of. On one hand, I would normally be annoyed that this is taking up a slot that could be going to, I don't know, a Fondor or something, but I can't even be mad at the sheer weirdness of this set. I know I won't be buying this set but some of those figures will be really neat ones to order on Bricklink. All in all, this sounds like it should be a very interesting year for the theme and largely a step up from some of my problems with it in 2023. Lots of variety all around, and Lego definitely isn't skimping on minifigures this year. Plus I'm sure we're going to get at least one Acolyte set this year as well, perhaps later on in the fall, which just adds to the variety.

I thought all three Ahsoka sets were some of the strongest non-D2C sets we've had in the theme recently, and while they did a solid job covering the first half of the series, we could use some representation for the last four episodes. Confirmation that we're getting a Season 2 (which, let's be honest, was already pretty likely) will hopefully give Lego extra incentive to do a few more sets as we wait. Even just the Chimera would be sufficient for me at this point. The "Mandalorian and Grogu" film news is a very interesting development. Still not sure if I'm fully in love with the idea of turning it into a film but it is certainly a safe move for Star Wars' first movie on the big screen in a while. And as someone disappointed at the direction of the show with BOBF and Season 3, a change in format may not be a bad thing necessarily. (Even though Variety's reporting that Season 4 might also still be happening? Who knows...) As for how this news pertains to Lego, it'll be interesting to see if this change to a film format means that Lego will get a wave of sets out ahead of its release instead of months or even a year later. I also think this means we're going to have to wait even longer for an updated model of the classic TPM N-1 fighter. Assuming that Mando and Grogu are still using this particular ship, I think a new and improved N-1 is very likely to tie-in with this movie to replace that rushed BOBF model.

While young Leia was probably one of the highlights of the OWK show for me (I thought the actress did a tremendous job performing a child version of Carrie Fisher’s portrayal of the character), I also think that she’s an odd choice to dedicate an anniversary figure to. She feels too recent and far less requested than her two anniversary counterparts of Fives and Malak. In reality, Lucasfilm probably didn’t even need to keep her involvement in the series a “secret” and Lego could have just included her in the Scythe set last year, especially since it released months after the show anyway. But I guess that’s hindsight talking, and now we just have one of our anniversary slots kinda wasted, especially if she doesn’t come with LOLA. I am still somewhat happy to have this version of the character in my collection. I’ve said this a few times before but I think a Duel of the Fates diorama is a no brainer for next year, and probably what this discussed Maul figure is coming in. It would be nice to get another TPM set or two though, preferably a non-18+ playset so we could finally fill some gaps in terms of minifigures. It’s kinda crazy to me that we’ve never gotten Boss Nass, Shmi Skywalker or most of Padme’s outfits in general. (Any of those would be most interesting for an anniversary figure than young Leia too.) Heck, we’ve only gotten Queen Amidala once, and her design is arguably one of the most iconic character designs of TPM and the prequel trilogy as a whole. While I love the love that Lego has been showing to the Clone Wars era, I’d like to see them doing some more film-specific representation of the prequel era. It’s definitely possible but just to be pessimistic for a second here, Lego does tend to arbitrarily decide which anniversaries they celebrate and to what extent. Last year was the 20th anniversary of AOTC and we did get some sets that could be considered unofficial acknowledgments of that occasion: the hard-to-find Clone Trooper Accessory Set and Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter. They just didn’t have any special “20th Anniversary” logo or anything. Compare that to this year where we got stuff for ROTJ’s 40th Anniversary and for TCW’s “20th” Anniversary. (The anniversary reflects 20 years since the airing of the 2003 micro series, even though almost all of the associated merchandise and even the panel at Star Wars Celebration were celebrating 15 years of the 2008 3D animated series. I’m still confused about that.) Since Lego is officially acknowledging the 25th Anniversary of TPM, however, that does set precedent for them to acknowledge the 25th Anniversary of the other two prequel films. Similar to how Lego acknowledged the 40th Anniversary of ANH (though not doing too much to celebrate it) and then the other two OT sets got multiple sets for their 40th Anniversaries. So yes, I think we have a pretty good shot at 25th Anniversary sets for AOTC and especially for ROTS. I’m just curious to see if Lego will do anything for TFA’s 10th Anniversary in 2025.

The discussion in the main thread about TPM's 25th Anniversary being acknowledged by Lego got me thinking about what I could conceivably see Lego doing to celebrate it next year. We know we at least have a buildable Droideka, microscale Podrace diorama and AAT polybag coming. Now, Lego can be very inconsistent with how they handle these Star Wars anniversaries and which ones they celebrate, so I don't think we'll see too much else, but just for fun, I want to run through some of the other things I would like to see LEGO doing. As I mentioned in the main thread, I think we probably have another diorama coming that we just haven't heard about yet. In 2022, we got two wide-release dioramas and one retail exclusive one (with one of these dioramas being microscale) and just two wide-release dioramas this year (neither of which are microscale). I think it'd be odd if they just did one microscale diorama next year, so I think we have another one coming that we just don't have a set number assigned to, possibly a retail exclusive one. I think it goes without saying that a Duel of the Fates diorama would be a hot seller, and next year would be perfect for it. I think a design similar to any of these MOCs would be fantastic: (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-107005/Breaaad/duel-of-the-fates-diorama-collection-episode-1/#details) (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-151918/Renk/duel-of-the-fates-diorama-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/#details) (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-151528/s.cantu91/duel-of-fates-diorama/#details) Personally, I miss getting waves largely or entirely dedicated to one movie/show or general subtheme, so here's what I came up with for a wave to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of TPM. I'm sticking to five sets of varying sizes to be consistent with most of the waves we got for the new Disney-era films. This would be a mixture of stuff we've either never gotten or haven't gotten in a long time. Naboo Flash Speeder ($30-40): We've gotten the green version twice, so it'd be nice to see the teal/turquoise version for a change. Figures could include Battle of Naboo Padme (New!), Naboo Soldier [x2] (New!) and two B-1 Battle Droids. Gungan Sub ($70): A remake of the 2012 set with Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Jar Jar returning, as well as our first Boss Nass (New!). Mos Espa Podrace ($90-100): A remake of the 2011 Podrace set with Anakin and Sebulba's podracers. Maybe a side build could be the gate with start/finish line. Minifigures would include child Anakin with Podracing Helmet, Qui-Gon with Tatooine poncho, naked C-3PO (New!), Shmi Skywalker (New!), Watto (New!) and Sebulba. N-1 Naboo Starfighter vs. Vulture Droids ($130): @Mandalorianknight mentioned this idea in the discussion thread. The builds would include a typical N-1 (probably smaller and a bit closer to minfigure scale) and two tan/brown Vulture Droids. Minifigures would include child Anakin, Queen Amidala (New!), Naboo Pilot (New!), R2-D2 and 2-3 Battle Droids. Maybe some pilots or security variants to change things up a little bit. Naboo Royal Starship ($160): Probably wouldn't be quite chrome (LBG instead most likely), but it'd be nice to have an official model of this set. The interior could have the cockpit and the room with the Queen's throne. Minifigures could include Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Captain Panaka (New!), Ric Olie (New!), Handmaiden Padme (New!) and Queen Amidala [Sabe] in one of her other outfits (New!). As for which of these sets I think is likely for 2024? Probably none of them to be honest, but they're all concepts I'd like to see Lego do at some point, and how I'd realistically see Lego doing them. This selection of five sets would help us get a lot of missing characters/variants or primary characters we haven't gotten in a while. It'd also be nice to get Senator Palpatine, Nute Gunray, Rune Haako and beloved character Kitster in a set, but they're all pretty niche. I do think a Royal Starship is somewhat possible, and maybe a small set like the Flash Speeder or a remake of the 2015 AAT with a slightly different figure selection. We are getting the AAT polybag after all and while that doesn't necessarily mean we'll get a full playset to accompany them, I do think it's highly possible and probably likelier than any of my ideas. This was fun to come up with, I might do this for the other prequel films.

I think an MTT is very likely to happen within the next few years, but I believe Lego would be more likely to go for the blue/gray CIS color scheme from TCW over the brown color from TPM. I agree that kids would be more interested in an MTT over the Royal Starship, but I also think kids would also be far more interested in clones to fight against a tank of battle droids as opposed to some Gungans. And if it weren't for the fact that we have Mando's N-1 on shelves right now, I'd say next year would be perfect for a new Naboo Starfighter. It is interesting to wonder what Lego conceivably could do for the 25th anniversary of this movie that helped kick off the Lego theme, but I'll probably take my speculation and predictions to the Wishlist thread.

Oh no, someone call the authorities. A multibillion dollar corporation (one that lays off thousands of their employees when their annual revenue goes slightly down) had pictures of a toy leaked! Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I actually quite enjoy this series. I didn't grow up with Classic Space or any of these retro themes, so I have very little nostalgia for that era and don't mind that these figures have deviated from those designs. I don't know if I have a particular favorite yet, but I think all of the figures are fun and fairly charming. As someone who primarily collects Star Wars, I like getting a lot of variety and color in my other Lego purchases, which this series certainly delivers on. For people concerned about how this series will sell, frankly, I'm concerned about how a lot of these numbered and non-licensed CMF series will sell with these blind boxes. $5 CMFs is already a tough sell for some, let alone when you can't tell what's inside (without a scale) and in Marvel Series 2's case, many of the boxes out in the wild will be ripped open anyway. Without a familiar license or IP to draw people in, I think people are going to be less and less incentivized to get these. Even then, I have to wonder how well Marvel Series 2 is selling. (Though potentially lower sales could have more to do with a general Marvel burnout and less immediately recognizable characters in this series.) Not to mention that stores may not want to continue carrying CMFs if people are going to keep ripping them open. Even with the last few blind bag series (not including Disney), I've seen for myself that stores around me have hardly been stocking them, if at all.

I didn't get around to doing my full Winter Village setup this year but I did get around to doing the Lodge set, which I really enjoyed honestly. Maybe that's an unpopular opinion here based on some of the comments up above? It honestly might be my favorite Winter Village set from the three I own (I started collecting them annually in 2021 with Santa's Visit) and I really enjoyed the experience of putting it together and the quality of each part of the build.

I finally got all three Indy sets for Lego Insider Weekend last month but didn't get around to building them recently. I just finished the Temple of the Golden Idol diorama last night and that's probably one of the best sets I've built all year. Really, all three sets were incredibly solid and intricate. I don't want to sound like a broken record and complain again about how Lego dropped the ball with this reboot, but I just would have loved to have seen more Indy sets with this level of quality. @peter.keith on Instagram is planning on posting instructions for the cancelled Temple of Doom set on Rebrickable so if you're craving more like me, be sure to keep an eye out.

That TPM 25th Anniversary logo on the AAT polybag is very nice looking. I imagine we'll see that with the Podracer Diorama and Droideka as well, and I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one other set that ties to this anniversary. I have a gut feeling that we won't get any playsets, besides Lego finally doing a Royal Naboo Starship possibly. I don't think they'd just do one microscale diorama next year as opposed to three last year and two this year, so I wonder if there will be a second diorama that will either be a retail exclusive or we just haven't heard about it yet. A Duel of the Fates diorama would be such easy money for Lego and next year would be the perfect year to do one. Now I'm tempted to go hunting for one myself.

I've gotten quite a bit in the last month and a half since I last posted in here: 66775 Hoth Walmart Value Pack My first order from CAC; just a couple of jetpacks. Another 332nd Battle Pack from the Detroit Lego Store after going to Brickworld last month, as well as some other non-Star Wars stuff. 40658 Millennium Falcon Holiday Diorama for Insiders Weekend in November, along with both promotional sets at the time and all three Indiana Jones sets, which are of course Lucasfilm-related. 75366 2023 Advent Calendar for half off from Walmart. 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Pack. I got three of these for around $13 each from Target right around Black Friday. Including the one that's included in the aforementioned Hoth Walmart pack, that brings my total of this set to ten just before it retires. 75354 Coruscant Guard Gunship and 75360 Yoda's Starfighter for $42 total, thanks to me saving up my VIP points and taking advantage of most double point events. Speaking of double VIP, I got double points on the $42 I did spend, as well as both the seasonal promos that were going on. I also got another custom minifigure order from BrickDaddy Minifigures that arrived today. Two more Jedi: Survivor characters: Bode Akuna and Dagan Gera have now been added to my custom FO/Survivor collection. This is probably going to be it for my Lego shopping for the year, definitely for Star Wars at least. Maybe I'll have a few things under the tree, perhaps some more 332nd packs. I got some really fantastic deals throughout the year and continued to grow my collection more and more.

I've bought a bunch of custom minifigs and parts this past month. Dedra Meero from BlackMarketBricks. Cobb Vanth, Saw Gerrera, Survivor Merrin, Nightsister Zombie, Taron Malicos and the Rebels clone trio from BrickDaddyMinifigures. I also got an extra of their Cassian figure to upgrade my one of the official Rogue One figures. Custom hairpieces for Survivor Merrin and Baylan Skoll from AV Figures, as well as some parts to make a custom Second Sister minifigure. Mon Mothma, Asajj Ventress and Rebels S3 Sabine torso and legs from GCC. (Just waiting for these to ship out.) As for sets, I took advantage of some stellar deals I found this month. I got two of the 75288 AT-ATs off Amazon for $50 off each, bringing my total of playset AT-ATs to three just in time before this set retires. I also got the 75331 UCS Razor Crest off of Shop@Home for 30% off with double VIP points and the 40597 Scary Pirate Island promo.

Couldn't have said it better myself (though I've only been collecting for about 16 years, not 24 haha). I'd been awaiting for the theme to return for years and honestly, part of me would have preferred for it to remain dormant versus getting a half-a**ed attempt of a reboot. I don't know what disappointed me most: the cancellation and silence for the Temple of Doom, nothing made for the new film, lack of fanfare around the theme's return. The fact that all three sets we did get were so fantastic makes it so much worse. I do want to try to recreate the cancelled Temple of Doom set someday. I'm sure someone will eventually reverse engineer it and put up instructions on Rebrickable, if someone hasn't already. This whole Indy situation, Lego's recent pricing and some other factors really put a damper on the hobby for the first half of this year for me, and nearly drove me into a dark age.

I used to think a UCS Venator was a pipe dream but we have one available right now. A MBS Geonosis set is definitely plausible in my eyes now. It would probably have to be preceded by some AOTC sets so they could reuse some of those figures in that set. I'm late to the party but getting fan-favorite characters for the 25th Anniversary of Lego Star Wars is a pleasant surprise. I never would have thought that we'd be getting an official Fives figure but here we are. I'm happy for the KOTOR fans to get Malak as well. The Tantive IV playset is something that keeps getting better and better. A playset that could be expanded like the Dark Trooper hallway was already a lot more appealing than the previously rumored diorama format. Now we know that the set includes Vader, Antilles, TWO Stormies and TWO Rebel Fleet Troopers which is already a much more generous minifig selection than I was expecting. Now we know we're also getting a (presumably P2) Fives figure in this set!? Seven figures in a $55 playset? Honestly sounds like a pretty good deal for a Star Wars set. The only way things could get better is if we get a proper ANH Vader in the set since most of the figures will probably be reuses anyway. Hopefully the build is pretty solid. I think I might get extras like the Dark Trooper Attack set to make a longer hallway. It'll also be great for army building. Between this set and the Clone/Battle Droid set, it's already looking like a pricy year for us army builders.

Now that Ahsoka's said and done, I think it would be a good idea to write out a list of what sets I could realistically see us getting from this series down the line.

They at least give us something to talk about, and solving his clues can be fun. This year was the 20th Anniversary of the original KOTOR game so it is interesting timing. Especially with the new KOTOR remake is on shaky ground right now after all. I have some mixed feelings on the Ahsoka finale and show as a whole, but overall, I greatly enjoyed it. Yeah, Andor was great and is some of the best live-action Star Wars media we've ever gotten, but in terms of fun, this is the most fun I've had with one of these shows since The Mandalorian season 2. I still definitely think we'll get at least 2-3 more sets.

Assuming that Ahsoka's T-6 Shuttle is around for the long haul, I think we could see a remake of it within the next couple years. Maybe for Filoni's movie, along with a more accurate Mando N-1 remake. Through the three sets we've gotten, I think the first half of Ahsoka's been covered really well, though there are some things I'd still like to see of course (the Eta-class shuttle, Sabine's speeder bike, her Lothal outfit, a Lothcat figure, HK droids). With only one episode to go, I think we just need another set or two to sufficiently cover this series, or season rather. As for the Skeleton Crew set, it doesn't surprise me whatsoever to hear that it may be on hold. Probably only for a couple months but still.

The current X-Wing playset is due to retire at the end of this year. Since we're bound to get our obligatory remake soon after, it'd be a nice change of pace to maybe get Carson Teva's X-Wing. The dude deserves it given how much he's appeared in these Mando-verse shows.

Honestly, I've loved just about every one of the new Trooper variants we got in the anthology films. Rogue One's Death Troopers and Shoretroopers are so cool. Their respective black and tan color schemes compliment the classic Stormtrooper so well. I'm dying for Lego to do some sort of Scarif battle pack with all three types together. Shout out goes to the Tank Troopers that are also from Rogue One, as well as their Juggernaut colleagues from The Mandalorian (though we've never gotten this design in Lego before). From Solo, we got the Patrol Troopers. While their battle pack from the Solo wave wasn't super massable, as we never see them in large numbers aside from the opening level of Jedi Survivor, it was a solid set in its own right. The design of a stormtrooper mixed with traffic cop is just fun. The Mimban Stormtrooper was also a dope design, especially with that cape, and I wish we got these guys in a battle pack.

No problem! I think it's interesting that they specifically mentioned the Gauntlet because I'd like to see them do a larger version with the color scheme of the 2011 set and a tad more interior space than that and the 2021 set. I think that, some sort of playset and a Beskar Trooper battle pack would be sufficient to cover the rest of the season. (As cool as Gorian Shard's ship would be too, I don't see Lego dedicating a $100+ set to that over some other things they could do next year). It's funny how "secretive" they think they were for those things in Mando season 3 when I remember seeing rumors about IG-12 and Praetorian Guards a full year before the season started, plus some sketches of Gideon and the Beskar Trooper designs surfaced in advance as well. I've said this before in a previous post but I could see next summer's wave being remniscent of summer 2021 which played a lot of catch-up for TCW Season 7 and Mando Season 2. I think 2-3 sets each for Mando season 3 and Ahsoka is plausible, especially since there's going to be a bit of a lull in terms of new content next year.

Well, I think you'll be able to consider 2024 a good year lol. I'm sure we'll get at least another set or two to finish covering Mando S3 since the show probably won't return until 2025 at least so they're going to want to have some other Mando sets in the mean time. If I recall correctly, one of the blogs talked to a Lego Star Wars designer who mentioned that those last two episodes gave them a lot of ideas? (Here it is: https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-designers-the-mandalorian-s3-inspiring) Something, something, rebellions are built on hope. No spoilers but a clip for tonight's Ahsoka episode released earlier and it is perfect material for a $30-40 set.

Oh yeah, it's definitely not a problem in a broad sense. I just meant the problem with getting a midi-scale version is that it wouldn't come with these figures we want like a playset version would come with. I definitely agree they should capitalize on this demand sooner rather than later as opposed to waiting for the Filoni movie to do a Chimera playset. I think the mostly positive reaction to this show, plus having the next few shows more spread out, will give us a good opportunity to get some more Ahsoka sets next year.

I'm thinking the Kelleran Beq set will have 501st Troopers too since it's at a similar price point to the army builder set that will have the other two clone variants that would have made sense here anyway. I think 3 troopers is a bit optimistic though, I'd say one or two tops. As much as I'd like to see a standard Gunship playset in the near future, I find it very unlikely until the Coruscant Gunship is gone. You refer to getting two Poe's X-Wings close to each other but that was a very different and unique situation that happened seven years ago. Like a lot of other companies, Lego was riding the hype of TFA and releasing a ton of sets related to it. It's very uncommon to have two of the same ship at the same scale at the same time, let alone a ship that would cost over $100 like the Gunship. No way Skeleton Crew is getting pushed back to 2025. No one has indicated that. It was supposed to be a late 2023 release but it's clearly been pushed into 2024. Even if the show did get pushed back by a full year right now, the set could potentially be put on hold like Marvel's Eternals sets were but it'd be way too late to just release another set in its place. From the shows that should conceivably be ready next year, we're probably going to see Skeleton Crew late winter/early spring, The Acolyte in late summer/early fall and I have no clue for The Bad Batch season 3. Tales of the Jedi season 2 is possible at some point next year as well since we have no idea where they're at in production or how many episodes there will be. Even with a deal with the Writer's Guild now being tentatively finalized and a deal with the SAG likely not far behind, Andor season 2 is still most likely pushed into 2025. That year could also be when we get Mando season 4 and maybe even the next animated series since The Bad Batch will be wrapped up? As for what all this means for Lego sets, I think 2024 will see less sets based on new media and we'll get some more "catch-up" sets for what we're missing from Mando season 3 and Ahsoka, as well as your obligatory saga and TCW sets. I think Skeleton Crew will just get the one set for now, The Acolyte will get at least one but possibly more and we'll probably get nothing from the animated series. Even without Andor season 2 next year, I think the Fondor with a season one minifigure selection is very possible. It wouldn't be unlike when we get the BD-1 set released around the time Jedi Survivor was originally supposed to release. The problem is that part of the reason people are wanting the Chimera as a playset are the figures it would come with. People want an updated Thrawn as well as some of the new characters and designs like Enoch and the Night Troopers.