SketchBrick

What a weird concept. Hopefully there will be alternative methods of acquiring the new croc!

Definitely, there's a real lack of location-based sets in LSW that aren't 4+ builds or expensive dioramas. I really liked some of the old $20 duel sets, or the $30 Obi-Wan's Hut. Not every set needs to be a vehicle!

You're not wrong, but to be fair most SW sets these days don't live up to those standards. $160 playsets have had 5-6 minifigs for the past 5+ years. The Justifier basically had 4. The 2006 Star Destroyer had 8 (not counting the mouse droid), and the 2024 set has 7. I wouldn't look at that as a huge downgrade, especially considering the new figures are notably more detailed than the classic ones. Would it be nice if the new ISD was bigger? Yes. But I'd also say this one is more detailed and polished off than the 2006 model, so there's always some give and take.

To be fair, this one is barely any smaller than the 2014 model, and actually costs slightly less when adjusted for inflation. Plus we have 7 figures here, literally an increase from 2014's 6. Sure there are subjective things one could argue, but the value here isn't really worse than the previous set.

ISD looks pretty good. Disappointing that the rumors of 10-12 minifigures are untrue, but 7 total figures is still more than we've been getting for most $160 sets (Yavin not withstanding), so I'll take it.

Agreed, it's almost a given we'll get a city-like version of the raven within the next year. I'm also be curious to see if they'll reuse the red panda mould for a raccoon?

I agree. Quickly you build up a whole fleet of vehicles to explore a tiny patch of terrain with a handful of animals. I would love to see more focus on the locations and the biodiversity, even though I agree the vehicle builds look good.

First Jungle set photos on IG via brickclicker :)

I think a Star Destroyer makes a lot more sense, and it's nice to see a big playset with a lot of figures that (hopefully) isn't just a super-sized juniors set as Yavin IV was.

Yes I think you're right! Wonder if it has a printed tile on the back?

I agree. 4 good looking minifigures, with two new moulded helmets, and the bunker build looks like an okay size with hopefully a couple of good play features. Maybe it should be $35, but in today's market it's hard to expect much cheaper.

Is that backpack on the Imperial Commandos and Gideon a new piece?

I love the dog with the printed holiday sweater! Great use of that part.

Absolutely. At this point he is not just a public figure, he's running a very profitable business based on his social media presence and sales affiliations. It's perfectly fair to criticize his opinions on another company's products when he himself runs a company and sells products. That doesn't mean people should be using hate speech or harassment, but if they want to say he's hypocritical for complaining endlessly about clone troopers while selling thousands of them on his website for profit, that's fair game.

Interesting find: the new Milky Way art set seems to make use of an unprinted hermit crab piece! Same colour as far as I can tell.

The new red panda mould is included in a Dreamzzz set as well!

If this is the case, it'll be the end of an era. RIP 😭

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing

I'm excited to see some sets will get 4x Insider points for May 4th! I've been looking to buy the Coruscant Guard Gunship to do a regular scheme colour swap, and with 20% in points plus all the GWP (once I add a $20 set), that feels like a pretty good value.

This is basically it. Somebody will complain regardless of what they do.

That's exactly my point though. I doubt Lego is selling BrickHeadz at a loss, so clearly they can afford to include new printed parts if they choose to. Why then do they choose not to print parts on the midi Invisible Hand or Tantive IV? I'm pretty sure the amount of plastic is pretty comparable to a BH multipack, so I just don't see how the value proposition makes sense for these 18+ sets if they're not going to at least offer the full "premium" experience and leave out the stickers.

It's crazy to me to see the value discrepancy between a lot of the new 18+ sets and something like the BrickHeadz. $55 for the TPM 6-pack gets you 732 pieces and 6 exclusive prints, but they refuse to do new prints (aside from the name plate) for the $50 Invisible Hand that's arguably even smaller at 557 pieces? The $10 Commander Cody has THREE unique prints, but we're expected to deal with stickers for the Droideka, the Mos Espa diorama, and even the UCS Interceptor? The black box tax is real

I think I understand what you're saying, and it's a valid argument. When I say $5 however, I'm talking about the actual retail value of including a minifig (from Lego's perspective); they can sell these small pieces of printed plastic in blind bags for $5 and make profit. The reason some of these figures sell on the aftermarket for such high prices is precisely because they're exclusive to expensive sets and collectors are willing to pay big money to have them without needing to obtain the full build. Lego knows this, and they're happy to play along by including figures (that they could release elsewhere if they chose) that inflate the "value" of the set to collectors or resellers while costing Lego very little to physically produce. If Lego didn't include 1-2 minifigs in a set like the USC Landspeeder or X-Wing, and let's imagine that was normal and expected by fans, would the sets be priced very differently? Maybe they'd be $10 cheaper, but would collectors then complain about the horrible value because there was no "$50" figure they could resell to recoup costs? Either it's "yes" to both, and we have to then admit how obscenely overpriced all UCS sets are just to include a figure or two, OR it's "no" to both, and the builds are what matter and we can all agree losing the minifigs wouldn't really affect the value of the sets much.

I can concede here; at least with minifig-scale (or close to) sets, the minifigs can interact with the build itself (like the AT-AT). With sets where the fig(s) are just be standing on a black plate to the side, it seems kind of unnecessary.