wesker

Sorry but I'm not buying that. I remember this same conversation occurring with the X-Men just over a year ago with members here trying to convince everybody else how a D2C X-Mansion was never going to happen. Just about every excuse in the book was thrown out about why it was such an unrealistic prospect. "The old sets never sold!" "X-Men aren't popular anymore!" "The last movies flopped!" "Lego won't touch the X-Men until they get a MCU reboot!" "Lego will never make a D2C set based on a kids cartoon!" Yet here we are with an X-Mansion set on the way later this year. Its moments like this where I like to keep an open mind towards the future rather than writing everything off as "If its not MCU/Batman/Spider-Man it will never happen!!!" Plus we're talking about the Daily Planet here. It doesn't need to rely on an appearance in one of the biggest movies of all time like the Sanctum Sanctorum to justify making a set of it. Its as ingrained in pop culture as the Batcave is. Everybody knows what the Daily Planet is. Everybody knows where its from. Even those who have never even watched a Superman film.

Why not? This is Superman we're talking about. He's the one DC character besides Batman who could carry a D2C set, especially with the hype of a new movie backing him up. If Lego were willing to take a chance on giving a modular building to Doctor Strange, why couldn't they do the same for a character you yourself said is still the third most recognizable superhero? I still stand by that next year's D2C will come down to either the Daily Planet or the Baxter Building. Even if Marvel is in a better place than DC is at the moment its safe to say that Superman is still far more popular and iconic than the Fantastic Four are.

Even the minifigures are hardly worth discussing. Its just the same characters we've gotten a dozen times before. At this point its really just the X-Mansion, Milano and Surtur maintaining my interest for the remainder of the year. The rest of the theme feels completely stale and out of ideas.

Ideal scenario for me would be a similar level of coverage to what Multiverse of Madness got. One regular set for retailers to tie in with the movie's release and a D2C modular building based on the Daily Planet.

From what I've heard at my local Lego store its been a moderate seller at best. No where close to being as popular as the Marvel modulars are but not a complete flop like the Hulkbuster and Black Panther bust were either. The set is targeted at a very specific audience who grew up with the film though and I imagine the vast majority of people who wanted a Batman Returns Batcave would own it by now. To be honest I'm finding most superhero sets are shelf warming these days. Even the ones based on popular media like No Way Home are struggling to move off shelves after the first month of release.

What a boring character selection. Revisiting AOU feels pointless if they're just going to repeat the same characters from the first film, especially with the Leviathan set also appearing in the same wave. Without Ultron, Quicksilver, AOU Scarlet Witch or even a regular Vision without the phasing effect there's just nothing of interest here. The Advent Calendar sounds particularly dull this year as its just the same recycled characters that has been plaguing every Spider-Man set for years now. Even the Milano sounds like its only giving us the bare minimum of characters. Hopefully the X-Mansion can make up for the lackluster summer wave.

Nice to see Anakin will be included with the Infiltrator but I really hope it doesn't come at the expense of losing Panaka and Padme in the set. Especially Panaka as the 2011 figure looks quite outdated now. I'm also glad to see they're bringing back the cloth poncho for Qui-Gon. Hopefully the anniversary figure is Saw Gerrera but I wouldn't complain if it turns out to be Ezra. I prefer getting Young Leia over S2 Omega if I'm being honest. I don't think she's anymore visually interesting than Leia is and without the rest of the Bad Batch in their Season 2 outfits Omega is kind of pointless on her own. At least getting Young Leia completes the main cast of the Obi-Wan series. Although if we're talking about better female choices for the anniversary figure then Mother Talzin and Duchess Satine would have to be top of the list for me. Of all the remaining Clone Wars characters that haven't gotten a minifigure yet those two are by far the most important.

I don't think there's anything strange about it. She can really only appear in either Jabba's Palace or the Sail Barge due to the scene specific nature of her costume. Without those sets on shelves its going to be impossible to release her anywhere else. It hasn't just been the slave costume either. It took a decade for us to get a new Ceremony Leia in last year's Yavin 4 set. We haven't had a new Ewok Village or Boushh Leia since before 2013. Cloud City has only been done twice in 2003 and 2018 and we've still never had variants for her Bespin Escape, The Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker costumes. Hasbro did touch briefly on Slave Leia in an interview last year mentioning there's no ban on her. Also a reminder that the costume was literally playable in the most recent Lego Star Wars video game.

Hopefully we at least get Mr. Sinister as well. We need more villains besides only Magneto all the time and it would be a shame not to reuse Ronan's new cape on him.

Hopefully the Sail Barge isn't as underwhelming as what the recent rumors and speculation have been suggesting. Aside from Max Rebo they've already had Bib Fortuna, Quarrens, Gamorrean Guards and Niktos in production over the past year. It would be stupid not to reuse them all here. And what's the point of even doing the barge if it doesn't include Jabba himself? Its hard to imagine they would also leave out a detailed interior when the UCS Razor Crest and AT-AT both got one.

Glad we're finally getting a new Milano. Ever since the Infinity Saga Benator came out I've been wanting the Milano to get the same "UCS" treatment. Will also be good to get another Gamora after she was skipped over in the Volume 3 wave. The Iron Legion/Ultron Bots battlepack is a definite buy. Will go great with the AOU Final Battle set. Surtur is also an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Not expecting much with the minifigures for this set but hopefully it can pave way for more Thor sets down the road. On the fence for the Avengers Battle depending on how the build itself turns out. If its based on the first film I can't imagine it will offer much new in regards to the minifigures that hasn't already been recently covered. I'm guessing Age of Ultron Final Battle is going to be another diorama like the No Way Home and Endgame sets were. It will be good to get a new Quicksilver and Ultron after so long. I wouldn't say no to a regular Vision either without the phasing effect from the tower. Disappointed there aren't any additional X-Men sets in the summer wave. Hopefully the mansion at least gets a mid year release and we don't have to wait until November for it.

Can we expect Leia by any chance?

The Brick Reporter on Instagram is claiming the two final Skiff figures are Luke and a Weequay. I don't think they will bring back all the original molds from 2013. Bib Fortuna's original headpiece has been out of production for so long that its probably more cost effective to just reuse the BOBF version even if the weight gain is inaccurate to ROTJ. I could see them potentially cutting corners on Leia as well after what happened with Ronan in the new Marvel wave.

Escape from the Sarlacc should be a good companion piece to the UCS Sail Barge. Hopefully it has a much more substantial and detailed build for the Sarlacc Pit than what we've gotten in the past. I'm also pleasantly surprised by Battle of Peridia. I wasn't expecting to see Thrawn, Enoch, Ezra, Ahsoka the White or Nightsister Morgan so soon or even to get all five characters together at such a low price. Disappointed that the Sith Infiltrator is the only system TPM set we appear to be getting, especially in light of all the gimmick sets coming out. I'm still curious to see how this one will look at the lower price from the last version. I suspect it will probably have a similar scale and parts usage to the X-Jet. Hopefully Padme's hair color will be corrected to dark brown this time since its already being used on Leia in Yavin IV. Not sure what to think of the X-Wing and TIE Fighter set. Pairing them together is such an obvious decision that I'm surprised hasn't happened sooner, but I wonder if the interchangeable parts will compromise the appearance and the play functions. Hopefully the two mystery figures are based on some notable Rebel characters. I'm still waiting for a Nien Nunb minifigure and we haven't seen Admiral Ackbar, Mon Mothma or Crix Madine in quite some time. I'm glad we're finally getting a Cal Kestis figure and that the Death Star playset he's coming in won't be too expensive. Given the low price I could see this one being inspired by the old Kenner playset rather than recapturing the spherical shape of the UCS version. Jedi Bob's Star Fighter is a wasted spot that could've gone to a new AAT or Naboo Fighter instead. I would have preferred getting Jedi Bob as an anniversary figure somewhere else. The Dark Millennium Falcon sounds awfully gimmicky but I can forgive that if the Evil C-3PO, Chewbacca and Gungan minifigures turn out to be Triple Zero, Black Krrsantan and Darth Jar Jar. This is getting pretty frustrating. They're normally pretty good at covering characters from other Star Wars media but they really seem to be giving us the bare minimum when it comes to TPM. We haven't had a new character from that film since Captain Tarpals in 2015. They really need to step up their game.

The Scimitar seems kind of niche by today's standards. It was fine back in the early days when Lego needed "the Darth Maul set" on shelves but I feel like the theme has evolved to a point where Lego has more alternatives for releasing the character now.

The majority of Batman and Spider-Man sets have already been comic based. If nobody has a problem with those then I don't see why interest in the Avengers would be any different. As others have already mentioned kids are just happy to have toys of their favorite characters regardless what source material it is from. The Infinity Saga sets have been a great addition to the theme the past couple of years but they're going to run out of material soon. Shifting to the comics would help keep the line fresh and give Lego a greater degree of creative freedom going forward. I have no interest in seeing anything else from What If either. The sets didn't sell well last time and the CMF figures were a waste of plastic that should've gone to mainline MCU characters like Walker and Zemo.

I think it probably will be Mysterio's helmet since they already used it on the previous Mr. Freeze minifigure that came out in 2019. I could see them skipping the body armor again as well.

There doesn't look to be an Advent Calendar in there either. Mtdbricks did imply in the post that there should be more sets beyond the numbers that are listed.

The summer wave list would still be handy for knowing if there are any additional X-Men sets on the way and whether we can expect more characters to be carried over to the X-Mansion. At the moment we only have the jet to go by. Hopefully the mansion will also be a mid-year release like the Bugle and Sanctum were and we don't have to wait until the very end of year for its release like the tower did.

Hopefully each of those properties can be represented. It would be good to go back and cover some missing characters from last time such as Saw Gerrera, Black Krrsantan, Dryden Vos, Galen Erso, Nala Se, Cobb Vanth or live action Cad Bane. I'd also give Tales of the Jedi a shout out just for Yaddle.

Hopefully they go all out and cover as many missing characters/variants as they can. With so much Star Wars content out these days who knows when Lego will get another chance to thoroughly revisit TPM again. Glad we have confirmation on the two anniversary figures and can put the speculation to rest. I assume Maul's face print will be updated to match the Sith eyes on Palpatine's most recent minifigure. Will be interesting to see if we also get a new TPM variant in addition to the Rebels one.

A smaller scale would be great. I don't think a new N1 would have to worry about Mando's version. Surely that one will be on its why to retirement by the time the summer wave hits. All the retailers around me have already stopped stocking it months ago. A lot of that seemed down to the minifigure selection. Lego knew fans wanted Cody and Fox for some time and this was their chance to finally include them. While a blue MTT could probably include another clone commander I'd rather see Lego take the opportunity to finally release a Boss Nass figure with the Trade Federation version. I don't think either color pallet is particularly interesting. Many of the CIS vehicles including the MTT are still predominantly gray in color like the majority of Star Wars sets. The splashes of blue isn't enough to break that up. The colors of the Trade Federation may be fairly boring but the one advantage it does have is that there's a lot less brown vehicles out there compared to all the gray. The Sail Barge and Sandcrawler are really the only other two major ones.

That would be my preference. The Hydra Stomper, Sakaarian Iron Man and Hulkbuster all had around that number of minifigures. Hopefully a Sentinel would be more in line with those sets and not the cheap $15 mechs that only include one character. The great thing about Wolverine is he does have plenty of variants to pick from to keep future sets interesting. Street clothes, Fox films, X-Force, Weapon X, Old Man Logan, Days of Future Past plus remakes of the Astonishing and Classic Brown uniforms are just some that come to mind. For 2024 though I'm happy to stick with repeating the one Wolverine figure and focus more on fleshing out the rest of the roster. With Cyclops its possible we could get a leg printing in the Mansion. They skipped it on Black Widow in the Quinjet but she got upgraded for the Avengers Tower. D2C sets are also known for having exclusive variants with a higher level of printing than their retail counterparts, especially with the Star Wars UCS sets.

If we did get sets to tie in with War of the Rohirrim I'd rather they took the Indiana Jones approach and just base them all directly off the original trilogy while still keeping the focus on Rohan. It doesn't need to be a huge wave. A Helms Deep remake or Edoras with the cast from The Two Towers is good enough for me. An Eowyn/Witch-King diorama would also be welcome.

The reason why Wolverine's anniversary caught my attention is because both Star Wars and Disney 100 were cross promotion across all merchandise under Lucasfilm/Disney which was why they shared the same branding for the occasion. As Marvel also falls under the Disney umbrella and Hasbro are using a similar branding for Wolverine's anniversary I'm interested in seeing whether it will extend across all merchandise partners (not just Lego specifically) I don't think the Avengers Tower is intended to officially be an anniversary set. It was in the works for a while and the timing of its release just happened to coincide with the 15 year mark of the MCU. Looking back I don't think any company was doing anything special for the MCU's 15th. Just the standard product as always. I'd love to start seeing more comic Avengers sets too. The Infinity Saga has been great but there comes a point where they can only recycle so much before it becomes stale. I feel the comic Spider-Man sets have already reached that point as they rarely offer any new anymore.