Artanis I

Castle should be out next week (possibly early in some places). Galaxy Squad isn't on S@H yet, so I don't know what's going on there. I thought it was September release alongside Castle. Correct, which is why I had to go S@H... and received a mashed castle set with it last week.

I find CGI stuff often looks amazing when you first see it, but years later looks like rubbish. Take Jurassic Park for example, it was cutting edge at the time. Looked so real! Now, it's so obvious that it's fake - but it's the same with the models, now you can tell the bits that are obviously robots, but back then it looked organic. I watched the OT last weekend, and you can easily tell what has been digitally added, and also what was puppet-like in scale model animation. I hate when Luke & Han are shooting down TIEs and there's these black squares that are not the same black as the rest of space. I hate when the poorly stop-motioned AT-STs are getting blown up in ROTJ. Movie magic is illusion, and when the illusion becomes apparent, the magic is gone.

I'm certain in the past EB staff has allowed us to post a hyperlink to an external site, but not a deeplink to pics or to host the pics here. TLG reps will tell you (quite understandably) to do none of the above, and to not even say that you've seen anything, let alone what or where. But we aren't the ones signing & breaking confidentiality agreements, it's the people who leak the pics/lists that are. I think it's fair for TLG to request for photos of "confidential" pics to be removed from sites, but I don't think it's right for them to delete links to sites containing them. Although EB staff has allowed links in the past, they have never condoned or encouraged people with inside knowledge to show or share. I think it's fair for us to discuss and link to things that have been made public, but if nothing is made public, go without. I don't think it is right for EB to encourage leaking of information, or feel it is our right to see what hasn't been made public yet, but I do think it is fair to be allowed to point to & discuss what has already been leaked by the scumbags elsewhere. I/you/they/etc won't change my mind, but if we have new rules then that's how it is.

Regarding buyer's feedback, I don't like eBay's implementation, but definitely a larger text field would be very helpful. The problem I have with the eBay thing is that you're pretty much expected to give 5 stars across the board if you receive your item. With "free shipping" factored into their price, they automatically get 5 stars for the shipping price even though they marked up the price for it. The stars system could be done better somehow perhaps, but it's pointless to me on eBay. The other thing is that there is no strict or quantifiable definition to differentiate between levels of "used" from one person to another. What you rate as "too used to be presentable" someone else might have no problem with. If we changed it to "new" "used but still of use" & "don't expect much" there'd still be disagreements on whether that piece is still of use or not. "Look at that big scratch! I can't use this!" "Why not? It isn't perfect, it's used, but it still works and hardly anyone would notice it in a MOC." etc. It's a broken classification, but I can't really see it being improved.

Very fun MOC territory, mind you.

Thanks for your comments. I forgot to mention about that helmet for Obi Wan in disguise, that Starhopper is an ugly ship, so missing the helmet is a big mistake and very likely to be a deal breaker for me. One thing I should add is that the core of this ship uses a lot of technic connections, making it very solid (in a good way). I noticed that compared to the other sets I reviewed it has a much higher mass to parts ratio. Sometimes you pick up a ship in not-quite-the-optimal-spot and soon regret it, but this one fares better. Thanks for blogging these, I also did the Homing Spider Droid a week or so ago if you want to add that. http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=85737

Yep, I agree guys, he's ugly, but that's true to the source! The torso print kinda makes him look fat too. Good thing they didn't try to make the spider leg version of him, that would've been more awkward a minifig.

All & more photos available in full size on Flickr 75018 Jek-14's Stealth Starfighter Star Wars set based on The Yoda Chronicles Released 2nd half of 2013. Parts: 550 Mass: 956g MSRP/RRP: $69.99 USD, £59.99 GBP, €69.99 EUR, $89.99 CAD, $89.99 AUD, $129.99 NZD TLG's blurb: Capture Jek-14’s™ Stealth Starfighter! Pursue the rogue clone, Jek-14™, in his amazing Stealth Starfighter with retractable landing gear, opening cockpit with space for a minifigure, folding wings, rotating and elevating blaster cannon, R4-G0™ astromech droid, storage compartment with holocron and 2 flick missiles. Will Jek-14 escape the Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and the Republic Special Forces Clone Trooper™, or has his power grown enough to face them? Includes R4-G0 astromech droid and 3 minifigures with weapons: Jek-14, Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and Special Forces Clone Trooper™. • Includes R4-G0 astromech droid and 3 minifigures with weapons: Jek-14™, Separatist Bounty Hunter™ and Special Forces Clone Trooper™ • Features retractable landing gear, opening cockpit with space for a minifigure, folding wings, rotating and elevating blaster cannon, R4-G0™ astromech droid, storage compartment with holocron and 2 flick missiles • Weapons include a Lightsaber, blaster rifle and blaster • Also includes an energy shield • Press the levers and fold the wings for flight mode! • Fend off the enemy with the flick missiles and blaster cannon • Open the storage compartment and reveal the holocron • Measures over 3" (10cm) high, 13" (35cm) long and 13" (34cm) wide Instructions for download: http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050823.pdf (booklet 1) http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050826.pdf (booklet 2 international version) http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050827.pdf (booklet 2 NA version - ie English French & Spanish) Bricklink | Lego Shop@Home | Brickset No reference photos, the minifigs & ship are from Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles. Apparently the ship looks like something pre-existing in the Star Wars universe called an E-Wing. Not that I've heard of that before, but some E-Wing images resemble this set, others don't really. I still know very little about the Yoda Chronicles, Jek-14, the ship etc. Hopefully the show will be available for me to watch at some stage. All I know is that Jek-14 was an altered clone who is force sensitive and has gone rogue. His arm is invisible and charged up with the force or something. (It's non-canon, so it doesn't really matter if it's ridiculous or not.) So, he's being chased by a Separatist bounty hunter & a Republic special forces clone. Let's have a look at it. As is typical, we start with The Box. As is normal for Star Wars sets, the cardboard is very glossy and smooth. I found boxes from this wave to be more difficult to open than usual, I had a bit more trouble prying the boxes open without tearing the cardboard this time. Maybe they're using a different glue, the knife wasn't as slick as usual. Box shows us what we're in for, a beautifully black & red space ship with obligatory flick-fire missiles, a top mounted cannon, additional wing mounted (non-firing) missiles, an astromech, a special clone trooper and a bounty hunter, all joining the company of our new "hero". Set high in orbit over either a reddish planet or a hot sun, together with the very nice 2013 SuperYoda green box art border really makes the packaging very attractive. Back shows us the posability of the builds & minifigs and also the cannon. (Blaster cannon does not fire, BTW...) Along the top of the box are the full sized images of the included minifigs, also shown in smaller scale on the front. We are alerted to the fact that these minifigs were not previously available. Next, we go Inside The Box Contents of the box are an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and 5 numbered bags. The minifigs are divided through the bags. Sticker sheet: 9 stickers if you can't count. The small one for a 1x2 cheese console is reused twice in 75025 Jedi Defender-Class Cruiser. Let's see the instruction booklets. Nothing unusual on the front. Specifics on the numbered bags' contributions: bag 1 builds Jek-14, the bounty hunter & the nose of the ship. Bag 2 builds the back of the ship. Bag 3 builds the clone, astromech and the rest of the main body of the ship. Bag 4 builds the left wing, bag 5 the right wing and top cannon. The instructions themselves are exactly as you would expect, no real need to look at them here. Towards the back of the booklet we are shown some of the movement of hinges etc within the set. In addition to those, the cannon also tilts up & down. The parts inventory also conveniently shows us the lengths of the technic rods. Minifig checklist for all of the regular retail sets. (Ewok Village, Planets, Old Republic & Starhopper sets absent) Not even gonna mention the back of the instruction booklet. *shudder* Now for the parts, this time I was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered with the extra time it takes to lay the parts out nicely: Nothing unusual or of special interest here for me, other than minifig parts. Jek-14: Nice helmet print! He also comes with a hairpiece, so he can be displayed without his helmet to show his face. The hair covers both rear faces well. A lot of buzz over this piece, the first ever translucent minifig arm. Cleverly TLG has decided to print force lightning on the outer side, partially covering the otherwise visible stalk of the minifig hand piece. The use of translucent parts for minifigs is a controversial one, (more that it is mostly impractical, yet very sought-after) but here TLG has avoided the major problems caused by translucent minifig parts by only connecting this one to standard opaque ABS parts. Those who are interested in this topic might find curious that this arm's texture feels different to that of other trans parts. It is softer feeling. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it reminds me of something else. It seems that this arm could be made of a different plastic to usual trans parts. Bounty Hunter: There's that Mandalorian helmet again, this time with a completely different print. I quite like the brown & olive green. I'd rather his helmet was brown than white, but the colour seems to fit okay. Single sided face this time. Small cockpit, but big enough. Relatively easy to get the pilot in and out without fuss, unlike some models where you have to fiddle around and then the legs get left behind etc. The nose is curiously shaped, it has the teardrop drumstick tip look. It appears oversized on some angles looking at the photos, but I don't recall thinking so while building or looking at the set. I like the air intake in front of the cockpit - assuming that is for flying in breathable atmosphere Again the parts are fairly standard. No minifigs this time. The rear section is built separately and connected to the front with pins & axles etc. There is a small cavity at the very back, this becomes the storage area holding the holocron. Curiously, the grey stickers that look adjacent are not applied as such, as we will see in a moment. Only piece that caught my attention was this. I haven't seen it before, don't know if it's new or not. The inventory isn't on Bricklink yet to check. Special Forces Clone Trooper: Blue uniformed clone. That's unusual. He has the stormtrooper or late clonetrooper helmet, a simple pauldron and an energy shield. Single face, with un "ugh" expression. Check out the armour printing! Seriously solid. R4G0: Astromechs aren't usually very interesting. This one doesn't have back printing either. Nice front print though. Perhaps this guy swapped heads with R2D2? Would explain why an R4 would have the pointier head and an R2 has the rounded dome... Although the set "features" include landing gear that can be folded up, it only refers to 1 foot directly beneath the cockpit. One thing I'm guaranteed every time I buy a Star Wars or Space set is a bunch of technic stuff doing I-don't-know-what until after it all comes together. I'm always impressed or perplexed depending on my mood. I can't come up with that stuff. Here you can see what I mean regarding the grey stickers. These parts are cool... not seen the black one before, and the trans blue part is also used in 75025 Jedi Defender-Class Cruiser as part of that set's engines as well. I like the visual effect they bring, even if it isn't so visible in the end here. The exposed friction cylinder & ram parts look good as the wing tilting mechanism. There's an astromech head part on the back of the engine. I like the engine's use of trans light/bright blue, expecially on the front. We can see on the underside the flick-fire mechanism in the middle of the wing. Thankfully it has been designed in a way that it's inconspicuous. We can also see at the rear (near the centre of the photo) the grey technic piece that acts as the handle for that wing to switch mode. The bent down wing edge looks pretty cool, more raptor-like. Almost the exact same parts as bag 4, except mirrored in some cases, and with the addition of the top cannon. Total extra parts in this set: Comparison of wings up/down Rear compartment with container for holocron Z-95 Headhunter from earlier in the year, ships are a very similar size and overall shape (well, they are based on aeroplane design, really). This one is much sleeker, and has a cooler colour scheme going on. I put tiles over the grey bits I thought ugly. What do you think? Model/set evaluation: I quite like this set, I love the colour scheme and if the Republic Striker from 2012 had used these colours I think it would've been far better. Maybe I just like these colours, but I'm pretty sure I like the shape of it too. Not having anything to compare it to for accuracy, all I can say is that it looks like a nice bird. It has the obligatory flick-fire missiles, opening cockpit, fold-open storage area, big mother engines, 2 position wing modes and 3 opposing minifigs, (of course it swooshes...) so it's great for play too. Price seems to be a bit variable, the NA & NZ prices look higher for this set than the UK, EU & AU, in comparison to other sets. So value-for-money in this set may differ depending on where you are from. If you're one of those types that buy sets for the parts to build MOCs from, I think this isn't a bad option. Plenty of reusable parts, especially of the technic variety. It's also a set you could easily have multiples of, I'd be quite happy to have a squadron of these ships. Minifig selection: Having no idea of what the alternative possiblilities were, I can only comment on the usefulness and appearance of what we got. Astromechs are astromechs, not much to say about them. The other 3 are quite nice minifigs, clones being clones I would be happy with a bunch of them, the bounty hunter could be made into an army too, and Jek-14's prints are fantastic, just replace the left arm on your extras to have an army of that minifig as well. All great for army building or on their own. Thanks for reading/skimming, I hope this was useful to you. I forgot to photograph the completed underside, any other photo requests let me know. Any questions/comments feel free to share, or suggestions/corrections - including the poll.

These sets are on S@H so I ordered the castle and forest ambush ahead of retail availability, they turned up yesterday and the boxes were damaged, one was pretty badly squashed. What was it, an eBay transaction?! Not the type of thing you anticipate from TLG. They were all still sealed, but now I'm less likely to want to use S@H next time for gifts... Can't wait until I've got some room to put these sets up. I hope to get the Kingdoms out too, but I'll have to rearrange the shelves, pack up the Star Wars and... work miracles I think.

Cheaper sets doesn't bother me...

Well there's $50 of SW purchases for starters for the clone polybag...

Crap! We'd better start behaving now!

Thanks guys, yes, Darth Maul is too tall, but I like the appearance of the legs if not the size. I prefer the face of this one to the last version, but I don't have the original. Shame about the Duchess, and although I would like to be able to get Pre Vizsla in a cheaper set, if I'd bought that set he came in I'd be pissed off for him to then appear in this one too!

It goes for over half an hour... no way in the world am I watching it. If there's no stop motion or time lapse or at least something showing intermediate steps, then that is incredibly unnecessary.

The last time a space theme had human bad guys was 20 years ago... something like Blacktron III is probably not going to happen. TLG tends to avoid human vs human combat, they will use aliens as the antagonists as much as possible. The best they'd give us would be like the 2 collectible minifigs that have Blacktron insignia or design - robots or cyborgs.

All & more photos available in full size on Flickr 75022 Mandalorian Speeder Star Wars set based on The Clone Wars season 5 Released 2nd half of 2013. Parts: 211 Mass: 325g MSRP/RRP: $24.99 USD, £24.99 GBP, €29.99 EUR, $29.99 CAD, $39.99 AUD, $? NZD (currently unavailable) TLG's blurb: Attack with Darth Maul in the Mandalorian™ Speeder! Get to the rendezvous point in the LEGO® Star Wars™ Mandalorian™ Speeder with the treacherous Sith Lord Darth Maul minifigure with mechanical legs. Plot the Mandalorian takeover and take on anyone who gets in your way with hidden flick missiles, rear weapon storage and elevating cannon! Then, face off in minifigure combat with his legendary Darksaber! Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Clone Wars Darth Maul and 2 Mandalorian Super Commandos. • Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: Darth Maul and 2 Mandalorian™ Super Commandos • Features hidden flick missiles under the hood, rear weapon storage and elevating gun • Weapons include a Lightsaber, Darksaber and 2 blasters • Collect Darth Maul with mechanical Clone Wars legs • Unleash the hidden flick missiles! • Elevate the gun and aim to fire! • Battle with the legendary Darksaber • Relive the excitement of [i]Star Wars™: The Clone Wars[/i] animated TV series • Measures over 3" (8cm) high, 7" (19cm) long and 4" (12cm) wide Instructions for download: (7MB) http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050596.pdf (International version) http://cache.lego.co...ons/6050597.pdf (NA version - ie in English, Spanish & French) Bricklink | Lego Shop@Home | Brickset Reference images: Unfortunately this is the only image I can find that shows the speeder. Here's Darth Chicken: Here are the Death Watch super commandos: Apologies for some of the photos, it was getting dark when I built & photographed the set. The Mandalorians are very difficult to get photos of without reflection off the helmets, I don't think I eventually succeeded, but I certainly did get frustrated. This set is one of 2 released in the second half of 2013 based on the now discontinued animated TV show The Clone Wars. A well known villain returns from being thought dead, and attempts to seize power, using potential allies as stepping stones. He becomes the new leader of Mandalore with super commandos part of his forces, this is where this Lego set fits into the story. Let's have a look at it. As is typical, we start with The Box. It seemed a big box for the size & price of the set. It's bigger box than for the Tank Droid set, even though the price is the same. It is very possible that that gives an illusion of better value for money. As is normal for Star Wars sets, the cardboard is very glossy and smooth. I found boxes from this wave to be more difficult to open than usual, I had a bit more trouble prying the boxes open without tearing the cardboard this time. Maybe they're using a different glue, the knife wasn't as slick as usual. Box shows us what we're in for, a car-based speeder with obligatory flick-fire missiles, a couple of super commandos from Mandalore, and a Sith, this one being the Zabrak Darth Maul, with mechanical legs. Setting is in the capital city on Mandalore, and the very nice 2013 SuperYoda green box art border really makes the packaging attractive. Back shows us the posability of the builds & minifigs and also the flick-fire action. Along the top of the box are the full sized images of the included minifigs, also shown in smaller scale on the front. We are alerted to the fact that these minifigs were not previously available. One side of the box also alerts us to this set being new... I'm not quite sure of many occasions when you would release a set that isn't new though. On the underside we have a lesson in safety, linguistics and economics. Next, we go Inside The Box Contents of the box are an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, & 3 unnumbered bags. The minifig parts are divided through the bags. Sticker sheet: Only 5 stickers, and no tiny ones that are impossible. My sheet (as is common) was annoyingly curled up. Let's see the instruction booklet. Nothing unusual on the front. The bags are not numbered for this set, you do the "pour all the bags onto the table and sort by colour" approach this time around. The instructions themselves are exactly as you would expect, no real need to look at them here. If you want a look, check out the link provided above for the pdf, but here we can see how to put the minifigs together. Towards the back of the booklet is a nice action artwork of a few of this wave's sets. Parts inventory as per usual. We don't need to see the back, we know what hideous horrors adorn the back of instruction booklets. Now for the parts: Who doesn't like blue cheese? Not much in the unusual category, but here is a close-up of the chicken legs: Minifigs: Shirtless Darth Maul from The Clone Wars, he fetches a hefty price on BL. Well, now he's available in a small standard set. Except with chicken legs. He comes with both his red lightsabre and also the late Pre Vizsla's darksabre. (A trophy I suppose.) The super commando helmet & jetpack are shiny, rather than the flat colours used previously. It isn't mentioned anywhere in the set, nor is it obvious at first glance, but the 2 minifigs have different face printing. The left image shows the head used for the Pre Vizsla minifig, the one on the right the generic Mandalorian minifig. Not sure? Mando mouths point down at the sides. Pre's points slightly upwards, has pointier cheek bones, less defined eyebrows, bigger eyes, inverted chin, and forehead lines. Both are still quite ugly... The untidy armour appearance is very curious seeing as though these guys weren't really around for very long, they must've just thrown a blotch of red paint at their uniforms and not let it dry or something. Interesting about the black hand on the helmets. Another Saruman/Count Dooku Christopher Lee parallel to think about. Except it's Darth Maul, not his successor. Here is an intermediate step in the build, showing how the flick-fire contraption works. The front of the speeder is to the left, we see 1 seat in front, 2 seats behind that, between them are 2 clips for holding blasters. Behind them, in the (not yet covered) boot/trunk is storage for the lightsabre & darksabre. The small construction shown above slides forward on tiles when the outer handle is moved in that direction, thus pushing the missile out. These bits weren't used. A look at all angles of the final built set: (Front is pointing up here) 8 boat studs mean this thing really coasts across the carpet! Zooms even better than a wheeled vehicle. (and here) Room on the back for a minifig to stand and fire the cannon/gun thing Darth Maul / Savage Opress comparison: Mandalorian armour comparison: The bounty hunter in the Jek-14 set has the same helmet piece but the printing is completely different. Model/set evaluation: It's fairly basic looking, but I like it. This is my only car-based speeder, all the others I have are the bike-based type. It's good to have a Lego vehicle where there is a place to seat all of the minifigs. They all sit snugly, Darth Maul fits fine despite his different (and longer) legs. The cannon/gun thing only tilts up and down. An easy turntable mod can make it swivel too. The build is fairly normal, I wouldn't expect your young fellas to have any more challenges than usual if at all. It isn't a boring build, if you might be thinking that. I have the Tank Droid set too, I feel that this set is better value-for-money or at least more satisfying, but who doesn't want a Jango Fett minifig? I might grab another of these to add to my super commando numbers, we'll see. I think the dark blue look great, I don't think you need to know what this set is to like the look of it. Is it a good parts pack? Well it has a lot of plates and such, and not too many parts that are useless for anything else. It's not quite my scene so I am only guessing. Minifig selection: Robotic leg Darth Maul and two Mandalorians. I always really love the colour combination of red, black & grey ... win-win-win as far as this set is concerned! I may have preferred Darth Maul to use dark red rather than red though. Good minifigs to have, we could be happy with a bunch of those super commandos so 2 is good. Unfortunate that with The Clone Wars finished, Bo Katan & Satine minifigs will probably not eventuate. It would've been nice to have 1 of those 2 in this set, but that would need to be not at the expense of any of the 3 we have. If you were to go for multiples of this set, you would only have extra Darth Mauls. That sounds okay, but none of his parts are useful for anything else. Offload onto Bricklink I suppose. Thanks for reading/skimming, I hope this was useful to you. Any other photo requests let me know. Any questions/comments feel free to share, or suggestions/corrections - including the poll.

If I get time I will review it tomorrow, I only have a little bit of the Mandalorian Speeder review to go, I will do the Jek-14 set straight after.

The minifig selection in those two sets I find a bit curious. 4 battle droids? 1 clone? Sure the numbers are accurate but it's not very appealing as a set. The other one is bizarre too.

Most new SW sets in Kmart now, RRPish. Monster Fighters restocked big time, every set except Zombies (which is exclusive to BigW I think). Friends set Mia's Magic Show on clearance for $10. Yeah mine was down to those 3 on the weekend already... I grabbed a couple to give away, the older lady behind me at the checkout said "you're too big for that stuff", I said "nahh ", she said "my 42yo son is still buying Star Wars things ". The young guy behind her with his girlfriend had some Hobbit sets too, so take that!

I know that...

Every naughty word is replaced by a variation of M***B****, although a.s.s. is not a naughty word everywhere in the world.

I'd guess it makes sense that (or if) there aren't any pics for retailers until later on in the piece, just set names & numbers for now. The current official customers catalogue apparently covers until December but doesn't even mention The Hobbit. It is possible that they included a pic of the Laketown set, as that has already been revealed. Time will tell anyway.

BAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

Funny, today we have retailer's catalogue pics of 15 SW sets coming out in February but The Hobbit is still under wraps! Not that I'm complaining, I like surprises.

Mandalorian Speeder & HH-87 Starhopper