Kaijumeister

I think these are wonderfully unique ideas to celebrate a milestone anniversary for Star Wars. I don’t think I’ll necessarily buy them unless they blow me away, but the concept at least sounds solid and I much prefer stuff like this to buildable slop. My remaining hopes for 2027 are as follows: - McQuarrie (TK) Stormtrooper minifigure. - Playscale Ahsoka S2 sets - A banger Starfighter wave. Some story leaks have come out from reputable sources over the past week and I’m feeling the excitement. - Ewok Village and Bounty Hunter Pursuit coming to fruition - A Stinger Mantis! Hahahahahahahahaha(sob)hahahahaha just kidding Exciting to think that there’s hopefully a full summer wave of playscale goodness next year that we don’t even know about yet. Patiently awaiting reviews for the Remnant-AT and Offworld Sandcrawler…

Damn, I guess I get it to a degree that not everyone would be able to afford (monetarily or spatially) the existing castle system so maybe a little downscaling won’t hurt. But I think I’ll check out now if the Astronomy and Clock Towers aren’t being addressed.

I think the frustrating distinction is that ‘getting Lego representation’ used to explicitly mean minifigures. Now, it’s very likely to simply mean buildable characters and that’s Lego’s way of covering them. I agree the trend is unfortunately here to stay, as much as I vehemently dislike it. With how fantastic Toy Story 5 was, I find it even more upsetting (within the context of being a fan of plastic building blocks) that there was hardly any System representation, especially without Buzz.

I missed the source on the Facebook link, so someone credible confirmed the castle system is getting revamped again? Crazy.

If this was one of the previous recent years for Lego Marvel, I would make some snarky comment how printing some lines on a black torso would absolutely bankrupt the theme’s budget. But this has been such a good year that I can’t even say that. Yeah agreed, he’s been featured prominently in one of the trailers and everyone with a pulse knows how popular Cyclops is. I’d be surprised if he isn’t in one of the other sets. Shame he’s not in the Sentinel set though, only because the display-oriented nature of the Epic Moments sets means we’ll miss out on a sick build of Cyclops unleashing his optic blasts.

I’m going to paraphrase Laszlo from What We do in the Shadows, but Lego really are the most devious b******* in New York Cit-I mean Billund. I’m not enthusiastic about McQuarrie Vader now being included with the buildable Luke rather than the Bespin Duel, but I can see the logic that including the minifigure in a non-System set probably allows it the budget to have a new helmet mould. Luke Starkiller in the Y-Wing might just make this set a guaranteed purchase for me now. Imagine displaying that and McQuarrie Vader fighting in the Tantive IV hallway! I assume he’ll use the Cad Bane rebreather piece. The vignette sounds really cool too, though given how often we’ve had its constituent minifigures I hope there’s something more to them than what’s been described. Hoorah for 18+ sets that don’t sacrifice the spirit of what Lego makes so charming in the first place! More stuff like this over the display slop please. Not to jinx things, but 2027 is sounding pretty good to me so far. My only worries are Ahsoka S2 not getting any sets and the General Skywalker figure not being a masterpiece like General Kenobi was. Given that the leakers have confirmed that the list of concept figures is not comprehensive yet, I can only imagine a McQuarrie Stormtrooper is on the cards for later in the year. But for the lineup we know of so far for 1HY27, it’s pretty awesome to get most of the main heroes / droids and Vader. @icm I know you’re trying not to jinx / draw too much attention to the fact, but major kudos to you for nearing the end of your PhD. All the best to you in the last remaining months of it

I find it ironic that the bust, a set ostensibly for those who want a display piece outside of the minifigure-affiliated playsets, just happens to have the most desirable version of the Doom minifigure anyway with the arm printing. That said, I find it weird that the head print for the Doom minifigure in the bust is different from the minifigure that leaked a few weeks ago. Maybe that was the playset version and we can still expect an arm-printed Doom in the normal playsets? The Sentinel Battle sounds AWESOME, totally called that being a set, not that it took any stretch of the imagination. Cyclops not being included is perplexing though. Wish the details for the remaining two Doomsday sets would just leak out now. Why so piecemeal?

On the topic of Delta-7b starfighters, I do wish Lego would deviate from the core build style of ‘central segment with two sides attached at an angle’. SNOT assemblies would help nail how sleek and nimble these things are supposed to look, but unfortunately when it comes to ship builds LSW tends to prefer small iterative updates rather than ground-up redesigns. 2022’s Delta-7 was a fantastic set though and very much a step in the right direction. I don’t think the ST is as of yet undergoing the retroactive resurgence in popularity the PT enjoyed a decade in (although the lack of captivating content set during that era does not help), but if Lego did choose to remake Black One, Kylo’s Shuttle, the TIE Silencer, and even the TIE Whisper, I’ve no doubt those would all sell well. I still think it’s quite painful that they went through the effort of resurrecting a Kylo Ren minifigure just to act as box art for the buildable BB-8 I’ve been mulling over the January set list, and the more I think about it the more I believe sets like Duel on Mustafar and Bespin Duel will be a new ‘hybrid’ set style that isn’t quite a playset, yet not quite a diorama either. It’s quite telling that the absence of ancillary minifigures beyond the anniversary ones will mean these sets will be very scene-focused, and I think one of the leakers (Carterbricks?) said Bespin was very ‘tall’. So hopefully we can expect some good builds that act as the definitive versions of these duels.

I’d argue the 2019 - 2021 black and white box art (or accurately box banner - box art specific to system sets has always been fantastic) of Lego greebling and minifigure art representing a set’s source content was the worst. It looked so fundamentally boring and uninspired. Whatever the new style is for next year’s box art, I hope they incorporate some gold tastefully. The Mandalorian banner this year was a great change from the usual 2022 - 2025 art style, I love it when proper artwork of actual LEGO minifigures is used. The Boba statue looks awesome, not for me but objectively one of the best buildable characters in this theme.

With the number of new themes we’re seeing every year, I’m telling myself that between that and Lego Ideas, we’re bound to get an Avatar: The Last Airbender set eventually. Seriously, a build of Appa along with the GAang, Zuko, and Iroh would make me so happy

If I had to guess, it’ll probably a diorama-esque build with the black base and some sand featuring a half-submerged Shai-Hulud travelling along the surface with Paul riding on top. An Atreides banner would add some good colour to it too. It’ll no doubt make for a beautiful display piece.

Yeah no offence to the dude, but he isn’t a reputable leaker. According to Unibricks, the four Doomsday sets will be revealed on 26th July (alongside the rest of the merch for the film). In summary, we know to expect: - A Brickheadz Multipack - Doctor Doom Bust - Location build - Ship build - Epic Moments set (priced at $99.99 so we can expect a sizeable build) Marvel film marketing tends to be pretty front-loaded to be merch-friendly, and from the leaked footage and trailer descriptions that have been shown so far (along with some disparate leaks of Hasbro merchandise such as Titan Heroes and ActionVerse figures) I think we can make a few assumptions: - The merchandise should cover the three main ‘teams’ representing the three colliding universes for the film: 1) New Avengers / Sam’s Avengers 2) The Fantastic Four, and 3) The X-Men. This lines up with how the trailer descriptions so far have emphasised these groups, along with individuals like Steve and Thor. - The location build probably covers New Avengers/z Tower to give the main Thunderbolts cast. - The ship is probably Excelsior, reasonable to assume it’ll include the F4 with Thor and maybe Steve. - The Epic Moments set probably covers the big sentinel battle, so we’ll get some of the FoX-Men characters along with a couple of characters from the other two ‘universes’. No doubt they’ll want people to buy all the sets to pool the minifigures into this scene though. I’d be surprised if characters like Shuri, M’Baku, Namor, Torres etc. make the cut for this initial wave given how large the cast is. Overall, a smaller wave even for a big film isn’t the worst thing in the world. If that means the sets in general are tighter, with appropriately detailed minifigures and solid builds, I’m all for it. I’m glad the largest price point in this wave hasn’t been dedicated to a pointless oversized action figure the way the BND wave has.

Wow, talk about a lean minifigure lineup for these sets. That’s quite disheartening. Anakin’s Delta-7b only having him and R2 is ridiculous. This would’ve been the perfect set to finally throw in a Count Dooku. That said, I am still really looking forward to seeing a General Skywalker on par with last year’s General Kenobi. If they get the colours right, give arm printing, and (stretch goal) a new shorter hairpiece, I’ll still be hyped for this set. For Duel on Mustafar, Anakin and Obi-Wan better be damn good updates on the existing 2020 designs. Interesting that a quote tile is included too, so this will be a hybrid playset and diorama it seems. I hope there’s more to the set than a black slope and a lava river though; sure that specific part of the fight is the most iconic, but having part of the Separatist Command Centre would make for an infinitely more interesting and appealing build. Duel on Bespin only having two main minifigures is a huge bummer, but then again this is not titled ‘Cloud City’ so I kind of get it. But the very principle of an $80 playset only having two minifigures sucks. I presume the build will be quite vertical, with sections representing the different areas the duel takes place on. If they get this right, I will still be excited and I presume a ‘No, I am your father’ quote tile will be included. A McQuarrie concept Vader figure sounds awesome too and I would hope this does get a new mould to capture the exaggerated and elongated proportions of his helmet. Y-Wing sounds meh, interesting it doesn’t include an anniversary figure but it SEEMS like the anniversary sets are based on scenes rather than vehicles (hence quote tiles). I presume we can expect an anniversary ANH playset later in the year. The Endor Battle Pack being $30 is a huge red flag. However the leakers haven’t confirmed whether this is simply a ‘normal’ battle pack like Siege of Mandalore being bumped in price again. I think it’s possible that this may include a more substantial build to justify the price-point but I’m not keeping my hopes high.

If Anakin’s yellow speeder is styled as an 8-wide Speed Champions vehicle, that would honestly be so cool. Both that and Zam’s Speeder should be small and swooshable so I hope they don’t fall into the usual Lego Star Wars trap of being oversized. I would rather excess pieces be used to sculpt a sleek and aerodynamic profile for both vehicles rather than just beefing them up. Two other things that could make this set a standout would be: 1) The Assassin Droid (on a transparent stand) with grips for Obi-Wan to hold onto after defenestrating himself from Padme’s apartment. 2) A new Padawan hair mould for Anakin. The classic hair piece they’ve used since the original TPM sets for padawan hair has served its purpose now IMO. Just throwing it out there but with how big of a year 2027 seems to be, I wouldn’t mind us finally seeing a new Lightsaber-related mould too. Either a new piece for the hilt, the blade, or both.

Bucky’s torso looks awesome. The lack of arm printing on his right arm doesn’t bother me all that much to be honest. The BND trailer looks fantastic and I love how much style Destin Daniel Cretton seems to be bringing as a director. Nice to see Epic Clash at the Big Grey Rectangle is accurate to the film in Lego’s defence.