Kaijumeister

TANALORR! IS! - Awesome job @Mandalorianknight! You nailed the shaping and wing mechanism brilliantly. Lego really looks at a visually unique ship like this and the superb minifigure selection it could include and deems it far too big a risk to ever make into a set. My despondency over this could bleed a kyber crystal.

Was a Maul: Shadow Lord set confirmed? Haven’t seen anything about it, that’s awesome!

That’s brilliant. I try to wait for sales on Lego now more than I used to as well (Amazon UK really comes in clutch), although sometimes I do love the factory fresh, freshly baked vibe of ordering directly from LEGO too. Oh man for sure, Kenobi is one of my top five favourite minifigures from this theme last year. I feel fairly confident the Delta-7b will be coming this year and isn’t one of the miscommunicated 2027 slots. On top of the printing for Anakin, I’m also hoping we get a new shorter hairpiece for him too. You’ve nailed it, and have also vocalised something I’ve been struggling to articulate. The Smart Brick ‘ship’ sets are totally fine in principle (even if they look iffy), because the context of play isn’t as limited. Ships fly and go pew pew, plenty of scenarios for kids to go nuts with and it’s a more open-ended sort of play where the Smart Brick’s sensors and synthesiser can be used to greater effect. Conversely, ramming the Smart Brick into playsets (specifically based on scenes with a constrained locale like the Cantina and Death Star II Throne Room) just limits your play scenarios by quite a bit, and just highlights that the Smart Brick is an intrusive gimmick. But if you base sets on large battles or scenes that aren’t so constrained to a specific contained location, the play scenarios really can open up. Like you say, a Battle of Endor / Battle of Hoth / Death Star Battle would do much better in that regard. I know we’ve had a deluge of information lately, but I want more. More than anything just an indication of what the summer wave is going to be comprised of, if one exists, would be nice. Plus maybe a tease of whether we can have some high hopes for the TMaG sets given Lego are going all out for them.

Oh man, don’t remind me about Ubisoft cancelling that Sands of Time Remake after teasing it for so long… At least Rogue was awesome and Lost Crown looks pretty good too. I’ll continue huffing the hopium for a Last Airbender set. Heck, a single ~£70+ set of Appa with the GAang (along with Zuko and Iroh) would make me really happy. I’m in the same boat as you though, most of my favourite IPs are now represented in Lego. Avatar is the only thing missing for me.

If one of these themes is Avatar: The Last Airbender I’d be so happy. It’d tie in nicely with Season 2 of the Netflix show and the Legend of Aang film later this year (I still can’t believe it was decided to relegate the movie to streaming only with no theatrical release!).

I’m planning to get Cobb’s Speeder as well, although I’ll probably buy it with the rest of TMaG sets in May / June. These Smart Play expansion sets highlight two key failings IMO: 1) You specifically design entire builds around where to place the Smart Brick. Therefore the Smart Brick does not augment the play experience (which should stand up on its own without it), but instead becomes centre stage itself. 2) The methods of physically stimulating the Smart Brick in these Star Wars sets are very…feeble? Crude? Moving coloured levers / platforms etc.just to elicit some light and sound effects almost seems like taking two steps back for one step forward and isn’t the intuitive leap forward Lego’s marketing lingo is framing this as. The brick is smarter than the means these sets are employing to elicit some responses from it. Just reinforces my sentiment that, again, debuting the Smart Brick in Star Wars was the wrong move. Price (and ignoring the huge gaps allocated for the Genius Brick) aside, I will say that as simplified builds for younger audiences, some of these sets like the Falcon are quite charming. Plus the package art is genuinely awesome.

@BrickPrick You got him! Now you can finally rest, and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. Happy for you bud. @Mandalorianknight The lack of cool new trooper variants for TMaG is really odd. As much as new variants are driven by merchandising needs, I wouldn’t say no to cool new Lego minifigures with unique helmets. I always thought the reintroduction of Imperial Snowtroopers in TMaG certainly helped inform the production of the Galactic Marine helmet mould last year. I’d be surprised if it didn’t get reused, though I agree a new piece showing the helmet without the wrapping would be awesome. Hopefully the leakers will give a more concrete list of what sets we can expect this year soon.

Good point. I’m really curious to see what that Anzellan starship looks like. I just realised that with the Anzellan Starship and NR X-Wing, the sweet £60 /$70 / €70 price point continues. Hopefully these are as outstanding as their 2025 equivalents. Plus the Yoda bust, which makes 4 ‘wizened green fellow with pointy ears and beige coloured clothing’ sets this year. I agree with this, all the system sets bar the Delta-7B sound like something one would pick if they had to represent one iconic sequence from each film. I do hope the Bespin Duel set gets a similar price point as the DSII Final Duel sets and we get part of the carbon freezing chamber, tunnel, control room, and final platform represented. That would make for a brilliant play set.

With the AT-RT confirmation (I was sure this would just be a small and accurately scaled side build to the AT-AT in lieu of a speeder bike), I’m a little worried about how grey a lot of these TMaG sets are going to be. But I guess I can turn to Ninjago and Marvel for the colour! Crazy that we’re getting 6-7 system sets for the film, I can’t wait to see the supposed new Grogu mould too. Hopefully it captures his silhouette with the collar better than the existing mould this time.

Oh no, that’s really disappointing news! But I’m not surprised given the sheer volume of stuff this year. At least they’re delayed and not cancelled I guess. My assumptions: - Buildable Yoda: Moved to 2027. It seems like the apex of stupidity to release a 4+ Grogu, Buildable Grogu, Yoda Bust, and Yoda statue all within the same year. - Buildable Vader Minifigure: I can see this releasing this year just because there’s a suspiciously small number of buildable characters this year, however I also think this would be a perfect 50th anniversary set too. Unsure. - Icons of Star Wars and Star Wars Mini Posters: Just makes sense to tie these in with the 50th anniversary. - Ewok Village / Bespin Duel / Bounty Hunter Pursuit: These all sound like quintessential Lego sets representing iconic scenes from each film and thus perfect for a 50th anniversary. I’m inclined to think these will be split between this year and next year though. Anakin’s Delta-7b: Seems sensible to release it this year. They put out Obi-Wan last year and they aren’t oblivious that people are also clamouring for a General Anakin. I’m keeping my expectations low for the TMaG sets, however with this being a film tie-in wave (or waves should I say), I hope the sets are of spectacular quality. I’m really bummed out about the set list seemingly being for 2027. With Lego Minecraft Goat saying ‘most’ are planned for next year, my hope is the Delta-7b, Bounter Hunter Pursuit, and either the Ewok Village or Bespin Duel are releasing this year. I’m not surprised that it turns out the Smart Brick sets are eating up normal set slots though. I still think they are largely a tremendous waste of slots with this theme being the wrong entry point to introduce the brick to begin with.

I have enough reservations about downscaling sets, especially the larger ones which should give more of a bang for your buck, but more concerning still is the prospect of continued QC fiascos on the level of the Tiny Tank. As you start to tackle larger sets with less and less pieces, the chance of QC problems will keep increasing IMO. I hope it’s a lesson they’ve learned. With the Delta-7b being ‘cheaper’ than the usual JSFs, that’s a vehicle I actually wouldn’t mind seeing some downscaling applied to. Make it more aerodynamic and swooshable (without looking like a 4+ set), I won’t complain. Also I need to find better uses for my memory, but Anakin actually does (albeit briefly) use his Delta-7b in his Season 3 outfit. Although I have enough confidence in Lego not to rely on that tiny technicality and make the Delta-7b based on the earlier seasons. It genuinely is the perfect set to include Dooku. On the topic of the X-Wing, if they can incorporate the best of both worlds from the 2021 (downscaled for the better) and 2024 (accurate shaping like the hexagonal fuselage), I’ll be happy. I’d love to see them tackle a new pilot helmet mould again too, I know people largely disliked the 2018 one but another attempt at a dual-moulded piece would be nice. I noticed that very same piece was used by the two Lego executives in the Smart Play introduction video.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I wonder what the scale of the ship will be like if it’ll predominantly be piloted by microfigures. Exactly! Completely unironically, if the brick actually played proper cantina music I’d at least be tempted to pick up the Cantina at a discount. The ‘dancing’ Bith function, while rough-looking, is still somewhat charming if we imagine the music itself was accurate. Thank you! It’s genuinely hard to imagine how else Star Wars sets can incorporate these bricks given their relative complexity compared to ‘purer’ LEGO. In a perfect world, you’d still have good builds with a spot to place the Smart Brick unobtrusively, and some very clever functions to physically stimulate the colour sensors without completely compromising the main build. Unfortunately the fact of the matter is stimulating those colour sensors on the SB requires pieces and mechanical movement, so all the smaller sets are doomed from the start anyway. The light effects from the SB also means you have to place them in areas of high visibility. It’s why I think Lego will find (relatively) better success with the SB in things like City. Simpler builds with a focus on creativity will bring more out of the SB than trying to conform its play pattern to licensed properties with pre-established rules to follow. The Star Wars sets are performing a lot of mechanical gymnastics to stimulate the SB, simpler sets won’t have such an issue where play can likely feel more organic. I concur. And it’s why I find Lucafilm / Disney’s enthusiastic participation at the CES press conference all the more funny. All that corporate monologuing despite not allowing Lego to actually use a lot of licensed music / sound. And yeah man, grateful that these sets aren’t clogging up normal set slots. I can’t wait for more detail on the content of the summer sets.

The Smart Brick has a built-in synthesiser which I personally think is pretty awesome - it means it can generally play any sound rather than relying on pre-recorded audio (which I think the Mario figures do), although I guess because of the scale they work with, the sounds are very rudimentary. Ironically you can see that the SB has no issue playing a (very 8-bit sounding) Imperial March when it scans the Vader figure, which definitely makes me think the otherwise completely inaccurate sounds and music might be a Disney / Lucasfilm issue moreso than a technical feasibility one. Again at this point the imagination is more accurate than the actual product. Very ironic and it diminishes the point of these sets even further. I remember theorising last year that the play functions for the SB sets would largely revolve around how the sets would accommodate the SB to stimulate its sensors etc. to produce the desired effect. I’m sad that I was right, as in execution it shows the build / play experience caters to the SB, rather than vice versa. Having had a few days to digest the overall set list for this year, I’m still pleasantly surprised at the number of great-sounding sets this time round, and equally frustrated by what seems to be a number of generally wasted slots too, subjective as that can be. I echo some concerns that coupled with the SB sets, saturation this year is indeed quite high. Nonetheless, it’s nice to be excited for more than a couple of sets for once. My only hope is that not all the large sets have terribly low piece counts. However, I lament the seeming absence of the iconic, god-tier, stupendously good £60 slots this year. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that the price point holds infinite potential as the ‘sweet spot’ for small to mid-sized ships with fantastic complements of minifigures. I would have thought that’s one of the new aspects from 2025 they would have maintained for 2026.

4+ Grogu, Yoda Bust, Buildable Grogu, Buildable Yoda, yeeeeesh. Does no one scrutinise these proposed set ideas just to check that there might be a little too much overlap? May as well have reissued last year’s buildable Grogu in TMaG packaging. Buildable Boba Fett too, great. Here I was thinking they actually would have toned down the buildable figures for just one year. If it’s as good as this year’s Iron Man though, that would be cool.

Exactly, the Throne Room has the same issue. For what it’s worth, Solid Brix Studios mentions in his initial reaction video that the Smart Play sets are explicitly for younger audiences and not targeted at teenagers and above. That coupled with your point around Smart Brick set slots supplementing Dumb Brick ones does make me think SB sets should be considered their own thing. These Mando sets sound really great, but the amount of OT vehicle rehashing also makes me wish there’d be more ‘new’ stuff associated with the film. Imagine getting Ahsoka’s T-6 at one of the higher price points. This reminds me of a weird anecdote about the Kenobi show. Deborah Chow mentioned that certain legacy themes couldn’t be used by Natalie Holt for the show’s score. A shame that the music was considered one of the show’s low points given Holt’s excellent work on Loki. But Disney being Disney would explain the lack of accurate sounds / music in these sets. I still maintain that the Smart Brick itself looks pretty cool. I’d be keen to have a couple of them, a bunch of the tiles, and tons of random bricks and just play around. I think the play pattern will work best without the corporate licensed angle, but time will tell. I don’t see these being a paradigm shift though.

It’s odd that the X-Wing and TIE Advanced sound effects are as generic as they are, same with the cantina music too, given that the Smart Brick plays the Imperial March without any issue when it scans Vader. Maybe there were some limitations to what sort of audio Lucasfilm allowed Lego to use / replicate? The sound effects in the Final Duel are similarly not as distinctly ‘Star Wars’ as I’d hoped. The little function to have the Modal Nodes actually start grooving on the spot whilst the Smart Brick plays music is neat. But again without actually being able to play the cantina band music, what’s the point?

Always enjoy reading your takes @Swordy, I agree the Death Star Final Duel does make for a fantastic playset purely in terms of the experience it offers. Even though both the TIE Advanced and X-Wing models are extremely lacklustre (guess Vader’s thankful his armour is pressurised), I do like that their sidebuilds are also intended to give a more holistic play experience than what we usually get with vehicles featuring antagonising minifigures without giving them any chance at putting up a fight. Either Dooku or a Magnaguard being included with Anakin’s Delta-7B makes sense to me. Magnaguards are some of my favourite droid designs and I’ve been itching to see an update. I doubt they’d reuse Ventress as Star Wars sets are typically decent at not reusing named characters the way Marvel does. I’m really shocked at just how much Lego are going all out for TMaG. It’s not inherently surprising but nonetheless, I guess there’ll be more to the film than meets the eye. Still holding out hope for confirmation of one or two Ahsoka sets but overall, I’m glad the theme has a very strong lineup for the year. I just hope the quality of the builds and minifigures are good.

It’s a winning formula and reminds me of the earliest years of this theme - we’d get so many of those £20 3-minifigure sets. Not that there needs to be any correlation, but Hot Toys have unveiled a new battle damaged Spidey from the first Raimi film. Maybe it’s not so far fetched for Lego to follow suit.

I’d love to see this as well, along with a playscale Gringotts based on DH Part 2 and the Inferi scene from HPB. The latter would make for an awesome diorama. I’m guessing that with 3 of the 4 Hogwarts House Ghosts now being released under the current castle system, we can expect one of the summer expansion sets to include the Slytherin Common Room and the Bloody Baron?

@BrickPrick We did it, we manifested a General Skywalker minifigure Hopefully the Delta-7B also includes Dooku. This sounds like a refreshingly good summer wave (although I question the point of having a Yoda Bust, Vader Bust, and buildable figures of both characters releasing within one year). Unfortunately it’s sounding like Ahsoka S2 will get the shaft as a result :( Alas, poor Enoch. I’m surprised at the sheer volume of stuff releasing this year, and the sets sound great too.

@Legochaek Just reiterating what everyone else has already said but getting to intern at Lego and actually see your ideas manifest as products is ridiculously cool and something to be incredibly proud of! Nice work on the polybag.

Laughs* in Juggernaut and MTT. *(Sobs) The Mando sets actually sound promising! Now if they can just confirm we’ll get some Ahsoka stuff.

More Smart Play sets are apparently coming: - Ewok Attack ($30) - Battle of Hoth: Echo Base ($140) - (Buildable?) R2-D2 I guess this means we can expect a summer wave? Also looks like there’s a new R2 figure with a rotating head - except the body now has four studs on the back to accommodate the Smart Tile.

You could see him. In your mind’s eye. Oh man that would be sweet. Fingers crossed. It’s a charming and very well made ad, except the visual and sound effects completely overshadow the Smart Brick itself without letting it shine and showing what it can actually do. We get some hints of lights and sounds but that’s it. From a technology standpoint, I’m really interested to see some of the actual use-cases for the Smart Brick but what they’re actually showing so far just comes off as hype. The miniaturised tech is impressive, and some of the listed features like the magnetic positioning system sound like they have potential (if the Smart Brick can react intelligently to two dog-fighting ships for instance, that’s cool). Not sure if my eyes are deceiving me but I think I saw the X-Wing’s Smart Brick light up in specific areas corresponding with each of its four laser cannons too? The package art pops as well. Seeing how simplified these builds are (yikes) does assuage some of my concerns that these are intended to wholly replace normal playscale sets, but yeah we really need to see more here. I can see kids and some adults having a blast with these, but agree that Lego works best when it’s inherently an analogue system. I’ve no issue when they experiment with digital augmentation with things like the Smart Brick provided they don’t push it as a complete replacement for normal sets. Plus to their credit, it seems like an app will only be used for firmware updates and diagnostics.

Not long to go until the Smart Brick reveal! Very interested to see how the tech works and what it does even if I’m not at all excited about it being pushed down our throats. @CloneCommando99 Meant to reply earlier but the scale of Ahsoka S2 being so much bigger really is exciting. With Filoni also mentioning a rivalry between Ackbar and Thrawn this season, it feels like S2 will balance the more esoteric Force stuff on Peridea and the large-scale conflict in the main galaxy (I wish Filoni would get Timothy Zahn more involved though). I’ll be flummoxed if there aren’t some good Lego sets being planned for the show just because of the Smart Brick and Mandalorian and Grogu sets. With the large volume of Lego Mando sets we’ve received since 2021, I’m a little hesitant that TMaG is getting so many sets. Hopefully there’s enough new and novel content in them to get longstanding fans interested too, plus film tie-in waves tend to have a little extra effort put into them with the longer development times they get.