Kaijumeister

Count me in as someone equally baffled about exactly what the interior could contain, the brief scene of Gollum’s interrogation is literally all we see during the films. I could see the eye having an interior for Sauron to ‘sit’ in as an easter egg of the deleted scene with Aragorn, Sauron, and the palantir perhaps? But really, the sheer height and intricate detail of the tower alone could easily consume a ton of pieces, and let’s not forget Sauron’s eye needs to be fairly detailed too. I do concur with some of the thoughts here that some microscale fell-beasts and nanoscale Nazgûl would make sense to include flying around the tower. They can even reuse the nanoscale dementors from the D2C Hogwarts set. I know I’m stating the obvious, but I do wish Lego would try to find a way to make LotR sets more accessible to those without the budget and space befitting of these Icons sets though.

I still posit that all copies of the ToD set are forever locked away in Hangar 51. As someone who didn’t really enjoy ToD, the only sad thing about this whole affair is not getting a Short Round minifigure, as well as another Indy variant. I think it’s beyond pathetic that it took conceptualising this set, designing and possibly producing a new mould for Mola-Ram, and generating the box art etc. before they decided to cancel it. This really should have just been another set to begin with, especially as it was the flagship non-18+ set and that’s a huge reason why the wave we got felt so tiny.

Funnily enough Lego Minecraft Goat posted a poll on IG several weeks ago asking people if they thought we’d get more digifig stuff, minifigs, or something else entirely this year. Could be nothing but that leaker in particular usually doesn’t talk or tease unless they have something to say. But yeah I agree more or less, 4 years into this theme (I feel old) and Lego clearly aren’t deviating with the way they handle it. I do think it’s valid to be frustrated as going the minifigure route would doubtless bring in so many more fans, especially as Animal Crossing and Sonic are doing just that, but it is what it is. I still ruminate over how awesome a Mighty Micros-esque line adapted for Mario Kart would be though!

I don’t believe so, thus far we know that some Batman: The Animated Series sets are on the way but that’s about it. Wouldn’t be outlandish to assume we won’t get anything non-Batman at this point, however. Having skipped last year’s Keaton sets, I’m more excited for this year, these BTAS sets should certainly pop more, hopefully.

@Scarilian I’m generally not a fan of the buildable figures but must admit I’m looking forward to seeing how Goblin turns out, his more ‘mechanical’ appearance will lend itself quite well to the buildable figure format. It will be forever disappointing that GG’s helmet only appears in modern Lego form as something buildable though, honestly. Contentions with figure quality aside, I’m really happy with the NWH coverage we’ve received from Lego, but still hope for a small bridge battle set just to give us the Iron Spider suit and a proper Green Goblin. But hey, the final battle sets have been fantastic and are some of the best this theme has to offer. Crazy to think that this summer is a complete unknown more or less - anything could happen and I’m excited to see at least a couple of good sets. I would’ve loved to see some Spider-Verse stuff and can’t imagine they wouldn’t sell well, even if they aren’t synced with the films. Unfortunately Lego’s market research seems to indicate endless generic Spidey vehicles and venomised characters are more popular.

That 25th Anniversary logo looks sweet, it’s a really nice homage to both sides of this license. I can’t wait to see what sort of coverage we get with the summer wave, thus far via the system sets, dioramas, buildable characters, and anniversary figures, 2024 is already covering: - Phantom Menace - Clone Wars / Revenge of the Sith - A New Hope - Young Jedi Adventures - Knights of the Old Reublic - Kenobi - Mandalorian S3 - Skeketon Crew And that’s just covering January to June, it’s an excellent spread of stuff for the 25th anniversary so far. No doubt an Acolyte set or two is in the pipeline, though what I’d love most is some more Ahsoka material and something from Fallen Order / Survivor. I’m sure the summer set list is already known in some circles.

I’d love if they redid the Grogu mould to incorporate the bulky ‘collar’ that makes his silhouette distinctive - the figure feels so lacking without it. The best mods I’ve seen so far include the mandrake earmuff piece from Harry Potter which is pretty good, although I can see that making the figure’s neck larger would probably cause issues with the figure’s overall profile. As much as it would dent the value for money of the set further, a smaller BARC speeder would be quite appealing IMO. Lego have done such a great job with the Hoth and Endor speeder bikes over the past couple of years, making them detailed yet compact, that it would be sweet to see the same approach taken with BARCs. Beyond that, maybe a side build of part of the temple could be included, but again it’s unlikely.

Completely agree with all this - I bought the Endor Heroes Brickheadz pack as my first foray into the line, but really that was only because I wanted the exclusive Star Wars Celebration tile GWP whilst I was at the event. Built the set last week and I was underwhelmed. Brickheadz are charming, but really they work best when the textures are built up as opposed to just using prints. I guess that’s why I’m more partial towards R2 and Wicket from the set, and I suspect Cody will at least look cool. It would be nice to see cheaper ‘impulse’ sets that aren’t gimmicky. The old Final Duel and Jedi Defence models were so cool and hardly had many pieces anyway. Given today’s new info, it looks like the highlight of Grogu’s Escape will be the Kelleran minifigure. Childish Landino on IG also seems to be confident in some good TPM sets this year so that’s cool.

For sure, at this point even a tangential relationship is enough to include a minifigure in a set these days. Having built the Emperor’s Throne Room and Endor Speeder Bike Chase dioramas this week after getting them on discount, I do hope Lego continues with these in the future even though it’s not looking all too likely. The detail is superb, especially for the Throne Room. Would love to see a repeat of 2021 and get a 2024 summer wave list in January, fingers crossed! I can see sets based on the Acolyte being more secretive and confirmed at a later point, but I’m itching to know what’s in store otherwise. The summer waves have been fantastic since 2020.

Overall, is there a (substantial) demand for comic-based sets? Outside of the small circles we see here I mean. Holding out hope for some kind of Deadpool 3 tie-in, unlikely as it is. I could see another small to mid-sized NWH set based on the bridge battle as well perhaps - gives Lego an excuse to release a proper armoured Green Goblin figure (with, gasp, a new mould) as well as an Iron Spider variant, and then just reuse Otto. But again, also unlikely.

Not at all (I think?). The only diorama we know of is the Podrace one. A Duel of the Fates diorama would make complete sense, however this could easily be a playset. Let’s not rule out a remake of Maul’s Scimitar either - it’s been a while and Lego never quite cracked it in terms of a good system-scaled set.

Unfortunately this sounds like exactly what Lego Marvel would do. They cheaped out on the NWH goblin minifigure so badly that it hurts.

I want to know! Tell me, I’m ready!

IMO the thing is that CIS livery beats the monochromatic Trade Federation colour schemes any day of the week, they’re just more visually appealing and often make for a good contrast against the GAR vehicles we’ve seen so far.

I’m surprised we haven’t received any additional context around why this theme was approached the way it did, both in terms of the Temple of Doom as well as Dial of Destiny. Lego has been more open as of late (e.g. stuff like Fan Media Days) but I suppose they want to keep this particular topic close to the chest. We’ve all seen film tie-in sets in the past that seem like low effort but the Indy wave was straight-up fantastic all the way through. My feelings on DoD are certainly mixed but at least one tie-in set would’ve been nice to see.

@poisonbricks and @Mandalorianknight Thanks for the update, I wasn’t aware that web piece wasn’t totally brand new. Lego really are pushing it with these prices, £75 for the X-Jet is insane! This theme cheaps out on moulds and prints all the time, yet has started swaying towards demanding a premium regardless. The worst thing is that X-Jet (whilst admittedly awesome for the piece count and size) could’ve been incredible at the price point it was given. Such a shame.

Set looks great all round. I do think Lego could have based this on the earlier scene from NWH just to give a full Sandman build and change up the Spidey variant to be his inside-out suit and Electro his pure energy form, but it’s no surprise budgets with anything Lego Marvel are so tight anyway. Plus it does make more sense to use this as a means to bolster the main NWH set and make it one of the best Lego Marvel display pieces this theme has had. Will be a day 1 buy and I’ll finally pick up the NWH Final Battle alongside this. Eagerly awaiting the reveal of the X-Jet! Also, that dynamic web rope piece looks AWESOME! You can attach minifigures to it but it’s still posable, wow. That’s a new piece right?

Haha, I share your cynicism. For the latter, it just reeks of laziness to me, though of course the truth will be more nuanced. If you’re going to make an X-Jet after people have been literally begging for X-Men sets for years, why not put some more effort into it? But I suppose like you said, they know it’ll be popular so the effort isn’t warranted.

Hear hear. It’s nice to get some shinies and the set is a great massable troop builder, but I really do hope this is it. It’s a high note to end on for clone-centric sets. I do think it’s rather crappy not to include an accessory pack for the helmets though. My only contention is that the clone builds objectively should’ve been better, the figures are obviously the selling point but throwing in a few more pieces to make a downscaled BARC speeder or something surely wouldn’t have Death Star’d the set’s assigned budget. Also, I’m quite surprised at how different the B2 mould actually is compared to the old version after watching the set reviews on YouTube! Neat. If that Young Leia rumour is true…eh. I really loved her in the Kenobi show but if these anniversary figures are utilising new moulds like Malak is, I’m surprised we aren’t getting a battle damaged Vader with a cracked helmet. That would make for such a cool minifigure, although a small duel set with him and a Jabiim Kenobi variant would also be welcome.

Oh wow, stunning MOC. Arguably even if the demand for a fairly minor ship is low, I can still see a good Lego set selling well on its own merits. The official Warbird looks much better than I thought it would. In all honesty I was expecting something along the lines of 2017’s Ravager Attack, however there’s no denying Lego’s building techniques and the manner in which they achieve angles for ships has vastly improved even over the past few years alone. 2021’s Benatar really set the bar for Infinity Saga sets though. I feel like we’re due another model like that and the Milano seems like the perfect candidate. Can anyone venture a guess for why the value of sets like the Hoopty and X-Jet are so utterly egregious? I know sets get allocated a defined budget / piece count etc. but these examples are more extreme than usual. When the X-Jet and its price-point in particular was announced before the piece count was confirmed, I was hoping it would be similar to this year’s Quinjet; a sizeable build with a solid minifigure count and display value.

That’s interesting, I wonder how long it’ll take for the summer set list to get out this time. Can’t wait to see what’s in store!

Really don’t get the need to delay revealing the January wave. The X-Jet and NWH sets are all I care about for now, but even so I’m not expecting to be blown away (though I hope to be wrong). Those Fortnite skins look brilliant, Marvel sets could really do with a slightly more generous budget for new moulds.

This definitely seems to be the case. Then they end up acting like Surprised Pikachu because leaked set images inevitably outpace late formal reveals. Not Star Wars but still related - I remember when everyone and their mother knew about the Infinity Saga sets releasing in 2021 but Lego in their infinite wisdom revealed it less than a month before the formal release date. That Lego Clone Wars poster is so nicely thought out, lots of easter eggs that shows they really paid attention to the details. For me personally, I’m reaching a point where I think I’m content with the TCW sets we’ve received as of late, although I’ll opine my desire for an early season Anakin / Obi-Wan / P1 Rex and perhaps a larger separatist vehicle or droid before I’ve drank my full with the subtheme. Saying that, Clone Wars sets can be an evergreen thing provided its not the same cadence of endless battle packs and just clone vehicles.

Oh wow that’s genuinely a really cool poster! You’re right that the octuptara droid doesn’t resemble the one from 75036 in the slightest so it’s got to be the one from the upcoming battle pack.

Dude, tell me about it. I still remember January 2020 like it was yesterday and that was a heck of a winter wave - nice spread of TRoS sets, some OT, Mandalorian, and Duel on Mustafar. Of course back then waves were purely January / August, but I miss it regardless. It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that August / September have consistently been full of great sets since 2021, but that comes at the cost of patience. I do have my fingers crossed for a summer set list earlier than usual this time given that we shouldn’t be getting too many tie-ins to new content outside of the Acolyte, so perhaps the lessened need for secrecy will work to our favour.