Kaijumeister

Not that budget has seemed to be an issue in terms of new minifigures and stuff for Star Wars recently (most of the time…), but I wonder if these TMaG sets will get a movie-level budget. I feel like the Mandalorian minifigure is as good as it gets, although getting a new dual-moulded Mandalorian helmet would be awesome provided it isn’t comically oversized, along with a side-cape to go with the jetpack (rather than just one or the other). An updated Grogu figure is also sorely needed. Plus we’ll be getting the Ahsoka Season 2 sets next year. Given what we know of the season already the set potential should be good - I would love to get a T-6 at the £140 pricepoint with a proper interior.

Allow me to introduce a Monkey’s Paw situation: The Sandman set is indeed based on Raimi-Man 3, but it reuses the live action Tobey suit we got in the NWH Final Battle set instead of finally giving the symbiote suit. And they’ll perplexingly use the young Han Solo head for him again. The set list isn’t bad. A playscale Bugle is certainly warranted (however, I do hope they dedicate most of the pieces towards the main building and not dilute it with side builds), it’s sad that these playset builds have atrocious piece counts though. I’m just hoping we don’t get the same minifigure reuses again. Very happy for the Lego Marvel Team to find their millionth use of the Mark 43 minifigure in what will presumably be an AoU Hulkbuster. There’s no denying the creative bankruptcy within Lego Superheroes though. I hope to be proven wrong with the execution of these sets.

To each their own, but I personally agree that the inclusion of legacy characters in Mando Season 2 made enough sense from both a portrayal and narrative standpoint to be satisfying and entertaining. Plus, the character beats in the season were fantastic regardless of Season 3 and TBoBF failing (spectacularly) to honour them. Anyway, hoping for more information on the March sets soon. I have a weird feeling that a Vulture Droid, Tri-Fighter, or maybe Anakin’s Delta-7b may be revisited next year.

What characterises the modern era of this theme (IMO) is the ‘half-baked’ nature a lot of the mainline sets tend to have - both in terms of the builds themselves but also the excessive reuse of characters. We do get some great exceptions to that rule like this year’s Quinjet, Spider-Man 2 Train Battle, Spider-Verse CMF etc. but they’re not the norm. Case in point, if this summer’s Oscorp set had been released in 2016 (one of the highlight years of this theme IMO), you can bet it would have had a better part count, minifigure selection, and a build that didn’t seem like it tried to do too much at once whilst ending up achieving very little. The penny-pinching for Lego Superheroes seems to be far tighter than it is for any other licensed theme right now.

I’m still not convinced that this has the cinematic quality befitting a theatrical release rather than just releasing Mando Season 4, but all the same I respect that Lucasfilm aren’t trying to market this film as anything other than a fun, pulpy adventure. I do wish Mando’s new ship was something brand new rather than another Razor Crest though. Can’t get enough of new ship designs in Star Wars and the New Republic-era vehicles we’ve seen (especially in Ahsoka) have generally been excellent. Getting a Vulture Droid next year would be awesome, it’d provide some nice synergy with the film and finally give a CIS ship for our clone vehicles to actually dogfight against. @BrickBob Studpants I totally concur on the nostalgic element of Rotta. Didn’t care for the character all that much but being a kid during the huge 2008 merchandise push for TCW (that initial release wave of Lego sets coinciding with the film still holds up well for its time IMO) really was something special.

Your daily memes never fail to impress I feel like if they do finally do a regular Republic Gunship, it’ll include Phase 1 clones. No way is that new P1 pilot helmet a one-off (then again, I thought the Imperial Supercommando helmets from last year would be reused for Hunter). @BrickPrick A General Skywalker and Count Dooku minifigure are my top Clone Wars wishlist items for next year. A Phase 1 Captain Rex too but that’s pushing it.

With this being Lego Batman’s 20th anniversary (conveniently forgetting the years that passed between the original theme ending and the Superheroes theme booting up in 2012), hopefully the budget for minifigure prints and moulds will be slightly more generous? I feel like a clown for even hoping for that. With Battinson especially, the minifigure always felt too simple to me. I’m glad the print at least is somewhat updated for Legacy of the Dark Knight.

It’s true that the X1 has a suspiciously non-horrific PPP compared to the X-Wing, but at the same time I can imagine Lego wanting people to buy both that and the X-Wing without them having to share a Smart Brick. The curious thing from most pictures we’ve seen of builds incorporating the Smart Brick is that they don’t indicate said builds are compromised to accommodate it (which makes the supposed sketch of next year’s X-Wing all the more confounding given how simplified it looks). And yep, good point. We’ve seen from the patent(?) leaks too that the electronic minifigures still have the same form factor as regular minifigures anyway. Curious to see what these March sets will be.

If these Batmobiles are on the level of quality as Speed Champions, that would make this list somewhat acceptable. A Pattinson Batmobile is my most anticipated set for one of these slots and I would love if we actually got a new cowl / shoulder armour piece, but that’s definitely not happening. So for Marvel 1HY, we’re getting more unnecessary cars, mechs, and a Hulkbuster, whilst for DC we’re getting a buildable logo and three Batmobiles. I would love to understand the creatively bankrupt decision-making process when it comes to choosing sets within the Superheroes theme.

And here I was actually feeling hopeful for a solid wave of good system sets I’m guessing the X-Wing and TIE x1 will act as starter packs, with the rest of the March wave acting as add-ons without including the smart brick itself.

Doom’s design looks fantastic. I hope this is the one figure where Lego pulls out all the stops with arm printing etc.

With the 2020 system AT-AT being as good as it was coupled with the phenomenal UCS one, downscaling the AT-AT for TMaG would be a downgrade in more ways than one - even if it’s technically not the same design as the TESB version. Good point on the figure lineup, you can throw in ‘small side build’ as another commonality too - the normal OT AT-ATs had the speeder bikes and I presume the TMaG version will include a small AT-RT build (ironically this may be the first time we actually get a reasonably scaled AT-RT). I suspect marketing for the film will pick up with the release of Tron: Ares or Avatar: Fire and Ash. What I find hilarious is a great quality leak of TMaG trailer is already on YouTube, it’s one of the very first hits you get when searching for it! It’s been the same reused trailer from D23 last year, Celebration this year, and D23 (again) this year. So far I’m not seeing much that makes this feel like a cinematic event rather than a big-screen version of Season 4, but I’ll remain optimistic it’ll at least be enjoyable. Just not a fan of the two flagship sets for the film seeming to be another Razor Crest and AT-AT given we’ve had both playscale and UCS versions of these vehicles within the past 5 years.

This makes me wonder if things like a Groot mech or Lex mech were even considered as more thematically appropriate, or whether the Lego Superheroes team literally just decided to make mechs of Rocket / Supes etc. with no further thought. Great news on Man of Tomorrow releasing in 2027, fingers crossed for some Lego representation this time beyond just Fortnite skins

The age ranges for the March sets are 6+, 7+, and 8+, which seems to indicate they’ll be ‘normal’ sets. Here’s hoping! I’m sure one of these will be a Maul: Shadow Lord tie-in. And 5 sets in total for TMaG, that’s more than I expected. Nice to see some 1000+ piece sets return for system offerings too. The unknown May set being 7+ at 297 pieces for $44.99 makes me think it’ll be another overpriced battle pack like the 327th one. Fingers crossed one of these sets is something with a General Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku minifigure. Really need those after the excellent Obi-Wan and Asajj minifigures from the V-19.

It’s crazy how much these figures have been reused, even in pricier sets like Oscorp this year. A large buildable Iron Man figure is truly a welcome addition to the winter lineup It isn’t at all redundant after getting a bust, helmet, and UCS Hulkbuster.

A lot of Ninjago sets blow Star Wars sets out of the water any day of the week, and I say this as a huge Star Wars fan first and foremost This year, one would be hard pressed to argue that outside of the UCS Slave I, any 2025 Star Wars set can compete against the likes of Lloyd’s Jet Mech, the Fire Knight Mech, Guardian Dragon, and Temple Bounty. Ninjago’s relatively new push into sets for more mature audiences do offer more complex builds and beautiful display pieces, but they’re still rooted in the system scale with interactive features and minifigure compatibility. This is something LSW should explore more, instead of going all out on things like buildable figures, helmets, and midi-scale ships. At some point, I hope the LSW team explore something like this - sets that are above a typical System scale set but not quite UCS. Not everything for mature audiences has to be a static, soulless display piece where the only thing that’s ’Lego’ about it is the fact that it’s made out of Lego bricks. @CloneCommando99 Yeah I’m hoping D23 allows for these trailers to be released to the public. Lucasfilm has a really annoying habit of locking trailers behind events like Celebration and clamp down hard as soon as they start leaking online. After the mixed bag that was Season 3, they have their work cut out for them drumming up hype for TMaG. I wonder if we’ll finally get an updated Grogu mould next year. The existing figure is fine but not having his big collar represented impacts the silhouette a lot.

A Battinson Batmobile with Speed Champions scaling / building techniques would be fantastic. The Speed Champions designers work literal magic as far as I’m concerned. As much as I wish the redesigned Pattmobile means something, the game trailer also features the Tumbler with a new design too that resembles neither the 2021 nor 2025 sets. I think they just decided to create new builds for these vehicles just for the game, although I’d love to be wrong.

Yup, none of this year’s sets come particularly close to last year. Sets like the Tantive IV Hallway, Mandalorian Bunker (and associated Battle Pack), Desert Skiff, Duel on Peridea (which I still think is a great set) etc. were all top notch. Not to mention they struck a great balance between location and vehicle builds too. The lack of ‘large’ sets coupled with the ever-increasing reduction in system sets this year really hurts the theme IMO. I’ve said it like a million times now but the fact that we’re still waiting for a decent Endor playset whilst they thought it was sensible to release a buildable Wicket and UCS AT-ST within the summer wave really speaks to what sort of priorities Lego Star Wars has right now. And yeah, the cost of producing these midi-scale ships must be insanely cheap. I mentioned this on the Disney thread but I cynically think Lego are turning more towards sets without minifigures simply because of the cost savings. Shortened this just to quote you but I completely agree. The only reason these are branded 18+ is so they can charge more. Without that branding the value for money and accessibility would be much better. This is exactly why sets like the TIE Bomber and last year’s TIE Fighter fall flat for me. If you can’t see the pilot minifigures in the cockpit, it ruins the sense of immersion. Whilst we’re on the topic, does anyone wish that the cockpits for vehicles would include better interior detail like controls and instrumentation? They’re easy enough to mod sure, but it doesn’t exactly require many pieces and would really elevate a lot of the vehicle sets we get. There’s something really cool about seeing a minifigure inside a cockpit interacting with some joysticks or control buttons.

The old one is a more fun Lego playset, the new one is sleeker and easier to play with (obviously at the expense of a proper interior and Cassian needing to take a nap whilst piloting it). The 2026 May UCS set being a U-Wing would be absolutely perfect. It’s a small touch and as much as I dislike giving any sort of praise to the Juggernaut, I do quite like how both the U-Wing and Juggernaut actually provide transparent viewports. Not to go off topic, but the way I see it as that it’s easier and less risky to do a soft launch of a subtheme within an evergreen theme than it is to produce a whole new theme entirely. Ninjago has used elements of castle and D&D (2020 for the latter), Islanders (2021), Atlantis (summer 2021) etc. It makes sense using a well known and established theme to incorporate elements that would have probably been their own original themes in the early 2000s and 2010s. There’s definitely more aversion to Lego producing more in-house IP with the with the ever-increasing number of licensed themes too. Of all the 18+ subthemes Lego has experimented with in LSW, the Starship Collection is the only one where I struggle to see the value proposition in terms of the build experience and complexity. Last year’s sets were pretty great (the Falcon especially), but this year the simplicity of sets like Kylo’s Shuttle just highlights that you’re paying for the fancy 18+ boxes and overdeveloped instruction manuals than for the actual models themselves. As much as the dioramas have been hit or miss in terms of their value for money, I can at least see why they and the helmets were popular. Maybe I’m just being harsh though.

@CloneCommando99 Fighting the good fight as always. I’m inclined to agree that the U-Wing and V-19 are this year’s strongest non-UCS / non-buildable whatever sets, and it further goes to show that the £60 pricepoint is the gem of this theme as of this year: - ARC-170 (the build actually surprised me, quite a fun set to swoosh around) - U-Wing - Jango’s Slave I (not a fan of undersizing ships but it’s a decent set all in all) - V-19 (my personal favourite) I really hope this pricepoint and its format (well-built ship, 3 solid minifigures and a potential droid character) are here to stay. I’m also tempted to add the MTT to this list too, but the egregious price point holds it back. The droid deployment rack function is a breath of fresh air when Lego Star Wars sets often tend to be a case of ‘what you see is what you get’, and the character selection is decent although not including more minifigures in a £140 set isn’t great. I wonder what the likelihoods of a Vulture Droid or Tri-Fighter are in the near future. Something for the V-19 and ARC-170 to actually dogfight against, and a great excuse for inserting a General Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku minifigure. @Llewop The prospect of getting an initial TMaG wave in spring and potentially a follow-up / spoiler wave in summer makes me think of how the Solo sets were handled in 2018. I guess I’m just feeling a little saturated after the fairly solid Mando Season 2 and Season 3 sets, but hopefully getting a movie-level budget will mean these sets will surprise us for the better. I’m sure the Ahsoka S2 sets will be great too. Plenty of new and novel things we’ve seen going by the concept art alone.

Does everything have to be a buildable figure these days? At least balance it out with a couple of system playsets Cynically I think this is a win-win for Lego; budgets being used to focus solely on builds with no development on minifigure parts or prints must save a lot of money, and that’s before considering these being sold as 18+ sets.

Definitely not the designers’ fault, but I found it amusing hearing the ‘we didn’t have budget’ excuse applied to sets like last year’s Desert Skiff and Sail Barge. It’s one thing being mindful of budgetary constraints for smaller mass retail sets, but seeing it applied to sets that are $500 (and now this year, $1000) is laughable and tone-deaf. But hey, the corporate bean counters reign supreme. Even for smaller sets, the decreasing value for money and PPP ratios (again, it’s extremely concerning we did not get even one 1000+ piece system set this year!) must already widen profit margins by quite a bit, so hearing their budgets are also so cutthroat is a shame. I understand I’m trivialising what is a nuanced situation, but still. It’s going to be an agonising wait for more details of the 2026 sets. Really not a fan of this newfound trend of 1HY sets being boring and uninspiring.

More Pixar sets is a huge win in my book, hopefully at least some of these are system-scale. It actually blows my mind that normal system Toy Story playsets haven’t been a thing since 2010, I guess the 4+ sets somewhat count

This would make for an awesome playset!

I’d personally love to see something from Tears of the Kingdom, but a Guardian battle diorama from Breath of the Wild would be awesome in a similar vein to the Horizon Tallneck set. It’s great that both games have infinite customisation for Link’s outfits which has awesome minifigure potential too. As much as I worry this set will be another dust collecting buildable object, even getting some minibuilds of the 4 Divine Beasts alongside minifigures of Link and the Champions would be cool.