Kristof

^ I do realize all that. Should I accept that fact quietly then? I know that all these companies are profit based but exactly as you say - without demand for better accuracy (or higher quality or whatever related), all those corporations will typically do the minimum necessary, not a shade more. Therefore I wonder why so many people act as advocates, finding any possible excuse for the lacking products. Moreover I really want to believe that Lego is somewhat better than Hasbro or other similar brands.

I don't really care who's fault it actually is, whether toy companies or Disney corp. I simply think it's stupid to flesh out half baked toys months early which turn out inaccurate eventually. Not to mention that such products spoil some possible surprises that movie could have offered. But still, I have some doubts about your interpretation. I always thought that toy companies pay for license so they can make movie related products, not that film maker would 'hire' toy companies as you describe it.

Really? Are you sure they were legally bound to release on that date? Otherwise they wouldn't get the license? I'm not sure abou that, I'd rather believe it was a mutual deal and every toy compayny had their own business interest on selling that early. But even though - why didn't they got propper reference materials from Disney?

^ The more I think it's a shame that TLG drives that mainstream 'fast release' wave.

Lol, did I write lambada? :D Jeez really, that's some kind of dance isn't it?

Sorry, being a but late to the party - do you plan to build this in real? It looks massive and cool, yet somewhat low profile (maybe it's intended?) There is very little ground cleaance below the lights.

Hmm, not bad if we talk scaling down to micro. Though there is not much to it... If it weren't of the resemblance with the set, this would probably appear as just some small bricks stacked together. I like micro scale but I see no point of scaling down such set which doesn't render the place very well, only showing several walls torn apart from the overal context. You better build the entire citadel (or what it was :D) in this scale and then it could look great.

This doesn't happen in all the sudden - I build with technic for many years, still I'm not very good in designing my own models. If you just started, I think buying and building the sets is inevitable first step. Not only you learn the techniques and get used to the parts and connections on the go but you also aquire more pieces to build your own models with. It's very hard to build something reasonable with shallow stock of parts :)

^ Haha, I had the same reaction, just haven't found the right song :D

In general, building according to LDD file is really inconvenient even with smaller models. For me the auto generated guide rarely turns out useful, It's almost better to build just with 3D model. manually dividing into sections and then hide/show the bricks. I can't comment on the quality of these instructions (in terms of logic in steps and comfort it provides) but I think that with all the part cost, it's worth a try :) Could be way better (and less frustrating) building experience.

^ Cool :D I can live with that :)

^Yeah, Jang did fine job with his mod but (mean swagger allert!) it's still far from what I'd call great :) Black color is good, yet it's to uniform. It desperately calls for incorporationg some DBG bits (in clever way to make sense regarding the design). It also retains these nasty 'who cares about inner face' wings, which apparently show it's ugly side even more in the newly developed 'fly mode'. I know that some compromises had to be made in order to achieve that retracting function (which I'd rather sacrifice) but still the result look like very first prototype built from leftover bricks. Positive thing about all this is that there is huge scope for improvements so many new MOCs and sets can be awaited :D EDIT: By the way, thinking about this shuttle in general, I can't get rid of feeling that it's shape is all but meaningful and efficient :). I wonder whether they have some explanation for these enormous wings and inproportionally small 'utility section' (Lambada class already had this but at least the wings were smaller, thin and claimed to be either stabilizers or some heat radiators). From logic point, these wings are easy target, making the ship harder to operate, easier to crash... plus the retraction, which seems like pointless self punishment from an engineering point of view :D I know, we are talking science fiction, but there has always been nice explanation for SW ship design. I wonder what we get in this case then :)

Xon, I'm impressed by the speed/quality combo of your work. I wonder how many time you spend (daily? :D) on it and also to what extent you bother with internal structure of those models? Eventhough this is so far just a digital project, for me it already dwarfes many great real builds, which I'd never expect me to say ;)

I'm a bit late to the discussion and somewhat lazy to read though all the way so sorry for some duplicite notes. After watching the movie, several sets (FO Transporter, Takodana...) eventually became reasonable to me, eventhough I'm still not particularly happy with the execution. Regarding FO Snowspeeder, kill me, but I don't recall where it appeared in the movie, nor how did it look like. Yet even if it proved to be accurate, I don't like it. There are so many interesting vehicles in SW, this is not one of them. There is not much to screw up on MF, especially since you don't deviate from previous concept so that one I think is good for a play set. X-wing remains my favorite and I have no extra complains after seing the movie. But I think it's the fighter which makes it better set - the other main (new) vehicles from TFA looks all somewhat dull to me... ...with one possible exception of Kylo Ren's shuttle, which, unfortunately, got the worst lego rendition in my opinion. But again, nothing I wouldn't know already from leaks. No wing tilt, super ugly wing 'underside', strange and inaccurate retracting... perhaps just the cockpit isn't completely wrong for me. Rey's speeder is the first runner up on my chart but again, the original shape of vehicle itself mainly does the trick. I blame lego for not rendering that round front grille and for making it overal to big. I really like what Andrew from BB did here: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2015/12/22/unpimping-reys-speeder-kitbashing-a-movie-accurate-jakku-speeder/#more-64103 and I wish this was the official set, although the size remains. TIE fighter seems alright and accurate but for the RRP it's noway-er and also that crippled cannon is a big shame. I wish that whole toy industry was a bit more restrained and responsible, not releasing their half baked products to early, which would avoid such mistakes. Oh, and I forgot that resistance transport ship - ea, that one seems nice, both as a movie vehicle and as a set rendition. I think that one might actually take second place instead of the speeder :) But who cares about my charts anyway. All in all, I have one observation - The new SW vehicles brought by TFA aren't as cool as I was hoping it would be. I don't blame them letting the X-wing star again (well yeah, it is 'modified') knowing how popular that one is but the other vessels seem neglected to me and my expectations for new iconic machines weren't fulfilled. When I first saw lego sets, I thought it maybe just wasn't the best choice of what to re-create, but now I think there is just not much to work with. PS: I tried to be spoiler free, if anyone think I'm not, let me know where and I'll hide it.

Very nice :) Maybe almost to fast for my taste - have you tried bevelled gears to get a bit lower ratio on these motors?

I like it very much. Interesting vehicle and the way you constructed it, I think it could easily be a Technic set :) Looking forward to B model.

As mentioned, with HIGH one you end up with crawler/monster truck thing, no matter what magic you do with the chasis. And personally I think some realistic looking off road jeep style car is more interesting than another crawler. Also I think that if you place all the motors (multiple XL?, servo) and batteries on top of the high chasis, your stability is gone. That's why people mostly mount their motors directly to the live axles to bring the center of the mass down as much as possible. All in all, I'd choose something lower, not necesarily the chasis you made though. Perhaps you could try incorporating live axles but keeping the height decent, like in some real off road trucks.

Very interesting model. Thank's for sharing all those great inventions you put into that chasis. If I see a single flaw on the modell, then it might be the shape (and look) of the front. It's somewhat to roundish and doesn't resemble the real buggy very well, at least to me it looks more like tractor front :)

^I was suggesting this setup with screwdrivers while ago in another thread, wondering if you got the same inspiration elsewhere?

Congratz. Fleet is growing :) Han would be proud. I like the brick sculpted dish, much better than attempts for custom stickers ;)

Thank you a ton! Great find. I spent quite a while going through all possible sets but I didn't eben know this one.

Excellent. Thought about trying Lego Ideas?

Very nice. That pattern really look star wars like. Great find!

Fantastic. The better it is that this type of vehicle is not being built that commonly. If only I was able to buy all the bricks, I'd definitely purchase your instructions. One day maybe. Great model!

Wow. To be honest when you started this topic, I didn't put my expectations high, thought this would be just another MOD which i'd commend and give thumb up but not really admire in the end. You already proved me wrong several 'days' before but now I can say this is excellent and trully mean it! Looking forward to another day - honestly, without overacting :)