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No need to discuss the Ewok village, right? Endor in 2009, Ewok Attack in 2009. Putting those 5 furry guys into one village set? Yes, but not that soon. Iconic scenes or great starfighters deserve more regular updates. I think TLC found a good rhythm in their releasing schedule. Waiting 11 years for a new Bongo seems fair, a Falcon every 3-4 years is fine with me as well. Ewoks every 2 years would seem plain useless. I will go and buy that Dagobah Set. Just include a Vader with Luke head, please! A-Wing, well, I am not too sure if I need that, but still I am excited!

Where I come from, the older Slave I is not available anymore. Still, don't think it will happen that soon. My money would go for an Episode 2 arena playset.

Hi guys, I mainly buy SW and Indy, but a great set from another theme as well from time to time (PoP = Battle of Alamuth), I am torn between - 4842 Hogwarts Castle (2010) - 4195 Queen Annes Revenge - 9516 Jabba's Palace Please mind though that even as a SW geek I am not too connected to the Tatooine scenes from Episode VI. I don't really care about them and I find the palace to be a bit of a boring build and vastly overpriced. I am not in desperate need of the figs, as I am more an army guy and less an alien-guy. No intentions for the Rancor set as well. I am mainly looking for a good set to build, display, play with, re-design. Standalone mainly. Your thoughts?

What BPs do you guys expect next year? 2007 = 2x E III 2008 = 2x E IV 2009 = 2x CW 2010 = 2x E V 2011 = 2x CW 2012 = CW / E VI As there is actually a bigger E I "battle pack" - 7929, which is still available, and as rumors say there is gonna be E II sets next year, and as I believe the CW are still ongoing but others know better, how about: 2013 = CW / E II Just hope it's not split in half with 2 Clones and 2 Geonosians (cannot stand those insects)....

I just might be getting this, due to your wonderful review, Kiel! Due to nostalgia - those 1999 models I will never forget and this is a lovely re-issue that pays so much credits to the original set! Due to having the Amidala fig 13 years after her lovely comic picture on the original 1999-2001 boxes.

For the Kamino set idea = nice and much wanted. I would think they go for the 9494 way though, having a starfighter (JSF or Slave I) plus 4-5 figures (Jango, Boba, Kaminoan, Obi-Wan, R2). The Slave I wouldn't come so early after the Episode V version, I concur. What I would love to see is a Jedi Temple, but in times where Jabba's Palace already asks for 140€ I feel this would become a 250€ set. I would still buy it, though. It wouldn't even be big enough for a hangar, perhaps 2 stories inside, place for 4 minifigs in the tower, no too fancy minifgures but a new Yoda. Would buy it. A Jedi Temple is much cooler than the DS in my book.

Thanks for the hint! I would be very pleased to see some Episode II sets again. I & III got some attention in the past years, though not II. My money would be on a JSF or a mid-size arena playset. Just had a Slave I, gunship is too big (for January) and I am afraid TLC has to / wants to release mainly CW-clones.

Here is high hope the next Batman line will be less cartoony, more dark and sinister. I assume there will be movie sets and regular sets and I would love to see the latter being influenced by a darker tone as well. Also, after the Monster Fighters got their mansion, can we please get a Wayne Manor?

That might be the problem that I have with this set and why I gave the Potter Castle the thumbs up instead. It's difficult to decipher a faction here, and a castle should have one. For HP it's the pupils, the PoP castle had a faction of soldiers, the Endor bunker had troopers for it. I have a similiar problem with the marvelous Queen Anne's Revenge, which doesn't really have a crew - well, it's 2 guys there. And there even are little sets and battle packs for upgrades, but they contain the very same 2 figures. Talking about all this, I have to assume that I want to have my playsets filled with minifigs and I am a sort of an army builder guy. @Hive = I completely get your point, and it's only correct to emphasize on the fellowship characters and invest careful, not coming up with numerous battle packs, minifig designs etc etc. It all makes sense from a business perspective and it even makes sense from your players or collectors point of view, I am unluckily a bit more difficult to handle and despite the obviously great sets that PotC or LotR offers, I have already starting problems in imagining them together as playsets or on display. Indy was one of my favorite themes and as a nerd of explorations, archeology etc, I could endlessly play with this and imagine things but I also read that someone stated once, that the sets don't fit together and leave no room to actually interact or play with - and this still puzzles me. Enough said, I guess I'd rather stick to the 3rd XotX theme, the War of the Stars and dream my dream for an Indy revival..

Would like to pay respect to the review, it's lovely done and very entertaining. Still, and please don't take this personally, I have another opinion about the set. The problem with many licensed sets is the concentration on one specific movie scene, one action, one (for the set) very limited character set. I have a hard time imagining playing with this set, even if the castle is nicely done and so are the figures. Also it lacks a certain degree of detail that I consider given since a few years. In a fair comparision by theme (licenced "castle"), price and piece, I would say that the last Hogwarts was offering more playability, more power to creativity. I could imagine playing with this, and that's not only by the fact that it has a much bigger role in the books than the LotR set, but it just has more detail, and more interactivity, which leads to imagining a story for the set. Perhaps a few more details and a few more knights might have helped the set a lot, just my 2 cent though.

Completely agree here. By now they should know that play features are not that necessary to sell a good designed LSW set. Ion cannon, control room, medical center, that would have been it. This is simply a shame and such a slap in my face: "You want the updated Hoth Rebels? We give you garbage and still take your money!" "Pass." In all honesty, I have to defend sets like Seperatists Shuttle, The Twilight, etc. It's not TLCs fault that Lucas came up with these crappy things. Overall, I don't like the idea that many CW / PT vehicles are based on early prototypes for the OT, it just seems lazy and not too creative. But don't blame TLC, I think they did a good or OK job on these and others. About the very early 1999-2001 sets, I again have to defend TLC. Slave I, Cloud Car, Falcon etc - those look only bad by todays standards. Plus, they came on lovely designed boxes!

There are some who love their minifigs, and some who love their buildings. Most fall into a mix between them I assume and love both great buildings, and bringing these alive with great minifigs - and that is me for example. I do love my SW ships, swooshing, displaying, building, improving (not necessarily in this order) but I also love to have a bunch of minifigs around them to make them feel alive. Then, probably it depends a bit on the theme, where I (and others) lay the focus on, what I want from a theme. And in my book, a space ship is already great. People do buy these just to swoosh and display. Castles are rather.. dull (for the mainstream, no offense!) without any knights around it. I would love the LotR sets much more, if TLC wouldn't be so shy with their minifigs. I can only hope they are holding back some to have this line out for a couple of years, as I would desperately need more minifigs in the sets, battle packs, and cheaper prices to get really hooked on this theme.

Thanks a lot for the review, it's really a good read. It actually reminds me a lot of the old werewolf set which I never got, unfortunately. While the new one has a much better car and more detail overall, I must say that 3 figures would have been nice and eyes on the tree would have been amazing. But first of all, I would have liked some of the humans to look a little more civilian in the MF sets, it's just more useful and more fun to play with, I think. Still, this is on my list.

.. and I had high hopes for a revisit of the Adventurers /Pharaos Quest, sending them to Himalaya. Guess no "classic" adventure theme then, as this seems to be filling the gap and the orange colour tells me this is modern times and not classis 1920s /30s adventure themes. Anyway, will look before I judge (and really need to get going with own creations for my taste).

Happy to see they provide such a small theme as MH with a set like this! Really surprised about this move, since I honestly already put MH in the "one wave and goodbye" corner, between all those themes that don't get much sales and love and seem to be a filler for general diversity or something. More action themes / small themes should have these exclusives!

Went today to pick up my Space Marines and got a flyer stating €55 - which is rather fair I think. (I believe this is the limit for all €-Europe) They were not sure though about what sets will be on offer. Flyer saying in specific - free TC-14 with purchase of LSW stuff over €55 - free R2-D2 poster with all LSW purchases - free Mini Tie with all LSW purchases - exclusive offers and free standard shipping for orders over €55 They probably won't discount new 2012 sets, so I would assume they will discount the MF to €120 and something CW-ish.

Destroydacre and I were simply saying that the PT Barriss is so much better than the CW one. I thought everyone knows what we meant since there is obviously one PT and one CW edition of her. Of course she counts, comparing her to her ugly CW rendition.

I completely agree here. I love my PT Barriss, what a perfect figure. I find it funny that the LSW III video game, which is based on the CW line / tv series does not continue the style set by it. The characters look more like a good crossover 20% CW / 80% PT. Seems like they realised how bad it would look.. @Ghostmind = Purchase the sets you like, BL your CW figs away and get a PT crew on these ships. That's how I do it. Those ships shouldn't be missed, they are great!

Was in the Lego store in Frankfurt, Germany today and they didn't knew anything about this promo, or what will be on sale for 4th May. Last year it was identical, though, if I remember correctly. Also no trace of new minifigures or Marvel. They didn't have any idea when these arrive.

Wow, you have bought pretty much all important sets in very little time. While I understand you didn't hesitate getting the older ones asap, due to price increase, may I ask why you got the ones from the current line up already? Not that you feel tired of all these too soon... What would I suggest? First of all, slow down. Don't get all the summer sets on day one but over some months, it's just more fun. Then, owning some of the sets you are still missing, I would suggest the amazing 7676. It's not perfect, but it's such a beauty to look at. As I have mine running as an Episode 3 set, I assume you might be able to get the bricks on BL and some figs for much less money than the current ebay price. Would go for it. It's the most iconic vehicle of E1 to E3 and the CW, and TLCs iteration is really nice.

Those boxes were still there in 2002? And I thought the complete ignorance of their basic themes (city, castle, pirates, technic), too many strange new themes that were not able to sell and many very stubborn and ignorant decisions were the reason for their almost fail. I might be wrong, though. What I miss? Somehow LEGO was discovered by investors, geeks etc a couple of years ago. Everyone started hunting minifigs, mainly from SW and other licenced themes. TLC noticed that and dang - now I can go out, spend 15€ and come home with Batman, Catwoman and a few boring pieces. A few years before I got 4 Indy, 4 HP figures for less. I think prices are not too reasonable anymore, up to a point were I feel slightly cheated and start losing interest in new sets. What I also miss? A great space theme about exploration. I admit it's difficult to have this on the shelves with SW, but I think it can be done.

Thanks for the review! I was eagerly awaiting your pics and now having them I have to admit this set looks like 1) lot of fun 2) a mean war machine exactly how I like it 3) a great collection of lovely figs. Just the Widow minifig, how were they able to screw this one up so entirely? They have the chance to make a minifig of Scarlett Johannson and come out with this? 5 managers and 2 designers sitting together and agree, yeah, that's great? Puzzling. Hope they not mess up the Jean Grey fig as well.. I will definitely consider this set, but the probable 90€ mark (120$) over here in EU is way too high. Also, no sign of the Super Hero sets anywhere outside the official lego stores yet = no chance for a nicer price.. Looks like a Harrier. This is one part I don't understand about the Hulk-set. Called heli carrier but has no jump jet. Very weird.

See you at the WInchester! Congrats, mate! Looking forward to get my copy of this!

Only my opinion, but I wouldn't like redesigns, for a simple reason. I think there are still some nice opportunities to make something from the SW movies into a nice model, and I very much like the idea to always get something new. UCS is aimed at grown-ups and if you missed the X or Y, get it on Ebay if you want it that much. Or build it with the pieces you have. It makes sense to have updates for the System sets cause of the different customers, but not for UCS. I will change my opinion in 10 years from now, but for now I would appreciate it to have new models in the UCS garage all the time. It's a series, that doesn't care about yellow or flesh, simple parts or flick fires, more variability in colours and pieces - and it's not for boys who grow in and out of the theme in a couple of years. It's a series not respecting all these, and for that I like it. I think the R2 this year is a sweet idea and I would be happy to see an ETA starfighter, a LAAT/i, a Venator, a Speederbike with Scout, a Rebel Medium Transport etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I tried building a UCS X-Wing in the early 90s and I would love to see a better version. But once, here, I would vote for something new.

Super great review once again! I thought at first that the Aztek might be my favorite, but I don't like the helmets colour. Would have prefered it in Neptuns/ Spartans headgear colour. So the Space Marine is without a doubt my favorite. As a Mass Effect fan I would need 3 of these! Hopefully easy to find due to the huge body shield part.