Brikkyy13

That would be rather expensive compared to this one

My stores still have stock, it came out in February so them having stock is nothing short of a miracle by recent standards. This will be one to watch over time, if they can't keep Luke's x-wing of all things on our shelves it will prove to me that they don't care about our market.

Do we know when in May? Really loving that Batmobile, so much so that I might grab Robin from the 66 Batcave on bricklink now in case his price shoots up.

Dude I’m just going off of what I’ve seen on social media for that. It would seem that in some areas of your country the shelves are overstocked of that set. Of course one Australian doesn’t speak for the entire country, just count yourself lucky that TLG is restocking your store after a month. But as far as the set being available on s@h goes, it being on the US site doesn’t exactly help me or anybody else down under. Still sold out on the Aussie site, it may have come back recently and sold out again but the last time I saw it available to buy was when it released last year.

That’s the type of bow you get when the technic beams are attached a pin or two away from where it’s meant to be. You’ll need to carefully go through the instructions to find where you’ve gone wrong or take it apart and build it again.

100000% agree. So glad Aussie Amazon has started selling LEGO after all these years. I snapped up the AAT from Amazon before they sold out, paid less than retail, free shipping and it arrived in 4 days. The s@h shipping here is a joke. I paid nearly $100 extra for express shipping on the UCS Star Destroyer and it still took more than a week to arrive... I live in a capital city not a rural town. What gets me the most is that the free shipping threshold is still $150, back when they shipped from Denmark it was reasonable but now that they ship from NSW it's ridiculous. When they opened that warehouse in 2018 it was supposed to fix things, now it's become even more unreliable than before. At least when it was coming from Denmark we knew it would take a month to arrive. Now they use Toll, who will take anywhere between 2 days and 2 months to deliver your order, and you better be home when they show up or otherwise no LEGO for you. This sort of stuff is really pushing me towards quitting the hobby. Ah, the good ol' days. Today you're lucky if they have more than 2 copies of one set and more than 5 sets in a theme. My local only has the new shuttle, trouble on tattooine, x-wing and tie. Nothing from previous waves except an empty spot for the razor crest with a sticker saying something along the lines of "sorry we are out of stock"... that sticker has been there since the set came out.

I’ve definitely brought it up on here before, it’s not a covid thing. We’ve been having stock issues for years now, since around the time the LEGO movie came out and popularity exploded. What gets me worked up is that stores overseas have so much stock that sets are constantly on clearance, yet we never get a second shipment of most of those sets. I’ve asked around about the 501st pack and AAT, the sets have definitely made their way down here, we’re just not getting isles full of them like the Americans. Store owners are letting their friends buy 20 at a time before they put them out to the public so most of the supply is going to the same small group of people. The leftover stock that is making it to shelves is being snapped up right away by people that check the stores every morning on their way to work. On that note, heard from a few people now that the 501st set has been marked as “not for reorder” at the certified stores and major retailers so we’re never going to see it on a shelf again in Australia. I really hope that my info is wrong about that. Our only hope to get the 501st set is s@h and it’s always out of stock. At least it’s not on the list of sets retiring this year, so maybe we’ll have a chance to get it.

The helmets aren’t the same size though, check out a comparison photo of the 5 Star Wars ones. The Scout is significantly smaller than the others and Vader is significantly larger. Agreed on the probe droid though, blatant rip off. I prefer the term “extortion,” the “x” makes it sound cool. Had they followed the pricing model from the other countries, Scout, Probe and Vader should’ve been something like $80, $90 and $100 respectively... much more in line with past releases. My faith in TLG has gone down the toilet recently too. I’ve been a customer for nearly 2 decades now, I’ve come to expect more from them. Honestly it was easier being an Aussie collector back when we could only get sets from Kmart, these days it’s starting to feel like more trouble than it’s worth. Makes me sad that they treat Aussie customers this way. LEGO’s financial reports prove that they know Australia has market potential, but they keep shafting us with higher prices and a lack of stock. Really seems like they think that they can open a couple of certified stores and call it a day. Nobody I know shops at the certified stores, you can get the same sets cheaper at other retailers, VIP points aren’t connected to s@h and they don’t usually get the s@h GWPs.

Didn’t even think of the Y-Wing! Brickset says that one lasted 2018-2019, so one year as well.

Sorry but the availability data on brickset is saying that the Snowspeeder was available from 2017-2019 vs the B-Wing which was 2012-2013. Also didn’t the Snowspeeder randomly pop up again on S@H recently?

Remember that these lists aren’t always accurate, would be weird to see the Razor Crest disappear so soon but I wouldn’t put it past LEGO. I’m surprised that the UCS A-Wing is there, mustn’t be selling that well, that was only released last year too. The last UCS to disappear so quickly was the B-Wing, right? Judging by the appreciation on that one, A-Wing could be the next sleeper set for investors.

LEGO has been bad with Aussie prices in the past but this is extortion. The scout trooper is cheaper than vader in other markets, why not Australia? EDIT: Probe is $10 cheaper than Vader in the US too, so $120 for it makes no sense when the helmets are $90. Add in the fact that we can’t preorder them either... I‘ve been suspicious in the past but now I’m certain that LEGO has something against us Aussies. My guess is they raised the prices on us because they know they’re not going to restock Australian stores after the one and only shipment sells out on day 1 and they want to maximise their profits.

R2 looks very similar to the old head design, all the blue markings are in the same places as before and the “eye” is attached the exact same way as 10225 with the 3 stud long assembly attached on an angle. The biggest criticism of the old one was the studded look of the head, looks like they’ve taken the old design and smoothed it out. Wouldn’t be surprised if the body design hasn’t changed at all. Easy pass for me as I already have 10225, if anything I might bricklink the parts to smooth out the head but I do like the studded look. edit: on closer inspection, the base of the head has been completely redone. Keen to see what the designer has done with the rest of the model now.

Why on earth are the prices for the Vader and Scout Trooper helmets the same as each other in Australia yet different in other markets? Also, once again, no preorder for Aussies

All 3 sets look superb IMO, will try to get them all at some point, hopefully day 1 for the probe droid. Scout Trooper is probably the best set of it’s kind so far, Marvel and Batman included. I don’t think it’s visor flips upwards though which is a shame but isn’t entirely necessary. I know what’s wrong with Vader, the areas right underneath his eyes is rounded and there’s barely an attempt to capture the angles. He’s still recognisable but certainly something is off.

I think it’s pretty well documented that there is no demand for sequel toys across the board. I still see shelves full of unsold Hasbro Rose Tico, Jyn Erso and other Disney era figures when I go to the store. As for LEGO the two most recent sequel sets that have made it to stores here, night buzzard and D-0 statue, my stores still have plentiful stock despite seeing nearly 50% discount.

Love the snow on the plaque. Awesome looking set.

Nice to see the gunship will be using that cockpit piece, and with Hans Burkhard Schlomer designing it it’s sure to be an epic set. Would love to see that type of interview in the lead up to a D2C set more often. The reveal of the set should be soon, but hopefully not too soon because I need time to save money for it!

I thought it originated with the Instagram account yakface claiming the set would be 11,000 pieces? Either way, never was 11,000 piece Death Star in the first place.

No, the Death Star “rumor” was a classic case of an instagram troll fooling gullible people.

They’ve directly rereleased a few things in the past so there certainly is precedence, most recently the Taj Mahal, Vestas wind turbine, Ideas Saturn V and ship in a bottle. The Star Wars line is no stranger to rereleases either, I’m pretty sure the original TIE Advanced vs Y-Wing had 3 set numbers over the years. If there were any UCS set to do a direct rerelease without any new design work 10225 is a one of a handful they could get away with, especially since the inside of that model is already built with bright colours to help differentiate the parts during building.

2021 UCS R2 piece count is supposedly the same as 10225 at 2127 pieces... so if that’s correct it’s either a massive coincidence or 10225 is getting a direct rerelease. I’m inclined to assume rerelease but it’s still too early to tell.

Oh yo we are getting a scout trooper!! I can tell that it’s a scout trooper through all the pixels so I’m sure it’ll be an awesome set. I wonder if the visor flips upwards? Need clearer pictures to make up my mind on Vader but as long as it’s not like the con exclusive bust it should be good. Getting that scout trooper for sure, probably will get the Vader as well. On the subject, the Batman bust looks awful and the Venom and Carnage ones aren good but aren’t for me. If we are getting a FO stormie I will probably pass as well. Bring on those HD pics!

Excellent work on all of these models! Personally I dislike the large variants and prefer the slimmer design but I understand why you made both. The mini Outland is cute and the Defender is brilliant. I especially like the propaganda style you’ve used to showcase the models!

The TIE Pilot helmet is literally the rebel helmet slapped over the stormtrooper faceplate so it wouldn’t be hard at all for LEGO to come up with a rebel helmet set since half the design work is done already. Also, both TIE Pilots and Clones are in 3 movies each and that’s not counting the TV series, games etc. Clones no doubt have much more screen time than TIE pilots Sad to hear that the scout trooper helmet is actually a first order stormtrooper helmet. I’m over the sequel stuff so I’ll probably skip it. More money for Vader’s helmet.