Brikkyy13

Oh no, please not Mace Windu in the gunship... I just overpaid for the combat speeder to get him!

May the 4th is usually GWP with any Star Wars purchase over a certain amount. Just be careful, a lot of people have the idea of waiting for May the 4th as well so when the day rolls around everything good but the D2C will be out of stock (and the D2C will usually go out of stock an hour later).

Store exclusives certainly are a common thing here in Australia, but you’re right when you say that it doesn’t get advertised. I’m not sure what sets are exclusives currently but it shouldn’t be too hard to work out by looking at websites. Off the top of my head I remember that the 20th anniversary dropship was a toyworld exclusive and the 2017 landspeeder was a kmart exclusive. Will have to wait for reviews to be certain but that gives me hope that some more classic prints could return. I’d love to see the 2x2 round tile with the grill pattern return, very useful part to have but it’s been replicated with stickers in sets over the last few years.

On the Shuttle, is that 4x3 slope underneath the middle wing printed? Looks like the same print they used all those years ago on the original model.

And yet this supposed “convention exclusive” was available to everyone in a country. Surely you see my problem here. Welcome @Stefanisimo! I do not think they will remould the standard mando helmet as the changes between them are usually subtle and can be conveyed with printing but I do agree that Gar Saxxon is likely to have a new mould.

Exactly. It’s not a case of “if I can’t have it nobody can”, it’s a case of LEGO producing a regional exclusive months after they told us they would not produce any more regional exclusives. I don’t like it when people go back on their word, to me it’s disrespectful. LEGO as a company is generally very respectful to its fans, and I almost never have issues with their practices as a business (even if I hop on here with every set release and complain about missing figures), that’s what makes this such a terrible situation in my eyes.

Quite frankly, yes, I would have preferred them to not release it at all. They’ve catered to the Americans long enough, throw the rest of us a bone. If LEGO insists on getting that set out of their warehouse they should have waited until the next convention and have it be an exclusive as originally intended, or send it out to SDCC ticket holders directly and be done with it. The way they’ve released this set has pissed off most of their fans all around the world, the only ones who are happy seem to be the Americans who got it on the cheap and the scalpers who flipped it to desperate fans.

Lots of figures should have arm printing, but are they going to do it? We don’t even get arm printing in D2C sets. Last one was what, the pilots in the UCS Snowspeeder? They flip flopped on that and the pilot in the Y-Wing had normal arms. Also, isn’t that set meant to cost something ridiculous like $60 US?? In the past when they’ve done Vader’s meditation chamber it’s been a handful of parts in a much larger set, I don’t see how they’re going to pull this off. It’ll need to be something impressive for me to spend the $100 AUD they’ll probably ask for it, and arm printing on Vader isn’t going to cut it if it’s just a black display base with the pod slapped on top and a wall with a screen on it. This argument goes out the window when other themes get arm printing in cheaper sets. It’s like the minifigure count discussion we had a few pages back, other themes simply have it better than Star Wars does. I didn’t reply to that at first, but it’s not unreasonable to want more than the bare minimum of figures in sets. Anakin’s fighter has one normal minifig as opposed to Obi-Wan’s hut with 3 at the same pricepoint. The galaxy’s edge transport has 2 minis while final duel has 5, again same pricepoint. Something is wrong with the figures in Star Wars sets and it has been for a long time. I doubt it has to do with licensing fees, does anybody actually have specifics on how these fees work? If I had to guess they’re probably paying a percentage of sales for the license as a whole and maybe royalties to actors for using their likeness if that wasn’t taken care of by Disney (because I wouldn’t put it past them to put clauses in the actors contracts saying that Disney owns their likeness now). So really, what the hell is stopping them from putting more faceless troopers and droids in sets?? It’s more than annoying, it’s downright infuriating. They’ve been doing it for years, they’re not going to stop. They try to justify it by saying “the people who go to the conventions want something to make them feel special.” Oh, so actually going to the convention and having a once in a lifetime experience isn’t enough?? They want a keepsake???? Nothing says “I went to SDCC” more than the goddamn ticket you used to get through the door. What my sad little brain finds hilarious is the fact that we got so many sets that fans have been asking for FOR YEARS in 2020 and LEGO managed to screw the pooch on most of them. We finally got a buildable lightsaber hilt... as a GWP with the most expensive set of the year. Obi-Wan’s hut was one we asked for, and we got an overpriced beige box that fits in the palm of your hand (not that it needed to be bigger, but $45 for what we got is horrendous). 501st battle pack? How about 2 oversized vehicles at double the price you wanted to pay? Nebulon B? Region exclusive, nothing learned from Bespin Duel. UCS A-Wing? Out of proportion. I could rattle off a list of so many things wrong with every set from last year, it’s not funny. Apart from the minifigure front, I’m thankful that this year is shaping up to be a bit of a course correction for LEGO Star Wars. Lower prices and great selection of sets for once. I disagree with people when they say that minifigures are the main draw for a lego set, it varies from set to set. Something like the tatooine mando set is carried by its figures, but something like the UCS Star Destroyer you’re there for the build. I look at it like this: I’ll buy a set with a meh build if the figures are great, I’ll buy a set with meh figures if the build is great, I won’t buy something if neither of those draws are there.

Especially after they said “no more regional exclusives”. I get that it was an unused convention exclusive but they really should not have released it. I was hoping Bespin Duel would receive a wider release this year under a new set number but I guess not. Final Duel it is for arm printing... if only I could find it in Australia

Man, you just raise the bar every time you post a new MOC. Didn’t think it would be possible to top that AT-AT and here we are.

Brilliant. Though I think the gun could be bigger, to emphasise the fact that he is indeed on steroids.

Wait, they rewarded all his complaining about not being in LAN... by letting him into LAN? Just the kind of representation TFOLs need in the community right now.

I don’t see who would need to be paid for lego to include a couple of extra stormtroopers, it’s not like the actors faces can be seen. Nor do I see printing a couple of extra stormtroopers being cost prohibitive if they think that they’re not interchangeable. Like I said a few pages back, the lack of troopers available in a conflict heavy theme is laughable. The transport that’s supposed to be coming with 2 stormtroopers should have space for 6 along the outside and who knows how much more on the inside... to not include more stormtroopers in a stormtrooper transport when stormtroopers are already hard to come by is a terrible decision in my book.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask for when Ninjago gets 9 figures in a $30 set. We get 4 figures in $15 battle packs, stands to reason that they should be able to do more figures as the pricepoint goes up.

He has not been "reliable for years," up until last year with the 501st battle pack he was wrong more often than not. It sounds too good to be true because Ahsoka v Maul, Imp Transport, Bad Batch shuttle, Mando fighter and Gideon's cruiser are all sets that fans have been wishlisting for.

I probably suggested that the Slave I from the MBS Cloud City would make a good set if released on its own. Does anybody have the piece count for that model?

Don’t get me wrong, the figures themselves sound great. It’s the actual selection of figures I dislike. It’s more of a comment on the fact that fake set lists usually have a ludicrous amount of figures for each set. Mandalore duel and Bad Batch Shuttle are the only 2 selections I’m happy with. Imperial troop transport should have 6 troopers and a pilot at a minimum, or Cara and Mythrol as well as Greef. 2 stormtroopers and a mortar trooper from a completely different episode isn’t enough for what’s meant to be a troop transport. No doubt those stormtroopers will have the terrible new helmets that can’t turn their heads Slave I speaks for itself, only Boba and Han (though Han will probably have his carbonite block too). Missed opportunity for Bespin Lando, Leia or someone else from ESB. Gideon’s cruiser sounds like a good lineup depending on what last figure is, but only 6 figures in such a large set is getting old. If it turns out the unknown is a dark trooper, then that means there’s only 4 traditional figures in the set. Mandalorian fighter, again, doesn’t have enough figures for me. Perfect opportunity for a Mauldalorian, or Almec, or Rex... Satine, Pre Vizsla, more clones, literally anything else. As usual I’m just disappointed that we don’t get nearly as many figures in Star Wars sets as they do in other themes. I get not putting in named characters because they would probably need to pay the actors for the use of their likeness, but not getting faceless troopers is insane. The last time we got more than 1 of the new stormtroopers in the same set was the 20th anniversary dropship, and once again that was a set that you couldn’t get in Australia. Constantly sold out on S@H and never came to retail stores, it was a toyworld exclusive and they sold out day 1 and never restocked.

We were never getting an 11,000 piece Death Star

Why, of all things, is the 18+ set Vader’s meditation chamber? Isn’t this one meant to be $160? What could they possibly do to the build to warrant it being 18+? That list honestly sounds too good to be true, but the figure selection is absolute trash all round so it must be real. I’m going to have to be quick on S@H if these sets come out, no way we’ll be able to find them on shelves in Australia after release day.

That is truly amazing I love the curves on the top up the back. If you ever build it in person, some mini MTTs would compliment it very nicely.

No factory but we have a warehouse that they opened in 2018, I suspect they get most of their stock from the Chinese factories to save on the shipping. The warehouse opening slashed the shipping times from 3 weeks+ to only a few days (well, for most people. Somehow my orders still take weeks because they insist on using terrible couriers). That, and the opening of certified stores, says to me that they recognise the potential of the Australian market, they just haven’t done a good job of keeping it stocked. If it weren’t for the pandemic they might’ve been able to work out the supply issues last year.

Didn’t even realise they popped up in Target. I really hope they pop up somewhere again soon. I was lucky to grab two from the certified store the morning of release before they sold out (despite their limit of one per customer), but I still want a few more.

Probably. We just don’t have the population to match the US, Europe and China. Our market is still big enough to warrant certified stores in our capital cities, and like elsewhere popularity has exploded since the lego movie and lego masters.

Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope.

The description claims the last one sold for $300,000, and that the one your son had is now listed for $1,200,000