Bobbtom

Are we really going to retread this. The fact that a basic character like captain rex is currently $130 on bricklink speaks for itself. Unlike someone random like finch dallow. You already knew that but just couldn't resist it as always. You may be fortunate enough that you already have most of the desirable figures and sets from the TCW/prequel heavy era from almost 10 years ago, but many people, especially kids do not.

Saying Lego hates the PT without any evidence is just as silly as bending over backwards to defend whatever anti-consumer thing they come up with

Lego hasn't been consistent with intending accessory packs to be army builders or not. There's been accessory packs with only named characters (spiderman etc), accessory packs with only generic army building figures (police, knights etc), and ones with two named characters and two army builder characters (marvel, ninjago etc). Then again we had actual battle packs with two named characters and two army characters (ki adi mundi battlepack). So what the accessory pack could have is up in the air really

Nice new box art. AT-ST is a great built with nice figures and at a great price. I don't mind the inclusion of a female rebel trooper and don't have a problem about it at all. Telling people who don't like it to "gO bRiCkLinK" is not a solution unless you are the one to pay for their bricklink orders to replace the heads. Sets are judged based on what you get for the price, not what you could make of it by spending more. People value different things about sets and just because you don't mind something about a set doesn't make their criticism any less valid. The snowtrooper battlepack has a good selection of figures and accurate builds, especially the speeder. The price hike is completely ridiculous and is not justified at all- a 25% increase in the US. Seems like most here are fortunate enough that a 25% price hike doesn't bother them in the slightest but many people aren't. Especially, kids, literally the target audience. The price is nothing more than lego cashing in on their global 36% increased sales and 140% increased profit. Clearly people are just buying whatever they put out at whatever prices and the price of this set reflects that.

Are we really going to give a corporation the benefit of the doubt here. Just because they make children's toys doesn't mean they're any different. Stop defending them. You gain nothing doing so and only harm yourself and others. Golden rule and primary consideration is they priced the AT-AT based on what they think people are willing to pay for it. And it looks like people are

The whole brigade was out in force

I hope it's not yet another futuristic-space-mech theme. I hope for a more grounded theme like monster hunters. Currently there's a huge number of futuristic-space-mech themes/sets: star wars, ninjago, monkie kid, city, ideas sets. It all becomes samey and tired

Whether molds are expensive if they cost hundreds of thousands or just 90k is all relative. They were expensive in the 90s when lego was barely scraping by, but now the cost of new molds is evidently no longer a major problem, seeing as they can constantly afford to throw in new molds that are used only once, sometimes for CMFs with a production span of like 3 months, then are never seen again

And some kids like to army build. How do you know for sure they didn't sell too well overall? So what if they have named characters? Your point was that MF packs with the same character or variants of characters wouldn't sell and lego would not make them, yet that's what they're doing right now, whether it be including a figure directly from an expensive set or including them with a tiny or large variation. (eg. Tiny: city MF set with tiny variations of existing police and robber minifigs. Large: Monkie kid different outfits) When it comes down to a a SW MF pack with 1) rex and jesse or 2) anakin and ahsoka, and two 501st clones (straight from the set or with variations), or even a obi-wan one with the 212th would correlate exactly with what they're doing right now for all the other MF packs. I'm not expecting a MF pack with 4 unnamed clones but two named charactes and two regular clones would follow the trend of what they've been doing

I get what you are trying to say and it does make sense, but lego has sold multiple clone variations not just successive, but simultaneous times as well. In addition, the MF packs have consistently included the exact same characters you could get in sets or small variations of characters. e.g. the current police one has figures you could already get in sets and some with small variations, and the monkie kid one includes small variation of characters AND one that you can already get in sets. Just a cursory look at all of them will give you more examples. So there is a consistent market for repetition and small variations for all kinds of MF packs that are popular with kids, not just among AFOLs. For some reason It's always alluded by talking heads that kids don't like to army build. Not all, but some certainly do A very good example is the marvel one. The AIM agents are already in like what feels like every single marvel set, yet they included 2 in the MF pack

Most likely because they found a way to charge $15 for a battlepack with even less pieces than traditional battle packs. The MF packs have been steadily increasing in prices and just recently found it's way to $15, the old battlepack price. Combined with the fact that they found out they can sell "premium" battle-pack-like sets for $30, I will not be surprised if this is the new pricing structure for battle-pack type sets. $15 for 3 or 4 figures with an even more measly build (MF packs) and $30 for the more "premium" builds(501st, dark troopers). After all, they are a corporation and are always finding how just how far to find that "sweet-spot" for rising prices and maintaining high sales. I don't think asking for a new mold is outrageous in any way and won't break lego's budget. This is no longer the 90s- they regularly put out enormous amounts of parts with new molds, some of which are literally one offs and are never seen again. That being said I would not mind if the current phase 2 mold is still reused so long as much requested figures have updated versions made of them.

Star wars mission fleet are literally play sets with shooting projectiles and are for ages 4+. Guess what, the tie fighter and other OT sets from january 2021 have also been on sale at 20% the last months. So based on your logic OT sets sell badly and that retailers are trying to clear stock of these sets. The 20% is a standard discount used by retailers for most Lego products beyond the original release date

The point is that lego doesn't seem to think that a new captain rex figure and others are warranted despite the huge demand, but hasbro does and has continually made constant variations and new releases of rex and other figures in different product lines- not just one line. Clearly the demand for them is there among kids otherwise they would have been one offs that are never to be seen again. This is indicative of a lot more than just the one character. I was fortunate enough to obtain a phase 2 rex years ago at a reasonable price but many people can not. I know kids who would like one but the price of one these days is pushing $150+, completely outrageous

Sometimes it's helpful to remember that lego isn't the only company producing star wars merch. Hasbro is out there making things for every SW fan from every era. I guess kids dont like captain rex or shock troopers so those black series figures are being sold on deep discount. Wait nevermind, they sold out immediately last year and are now fetching insane resale values. Not only that but hasbro knows of their popularity and made more versions of those figures and playsets for their mission fleet series (intended for even younger audiences then the black series). But let's just keep dismissing people on here as out of touch AFOLs or whatever.

If Harry potter is considered fairly standard then star wars is in a sad place. I'm not a harry potter fan but the HP line these past few years have blown my mind. Two CMFs, a huge number of minifigures encompassing an insanely large number of characters with tons of variants and new molds left and right, and sets that just keep getting better and better. I thought the hogwarts sets from 2018 were peak already, but the 2021 one surpasses them ten fold; despite being the same location, they made the sets both fresh and different enough that the line remains enjoyable. The star wars line sorts of does this with sets like the MBS cantina but overall I feel apathetic abut the majority of sets. Having a death star duel retire then another version that is 99% the same a few years later is bland to say the least

....All the rehashes possible??? It's been almost 15 years since the last and only real venator set not to mention a huge number of PT vehicles, minifigures and locations we've yet to have again or at all, irregardless of even OT vehicles that we havent seen any iteration since. If there won't be an AT-TE or even a rex figure during this "quiet period" then we'll never see one for at least another 5-10 years. New SW media will be coming out the next few years and those will be the ones that sets are based off of. If it's not now It's almost as if the internet has a diverse range of people with varying opinions

A qualitative approach doesn't translate well for something as subjective as lego sets. Luke's landspeeder is only in ANH for mere minutes, the AT-AP was in action for maybe just a minute in ROTS yet we've had many versions of both vehicles. A P2 white clone is so basic and baseline for any army that it's absence is mind boggling. No, this has already been discussed extensively and an actual data point analysis was posted earlier this month. OT sets and variants have overwhelming and consistently come out in far greater numbers than PT sets overall. This is only worse when some technically "non OT" sets like the rogue one AT-ST is literally a OT set. The winter wave is not going to include "some OT" it's likely turning out to be the most OT wave we've had in a long time despite the constant number of OT sets throughout the years. PT sets are a strikingly low amount in comparison and the ones that do release are mostly a small handful of the usual re-releases. No one is asking for an entire wave of PT sets but it's more likely than not that the entire winter 2022 wave doesn't have any PT. The mace windu tank rumor is probably too good to be true so I'm not putting any hopes up for it

It's probable that we still won't get another release of a white phase 2 clone at this time. I will be pleased if we do, but am not going to hold my breath. At this point the only reason I can think why we still havent got another version is that lego thinks they are interchangeable with stormtroopers. I hope i'm wrong.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mace_Windu's_unit

If the fighter tank is actually real then I'm extremely excited. Regardless of the vehicle's origin, it's always looked cool and I've liked all the versions of it. I'm a fan of mace windu and would be even more excited if the clones are the corresponding ones from his unit in TCW S7. I might be in the minority but I actually like the phase 2 geonosis clones even if they are made up. Yea, lego should have made a battlepack with the plain white phase 2, but the geonosis ones still look cool

No doubt some will, but since even the youtubers dont expect clones only in a CMF this is unlikely to be a popular opinion. Regardless this isn't a reason not to do a SW cmf if people are worried about that

I dont think any rational person is asking for a SW cmf for army building. CMFs are readily available for 3-4 months before supply starts drying up and the next one is released. The most I would want in a CMF would be only one unique clone or other army figure. The rest would be unique characters or characters in different outfits that we haven't had before e.g. wat tambor, padme, aunt beru, etc

Lego has directly sold star wars minifigure only poly bags for money at retailers and have themselves sold the obi-wan 20th anniversary polybag on their own website. Hasbro is not some unsophisticated corporation that would be ignorant of these actions. They are a major competitor in toys and would have sued to stop it immediately. Let's not even get into the fact that you build both minifigures and buildable figures yet it's the buildable figures that are more similar in size and usability of a actual Hasbro action figures. if all it took was to add 5 small pieces for a stand than the usual one piece stand for the obiwan polybag to be extra safe with the license we would have seen a star wars minifigure series by now. But we don't because they make more money putting a pitiful number of desirable figures in sets and they know it. No one is forcing them to make the currently cheapest way to get darth vader in a $70 set. No one is forcing them to put moff gideon, fennec shand and one dark trooper in one $160 set that contains only 5 minifigures. No one is forcing them to sell only 4 clones in a $30 set. No one is forcing them to include only 4 figures in battlepacks and raise prices far faster than inflation. This is all on them and it comes down to money

For met at least, If I assume the worst then I can't be disappointed. If the death star battle is actually a detention block set and the yoda's training is a prequel set, then I can only be excited