Samppu

Agreeing with you. Regular torsos are at least as good if not even better than the female ones, as the "femaling" of a torso by covering the arcs with black color is somewhat weird looking. It works with e.g. Juno Eclipse, because there the curvature is kind of inherent, only the lines are visible, and there is no odd black space on some other background color as her torso is black actually. But yep, we could do with more female heads. They are plenty in the classic yellow line but very few in the light flesh or in any other realistic skin color from the licenced themes. I am not voting for the new kinds of X-Wing helmets, though. They are too oversized and therefor ugly, I am afraid. It was a nice idea to include the goggles already in the helmet, the mold just didn't work out very well. - Samppu

Looks nice! I love the fact that the legs are incorporated into the saddle. The front part might still benefit from a more horizontal orientation, however. E.g. by using these corner pieces https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=14719&name=Tile 2 x 2 Corner&category=[Tile]#T=S&C=88&O={"color":88,"iconly":0} attached to these pieces? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=92690&name=Bar 1L with Top Stud and 2 Side Studs&category=[Bar]#T=S&C=77&O={"color":77,"iconly":0} - Samppu

Here is another one, I love this! It's a lovely idea to "modernize" old favorites. =) The studless design makes it really stand out. I am only missing the pterosaur anymore... ;D - Samppu

I couldn't agree more on the first point. However, at least in the case of TFA the redesigned X-Wing is a sort of nostalgic tribute to the McQuarrie concept art X-Wing: Nevertheless, they should have used more imagination in general. Almost exact remakes of the classic TIE fighter, Y-Wing and A-Wing are not tributes to anymore, but just dull and feel almost lazy. Not that I would really care about the sequels anyway, had they done so, due to the poor or basically non existent story line that they copied that too, in addition to the vehicles. One additional big reason why Resistance is not attracting so much young audience is, at least in Finland and probably the same reason applies to some other European countries, that the Resistance is only shown on Disney+ paid channel that basically no one here owns (it is not really part of the culture here to buy a whole TV channel for your child, as Disney+ does not really have any adult shows). Had they sold it to the regular channels or even Netflix or something that is commonly used here, it would be more available to the kids. Probably they thought people will simply buy the Disney+ channel, but I consider that poor local strategy. They might have been better off showing at least the first season in some more common channel and then put it to the Disney+ for the second season or something like that if going to be so greedy. - Samppu

Thanks for the article, that was an interesting piece. I certainly hope Lego will look to find some creative ways to evolve Star Wars, as leaning on Disney does not seem to pay off. I mean that going by the book, that is, releasing a bunch of new sets with each coming movie has not worked well with TLJ nor Solo, and I doubt TROS would be any better as a movie. Instead focusing on creative ways to look the original trilogy and the prequel era might be a way to go. Something like discussed here. New kinds of sets based on epic locations, maybe some similar kinds of ideas that they are trying with the new concept in the Hidden side ghost series. Combining Lego BOOST and the droids, especially R2-D2 is certainly a good example of this, and I believe it will be a success as the BOOST already was. - Samppu

I suppose by randomly picking up families who are willing to take part in the surveys, which is the standard method for any research, but if they use some other principles, I don't really know. I would guess the families are compensated with Lego sets and bricks afterwards. Usually they do this in Denmark for obvious reasons, but I actually got a chance to take part in one such survey through the LUG network a few years ago. Generally there are websites that have hundreds of opportunities to take part in similar surveys that often offer the products or some discounts etc. for compensation. I have never really tried them, but generally I know that there are quite a lot of interesting stuff available there. The same applies to the scientific research as well, but in both cases you often need to dig out these opportunities by yourself usually. - Samppu

Lego does them as does every other big brand in the industry. It would be poor decision making to drive billion dollar business on the basis of gut feelings only. Not necessarily for every theme or new concept, but generally they do. E.g. before launching the Friends theme they surveyed 6000 families with girls either playing with the regular minifigures and the Lego bricks or Friends character prototypes of the time and the Lego bricks before concluding that the mini doll body was a crucial factor for the girls' interest in the play. I don't know if they have done such a study regarding the pirate theme directly but they have done extensive research on the modernized vs. traditional play themes and the results can be seen on the Lego shelves: the kids, at least according to their studies, prefer to play with Ninjago rather than actual historical ninjas etc. - Samppu

Oh, this sounds supercool! I love the concept. Unfortunately I cannot join you as I am finishing off my thesis this Autumn, but at least I can follow the stories by other builders. =) - Samppu

Yeah, this would be great. - Samppu

I guess the problem is that these days advertising is an animation series or a movie or similar, but at the moment due to the reasons above making such a series about pirates for kids is difficult: first, you have to take a great risk as the research surveys probably tell you that there is no existing market for the theme. Even if you decided to take the risk just for the sake of the pirate theme, you should somehow circumvent the associated violence of the theme in order to "downgrade" your media content to be suitable for the kids by making it to be space pirates or similar. This is the feel I have got from the industry. I have no doubts Lego would make pirate sets again, if there was a popular show about pirates. And about the fact that they are not even trying, I totally agree especially when it comes to the toy industry in general. It is another reason to love Lego because they actually put a lot of effort and thought in their products which are made to last generations. Yeah, we can be frustrated not getting certain kinds of new figures, upgrades to designs or special themes we like, but generally Lego thinks these decisions through and is willing to invest a lot into quality. The toy industry in general is not. Most of the other brands we had on our shelves in the shop where I used to work during my studies had the philosophy that the kids do not care or see the difference in quality and the toys had no need to last for long, because they were supposed to be changed to something new in a short rotation. Sad, but it actually was not too far from the truth in many cases. The same often applied even to the media content. - Samppu

I think the reason behind this is that they simply believe (probably for a good reason) that the remakes of yet another Falcon sell better than the remake of the Barracuda would. This is a more extensive phenomen, though. Think about the general appearance of any toy nowadays: they are mostly based on modernized themes such as Ninjago over actual ninjas, some sort of cyborg warriors over classic knight figures etc. I have actually worked quite a few years in one of the biggest toy shops in Finland, and frankly, the classic themes beside the city theme were never very popular in any class of toys. However, it is a self sustaining loop. The kids mostly get exited about the themes they discover in their morning television (or nowadays in Youtube and computer games such as Minecraft). The content producers making morning TV shows for kids very often do not wish to take big risks but rather do some research what is popular and go with that. Modernized themes are popular. Hence they make more such themes. Kids learn to like them, because they are the ones they confront everywhere. The producers make yet another research and conclude that such themes seem to be popular and hence make more similar content. And so on. Another factor especially in the EU area is also that there are surprisingly strict rules what you can show for kids on the TV nowadays (ironically these rules do not govern the internet...). A solution many content producers have ended up using is to cover violence with fantasy and cartoonish representations. Our beloved Clone Wars TV show is probably the most curious example of this. When you think of it, it actually sounds pretty weird. Make a TV series for kids that is supposed to depict the cruelest and the bloodiest war in the Star Wars timeline and hide the death in cartoon action and make it look like a superhero story. Summa summarum, in order to launch the Black Sea Barracuda or any other similar remake, the best bet would be to have a TV series etc. supporting its marketing but for the previous reasons it should apply to quite a few more new rules nowadays, I would guess. From this perspective Falcon is an easy and a good option. Personally I want to keep the Star Wars on the shelves anyway, though it is a pitty that these classic themes seem to have lost the fight for Ninjago etc. - Samppu

Well, as Lego Star Wars as a combination is a pretty big part of my life, I hope it will go on forever. I am a mocer so I dont care about the sets anyway, but I do care about the steady source of new figures and our hobby culture around it active and well. I agree they could do tricks to improve the quality of the sets as others pointed out, the same design for e.g. the snowspeeder for the past 20 years is just lazy and dull. - Samppu

Nice! I would recommend trying water decals, too, the surface is much smoother with them. - Samppu

Sounds fair. - Samppu

Another thanks for this listing, I hope many of these are actually possible. - Samppu

Yep, my intention was not to say that this topic would not be relevant (we can all hate the Chinese copy brands and frauds), just to point out that it is thin ice here as @anothergol pointed out. If this situation was on me, I would not dare to do anything about it, because those points that you mention, especially related to fair use, are more or less dependent on the interpretation of the law. E.g. you might know Avanaut who made the book about amazing photographs of Star Wars characters. He ended up being sued by Disney and lost the case, of course. (Luckily for him, this brought him to TLG's attention and he landed a job there afterwards and nowadays his book is printed under the licence.) His case was not interpreted as fair use, so I doubt that these kinds of MOC instructions would. Don't get me wrong, I stand with you guys. All I want to say is that we probably should not bring this issue into publicity, because so far Disney does not know or care about these little businesses we do in relation to our dear hobby, but let's say this particular example would be made into a law court. Disney would possibly be forced to take some action about it, and the end result might not be pleasant if they decided to, e.g. deliberately try to forbid selling of all such MOC instructions and customs. I mean, this kind of a scenario is something you should at least consider before trying anything bigger on this. Especially as @anothergol pointed out, the price is not that big if you only make pocket money anyway. One thing that comes to my mind is that is it possible to sell these instructions to only specific countries? On Bricklink at least you can exclude e.g. China out, if you want. It would not be fool proof but it would make it a lot harder for the frauds nevertheless. Best, Samppu

Unfortunately, I have to agree on this partly. It is a shame that the Chinese steal the MOC instructions, but the truth is that according to the law no one (apart from Disney and the other rightful licence owners) should be making money with creations relating to the Star Wars licence in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and break it, too, and I happily buy custom minifigures representing Star Wars characters, weapons and stuff and I only encourage people to make and sell MOC instructions and keep the hobby world active. I also truly relate to this problem and I am happy to help if I can when I encounter such frauds. Nevertheless, I don't think it would be wise for you to consider a lawsuit or anything of a sort on this as long as you break one yourself when it comes to intellectual properties, as you might only get into a trouble yourself. The thing would be different, of course, if the models would not be under a licence in the first place. - Samppu

Yep, that is what I do. For me personally, I like to think the original episodes VII to IX were and still are the Thrawn trilogy. - Samppu

Totally agreeing with you. I gave up with the Disney movies as soon as I saw the poster for the FA with the third Death Star (Starkiller base). I was afraid how FA could be done in the hands of Disney, but it still managed to be worse, a mere parody of ANH for the most part. TLJ certainly did not improve it. I am sticking in my personal SW universe with the original (Legends) Expanded Universe timeline and building Thrawn trilogy or Episode III locations and ships as MOCs. I only buy sets when they include minifigures and ships/parts that are useful or make sense in the original EU timeline. For example, I bought most of the R1 sets for the minifigures and multiple copies of the Conveyex transport and the Solo trilogy TIE fighter for the same reason. I did not really even like Solo or R1 as movies unfortunately... I mean, they are not bad really, but there clearly is not very much effort in them. R1 is somewhat saved due to the massive and epic battle scene. But they could have been so much better and epic that I hate, how they were "disneytized" which affected both the story and the universe. Every character was made orphant and anti-hero, mostly a dumb one, too. Kessel spice mines changed to a source for fuel (targeting for kids, I guess). Prosperous Corellia turned into a slum for no obvious reason. They really don't feel like they would fit into the Star Wars universe as I have learned to know it from the original episodes I-VI and the books... Sigh. Just imagine how Solo could have looked like. A determined young man from a middle class family in Corellia joins the Empire to become a pilot with his friends. He actually becomes the best one in the galaxy, rivaled only by Soontir Fell, later the Red Baron, his greatest competitor and classmate in the academy. They both are trying impress the same lady they are both in love with, and when it begins to look like Fell is winning, Solo learns the woman is a spy and tries to warn Fell who disregards the warning as jealousy and ends up in a court marshal for conspiracy. Fell ends up commanding the 181st squadron in suicidal combat missions and Solo on his part commands his own squadron on a mission to Kashyyyk. Unimpressed both by the Empire and various guerilla factions rebelling against its rule, Solo decides to move to the gray area between them and join the criminal underworld where he ends up earning a reputation of his own. In this role he finally faces Fell now sitting behind the most recognized elite TIE unit trying to hunt him down in a battle... Something along this line. A deep character who actually makes decisions that define himself, like risking a respected career in order to free an unknown alien from a miserable destiny in slavery. Relevant and epic connections to the existing lore. - Samppu

As a quick reply to the Endor Luke problem: Endor Luke is essentially Luke from the Ewok Village or Final Duel set (they have slightly different printing but the same shirt, only that the kind of "flap" in the shirt is flapping more in the other) with the poncho from Endor Leia and the rebel commando helmet from the Imperial Shuttle set. So we actually have everything for a perfect Endor Luke, just not in one figure, but if it was to be made into a figure, probably it would be done in that way anyway? - Samppu

basebrick.com in general is a good way to keep count what you have. I am not a collector, so I cannot say from that perspective when you try to keep count also what you are still missing and not only the things you already have. - Samppu

Whoah, two meters is impressive for any Lego Star Wars ship! Has it got interior? - Samppu

I agree with the previous writers. Changing the settings to "start date to the top" will solve the problem for those who dont care about building other peoples instructions, but for the MOC instruction builders it would be an improvement to have them all in one place as thus you could 1. find support easily. 2. find other great SW builds that have instructions available for free or purchase (which would be helpful to announce already in the headline) in one place not needing to scroll through the entire EB forum. - Samppu

This might be a surprise, but my personal favorite is 9526 Palpatine's Arrest. The minifigures are great and very exclusive and for a playset this captures probably one of the most epic turning points of the saga. The set design is not the most detailed, of course, because in order to fit everything important into 100 dollars or so forces you to compromise some things, but overall the atmosphere of the environment is just right (even though, the arrest does not even take place in this very room in the movie).

Whoa, I hadn't seen this one before, but it really gave me some inspiration! Wonderful idea and good work! - Samppu