Supersonic

The stormtrooper helmets are literally the only thing that is different. TCW figs had faces that made many characters completely uninteresting, Rebels faces look fine. Compare TCW Ahsoka to Rebels Ahsoka, for example. Rebels sets have the problem that a) there are new movies to compete with, and movies obviously are higher priority; b) that many Rebels vehicles are just OT repeats that would sell better as Ep IV or V sets (say, Y-Wings, TIEs, Star Destroyers, AT-ATs...), and c) that the few good sets they've released have been sadly overpriced (the Combat Frigate and A-Wing vs TIE are really well designed, but are more expensive than comparable sets from movies). It's hard to come up with reasonable Rebels sets if you think about it. The TIE Defender maybe, the Imperial Light Cruiser...and those would still have the problem that Rebels figs are unappealing if you don't watch the show.

No way we don't get anything before that - they might try to keep the leaks to a minimum, but we even got some for TFA where security was at 110%. Generally, the box art changes its general style every one or two years to keep things fresh (we went from 2014's dark Vader design to 2015's light grey Rebels theme, then to the two dark themes). I agree that the darker boxes looked better, but the white red style will definitely signal that those sets are brand new.

The difference is that the Falcon is the single most iconic SW vehicle, while the Snowspeeder is one among many. I guess rehashes of the Y-Wing, Star Destroyer, or Rebel Blockade Runner would have made more sense to me simply because they look better! It's really a well done UCS, it's just weird they would go with that subject.

White instead of LBG always looks off to me on OT Rebel vehicles - didn't like it on X-Wings, certainly don't like it on the Snowspeeder. Any still from ESB shows the thing being clearly light grey. Maybe they want to evoke that snowy Hoth feeling with all the white, but personally I'd prefer a dirty, used look which would fit the Snowspeeder much better. It's still a clear improvement over the first one (the techniques used on the nose are beautiful) but I'm not sure it warrants its price tag.

I guess the guy who took the photo would claim it's from several UCS Snowspeeders - even if the entire squadron is in there, they would have different helmets and other details. I also really hope the one or two figures that will eventually be in there don't have that comically happy/shocked face - that's good for playing, but looks weird on display.

In 2016, first pictures of the TIE Striker (i.e., pictures of the concept art) leaked in May and we had high-resolution final pics of the sets in early June. Of course that was extremely early by all standards, but it's as likely as TFA's relatively late leaks (remember the hype around 7 was HUGE - 8 won't get anywhere near that level). Rumour has it this year's Force Friday will be September 1st, which would mean TLJ sets release a full month earlier than the Rogue One sets. The last few waves showed that there is still huge variance in leaks, of course - we only got pictures for some January sets in late November, followed by summer set pictures only two months later.

A new T-65 X-Wing is way overdue and would have been perfect as a Rogue One tie-in - shame they had to release a second Force Awakens X-Wing, because I'm somewhat sure they didn't want three X-Wings on shelves at the same time! It would also be a perfect way to give us some of the Alliance generals introduced in Rogue One, as well as Dodonna and Mothma. Good thing is that new X-Wings being released in the future is really a thing of certainty, because they always sell, and the Episode 7 ones won't be around forever. One more thought on the Rebels sets - it's really kind of a problem when the most compelling things to come out of the show are OT rehashes. TLG doesn't need Rebels to release a TIE Interceptor, they can do that as an ROTJ set - same thing they just did with the A-Wing. With the Hammerhead coming to fame in Rogue One, how many interesting vehicles are exclusively in Rebels? The Imperial Light Cruiser probably, the Light Carrier (which is impossible to release as a Lego set really)...not a whole lot.

If the rumoured third UCS isn't a playset, there aren't that many ships left that weren't done before. I don't think we will see another PT UCS anytime soon (otherwise things like the Venator, ARC-170 or Republic Gunship would be nice), and we've seen almost all the OT classics as UCS already. The Nebulon B and AT-AT are probably out due to stability constraints, TFA didn't introduce anything that's UCS-worthy... the A-Wing seems somewhat likely from that perspective. Or they completely surprise us with a Rogue One UCS! I do wonder though how a third UCS would fit into a year that already has what is rumoured to be the most expensive set of all time...I definitely see people paying $600+ for the UCS Falcon and $200 for the Snowspeeder - are people going to afford another $200+ UCS after that? It's definitely different this year. People who are known to have had at least some degree of insider information for years have hinted at or confirmed the UCS Falcon. The 40th anniversary is also likely the best opportunity to get it out there for a while.

I actually feel like that's a bad sign - Sabine is probably the most interesting fig from Rebels (changing armor, rare helmet, mandalorian armor is always cool) and she's getting stuffed into an Advent Calendar, a place for minifigures that have no place anywhere else. I like the observation about only early season stuff getting into Lego sets, but that's not the only problem the Rebels set had - just take the Rebel Combat Frigate and A-Wing set from last summer as examples. Both are really well done IMO (the A-Wing and TIE definitely are), but priced really high, and you would expect Rebels sets to be less expensive if anything! Compare the €100 A-Wing vs TIE to the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium at the same price point and it's not hard to see why it didn't sell well, same for the €120 Phoenix Home vs ,say, the 2014 AT-AT. If we don't even get obvious remakes that show up in Rebels, such as the TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber and Tantive IV, it doesn't look too good for more Rebels sets. The amount of new movies is going to increase every year - 2018 could have sets for Ep 7, Ep 8, Rogue One and both OT and PT. Add the Freemaker stuff and there is really no space left for sets that will probably not sell as well as classic vehicle remakes.

Are you saying you saw the Episode VIII sets that the whole world will have to wait ages to see...but you still like the Darth Vader set from Episode III more? :P Seriously though, Vader and Palpatine in a 30€ set is amazing already, plus the build and the burnt Vader fig...

TLG aren't even allowed to spoil anything from TLJ yet. It's a TFA set and that's it. Brickset has 75226, 75228, 75229 and 75230 listed as unreleased buildable figures - guess those would be the Episode VIII ones. 75192 and 75193 are also still listed as possible summer exclusives. Also, the former "Rebel Hangar" set with the A-Wing's figures (75179) is now an Episode VIII set, so we can officially discard that rumor.

They did with the Ghost microfighter. I'm pretty sure they'd rather use the Ghost crew to sell microfighters than not having them in any sets at all. Of course, there's still so much stuff from Rebels that would make great sets: the TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber, TIE Defender, Imperial Light Cruiser, Corellian Corvette, Hammerhead, Mandalorian/Concordian Starfighters... they did less important vehicles from The Clone Wars as sets. Problem is, of course, that TCW was the only new SW content released at the time, while Rebels is in direct competition to (from now on) Episode 7, Rogue One, and Episode 8... If they continue to do only 4 microfighters per year like they did in 2017, it will very likely be four Episode 8 microfighters in 2018, and nobody knows if Rebels will even be around in 2019, so Rebels really might be running out of time and space there.

Well, we haven't seen the full lineup yet, but yeah - what we can see is somewhat weak. I spot a FO Stormtrooper, a FO Snowtrooper, an Imperial/FO Officer, Santa BB8, a Jakku thug and...a Resistance guy? Nothing outstanding, but it's only 6 figures - the last calendars had 7 or 8, so we might still be missing something good.

If 75179 is an Episode 8 set, then it can't be a Rebel Hangar...because a) there is no way the name of an Ep VIII set would be out there that early (i.e. last November), and b) there is no rebellion in the ST, just the Resistance. The Hangar set is out with this confirmation. Don't be so sure - we've been getting stuff from all Episodes lately despite TFA and Rogue One. TFA looks 100% done with this summer's sets (granted, it looked done before, but Ep VIII will replace it for a bit), and there's always vehicles reappearing in new movies (like much of Rogue One, but also the Falcon or the rumoured TIE bomber and *certain rebel fighter* in VIII).

Not particularly - they have changed set information based on speculations before, and I see no reason to believe they have other sources than the people who update this thread here. Don't get me wrong, I'd love a Rebel Hangar set, but it doesn't look good - there's already a lot of summer sets we know of from the catalogue, plus the Jedi Starfighter that was rumoured. Again, Rebel Hangar started out with the figures from the 2017 A-Wing, leading me to believe somebody guessed the set those figures belong to and it just kinda stuck.

"Cashgrabbing"? Are you implying anything TLG does is *not* done with the intention to maximize profits? The freemaker sets are there because about half a million people watched each episode of the show, and those people are probably all customers already. Between Rogue One and Episode 8 in two subsequent years and a new UCS Falcon, AFOLs already get a lot to spend their money on in 2016 - 2017. Never ever forget that TLG still has a large amount of children to cater to, and that unlike us they have sales data. More Freemaker sets means the last two didn't sell badly. Concerning the Rebel Hangar/Rebel Base set, a UCS set is pretty much ruled out (we know the 2017 ones - MF and Snowspeeder), and with all the regurgitating and dilution of information across different sites, I wouldn't expect it to exist at all at this point. No credible source currently has it listed, and the person who saw the catalogue left it out.

In comparison these prices seem too cheap if anything - Duel on Naboo and Landspeeder might very well be more than 19,99 (Naboo is very close to the Carbon Freezing Chamber after all). Basically, the Y-Wing is this wave's Resistance Troop Transport, and Scarif is this wave's Takodana, so you can pretty much expect them to be equally priced, no matter what region. The only increases compared to the past are the A-Wing and the Phantom, both of which have mark-ups that are consistent in the countries where they are already sold.

Funnily enough, TLG seem to have realised people use piece count as a measure - the two A-Wings are identical in size and have the same amount of figures; the new one just has more small parts and the small ground crew vehicle. You're really paying 20 bucks extra for the vehicle and an updated design. It's not Brexit, either - in Germany the old one was 30 and the new one is 50. That's why I never liked the price per piece argument - once the thing sits on a shelf, I only care how it looks, not how many pieces it took to get there. The better argument would be that the new A-Wing looks so much better because of those extra pieces (which it kinda does, tbf - it's a huge improvement from the already very good 2013 version).

The notion that TLG would leak unfinished set pictures just to see the reactions of a dozen or so EB members is utterly ridiculous - they have internal testing and panels to optimize sets, no need to rely on strangers on the internet. That set started out with the figures from the A-Wing (Lando, Pilot, Crewman) but a different number. I feel like "Rebel Hangar" was just somebody's guess for the A-Wing's figs and that the set doesn't exist, but for what it's worth, the number it had in the speculation is not currently taken by any other set. The problem is that there's already quite many sets for this summer - it's getting unlikely that we're still missing something big.

If that ever happened (and it won't, sadly) I'd go for a mix of exclusives that are unlikely to make sense in sets and somewhat generic troopers/pilots/ground crewmen that can be bought in multiples. Characters like R2D2, C3PO or Han would be wasted given that they're in $30 sets all the time.

Or - hear me out - there might be kids out there who like playing with them. I know the idea of children buying Lego and playing with it seems very strange, but consider it. Micros are generally on the expensive side, but considering that they're not marketed at AFOLS, they can be useful. Figures like the Imperial Officers and the X-Wing/U-Wing pilots with their exclusive helmets wouldn't exist or would be much rarer otherwise.

There's concept art in "The Art of Star Wars Rogue One" that shows one preliminary TIE Striker variant that looks exactly like the Lego one: http://i.imgur.com/9Ul7euU.jpg It's pretty clear the TLG version is version 2A...which is not the one used in the movie. Looks great though.

RO will take over RotS within the next few weeks even adjusted for inflation, but it doesn't change my point anyway - we are still getting sets for movies which were released years ago and weren't exactly critically acclaimed, and at least some of them made less money than RO too. There is no reason to believe (at least for now - things might chance a few years from now, when there are more Disney era films out) that any SW movie would see no more set releases - even AotC, the least popular and least successfull one, is getting one in 2017.

Again, all SW movies so far keep getting sets even 10+ years after release, and the PT was way less successfull than Rogue One (critically as well as commercially). 2017 alone, we're getting sets from The Clone Wars, Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 (as well as 7, 8, Rogue One and Rebels!)...we will see Rogue One sets in the future, for sure.

That's a really nice idea to add some value to these promo figures. Also, that droid looks amazing and would be a great May the 4th fig.