Brickadeer

No sure if the mod justifies an own thread, but here we go: There were a few things about the droideka that bothered me a little. It occured to me that what I didn't like most could me modded easily with other parts from the set. As you can see here, the droideka looks pretty much like a gunslinger. He has an upper body, shoulders, with arms attached to the shoulders: These features aren't represented by the droideka as it comes in set 75000; rather, the arms are attached to the "hips": Reference pictures can be seen here. The solution is, I think very simple: So basically, I replaced the "shoulder" parts, attached two arms to it and enhanced the arms with "guns". I'm not sure if you guys like it, but I think it is a clear improvement of the official droideka.

As an in Star Wars interested person (I wouldn't go so far to consider myself a fan), I wonder what there exactly is that is continued. The story of Anakin Skywalker? Ended. The story of Palpatine's rise to Darth Sidious who took over the Republic? Ended. The story of Luke becoming a Jedi Knight? Ended. The rise of the Empire, of the rebellion, the war against the Empire and the Empire's defeat? Ended. So apparently, they need a new threat, and if a new threat is introduced, it is not exactly what I'd call a "continuation of the saga". Of course, there are rumors of Sidious' return as a force ghost. I hope that this won't happen. As a force ghost, what can he achieve but taking revenge? And I think compared to "becoming the most powerful being in the galaxy who took over the Republic" to "taking revenge", the latter really, really is a significant downgrade of goals. In other words, he doesn't work as "a new threat". Plus, the OT and the PT have already explored two different kinds of threat: the empire's brutal force as illustrated in EP IV (Vader capturing Leia's ship, Vader interrogating, Alderan's destruction and so on), and the subtle rise of an enemy from the within. Now, with the announcement of EP VII, Disney held that George wrote the new trilogy; in an interview, Mark Hamill confirmed that George spoke with him about this new trilogy half a year ago. Nevertheless, I wonder how credible these statements are. Did George write it? Noone knows for sure. Did he actually talk to Hamill? Noone knows for sure. Does Hamill have a good cause to lie on the subject? That depends if a role for him in the new trilogy is regarded as a "good cause" or not. Is there, to make the point, the possibility that the story of George's new trilogy is basically a hoax created to help milking the cash cow? I think yes, that may be the case. Thus, I think holding expectations low is a pretty good approach.

I don't have high hopes. That doesn't mean that I expect the new movies to be bad either, but I'm prepared for the worst. The point is that disney is a company that made an investment, and their primary goal is to generate revenue. The current strategy for EP VII is risk-averse, that means they chose personel with a high reputation in the film business, like Abrams. Thus, I think the film will be made to appeal to the mass market, so if in doubt, the design principle will be "what sells" rather than "does it feel Star Wars'ish". Per definition, a risk exists if the consequences of a certain decision are unknown at the point it is made. In this regard, making Star Wars back in the 70s was a risky decision: the genre crossover was new, and noone actually knew if the film would generate revenues or not. Basically, Lucas' vision and McQuarrie's visualization of this vision were the criteria to make the film. The problem between creative freedom and predicatability s expressed in Steve Job's quotes, "How does somebody know what they want if they haven’t even seen it?", or "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Now, will the guys making EP VII enjoy the freedom to design the film the way they want it, or will they have to take external restrictions into account, aiming on securing the outcome of their work? I think the last will be the case.

@Fives: thanks for taking the effort of writing such an extensive summary. What always bothered me about the PT is that everything culminated in Anakin becoming Vader. It happened at the end of EP III, together with the destruction of the Jedi order, which always left me with the question what for Sidious exactly needed Vader. And I found the way the friendship of Anakin and Obi Wan was shown to be artificial and not convincing. I think that I'd agree with a couple or even many of the ideas the guy suggested. I'd like to see a remake of the PT, but I don't think it's likely to happen.

The link doesn't work for me :/ Can you give some more information?

This is an 1x1 brick: (picture taken from bricklink.com) Put 28 of them together (vertically), and you got the heigth. Put 33 of them in a horizontal line, and you got the length.

I wouldn't bricklink sets again, except small vehicles that consist of bricks that are available in large quantities. In my experience, you won't save any money. In my opinion, there are very few sets worth even considering bricklinking. Among those you mention I'd consider 10179 and 10212 worth bricklinking in principle. But some parts of 10179 are extremely expensive by now, and I think Lego will remake the set anyway. 10212, however, doesn't come with a lot of unusual parts, so bricklinking the set may be possible, especially if you combine buying parts with buying minifigs, if you concentrate on the rare parts first, and if you aren't in hurry. I do not like the other three sets that much that I'd consider buying them, let alone considering bricklinking them.

One of my favourite build of yours so far Your building style is immediately recognizable.

http://www.thebrickf...comic-con-2013/ Plus, they are not mentioned on nycc's website as exhibitors.

You may be correct about the facts you state. However, the point is that TLG still could integrate features seen in TCW into a PT set. It's a simple design decision.

Thanks, I supposed that this might be the case, but thanks for the confirmation! I have a crush on clone troopers of all kinds, so I really would have liked to get this one. On the other hand, the price of this "free" clone can be determined by the difference in the prices for the sets I would have bought at s&h, and the discounted prices I'd pay elsewhere. Seen it this way, it doesn't really make sense to order at s&h anyway.

The same is true for Germany. I get the VW minibus/camper for free, but I don't get the clone lieutenant.

When it comes to Star Wars, I like Tattooine, Hoth, the Battle of Geonosis (EP II), and the clone soldiers from EP III. I'm not a huge fan of Endor, but I cannot neglect the fact that it gets the better sets, e. g. Ewok Village, and the Imperial Shuttle already mentioned by LegoFjotten. Hoth, on the other land, still lacks a decent base; plus, the Snowspeeder and the X-Wing still are not looking very well. Nevertheless, altough retired, I like 8089 because it contains a Wampa. 75014is nice because of the Taun-Taun and the minifigs. To me, 9490 and 9496are pretty nice as well. 75005comes up with a Rancor, with is pretty iconic as well. There are a couple of sets from the PT I'd definetly go for, namely 75021and 75019. edit: I wasn't a fan of the animated series, either. But after having watched it I have to say that it clearly has its moments, and I regret Disney's decision to cancel the show. 7930 is small, green and not very spectacular, but it is among my favourite sets.

I find the display rather impressive Since the display isn't about being movie accurate, but rather about being impressive and ultimately changing the image of Lego, I don't share the concerns raised by some of my predecessors.

I like the build, and I particularly like the "dialogue system" you're using in your presentation.

All in all, I'm pleased with this wave. The Kashyykk battlepack would be great if TLG had changed the mold of the helmet. It doesn't occur to me that this is the case, though. Some people complain about the Death Star battlepack because they don't like the gunners. But I like the battlepack because of the two imperial gurads :) I like the wheelbike, and the droid gunship. I share the concerns about 75037, though; I think it should contain a second clone.

That's wrong. It wasn't "a muslim community in Turkey", but a Turkish community in Austria, more precisely officials of an organisation claiming to represent the Turkish community in Austria.

I'm sorry, my statement wasn't meant to be a form of critique of what you said. What I meant is that to me, it's not bad news rather than good news: it never struck my mind that anyone else but Williams would score EP VII. And if that would have been the case, well, that would have been bad news to me (although Disney probably would have sold that as a decent, exciting and awesome innovation to the us). So my point is that this news actually isn't a news to me; it simply was already part of my expectations I have already formed of EP VII. Hm. I'm not sure if it's clear what I mean.

"Battle of Felucia" would fit to EP III.

I didn't know the ship, and with the studs up, it looked ancient to me rather than modern. But I really, really like how you translated the ship into Lego.

Well. I would have found it quite amateurish if Disney didn't make sure that Williams is still a part of Star Wars before announcing Episode 7. So to me, it is not bad news.

What did I miss? What Stormtroopers?

I have a question regarding how accessory is attached to minifigures. My focus are Star Wars minifigures, and accessories that are attached to the neck. The usual way (I think since Classic Space) is 1) to attach the accessory to the neck and 2) to attach the head to the neck. The trade-off is that minifigs wearing accessory are a bit taller than minifigs not wearing accessory. My question is if anyone ever thought of making the hole in the accessory a bit bigger in order 1) to attach the accessory to the head and than 2) to attach the head to the neck.

For the new phase I troopers featuring the last wave's AOTC sets, the same old helmet molds from the TCW sets were used. I think that the TCW phase II helmet molds were designed with the purpose to be used for the phase II PT helmets as well. In the PT, there were no ARCs with the exception of Cody's visor. That explains as well why Rex' phase II helmet has no holes (same mold, different printing). So to me the questions are why TLG decided to make one mold instead of two (for TCW and the PT phase II helmets), and why TLG decided to make this one mold without holes rather than with holes. And I think the underlying rationale is that TLG came to the conclusion that the helmets look better without helmets, that the PT hardly features ARCs anyway, and that having phase II TCW helmets with holes is of minor importance.

To me, it's not primary about accuracy. But I disagree with your statement that it's "as accurate as it can be in this scale". I disagree as well that it's primarily a matter of size. The phase I helmet and the Stormtrooper helmet are out of size as well, as basically all Lego helmets are to a certain degree "out of size".