TeufelHund

This happens in Star Wars a bit: * The 2012 Death Star Trooper looks nicer than the 2014 version (tunic as opposed to jump suit) * The 2012 Sandtroopers look better than the 2014 version (proper leg/foot printing) * The 2014 Darth Vader looks better than the 2015/16 version (my opinion - I like the classic helmet better)

It's a nice book - they seemed to have combined the previous vehicle cut-aways into one book with the Visual Guide which makes for a bigger book with a slightly higher page count/cost. There's still some shots from the trailer that never appeared in the final film featured though but I always have a good laugh at some of the ridiculous descriptions of character kit that the author attaches to images. I had a look at the Art of Rogue One book too the other day and that features some great concept art. I'll probably pick that up ocne the price drops a bit.

Meanwhile Dreamworld itself is apparently a ghost town despite it being the main school holidays here...their reputation is so badly tarnished I'm not sure it will survive. Not sure if the investors in this Lego store are going to be too pleased at the moment.

I can't remember the new Phantom docking with the Ghost in the current series anyway, so not sure if making it dockable was necessary. I built the Battle of Scarif set and the two Battlepacks over the weekend...very nice. The Battle of Scarif set in particular looks great and is one of my favourite Star Wars location sets.

Vader's castle UCS? Would look great next to Orthanc...

FYI The builds in the battlepacks are nowhere to be seen in Rogue One - but I guess that's not the point of Battlepacks...

If anyone is interested, screen time for the Rogue One sets is roughly as follows: 1. Krennic's Shuttle 2. Hovertank 3. U-wing 4. Tie Striker 5. At-St (only in a couple of establishing shots)

Just what exactly from the OT is there left that wouldn't be a repeat these days? For vehicles I can only think of the Tie Interceptor and some of the big rebel ships from RotJ that have never had a system scale set (there was a UCS of the Interceptor). Maybe a few locations. Let's face it - the OT is pretty much mined out with regards to TLG being able to bring anything "new" to the table. Although new versions of some sets are probably long overdue (such as Cloud City).

I can't see myself getting any of these sets given I already have all the vehicles already from previous sets and there are no standout minifigs other than maybe Lando which I can live without.

Loving the Battle of Scarif set (even if they didn't do a very good job of hiding Andor's alternate expression with the hair piece selected and the bunker is just a facade). I can see it being a great centre piece to a diorama with Rebels/Imperials battling it out and the inevitable AT-ACT set. The vegetation techniques remind me a bit of those used in last year's Pirates sets and should be easy to replicate in order to supplement the build. I'm a bit worried that the Empire leaves the Death Star plans just sitting on a rack inside the front door of the bunker though...reminds me of a magazine in a waiting room!

Those are Northern hemisphere Summer sets so likely not until next year - possibly at the New York Toy Fair which I think is in February.

By "old ones" I think you mean the Rebels variation which have blue vents (classic trilogy stormies have grayer vents). I'll be getting the Imperial Battlepack (although the mini-walker is probably going straight into spare parts) and the Battle of Scarif. I'm a bit disappointed the two shoretroopers are identical though but I like that the Jyn figure has a helmet so you can reuse her as a genuine imperial if you don't have the Tie Striker set. It's nice that the Deathtroopers have different torso prints to Krennic's shuttle as from the trailers it's evident deathtroopers do have a variety of kit (albeit probably not stud shooters...sigh). I kind of like the Rebel Battlepack but they missed an opportunity to include all the new helmet variations in one place with just two caps and two the same as that in the ATST set).

Are Calendar Man, Zebra Man, Magpie etc genuine DC characters or made up for the film? I've never heard of any of them before but I don't read the comics (save for the Judge Dredd crossovers from years back).

I'm not really into Ninjago but will probably get the cheapest set for the new "orcs" and their armour plus that awesome silvery giant egg piece.

The latest Pirate sets came with tons of spare accessories, so there probably isn't the need to provide a separate accessory pack anymore.

I actually enjoyed that episode far more than I thought I would...although it seemed a bit strange the stormtroopers saying "you know the drill" after just saying how long it was since they'd actually seen any other battledroids (also that they were actually capable of hitting them accurately). It was also funny that the droid commander recognised that his droids weren't accurate enough to hit a huge missile by themselves and his plan was to shoot at the jedi and get them to deflect the bolts at the missiles. Good to see some droids escape too - maybe they'll start a new factory on Genesis now that it's been cleansed by the Empire and build some reinforcements?

2017 is the 40th Anniversary of the original Star Wars so it's unlikely we'll see a UCS Cloud City set released next year. I've got my fingers crossed for a UCS Mos Eisley!

Those Enlighten sets...I think my eyes are still burning and I'm struggling to see what they have to do with Pirates in a lot of them. I quite liked last year's Pirates wave. Yes they replicated the 2009 sets but the kids that got those sets have probably moved on and I it was a good source of new torsos to add to piratical scenes (the 2009 and 2015 torsos work very well together). The lack of gold coins was a bit disappointing, I'll admit. The sets had a fairly limited run and sold out so Lego can't complain that they were left with tons of stock unsold and I presume they did a pretty good job matching demand to product produced. They also have a pretty good record at producing a new Pirate ship almost annually, so we'll continue to see those turn up quite often until the next "true" Pirates theme.

I'd like a Battlepack with maybe two Tuskens and two Jawas. A general Tatooine pack with a Sandtrooper or two and some Cantina denizens would also be good. Also a Battlepack with a variety of Jabba's guests/guards/minions.

Good to see Ezra turning into your typical rebellious teenager - complete with absent father figure he's headstrong, impulsive, gets in over his depth and even crashes the family car. At least with his growth spurt Sabine might start taking him more seriously. Governor Price looks like Cate Blanchett out of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Her minifig is practically already designed: I'm assuming Thrawn has homing devices on those Y-Wings...let's hope his methods prove effective unlike those of most villains in Clone Wars/Rebels etc

After seeing Brickshow's review of the Shuttle I have to say the DeathTroopers have won me over - they look fantastic. The reverse face on the non-human Rebel (Pau?) looks great too as does the droid, but I'm not so convinced by the Shuttle itself. After watching the review I turned and looked at my beautiful Shuttle Tyderium on the shelf and I have to say this shuttle resembles a floating box or black pyramid more than a sleek starcraft to me.

I'm going to speculate that one of the sets released mid-year 2017 will be the AT-ACT from Rogue One, given that we got two big vehicles released that time this year it seems logical to me.

Given that the first wave of Star Wars sets in a year usually aren't the largest, I suspect Bunker Battle will be along the lines of Battle of Takonda in size (no AT-ACT). An Iconic Star Wars ship could be a system-scale Tie Variant rather than a rebel ship. I'd love an Interceptor but RO is probably too early to hope to get one!

If it really is only one ship and not a whole new theme I suspect the UCS will be the Black Pearl, which is the iconic ship for the whole franchise. It wouldn't make much sense to make a UCS version of a new ship if the movie turns out to be a Lone Ranger-like flop. The original BP was a non-UCS ship only out for a short period and that was five years ago. I'm sure a UCS version would have a market.

I actually like the number of Imperial figures in the new Death Star - it was a little hard to fully kit out the old version with just the figures provided. Saying that, I already have most of these figures from other sets so the price tag is a bit high to justify the investment for me. I guess I'm a bit disappointed the Death Star itself isn't actually "new" but on the other hand it's certainly going to save me some money!