JekPorkchops

Yeah I thought he looked really similar to a Bothan too. His head seemed a lot more vertical than it turned out to be in the animation, but I later discovered that's mainly because of his goatee, which is more pronounced in his Lego incarnation.

I too think that Zeb would look great with shoulder armor. He really needs some bulk, because when the minifigs were first revealed (before the actual character designs were) I couldn't tell that he was supposed to be the muscle of the group. Also, why is a walker that looks 90% like an AT-AT called an AT-ACT while the vastly different walkers seen in Rebels are still called AT-AT?

I'd say CCBS has improved every year, except in 2013. That was a major downgrade compared to the fantastic 2012 (I'm talking solely about HF I just realized). We were back with incredibly standard builds with empty backs, the shield attachments to the backs were ridiculously bad in execution and there were a couple of terrible sets because of other reasons (Scarox, Bruizer, Dragon Bolt and Jet Rocka). Overall 2011 was very simple and some of the sets were very mediocre, but it was a perfect starting point for the new system because of its simplicity. 2012 offered some great variety in builds between all of the sets and in character between even the heroes. While the system was getting away of the G1 Bionicle system even more, I'd say those 2012 HF sets look as great as any Bionicle team or group. The Super Heroes Ultrabuilds weren't that great, I like Iron Man a lot. I'd say some of the Chima figures were nice, but I'm not too familiar with them so I can't really include their impact on the overall year. 2014 HF did some amazing things with scaling in CCBS and it set an even clearer boarder between the last of HF and the first of Bionicle G2. While I think 2015 sets were the perfect way of introducing the classic old Bionicle characters in CCBS, I think the 2016 sets are actually better. They offer a lot more pieces for the same price and their torso builds are more intricate and unique. The cluttered texture issue doesn't bother me as much as it hasn't bothered me during G1's run. I think the Star Wars constraction sets of 2015 are better than the 2016 ones because they're very clean and less gimmicky. So because of that, and because I'm not sure if the summer wave of 2015 or 2016 is the worst of G2, I'd say both 2015 and 2016 are the best CCBS years.

Jyn doesn't look too bad to me. I'd say she's better executed than the Death Trooper, with his weird legs. But overall I like the Death Trooper more, because of the source material and because those types of characters lend themselves better for CCBS. Again, Lego refuses to give us a female constraction head without headgear… was that cap really necessary?

They all look great to me, but those Death Trooper legs look terrible. He has some constraction Phasma issues going on, they're way too long. Is that a new armor piece for their upper legs?

I always thought Lego saw the minifigs being the main selling point of Star Wars sets. Anyways, while I don't really favor minifigs or builds (since I collect both) I now finally start to miss the good old days where Lego would throw in the best minifigs in a very mediocre set. That way we would've at least been able to get them. The new sets (save for gems like the Tie vs A-wing) have nothing going on in them. Also, I don't get why Lego's in-house themes like Ninjago and Nexo-Knights are getting so many new moulds. Yeah it looks nice and it's great as a toy, but compared to Star Wars icons that really deserve better parts and prints, those figures are just obscure characters. Why do they have enough budget for them but not for freakin' Star Wars, their top-selling theme? This whole cheaping out on 90+ (enter your currency here) set with already low parts and minifigs counts is getting even worse. Why can't the Seventh Sister be in a retail exclusive set? Because she needs a new mould? So what, some Nexo Knight cán get that? It's a very expensive set! So I guess Ahsoka doesn't get a new mould either. Why o why?

Builds have been getting great in the past few years, but they're declining in quality again. Not only that, but I agree that Lego now seems to not even care about the minifig selection. It has been their main selling point in sets for years, but in the Star Wars range they really screwed up this year. They could've easily included new Clone Commanders or Trooper variants in sets like the Homing Spider Droid and the Turbo Tank to make them more desirable. As always, the variation in the SW Rebels range is pathetic. Zeb is missing yet again, the AT-TE clones are very plain and are missing their helmets and the Rebel Combat Frigate omits the new Rebel Troopers and refuses to update Ezra with his scars. Where's the Seventh Sister? Without her, there's really no use for the Fifth Brother though I'm glad we at least got a stellar version of him.

The face really does. It's because of the bright upper half contrasted against the darker lower jaw.

You're not terrible at explaining things, I got it after the second time reading it Both of your methods must be very good. I'll try Leewan's method and if I make a mistake, I can always use Kalhiki's method since a small slit in the Invasion from Below tagline wouldn't matter all that much. Also, that tutorial was very useful.

This is going very well: image by Jek Porkchops, on Flickr These were easy to moderately easy to come by and so is the entire second wave (except for the Flea Machine of course). I might run into some trouble when trying to find the Jet Machine. I opened up the Crystal Beast set to verify the contents. Does anyone know how to preserve that lovely artwork on the packaging when cutting it open? I'd like the bags to all stay in one piece from now on.

I'd say use BrickLink. Just make a wanted list of the specific parts you want and see if a seller has multiple of those, that way you can save some money on shipping (you probably was planning on doing that so this is kinda useless to say). The only other advice I can give you is that if you think the price is getting just a little too high for your liking, just go through with it. Spend those couple of extra bucks to get the parts you want, because restoring the things you have is a lot more important than buying new sets. Especially since those pieces might be harder to come by in the future.

Maybe this is just not do-able at all for Lego, but couldn't they give us some kind of system which uses hollow helmets that are compatible with heads? That way we would've had even more human heads. I wish the Rey figure did not have the headgear partially on, for reasons that have been stated before. Am I the only one that really dislikes the gear mechanism on her? It sticks out way too much (though I haven't built her yet).

The colors are pretty neat. But the figure is really lacking on the whole. His right arm has a kind of Bruizeritis effect to it, but not nearly as bad fortunately. It's not that bulky at all, while the thick arm, thick shoulder and lime blades really go together well on the box picture… they took just the right angle for that.

Does a designer of the set also come up with ideas of new pieces like the masks or other tools and artifacts? Since a designer is most likely creating the overall look of the figure, does that mean he too has input in ideas for the mask? Or are there multiple people working together to find what is best for the appearance of a model (i.e. someone who is great at building figures designs most of the figure, but if that person lacks any conceptualizing skills for, say, new moulds, does he work with another graphic artist?). Maybe a designer is really great at both building a model and drawing and designing a new piece, so that he can fully take matters in his own hands.

Those are bad examples, the Flash Speeder and AAT both have a proper amount of minifigures and no side builds whatsoever. What is curious about them though, is that one is oversized and one is undersized, they should've swapped the price tags for those and released the speeder in the winter and the AAT in the summer.

Also, there appears to be some kind of gearing mechanism on the Lego model that will allow this as well. Speaking of those hinging parts, another major difference between the CW Pelta frigates and the Rebels Phoenix Home is the fact that the former only has an engine in between those moving parts, attached to the main fuselage, while the latter has additional engines hidden in the moving parts. The additional engines only face backwards when the parts are fully extended out. I hope Lego captures this feature well.

This looks pretty perfect for its scale and style.

That looks amazing! If only they actually gave the ship those colors. How hard can it be? It's great that this ship even gets a set, but they should've done this probable one-off set correctly. Lego has played around with the color schemes of other licensed sets in the past to make them a little less monochromatic, now they chose to make the ship 'pop' less than it does in the show. It's weird. Let's hope the interior is great. As for the Ahsoka minifigure, I'm starting to warm up to it. The montrals of the Shaak Ti headpiece curve outwards a little, which is correct for Ahsoka, but actually kinda wrong for Shaak Ti. Never noticed that in the 5 years I had that figure. Still, the head piece isn't perfect for Ahsoka, but it's alright.

Well this is exactly what I thought we would get if Ahsoka was in a retail exclusive: a reuse of Shaak Ti's headpiece, which is incredibly disappointing. Too bad this bad rendition of her is indeed the main selling point of the set, as there are only 2 new figures without rereleasing Zeb and giving Ezra scars on his face and because the ship isn't that well designed. What a disappointment. Also, why don't they just use the trans dark blue for everyone with a blue lightsaber, as it looks much nicer anyway. This way, you can pretend that the trans light blue blades are Ahsoka's white blades.

Indeed. It's a very clever use of the part. At least, I think it looks passable as engine detailing.

Why can brickshow never build a set correctly? Anyway, the set is very nice indeed. The Sabine hair piece still has the wrong shape, but I like the fact that there's a lot more color printed on it. The Tie Advanced and the A-wing are both incredibly nice, but that shooting feature of the A-wing is even more complicated than I thought. After toy fair I thought the entire middle part moved back in order to shoot the missiles, which is quite something already, but it now seems like the bottom front half of the middle moves along with the top front half and the canopy. It looks a little too complicated, with the way the entire assembly slides around the minifigure in the cockpit. You probably need to align that pilot perfectly in order for this too work.

They probably won't update his hair color, but I'm hoping they're giving him his season 2 look with the scars on his cheek.

The Republic Fighter Tank is great all around, packed with lots of unexpected features and details for its price. In 2008 there also was the somewhat hated Twilight, which could've had a lot more space and detail on the interior, but it's a great representation of the exterior, the cockpit is great and it kinda has the front boarding ramp too. There's also the Bounty Hunter Gunship, 2010 General Grievous Fighter, UCS Obi-Wan Jedi Starfighter, 2012 X- and Y-wing and the HH-87 Starhopper. Bigger and not-so-underrated sets that are pure awesomness are Republic Frigate, 2013 Republic Gunship and 2014 ISD.

I hope a lot bigger. Honestly, if you want it to look just like that Ideas project it'll have to be a 160 (enter your currency here) set. So I hope it's at least a 1000+ piece set, hopefully around 1300 if they want do do it any justice. Is it certain that Rebels will only last for 4 seasons? Kinda sad, but on the other hand it's good to have an end point in mind. It makes you feel better when you know a series made it to its finished state (unlike The Clone Wars).

That actually sounds very promising! Can't wait for the pictures. Obviously, if the set's any good, Ahsoka will still be the main selling point, but the name of the set just makes me very happy. So many possibilities. I'm putting my money on a new Corvette like the blue Liberator, or like others have said a Hammerhead.