jdubbs

It could still be offered as a Force Friday promotion, just at a lower price tier. Obi-Wan for $35+ purchases, Endor for $70+ purchases, for instance. I believe they've done that sort of thing before. Or they could be saving it for the movie's opening weekend, or their annual Thanksgiving promotions.

I think the conclusions you’re reaching are way off. This set was not aimed at AFOLs, but was clearly intended for kids, which I think is why a lot of AFOLs were disappointed in it. (It doesn’t help that AFOLs seemed to be of very different minds as to what the set should have been.) It has a lot of nice, small builds and interior spaces, but as a display piece it just doesn’t work... too large a footprint, too squat and amorphous, tenuous visible connection to the actual shape of the city. And, if the OT weren’t resonating with younger shoppers, I doubt we’d be getting so damn many rehashes of OT sets. Tantive was ANH. Last two ESB UCS sets were the snowspeeder and Assault on Hoth, neither of which was well-received.

Worry not. "Tidy"... that name seems familiar somehow. Almost as if he once existed here, fed us all a lot of info, and then one day... disappeared. You're going to be disappointed, sorry to say.

A full shot of the Falcon did leak before the official reveal. It was a Chinese (?) promotional ad showing the ship flying above a planet with engines illuminated, and it leaked a week prior to the launch.

There's nothing about that photo that says "leak" to me... the fact that some Instagram guy slapped a watermark on it doesn't make it new. It's an old, existing part whose print could easily have been removed, or perhaps it's an unfinished prototype or mold injection test. With the plate and stacked heads supporting it, it looks like any ordinary ebay listing for the part, rather than a photo taken by a factory worker.

Disney has actually released product based on Slave Leia following the acquisition, so I think the reports of a "ban" on the character were overstated (or just wrong). As I recall, there was a glut of her Hasbro action figure (in multiple scales) warming pegs around when Disney bought Lucasfilm, and some parents made a stink about being confronted with rows and rows of nothing but a half-naked Leia when shopping toy stores with their small kids. When those figs finally cleared off shelves, people decided Disney was behind it, when it was probably just that the character/product was oversaturated to begin with, and Hasbro, etc. didn't see the need to go there again any time soon. And, getting back to LEGO... I wouldn't get my hopes up about that hairpiece. Everything I've read and everything I've been told points to 2 figs in the set, not 3.

Or that the January wave... might not be January.

Some possible explanations why we haven't seen figs from it leak: It has no figures, as you suggest. (Though if the set has any kind of interior, logically it will have figures to go in it). Its figures (original trilogy Stormtroopers, Imperial officers and technicians, Vader, etc.) aren't distinctive/new enough to attract the attention of sticky-fingered factory workers. The set is being produced somewhere other than Asia (where the factory leaks all seem to be centered). This seems more plausible given its astronomical price tag means it likely isn't being made in the quantities of the Episode 9 sets, or even something like Cloud City. It doesn't have minifigures, but instead has... wait for it... nanofigures. (Say it ain't so!) My guess is #2 or #3.

:) https://www.stonewars.de/geruechte/lego-star-wars-buesten-2020/

A riddle for you: What’s green — or white — and head all over?

I think we got extra-lucky that year because the boxes leaked directly from the printer (they were still flat and unassembled if I remember correctly). No doubt that leak was sealed immediately since LEGO is reported to have gotten in a lot of trouble with Disney over it.

I believe there was pushback from Hasbro (among others?) that releasing the toys so far in advance of the movie — at a point when there wasn't even that much marketing from Disney — was negatively impacting sales. I don't know if LEGO felt the same way since their Star Wars sales weren't reported to be terrible like Hasbro's were. And, this year's Force Friday also includes The Mandalorian show and the Fallen Order game, so timing may have worked out all-around better for them.

Bear in mind the sets release a month later this year, so what leaked in July last time around likely won't come until August this year, what leaked in August won't come until September, etc.

There are no new movies for the next several years so it's likely we'll get more sets from the OT and PT than we have seen in the last 4-5 years. There was some faux-controversy about the last version of the set but I doubt that would dissuade LEGO from doing another one. My guess is they would go smaller (little vignette scene, maybe of Han in Carbonite on the wall) or larger (Betrayal at Cloud City-sized) than what they did before. Or both.

It’s almost like she’s trying to tell us something! What’s that, Lassie? You say there’s something in those photos we might want to take another look at?

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-behind-the-scenes-video Annie Leibovitz takes such great pictures, doesn't she? And that video...

The Solo version of the Falcon is retiring, so the two should not overlap on store shelves past Christmas. But I suspect people will feel that the figures are the only real draw (both for the Falcon and most of the other sets).

They finally fixed the dark red and reddish brown parts, which used to shatter if you so much as looked at them funny. So maybe they’ll sort out the trans pieces as well. The Patronus stag gives me some hope, though I don’t think it has any moving parts.

My understanding is that while they can do transparent parts here and there, they are unable to do a figure made up entirely of transparent parts, which is I think what some people are expecting. The abs/plastic is more brittle or something, which becomes an issue with the torso or legs or both. But I agree, there are clearly ways they can do ghosts without being full transparent, as shown in the examples you quoted.

Good point, I forgot about him. I'm gonna guess that's because that color cape already existed in the papery fabric and they didn't see much use for it again, at least not enough reason to redo it in the softer fabric?

The softer fabric capes don't support printing on them, nor do I think they can be as precisely cut. So there may be a subtle pattern or fold lines printed on it, if you see the more papery capes being used (for instance, Bespin Lando or Han in his Mimban outfit). Or it could be a factory worker just putting the wrong cape on a figure, since they're not always sure what the characters are meant to look like. (I think capes are sometimes made at different factories, so there's no guarantee the cape is correct at all).

UCS sets aren't initially sold at third-party retailers so there are far fewer opportunities for leaks, which is what typically feeds the discussion. And given that there's only been one credible rumor about this set (ISD), there's not a ton to discuss this year. I guess it remains to be seen whether it has an interior, which seems likely given the piece count is so much higher than the last ISD. I would expect it on shelves by September rather than October (maybe even August for VIP members). October is Force Friday (Episode 9 sets) which the fall UCS isn't typically a part of.

No. The list of sets and their general contents has been known for a long time, having been corroborated many times over (it's the pricing and set "names" in that article that I take issue with). I don't know where those prices came from... could be that those are the UK prices (there is a lot of variation in EU/UK prices vs US prices), or maybe someone did a poor currency conversion, or... who knows. But whether you believe $39.99 or not, £54.99 does not equal $54.99. So quoting FalconFan or whomever as saying this set is $54.99 is just plain wrong. Back to the point of all this, before I got sucked down this never-ending pricing/naming rabbit hole... I wasn't referring to the price, or whatever words are used to identify the set when I initially said "don't assume". But in the case of this speeder set, apparently the price does matter if it's (partially) the basis for the assumptions some of you are making. It's a small set, with a smallish price tag, and from that you can safely infer a small number of minifigs. But don't assume it's the speeder/skiff/ship that Finn, Poe and C-3PO are riding, just because those figs happen to have leaked, and Disney happened to show us a few frames of a shot with them in it. And even if it did happen to include that ship, don't assume that all (or even, any) of those figures will be in this set (again: small set). There are lots of speeders in the Star Wars universe. And lots of people riding those speeders, at any given point in any given movie. Luke, Leia, an Ewok, and Biker Scouts all ride a speeder bike in Return of the Jedi. BB-8 (of all characters) pilots an AT-ST (groan) in Last Jedi. I can't be more specific than that, sorry. You can choose to believe what I've said above, or not. Entirely up to you.

I gave you the price. And the piece count, for good measure. They were in the very message you quoted from me.

It is. But if this is the article you guys are holding up as the holy grail of set information, it's worth noting that a) the prices listed are in British pounds, not US dollars, and b) the article says pretty clearly: "The names shown are not likely to be the final, official set names, and the prices may not prove to be completely accurate either..."