jdubbs

Poe's X-Wing was 89.99€ ($79.99) at launch, with 740 pieces. So the new X-Wing is +10€ (and theoretically +$10) with 9 fewer pieces.

In the US at least, lego.com no longer provides an accurate, up-to-date list of sets that are retiring soon. The last time it was updated was probably 6 months ago.... and lots of sets have retired since then.

If there is any kind of landing platform, it would be sized just large enough for a twin-pod cloud car (assuming one is included... or at least available concurrently) and a few figs... because otherwise all they can display on the packaging is an empty platform. They can't very well depict retired products like the system-scale Falcons, and the Kessel Run Falcon wouldn't make much sense... and there's no way they would include a platform large enough for the UCS Falcon since that would dwarf the rest of the set and chew up a huge amount of the budget. I doubt that the set would include both a display model of the city and a separate playset as you suggest. A single playset build is far more likely (think Ninajgo City + Docks combined), and even at ~$500 it probably won't include all of the rooms/figs you're hoping for. Some of the "soft" areas like living/dining rooms, entrance halls, corridors etc will give way to action-oriented areas like the carbon freezing chamber and gantry/dueling areas. A torture chamber seems iffy given LEGO's distaste for outright violence, but a prison cell is a possible alternative. I would also expect to see some kind of operable elevator shaft since it's likely a multi-story build... and turbolifts feature prominently in several scenes.

I really wish Lego would take a different approach to convention exclusives. Choosing the truly excellent and highly desirable Boba/Han for SDCC and then releasing lackluster Brickheadz like Finn and Phasma as general releases was infuriating for fans and probably a stupid business decision, given how well Boba/Han would have sold at retail. Exclusives are a fact of life and we all have to deal with them. But it would nice if Lego could limit them to either special packaging or minimally "enhanced" versions of existing builds that are reasonably easy to replicate for those who can't attend the shows or afford the exclusives at aftermarket prices. The Han/Luke Detention Block Rescue was a great example of an exclusive done right. Wish Lego would follow that model moving forward.

No, they were fake.

Taj Mahal was released as-was, without upgrades to newer parts except as dictated by availability (despite the fact that there were many new parts and building techniques that could have improved the design accuracy). If they do reissue Cafe Corner, there is no reason to believe TLG would deviate from this model... i.e., they'd most likely only replace parts that are no longer available or cannot be reproduced for whatever reason. Dreaming of new interiors and upgraded builds just takes a highly speculative (and sadly, unlikely) idea into the realm of pure fantasyland.

To be honest I'm not seeing many compelling reasons why City would or should ever retire as a line. Sure, it's repetitive, but it's also geared squarely at a younger demographic than most of the other themes/lines. As such there is high turnover in the market City sets sell to.... kids don't stay young forever, and there is always an influx of new kids who weren't around to get the last police station, or hospital, or whatever. And realistically what would they even call the replacement line to differentiate it from City? They're not going back to "Town" (too provincial). Metro? Muni? Urban? Cosmo? Eh. I do wish LEGO would try to include 1-2 sets in City each year that compliment the modular buildings. Small-to-medium sized sets like a public fountain, playground, farmers market, a little town square with a statue, etc... none of which would likely make it into a 32x32 modular. Occasionally you see stuff like this in a Creator polybag or giveaway, but that's rare. The only other change I might make to City is to splinter it a bit, and put stuff like the arctic/volcano/jungle sets into a separate Explorer theme... and maybe expand it a bit once similar licensed lines like Jurassic Whatever go away. The explorer stuff doesn't logically fit in City, but this is purely a "problem" of nomenclature, which isn't a real problem at all.

There are only 6-7 HP/FB sets coming this fall, plus a few Brickheadz and maybe a CMF. It seems very unlikely anyone would publish an entire book based solely on those few products.

The set is due to be sold by stores like Target, TRU, etc. soon, so production has probably shifted to filling their orders rather than replenishing LEGO Stores.

It is fake.

My shelves are 12" deep and I wish they were 3-4" deeper. With 12", you can fit larger sets like the Falcon, Star Destroyers, etc., but they all hang off at least a few inches, and you're limited in which angles you can position the larger sets. Also, you end up lining everything up since there's not enough space to do foreground/background combinations, except with the smaller sets. Also bear in mind most LEGO sets are fairly short, with the occasional exception of a shuttle or TIE Fighter. I would recommend ordering some of the clear acrylic stands from laserlab (or one of the other comparable sellers) on eBay... they make them for most every SW ship and they help stagger the airborne sets vertically, so they're not all sitting flat on the shelf (and you can often fit more sets in the same space when you use them).

April: 1 Solo battlepack, 1 prequel battlepack, 2 Solo speeders, Solo TIE, Solo Falcon, Yoda's Hut. August: Anakin Yellow Fighter, 3 unknown Solo sets, Snoke Throneroom, X-Wing, Sandcrawler. September: Advent. Also some Brickheadz and construction figures mixed in there. Only pics of August sets are from catalog. Lots of high-res pics of the April sets.

Correction: there are no SW sets in June this year, unless they are retailer exclusives. Other lines have some June releases, but SW is just Jan/Apr/Aug as far as we know (plus Advent calendar in Sep).

Normally we get three major waves per year plus some odds and ends between them. This year the waves are a little bit earlier than the last few years because of Solo coming out in May rather than December. So there will be a big wave in April, a few more sets in June, and another big wave in August, including the x-wing, sandcrawler, Snoke throne room, and three more Solo sets that are unknown. Very unlikely there would be another wave in September but possibly another small wave by December since the last major wave is in August, a month earlier than last year. There are also a few retailer exclusives in the second half of the year that we don’t know of, though unclear if TRU will pay for one due to its bankruptcy proceedings. April wave includes new Falcon, TIE, two speeders, and a battle pack, all from Solo. Plus a prequel battle pack, Yoda’s hut, and maybe one or two more random sets that I don’t recall. Leaked photos of these (plus the x-wing, sandcrawler, and Anakin’s starfighter, all due in June/Aug) have all been out for a few weeks.

It's also possible — likely, even — that the main antagonist is not Moloch and instead is included in one of the three summer sets that have not yet been revealed.

Don't mistake my comments for praise of the prequels' characters, tone, or emotional depth. On those points, the prequels miss the mark by a wide margin. I just think, in retrospect, that If George succeeded in one area (other than design/visuals), it was in building an arc across three movies that very deliberately took us from A to B, when the gulf between A and B was a pretty deep chasm to cross. The interviews I've read with Rian and JJ make it clear that there is no underlying arc to these three new movies... JJ didn't have a plan for 8 or 9; he just passed the ball to whomever was next and said, "here, see what you can do with this." Rian did the same thing. The only plan was "7 is to introduce the characters; 8 is to stress-test the characters, 9 is to... (redeem them? we'll see)." Pretty basic stuff. On the other hand, the new movies succeed in all the areas the prequels didn't... character development, chemistry, humor (for the most part), empathy and emotional resonance... each of these two trilogies seems to fail where the other succeeds, almost yin and yang. Bringing it back to LEGO, I think part of the motivation to plow through all of the TFA ships/designs so quickly was a sense that there is this narrow window when these sets are actually going to appeal to buyers. I have a hard time seeing many of the sequel trilogy sets being reissued over and over like the classic/prequel trilogy sets are... in terms of design, there's just not the same fertile ground in these movies that there was in the others. I've yet to see anything to substantiate rumors of a Y-Wing. I've yet to see anything that actually qualifies as a rumor of a Y-Wing, for that matter. The first I read of it, someone on EB started talking ~3 months ago about how much they hoped we were getting another UCS Y-Wing... which led to a few more people saying the same thing, and that somehow got morphed into a rumor which got picked up elsewhere and then started showing up in YouTube videos (none of which seem to mention any kind of source) and now everyone is treating it as accepted fact. Maybe it's all true — the previous UCS Y-Wing was a long time ago — but I would love for someone with some actual insight to either lend credence to this, or refute it.

There were definitely some cringe moments in each of the three prequels, but on average, they improved from one movie to the next. And in retrospect, the prequels have a lot going for them that wasn't really appreciated at the time. Seeing how boring and derivative the designs from the sequel trilogy are, you really start to appreciate George's influence over the design work in the prequels. Some of the Separatist ships got a bit dicey in Episode 3 (owing largely to Doug Chang's departure) but there were still so many original, varied, and inspired ship designs in those movies. And, George did a really amazing job crafting an intricate story showing how a republic that had survived for ages could be completely undone by little more than a populist leader with fascist ambitions and a manufactured conflict... while also showing how a hero can devolve into a villain despite the best of intentions. By comparison, I wish these new movies felt less like they were being dreamed up as they go along, and more like there was an actual story arc for the trilogy...

Agree they need a dark sand green. But given sand green is still pretty rare, I'm guessing a darker version isn't coming any time soon... Maybe they could alternate sand green and dark stone gray, checkerboard style?

I have to disagree. The MOC referenced on the previous page (and again below) has gray roofs and it looks pretty awesome... though I would hope LEGO's version has even more exterior detail, esp. on the flat walls. I could see them mixing in some sand green to convey oxidized copper accents, maybe for the caps of the turrets and towers, for instance.

I have the 2013 AT-TE. I think I got it for around $100 a year or so ago on eBay, new/sealed... if you're patient and diligent, it's possible to find it for a semi-reasonable price. I didn't have the previous version but I like this one a lot. I'm sure it's smaller than actual minifig scale, but it still feels realistic to me, and not undersized like a lot of the other sets at this price point. I think the build is also the basis for the Rebels version that came out more recently... so you might be able to rework it to remove the steampunk bits and restore it to the EP 2/3/CW appearance?

75214 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter (Clone Wars, yellow) 75215 Confidential, most likely TLJ/Solo 75216 Confidential, most likely TLJ/Solo 75217 Confidential, most likely TLJ/Solo 75218 X-Wing Starfighter (Original Trilogy/white & red) 75219 Confidential, most likely TLJ/Solo 75220 Sandcrawler (smaller than UCS)

The aftermarket price of pretty much any retired UCS set will continue to rise until a newer version of the set is released. But after the initial price spike that typically follows retirement, prices tend to rise very slowly, and few of them reach the stratospheric prices of the original UCS Falcon or even the SSD. I think I bought my UCS X-Wing (new, sealed) on eBay for around $250 shipped a year or so ago. One or two folks have asserted that the second pilot in the August X-Wing is Biggs, but I don't think anyone can say for sure based on the photos leaked to date. I think you may be overestimating the chances of a UCS Y-Wing this summer. The only "rumors" I've seen about this being the $200 UCS set are pretty wish-listy. The last UCS X-Wing wasn't on the market all that long (for a UCS set), which leads me to believe it didn't sell terribly well. I would expect the next UCS X-Wing to be the TFA version...

The third CMF line for the year lists a start sale date of August 2018, the same as the 3 HP and 2 FB sets, and an end date of Dec 2018. The "April Series" bit in the header is most likely a misprint.

I want to believe it's real too, but I think this is a pretty strong sign that it's fake. The supposedly leaked descriptions listed 20 figs, with three of them unknown (#12, 18, and 20, according to the leaker's list). If that list were legit, I'd expect the guy to have known the correct number of figs, since it wasn't public (or guessable) prior to today.

There's nothing really new in Star Wars Land. Vader and Stormtrooper Brickheadz are confirmed, but no box shot in the Spanish/Portuguese catalog. HP/PB sets are confirmed, but generic boxes. City Arctic is shown. All other SW shots were leaked a few weeks ago.