jdubbs

Why are there two UCS seals on the side? What is going on with the radar dish that looks like it's hand-painted? And the top gun seems to be missing entirely?

Yes, I realize that. But I find it highly suspicious that it happens to obscure the one area of the ship that would best establish whether it's a real or not. Given that each of the last four $200 UCS starships have had new molded cockpit pieces, an $800 Falcon will almost certainly have one as well (esp. when you consider how out-of-place the previous brick-built canopy would look today). A new molded piece would be very hard to fake... so much easier just to not to show it.

How convenient that there is a light reflection/hot spot just where the cockpit is...

That's a lot of studs and technic exposed on the walker... but it's an interesting design, definitely see the gorilla comparison.

Interesting that a nameplate stand comes with this polybag too... I had assumed it was particular to a new series of astromec polybags. I gather we can expect a stand with every promotional minifig moving forward...

Option 1: Vastly improved minifigs, and the nose is more accurately scaled, even if the jagged stair-step build of the nose is clumsy. Option 2: Minifigs are really dated, esp. Jabba. But it's larger than the 75020, and the nose is more elegantly built, if a little stubby. And you get the Sarlaac and Skiff with this set, although both had been remade twice now, with improvements. Option 3: Requires patience, with the risk that it may not be what you hope for... if it's not a UCS set, a future Sail Barge could be even *smaller* than the last one, with LEGO's trend toward miniaturization... and given reports that Slave Leia is persona-non-gratis in the post-Disney world, there's a good chance she won't be included in a future Sail Barge set. I bought the 75020 a few months ago, and didn't really consider the 6210. So I guess I would go with option 1 or 3, if I were buying now.

I'm fairly sure VaderFan2187 is being facetious. I think we all hope that LEGO has heard the criticism of the UCS Assault on Hoth playset and wouldn't make the same mistakes on an Endor Bunker UCS set (if such a set ever came to be). If you're hoping for a smaller-scaled Endor Bunker, I think this year's Scarif set actually makes it less likely we'll see it any time soon. The two bunkers are too similar for LEGO to sell them concurrently, and since the Scarif set likely won't be retired for another year, I doubt we'd see a similarly-scaled Endor Bunker set until the second half of 2018, best case.

I've gone back and forth on that set as well. The look of the bunker is nice, as is the glider, but I don't see much value in the minifigs or the scout walker, all of which have been upgraded since that set came out. You can bricklink the bunker for a fraction of what that set sells for on eBay, which is what always holds me back. I think an enlarged, updated Ewok Bunker Attack set is actually the most likely candidate for the next UCS playset, even ahead of Jabba's Sail Barge... especially since the Ewok Village supposedly sold well. I do have a hard time imagining how they would scale it up to UCS status... adding the landing platform would probably make it too large for the $200-$250 price range, and a radar dish would look horribly out of scale at almost any size...

I think the most likely scenario for a new Sail Barge is as a UCS playset (emphasis on action features and minifigs) in the 1700-piece, $200US range. With all the new movies coming out, there are very few slots in the regular lineup for large-scale legacy reissues... Bear in mind the decade from 2005-2015 saw no new movies, just the Clone Wars show, so there was lots of space on the shelves for sets to be reissued over and over again, sometimes with only minor improvements. We probably won't see that frequency of reissues until Disney stops making new Star Wars movies.

This looks soooo much better than either of the official sets. Can you post pics of the rear? I have the 2012 model (9496) and just picked up the new model (75174)... I'm hoping that between the two I have the pieces to recreate the look you've achieved.

The former is red with a closed-chin helmet. The latter is green with an open-chin helmet.

In addition to everything listed above, I'd add: OT X-Wing (maybe a swampy version, packaged with Yoda's Hut, as they did before). TIE Interceptor TIE Fighter Endor Bunker Battle (I suspect/hope this will be the next UCS playset) AT-AT (UCS) Grievous' Starfighter Mustafar Duel (in an ideal world, similar to ChristopherLee's MOC)

There you go! I stand corrected.

Please just stop. This is no longer relevant to anything here. You are entitled to your beliefs and interpretations of facts, I am entitled to mine. I don't want to argue with you on this any more.

I said LEGO must have a license to market individually-packaged SW minifigs because they are already marketing, and selling, individually-packaged SW minifigs. The red A-Wing Pilot, R3 droid, First Order Officer, etc. are all individually-packaged minifigs, sold outside of a battle pack or larger set. (And yes, they are sold at retail stores... there was a rack of A-Wing Pilots at my local Target a month ago, on sale for $5 a pop, and I've seen others sold at TRU in the past as well). To my knowledge, LEGO has not stated they can't do a CMF SW line because of a Hasbro contract. But if I'm wrong, I stand corrected.

The title of this thread is "LEGO Star Wars 2017 Pictures and Rumors". Rumors are, by definition, unsubstantiated. Once they're substantiated, rumors become facts. I'm not a moderator and I don't think it's our job to police others' posts, but I'd guess that badgerboy's post is more relevant than 99% of the posts made in this thread.

It's tough because two of the largest sets in the summer wave are sets nobody asked for, nobody wants, and nobody is going to buy. (Overstating it a bit, but still...) Compare this to last year when the larger summer sets, while not perfect — a downscaled Turbo Tank and a rehash (albeit a nice one) of the AT-TE—were at least from a show that people actually watched.

I'm not sure who to blame for LEGO's failure (?) with its Rebels line. The first few sets were cool, but they were based on retro, McQuarrie-esque designs. The show really didn't produce many compelling original designs for the next few seasons, which makes it hard for LEGO to sell sets. But then, once there are cool designs in the show, LEGO opts instead to produce ill-conceived sets like the A-Wing/Vader TIE combo — which should have been two sets each costing ⅓ what it did —and the completely uninspiring Rebel Combat Frigate and Imperial Assault Whatever, which would have been a lot more popular had they been a Hammerhead and an Interdictor instead. The Mad Maxified AT-TE was cool, but that barely qualifies as an original design, and there was just an AT-TE on shelves a few years earlier. I also think expectations may have been too high for Rebels toys... collectors assume there should be as many toys for it as there were for the Clone Wars, and I bet LEGO assumed Rebels toys would sell as well as Clone Wars toys did. But Clone Wars existed in a relative vacuum, with no other movies vying for kids' and collectors' attention. I'm guessing that with so many SW movies and shows being released now, it'll be a while before LEGO revisits Rebels after the series ends... if they ever do. I'm curious whether Freemaker sets sell any better than Rebels sets do (I'd be surprised, but then there's no accounting for kids' tastes). Though with Freemaker, LEGO has a vested interest in keeping products on the shelves...

Me too! Hope to finish it today.

I'd guess 2-3 sets at most, especially since there will be a pileup of sets from TLJ and Red Cup being released just six months apart, not to mention the possibility of more Rogue One sets. Probably leaning heavily on original trilogy designs (TIE Bomber, X-Wing... if we're lucky, a Rebel Blockade Runner or Hammerhead Corvette) for crossover appeal, since previous sets based on original Rebels designs apparently didn't sell that well. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Mandalorian something or other since they are figuring more prominently in recent episodes, and are popular with the fanboys. The SW Lego lineup for 2017 seems pretty much locked up at this point, so if the last season of Rebels (which is abbreviated, at only 14-15 eps) begins this fall, then it seems any new Rebels sets would need to be part of the January 2018 wave... at which point, the show may have already ended.

Unless you work for TLG, you have no way of knowing this. As has already been stated, it may have been rejected because TLG already had a Jedi Council set (UCS or otherwise) in development. Or because they simply preferred another idea in that round. Or because the design didn't meet their standards, whatever those are. Or any number of reasons.

Yes but that announcement came long after the original Jedi Council MOC was submitted and rejected, at which point you could still submit designs based on Star Wars, LotR, etc.

An ESB-themed minifig selection in the UCS Falcon also helps differentiate it from the previous UCS Falcon. And there aren't many opportunities for exclusive or elusive minifigs if you stick to ANH characters... Luke, Obi, R2, 3PO, Han and Chewie are all available in abundance, leaving ANH Leia and maybe Luke w/Blast Shield Helmet as the only desirable minifigs. Versus an ESB Falcon which could include blue jacket Han w/breathing mask, Hoth Leia w/breathing mask, potentially even Battle-Damaged Bespin Luke, Blue Lando, Medical Frigate Lando, etc.

In a vacuum, you're right, it doesn't prove anything. But there have been rumors from multiple sources for months now that a new UCS Falcon is coming, and among them are reports that it would be the largest LEGO set ever produced, arrive in the fall, be absurdly expensive, be polarizing, and even that it would cost... $799. So, the Lego Store screen cap of a UCS set for $799 coming this fall (assuming it is authentic) is consistent with some of those rumors, and thus looks like tacit confirmation.

There are about a dozen stickers on the UCS Slave I. They're almost all subtle (weathering, texture, etc.) and not-that-essential to apply.