Azani

As a point of interest for those who follow TECHNIC, I have the native English language names obatibed from American retailers for four of the ten general release 1HY kits, and they differ slightly from those reported by StoneWars.de. 42120 in particular might help to clear up some of the confusion. 42116 Skid Steer Loader 42117 Race Plane 42120 Rescue Hovercraft 42121 Heavy Duty Excavator Cheers! As I understand the setup, it's typically and generally accepted in the fan community that ABS has been pushed to the reasonable extent judged feasible for implementation into consumer products (i.e., general release sets), possibly excepting the corollaries for certain gears that are understood as implicit for gear movement to work as a guarantee in 3-4 kg.+ kits. Sariel is a bona fide expert on gears and gear functionality, and thus I would suspect that his MOCs have put at least a few of the limits to the test.

Thank you, and yes, to be frank, I was in this regard aware that you engage in reviewing sets outside of the SW line; however, I haven't yet had a chance to read any of the reviews in that category, so to speak, and since SW remains, while not necessarily my favorite theme when focusing on new products, my primary interest in terms of nostalgia, I've intentionally focused on reviews within that line. I wasn't totally certain about the scale, and I appreciate you clarifying; some of the details in the build make it explicitly packed enough that the minifig element is imperatively suffering a bit.

Without a doubt, right there with you, Makoy. If this is, in fact, your 33rd review as a member of the Academy here on Eurobricks.com, then it show s in your absolutely impeccable and indefatigable care for the theme, and, in this case, a truly special kit memorializing one of my favorite locations in the eleven SW films yet released. The sheer size of the main build included in 75290 is absolutely astounding. Man, we applaud your dedication to the review process and your interest in showing us the techniques used for the bar and the V-35, undoubtedly the most intriguing elements and element-greedy sections of the build. My score is a solid 4/5, likely deemed as a 5/5 if not for the bona fide tight-fitted omission of sufficient space to recreate Han and Greedo's iconic scene. At least the scale is on target. (Pun not intended)

Funny as it is, your conclusion is on point; there are three helmets, not two. While 75304 Darth Vader and 75305 Scout Trooper are the only two that we know of at the moment, the statue is 75306, full stop. The case to me is clear: it wouldn't make any to have a LEGO brand store exclusive statue, but a third helmet would certainly make sense, and it's nearly a mirror of what we saw in Q2 of 2020 with 75274 as a planned exclusive and 75278 as our single statue. The only possible explanation that would insinuate any scenario with 75306 as a third helmet would be if the 75306 Probe Droid were somehow a helmet... and the PpP makes it clear beyond doubt that it is a buildable statue like 75278 D-O. I'd abhor another one of those at the expense of a good old fashioned April wave, but it looks astutely clear that that is what we are getting. Any alternative is a workaround, considering the mountain of compelling evidence from last year's new strategy, and to be totally frank, this is certainly not something that I've been ignoring possibilities regarding for the last several weeks. On the topic of the latest rumors: Exactly, @Lego-Freak, and man, those were sad. "Darth Vader Ship" is a winner. Regarding the concept of a second collection for RoTJ; of course it's no coincidence that last year was the 40th anniversary of TESB, but a round for the closing episode of the OT is still a possibility. My bet would be on a Skiff Guard if the theme is still Episode VI, but if the whole saga remains open then Grievous or Kylo seem quite plausible.

I prefer not to totally ignore a mention on here, but I can neither confirm nor deny at this juncture in time with the knowledge that I have. Additionally, I'm not particularly familiar with the fellow on Instagram who is owner of the "pretty legit account" that @THELEGOBATMAN is citing, and as a corollary of that I can't really speak to the odds that he is legitimate either way. ?

Hey, real quick: I've been using @YetiZombie's tool, and it's been seamless this far for 75978 as the availability front goes. HP-4 exists. The "Monster Book of Monsters" kit does not.

Well, there's very little precedent to turn to, but DOTS was rescued from oblivion by TLG's upper echelons after a similar delay. That said, that was an entire new IP (original IP), and it was clear that there was significant brand and networking oomph behind the launch in 2020. It's tough to say if Overwatch still has that; as far as I can tell, it's been fading rather than ascending in popularity since 2019 or thereabouts, and TLG can't afford to be as "forgiving" with novel licensed IPs as they can with their own. With OW2 coming next year, I would say that the chances of a release for those three kits/sets are still worse than 50/50 (maybe 30/70 against?), but it's very much up in the air until we see what 2021 brings in terms of licenses/novel IPs. My judgement, but I'm not really a fan of OW over any games like it. In addition, DOTS was an idiosyncratic case in that it was a massive new line from scratch with dozens of sets, not three... so LEGO may have felt that scrapping so many kits was a loss that they were not willing to accept. LEGO Star Wars has lost two to three kits that saw retailer solicitations like these half a dozen times since I started following it as an adult, and that's Star Wars, so that's something to consider. In case anyone was curious, TLG sent out piece counts for the three, and I remember two of them right now; I will try to find the last one as soon as I can, but it's not a super high priority at the moment. Still curious. 76978 Orisa & Efi - 215 pieces 76981 Talon Jet - 763 pieces

No worries; I went ahead and edited my initial (very brief) post for clarity, but I'm glad to help out. :)

30628 might or might not exist, I don"t know, but that's not what "HP-4* is.

I can assure you that "many reputable leakers" are pretty certain that 76978-76981 are canceled. They were initially planned for a 2HY 2020 release, and after plenty of retailers received solicitations for the three kits in question, the stream of info dried up and mine of the usual signs that they would be arriving on the market soon have materialized. There is a veritable chance that 76978, 76979, and 76981 will simply be delayed á la LEGO Dots, but I know the folks who you are citing on IG, I know what they are sourcing their "rumors" from, and I am pretty certain, as much as I wish it were a bona fide fact, that these are simply rumors and that the three are not ever going to see the light of day.

I would personally applaud your call to buy 75222 CC over 75912 and 75252, but that is a matter of personal taste and nostalgia, as 10123 was one of the earliest "big gift" kits that I can remember building with friends of mine as a child. And I haven't touched anything that jumps from what Lucasfilm would call "G Canon" (the films and the TV series), but I do see some nice kits from a design and PpP perspective amongst the waves for Rebels that we got through 2017. I would concur; TLG corporate is doing an excellent job of scaring off leakers in general, particularly regarding its oldest IP. Infuriating but certainly wise.

Lyichir covered this one pretty well, but "LEGO Direct" nearly always means that the kit in question will be available through LEGO certified stores in the countries in which said shops can be found, including South Africa and most states in Eastern Europe. A number of kits that are labeled as "D2C or "LEGO Direct" will also end up at major big-box retailers such as Walmart and Target within a few years of initial release, depending on stock availability and popularity. :)

Ninja edit. Had to fix that one; sorry! 75978 is beginning to find purchase on a number of different TLDs (country codes for domains) on Shop@Home, but they're all being removed quite rapidly... so far, no new images, but I've counted the set description on five different subdomains now...

No worries; in short, American English (as well as British English) both remain incredibly complex and nuanced, but "...could care less" is grammatically incorrect and shouldn't technically be used. :P @Modal Aha, yeah, I figured as much; I appreciate your interest in the "Dirty Harry", as I had spent quite a while trying to sort out its origin. At the moment, I'm still looking into the future's source(s), but I will keep you in the loop. Very curious.

Glad to hear it; we appreciate that, man! If you're referring to the "Dirty Harry" from PS, then unfortunate as it is, nothing concrete, no. Plenty of guesses. If you are referring to something else, then please do clarify. It's been a long week.

Thanks, man! Yup, that's me. @Terrasher To clarify, yes, I've heard 5685 pieces, and January remains most likely, at least for the anniversary. ?

I wanted to follow up on what @jdubbs and a few others have been saying about the $14.99 US battle packs: they aren't on the tentative 2021 winter price list, and there's no indication of their presence in the Spring as well, but we did skip over four set numbers in the second half of 2020. Nothing is impossible; certain likelihoods remain strong. I will say that SW 2021 looks as though it will be more expensive than 2020, not less...

Aha, in this case, I regret to say that that is correct. I had understood from one of my sources that the price would remain set at $349.99 US, but apparently something changed along the line and TLG decided to increase the MSRP. Still a spectacular kit, still more (much more) than worth the cost, but not ideal. Heck, the PpP is still out of this world for a licensed kit, but then again, 71043 was much better. I had also suspected an October release date, but September is looking more and more likely by the day. :) I posted a dozen photos on Instagram, but more are coming out by the day, so keep searching. And keep checking https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/75978.

Not thrilled with the 2HY lineup this year, particularly the 4+ tower, but we still are yet to see that Iron Man Helmet with the unknown set number, and I have high hopes for the 18+ line. :)

@BigGuy4U Just to clear this one up, no, 75318 is not 75291 (the $99.99 retailer exclusive that we've known about since February). The former is coming late this year and appears to be a general release kit. Between 60-90 EUR, it was originally set for 2021, so I would guess that it won't be released before September or October.

30420 is a $4.99 Wizarding World polymer releasing in August, if everything goes according to plan.

As noted, despite the simple fact that the above three statements are accurate, their veracity in and of itself does little to lend your theory much momentum; if anything, TLG is more motivated to release a special annual report in a year where markets are especially strong to allay consumer worries that competitors such as Hasbro and Mattel are in a position to overtake them. The fifty page report is a pretty antiquated setup, and though TLG has been doing one annually for the past 35 or so years (since the mid-eighties IIRC) 2020 would be a great year to switch that up. In recent years, it's become more and more inconvenient to download this giant PDF and skim it for the data or collated data that you are attempting to reference. I would argue that this is an unnecessarily cynical attitude that really downplays the level of engagement present here. :P The virus is still not too much of a concern in western Europe, eastern Europe, and the states, where TLG continues to both manufacture and sell most of their products, and any statement in video form is probably something that's been in the works for a few months now, so I would be surprised id the virus was the driving force behind the move. No trouble at all, man! It's not too unusual for TLG to send retailers preliminary details on individual kits prior to the decision to ship said kits out to the bona fide retailers themselves, so the DOTS case was not uncannily unusual. With respect to the explanation offered by@LegoMyMamma; yes, that was DOG's imperative concern. The folks at quality management conduct some pretty rigorous tests (especially since the 2007 lime joint fiasco) so there is little room for debate their. :P On the temporal subject of Monkey Kid; every retailer that I know of is still calling it "Leaf". I would be wary of any rumors that emerge before the middle of the month.

The 419~~ DOTS line was originally set for a January 2019 release.

Hmm.. I don't recall as much, but I will have to check. I actually had seemed to recall him debunking the rumor, but I may be off the mark here as well.