Azani

I have been doing some serious URL guessing - as far as I know, no one has these yet. I will post if allowed.

So, based on the latest non-watermarked photos, BB-8 includes a little hatch with a retractable blue flame on one side. Nice to see that sort of added touch. Additionally, turning a panel on his side causes his "head" to rotate. Am I allowed to post non-watermarked photos?

I've seen the finalized, non-watermarked images for the four sets that we'll be expecting in September. 75529 has a Skull Basher-type function.

Good to know; at this stage, I always take prices with a grain of salt, as most come from secondhand sources that may have confused currencies. Additionally, the upcoming sets look as though they will be including a number of new or at least relatively rare recolors, especially the bomber.

I'm not sure; there's a chance, as you alluded to, that the market for constraction took a nosedive at some point between 2010 and 2015. If such a change occurred, the distinct lack of marketing that G2 saw would make a little more sense, as the whole line was a pretty small project for them overall. Here's the thing: we saw nine constraction sets released in 2017, including the four that are due for release in September. In 2011, we saw twenty-five. If constraction is going to come back in full swing, it needs a little more marketing than TLG has been willing to give it in recent years, at the very least.

Not going to lie, you're probably right on target there with Han Solo; hopefully we get a set that's essentially Ep. IV Han with Alden Ehrenreich's face. The TIE pilot is still relatively exciting to me due to what appears to be a print-free black SW torso shell and a solid helmet mold; not only that, it should be 19.99 over in the US, if Brickset is to be believed.

I would make the case that Umarak the Hunter, Lord of Skull Spiders, and all of the beast sets were leaps and bounds above the three G1 sets/set families that you mentioned, especially considering the lengths to which G2 aimed to include creative functions in every set. All of the aforementioned sets were as "non-humanoid" as the Barraki, Vamprah, or Krika, if not much more so. I have immense faith in TLG as a whole, but I do have serious doubts as to whether or not their future endeavors with CCBS or similar systems will do well unless they take a radical, radical step. If they're going to be successful, they need to take a massive, possibly dangerous risk - one that is more reminiscent of a struggling company than what they resemble today. And I don't trust them to do that. While we're on this subtopic, Ikaatril, if you're referring to TwistLaw's comment in the Star Wars Constraction 2017 thread, I'm 98% percent sure that that was speculation, and nothing else.

I mean, I wish you luck with finding the trooper sets super cheap; if you're including the Scout Trooper in that, there may be a few challenges; that said, they're both fantastic sets. An Ep. 1 Darth Maul would be pretty boring for us long-time constraction fans, but if you're pretty new to the system you may find it intriguing. Maul as a set isn't a bad premise, that's for sure.

Isn't that the truth. :P As far as the latest leaks are concerned, the top post in the LegoLeaks subreddit leads to a broken link; however, if you scan the comments, you should come across a mirror fairly shortly.

If you're thinking of SWC sets as well, we should have two more in the form of Boba Fett and a second Darth Vader at some point in 2018. As far as others go; I'm with you on the realist perspective; we may be out of luck. I suspect that TLG will keep SWC around through Episode IX, as it doesn't appear to sell too poorly, and its parent theme has always been and continues to be a runaway success.

It looks to me like the Pilot is a little more complex than the Death Trooper; there's a Poe Dameron-esque structure on his chest. That head sculpt is incredible, however. Frankly, I feel like Rey is the second best, after the Praetorian Guard. She's got exposed hair (nice!) and reuses the Erso torso plate; that said, we were all hoping for that, right? We've got a solid number of new recolors, plus a lightsaber. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to pick her up. Chewbacca is alright; as far as individual parts go, he's fantastic, but the completed model looks pretty weak. It's a little unfortunate to see the SWC designers use the new shell six times on him, especially because they're all printed parts. However, he gets redeemed pretty quickly by the Guard. Man, this last guy is unbelievable. Lots of new, versatile parts, recolors (including the shin armor in Bright Red) and a lithe, sleek design with a cloth component. In my book, he's up there with Rey as the best of the wave.

As a supplementary note, the TTV boards host a similar, relevant thread here. As far as comprehensiveness is concerned, it may beat out BZP's. The real takeaway here is that Eurobricks is probably one of the worst places to find resources for the constraction community.

So, that constraction frame, by which I assume you mean this piece, is actually much older than the Darth Vader set; it was first released in 2011, and it's typically seen as being lower in quality than the newer, custom designs that have been developed since 2014 or so. Many of the recent buildable figures still use the old, cookie-cutter fram, but only because it keeps the price of the set down. If I were you, I wouldn't mod the set that way as you'd be unable to attach the side detailing or control panel, as Leewan said. There's been a lot of news and conflicting reports on the identities of the upcoming buildable figures; Sir Von Lego here on EB claims that neither Snoke nor Luke will be included in the TLJ lineup, saying that "none of your list is accurate" in response to a guy on here claiming a lisr of figures that included those two. Several reputable folks, including CM4Sci and Stash2Sixx, have reported that we'll be seeing a BB-8 UCS set this year utilizing constraction elements, and delta_customs over on Instagram claimed that we'll see a Boba Fett figure at some point in the near future. I haven't personally heard of a C-3PO fig, but I wouldn't rule it out, and I'd certainly appreciate it. What we know for sure is that there will be 4 constraction figures released later this year in conjunction with The Last Jedi.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little surprised that folks started calling the above image out as "fake" before reading on the subreddit that it was openly created as such. Hopefully the rumors of a Boba Fett buildable figure are, in fact, true. I would guess that it will be released after the TLJ figs, though.

I'm with you for sure on this one, man. It takes some legitimate skill to make one of those, and while some folks will obviously not be amoused, I always appreciate the creativity that goes into those designs. Heck, he told us that it was a fake almost immediately.

Wow; if that is in fact true, then that's a massive piece of information. No Snoke, and further, no Luke. Do we have word on the approximate size of the UCS-type BB-8? Are we talking about a 400-500 piece set or something much larger?

Yeah, the Death Trooper isn't anything too special; I definitely wouldn't pick up both it and the Stormtrooper Commander that just came out. My personal favorites of the SW constraction line so far have been Baze Malbus (the machine gun partner of Donnie Yen :P) and the Scout Trooper and Speeder Bike that just got released. The latter is pretty expensive, but it looks like it might be 20% off at a US Target. As far as the timing of the release goes, that typically hasn't had a lot to do with the viability of the product; that said, the new Disney films have been opening in the Winter, so there may be a correlation there...