Lobot

The current version is due to retire at the end of this year, so the release of another one in Autumn 2027 seems logical. I'm not sure how LEGO will be able to improve on 75192 to be honest (even though it's been around since 2017!) but presumably they'll be a able to 'tidy' it a little more with a few of the newer elements that are now available. It's amazing that it has been on shelves for 9 years; presumably it's been very popular sales-wise, and attracted lots of new fans to LEGO. It's possible that they might just do a minor 'refresh' to tie-in with the 50th Anniversary (e.g. new minifigures, and a small part count increase). I'm excited for the new rumours - there seems to be an amazing amount of sets planned for 2027 - especially if some of the 'older' ones are still correct (e.g. Ewok Village, Bounty Hunter Pursuit). It could be a great year to be a Star Wars fan, after several less than brilliant ones!

75455 (Boba Fett) has just leaked and it looks absolutely stunning! It's in the usual place if you're interested.... Edit - apologies @CloneCommando99 - I didn't see your post!

I was hoping that the Bespin Duel playset set might include a decent number of minifigures in view of the predicted RRP. However, it doesn't sound very promising and could easily just be an upscaled diorama type set, or something similar to 75296 (Meditation Chamber). I'll reserve final judgement until I see some images of it, but I'm already preparing myself to be disappointed!

75441 - Midi scale Venator has just leaked and it looks very impressive! Probably one of the best to date....

This isn't looking that promising as far as I'm concerned - especially considering LEGO's previous history of anything remotely 'intelligent' apart from Mindstorms. It just seems to be another excuse for a price-hike, with a few pointless gimmicks that most kids (presumably the target audience) will get bored of very quickly! I actually quite liked the old light-up lightsabers, especially as the batteries could be easily changed. I'll be amazed if these are still functioning correctly after a couple of years!

Having seen the latest images of the Death Star, I'm actually quite impressed by it. It's clearly massive and there's some great little details. In particular, the hanger/star-field is exceptional, as well as the laser and the 'core' section of it. It actually looks a little deeper than I'd imagined so hopefully it will be relatively stable! I appreciate that many fans have been upset by the minifigures but it's not too much of an issue for me. If it ever reaches 20% off I'll buy it, otherwise I'm happy to spend my money on something else UCS-related!

From memory, LEGO's pricing across different countries isn't always 100% consistent. However, the new UCS Death Star should be around £850 in the UK based on the US/UK pricing of other current sets. For example, Jabba's Sail Barge, Avengers Tower and Rivendell are all $500/£430, so with a bit of downward 'tidying' £850 seems logical as a price point... However, the sceptic in me thinks it will be £900 (for maximum profit); although LEGO actually lowered the price of the UCS AT-AT after it was heavily criticised within the fan community (but they increased again shortly afterwards!) so it will be interesting if the muted reaction to the Death Star will be sufficient for them to have a re-think!

I'm surprised to say that I'm really impressed by the new UCS Death Star It certainly isn't the upscaled 10143 that I'd hoped for, but it's a lot more cohesive than I'd expected and I can see myself buying it eventually when it's available at a decent discount. It will be interesting to see if it remains a true exclusive (i.e. only available from LEGO) or if it will eventually be available in the UK from other retailers - I can probably justify it to my wife if it reaches >20% off at some point! I'm not worried about the minifigures not being absolutely perfect - some of the details within the set more than compensate for that (the starry background to the hangar and laser assembly both look brilliant!). At £750/£800 it would have been an instant buy, but I'm happy to wait for this one.....

I’m going to reserve judgment until I see the set, but it doesn’t sound too promising. I assume from the various comments that it’s going to be a cross/cut-section of it, hence the odd dimensions, and they’ve effectively spliced a series of ‘diorama-style sections’ together (e.g. conference room, cells, throne room, central core etc). The only question is whether it will actually be rectangular, or if they’ve add a curved external frame to it. It’s such a shame if the rumours are correct, I’ve been really looking forward to buying this… all I wanted was an up-scaled 10143!

The 2026 Advent Calendar is clearly highly divisive, but I'm really impressed by it! Most of the ones from the last few years have been pretty un-inspiring to me; I don't have much interest in endless Christmas jumpers or low-quality micro builds. However, this seems to be one of the best ones overall since 2016 (75146) and 2019 (75245) due to the decent builds, and array of minifigures/droids. Definately one to add to my shopping list

Not strictly on topic, but there's some incredible deals available on Amazon.fr at the moment! Quite a few sets are already discounted and there's also a code for the next couple of days which applies a 25 euro discount to 75 euro orders (this is updated daily on the homepage). I just ordered two sets with an RRP of £110, for just over £52 delivered....

I'm very impressed by the latest images of the UCS Slave 1 - it looks incredible and a significant upgrade on the older version There's just the right level of visible studs to keep it looking like a LEGO set, and the amount of greebling is perfect. Hopefully they've managed to make the underside a little more stable; there's a couple of sections on the old one which were incredibly fragile! It could have been a 10/10 - if it wasn't for those horrible stickers! I'm really looking forward to purchasing it - hopefully the UK RRP won't be too painful.

The U-Wing looks surprisingly good considering it's clearly downsized from the original. The boxart looks great and I'm eagerly awaiting the full high quality versions. It's going to sell well, especially due to the decent minifigures - I just hope it's not too ridiculously priced. The others look decent, but they aren't of any real interest to me. It's certainly an interesting mix of sets so far this year, although the UCS Slave 1 is by far my favourite to date!

My first impression is that it's a decent upgrade on 75060 which is one of my favourite UCS sets. They've made good use of the newer slope pieces and it's clearly more refined overall. I'm still not sure how it's 2,970 parts though, unless there's a ridiculous amount of greebling on the underside - it just doesn't look big enough! I'm not too bothered about the colour palette they've used for Boba, but his hair choice is rather odd... Hopefully LEGO will have a re-think about the current 'black' box styling at some point - it's getting a bit much. Great work overall, I can't wait to build it!

I'd be very surprised if the new Death Star has any interior, apart from possibly the odd token section (e.g. Throne Room). At the rumoured price point LEGO are clearly aiming it at the adult collector market and so I can't see it being anything other than a display piece; any interior/play sections are likely to require significant compromises and I can't see that happening! In addition, it's going to require a significant amount of Technic to support it all, and that will take up a lot of the interior, similar to most other UCS models. It will need to look absolutely amazing, and the obvious way of achieving that would to be base it on the second version (i.e. a seriously upscaled 10143); I don't see how they'd be able to replicate a near perfect sphere which would be necessary for the original. I'm expecting it to include a lot of exclusive minifigures to help justify the price and attract buyers, all nicely displayed on a separate stand.