Renny The Spaceman

It's weird they don't at least do 2 normal ones, they used to for ages.

Miss when they'd always do two opposing Battlepacks together, I get why it stopped as one side seemingly consistently sold better and with Battlepacks being so expensive now it's not as plausible a kid could or would get both released in the same wave but it's still a shame.

Yeah, people talking about PAB being a saviour to this sorta figure forget that the CS parts are only up very briefly

I don't think it's the fact of it being a remake that's the issue (though town square I believe is supposed to be a remake of the fantasy era one, I think it was closer in the early draft that was leaked) I don't think there's one simple reason we can see for why any of these did poorly such as "being remakes" I think it might have just been a case diminishing returns. with Barracuda bay a couple years before then Lion Knights Castle and the Galaxy Explorer they hit the big three with big expensive homage sets, all three are exactly what someone who likes one of those themes would want at the right price point for it, each further one felt like it was slightly less definitive and justified it's pricepoint slightly less. So if you're more casual or passively interested in any of these themes you'd get only a couple at most. The Hardcore fans are all that's left then and I imagine most are satisfied by the Bricklink Designer program giving 78 different massive grey castles at the Lion's Knight pricepoint

Bar Lion Knights Castle they all had short runs and were widely discounted, and usually we knew what theme a remake would be based on pretty early and we don't. I'd like to be wrong but I don't think they'd do another one out of obligation. Especially as the biggest ones that could be done at that scale, with modern colours have been done now

I think that's a rule we all have here, no matter the character if they're only in an expensive set putting them in the cheapest possible sets is an equal parts funny and pro-consumer move and should be done

I think the remakes as a line probably is done but I wouldn't doubt a new Castle Icons set using some of the new factions

Made me think about retirement dates (I find this stuff interesting, sorry) Of course the oldest SW set currently in production is the UCS Millennium Falcon, with no retirement date in sight UCS sets generally seem to have more opportunity last longer than playsets if they're based on a massive, popular element of the franchise. I believe the Rise of Skywalker Falcon was the uncontested champion of a regular playset staying on shelves cracking just over 5 years, the only things on it's level are UCS sets and one Tie Polybag last I checked. Weirdly though currently there are 3 running potentially going to take the crown as they have been in production since 2022 without retirement dates. They are the AT-TE, Obi-Wan's Jedi Star Fighter and the Mandalorian's Star Fighter all three are gonna crack at least 4 years I'd bet but if any of them are retired any point later than than February/March of 2027 they will take the crown. So out of pure speculation, I think the Mando Star Fighter will take it or get discontinued just shy of the crown depending on if the ship is straight replaced in the film, Obi-Wan's ship will go when the Jango Slave One does I'd bet so I think it's chances depend on how well Jango's ship sells and the AT-TE could go whenever, I have no guess on that one as I imagine it's purely sales keeping that one afloat given, unlike the other two, it has nothing in LEGO or in SW media to tie into.

Yeah, I was just making a easy jab, I think people here would complain it's overpriced but argue it's better by every metric despite that Also, something we're not discussing is the bigger Battlepacks try justify their price by throwing in battle droids as they're half minifigures, can't really do that with any other faction but clones and they don't wanna set the precedent of a normal "super" Battlepacks coming with say, 4 stormtroopers and 2 rebels because then people would expect 6 minifigures in them going forwards.

To be fair we have ample examples of that, 99% of the theme is overpriced slop. It's only been the past couple years the OT era's not been the dominant part of the theme. We have ample experience with overpriced OT slop

I think that's plausible, at least in the short term, clone Battlepacks clearly are considered a different ordeal to other ones right now. BUT, if something SW does becomes a big hit like the Mandolorian, or another faction starts selling at the same level as the clone ones then, I think, they'll try one for another faction, if that sells well then non-zero chance Battlepacks get pushed to be a midrange item across the board. The "cheap" ones will go from 20 to 25 then 30 with no changes then maybe be phased out by "super" Battlepacks being 45 and the main ones. Yeah, the main thing fans of most licensed themes seem to want is minifigures, this forum probably has a more well rounded view but keep in mind on any more general place online to talk about these things the discussion is always around sets not including X or Y figures or whatever so as long as a set like this includes like a handful of characters who'd never be made otherwise it'll be very popular.

Yeah, we know helmets and air tanks are, that's it, anything else is pure speculation

Ninja buildwise was very similar to castle of the era

Guilty pleasure? Not sure many themes fall into that relative to SW

Well to be fair, wasn't the big Hullabaloo with the Andor set that it could fit trooper, singular? Maybe 2 if they're leaning on eachother

Haha, true, everything was a subtheme for over 2 decades

I mean if it's not a castle subtheme it's not a subtheme, it'd just be a theme

I think it's generally considered to be a castle subtheme

I like your first touchstone for real life is James Bond

Yeah, I think this is it, it's weird after the branding being so consistent across the different source material Yeah, exactly. Because now it's helmets/busts, UCS, Mechs, Microfighters, Buildable characters and Midi scale vehicles in addition to the playsets multiple times every year which just make it feel more segmented. I'm the same with the backlog, but moreso as I rarely buy SW at all, the only newset I've gotten since the AT-TE was the Arc-170 (maybe I'm the problem )

Yeah, I don't really mind as long as it's a build that's fair for the price, if most people don't bother with the build there's no point in trying to bend something canon to fit a scale it doesn't work in, just make it something nice. You're right when they do both like with the Barc Speeder it's best I can kinda see that, wonder if part of it for you is it going for the older box style of just being a banner on top rather than a design that wraps around like they've had for the past 4 years or so Yeah, it's not unified like it used to be, there's so many different sub lines for different demos it's really only as a year as a whole you can view it as a strong collective rather than when it was just 2 or 3 (if a movie was coming out) distinct waves with a UCS set in May. Like in the first half it's 2 Mando sets and a battlepack and that's it for regular, minifigure scale, play sets with no gimmicks. Funny selection of Stars. 3 Andor actors, a director/co-showrunner of Mando, the lead of their biggest show and upcoming movie, Ashoka's lead and poor Tem who's not allowed to do anything but ADR throwaway dialogue for clone cameos because the Boba Fett show wasn't popular Denmark has fallen, billions must be disassembled

I wouldn't say sarcasm, if people like it then it's doing it's job, but there's definitely commonalities. I doubt our next original theme will move away from this format as Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Dreamzzz and Monkie Kid all kept it. Ninjago does well so most of the few original themes now generally fit into it's format

Maybe you're afraid of digging a bit deeper, maybe you need a bit more risk I think this is the only winter village set with this exact combination of parts, so yes, first time Elf's are missing? They were just in a set

I imagine a theme about 4-6 young heroes with bright, colour coded mechs, cars and motorbikes being trained to use special powers to defeat a manifestation of some form of evil and their army of faceless mooks. Would be fun if they shake up the formula a bit more but this is generally how it goes

I don't get that piece to be honest, like bald LEGO minifigures having the stud is iconic, why would you smooth that over? It always looks weird to me