Mandalorianknight

100% agreed on the first two but I'm holding out hope the third is an arena build, maybe with some of those big droids if they're in around the same area. Yeah, exactly. You can't call boba fett in season 2, where he directly serves the story and themes, fan service and pretend he didn't cameo in season one just because he was on the same planet. He wasn't even canonically confirmed to be ALIVE until Mando S1, IIRC. You literally quoted me explaining how relevant they are to the story, themes, and main conflict, but we'll go through this again: Boba Fett: At the end of Season 1, Boba finds Fennec Shand, a character Mando's previously tangled with. At the start of season 2, while trying to find other mandalorians Mando finds Cobb wearing Boba's armor and gets it from him, setting up boba to follow him. He catches up to him in episode 6, where he and Fennec attempt to regain his armor, then offering their help when Grogu's kidnapped due to Boba's sense of honor, proceeding to be mando's transportation and help for the rest of the season. He's fairly important to the story, no? Removing him and replacing him with some random bounty hunter would completely destroy a big chunk of the season's "what does it mean to be a mandalorian" theme. Also, HE CAMEOS IN THE FIRST SEASON! Bo-Katan: You didn't mention her, which is good because this one can be explained simply by "the story is about mandalorians, and she's a leader of mandalorians". Obviously the second he starts looking for the rest of his people he's going to come on a collision course with her. Ahsoka: The entire Mando/Grogu dynamic in season 2 is centered around preparing mando to let Grogu go, that to be with the Jedi, he needs to forgo his attachment to Mando. Ahsoka fits the role of setting that up PERFECTLY, as someone who has traumatic, firsthand experience with the danger of a Jedi too entrenched in personal attachments. Sure, you could invent some random new order 66 survivor to tell Mando to go to Tython, but you lose that whole angle (as well as further damaging the whole "last of the jedi" thing in ROTJ by making another random survivor). And that's a whole other thing- for the jedi characters specifically, it would actively discount the OT to keep adding more and more jedi who were around during the OT. They've done all they can to get around it so far (Ahsoka not considering herself a jedi through that time and also presumably being trapped on a dark side temple during the OT, Ezra being trapped in another galaxy, Kanan dying), but wouldn't inventing another survivor jedi with a convoluted reason for not being counted by yoda be a bigger issue than... a character we know from other projects *gasp* showing up in a new project? Luke: Similar thing to Ahsoka- Luke is supposed to be the last jedi at the time of ROTJ. There were literally two options for who Baby Yoda was going to end up with, and it makes sense that it'd be the guy building the jedi school. It's literally the only person that could fulfill the Armorer's mandate at the end of season 1. So storywise it's not only totally logical, but the literal only move. As for the themes, Luke is the ultimate realization of the Jedi Order. The sequels do their whole thing, but post-ROTJ Luke is THE jedi. It signals to the audience- and by those around him's reactions, Mando- that it's OK. Grogu will be in good hands (for a few decades until the sequels mess things up). He'll be taught by the best of them- mando just needs to let go. Mando taking off his helmet, voluntarily, to say goodbye to grogu is the most emotional moment in the mandoverse. It's what the entire second season builds towards. And replacing luke with just some random new order 66 survivor we've never seen who would LITERALLY come out of nowhere and now needs to be from-a-certain-point-of-view'd into not directly contradicting the OT would actively hurt that part of the story. That would make sense. I intentionally purged all memories of the 2007 TCW movie from my brain, so I forgot Ahsoka called him that. Bo-Katan was the leader of the main mandalorian faction. It is directly comparable to Mon showing up in andor. Similarly, Ahsoka is a jedi who knows the danger of training a jedi with pre-existing familial attachments, fitting both the "Mando needs to find a jedi" story element and setting up+ showing the importance of the "Mando and Grogu have to separate for Grogu's jedi training" emotional element. Luke caps off the "Finding the Jedi" arc because he's THE jedi. It's putting Grogu in the best possible hands, giving him (a few decades of a) happy ending... so long as Mando lets go. As for Boba Fett, aside from the role he plays in the "what does it mean to be a mandalorian" theme and storyline, he was also SET UP IN THE FIRST SEASON! Objectively speaking those characters play roles important to the story and themes that specifically they were good fits for. If they'd had two other random jedi show up in episodes 5 and 8, people would be complaining that there were yet more order 66 survivors. A character being liked or having been in previous stuff doesn't automatically make it bad for them to show up in a new project.

Yeah, there's two groups, but there's very clearly the "Popular infinity saga characters+Samvengers+characters we're trying to promote" group and the "Sidekicks/characters we don't want to promote group." It seems like the Russos know how many characters they have on their hands and are trying to remove the ones that they don't know and marvel isn't pushing them to include. Hope so. I think it's inarguable (both- that spider-gwen is taking over, and that the bugle just made generic civilians and slapped names on them). For Gwen, it actually really annoys me. I don't dislike spider-gwen as a multiversal character, but while moving Miles into mainline universes was fine (especially since there wasn't a pre-existing Miles character he overwrote - out of universe, I know there's a story later where he finds 616 miles), Spider-gwen dominating the Gwen Stacy name hurts any chances of a non-spider gwen showing up. If I remember right the last pre-streaming spidey cartoon HAD a gwen stacy... for about five minutes before turning her into spider-gwen. For the bugle civilians, there's no arguing that you aren't correct about what happened. "Ron Barney" is a name that appears under a Silver Surfer article in a single issue of a marvel comic in the '90s, there's not even a visual depiction of him for them to have based the character off of. "Amber Grant" Appears in a few issues of the OG Defenders and a few issues of a comic called "Omega the Unknown", so obscure that she has different last names depending on the issue- and looks nothing like the figure in the set. "Bernie the Cab Driver" - my man didn't even get a last name - is most likely Bernie Tibbs, a sanitation truck driver who appeared in a single issue of Avengers, though he doesn't really resemble his guy either. If it wasn't for the hat matching and the other two names being obscure pulls I would have assumed they made him up. I dunno. Agatha IS evil, whereas John really isn't. From everything we see in TFATWS he's a good person who just crashed out a bit (again, IMO reasonably) after his best friend was killed. Assuming this is the sandman set, for $25 in 2025 that storefront would have to be TINY unless it was just a sandman minifigure. My assumption is it'll be a sand-form sandman and likely fit a minifigure inside it somewhere.

It could be a fun mid-range playsest sort of like the Ragnorak arena set. Also, that Hutt is and played by Jeremy Allen-White: the main character from the show The Bear, which might be the craziest casting choice star wars has ever made. I don't really understand how it would just be fan service for a story about a bounty-hunting mandalorian trying to bring a kid to the jedi to involve bounty hunters, mandalorains, and jedi. Like, come on. We can go into how essential most of them are to the plot, and all the themes behind each of them: Boba and Bo challenging Mando's morality and what it means to be a mandalorian, for one thing, or Ahsoka's role in developing Grogu as a character, setting up the notion and conflict within Mando about letting go of Grogu, etc. Luke's the only one that's a cameo, and aside from being one of the best moments in disney-era star wars, it is the ultimate realization of a lot of season 2's themes: the necessity of Grogu's development as a Jedi, letting go, and what it means to be a mandalorian through Mando's decision to voluntarily remove his helmet to say goodbye. But at the end of the day- yeah, obviously a story about a mandalorian bringing a kid to the jedi is going to involve some of the famous mandalorians and jedi active at that time period. It'd be like if Andor never included any of the imperials or rebels in the OT.

A bank heist set with shocker (in a drill tank or something, assumably) would be awesome! We should be safe. The PPPs aren't smart-brick level atrocious for any of these (I mean, the bugle's rough, but it's also assumably going to have lots of large panels and plates, and "newspaper office" doesn't sound like a set that would hold a smart brick.) and they'd need a starter kit in one of the sets. I don't know- they have bob give a very similar statement to Yelena's starting monologue, which she recognizes (the bit where Void gets it's name). I think they were clearly trying to set them up as two people who were in a very similar headspace and finding a way out of it together- literally speaking in the third act. I agree that the very fact that it was considered concerns me, but I think changing it- even if they personally preferred it the other way- was a good sign for the MCU. At the end of the day, I'd rather marvel make stuff we'll like because they know we'll like it than stuff we don't because it's what they want to make. I respect that they realized "Oh, people really like John, it's probably a bad idea to double down and try and make him evil". Yeah, I'm worried about it, especially with the leak that only half the team actually gets to be part of the main story. That's my thought here as well- they can appear in a set together (the bugle), but putting Gwen in an Oscorp set when you've got stuff like Sins Past might be a bit much for them. As for that last part, man I hope not. Yeah, classic Gwen primarily serves to advance spider-man's character. So does Goblin, the comic is called spider-man. Despite what some writers seem to think, that's how having a main character works. Gwen had a personality, there was more going on with her stories than just her death, so it's not like a Kyle Rayner situation where they create a character solely to shockingly kill them.

But even then, that's three figs and two prints vs 2 figs and no prints. Not to mention that the X-mansion didn't come out with a "Luthor's school for gifted youngsters (superman clones)" set already on shelves. I just don't see them doing it. It makes sense from a purely value perspective, but in terms of both what fits more for the set and opening things up, I'd much rather we get another Leaguer than a batman villain. This would be the first time batman and a non-bat hero shared a set since... what, 2019? 2020? We had the Soup mech last year, but keeping that momentum going with a leaguer in a batman set would be awesome, even if movie based. That said, putting SS Harley (we... we can't call her that) in a set that costs 1/7th her BL price would be an epic, Rex Microfighter level play by lego.

I agree with the wider sentiment that Disney has this weird hangup about actually making and following through on a plan, but I thought Mando S2 did a great job keeping the connections plot-relevant. As for meaningful, I think Luke getting out of that X-wing and actually being Luke Skywalker as he is meant to be was one of the most meaningful star wars moments of the entire disney era to me. Made me feel like I was six years old. We've been getting more and more january information for other themes, so I'd be surprised if we didn't start to hear some more concrete info on our leaked january sets here.

Same. The Batfleckmobile is also just a really cool batmobile design. My guess is still: Batfleckmobile: (Batfleck, MAYBE superman) Pattmobile: (Robat battinbat, possibly penguin) Comicsmobile: (Man, potentially Jonkler) I don't remember the daily planet evidence being particularly strong in the first place, but this makes it pretty unlikely. And since the march wave is exclusively batmobiles, they have a grand total of two figures they could re-use for the planet anyway, so at this point unless it's a microscale, I would say it's probably not happening.

Yeah, I'm glad they saw the way the wind was blowing and changed it. John's a lot of people's favorite post-endgame character, and I think making him the villain would have lost marvel even more fans, rather than drawing them back in. I know I wouldn't have taken the chance on F4 had Thunderbolts not blown me away- if they'd really made John a bad guy I think I'd have been done with the MCU permanently. I was thinking just a dark red Frank Miller suit, but Miller's training outfit (the one we see in that made-for-tv Hulk movie, as well as the netflix show) would be awesome as well, and would only require a new face print rather than legs or even a torso. Moon Knight I think is pretty likely belonging to that corner of the universe, and I can't believe I didn't catch Ghost Rider. I'd be surprised if he didn't show up in Oscorp- might give us a side build, too. Kaine feels pretty likely. And yes, of course Luna Snow has no connection to spider-man and isn't really realistic for the bugle. That's just part of the joke of me always putting some figures I want (Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow) when talking about Oscorp- I don't legitimately think she'd be in the set. I agree on the first part, but I also think they'd have no issue just making Kingpin a minifigure. In everything but spider-verse he's a good deal smaller than Hulk or Thanos or even F4's Thing. Same with Rhino- I'm sure we'll just see a regular minifigure of him if he comes in the set, like they did in the Disney Junior set with Hulk. Yeah, that's true. My list was a bit optimistic in terms of re-using desirable exclusives when we will probably still get the standard ock and goblin rather than desirable variants like Nu-Ultimate or rarer villains like Kraven. I think Gwen's possible, especially if they're trying to up the figure count, but I certainly don't think her death or Sins Past would count TOWARDS the likelihood of her being in the set. If anything I think they'd hold her back from it. Those would be nice as well. Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to get anywhere close to the actual shape of the flatiron. It's shaped top-down like a thin pie slice, and if you want any sort of usable interior space inside, it'd essentially end up as a slightly rounded rectangle rather than something resembling the flatiron building. I just don't see why lego would intentionally limit the figures they could put in the set and make what would have to be a super-deformed design when they could just do a generic version, wouldn't have to fill 80% of the figs with civilians, and could add their classic vehicle side builds for kids. Not to mention that it being a comic-book inspired set wouldn't be an issue at all, or mean that it's going to just be a scaled-down version of the 2021 modular. The bugle's had plenty of different looks in the comics, our last system bugle was in 2012, and a lot of people don't have the money or space for a $350 set (which is a shame- it's probably my favorite marvel set, and I love having physical minifigs of Daredevil and Punisher). A new comic bugle is a better change at more new characters or versions, compared to the Raimi bugle, which could get us Raimi Goblin and... civilians that would be re-used parts.

Anti-Venomized version. Or the prophesized Wolverized Groot. It's not great, but c'mon guys, it's not the end of the world. Both the spider-man sets in this batch seem good, especially if comic or Raimi based. A small Sandman playset is great, and similarly the bugle is a good addition to this skyline series they've been doing. Like take a step back from the fact that yes, we technically have gotten a big sandman or a big bugle before. This wave includes plenty of the usual crap (Hulkbuster doesn't bother me a ton as it's just clear it's one of those X-wing/TIEs we need to expect every few years. The buildable are more annoying as I really just can't imagine they do that well, especially the groot. But look at the positives. We're in an era of the theme where a non-insignificant portion of sets are dedicated to civilian buildings. People always talk about all the dumb spider-vehicles, and while we're still getting a car and the gimmick mechs, spidey waves used to be ALL spider-vehicles. This wave we've got ghost rider's bike (accurately sized), a big Sandman, and a Daily Bugle. That's awesome! That's so much better than most spider-man waves, which are just collections of spider-vehicles. 2025 started that mini building trend and is resultingly better in that regard, but look at earlier years of spider-man sets (comics, not movies.): 2024: Venom bike, spider-bike, venom mech, spider-car... that's it. Every standard comic spider-man set was based on a vehicle for a spider or venom. 100% spider-vehicle rate. 2023: Miles car... and that's it. Kind of a light year for the subtheme, but also a 100% spider-car rate. 2022: Spider-mech... and once again, that's it. Another light year with a 100% spider-vehicle rate. 2021: venom buggy, Spider-mech, second spider-mech, spider-monster truck, spider-hall-of-armor, ghost rider car. 80% spider-gimmick rate (I'm counting the spider-hall of armor.) 2020: Spider-mech, crawling spider-cycle, spider-jet (AND venom mech), spider...truck of some kind?, venom crawler. 100% spider-gimmick rate. (I would give half off on the spider-truck for including a venomasaurus, which is neat, but since there's another set with both a spider-jet AND venom mech we're gonna have them cancel eachother out.) 2019: 2 spider-crawlers, spider-bike, spider-mech (with venom mech). Once again, 100% spider-gimmick rate. Then you look at 2026, where yes, we have another two mechs and a car, but also a ghost rider bike, the daily bugle, and a sandman playset? So that's what, 50/50? This is the best comic marvel sets have done... maybe ever in the "don't be stupid gimmick vehicles" respect. Sure, the infinity saga stuff is remakes, but they're doing really well with the comic sets. It would also be the Flatiron building. Don't get your hopes up, guys. It's pretty clearly not going to be the raimi bugle due to that. The flatiron building really can't fit into the marvel mini-modular style, which is almost 100% what this set is.

"Old man"? He's like 40! Good review. The part usage is definitely limited outside of spider-man, but not without usage. The two that stuck out to me were Miles's arms being perfect for a powered-up or unleashed Thor, and the digital character's head being great for female Chiss like Ar'lani or Vah'nya. I only intended to pick up 2099, but due to issues with the scanner app I ended up with cyborg-spider-woman, who does have some interesting parts. After reading this, I might try and grab miles- putting a hint of lightning in the eye of my display Miles sounds cool, like he's just starting to wind up a venom blast, and so does throwing some lightning on the arms of my Thor.

Oh, man. I don't know how much of it they shot, but the original thunderbolts movie sounded AWFUL. Taskmaster was going to be one of the main heroes, and John Walker was going to be THE VILLAIN OF THE MOVIE and TURN INTO A HULK. I'm glad they realized that people hated MCU Taskmaster and liked John and fixed those mistakes. I doubt the vault scenes were part of that, at least what we see onscreen, since taskmaster isn't there, but I wonder if that's part of why John's angrier and denser in the vault and a lot more reasonable and like his TFATWS self once they get outside. Probably, though it's funny they literally have a female villain from the comics present who's just... Black Widow's "mom" in the movie. It is more or less the same as what they did to Deadpool back then. Yup, oscorp would be great and has both a solid figure background and a solid amount of new figures it could have. Those four personally have been an in-joke of mine for at least six months or so now of bringing them up (Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow) whenever mentioning Oscorp. The joke is pretending that lego has some sort of algorithm searching our posts and that by spamming those names it'll pick up on it and put them in the set. As for bigfigs, it's inarguable. Even with red hulk, he got one singular big fig in the BNW set, but a minifig in a different set that could easily just have re-used the bigfig (and even given us a new face print with the moustache and glasses). Same with the Hulk truck and Thanos. I assume it's something to do with the cost associated with them- lego's either too cheap to put bigfigs in, or the sets would legitimately just be at too high a price point. (Which I honestly am no longer sure is true. The hands, hair, and pins are essentially normal unprinted parts. The arms are a bit large but still normal pieces, and the head is printed but otherwise a medium-sized part. You have one expensive and printed piece- the body- and I SERIOUSLY doubt that it costs more than, say, twice as much as a minifig to produce, especially with someone like Rulk where there's not exactly a ton of printed detail.) If I was going to do a semi-realistic Oscorp figure guess, going off the bugle (though with slightly more villains and fewer civilians given the location), I'd guess something like the following: 10 Re-used: 6 villains (Venom, Nu-Ultimate Goblin, Hobgoblin, Anti-Venom, Kraven), 4 heroes (Spider-Man, Wolverine, 2099, Julia Carpenter) - If we're getting oscorp, I would put actual money down that almost all of these will show up. To explain the slightly less likely one: Wolverine would be included to fit with deadpool, who given the bugle designer's comments and inclusion in doomsday I think at this point is a lock for the next marvel modular. 7 Civilians: Norman Osborne (Re-used), Mary Jane (Re-used), Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Peter Parker, Curt Conners, Miles Warren. The specific scientists may change, especially if the latter two's alter-egos show up, but I feel confident overall. 8 New: Electro, Rhino, Lizard, Deadpool, Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow. (Ok, ok. I still think Kaine works, but hypothetically instead of the other three, lego may choose to do Lizard, Scarlet Spider, and... I actually am fairly confident on a comic moon knight, seeing how many of the Marvel Knights type characters we got in the Bugle.) Of course, this all assumes we get Oscorp at all. I think a new marvel modular is almost a lock, but it could always be something else. I will say I was planning on getting the apartment set around christmas, but between Anti-venom being in a polybag and hobgoblin+MJ being likely if we get oscorp, I may just wait until closer to it's retirement. If they do show up in another set, I'm sure I could get the apartment build for like 15 bucks on bricklink or something.

Yeah it really could be anything. Interesting, maybe they've hired (I think this was in trades but not sure) As for Black Krrsantan, I thought he was working with Boba now, but I wouldn't mind them having him return to the twins if it means we get a figure of him sometime soon. Yup. Like you say, it's pretty clearly spelled out for us: -Mando liked the Razor Crest -While vintage, we hear multiple times that the Crest is not a unique ship. -Mando routinely does high-paying work that requires a larger ship than a starfighter. We're given incentive for him to buy a larger ship, motive for it to be a razor crest, and he has the means to do so. Even if it's not explained in the movie, they aren't asking for much of a leap from "Mando wants and can afford a product" to "Mando went and bought the product offscreen". It's both, really, since it's the first movie so the start of the saga. Anyone's guess as to what lego goes with for now- I wouldn't be surprised if they did the "saga" more generally and all the system sets were clones again.

It does look like they've upped the tech on however they're doing Grogu, he feels a lot more alive, and doesn't look as CGI to me, so either it's practical effects or just really solid CGI. I'm excited, it feels like a fun story. Yeah season 3 was awful, but it's mistakes don't make the resurrection of the crest bad. Yeah. It looks like a fun pulp-serial adventure movie, it's a good way to get star wars back in theatres. We'll 100% see the Babu Frick mold again. I wouldn't be surprised if it played a role in why we got the mold in the first place. As @icm says, they aren't trying to be Andor with this.

That's fair, and your figure would be good tw=oo. Only points I'd make are that the belt could be dark red, and that the tomato soup color is definitely a hair color real people have. But yeah- really any figure would be excellent, unless it was the Vong war version in a generic robe with a blue saber. That would work well- though I'm not sure the jumpsuit vs armor would be all that different sales wise (If you haven't seen it, it's not like stormtrooper armor, it's very thin)- the jumpsuit and scarf is her iconic look. I hadn't thought of the printed scarf but that would work well. Thanks- I had a similar sentiment in my comment, but the Mcquarrie designs came to me as ones that would work well for the franchise as a whole. I agree on the general point, but the Razor Crest was gone too soon and I'm glad they've fixed that mistake.

I agree with the starting part, I just think the movie does it intentionally. She's not supposed to be a good person at the start. She's supposed to be awful and wallowing in self-pity while she continues to make her own life worse. Meeting Bob and befriending the other thunderbolts is what changes that, and while as you say, your mileage may vary, I don't think it's entirely unbelievable. I've certainly had the experience of being in a bad situation and meeting someone that completely turns me around, alongside recontextualizing what my job there was. As for her actions in Hawkeye, once again, she's an antagonist, but somewhat understandably as she's just lost her sister and was told Hawkeye killed her. With Red Guardian... yeah, that's true, but at the same time that's a pretty common thing between parents and kids. Kids always want their parents to help out, but never check in themselves. I can't speak to that as much but Wanda's character assassination was definitely odd and brutal, taking her from a hero to a more villainous role -while telling us she was still a hero- than overcorrecting and just making her totally evil and the antagonist of a movie. I will say, though, it's definitely not motherly feelings Yelena has for Bob. Aside from them being about the same age, while I don't think it's explicitly shown, I thought it was implied that they had a romantic connection. Yeah, it's not perfect but it's believable enough. I can definitely buy her, as lonely as she is at the start of the movie, desperately trying to make a connection with someone. Those early vault scenes are definitely the roughest in the film, but they're not anywhere near as egregious character-wise as most of the last few phases. She was one of those characters where marvel just spun a wheel on names they had and didn't actually make any attempt to make the character resemble their comic version. Even discounting the cosmetic differences, Tony vs Antonia, that type of thing, Taskmaster's whole thing is he's a merc with a mouth. He's a caustic, comedic mercenary who frequently crosses paths with Deadpool and Moon Knight and their similarly wacky adventures. Making him/her a silent antagonist was genuinely insane, as well as the removal of the skull motif. I think Oscorp is the most likely 2026 modular- the past year or so have certainly laid some groundwork for new spider-characters to include. MJ, Hobgoblin, Anti-Venom, Norman, Julia Carpenter, Kraven, and Ultimate Goblin (Harry) are all characters they could re-use from recent sets that weren't in the Bugle. (Morbius too if they can pull three years back, I'm not sure how long has to pass before a figure stops being a re-use budget-wise.) You throw in characters that were in the bugle but would have to be in oscorp anyway (Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and probably Venom/Miles/Gwen as well), as well as the civilian kitbashes they can do, and we're at large enough of a number that we could reach the bugle's figure count with the same print budget as that set. (And I of course must remind everyone that some of those new figs must be Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, and Luna Snow)

A wonderful question to answer. I mainly know her from Zahn's books, whether it's the Thrawn Trilogy where she really gets developed, the Past/Future duology where she and Luke find their feelings for eachother, or the Alliegence/Choices of One duology (extremely underrated) where we see both how she was always a good person deep down and how palpatine manipulated that to keep her a loyal imperial. (I also love the extremely one-sided catfight between her and Vader, where Vader's always mad at her for no discernable reason and since it's from Mara's perspective she's always like "what the hell is this guy's problem?".) In most of these, she's depicted as wearing a black jumpsuit- sometimes sleeveless, sometimes not, and sometimes with a red belt. The tan scarf adds some flair, and of course we've got the glorious magenta blade. I can't find which specific card the decipher one is, but most of them have a pretty similar look. Some have the tan cape, which is a nice touch, and I found one that uses her Choices of One key art that sort of recontextualizes the black jumpsuit as form-fitting tactical armor, which I think I honestly prefer for her role as essentially an imperial special forces operative. Anything with her iconic look would be fine with me, so long as it's not the stuff from those later novels where she's just got a generic jedi robe and the Filonized blue lightsaber. If we did get a figure, I think I'd want the tactical armor look for the torso and legs rather than the straight jumpsuit- going along with that, I'd ideally want black arms with printing, but since we'd never get that I'd be fine with either flesh or black arms. Between the scarf and cape I think I'd go with the tan cape, as the scarf would limit hair options pretty dramatically. One of the more important things would be the style and color of hair they chose- I think what I'd want is Scarlet Witch's hair in that new tomato soup color. Now most of this is academic- we're unfortunately unlikely to get Mara anytime soon, and if we do, I'm sure it'd just be the generic black jumpsuit with flesh arms. If we ever did get a figure, I'd be happy so long as we got a good face print and hair piece. Same. I don't know how well it did- I never saw it on clearance, but I never really saw many to begin with- it's not unlikely my local retailers just didn't buy many copies. Ah, I see. Yup. We've gone through the vintage figs and a round of fan-favorite characters already. I'd honestly prefer if they keep the exclusive fig gimmick to the theme anniversaries and do something else for the franchise's 50th, but I also wouldn't mind throwing Legends characters in. Let's say it's 6 minifigures again, I could see us getting Mara/Kyle/Dash/Revan/Bastila/Abeloth or something. Or they could just go all-out on the set and figure design for a wave of killer ANH sets. A system cantina in line with the 2023 Yavin set could be awesome, or a few connecting Death Star room playsets. Edit: I missed the obvious one, the one that needs to happen. For the 50th anniversary, we should get the mcquarrie designs. Luke/Vader/stormtrooper/Alien Han/C-3PO/Chewbacca or something.

Maybe seeing that gonk can help you see why people dislike Jar Jar so much- it is subjective, after all. As for the set, I don't think so. Every RTG set has just been a recolor of one of the most iconic vehicles in the saga- the Jedi Starfighter archtype, the Snowspeeder, the Falcon, and the X-Wing and TIE (which wasn't even a recolor). The set in the spoiler doesn't quite fit the pattern, unfortunately. That said, I'd certainly have loved to add the figure design of one of those crew members to my collection...

I agree on the first three, but Catwoman? I think Harley's become more popular- for better or worse- and I'd also consider characters like your aforementioned Alfred, Batgirl, or Gordon above her. Catwoman's one of his more popular rogues, and their romance adds something, but I don't know if she's THAT popular. It's important to note that the Star Wars logo had no minifigures, so there's no guarantee this will have any, but I'd love a classic 2006 batman, especially if they brought back the old cowl for it. Also, when are we getting a cowl they can use for the movie batmen, where you can actually see the eyes under the cowl? Batman has had white eyes in one scene in one of the live-action films and that's it.

I saw a comment from someone claiming to be an editor that it was just a random Snow City civilian, which would also make sense given the outfit. I did see that while looking for Mara, it's nice to see him in a project, even in digital form. Oh, that is true. Though I think the droid builder wasn't a gimmick in the same way as mechs/microfighters/smart brick/action battle/constration/etc, it was just a weird one-off. As for Saw, was the infiltrator lego shop exclusive? I swear I've seen it at walmart. On discount, even. You're right about that latter part, and it's part of why we get so many "anniversary" sets. Almost every year is something's anniversary, and lego loves putting stuff out there for it. But for the 50th of ANH, of star wars as a whole, I hope they go all out. My big hopes are, in order of both likelihood and how much I want them: 1. UCS Tantive IV. A flagship for the theme of the first ship we ever saw onscreen. As a bonus, while unlikely, either throw Rebel Friend in there or make him part of the GWP. 2. The definitive system X-wing and TIE fighter. I know, I know, we get them frequently. But seeing as they're on a three year rotation (I don't think anyone would count whatever the smart brick x-wing is as a legitimate contender any more than you'd count a 4+ set), we might as well go all-out. The 2018 models were excellent but oversized. The 2021 models got us back to the right scale, but had their own issues (DBG plates on TIE wings, the X-wing's rear fuseladge mashing up when in attack position). The 2024 models hit some really solid geometry updates, and we're close to greatness. To keep it fresh, though, maybe we throw in a turbolaser turret and exhaust port into the set. 3. Spacetroopers. Throw them into a new falcon, an imperial battle pack, a death star playset, I don't care. Just get me spacetroopers. 4. Dioramas/minifigure packs of the imperial conference room and rebel briefing room to get a full set of the imperial officers and rebel pilots respectively.

I've been writing what I think is currently somewhere in the realm of 30-40 pages of a story treatment for a thunderbolts TV show and one of the natural places to take the team plotline is them pitted against the Samvengers. I'm sad that in reality marvel's going to have Sam assembly his team, conflict with the New Avengers/Thunderbolts, and team up against doom likely all in the first half of a single movie (or just offscreen). I sort of agree, but once again, I think it's kind of the point of the movie. We see Yelena complaining the most because she's the character we follow, and she does know why she doesn't have any friends and feels bad about herself. She knows what she does is part of the problem- hence why she asks Valentina if she can do "hero" work before the vault mission, she thinks she'll feel better if she plays the hero role. As for why she likes Bob, I mean, I think it's just because she likes Bob. She's trying to find connections with others. John and Ava initially don't appeal to her because they're part of the life she's trying to escape, but Bob pops in as who she thinks is some sort of civilian, and she also seems to have chemistry with him. (Though don't get me wrong, some of the early vault scenes are rough. John's presented as more of a jag than he is in TFATWS or the rest of the movie, especially to bob (partially explained by him being at rock bottom and also the shot where he finds Bob's containment unit and realizes he isn't a civilian like he's saying), and it's weird that he doesn't push back on the "killed the innocent" assertion. Likewise, it's weird that Yelena's the first to go "OK, Valentina's lying to us" and that she's getting along at all with the woman who just killed her... friend? "sister"? I haven't scene black widow in forever- or at all, I legitimately can't remember, but I know they ended the movie on good terms.) Taskmaster's an excellent character in the comics who's in the MCU literally just in name and skillset only. Antonia isn't Tony Masters, doesn't have any of his personality, and doesn't even have the skull mask. Killing her off to potentially make way for the real taskmaster was a great move. Remember, the hero has to also get the new costume at the end of the second-to-last episode of their show. This was an issue for awhile, but reached hilariously stupid levels with Secret Invasion doing that same big scene for giving nick fury an eye patch at the end of his second-to-last episode. That's the type of thing I wouldn't have believed if I'd been told before I saw the show.

I await confirmation from clone commando, as I didn't watch the series myself, but the closest I found was a screenrant (ew) article about it that gives a picture of what just seems like a random redhead in a hoth rebel trooper oufit with blue gloves? The hair isn't what I'd use for Mara, the face doesn't resemble mara, and the torso is completely wrong- this would be the most monkey's paw "lego mara jade" of all time. Edit: I found confirmation from a show editor that Mara is never actually on screen, only mentioned. So we aren't getting a minifigure of her, but we've avoided the monkey's paw of "mara but the figure looks nothing like her" But then how would they get kids addicted to smartphones? (Though to be honest, unironically I'd be a bit concerned about a motorized system AT-AT. It would easily be our first $200+ system set, unless they downsized it to like half scale from the last version.)

Oh, man, I get to talk about thunderbolts? Completely agreed on John (by far my favorite MCU character) precisely for that reason b. Sam just... loses his personality and turns into a more annoying version of steve when he picks up the shield. His show also takes the passing-of-the-shield moment in endgame and changes it to sam giving up the shield, helping Bucky beat and rob the guy who legally had it when he changes his mind, gets a magic suit from a country he spent like two days in, then shows up to the big fight to repeatedly tell the victims of a terrorist attack that the super-soldiers trying (and previously succeeding) to kill innocents were actually not terrorists. It's such a crazy reversal of everything he used to be (Down to smaller parts of his character, such as being a veteran counselor in TWS then in TFATWS responding to a guy having an anxiety attack after his friend was murdered by beating the crap out of him). There's also a hilarious narrative dissonance of "Taking the super serum is bad. Therefore, we are giving sam a high-tech suit that's basically magic", which takes away the actual thematic "power corrupts" element and just turns it into something where the serum has, like, evilness chemicals in it or something but the nanotech is fine. John is the exact opposite. He loses EVERYTHING over the course of that show. His job, the support of his country, the shield, his faith in the government, his best friend. But even when he's lost everything because the government abandons him immediately after he makes a bad PR move (but a legally (and IMO morally) justified kill), he gets back up, welds his own shield in a garage (or a cave, with a box of scraps, if you will) and gets back to work, even throwing away the shield to save people rather than get vengeance for Lemar's murder. I came into TFATWS thinking Sam was a fine choice to replace cap and came out of it with John being one of my favorite characters in the MCU, and Thunderbolts only solidifies that into him being probably my favorite character still active in the MCU. He loses even more before and during that movie, like his family and the one person in the government he thought was on his side, but while he's a bit of a jerk at first (not that they weren't all), if you look at his actions, he's constantly correct when he's offering or shooting down a plan and constantly moving to protect others in combat. He's still fighting with that welded-together shield, now folded into a taco, and he's still going. He embodies that "pick yourself back up" virtue so much better than Sam "do better' Wilson, and is a much more compelling legacy captain america character to me because rather than someone who's immediately treated as the correct heir and always morally right, he's a good but still realistically normal guy. He makes mistakes, he freaks out, but at the end of the day he still picks up that taco no matter how desperate the odds seem. As for Yelena, I sort of agree, but I also think that's the point. She's NOT a good person going into Thunderbolts. She's miserable, and has no interest in helping anyone. She wants to be a hero simply because she thinks it'll make her feel better about herself. I think it all changes when she meets Bob, though, where she makes a genuine connection and really tries to help him not for the sake of being in the public eye as a hero, but because she wants him to feel better. I think by the end of the movie she's a better person than when it started (which I think is true of most of the cast). This is totally true- obviously it's better narratively that the movie doesn't end with Captain Marvel or Professor Hulk fighting Sentry, but it doesn't make sense in-universe why they don't show up- but I do find it funny thinking about how the three heroes active in new york are 100% the type of guys to randomly get hit with a void and experience their worst memories. Spider-Man getting voided would be one of his better days in the comics, and even in the MCU is something he's essentially already experienced. The Netflix Daredevil has a lot of guilt and moral questions, so while it's more supernatural than what he normally deals with it'd essentially just be an episode of that show. And Punisher basically replays his worst memories every day in his mind, so I'm sure for him getting voided was a cathartic experience where he got to repeatedly beat on Russo and other thugs and was probably sad when it ended. It's certainly possible, but I think there are two major issues. One is that I'd say while a popular character, Thor's not on that Iron Man/Spider-Man/Avengers megapopularity branding level. I just don't know if he's modular D2C level popular. The other is that Asgard is a people, not a place more of a skyline than a particular building, so it doesn't lend itself quite as well to a modular. Realistically if we say it, it's likely be somewhat of a forced perspective thing with limited minifigure interactability, and the figures you could include in an MCU one would be fairly limited- aside from Thor and Loki and maybe Hulk if you want to throw Ragnorak figures in, you wouldn't have anyone super popular. The only characters that would be major draws to Asgard specifically are Odin and (at this point) Hela, and Hela could easily be put in a number of other MCU sets (or Rivals sets, come on Lego.)

People will then defend it by saying it's OK because it's only two pieces and it makes the set more marketable. Somehow no one will bring up the fact that The Dark Knight involves hangings, stabbing people's eyes out, etc. Right, of course. It would simply be too much value had it been included in the main set. This is the environment lego strives to create. Buying something simply because there's nothing else.

I... I haven't been watching this series yet. Do I need to drop everything and binge it? Is this real? Are we finally getting- even if just in digital form- Lego Mara Jade? I hope so. We might actually be safe in that regard. They usually don't mix gimmicks like that, at least not for the system ones. The anniversary stuff is usually more for longtime collectors or adults, hence why we didn't get anniversary microfighters and mechs. I didn't think about that, man, don't even... aw, man. If this happens I'm blaming you. We just need the sets to do so poorly that it's financially better for lego to scrap the 2027 smart wave and pay the designers overtime to adapt them to system sets than to release them as normal.

In mario the tiles are just tiles with stickered barcodes, and while I've learned not to underestimate lego's ability to ham-fist more technology into a set, I'd be surprised if they changed that here. And yes, if most sets just had a few stickered tiles and were otherwise normal, that wouldn't be an issue. We'd only have one compromised set in the wave- the smart X-wing- and it's failure would hopefully convince lego not to double down on more. That said, I think we'll see at least one or two "smart" minifigures in every set, unfortunately. IT CAME TO ME IN A DREAM. DOOKU IS COMING. That'd be the name of the set, too. And even then it was only six figs across two themes. (And also that a light up lightsaber feels a lot more "real" and in-line with standard lego play patterns than "smart bricks")