Mandalorianknight

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")

UCS Dark Knight Parking Garage ($329.99): Comes with a midi-scale tumbler and Scarecrow's van. Includes 9 figures: Batman (identical to the last tumbler), Scarecrow (identical to 2021 tumbler), 5x mobster (re-used pieces), 2x Bat-vigilantes (hockey pad printing)

A theatrically released one, too! 1.5 years would be February 2027, right? Either way I really don't think there's a huge overlap between modular buyers and that very simply-built playset, so the copium stays.

A nice healthy dose of Oscorp Copium, inject that goblin serum DIRECTLY into my veins. PLEASE, lego. And as I've been saying since last year, if we do get one, Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow. Is system oscorp really retiring only a year or so from release? I thought it was usually 1.5 years for a system set (unless it gets extended). There's some sort of budget share going on in this theme (which I never understood given it's two different companies), which might mean so long as marvel sets are doing good they can keep it on life support.

Well, technically their target audience is people who want new characters or high quality figs but will settle for these sets. If you don't want to settle for this, everybody remember that you as a consumer don't have to purchase these. You aren't being held at stud-shooter point to buy products. But if you do, you're telling lego you're totally fine with these sets and figure compositions. The Batman for sure. I think I'm gonna guess The Batman, DCEU, and a comic-based one, but that might be a bit of hopium.

I don't know, a $30 tumbler seems like it would be tiny. Does the game one look that small? The Riddler Returns These sets are $30, I'd be shocked if they came with more than two minifigures each. Realistically, even in a good scenario we're looking at around 6 figures max, and 3 of them will be batmen.

I mean, yeah, it's this guy's opinion on a forum. He didn't say anywhere in his post that this was some sort of tablet of unobjectionable truth. That said I would say plenty of these are downright negative, at least in terms of not having any positive benefits. The continual and increasingly ridiculous denaming might not affect the physical contents of the sets themselves (though they're getting there with the Slave One plaque not being able to say slave one) but there's nothing positive from it. Nobody remotely rational is relieved that lego didn't call the Black Pearl by it's name.

In addition to that, in most universes where Superman is either evil or just not around/relevant we see that Lex is generally a normal/good man if not actively the universe's premier hero. He's just such a top-tier hater that it's more important to him to hate on superman than literally anything else. He's like reverse flash, except his villainy is sometimes for some sort of philosophical reason instead of Thawne always having the pettiest possible rationale for dedicating his life to hurting or even inconveniencing Barry.

This is also your reminder that we're 6 years out from the last landspeeder- double how long it tended to be. We're due for another. Honestly given how SW is going I'd welcome it. Rosharch is kind of DC now, isn't he? I'll take back everything I ever said about this theme if he somehow inexplicably (and probably against lego's guidelines) showed up in a set. What's funny is even assuming two figs per set feels optimistic, no matter who they are. (Though if there is a DCEUmobile coming i'd lose it over Society Man/The Morbkler show up) This is probably going to be the roughest year since 2022 when in some markets all we got was a single 4+ set, but honestly if they can get me a DCEUmobile with a new Tactical Batfleck and/or Cavill Superman, that's a win for me. I'm assuming it's a Pattmobile, comic-based one, and tumbler microfighter or something, though. At least we can now confirm they aren't "smart". This is the aslume, after all. Perhaps our insanity spares us.

I don't know- again, the X1 has a suspiciously normal (not good, but normal) PPP, and while I don't believe we have piece counts for the others (Aside from the X-wing, which we know has the brick itself and a resultingly vomit-inducing PPP), a lot of the mario sets that only have stickered tiles seem to be fine value for what they are. Based on some of the other nintendo offerings I wouldn't say disney's charging all that much more than them for licensing, so unless the builds are dumbed-down to accommodate the play features, we might actually be OK for most of the march sets after all. This is a good point, but I just can't see a 478 piece $70 set and a 584 piece $100 set both having the smart brick- it's 100 more pieces for $30 more, and while lego star wars certainly has some laughable discrepancies, I don't remember too many being in the same wave and that bad percentage wise. As you say, the Smart Brick seems to be wireless in some way, probably akin to the lego mario as people are guessing. The minifigures seem to be identical, just with stuff in the torso. (Which is still a no-go for me. I want normal dumb minifigures. I'm still the type of guy who won't buy a fridge or microwave or car if it's "smart", there's no way I'm buying "smart" LEGOS.) I assume this isn't the direct goal of lego. I feel like they'd have more financial incentive keeping phones AWAY from kids if they could- so they'd be more into normal toys- and this is more of a "all the kids have them anyway, might as well try and use them to get them buying legos" type of thing. That said, while it might not be as insidiously motivated, it still has the same end result of inevitably getting more kids hooked on smart devices. I'm young enough to have grown up with the Ipad for part of my childhood, but I was lucky to have parents that kept screen time limited until I was old enough to understand how to regulate it myself. I can reliably say from working with kids for a few summers that most of the ones currently in lego's target age range aren't so lucky. It makes it difficult for conventional toys to compete, sure, but it almost feels cowardly to just give up and keep trying to make sets that incorporate smartphones into the play pattern. It's a massive generational issue and this type of thing, while meant to try and adapt to it, only ends up stifling imagination at best and actively putting kids on screens when they otherwise wouldn't be at worst. If they can just give some tiles with the iconic death noises (Yoda, the different trooper noises, Jango, Anakin) I will purchase all the tiles (assumably for like $0.1 each on bricklink) and a smart brick to construct a device that plays them at random intervals at the loudest possible setting. This is the only way in which I could be compelled to purchase a smart brick.

Calling out these two lines for the equally great Thrawn Trilogy reference and correlation of paying taxes to serving the empire. I'm still holding out hope the only set to actually include a Smart Brick/Smart Figs is the X-wing, and the rest just include some easily-removable scannable tiles like the Mario sets. I'm fairly confident on the brick, but a little worried on the figs.

You'd think, and the box office would agree, but marvel seems to believe that he's beloved by all. Dude it's $100 for a 584 piece set with what appears to be the 2020 $20 4+ X-wing, we're absolutely doomsdayed.

The prodigal turtle returns to the aslume. I have no idea what the image means, though.

If I remember right we agree on Falcon Cap not being a very interesting character or good lead as well. And yeah, this is an issue lego simply doesn't understand. People don't buy legos and go "man I wish these were integrated into apps", they buy lego so they have a hobby that's NOT on a screen, or parents get it to get their kids off screens. The continued focus by lego to mesh the two is absurd. That's a good point- I didn't remember the piece counts. We might be safe.

The hypothetical paramount reboot would just be superboy Prime walking onto the screen of Man of tomorrow, saying "hi, it's me, (actor name), we're gonna reboot the universe again." I had a horrible idea- what if the 2026 DC march wave is Smart Brick? I can't remember whether or not the more expensive set is 18+ or not. If it is, we're probably safe, but if not... the fact that there's a Star Wars march that's all Smart Brick based... the one more expensive set with smaller ones that could easily be a starter kit and expansions... lego may have invented a new and innovative way to screw up the theme. What's funny is if it's not Smart Brick based, no matter what it is a part of me will somehow feel relieved, which makes the whole thing feel like a psyop by lego to see how many times they can hit rock bottom and then crack through to a second, lower rock bottom.

It's an entire wave of LSW this year. Not half the year, but I think around a quarter or so. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel did something as well- as smart (haha) as it would be to just be a couple sets, we've heard lego really wants to go all-in.