Mandalorianknight

This is my preferred option (Though I think Tahu Mata would be more accurately represented with red and trans-pink since most of the back of his head is transparent. Most of the grey head piece is covered by his mask or the transparent brainstalk) Given how accurate the body is, I think there's a really good chance we get a near-perfect molded helmet (For figure reasons, it has to be a helmet- Tahu's mask extends over the top of his head, and since neck attachments- well, attach- under the head, you can't get the shaping right without making it a helmet. As for the torso and legs, man, those are beautiful. Absolute perfection, I really couldn't ask for anything better. If the helmet and sword can keep it up this might be one of my favorite minifigures ever. I really, really hope they manage to get us the other Mata somehow- they did their best with the GWP style but only managed to get Onua's mask snuck in.

Thank you! I made it intending for it to hit that $160-180 price point, so it'd be comparable to the Dark Falcon or... well, the price of the turbo tank if not the contents. Don't worry, my avenging brother, despite a few of the character designs included in the one interior shot to fill it out, I intend the MOC to be fallen order based. Nobody included would be aware of tanalorr yet and therefore able to take it from you... or me. Because, clearly... Tanalorr is mine. It was my discovery, my home, and they just expected me to throw it away?!?! Thank you! I did my best to replicate as many parts and details of the interior as I could at that size. Thank you! I get it on some level- it's a video game, and I could see lego viewing that as riskier than products based on the saga films or The Mandalorian, but the games have also sold millions of copies- I don't think it would be a CRAZY risk.

I've never been into the games, but they seem enjoyable. I am surprised they cancelled Sands of Time with how well-known of a franchise it is. A last airbender set would be pretty cool. I know Avatar notoriously struggles with spinoffs and adaptions, but they at least keep the IP in the public consciousness, and the combination of that and how beloved the OG show is would definitely let an Appa set sell well. I had failed to consider video games- I would love some Smash Bros content, though it's sort of an amalgam of other IPs, many of which have started to show up in lego form (though somehow only Zelda at figure scale). I'm not huge into video games, but many of my favorites are part of IPs we have sets for and yet little to no coverage for the game itself, which I guess is part of more what I think about with dream themes at this point- dream subthemes. Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor: We got one statue and a minifigure in an unrelated set, but between the Stinger Mantis ship, tombs and other iconic locations, and all the giant creatures, it would make an awesome subtheme. Not to mention all Cal's ponchos where you could get unique, desirable minifigures just by swapping out the pattern on a piece of cloth. Marvel Rivals: PLEASE, lego, you give me Rivals waves and I'd never ask for anything again. This is the only game I've played multiplayer on in years. It's got some of the best designs most of these heroes have ever had, and it has so much set material between the convoy vehicles and some of the more iconic locations. It even has a prime option for the buildable characters lego loves with Jeff the Land Shark. You could fill endless CMFs with all the characters and skins, and sets at varying price points with all the vehicles and temples. You've even got a giant mech with the Vampbuster suit. Moon Knight: The two MCU minifigures we've had- much like the show itself- aren't bad, but really aren't who Moon Knight is in the comics. MK himself would be great for sets, as in the modern era he consistently runs with two outfits simultaneously, has a fun group of supporting characters (Former avenger Tigra, vampire receptionist Reece, essentially his own henchman/goon in Soldier, his spiritual brother Hunter's Moon, and so-bad-at-being-a-villain-he-gave-up-and-joined-the-good-guys 8-ball), and unlike many marvel heroes, he actually owns stylized cars, jets, and planes. And not even just sci-fi VTOLs like his newer mooncopters- MK used to run with a stock white helicopter called the Mooncopter, and as recently as a few years ago drove the Moonmobile, which would fit right in at that $25-35 superhero car set slot. The Justice League: There's this little known group from a small indie company called Detective Comics. Lego technically owns this license for their small Batman line, and so the door is open to making sets based on these really obscure but fun heroes like "Wonder Woman", "The Flash", or "Green Lantern".

It was absurd that Jessica and Scarlet Spider both got snubbed, but we got werewolf and sun-spider. At least the spider-cyborg seems to have been intended to have more of a role in the movie at one point (Though given the series released two years later, I guess that excuse doesn't really work.) I bet he'll be a sandwich board like the Ewoks.

In my last MOC wave thread I had mentioned there was a project intended to be part of it that I ended up leaving out as it was becoming more complex than a standard set. Here it is: It's 1504 pieces without minifigures and, where the complexity comes in, actually has functional wing movement. The complexity, as you can probably already see, comes from the fact that the main wing/gyroscopic cylinder rotates around the fuselage, and that the third engine outrigger can rotate independently of both, clipping into a slot for either landing or flight mode. It's also got an opening ramp on each side and a set of spring shooters. Here's a look around the back And here's a look at the interior. Seating for a pilot, copilot, and navigator, the holotable/mission select, the living area with couch, table (and the holocron placed on top) - and while, it's difficult to see, some 1x1 flower and plant elements built into the wall-, and a tiny kitchen at the rear. And here's a look at the interior filled up. This is my second attempt at a system Mantis, with the older one being made at around 810 pieces- here are the two of them together. The Mantis is a ship I really wish lego would make an official version of, but I'm satisfied with my current one. I'll be bricklinking parts for a physical rendition soon and will show it off here when I'm done.

P stands for Prince of Persia. A returning franchise AND video game related. (Obviously not- I assume, maybe there's a new game coming or something, but it's funny how well that lines up) As I've said here before I've been lucky to get almost every IP I love in lego form- even Dune somehow. (At least, all of them that can get sets- I understand we'll never get Lego JJK or Invincible and respect that). The one thing I really want that we don't yet have is for Transformers to escape Icons and become a full theme.

Aw, man, I totally had it in my head that "big bad wolf" referred to Death. I was planning on getting him and Puss In Boots together for a diorama, but now I'm not sure I'll get any of these figures- I don't have much of a connection to Shrek, and while I loved The Last Wish, the only physical recreation of it I'd want to make is the final battle between Puss and Death. That said, taking away my personal thoughts on it, it's objectively a perfect choice for a CMF and is going to sell like hotcakes. A TON of millenials and Gen Z will be buying these trying to get Shrek himself.

I purchased the set at release, my first big UCS set I bought. I sold some other sets to recoup most of the price and as such can't really comment too much on the initial price. I absolutely love the set. It's a full, minifigure-scale walker with a completed interior. One of my favorite things in large sets is when they have that level of detail inside. It's also an engineering marvel, and shockingly stable for what it is. I've got it on a shelf a good 4 ft from the ground and have never once been concerned about it tipping over. That said, whether or not it's worth it depends on a few things. Like @Darth_Bane13 says- absolutely not worth the current aftermarket prices for a brand new one. I would say if you really want it, $1000ish is probably the max I would go assuming you're comfortable spending that much money on a lego set. Anything more than that and the value's just not close to being there. Luckily, you can buy it used- there are good condition, complete copies floating around out there for as low as $500. That's absolutely worth it in my view, but I know a lot of people don't like to purchase used sets. And of course with anything secondhand there's always some risk the product won't be what you expected.

They really did some excellent work on the head design, which as you say makes it all the more unfortunate it was compromised to accommodate a smart feature. Eh- I always prefer for the lego models to be accurately proportioned when they can. Gimmicks like the Microfighters being Chibi are fine, but I prefer the main system sets to be proportioned as accurately as they can. Remind me once the set starts hitting 30-40% off and I'll pick one up to fix it. I don't think it should be too hard- I'll probably end up redoing how the panels on the head attach entirely, but bare-minimum you really just need to panel off the back, and assumably it doesn't even need to be load-bearing. I have about 8 billion projects in the works at any given time, but one that's been floating around the 3rd or 4th in line has been sort of a full army-building wave of just various stock rebel and imperial vehicles, equipment, and bases. I might end up piggybacking off the smart at-st's head design for that one. The Devaronian specifically was just a joke about the piece count and the alien's devil-like visage, but I agree, they should have thrown in one new or rare cantina alien to add some value. I also think they should have replaced Old Ben with Han- without Luke or Ponda Baba there's not really a reason for Ben to hang around the cantina, and you could replace luke with him in the falcon if it was that important to have a "smart" old ben. Eh, it's tough, there's no great solution. I think for the sides 1x2 grille tiles work best, but you can't pull off the curve with those well. The grey stripe clearly is a panel flush with the side of the speeder- hence why I don't like the flex tubes- but if you just use normal curved bricks like the 2020 or 2026 models, you lose the profile texture. Short of a new grille arch/grille curve, I think the curved plates are the best move. Don't bring that up- I don't want to think about the alternate universe where this was a normal wave of sets that got smart-ified. (Actually, that could be a fun MOC/MOD exercise, I might work on that at some point.)

You're never going to make everyone happy with GWPs, but what I would go with is something that, while not including any exclusive elements, does provide an addition (though not an essential one) to the set/sets it comes with. In Gondor's case, a mini Grond with some re-used Barad-Dur Orcs, or a Gondor Soldiers Battle Pack would both be excellent choices. That way you get something that feels worth buying the set day 1, but at the same time dedicated collectors can bricklink or PAB the parts separately if they missed out.

Not the same, but the Hoopty had a similar thing in that regard. (Which, side note about that, might be the only retired lego set I've ever run into that's not only readily availible below MSRP at walmart, but at 40% off... and even then it doesn't reach that coveted 10 cents/piece people look for.) I still think if they're gonna do that for the Cantina they should have thrown in the Devaronian. I never put that together about the Volume, but it makes a lot of sense. Probably also one of the reasons Mando never ends up painting his armor in the show. I hope you're right- we've had mostly pearl-metallic builds before with some of the Ninjago dragons in gold- even the infinity gauntlet in drumlaquer, though I think that one's pretty unlikely. It comes down to how many recolors lego can fit into the budget. But with a movie wave budget... one that as of now seems like it wouldn't have more than 1-2 nonessential new molds max.... Ironically, the more specialized elements like cones already come in flat silver, whereas lego would need to produce recolors for generic plates and tiles. For some reason they've produced very few in flat silver, but given Pearl Gold has over time received a lot of these, I think there is a chance, however slight. I don't know about those specific parts, but Lego's definitely produced a number of liftarms in clear before. It is an odd decision, though I suppose it's better than bright red. Another thing about Yoda's hut that sticks out to me is that the terrain is pretty well-built for a 6+ set clearly aimed at a younger demographic. Bit of a tonal shift with the technic ferris wheel, but credit where credit's due.

You gotta use the bat-credit-card. Impossible to max out. The joke does illustrate the issue LEGO runs into though. If they're only making batmobiles, and if the batmobiles do poorly, is that because people want wider DC stuff, or because even batmobiles don't sell anymore? Conversely, if they're a smash-hit, does it mean people want more batmobiles, or that they want more DC in general? Unfortunately as much as we want to say LEGO should make wider DC/Justice League sets, kids just don't know or like the characters that much. The reason the 18+ sets generally have that same issue is, I would guess, a lot of the adult market is the guys who would, for example, get scared off if there were minifigures in the midi-scale star wars ships. I'm sure their research has found that there's a lot of adults who will buy the UCS batmobiles but think DC stuff besides Movie Batman is dorky or whatever. Hopefully Arkham does well and we can start to branch out again. Thanks, I'll check it out.

For Lord of the Rings specifically I understand this, because the sets are all ~$500, but for most themes, would you not simply take whatever budget you planned on using for the old theme and transfer it to the new one?

Oh, I love getting new troopers- merchandising's always been a big part of star wars, and I have no issue with them making some new variants every time they do a new film- real-world militaries have plenty of different uniforms that change plenty over the decades. I agree it's a really weird choice not to do any new trooper types- similarly, I think it's a major misstep not to give Mando and Grogu new outfits. Most kids who like those characters have minifigures, plushies, or action figures of them already. Same with collectors, as it seems to be an almost identical suit (And in lego's case, they don't seem inclined to make new minifigs for the slight changes to Mando's gear between seasons anyway). I have some hope the movie will be a fun adventure, but I do worry that the merchandise sales are going to be rough. Great quote, great picture. The set may be overpriced, but they really went all-out on the two included characters. Well said. And good callout on the packaging- whatever flaws the actual sets have, the packaging engineers pulled out the best work I've ever seen for lego sets. Get these guys on the 18+ sublines immediately. Another major issue I've noticed with the smart brick is that you need to assemble it into a specific spot to use just one feature. For example, with the X-wing set, you have to put it in a different spot for the X-wing, Turret, or console. So unless you have 3 smart bricks you can't use the features in tandem with eachother. (The falcon is maybe the roughest example here- it looks like you can choose to either have the engines glow/make a noise or have the laser firing noise, but you need to build the smart brick into a different spot depending on which- and you have to open the falcon up to get at the engine spot too). As @Kaijumeister says it's a bit of a step backwards from some previous lights and sound systems, as you have an expensive piece of tech that can make only one light or sound at a time. My thoughts on the sets: Intellectual brick Luke visits space BP station: If it had just been Luke, the jawa, and speeder for $20ish it would have been a fine set. I usually like side builds, but the issue with a lot of the smart sets is their inclusion of side builds that clearly don't fit within the universe. It's fine for 4+ sets, but I think even your 6-8 year old is old enough to notice that it's weird the jawa has a green squeaky hammer (what's up with that, by the way, they're in a few sets. I assume the smart brick has a color sensor and that's why they're bright green, but it's still a strange choice). Also, as a certified GNK droid aficionado, you guys have to head back to the drawing board on this one. Even with the constraint of the tile needing to be on top, I think there were better ways to do it. Astute brick Tall Wicket solos the entire galactic empire: I'll give praise where praise is due- this AT-ST has a lot of great things going for it. If it had legs more proportionate to the head, and a closed back, it would be one of the best we've ever had. When I find this on a 30% or more discount I will probably grab it to mod. Now, on the other hand, it does just have an open back and a chibi head, so as a stock set it's rough. And another situation where even as a 6 year old, I think most kids will dislike the fact that the AT-ST has an open side and can be defeated by wicket just waiting for it to turn around. Genius brick Tall Yoda's carnival: I see the vision here, I get what they were going for, but I think they needed to use clear liftarms. It's a ROUGH build otherwise. The Hut is a nice size but unfortunately loses a lot of the advancements in shaping we'd made in the past few versions. Scholarly brick Greedo lives to watch the bith concert another day: I wonder if they had a mandate to avoid action-themed features as much as possible, because I feel like food is a lot more prominent in these than in the actual saga. I think making the focus of the set a stage that plays barely audible, non-cantina band music was a critical flaw, though I will assume the designers were making it on the assumption that it would be the actual music and had their legs cut out at the last second. The figure selection is also somewhat baffling, and the Dewback unfortunately will set back my campaign to make star wars creatures brick-built significantly. I know somebody's gonna point to this every time I bring up the concept... Perceptive brick Millenium Falcon has an open cockpit and I really hope Han and Chewie can breathe in space: I'm not joking about that issue- this is something that bothered me with sets when I was the target age range of these. It would irritate me to no end that Han and Chewie are just exposed to the void here. I spoke already about the issue inherent in having to move the smart brick whenever you want to use a different play feature on the falcon as well. Overall there are some great designs here- elements of the AT-ST specifically look excellent- but the smart brick accommodations critically damage each set. If anything, I think these will end up having poorer sales than the actual smart sets.

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't really collect many of the DC offerings. I bought the 2021 Tumbler and some of the polybags and that's about it for this modern all-batman era. I would love it if lego would branch out into more heroes again- as of now I only have some batmen and robins, the 2014 Flash and the 2013 Soup- but as-is, I'm fine with my batman and batmobile and don't see the need to collect too many other batmen and batmobiles with my limited budget and space. I may pick up the BvSmobile to mod into the Snydercutmobile because while I don't like BvS much, I'm apparently whatever the limited target audience was for the snyder cut (despite only being vaguely aware of it before the trailer) and would like a representation of that film -the best job any live-action DC has done at conveying that sort of new-mythological comic book event feeling-, but in general I'm just not looking to collect every batmobile. And since batmobiles are about all we get, it means I don't really collect much of the DC universe. For people who do, I suspect there's almost an element of the limited offerings being more of an impetus to purchase the few things we do get- I'm sure there's many people who, if the coming 3 batmobiles and logo released alongside a wave of justice league stuff, would choose the justice league stuff. But since these 4 sets may well be the only options for the year, there are probably a number of DC fans out there who consider something better than nothing and pick them up.

I thought it was $1000. For $650 that's an amazing deal for 8000 pieces and the LOTR license. This may supplant Rivendell for me as the one that I buy.

Absolutely amazing. The Hall of Kings looks like a MOC in the best way possible.

A potential man meme? In this economy? I suppose much like the OG potential man, it probably could solo a room of middle schoolers but has few other feats. The movie waves usually get a pretty solid budget, and from everything we've seen of the movie there's not a lot of new molds that'll be required, so they might have a shot. Happy for you, excited to hear what you think of the figure when you're holding it firsthand. I don't think they'd use the galactic marine piece. Clone Commando's talking about the fact that the TMAG snowtroopers appear to show off a removable heat scarf/shield over a mcquarrie-style snowtrooper helmet, which would require a new set of molds. As for replacing the normal snowtrooper helmet, it has slightly different shaping, and there'd be no need to use a dual-molded part when both subelements are the same color. My guess is if we don't get a new mold it'll just be the one they've been using since 2014. Those AT-AT driver type troopers might be new, but it is a little strange that we haven't seen a good look at any shiny new variants when most star wars movies have multiple and all seasons of the mandalorian have had one. At the very least, can we get a green-stripe poison trooper or blue-stripe tactical trooper to finish what we started with the red-stripe incinerator and yellow-stripe mortar trooper?

That was a WILD tonal shift. I don't dislike the show, but I think everyone was expecting Jod to have a change of heart. And instead he not only stays on the bad side, but gets a lot more homicidal. It's never been confirmed so I'm not saying it should count in favor of the show, but I always loved the idea that Cassian's sister was Kleya and neither of them ever knew. It's the classic star wars familial twist, but with the Andor layer of complication and tragedy. He thinks he's lost his sister and abandoned his search as one of his many sacrifices for the rebellion, but in a roundabout way he does save his sister in the end. If we're counting the animated shows and not going season-by-season, it becomes more nebulous. First off, I feel like I can't rank Visions, even though it has one of my favorite disney-era Star Wars pieces of media in The Ninth Jedi, just because it's a number of entirely unrelated shorts. It's got variance on a level that makes clone wars 08 look consistent. So it floats in an unranked ether. Best: The Mandalorian (S3 was rough but the first two seasons are perfect star wars. The best Boba in canon, a Luke scene that singlehandedly makes up for his TLJ characterization, and Mando himself is a solid blank-slate, everyman projectional protagonist. The western and samurai vibe is great.), Andor (Actual prestige television in the universe. Luthen and Syril are both excellent creations to add moral ambiguity to each side.), Ahsoka (If this show has 100 fans, I'm one of them. If this show has 10 fans, I'm one of them. If it has no fans, I was sent to Peridiea. Baylan is a top 10 star wars character. The lore additions are perfect. I am this show's Sabine Wren's most loyal defender and I love that her mistakes here are thematically in line with Anakin's, only Ahsoka is able to keep her off the wrong path.) Great: Rebels (An OK start but it gets really good. S3 in particular is immaculate. As these rankings show I'm a sucker for mandalorians and the show has some of my favorite additions to their lore.) Good: Clone Wars 03 (cool, but no substance... but it doesn't NEED substance. The show exists so we can go "whoah, sick" when grievous mops the floor with some jedi, or Fordo singlehandedly defeats a separatist platoon, or Windu takes down the seismic tank, or a random clone responds to grievous appearing outside his elevator car by slowly loading and point-blank firing an RPG, backblast be damned), Clone Wars 08 (High highs and low lows), Fine: Skeleton Crew (As I've said before, it's not meant for me, but it's not bad by any means. A fun story.), and The Bad Batch (It has some excellent episodes, but the same quality variance issues as clone wars. The reason it's lower is that unlike clone wars, it doesn't have the semi-anthology and subject matter shifts- it's the same plotline and core cast across every episode- so there's not as much of an excuse.) Rough: Ewoks/Droids (Now I haven't seen these in full, but I've seen enough. And I've seen other 80s cartoons- they could have done better), Resistance (Sort of like early rebels if it never matured and without the family heart.) Actively alter lore or characterization in ways I dislike: Tbobf (They had the perfect boba in Mando S2 and they just... forgot?), Kenobi (this plotline shouldn't exist in canon it breaks so much) So bad it's good: The Holiday Special (I watch this every year around thanksgiving with some of my friends.) The Acolyte: The Acolyte (I will be polite and say only that I think dodging any sets based on it was lego's second smartest move of the 2020- era of the theme.)

If anything, I think the fact that hunger games ideas projects regularly reach 10,000 supporters and still don't get in is a mark against lego making sets for it- whether that's because they view it as inappropriate (which, I would say it's not super likely we ever get anything for it, but we did get Dune and Stranger things) or the license holder doesn't want to play ball. Shrek is probably the most likely, but I do think if lego got the Shrek license they'd want to go all-out and make actual sets for it. This really isn't the same thing- Street Fighter isn't something like Mortal Kombat where there's a ton of blood and gore. I'm not sure how aware you are of street fighter but you seem to be imagining a much more violent and dark concept than what the games actually are. They're fairly campy, the combatants wear bright costumes and a number of them have special powers. It's in essence on par with your average MCU movie- brightly costumed characters- many with powers- have largely bloodless fights. And the MCU's had multiple CMF series. Also, "potentially R-rated" feels like a pretty big stretch when the games are the equivalent of PG-13, as was the last movie they did. (and for that matter, isn't the fact that the combatants are adults better than if they were kids? I feel like children fighting eachother- much less murdering eachother in bloody fashion like in Hunger Games- is a lot worse than a fighting tournament for adults.)

I haven't played the more recent games (Aside from playing as Ryu and Ken in Smash Bros) so maybe I'm missing something, but while it's a fighting game, it's not Mortal Kombat. They're punching each other and throwing hadoukens, but they're not gorily massacring each other- I actually don't remember there being blood at all. A quick check shows the games are rated Teen, so it's not anything more violent than Star Wars/the later Harry Potter Books/etc, and it's definitely not as bad as something like Stranger Things. Street fighter would be fun, I think- I'm not super versed in the lore but it has a lot of recognizable characters, and a variety of different archtypes/outfits.

To some extent there's a limiter on this- obviously Rivendall or Barad-Dur will have higher sales, but I think it would be hard to argue that the Gray Havens or Prancing Pony would sell better than Orthanc at similar prices. It has been 13 years after all, and many adults who have bought some of these new LOTR sets probably aren't even aware that there was an Orthanc set back then. And even for those who are, the cheapest fully complete Orthanc in the US on bricklink is $999.99. I doubt most fans would pay $500-600 more than a new orthanc would be nowadays for a used version of the old one. To say nothing of how expensive sealed copies are- the cheapest is almost $1200. It's important to remember that "Adults who buy lego" is a much, much larger group than "dedicated Afols who use sites like Bricklink", which is something that, at least in the star wars theme, is commonly brought up with all the figureless 18+ display sets that seem to sell well despite most people in the forum saying they'd just prefer normal system sets. Funnily enough, Star Wars went longer than LOTR did without Gondor without a set of the Massassi Temple/Yavin Rebel Base. 24 years. I agree that the main missing locations (Gondor and Barad-Dur) being covered means that the remakes are opened up a bit. I'd still bet on Helm's Deep for 2027.

See, I could never forget that. I could forget something like Skeleton Crew just for being unrelated to most of the franchise, but Kenobi's creation of major plot holes means I can never forget it. Totally forgot about it. I don't dislike it by any means, it's just not my type of star wars story. It's not bad, though- the kid with the visor and Jod were both pretty cool characters I wouldn't mind seeing again. Understandable. We all also seem to have had different blind spots on our lists for the show we found the most forgettable, though I don't know if Mando S3 was yours or if you're just refusing to acknowledge it.

This is a really neat concept- the Artahka MOC is my favorite, I love the idea of the six mata masks floating around his head.

Came back to grab the images for something and realized I'd missed a few responses, sorry about that! Thank you! It is a lot of fun, and something I think the newer and more accurate Grievous molds lost along the way. They definitely look better, but there's something fun about being able to put his head on a normal minifig. It's a good interest to have! Thank you! It came together almost by accident, but ended up working quite well. I'm pretty happy with it and will try to remember to implement it in future MOCs. It's one of my favorite parts of looking at people's MOCs too. User Veynom usually does a great job with that- I enjoy reading his explanation for why his TIE Callopie has so many rockets, or the creation of the clone medical corps, almost as much as I like seeing the actual builds. Thank you!