Mandalorianknight

To be fair, So they're definitely in the movie. What's unknown is whether or not it'll be considered something too spoilery for lego. That is awesome.

Even @BrickBob Studpants has helmet holes, assuming the profile picture is some sort of shared consciousness between the two figures. Yes. Of course.

The worst part is I think I would actually prefer this to a rectangle. At the end of the day it's because lego believes they can charge more and use tariffs as a deflection, whether it's accurate or not. Just like the inflation/raw material increases a few years back, the price increases aren't consistent with either what you'd mathematically expect or eachother. On some sets lego could be taking a bit of a haircut on profit. On others they're probably making more than if there weren't tariffs/inflation and the price didn't adjust. If lego thought they could get away with charging $23 for a battle pack in 2024, they would have. Just like when they were gearing up to charge $27 in 2023 before thankfully chickening out. (And ironically for both 2026 and 2023, it's a 332nd battle pack we're talking about.) It's good to hear that an in-hand review confirms this- it's what I've been thinking as well, though I haven't bought any sets this year. The price seems reasonable, the build looks solid and a good scale for a starfighter, and 2/3 of the figures are excellent. I share the desire for an armored anakin, I hope if they do we get the navy/maroon robes rather then the black/brown they originally went with. It's one of anakin's best looks. Incredible. Even amazon knows they can't move sets at these prices. Hopefully lego themselves catch up.

Called it a month ago. Don't most of us have several holes in our head?

I would imagine we'll probably get three. It's a spider-man movie, after all, and it doesn't seem like this one will be hiding the plot/characters as much as NWH. I hope so, but it would be kind of funny to see comic miles vs 2099 when I don't even remember if they've fought in the comics ever.

Yeah, you've got to watch it then! Yup. The end credits theme is excellent and does a perfect job heralding in the new galaxy. What's crazy is to my knowledge nothing official has ever come out implying Abeloth is coming beyond the hints at Mortis, it's just naturally where the story has to go. I'm disappointed we haven't gotten further confirmation on what shape the Death Star is- we know the set is out there since the figure side of the box leaked. I think it would help a lot of people decide whether or not they'll be spending $1000

I mean.... the alsume all started off of the words "why doesn't man call in the justice league? Is he stupid?" But on a more real notion, it's possible. The little batman stuff we do get doesn't seem to be selling great- the D2Cs might do well but the few standard retail sets we get shelfwarm hard, at least around me, probably because we've gotten to the point where almost all lego makes are overpriced Batmobiles with batman and 1-2 villains. There was a user here who's personal lego batman headcanon involved Brickheadz Joker being the big villain, if I remember right because being a brickheadz, he had a huge head, and therefore must have been very smart. Purple-13 was his gang, I believe Yup. They've been making a number of exceptionally poor decisions, especially with their licensed themes, for years now. I haven't seem anything credible saying they're losing the license, but I wouldn't put it past them to let it go. The nickel joke is so overused it's actively turning me into Brickheadz Jonkler

Yes, I'm aware some people aren't a fan of it, and ironically I myself don't love Ahsoka as a character- she's fine, but not saga-leading- but that show is the most hopeful I've ever felt about the future of the franchise, primarily with the concepts it sets up- the new galaxy (or rather, the old galaxy), the Heir to the Empire campaign, Baylan getting ready to break the cycle, etc. Also the characters- Baylan is the best live action antagonist since either Witwer's interpretation of Maul or the OT, Sabine has an excellent character arc and it's a fun inversion to her early dynamic with Ezra, Ezra "The only weapon I need is the force, and also this gun I found" Bridger is great, Shin is excellent, Thrawn is a good mix of his legends and canon novel selves who's actually allowed to win the season, etc. It also has KILLER music, something that I always like to see in star wars. This is true- it's easy for me to not think about TLJ or Kenobi when watching the throne room scene- I keep forgetting the Kenobi series exists at all, for that matter- but it is a bit tougher watching the Mando S2 finale and then seeing "next episode" and he's immediately back with Grogu. Yeah everything I've seen about Starfighter implies it is very much a sequel movie, and it does not seem like a clone wars type "recontextualize a rough trilogy" project- I'd much rather have it be something with Literally Me going up against the Hutt Cartel or some other villain that could be set anywhere in the timeline. This is not a take I expected to see on a forum about collecting plastic toys

Ironically I'm very excited for the Ghost Rider bike in the next marvel 1HY, but yeah, I get the overall point- both themes have weak 1Hys at the moment. I wonder if there's sales data showing that sets releasing in the latter half of the year sell better. To be fair, it could be worse- by all accounts DC isn't GETTING a 1HY next year. It seems like we're discussing whether or not people are getting burned out by the franchise as a whole due to the lack of variety and quality in many of this year's offerings (plus the indication that it won't change next year), and personally I am not. Whatever they do with current media, I've always got the old stuff to fall back on. I rewatch Ahsoka and reread the legends Thrawn Trilogy at least once a year.

It gets a lot weirder if you count the shows. Or if you think about whichever actors Gunn worked with in the DCEU getting to reprise their roles. Or Blue Beetle's actor being stated to be canon but not really having any projects on the horizon? Having a clear start and focusing on the trinity do not seem to be the goals of this universe. Him being in an R-rated movie makes it less likely to see him than if he just wasn't in anything that year.

Not to fully get into this, but yeah, it has a lot of stuff that could have worked very well in a different movie. Seriously. 1HY 2026 is a bit of a wash if they end up being disappointing. Cobb and Bane in a cheapish set is solid, and the $10 mando speeder bike is an excellent choice by lego, but neither are standouts or going to be a particularly special build. One is interesting because of the figures, and the other is interesting because of the price point. That's it. MBS was never real. Just the dream of a marketing agent from Billund. But really- all it means is a location vs a ship. The Death Star is both, so it could be either, but like you say I think MBS as a label is dead anyway.

Unfortunately if anything it hurts his chances, seeing as it's R-rated. It's possible, I wouldn't count on it but I wouldn't count it out. There's no reason I can see that they wouldn't do it, so it's just whether or not they decide to make that particular easter egg. Same as if we get a 1x1 with Jarro or a red 98011. They technically have covered it a bit already with that one CMF fig, but you know what? I'd take a TDKR wave over what we're probably going to get. At least then we could get superman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, etc.

Jeez, guys. @Balrogofmorgoth was sharing a story about something nice he did for his son and everyone's acting like he's killing the theme. No, a dad buying a single copy of the battle pack for his kid's birthday isn't why the battle packs are $45. Even the general trope of parents buying the sets their kids specifically ask for is not why. There's a clear trend of clone battle packs having frontloaded sales and going on significant discount within 6 months to a year of release, and that's not because every child on the planet's birthday is in January or August. I'm going to bring this one up specifically because weren't you JUST saying there's no legitimate reason to dislike the youtuber who posts videos on his gargantuan clone armies for a mostly kid audience? You don't think that might have a bigger impact in terms of getting kids to buy these than a dad buying the set his kid asked for? Exactly- with the caveat that if you're army-building mass quantities at full price, or trying to encourage people to buy it at full price, that may be contributing a bit more. But buying a set your kid asked for isn't some awful thing.

But the stand (which yeah, as you say, could not work if it was just near the pole) would have to be a massive chunk of the piece count/weight and cover a significant portion of the lower half of the sphere and/or have spikes extending all the way to the equator. Seriously. Just need Ransom Fern to come in and fix it again like he's done with those. To be fair, when it comes to multi-hundred dollar UCS sets, I don't thing a single figure or not making a new mold for the creature that occasionally went in the ship's hold are big missteps. At that point we may well bring up the lightsaber blade element as well. Get.Cooped said it, AFAIK he's fairly reliable. And yeah even as a half sphere it'll look rough. Not only that, but it's only a hot tub stormtrooper in concept, it's not accurate to any of the hot tub trooper designs we've had in the games.

This is how I feel. I'd say better than captain marvel and maybe the first Doctor Strange. It's on the high end of post-endgame projects, but would've been middle-of-the-road during the MCU's peak. It's good, but not good enough to save Doomsday. It's no Thunderbolts. I thought Johnny, Sue, and Ben were all great, and I was skeptical on all of them. Sue felt off to me before watching, a bit too serious, but it makes a lot of sense in the movie why she would be. There was that article saying Johnny would be "modernized" or whatever but no he's the same as ever, just a bit muted, again, due to the context of what's going on in the movie. His arc in the movie also makes the choice to use a different surfer than Norrin justified to me, the story wouldn't have worked the same way with him. (And more cynically, I'm not optimistic about the MCU as a whole so Norrin can be saved for whatever the next iteration of marvel movies is). Julia Garner's surfer was solid. Ben was solid, the voice being normal didn't end up bothering me. Pedro just doesn't work as Reed, they play lip service to him being calculating and not great with emotions but it never actually manifests, he's constantly showing emotional intelligence. During the movie I realized that I want Micheal C Hall to play him, assuming he wouldn't have the same issue dying his hair as Pedro had shaving his mustache. People were hyping up Galactus as well and while he looks cool there's no depth, which isn't needed but he's nothing special. All that to say the set's figures still don't work at all. Johnny's actually technically accurate to one moment in the movie, so it's not quite as bad, but he still spends most of most action scenes fully flamed on. Thing needed more bulk, Sue is just a collection of re-used parts, and Reed... is fine, I guess, but stretchy arms would have been nice. Also, I think the blue is too light on the figures?

I thought about this, but you would need a pretty large stand, potentially heavily integrated into the actual model, even if you deform the bottom shape a bit like the 2008/2016 models do. A chill goes down my spine just thinking about a $1000 half-sphere falling over. Without the second half of the sphere, that thing would be constantly on the verge of tipping over without a huge stand either meshed heavily into the technic skeleton or extending out with spikes supporting the DS closer to the outer equator.

I agree with the rest of the figure, but again, not the helmet. Sure, it's a bit too big, but that's not uncommon for lego, and you really think a dual-molded helmet would DECREASE the size or thickness? Yeah in terms of everything wrong here, even just with the figures, the royal guards being unupdated isn't my biggest gripe. I still just don't get it. How is this rectangular? Who at lego saw their previous death stars, some of the best-selling, coolest sets ever made, a set that was so iconic it featured as not only a running gag but emotional sting in the last Spider-Man movies, and went "clearly what we need to do here is make the famous spherical object a box"?

Exactly! The whole POINT of a giant death star is for it to RESEMBLE THE IN-UNIVERSE OBJECT. If Foggy spoke on it, he may be right. If the rectangle rumor is true this is a monumentally bad misstep that's going to cost lego a TON of money. Even sales are going to be rough- even at 30% off, that's still $700. It might be a better deal, but regardless of the value that'd still be the most money most potential buyers would ever have spent on a lego set. At 30% off. And there's the space angle too, even if it was something crazy like 70% off, at least for me, I still personally just wouldn't want a giant grey rectangle in my room that in no way resembles the death star. I predict secondhand sales of the 2008 and 2016 sets are going to SPIKE. Even without a shell, the sphere shape and the superlaser gave the impression of the death star. If it really is rectangular, the outline won't resemble it at all. And will it have a turbolaser? It would feel absurd to leave that out, but I also can't imagine how silly a big block with the DS laser sticking out of it would look.

I doubt the lego social media guy actually knows anything about the future sets to be honest, but it would be really, really funny if he was trolling and next year's few sets are TDKR based.

Can't wait for @Ransom Fern to somehow alt-build the box into a geometrically perfect sphere with full shell and interior, like he's done for the two marvel UCS sets that failed on this level. Yeah, a death star playset that doesn't have exterior representation would be cool- but not as the most expensive set of all time. It'd make a good $130-200 playset, like yavin, as you say. Oh don't get me wrong I'd still much rather a defender or reaper, I just thought I owed it to your consistent efforts to make the quote end in your champion set. Rectangular continues to blow my mind even more than the half sphere. It's such a monumentally stupid move to, as you say, make the spherical icon a rectangle. IIRC that was a separate rumor that turned out to be false, but either way at this point I don't care whatsoever. I knew I was never buying this set but thought it would be something like the falcon, an ideal set to admire in a lego store. As-is the best case scenario has somehow turned into this being a $1000 wall-art with interior, and if the rectangle stuff is true it could be much worse than that.

I'd be shocked if this doesn't hit 30% off within a year, if it's true that it's not really a sphere. Lego.... what are you even thinking? You can't even get the basic shape right? Either this or just do what they did in 2016 and update the previous version with some new figures and build updates.

Did red shorts with skin tone (can't tell if it's light nougat or nougat) legs already exist? It just seems like such a weird choice to take the idea of the fan favorite joke but not make the actual design. It'd be like if they made rebel friend but he was wearing a red vest instead of a red shirt with black vest. “If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?" I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?" To be a TIE avenger.” Someone needs to get the actor to review the new one.

Who if we want to be accurate to the original game SHOULDN'T HAVE DUAL MOLDED LEGS! Whether he's in the speedo or the classic 30s bathing suit, the troopers had blue hips with light nougat legs. Actually, the red trunks don't even fit the new game- it looks like they had white trunks with black detailing in those. (But it should have been the classic 30s suit, just saying. It's the funniest option and this figure wouldn't be canonically accurate anyway.) Hot Tub Stormtrooper is my favorite thing about the figure lineup, he's not even in the right outfit? Just some red trunks? C'mon, lego, he already wasn't going to be a canonical figure, you can't make him accurate? Generally agree with most of what you said but I want to highlight two major points, Palpatine's friend and the royal guard. "Imperial Dignitary": Absolutely agree there needed to be at least two. Whether you just wanted his advisors to show up in a set or still think it's hilarious that lucas has him just go chill with some funny purple hat guys who are never remotely explained and never appear again, the whole thing is that there's MULTIPLE. It's not just one guy. When palpatine goes to crack open some cold ones with the boys, he needs the boys, not just one guy. This set is $1000... Royal Guard: The skirt/robe piece would have been nice, but I have to hard disagree on the helmet. The current one is fine, and I just don't see what the benefit would be to having a dual-molded one. Yup- there's no reason to change something that's working great already. Welp, that confirms it for me. 2025 is the worst year for the theme. Half a death star is the most baffling decision I could imagine for this set. It's a grey sphere. That's it. It's such a simple task for $1000, and they can't even do that. I've had a lot of issues with this year's retail offerings but half a death star is the worst design choice this theme has made, maybe ever. I can't imagine this set selling well at all. EDIT: My initial disgusted reaction was assuming this was a table-sitting hemisphere like the Bespin set. It's much more likely this is wall-mounted, which I suppose makes it a little better, but I still hate the design choice. If I was to buy a $1000 death star lego set I want the whole thing, not a big wall art.

I haven't seen much of him in the grey/black suit, so I'll take your word for it. I just knew in the main universe comics I'd read and in the DCAU light nougat worked for his skin tone. I think I've seen him in a darker tone in the bat-family webcomic? (Darker skin tone. Definitely not darker thematic tone. I don't think I remember a single fight scene in anything I read from that, obviously it's not that type of comic.) Yup- she's probably one of the cheapest bat-family members print-wise that you could actually do well. I still don't get why people were acting like this was a real possibility, it was never going to do NWH numbers. And it doesn't have to for people to like it- I understand people want it to be more successful than it is, but the box office shouldn't impact your perception on the quality of the movie. My two favorite movies of the last five years or so (Thunderbolts and Transformers One) both almost certainly lost money at the box office. TFONE literally caused one of the companies producing it to completely give up on the brand as a whole. I still think they're a million times better than Souperman or Black Widow: Savage Land or whatever movie ends up winning this July (It'll be the dinosaur movie.)

Like you say, there are better options. There are a number of female members of the bat-family we haven't gotten at all yet, and it's not like Batwoman (or batwing for that matter) are super iconic DC heroes. It could have (should have) been Spoiler or Orphan, and then you save a mold for Clayface.