Mandalorianknight

Book nook would disappoint me- I thought it was a lego term for bookends but upon seeing what they actually are, they don't interest me. A larger diorama would be great both as confirmation that dioramas (in my opinion the least offensive 18+ subline- I don't hate the midi scale or helmets but the amount we're getting is too high. At least with dioramas you're still getting minifigs, and you're getting LOCATIONS, which are pretty rare in this theme at the moment) aren't dead, and just a great set in general. I still think it'll be a UCS AT-ST but I'd love to be proven wrong. It'd take the set from a "eh, probably, not much else I'm interested in this year" to day 1 buy. I wouldn't mind either way. UCS AT-ST is overdue for a remake, so even if it's not this (and I'm still 90% confident this is a UCS at-st anyway), I wouldn't be surprised seeing one in may 2026.

Probably. I can't remember for sure if the X-wing was part of the 2023 GWPs (if it was, I somehow managed not to open it) but I know the AT-ST was and if the AAT was too that's pretty good odds. Hoping we stick with the "$35 threshold polybag, $75 threshold non-lego thing (hopefully still something cool like the DS2 coin/holo or the beskar ingot, and not the patches from the venator), $150ish threshold straight up set. Though that said, it's not like I'm gonna get them anyway. I get why they do it, but I wish they'd go back to having the GWPs alongside big release waves rather than the UCS and a few other, chiefly gimmick, sets. Not a bad idea, if only that set was wide-release so it could go on sale at some point...

That could be fun, though I'm not sure I'd want a brickheadz of his alt-mode at that point. Maybe after these first two we start getting packs of characters we don't already have in lego form- Soundwave could be fun to have with some of his minicassettes, Starscream and Megs would be great and if in bot mode only would circumvent any potential issues with their alt-modes, etc. In 2026 we could get characters like Hot Rod and Galvatron, Arcee and Magnus, etc.

Falcon polybag leaked, it's a falcon polybag. There's not much to say. It looks funny without a printed cockpit, but it's not like that's new for falcon polybags.

brickheadz confirmed! Glad they exist, but would rather they come with more characters rather than vehicle modes. Also, I'll say it, bumblebee's overrated, the brickheadz should have been megatron, but they created an alt-mode issue for a product that didn't need alt-modes.

I'll take it if it means the Death Trooper helmet in the night trooper set has damage to expose their jaws. I think it'd be pretty difficult for someone to mistake death troopers for stormtroopers, the only ones it could turn out to be are range troopers. (Though I still do think it's stormtroopers.) I've got two here, one from the starfighter and one from the walmart parts pack, and yeah, not a ton of fun to have multiples, not much you can do with them. Interesting, especially since having 10 B1s implies it can hold at least a few more B1s than the 2014 version.

I honestly don't see what the goal is here. If the demand for Jango's Slave One was just absurd, and included a LOT of kids, I could see it, but as-is the main demo that's been pushing for it seemed happy about the UCS set, and while I can't see many people buying both (at least, people who don't normally buy full waves of sets), I can see a lot of people who may have been considering the UCS one opting for the cheaper option. That color coded list really puts things in perspective, huh? -The main issue is we're only getting 10-12 playsets the entire year (I personally count the microfighter and mech but respect that you didn't, although I do not count 4+ sets.) -About 3/4 of the sets are clone wars/clone related (I'm giving the RTG turbo tank and Jango's Slave One half points) -There isn't a single OT playset -Contrary to what's been stated here, the OT isn't dominating the 18+ sets. They actually have the variety I'd like to see from the playsets. I do think the clear biggest issue is that the year has an abysmal number of playsets. 12 is down from 16 in 2024, 18 in 2023, 15 in 2022, 13 in 2021, 19 in 2020, etc. It's a new low for the era. But the issue is compounded by the lack of variety. We better, I just hope we get an overall larger number of system sets. While Mando sets would probably be closer to the OT, and therefore provide some year-to-year balance (Though ironically an will probably be a set) I still would want some actual variety within the year itself. Sure, but, from who? I can go on instagram and say "The death star will be the first set to include spacetroopers" but that doesn't give it any weight, that's just me speculating.

Good overall breakdown, especially agree on the choice of jedi being one of the worst possible. If they did 4 jedi, ideally ones with more generic robe styles (Ki-Adi's isn't terrible but Bariss's robes are unique), I think it'd have been better, but as-is you're stuck without any real options. Where are you getting this information?

No you're not wrong I hadn't thought about those- Turbo Tank and Palpatine's arrest definitely had multiple unique jedi. That's fair, it has certainly happened before. I'd still argue it's a different situation, but on a sheer proportion level 06 is roughly equivalent with 25. (Also like man, 8 playsets for the whole year SUCKS. It's sad that we're closing back in on that number.) Similar here- I only had an Instagram because they blocked full access to the hashtag for non-users or something at some point on the browser (I should probably delete it, I just use R/legoleaks now since the feed isn't full of unrelated posts). I have youtube, which is where it's worse- I spam the "don't reccomend channel" button like a fiend in general, so none of the youtubers for it pop up, but literally any lego star wars video or community post invariably has a number of comments saying borderline nonsensical things about how whatever clone sets we're getting aren't enough or are being deliberately sabotaged. We haven't had anyone say that on here in a good while, but it's all over youtube. As mentioned with R/legoleaks I do have an account there too- I think i made it to sell a moc or something- but I'm deleting it as soon as I find the time since there's nothing really stopping someone from browing legoleak or legodeals without an account. And yeah the comments are bad there too, not even clone bro specific, it's just a cesspool in general. Sure, there were more OT sets than prequel/clone sets, I just don't think it was on the level this year is. There were still a number of options for clones, OT, Mando, or lego's RTG stuff. (I keep expecting the bob fighter and dark falcon to go on sale, and I've seen incredible one-copy deals in-store for the DF but never anything past the standard 20% for the bob fighter, and never anything online/full retailer for the falcon. Do not remind them they did that. The only good one of these they've ever done is the bounty hunter one, just because it was essentially a scalper stomper battle pack. (The Inferno Squad pack wasn't awful either, despite including a random made-up member of the squad- and they even HAD a fourth member in a book, but she was a girl and wasn't at Endor so it isn't her- but with what they've done to the BPs at this point I do not need another one that comes with unique jedi wearing nonstandard robes. (Though, if they did a $40 "battle pack" with 4 jedi, would we even notice if they didn't label it? 4 figures and a few B1s in a $40 set is just a normal set)

2005 only had 12 playsets total (and I'm counting the one that's two other sets repacked with Obi-Wan's fighter) , and the majority prequel sets probably had something to do with the new movie coming out. I don't think it's comparable to it getting the lion's share of sets two decades later. 2006 only had 8 playsets (I won't count the turbo tank where they just swapped out Mace's lightsaber), which is bad, though I also assume it was sort of "catching up" for a prequel heavy 2005 (If 2026 is majority OT playsets, I'll still be confused why they didn't just swap half each year around for variety, but I'll agree it won't be as bad as if next year we just continue the current trend). 2008 (props for skipping the near 50/50 2007 instead of lumping it all together). 2008 was also a new content year (but still has a better ratio of it's 14 playsets), and 2009 doesn't have a terrible ratio either, about a third of the 17 playsets being OT. This year's only sets from other eras are based on new content, sort of the inversion of how previous years where one era dominated were due to new content from that era releasing. If 2026 is OT dominated (For the sake of comparison ideally being heavily stormtrooper variant dominated with almost every set including stormtroopers and/or their vehicle, but I'd accept just general rebel/imperial focus), I would be glad we're getting some year-to-year variety, though still confused as to why they wouldn't just swap half the sets from each year. There aren't many on eurobricks but dear lord, every other discussion platform... everytime I see news on instagram, reddit (ew), youtube, etc, it's like every other comment. (Also, sure, only two "sets based on the clone wars tv show with clones" sets, but not the only sets with phase 2 clone troopers, or the only prequel ones. Don't pretend last year was OT domination.)

That was essentially a proto-UCS set, though. I agree it can't be ruled out but I can't see the quinjet only having 3 figs, as to the extent that the milano/quinjet/benatar have been "proto-ucs", they've all had more than 3 figs. Totally agree. If they kept using mixel joint elbows and knees I'd be buying up every mech day 1 instead of just inevitably getting the iron man ones. The worst part to me is that it's designed in such a way that it evokes a ratchet joint being in that middle circular section, but it's just one molded piece. It's like it's taunting us. I modify the few mechs I've bought since to remove the part and replace it with an actual joint when I can. I know they claim stability issues, but honestly I never noticed that. I feel like kids would be a lot more upset that a lot of them can't grab guys without moving their arm weird or aim their blasters right.

Realistically I hope not- imbalance is a bad thing even if it's imbalance in terms of the stuff I want- but I also would 100% enjoy the schadenfreude of all the clone bros melting down over a different part of the fandom getting what they got the previous year. Unfortunately I do not think this ends up happening. IIRC they couldn't get the rights to Stan Lee for the AT. George doesn't work with Lucasfilm anymore, so while possible (I don't think he has a personal licensing agency like stan) it's not nearly as simple as it was with Kevin. Yeah- clone bros keep talking about this horrific drought of sets, usually implying it lasted from Disney buying SW to 2020 (if they're being reasonable, but I've seen claims that we'll STILL BE in a clone drought until this wave), and that it was OT domination, but -The lowered number of prequel sets was 2015-2019 (and let's not forget 2015 still included multiple clone battle packs) -Those same years, over a full wave of sets each year, sometimes more, was dedicated to the year's new movie. -There was never a time where clone troopers weren't on shelves at all. The ratios were lower than I'd like to see, but it's not like we went a half decade without clones. Did it? the most I can remember is getting a rarer jedi alongside anakin/obi-wan/ahsoka in the larger sets (granted that may have been what you meant, but it's reading to me like "2-3 jedi that were unique") First of all, the Death Star is one set, out of the price range (or space range) of a huge number of fans, especially children. Plenty of kids love the OT, and a huge chunk of the clone stuff is coming from young adults who grew up with the prequels as kids and have the specific drive to army build every legion. The general audience still knows Luke/Vader/Yoda more than the prequel cast or ANY clone trooper. I think furthermore, even if the clone stuff is their unanimous best seller (which I'm not confident on- every clone battle pack released recently sells out day 1 from the clone bros army building, then gets put on 30 discount a few months later at every retailer near me and lags on shelves. I don't think they do poorly per se, but most lego sets around me NEVER go on sale at retailers...), they've overextending by assuming these kids' parents have infinite wallets. Timmy can probably get some sets for his birthday, and Christmas, but when I was a kid, even though lego was pretty much all I asked for, I never got close to buying a full wave, and while my mom wasn't a millionaire or something it's not like we were impoverished. They're going from the nice mix of the last few years of "clone fans buy clone sets, OT fans buy the OT sets, fans of both get a mix, etc" to expecting the clone fans to somehow absorb the market cap of anyone who isn't interested in even more clones. Also they're releasing two Jango's starships in the span of 3 months, which isn't the same exact issue, but is still very funny to me because they're going to cannibalize sales. If seven years is relatively recently, no clone fan should be complaining about that dark age because for the entire "dark age" clone sets had released relatively recently. The 2014 stuff would have retired with only a few years between them and the 2020 era starting, meaning that's like, what, yesterday on this scale? (clearly there was a lack of prequel sets during that time, but now that I've used your timescale on that, could you see how a set retiring 7 years ago might not be all that recent?)

I don't know, but people here were saying they weren't sure, and reading his comments he doesn't seem particularly sure of himself either. I understand The thing is aside from assuming it'll be based on both DS's despite the exterior being based on one, it'll now include something like 10 imperial officers. Many of them are named, sure, but I still find it unlikely, even though I wouldn't have an issue with it. Not to mention that the U-wing, to my knowledge, isn't IN the august wave? (I thought it was May?) And slave one, while not including P2 clones so not as bad, somewhat hilariously is pretty clone-related. I don't think it counts per se but it's still funny that the only august set not directly based on a clone vehicle or coming with clone minifigures is based on the clone's donor, includes Boba, and set on the home planet of the clones. Well said. No, because at least one third of the playsets each year went to the new movie of each year rather than "poor hoth sets". There was still a variety of stuff on shelves. (Also, it's 2015-2019, be honest. 2014 had a TON of prequel sets, Nd 2020 had a not-insignificant number of prequel sets including the first 501st BP. It's exclusively the years in which new star wars movies released.)

Don't give them the idea. I just can't see lego putting like 8 stormtroopers in a set. Removing the DS2 specific figures from the 2016 set, you've got like 20ish, and your only additions you can throw in are the other named officers and then a TON of nameless troopers. Now I'd be cool with that but I don't see lego doing it. Here's the thing- assumably, this death star has an exterior, and as such, will have to represent only one of the two DSs (the first, assumably), which limits the amount of figures they can shove in a bit- no Royal Guards, Palpatine, or ROTJ Luke. I'm sure they could get it to 40, but we'd have things like "8 stormtroopers" or "7 imperial officers", which as much as you and I might be fine with, I just can't see lego doing. I honestly think that we're going to get either a limited interior or straight up no interior, and I don't see us getting more than 20-25ish figs for the former and like 8 on a display stand for the latter. I thought you went insane and became the joker because of no official movie superman tie in? Though I suppose if they snub Dedra from the U-wing you might gain a Syril Karn profile picture?

My final entry, this one for the Large Catagory:

A long time ago, in a kingdom far, far away... So for this one, I thought I'd do something different. It's the same idea in spirit- the emperor's throne room- but rather than an 18+, compact, sci-fi diorama, it's a spaced out playset set during medieval times. Being a playset, it's got plenty of play features. Here, pulling the two pins on the top of the main castle wall cause two axes to swing down from the roof to attack intruders, something our Hero and Obsidian Knight must protect against. (This is also a better image of the castle wall, and you can see on the top the emperor's octagonal sigil for his Empire. On the left side of the castle there's a small build for a gong, as well as a clip that can hold the mallet. Here the Obsidian Knight hits the gong to warn the imperials of the Hero's approach. On the right, we have a small build with a sword in the stone that the Hero can pull out. (As a side note, covering the bottom of the quote tile and using the quote itself as an inscription is my favorite part of this build.) Inside the castle, you can see the emperor's throne room. (I just realized I didn't take a picture of the inside of the castle- it's pretty bare, but it's got 6 studs of depth beyond the wall to place figures in, which is something I always like builds to have.) His throne sits on a bridge above a pool of water, and a side walkway leads to his scrying cauldron. The throne itself is a horrifying ring of bone and metal in a physical display of the emperor's power and the implied fate of those who would oppose him. Here's another play feature- the magenta carpet in front of the emperor's throne conceals a trapdoor, that by pulling the black circle on the side, can be released to drop the Hero to his doom. And one more play feature- pulling up an arm on the top of the ring will cause the emperor's throne to topple backwards, sending the dark wizard himself tumbling into the waters below. Finally, I used the leftover pieces to explore kind of a fun idea, namely that this isn't just a normal castle set, but a sort of visions/what if scenario for star wars, where by means of the portal shown (with a small black repair droid hovering above) the principle cast has been transported to a different place and different time. On the left is just a mini display plaque with the remaining printed tiles. I normally like to use every single piece of a build for an alt-build, as I feel figuring out what to do with remaining pieces is a big part of the challenge but for this one, to keep the medieval theme, I do in fact have leftover parts- just the train windows that go into the 1x2x3 window pieces used in the castle wall. My goal for this one, unlike turning the Andor gunship into a racecar and garage, or mandalorain throne into a speeder, was to show how different the same basic concept can end up when you design for a different genre and age range, so let me know if you think it does a good job with that.

Yeah I mean it's not a world-ender as far as the wave's concerned, I probably wouldn't have gotten it anyway unless I found a solid discount. I don't see it. They're both possible, but I think it's unlikely lego puts out UCS and playscale slave ones within a few months of eachother- there's been SOME overlap before, but I don't think they've ever released that close. For the death star, 40 sounds logical given the cost and fig count of the last one, but at the same time since this assumably has an exterior (so they can't use figs from both death stars), and just the overall unfortunate push away from MBS... I feel like this ends up being a "display plaque with 6 figs" type of set. Clearly they were keeping it secret because they knew it'd be the cloned straw to break the dewback's back in terms of clone related sets. I'm still cautious on this, I just don't see it, but if so, someone should go confirm that all the Clone Bros are accounted for and none of them are currently in Billund. OB-1 is the rational version of Bigger Luke Theory. I wish visions did an episode that explored these.

Yeah, I think that's certainly accurate Honestly rather than a fully new list at this point I think my list would look like: Darkseid Talon Reverse Flash Ares (minifigure) Zod It's even sadder for heroes: Wonder Woman Flash Hal Jordan Cyborg Shazam It was actually connected to my Fax machine, so it might be a minute before I can rebuild it. When I called about it, all I got was "why do you own a fax machine" and "how did you connect it to a concept of self". I think it's extremely important that lego is part of any potential play for independence or trade deal. For global brick security purposes an ambassador to DC comics MUST be placed on the superhero design team. I guess if you count all the youtubers' followers they're statistically relevant to some capacity, but I doubt the level of sets we've gotten up to this year is going to do well. The kids who watch these youtubers can probably get a few battle packs a year but when I was a kid, even around my birthday or christmas I'd be lucky to get more than a couple sets a wave, much less army-build an entire wave. They're spreading out the clone sales across the full year while losing a lot of sales from anyone who buys playsets but feels they have about enough clones. As for lego not touching on the clones as much in the late 2010s, that was mainly all the new movies and how they'd take up 1.5 waves/year. There wasn't much room for much else, so they stuck to the stuff they knew was popular. Which is what they're doing now by making just about everything either 18+ or clone, but I do wonder how much of that is clones selling better than other SW sets and how much of that is SW sets generally doing well and lego overestimating how popular the clone bro youtubers are. The much more popular Jonkler tends to overshadow him, unfortunately. The prime minister has been pushing for it recently so it's certainly on the table.

Ah, so just adding Plo's head and potentially Bacara's helmet and/or a P1 pilot helmet then. Yeah the minifigs are the real issue- either the recolors would have extremely limited and/or inaccurate selections, or they'd have to use print budget on them, which kind of runs around the "cheap to produce limited release recolor" concept. That one's really got me on the fence. It looks very nice, but I haven't gotten any helmets yet, and $70 has always felt a bit expensive for the price. (Even if the helmets are kind of progressively becoming better value- from inflation alone a $70 helmet in 2020 would be $85 today)

I think we can add Ahsoka's head-tails to currently in sets, Plo's head to strongly rumored and molds for Bacara's helmet and potentially a P1 pilot to "very likely", or at least somewhat likely. Still not a great year, but I think the number of new molds that are reviving old ones account for a chunk of it. Yeah that's absolutely fair. I could see the argument for that, I meant moreso that lego would rather get more clones out there, hence the color change. Yeah, exactly. The best RTG figures have been ones like Jedi Vader and Darth Rey, who are from something, or ones like Darth Jar Jar who are at least a spin on a real character. That is the issue. They can't remake things like this fast enough to get multiple color schemes in in a decade anymore, due to the sheer number of ships/vehicles/playsets that can be made at that price point with all the content there now is. Obviously with this one, you're making everyone who'd rather have the more iconic color scheme a bit disappointed, whereas with the other, you're doing so for anyone who wanted the new color scheme. We've seen the opposite with how we get Boba's Slave One over Jango's all the time. It's a difficult situation. I wonder if they'd be able to recolor sets for limited release, though I guess that would probably have production costs high enough that it wouldn't be worth it.

Yeah, they're ALWAYS human. The way I see it, you've got characters like Jedi Bob and Rebel friend who have some level of meme status, which is by default unable to be recreated by lego. You cannot manufacture another one of them because they weren't intended as lego OCs, bob was just a random filler jedi and Rebel Friend was just so there was another blaster character availible. (I think it's almost important to note that they wear the "uniforms" of their respective factions.) Jek has some notoriety because he at least had a unique design, although I personally could not care less about him. He's lego's edgy OC, he's not interesting for anything aside from potentially inspiring Dagan Gera's second phase in jedi survivor. And yeah exactly that's the other issue. Every lego OC has been human or a droid, aside from Naare, who was near-human, and the Ackbar Trooper, which I don't think anyone is really going to stick up for. I have a few points here, aside from all the ones I mentioned above. When I buy a lego star wars set, a major part of the reason I'm purchasing it is because I have love for the story and vehicle or location represented. If this were a new in-house action theme I would not be buying any sets. Lego OCs fundamentally break this by not being from star wars in the traditional sense, but just random new people lego's decided to plop into sets. Regardless of whether or not you believe attempting to create a variety in skin tones should be a major criteria for lego when deciding which minifigures to include, as has been covered here recently, lego has no issue throwing different skin tones onto generic grunts. Alternatively, and the method I'd prefer, they could just give us canon characters, many of whom are currently not readily available, such as Lando's blue or general costume, or Mon Mothma, or what have you. But I'd take either method over "lets make characters up" The third issue is yeah- they look like generic background civilians, and specifically human ones. If they DID look like cantina aliens, it'd at least be something- they might not represent a specific character, but at least now we have a new aqualish, or trandoshan, or what have you. I don't think the duros- whether or not it's a jedi cad bane- is as bad as the other two because at least Duros are a star wars species and a little harder to get than, you know, humans. Characters like Child Han (I'm gonna count him as an OC for the purpose of this- Han exists, but we've never seen that age in canon, this is essentially just some random kid) or the Freemakers or the hero OCs from this one don't even provide that. Sure. I suppose it's possible they change their outfits. That wouldn't really improve much for me. TLDR I want to have star wars characters in my star wars sets. I don't think it ends the world, but it is funny to me that I and others were thinking "maybe it's not clone based maybe we'll get something interesting" and lego curled the monkey's paw and went "more generic OC's!"

I don't even think this particular one was IN spider-verse. They had a cyborg spider-woman but she's some sort of hulk thing who doesn't look like this. It's not impossible but I agree it's very unlikely.

I mean if you're talking about an effect on the budget, like you mentioned with the possibility that their budget was slashed, it doesn't really matter what you subjectively count it as because objectively if the mold is retired for all intents and purposes reintroducing the piece is a new set of physical molds that will still cost money to produce. The expensive part isn't the CAD modeling. After the most turbo tank leak I'm wondering if I treated the clones to harshly. At least they're present in continuity material. Seriously, sig and dev have to be the worst possible outcome. They aren't canon, they aren't part of the legends continuity, they're humans, they're re-uses. The best thing you can say is that you can use some of Dev's parts for an inquisitor custom. At least Bob had some level of nostalgia factor. After the monkey's paw "you don't want the turbo tank to be another clone set? Fine, it comes with lego OCs, and not even cool ones", I've decided the remaining set has to be a buildable ackbar trooper.

The BTAS batmobile is about half that, you add all the additional bits the Forevermobile has, bulk up the stand, I could see it. Instructions unclear, the sets are overpriced and bad. As for the financial aspect, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lego makes baffling choices with the theme, kids shockingly don't buy the completely colorless sets based on a 30 year old version of the character they've never heard of, lego decides this reaffirms that only nostalgic adults would buy lego batman, the cycle continues.

I refuse to believe that the clone bro youtubers make up a statistically relevant number of sales. Combined with their followers they might, but most of their followers don't have the income or space to sustain these sales. It worked fine when it was a few sets a year, but now that almost every playset this year is clone/clone wars based (And seriously, I've seen people say they're going to army build the $70 ARC-170. How. Why.), I can't imagine the clone bros will be able to keep up the pressure. What's unfortunate is that set dev times are too long for lego to fix this in 2026, so we just have to hope they already have TMAG stuff in the works or something if we want to escape a second year of total clone domination. Yup. Honestly my expectations for DCU lanterns were already lowered when I watched them cast the perfect Hal and then go "he's Guy Gardner and he's gonna wear a stupid wig, haha" DCAU Hal was a perfect cast. I think about "Oh, and that's batman" "Batman's REAL?' "Yeah he's over there" On a regular basis.