Mandalorianknight

I totally agree in general- they aren't going to tell the merch companies ahead of time. I think there are scenarios where lego's been able to sniff out that something won't do well, and others where they've completely failed to do so (Eternals), but my guess is Superman is just general caution due to the current state of DC. An expansion is in the works, I just need more members to fill the cells.

Oh no from a practical standpoint it's super overused, it just coincidentally happens that I haven't managed to get any more than 1. Lego now has a lore reason to produce it.

We could be Thor's off-brand Revengers. I'll be Lunar Paladin, and then we can have Arachnoid Child, Patriotic Soldier, Steel Guy, Hammer God, Spider Woman (formerly black widow), Bowman, Red Magic Lady, Eyesight, Large Green Man, shrinking man, Bee, Batman (formerly known as daredevil), Daredevil (formerly known as ghost rider), Second and Third Arachnoid Children, Strong Man in Yellow Shirt and his friend Punch Guy, fish guy, constant-name-change-cosmic-lady, Cat King, Weird Medical Professional, Knife (there's only ever been one Knife, though, and there's only ever gonna be one Knife), Arachnoid Woman (formerly spider-woman), Angry Canadian, etc. The stat block is gone anyway @CloneCommando99, you can come back now!

My issue is that it's a "less detailed version" in that it's a completely different version. It's like saying luke's black jumpsuit is an inferior version of his robes at the start of ROTJ. It's just a separate thing. Like, is comic Wanda inferior to the CMF version? I don't think you can really say it's a direct comparison because they're different costumes. There's an existing crescent blade piece not from the CMF that works just fine, and many versions of Moon Knight would look fine with the ninjago dragons rising S1 hood. The existing MK hood doesn't work purist because he doesn't have a crescent moon on his head in the comic. The only parts of CMF moon knight that also works for a comic one are the weapons and cape, so, the unprinted parts. I sent myself. Kaine. Daredevil. Moon Knight. Luna Snow. I would really like to start seeing some comic-based avengers designs pop up. Normal blue or even an azure/light blue Cap, Thor with helmet, normal red iron man (if the one from the new mech was normal red it'd work great), Scarlet Witch with bright red and pink, quicksilver with the lightning bolt, etc. Wouldn't even mind a purple Hawkeye. I think Black Panther is the closest, as his 2020 avengers figure is just missing a black cape to be the sick caped comic version. (Maybe DBG hands and boots?) With how much lego loves mechs I'm shocked we haven't had a comic or ATSV SP//dR. Maybe now that Rivals has put her in a suit into the public consciousness instead of just civilian clothes, the odds are better? (I'm coping because I want rivals designs in sets) (Also the Rivals Sp//dr is too small for a lego version to be made that fits a figure so it wouldn't even really work in this context) Yeah exactly. Wouldn't mind a comic Hector white tiger either, though I think they've missed their last chance as the character is about to get a very R-rated association.

But the thing is (I go through this in more depth below) you can fit lando into a number of starfighters without stretching much, and since we've set the precedent for playing a bit fast and loose with what specifically an OT set is based on, Lando should be able to show up in pretty much any rebel or imperial vehicle outside of something like Luke's landspeeder where he obviously never interacted with it. Same for Padme in regards to seppie or republic sets. We've never had the best Padme outfit (white jumpsuit with cape, which still gives off royalty vibes but is worn in combat). Chuck her in the next Homing Spider droid or something (It'll be phase 2 clone troopers and yet somehow still have geonosis boxart) Agree (although given inflation, the $15 battle packs in 2017 would be $20 now so I wouldn't be mad if it was their current $20. Though saying that you know it'll be $25 next year.) True, but you know my answer to that... Completely unrelated to the point but I like this face print and I see people talk about how common it is all the time but somehow despite the fact that it's on 18 separate minifigures I think I've only ever gotten one, and it was a Bruce Wayne in an ebay lot or something. No, no, this can't be it- The set supposedly has 3 SBDs (Super Bly Droids) Me too, the Defel species are sick, even if this one never got to show off his special ability (if that's still canon). What's sad is back when we got minifigure polybag/GWPs for star wars more regularly, major villain of the show wouldn't have been too obscure. (Though perhaps requiring a new mold would be an issue, I'm unsure if there's a working mold for him out there at the moment.) You can fit Bespin lando in the carbon freeze chamber as you say, (which would be a good set for a year or two from now as a good way to keep cheap boba on shelves once the mech retires), you can put him in Slave One, you could throw him in an ESB falcon, the next TIE fighter remake could have him if we want to stretch it a tiny bit, etc. There's plenty of spots for that, not to mention that ROTJ General Lando can be plopped into more or less any rebel ship from ROTJ- A-wing, B-wing, Falcon, capital ships, etc. I mean nothing's even stopping them from ROTJ X or Y wings if we want to stretch a bit.

So by that logic would a comic version of anyone who's ever been in a CMF would be inferior? Should we not want comic versions of Falcon Cap/She Hulk/Photon/Scarlet Witch/White Vision/etc? Like, for characters like Freefall hawkeye and Kate, sure, the CMF versions are pretty close to the comics they're representing. But I just don't get the logic of "you want a worse version of the character because it isn't a cmf" when it's a completely different outfit. Like again, the Herald Thor vs L&T thor example- I doubt they're slipping Herald Thor some leg printing but I don't see why that would be some sort of mark against getting him. Especially when most Moon Knights would probably be fine with plain white or black legs (depending on the suit).

I don't remember who specifically leaked this one, but I feel like if they're saying it's being kept secret, it's not like the young leia hints where it was a ton of random, unhelpful hints that I honestly still have some doubt as to whether or not young leia was even the end point in mind ("could beat jango" is a heck of a stretch because you have to A: make it a different version of leia fighting him and B: assume Leia gets far enough in her jedi training to stand a chance against the guy who went toe-to-toe with Obi-Wan.) If it's a somewhat reputable leaker, I'm assuming they aren't just straight up lying and it is indeed being kept secret. Doesn't make much sense why, but you never know. Maybe it is another andor set- a U-wing and K2 don't exactly tell us anything new about the show. (I'm coping, normal p2 clone troopers show up in visions S3 somehow and this set is about them) I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mix of clone wars sets having done well the past few years and lego trying to use the youtubers out there as free market research. Similar thing with 18+- I imagine a lot of the stuff they made in 2020-2022 did pretty well and they've decided to go all in. It's a very short term strategy IMO, and I don't see it paying off. I 100% agree with the general premise that more aliens would be nice, but there were certainly aliens in Jabba's sail barge. Even if you specifically meant skiff guards as opposed to Max Rebo or Bib, there are three alien skiff guards in the set. (Technically chewbacca's in the skiff too but obviously that's not what you meant.) Sure, the OT is "a product of it's time", but that if anything just makes it weirder that they're ignoring the human diversity that WAS present. The OT had a woman as the commander in chief of the rebellion, haven't seen her in awhile. There was a black B-wing pilot, be nice to see him flying his ship in lego. As mentioned, Lando's weirdly hard to get a normal version of. I don't think it's some terrible thing to prefer a set to come with the people on screen, and while the OT isn't bursting with human diversity (though it's got plenty of aliens as @Agent Kallus says and we rarely get them), there are at least SOME options, and lego for some reason ignores them. Even with the new canon stuff, we've had Sloane and that's it. If we're doing book stuff with Sloane, with Hoth rebels specifically, in the new canon Namir fights in the trenches, Howl's helping coordinate the defense, why not make them? Why not give us some sets with the Rogue One rebel troopers? My point being there's a billion ways to increase human diversity in star wars sets and swapping heads on OT grunts while you can't get a normal Lando or Mon and we haven't had anything Rogue One in 8 years just feels like the wrong way to go about things.

It's little timmy's first UCS, except little timmy's never heard of the movie this is from and thinks the batmobile looks weird, and the adults who have nostalgia bought everything else remember when Batman Forever "ruined batman forever" so they don't want it. Lego realizes their error in 2026- the batmobile wasn't expensive enough for adults to think it's a premium product and not a toy (all lego sets are toys, fight me). Plus, most adults who collect batman already HAVE a lego batman minifigure. They release the Batman and Robin Batmobile ($140, still about the size of the 2019/2023/2024 batmobiles), which contains no minifigures, but advertises putting your Batman Forever Batman figure in the driver's seat. It really is the batcave all over again. I'm proud to be cynical enough about the theme at this point that I knew they'd find a way. But even I never imagined it would end up like this.

If you're talking solely about the design, I hesitate to see how you could call the comic version inferior when they're different things. It'd be like saying that anyone who wants Cosmic Herald Thor wants an inferior version to the Love and Thunder suit- they're completely different costumes. MCU moon knight is completely different (both in character and in design) to pretty much any comic version. It's Egyptian wrappings. Moon knight typically wears either the more standard cloth outfit or armor plates similar to netflix daredevil. It'd be like if MCU daredevil just straight up wore a boxing robe with a cowl and you tried to say the comic version was inferior- it's just not the same thing. Worse, actually- With MCU moon knight specifically, the costume also helps remove one of the more interesting aspects of his character- the idea that, at least to the average hero or villain he runs into, they don't know if he's actually the fist of an Egyptian god or just insane. When someone magically generates Egyptian wrappings around them (much less when it transforms into a white business suit or tanks spears through the torso) you can pretty safely assume that they have some magic stuff going on. When a guy in white body armor and a cape tells you that an egyptian god is telling him who deserves divine vengeance it keeps that "does he actually have the patronage of a god or is he just crazy" aspect. Exactly. But even putting aside that a comic version would be superior to a lot of people, it's just objectively a completely different style, like what I said above about Cosmic Herald Thor vs Love and Thunder Thor.

Honestly his classic rallying cry of "lego hates DC" is starting to ring a little true. Though it's probably more accurate to say "lego doesn't have anyone who actually cares about DC on the team and as such is making decisions that people with more than a passing knowledge of what a batman is would find baffling" Nail on the head, the best way to read it is that whoever's making these isn't familiar with batman much and just doesn't know that most people don't like Batman Forever. Can't wait for the Batman and Robin Batmobile ($130, kitbashed bruce wayne) in 2026 and the New Batman Adventures Batmobile ($180, figure sized but no minifigures), culminating in the theme's end in 2028 with the Batman Begins Tumbler ($250, but it's not UCS, it's about the size of the $40 tumbler. Instead of including minifigures you have to give a batman minifigure to the cashier along with the $250)

Yup. My "Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow" thing is a joke. It's pretty obvious it won't have a good figure selection, I'm expecting 1 or two new characters max. This actually puts the Anti-Venom in the mech in a different light for me since I assume they'll be re-using him here. Re-uses are necessary for modulars with 20+ figures, but when it's a $130 set and you only have 8 characters, it puts a bit of a damper on it. It's a comic based set, so the only one where we already have a version is Daredevil, where I do like the Bugle version but would love a more modern variation of the suit in dark red. We don't yet have any Kaine or Luna Snow figures and Moon Knight has only had an MCU figure that sidestepped Phase 4's increased comic accuracy. That's exactly what I mean- I thought the Moon Knight show was one of the better disney+ ones, but it's not comic moon knight, and the suit certainly isn't. The MCU moon knight suit immediately tells you "this man has Egyptian god based powers and a magic suit" not the comic one, which tells you "there is a very good chance this man is just insane." And yeah, it'd be nice to get a version of daredevil in a set that's not $300. As much as I love the bugle's figure I also wouldn't mind a more modern version of the character with dark red.

Now we know why they didn't go all-in and just do Batman and Robin- making a Batman and Robin set without Robin would probably be a bit too on the nose for the current state of the theme. I've always been against the idea that the designers are letting their personal likes/dislikes get in the way of the sets, but with the fact that the superhero design team is mainly marvel guys, I do have to wonder if that may be a factor here. Like the other two aren't the worst things possible- yeah the wonder woman box was strange but not set-breaking (that was the movie's fault), and with aquaman I do have to say I don't think they'd be able to sell a wave of sets for the movie. But stuff like "hey let's only do two sets this 2HY and they're gonna be expensive sets based on the second least popular batman film" has very few ways to read it aside from intentional sabotage or just monumental stupidity. I refuse to believe they have marketing data showing demand for Schumacher sets over pretty much anything else.

I said in many cases, not all- the Tumbler, X-jet, Hoopty, and Ahsoka's Starfighter are all recent examples of sets where inflation doesn't justify the increase. You had just specifically mentioned the price increases around 2022, and it is important to note that in the US many of those are almost beat for beat with inflation. Inflation doesn't cause a $40 batmobile to be $50. But it does cause, say, a $40 set in 2019 to be $50 directly now. At this point yes. We're rapidly approaching a bionicle G2 situation wherein the decisions are so bafflingly poor (hey you know that theme that saved our company, the one everyone liked because of the story and lore? Axe the story and lore from the reboot. Make it so half the characters in the first wave don't even have NAMES) and the sets are selling poorly enough (the full 2023 batman wave being put into that value pack that more or less halved the price) that sooner or later retailers are just going to stop stocking lego DC. It might legitimately be better to cancel the theme and wait until whoever's making these decisions is gone to avoid a situation like that.

Yeah look obviously everything's anecdotes, but I'm struggling to imagine the number of people who know the Eternals but not the F4 is more than, like, a single digit. Yeah I mean that's just from my experience, I've heard it referred to as "the movies with harley quinn and the other villains" or "Guardians with Harley Quinn" "We live in a society where honor Robin is a distant memory. Isn't that right, Batman?" -the guy who played Morbius. I audibly laughed because my first thought was "that's optimistic", and then I realized that I was considering this lineup of Schumacher figures optimistic for a $400 set. That price tag is because of the nanomachines in each box. Ironic that the batman theme can now best be described by Spider-man's girlfriend. (I mean "Expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed", not "I'm leaving you for Paul", if anyone's confused.) I've been saying for a year or two now that it won't be long before they fold Batman into Lego Icons, and the only things keeping it out are the 4+ sets and lego wondering if the Gunn universe will be a new MCU. If superman fails I think batman gets folded into Icons. Not that I want to defend lego here because they've been making plenty of baffling and bad decisions over the past half-decade, but inflation in many cases really HAS been that bad- the $30 sets now being $38 is almost beat-for-beat how inflation's gone over the past few years in the US, for example, and those issues were all there. I can think of a lot of SW sets off the top of my head with what we'd consider genuinely insane figure/cost ratios (adjusted for inflation) nowadays.

For $50 it pretty much can't be unless it comes with a taxi and they apply the spider verse tax. Say it with me everyone, KAINE, DAREDEVIL, MOON KNIGHT, LUNA SNOW (I'm crossing my fingers lego has a skynet perusing the forum and it picks up on me repeating those words) But yeah no there's no chance it comes with any of them, I think at best we get comic electro, jackal, or lizard. I also think a Norman made of re-used parts will be included, which is absolutely not a win IMO if nothing's preventing you from building the character exactly the same right now. i was considering the battle pack until I learned it wasn't a battle pack. Unfortunate. (I might still get it TBH. Those small sets with iron man/war machine suits always seem to get me.) It's allegedly $130, which allows me to continue to doom and gloom because I'm mad this set stops us from getting a Modular Oscorp.

Lego may want to put out some alerts for this guy, but if it's a goofier silver age joker... I might be OK with him pieing the designers or... trademarking fish? He did that right? to get some changes made to the theme. Yeah, it's a really bad way to go about it IMO. Making grunts more diverse (especially since I feel like they almost exclusively do it in scenarios where it's not accurate to the scene being depicted) feels very much like it's being done to check boxes- I do sincerely believe that they have internal quotas to fill in terms of the gender or skin tone of minifigures- and it's crazy that we can have that going on but they don't make Lando or Padme readily accessible. Plus, while it's not the case in-universe, in the OT the imperials were very much nazi stand-ins, so it's weird to see them suddenly more diverse than most real-world militaries. It's a touchy topic so I won't speak on it much more- plus your comment is more or less just a more eloquent version of what I'm trying to say, but yeah, point being, how do we have these drives at lego and yet I have to shell out $200 for Lando? It's a real issue- We used to get two $13-15 BPs a year, and now it's one $20 BP and one just straight up set that's only a battle pack in that it has an undersized build for the price. $40 what essentially boils down to removing two droids from the $30 set last year is just sad. Yeah exactly (and good callout- I would have bought a lot more of that set if it had the sith troopers- and if the sith troopers were cool. I don't hate TROS, but I was so excited for what amounted to stormtrooper reskins. Battlefront 2 did a much better job with them). It should have been one double death trooper, or better yet, four night troopers with Enoch in the Peridea set and a nightdeath trooper in a new Patrol Gunship, because that vehicle's been in a billion projects and we've never had an imperial version. I can't imagine this does well. I feel like a Royal Guard one would have done better. That said, I thought the Boushh one would do poorly and I don't recall seeing any sales on it, at least any more than the rest of the helmets, so maybe I'm wrong. I agree. I think lego is now fully aware that by including multiple troopers in a sub-$50 set, the grey baseplate people will army build it, and that even children might be persuaded to buy multiple copies. Building off that (pun unintended only because it's really the inverse), I think they feel the builds don't have to be as good because the set'll sell a number of copies just for the minifigures.

That's my guess, out of all the legions we've had so far he looks the closest to his troops, he's got the same helmet accessory and all. It was a line from a scene with the V-19 Torrent and that set leaked shortly after so I think we have to assume it meant that, and the "in more ways than one" was in a reference to the Dutch Vander actor's passing away. Good to know. I assume they'd throw him in, they've been pretty good about giving each legion it's commander in the current design scheme- even if some of his prints are those of generic troopers. Oh I agree, you'd just mentioned that new figs shouldn't be the only metric to judge a year by so I was bringing up some other ones.

Wait is Bly in the 327th set or no, or has it just not been stated yet? I think while this is a weak year, like you say, the relative lack of new characters isn't necessarily the only metric even within the figure category- if there are normal death troopers in the U-wing, it's been 8 years since the last ones so I feel that should count for something. Similarly, Dooku in the MTT would be a big win for us Dookheads, since it's been 12 years since his last figure. I mean honestly at this point I'd consider a new general or blue shirt Lando somewhat of a win- it's been awhile since either of those have been accessible and the cheapest in the US are around $50 for general lando (geez, maybe I should sell mine, I like Lando but for $50 I'll slap Skiff Lando's head on a generic light blue shirt) and TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR THE BLUE SHIRT ONE? HOLY CRAP LEGO THROW HIM IN THE NEXT BOBA SLAVE ONE OR SOMETHING. (I know we've had old lando and skiff disguise lando more recently, but that'd be like if we didn't have ANH Han but we had the stormtrooper outfit and TFA Han on shelves) Kind of went on a "dear lord why are people paying so much for a minifigure" tangent there but point being I think remakes we haven't had in awhile should be factored in. I guess on that same line of thought if we wanted to try and make some sort of comprehensive metrics for it, we'd want to factor in figure detail (where applicable) and some form of "is the main cast on shelves" criteria. This sounds like a fun Excel project.

Take that back, they've robbed us of the modular. Since the build's look and quality is going to be significantly less than that of a modular, it needs a bonkers figure selection to not be a total failure (Once more, lego, those four heroes MUST be Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow. I would accept swapping Daredevil for Punisher or Kaine for a new Spider-Noir) but I'm not expecting more than 2-3 interesting characters max. My current realistic-but-they-actually-give-us-a-new-character-or-two guess is: Norman (re-used parts), Green Goblin, Jackal, Anti-Venom, Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Miles, Silk. But I can see the very real possibility of: Norman (Re-used parts), Green Goblin, Venom, Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Miles, Iron Man or Black Panther from the car set. His armor in the Endgame final battle is in the iron patriot colors, hence why he's there.

My vote is on the bat-nipple suit but they leave off the nipples. If they included those it might be so comically bad that we'd like the figure ironically, and lego can't let us get a good figure. (This is known as the Morbius contingency- while this isn't the exact same situation, as while a bat-nipple suit without them would just be lame whereas lego comic Morbius is incredible, they didn't have the stones to go Jared Leto morbius figure.) This is true, but you're missing that most of the failed disney+ shows and Eternals flopped one time and were then cast off. Lego is definitely not considering making more eternals sets, for example. The hesitancy comes from how they haven't had much media over the last decade (directly because of disney) so they were kept out of merch. Like you say, they're steadily making a comeback in other media (Marvel Rivals doing some massive heavy lifting to get people to realize Mr. Fantastic is cool), but for developing a set in 2024, I can see why lego would hesitate. In my experience: I also live in the US and this is definitely not the case for everyone around me. Teen titans might be around that level of "knowing them" as the FF for people my age and younger since the FF have been on the sidelines recently and Teen Titans has had some very successful cartoons in the past 20 years, but millennials and anyone older know the F4 more. The Tim Story films aren't the best but a lot of people did watch them, and of course they were a MAJOR force in the comics and ancillary media until disney bought marvel. Suicide Squad... I think plenty of people I know are aware of the movies with Harley Quinn, but aren't aware of the suicide squad as a group per se. Eternals absolutely the hell not, nobody who isn't actively watching most of the marvel stuff knows who they are. Even with fans, I don't think anyone I know could NAME an eternal, just "that movie that flopped." TLDR around me in the US they're as known or more than the Teen Titans and Suicide Squad, depending on the age of the people, but the fact that anyone you know knows the ETERNALS more than the fantastic four is blowing my mind. The ETERNALS. That's insane.

Do we know for sure this is a new person? It could be one we've gotten before like Poggle or Nute. I'm assuming it'll be almost exactly like the X-wing/TIE set last year- a remake of a ship, but it comes with generics and/or the OC characters rather than something like Jedi Vader.

Like I said, it needs a BONKERS figure selection. I'm telling you- Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow. That is odd. Don't give me hope. (But seriously, no, I don't think we get a modular at all this year tbh) You have accurately predicted too many things in the superheroes theme to be slinging around comments like this, you have doomed us all. Yeah, it's unfortunate. If it WAS a modular, I would honestly put characters like Kaine on the table, but no way they're in a normal set.

It'll just be Batman and, somehow, Joker. They heard we wanted more than just batmobiles so it's a batmobile and ~400 DBG tiles and plates to build a road with. Sure they never tried the FF, but if they know they historically don't do well, there is some logic as to why they would be cautious about a set for another attempt. I promise you they will find a way to re-use at least two characters. True, true, but counterpoint- the last 5 years of the theme.

Yeah, exactly. I don't think it would be an issue in reality but I wonder if it's what they're concerned about. And yeah the B1 could actually turn out to be a cool, if oversized, set, the issue I have is moreso how many buildable droids/characters we're getting this year. It's my least favorite of the sublines too. Yeah, especially since they've done the helmets and dioramas in multiple themes in the same style. It basically already is one of those sublines, it just eats into the budget of the themes it draws from. Which is funny because if they're doing so well they could probably have separate budgets. Dunno abut that name though Yeah no they could have just bundled the figs with a botanicals set and gone "it's felucia terrain" and I don't think sales would be impacted all that much. (Not just because it's a battle pack but because they're shooting themselves in the foot by making a set with almost objectively worse value than the 2024 pack that at many retailers will still be on shelves alongside it) VISIONS S3 SET woooo yeah let's go. Realistically not sure what this would be. They didn't keep RTG sets secret last year, and it's too early for a TMAG set.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my (lego marvel) year is ruined. Not only does this confirms no modular oscorp, but it essentially confirms no modular oscorp for at least a few years- it's not like last year where I could just go "oh ok it's the x mansion this year maybe oscorp next year" To redeem itself this set better come with INCONCEIVABLY good figures. I'm talking a lineup of Kaine, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Luna Snow, Bigfig Venom, Kingpin, Raimi Goblin, and Doom or something. It would have to be a minifigure GODSEND (It'll be Peter, Miles, Gwen, Iron man or Black Panther, Venom, Goblin, Doc Ock, and Carnage or something) I doubt it's raimi because I don't think we ever even see the exterior of oscorp (if we did it was likely a generic building, it certainly didn't have a TASM style unique design), but the other two are both viable options. Not that I really care as it shatters the hope of an oscorp modular. I can't think of anything else that cap-thanos set would be- the builds have to be smaller than microfighters.