Kit Figsto

Interesting, because I am quite a bit younger than the average user on here, but still mentally classify the 2020/21 COVID era as "recently" in my head when it comes to LEGO. Maybe less-so with my life in general, but for world affairs and LEGO, I guess those are recent to me But yes, it is a bit disappointing that LEGO didn't feel the relationship with EB was worth keeping up. While it sounds like it ultimately won't really change much other fewer contest prizes and perhaps the leak policy (I do remember reading reviews on here when users would be sent sets early, which is not really a thing anymore as every LAN YouTuber races to get their video review posted first), it's more the principle for me. This board seems to be mostly "old-school" AFOLs - by that, I mean people who were fans of the brand itself first, rather than the IP it represents, whereas I feel that a significant portion of AFOLs today are the other way around. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, and obviously that strategy is working for LEGO at the moment, but it is sort of a disappointment when there are plenty of folks on here that, through sharing MOCs, convention attendance, or building of online communities, helped directly or indirectly pave the way for the adult-focus aspect of the brand today.

Agreed - I understand, but they couldn’t throw EB a bone here? There’s users that have been posting on here longer than some YouTube/Instagram LEGO influencers have been ALIVE. To me, this is yet another small step away from LEGO being the company that I grew up loving. I still love the toys and the brand historically, but I’ve become far less interested in the direction they’ve been moving recently.

It looks like as far as licensed sets, Universal Monsters and Jumaji both passed the most recent Ideas review. I've never seen the movies but Jumanji seems like it'll be interesting. The Universal Monsters set is right up my alley - whether I get it or not, I'm not sure, since I already own most of the Monster Fighters sets, so we'll see if I have the space for something like this in my collection, but I'm excited to see what they do for it.

I do, just because at this point seemingly every semi-popular licensed property is getting an 18+ set. The video game was well received and I'm assuming the Idol temple sold reasonably well given that it at least had a normal shelf life. I'm not under the impression that we're ever getting a full reboot of the line, but I think at some point, unless the 18+ strategy goes out the window, I expect something else Indy related.

Super Heroes is a weird one, because I remember the pre-2012 hype being INSANE. The SDCC minifigures, especially Superman/Green Lantern as brand new figures, were seemingly all over Brickset/Eurobricks/everywhere, and the fact that we were getting both a reboot of Batman plus new DC characters, along with the new Marvel sets, seemed to have everyone excited. Then, a few years after Dark Knight Rises was out and Marvel had pretty much overtaken DC, it felt like the Marvel sets were getting more and more unique whereas DC was starting to get shelved. So, the original Super Heroes line/rebooted Batman/Spiderman was fantastic, but as it's grown into an evergreen theme, meh. I see both sides of the argument, but overall, I agree with your take on Indiana Jones @BrickBob Studpants, the quality of those 3 sets show how good we could've had it. Even if we just got the original four sets plus a summer wave of 4 DoD sets (still very confused if that wave was even real or if it was just a case of speculation gone wrong - I would love if one of the EB/Instagram leakers ever could shed some light on that, if they have any...), it would've probably been great, but I'd have loved an additional 4-set wave with a remake of the truck chase and ToD opening car chase, a Grail temple set, and anything from Crystal Skull. I'm still semi-expecting that we'll get an Indy 18+ set at some point down the line - a Grail temple in the style of the idol temple we got makes too much sense to me to not exist. Regarding the rest, I was really only interested in the 2010/11 HP reboot, which I recall being pretty solid. The main thing was a new Knight Bus, because I remember really wanting the original version, but it cost too much at the time for me to justify buying. I haven't really bought anything from the 2018-present HP reboot, but it seems to be doing more than okay.

The buildings look great, and I think that the side builds are phenomenal as well (the boat, the Bikini Bottom sign, and Jellyfish Fields are fun inclusions). The various references to episodes are great and I'm sure once people get it in-hand, more Easter eggs will continue to pop up. The only thing I really don't love about Spongebob's house specifically is that it feels a little bit cramped on the inside. His house in the show always felt pretty spacious, and it just feels like it's a little small on the inside, though the front façade looks really nice. I really don't like the Patrick figure - the proportions just look too weird to me, especially going from the 3-D torso to the flat legs, it just looks really odd. The old one seemed fine. I also am...not thrilled at the price. I'm perpetually stuck in 2019-LEGO pricing mode, so some of this is just my own biases at work, but it feels...small for $220. Like, Eldorado Fortress was the same price (I know that's unlicensed) but that set just felt like you get a lot more "stuff" for your money. Piece-wise, things feel okay, but the actual pineapple doesn't look that much bigger than the 2009 version that I own - of course, much more detailed, but the actual physical SIZE of it. That was a $40 set, $63 with inflation now, I dunno, I just feel like this set looks more like a $180-ish model to me than $220.

Thanks! My main thought process with the summer wave idea was to do a set from each movie to include the poster in (as I'm sure it was clear!), and as if this were a real wave, try to keep a variety of set sizes/prices in the wave. I couldn't really think of anything from TLJ that'd be a sure-fire seller, so I figured an X-Wing is probably the safe route they'd go there (I was thinking of an Ach-To remake), and then I needed a mid-sized vehicle, so the Podracer made sense and I figured Shmi might entice people to buy it. With Solo, I haven't seen the movie for a while, so I honestly don't remember a lot of the major set pieces/vehicles with the exception of the stuff that got sets the first time around - while I'd LOVE something with the transport train and Range Troopers, I can't see them ever doing a large set from Solo again, so in the hypothetical universe where this wave happens, that felt the most plausible to me. I know we still never got a Dryden Vos figure, but I really only remember his ship which would also be a large set.

Inspired by the post that I made earlier in the 2026 news thread, here is how I would've structured the 2027 anniversary wave(s) if it were up to me. January wave: $25 - Droid Escape. Escape pod build with a small speeder side build. Includes C-3PO, R2-D2, a Sandtrooper, and concept art Luke. $50 - Lars Homestead. About 1.5x the size of the Ben's hut set from a few years back, includes a room based on the garage, and a second room based on the kitchen/dining room. Includes Owen, Beru, Luke, and concept art C-3PO and R2-D2. $80 - Docking Bay 94. Section of the entrance to the hangar bay, includes space on top where minifigures can be posed, plus some Mos Eisley street details in the front, specifically the door where the droids hide out. Minifigures are Garindan, 2x Sandtroopers, a Mos Eisley alien (Snaggletooth, maybe), Han Solo, and concept art Han. $180 - Millenium Falcon. ANH themed Falcon, includes Han, Chewbacca, Leia, Luke, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Ben, plus ANH poster tile and concept art Darth Vader. $200 - Tantive IV. Minifigure scaled Blockade Runner, includes Leia, Captain Antilles, 3x Rebel Troopers, 2x Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, and concept art Chewbacca. I would ideally make it connect to the escape pod from the droid escape set. Summer wave: $40 - Anakin's Podracer. Includes Anakin, Shmi, Qui-Gon, a pit droid and TPM poster tile. $60 - Bounty Hunter Pursuit. Includes Obi-Wan, Anakin, Zam Wessell, Jango Fett, and AOTC poster tile. $30 - Mustar Duel. Includes Anakin, Obi-Wan, ROTS Padme, plus ROTS poster tile. $60 - Bespin Duel. Includes Darth Vader, Bespin Luke, and an Ugnaught. Build is the catwalk + entrance section, as well as part of the carbon freeze chamber. Includes ESB poster tile. $200 - Ewok Village. Includes a couple of trees, one or two of the Ewok's traps from the movies, and a speeder bike. Minifigures are Wicket, Logray, Chief Chirpa, Teebo, Paploo, Endor Han, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Endor Luke, and Ewok Village Leia, plus ROTJ poster tile. $20 - Duel on Starkiller Base - essentially a remake of the original, includes Kylo Ren and Rey, plus TFA poster tile. $70 - Poe's X-Wing - Includes Poe, BB-8, Snap Wexley, and Leia, plus TLJ poster tile. $90 - Duel on Exegol - Palpatine's throne room + cloning chambers, includes Palpatine, Ben Solo, Rey, and 2x Knights of Ren (pick your favorites), plus TRoS poster tile. $150 - The Twilight - includes Anakin, Ahsoka, Rotta the Huttlet, P1 Rex, a P1 clone, and 2x B1 battle droids, plus TCW movie poster tile. $80 - HH-87 Starhopper. Includes Mando, Grogu, Hutt pilot, and Rotta the Hutt, plus TMaG movie poster tile. $60 - Imperial Hovertank (Walmart retailer exclusive). Includes Jyn, Cassian, Hovertank pilot, and Chirrut Imwe, plus Rogue One poster tile. $30 - Han Solo's speeder (Target retailer exclusive). Includes Han and Qi'ra, plus Solo poster tile.

I think I'm torn on the new set leaks, specifically the theater and filming diorama set. Stream of conscious thoughts ahead, be warned - On one hand, I think that it's cool that they're doing some new stuff and the posters + "meta" stuff is a neat way to celebrate the anniversary of what's really one of the biggest movies of all time. On the other hand, I don't really know if we needed a huge flagship set devoted to this anniversary. I'm VERY curious to see the price of the Landspeeder diorama - anything over $40 and I think it's unnecessary. Too, I appreciate the fact that they're going all out for an anniversary, because they almost never do, but to me, the choice of sets and what they're doing feels a bit haphazard. We've got two meta sets, the concept art figures scattered amongst sets, the posters (but doesn't really appear to be a rhyme or reason to the sets they're in), the buildable poster (love it), the concept art helmet (which isn't my thing, but if they're going to do it, why just do one? Why not do three or something?), then a handful of system sets, some of which have been long requested, and it seems like an updated UCS Falcon based on the hint above (which does make sense both given the shelf life of the last one and the 50th anniversary). I guess what I'm getting at, I'd rather for the anniversary that it feels a bit more like an anniversary "wave" than just sets here and there with some tie-in to the anniversary. I think that the 2019 wave did an excellent job of it - they remade classic sets in modern style and then threw in the anniversary minifigures. I think that for anniversary inclusions, like the minifigures or the upcoming posters, they really should keep it to system sets. They feel more compatible with one another, whereas you can't really mix a helmet set and a $30 playset very intuitively. If it were up to me, I've done a filming diorama on the cheaper side (under $40-50), then do a handful of ANH specific sets, each with an anniversary figure in them (a couple of remakes that are due, such as a system scale Falcon, Tantive IV, and Droid Escape, and then a couple of new sets, like the Lars Homestead or some variation of a new DS playset), and then with the remaining system sets, do the posters - ideally, each comes in a set based on said movie.

Unfortunately, I feel like this is going to be an 18+ Icons only kind of thing. I have no insider info for that, but other than Pokémon, every other licensed black box set in recent memory hasn't spawned a playtheme unless it already existed (Star Wars, HP, Marvel, et cetera). I do think it's likely that the Krusty Krab comes out later, but my guess is that they know Spongebob's biggest fanbase are people who grew up in the late 90s/2000s and are now in their 20s-30s. I know that Spongebob is still on, but I don't see it having the same cultural relevance with 7-12 year olds that it did 20 years ago (I see way more merch aimed at that age group for Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, than for Spongebob), and I think LEGO's going to milk that for all that it's worth. I wouldn't be TOO surprised if we got a CMF series eventually, and they could definitely get 12 characters out of that between variants and some of the supporting/background characters.

I'm excited to see how the set looks once we get a full reveal. That said, the new Patrick, to me, looks...bad. I get why people are excited for it, but the shaping of the mold just feels off, and going from the rounded sandwich board piece to the flat legs just looks really odd to me (in a way that I've never felt about Chewbacca or the OG Spongebob figure or any other sandwich board style figures). That said, the color and legs are perfect, and I feel like the old head in this color + dual molded legs would've been ideal to me.

Woof, that's rough. It's odd that the anniversary figures are only in a couple of the sets - I get not including any in the BP, but I'm surprised that they didn't throw one into the Jedi Starfighter, because I can't really see many long time fans picking that one up. It's a valid set to remake, but we've had both a Delta and an Eta since 2020, so anyone that's been into LSW for >5 years probably ha at least one. The Bespin Duel minifigures especially are a bit of a letdown, I was really hoping that it would include more of the carbon freeze chamber area, but with this minifigure selection, it seems less likely. Still possible, but 2 minifigures in a $70 set sounds like more "diorama" than "playset" to me. I'm guessing the summer wave's anniversary figs will be Luke, C-3PO, R2, and Chewbacca?

Assuming GL comes as an anniversary figure (please please please make it that and not some $250 logo diorama...now that I say this, I'm remembering that there's a rumored mosaic version of the ANH poster ), I'm wondering which of the concept art characters they'd do as figures. Chewbacca is easy enough since they could probably just use the Zeb mold (since he was based off of the Chewie concept art), C-3PO and R2 are probably the most famous of the McQuarrie paintings, and then Luke and Obi-Wan? There's also the Vader vs. Luke (I think it's Luke?) duel image, but Vader looks pretty similar to his actual appearance, so I don't know if that figure would actually be interesting enough to really warrant inclusion.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what they do for the Mustafar duel. By my count, this'll be the third time we've had it in a set (Anakin's green starfighter that came with the floating platforms doesn't count) and both were fairly different in how they represented the scene, but ultimately had the same idea (dueling platforms controlled by two people). The $20 set from...2019(?) or whenever that was ended up being a pretty cool little set, so I'll be curious if this one expands upon that at all.

Funny that there was just a discussion about the lack of Cloud City playsets, and now we're getting a playset based on CC! I'm curious to see how it's done - my hunch is that this is one of those situations where we're getting a description that may or may not actually match what we get ("Bespin duel" but it could include some additional areas, the Carbon Freeze chamber, etc). Assuming the price holds, there's no way that just the catwalk section is $80 (again, assuming the info is right and it's not a diorama), so it would pretty much have to include part of the freezing chamber and/or the room where Vader force throws stuff at Luke. If it's not a diorama, it would pretty much have to have at least 1-2 additional minifigures beyond just Luke and Vader - Lando, an Ugnaught, or an Imperial Officer seem most likely. I'm intrigued by the concept art minifigures. I have to say that the idea of LEGO throwback figures (similar to 2019) appeals more to me, but it makes sense that they're doing something non-LEGO here, as this is the 50th anniversary of SW, not anything LEGO specific, and they'll maybe do something like that again in 2029 for the 30th anniversary of LSW.