Kit Figsto

Huh, I was misremembering then, thanks! I didn't pull it up to check, and that's what I get Just to clarify, I don't think that they intentionally set up any themes to fail or auto-reject, but more so that they didn't really expect certain themes to win and just included it either a) to see how popular it still is b) on the off chance that it did actually get enough votes

My theory on that is that they mostly threw those other options out as a means of doing some market research among hardcore fans about what kind of stuff still has appeal and what doesn't. There were definitely some really weird choices on there, namely the fact that they had Divers as a separate subtheme, and that they separated out certain themes into different subthemes (Castle) and some only split into a couple of different subthemes (Pirates and Imperials, and if I remember correctly they had Space, Ice Planet 2002, and Mars Mission, but no other Space subthemes? I know that technically Rock Raiders is set in space, but that doesn't really count since there's, at best, one space-y vehicle in there). Anyway, I have to imagine that they knew the finals would end up with Castle, Space, and Pirates, maybe with a decent shot for Town, Adventurers, and Bionicle, but I can't think that they expected some of the more obscure themes to win. I was pulling for either Adventures or Model Team, so my hope is that at least Adventurers proved that there's still a fanbase there and we could maybe get some sort of soft-reboot of it in the future. I assume Model Team is a lost cause, though, because I can't imagine it did all that well in the vote, and we have the Creator Expert vehicles that are similar-ish to that line.

I agree that it doesn't make much sense. My theory is still that this is wave 1 and is the sets that they had initially designed from the past four films, they're releasing them early, and we've got at least one or two more waves in 2023 to coincide with the film's release.

Especially because these are very, very, very HQ leaks. Like, normally leak photos have extremely poor, grainy picture quality and almost never have multiple angles. These have both bene pictures on a clear, white background with an HD camera in good lighting, they're staged correctly (another thing that makes this different from most leaks - many of them are assembled wrong or just sort of thrown together haphazardly, these are on baseplates and stuff like that), and these are two very highly requested items (Kaminoan and Force Ghost). I think both of these make sense as things to include in sets coming up, and this Force Ghost piece does look very legitimate, but I'm also really confused about all of this.

Ah, I thought you meant minifigures, I see what you were talking about now. Yeah, I'm not too sure then. I guess we'll see in a couple of months!

I would say without a doubt it'll be a large, display scale piece. Probably somewhere around the size of the UCS A-Wing is what I'm envisioning, likely a bit longer? I believe it's $200, so somewhere in that range seems likely.

Not exactly "confirmed" but the only real safe bet for a guaranteed release is that they do seem to do something for each decade of LSW sets. In 2009, they had the silver Darth Vaders inserted in sets, plus a fan vote set (ended up being Home One), and a throwback box art. In 2019, they had the anniversary edition minifigures and sets that were updated re-releases of older sets. I would guess that in seven years, assuming LSW is still a thing, they'd do something special for it too. First off, I agree with your point that having two Gunships on shelves at the same time would likely cannibalize sales of the UCS one, but I do want to point out that by the time the summer wave hits, the UCS Gunship will have been out for a year. While I have no idea what actual sales data is, it seems like almost every normal UCS release (basically anything that isn't the Falcon or Death Star) tends to stick around for roughly two years, give or take a couple of months. If I had to guess, most of these sets probably sell more copies in the first year or so, because that's when most of the hype is. Also, a UCS set is less of an impulse buy. If you know you want a UCS set, you probably have that idea pretty early on (after it's been revealed, maybe seeing it in a store for the first time, reading some early reviews of it, et cetera), and the average UCS consumer (ie, someone with $200-350 to spend on a collectible toy/display piece) probably doesn't have to save up for it in the same way a kid might save up for, say, a $100 set - they probably will just buy it pretty early on. This is all to say that most people who want the UCS Gunship have probably already purchased one. If they had put out both a system and UCS model at the same time, I think that the UCS one would've done poorly, but I don't think the UCS sales would take as much of a hit if they wait a full year to put out the smaller one.

That Taun We figure looks really good, but I feel like that's a fake leak. It seems like way too high quality of a picture for a figure leak this early in the cycle. I'm curious how they do the Kaminoan, and I didn't think about using a minidoll, but I feel like that picture just looks way too clean.

I wonder if the Rancor set is a retail exclusive and that's why we didn't know about it? Presumably Fett's Palace + the N-1 are both March 1st releases from LEGO direct, June 1st for the general release, right? It would make sense if they put the Rancor set out at the same time rather than wait until May, but I guess we'll see.

Interesting, so that presumably means we're getting traditional sets as opposed to dioramas (which I'm okay with in this case - I think the JP diorama is outstanding, but a lot of the iconic Indy scenes would just work better as sets, to me at least). Also curious that there's no impulse buy sets. Maybe they're figuring that kids may not be as interested in these sets, since the last time Indy was really on the forefront was almost fifteen years ago? I will say, as someone that's on the younger side of EB users, LEGO Indy was actually what got me into the movies in the first place. I still remember getting the 2008 catalog as a kid. It had the truck chase set featured on the front, and I didn't not really know what it was, but I was absolutely captivated by the sets and probably spend an hour or more just looking at those pages in the catalog. I'm hopeful that they do a second wave (or more) when the fifth film comes out (I mean...there has to be a wave of sets for it, right? There's no way they'd bring back the license and not do stuff from the new movie), and that it includes smaller sets, because those were types of sets introduced me to one of my favorite movie franchises ever - hopefully some current kids have the same experience I did. I suppose these price points eliminate a couple of contenders for sets from this wave - no motorcycle chase, no ToD bridge duel, and no remake of the Cairo market fight set, since all of those would probably be $20 or less. $60 looks about right for the truck chase, to me, and I agree that either the $90 or $140 has to be the temple escape from the opening of Raiders. I can't immediately think of a set that would be $40 and also be famous enough to be in this initial wave. Maybe the Well of Souls? I think that one was $20 last time it came out, I'd imagine a slightly sized-up version of that set would probably go for about $40 these days. I feel like these first four sets are going to be the most well-known scenes, in order to get people excited about the theme again, and then subsequent waves might include the stuff that isn't on the same level.

Yeah, I think if you put a cape on the neck then put a jetpack piece over it, that would end up tearing the cape off at the neck relatively quickly. The Boba Fett one works because they can make it angled at the end (from the reference pictures I can find, it wasn't that angular, but because of where it falls, it appears more triangular), but Mando's looks just like a normal cape when he's wearing it, so there's no real way to include both the jetpack and cape.

All year, that set was rumored to be a UCS Imperial Shuttle. In late July, some Eurobricks-only leakers (I believe jdubbs, primarily) teased something about the Cantina scene. I believe that some of the reliable leakers on other sites picked up on it in a week or two after that, and we had preliminary pictures by mid-late August and an official reveal in September. Essentially, it was a very quick turnaround. It seems like UCS info tends to leak inconsistently. For example, by the time the Landspeeder comes, we'll have known about it for 5-6 months, but stuff like the Cantina had only been rumored for 3-4 weeks. I think the AT-AT was also kind of similar, we knew there was an $800 price point, which only could've been a couple of things, so the AT-AT was definitely heavily speculated, but I don't think it was officially confirmed that we were getting it until late summer. In regards to the Coruscant one, I don't buy it. That kind of set would make sense as a means of depicting Coruscant, but I really, really, really cannot see them putting out a $500+ prequel MBS a year after their first prequel UCS in a decade. There's no way they'd have enough sales data from it to accurately decide whether or not they can put another prequel D2C set into production, especially since this fall D2C is likely already finalized.

Watch a bit more of the credits ;)

I suppose there's still a chance there's a brick-built one (probably pretty slim, since it would've been included with the minifigures), but it wouldn't entirely surprise me if there's a side-build that's got some of the hangar space + a Gonk + pit droid or something. Again, probably not super likely, since that would probably be mentioned, but there's been times before where the leak doesn't contain full info. In all honesty, I'm a bit disappointed to hear this is the other BoBF set. Given the mixed reactions to the show, who knows if we'll see any more sets from it (I would guess if we don't get anything this summer/next winter, we're definitely not getting anything else from it, ever), but we're still missing the mods + Tusken Boba + Krrsantan + the Rancor + LEGO Danny Trejo. Now, assuming we get a second season of the show (which I've heard we might?), I assume Krrsantan + the mods + will be back, and we'd probably get at least one set, but some of the S1-only stuff seems like now or never.

I'd love if they did some of those diorama-type sets for each BTTF movie, but I can't really come up with many good scenes for BTTF 2. For the first movie, the 1955 clocktower + wire over the road + DeLorean traveling back to 1985 is would be perfect. I'm not sure what quote they'd use, maybe "See you in about 30 years" would be good. While "Roads...where we're going, we don't need...roads" is more quoted, I don't know if that diorama would be as exciting, since it'd basically just be the flying DeLorean plus some house. For the third movie, I would definitely do the unfinished bridge with the train plus DeLorean on rails, along with Doc, Marty, and Clara. Maybe the quote is "It's a science experiment!" because I don't really know what other quotes there are from that scene. If I had to pick one from the second movie, the Hoverboard chase is probably the most famous scene, but I don't know if there's a good enough quote. The other one I could think of is the chase scene with Biff and the flying DeLorean, so then you'd get all three variations of the time machine. Just spitballing here.

For whatever reason there's been some figure leaks this year where there's random, completely unrelated figures in the pictures. When the Quarren figure leaked earlier this year, there was also a 2015 Pirates minifigure off to the side. The manner in which pictures leak continues to perplex me.

My guess is that it'll be Yoda's hut on one side of the baseplate with some trees/foliage above/behind it, and then on the other side, a build of the swamp with part of the X-Wing sticking out of it.

Ah darn, I thought about that. I legitimately think if they made a set with "Hold onto your potatoes!" printed on a brick, I would have to buy it. I also realized that "Kali MAAAAAA" would be a great quote too.

That’s definitely possible, but I’m not sure if there are enough iconic quoted to go with the iconic scenes that would warrant sets. A Well of Souls set with “Snakes…Why did it have to be snakes?” would work, as could a Grail temple set with “You have chosen…wisely”, but other than that, most of the iconic scenes don’t have much dialogue or are too big. I guess the truck chase could have “Truck? What truck?” and the boulder scene could have “Audios, Stupido” but I don’t think either are necessarily quotable enough to work. Also, Temple of Doom doesn’t really have any (unless it was “AHHHHHH!” - Willie Scott ).

Great... Now, because Instagram "leakers" feel the need to speculate on this (when the set is, like, 90% going to be AOTC instead of TCW), there will be a huge overreaction on the internet because nobody makes it clear what's clickbait speculation and what's actual rumors.

Interesting, that seems early but does make another version more plausible. The Promobricks article mentions Episode II, not sure if they’re confirming that or speculating, though. I think Obi-Wan’s does make the most sense, though, as we’ve only gotten his Ep II fighter twice, and the last two Jedi fighters (both Delta and Eta class) were both Anakin’s.

I'm kind of skeptical that we'd even be getting one in general. I can't see them retiring the Boba version within a year, especially because I've barely even seen it on store shelves, and this would probably be pretty much the same model, unless they decided to upscale it again, which would be very odd and going against most of the ship designs we've had in the past two years. The only time in recent memory that they've had two system scale models of the same ship out at the same time was when there was overlap between Poe's X-Wing and Luke's X-Wing, but the scale was way different. Assuming this list is correct (I don't think there's a reason to doubt it, given the source, which is funny because if a random leaker on Instagram said this was the summer wave, there's no way people would believe it), I would guess they'll include Jango/Boba in a set somehow, but it just seems unlikely to get the ship unless they're retiring Boba's that quickly.

Yes, I thought of that as well. It reminds me quite a bit of both the 2014 and 2018 Cantina models with the three sections being hinged. It's a little bit small, in my opinion, but looks pretty detailed. I do really like the throne area, that looks accurate to the show. The tower could be taller, and I wish that the room on the left had a little bit more going on. I might pick it up, but not at full price. I see this more at like $70 versus $100, being honest.

That's really interesting, thanks for the insight! I guess I had assumed that most of the leaks came from either those working directly for LEGO (like, in their HQ in Denmark or their regional ones, I know in the US it's in Connecticut, I assume they also have some more worldwide, though), or factory workers. I know that retailers get access to the catalog earlier, but it seems like those don't tend to leak until a little bit later, so I had assumed the people with the very early leaks had an insider connection (especially people who know things about D2C and such, as I don't think a retailer catalog would have UCS stuff?) whereas the later stuff was more based out of those catalogs. Again, no idea how much of that is correct, but that's very interesting to hear about how store employees did actually have a lot of access. I've heard that they crack down a lot tighter on leaks now and will either issue fake leaks to try to figure out the source of info or have just stopped publishing pictures at all in certain cases.

I think it's somewhere between possible and likely that we're getting at least two waves of this. I really can't imagine that they'd bring this theme back and not do a second wave that has sets from the fifth film, which obviously wouldn't come out until next summer (maybe April at the earliest). That leads me to believe that there could be anywhere between 2-4 release waves. If we get this initial wave of four sets in September, then potentially we could get a second wave in January, a third wave to coincide with the film's release, and then possible a couple of sets (or retail exclusives or something) after that based around some of the spoiler-y scenes. I think at least two are likely, with the initial wave plus at least a few sets for the fifth movie. Of course, this is entirely conjecture on my part, but if those four sets are slated for release in 2022, I would be very surprised if that's it for the Indy reboot.