Kit Figsto

Heads up for those in the US, my Walmart had the Imperial TIE on sale for $32 (they were sold out, sadly, because I've been looking to get it and that's a great price), plus the ATT is being sold at $32 and 501st Troopers for $24 (the last two I believe aren't a sale but just a reduced price). I'm not sure if that TIE price is a national sale, but just thought that was worth throwing out there.

Agree. I think if anyone "in the know" about this sort of thing would probably get fired if they leaked it (since this would basically have to be an internal issue, whereas sets can leak from factories, toy shops with catalogs, and so on, where it may be a lot harder to figure out exactly who originated the leak). Also, if there really are sets in development for 2022, they'd probably be playing around with the design phase (from what I understand, they seem to have stuff in the works far in advance). I know it's probably different when it comes to films/properties that haven't come out yet (say, for example, the upcoming Gideon's cruiser from SW, I highly doubt they would've had enough info on that to have it fully completed by last summer, whereas something like the Mandalorian Forge could've been almost fully designed since they already had a lot of info on the location and figures), but I'd think that discussions in regards to what characters can/can't be represented in toy form would be done long before they even begin messing around with set designs. Plus, it seems likely that any IJ wave would for sure include stuff from the first four movies, which they could start whenever they want. I don't really believe the rumor, but IF that were true, that would bode terribly for most any set from Raiders beyond maybe the intro temple scene or something like the map room, and it would severely limit anything from TLC other than maybe a Grail Temple or Circus Train (which seems unlikely anyway). Stuff like the motorcycle chase or truck chase wouldn't work without having people to put in the enemy vehicles. ToD wouldn't have any issues, but there's only really 3-4 viable sets from that movie in the first place, two of which are remakes (car chase, minecart chase, maybe a set with the bridge fight, and then the plane with rubber raft). KoTC has a similar issue, they could probably get away with the car chase near the start, since the Soviets are just dressed like generic baddies, maybe a set with two jeeps and the only baddie is Irina Spalko, a remake of the cemetery or skull temple would be doable, but most of the vehicle-based sets relied on random faceless bad guys too.

Disclaimer there is that I'm not knowledgeable at all on DC and did see some others saying they're kind of obscure (not counting the Batman/Wonder Woman stuff, of course). I feel like with the Marvel set, even the characters in that set that aren't as "marquee" (ie: Not Spiderman/Iron Man/Captain America or whoever) have been really, really widely marketed recently, so even people (like me) that haven't even seen any of the movies, still have at least heard of the characters. I had no idea who Wanda or Vision were until the show came out and had ads literally everywhere. The problem I think with the DC one is that I think most casual fans (like me) only really have seen some of the live action films (I personally have skipped the stuff post-Nolan trilogy, and they don't seem to focus as much on some of the less-known characters. On top of that, Marvel is just a more popular property right now. They haven't really had any notable massive hits in the past decade other than arguably Wonder Woman or Joker, but it feels like Marvel has at least one spin-off for every character plus the main Avengers films. Like I said, I haven't even seen the movies, but I can still recognize "Oh yeah, that guy is from Avengers" for characters outside of the main few. I feel like it'd be the equivalent of SW releasing a series with a few alternate costumes or concept art figures for Luke/Leia/Vader, and then putting in like more background characters or Jedi like Aayla Secura and Sassee Tin. SW fans would definitely know who those characters are and be happy to get them cheap, and the appeal might be a bit stronger because TCW is pretty popular, but I feel like a lot of casual fans or people that aren't huge SW fans would be less interested in the non-main characters. I know that was my attitude towards the DC set, I thought the retro-comic versions of Batman/WW were super cool and unique, but really had no interest in the others.

I wasn't really interested when the descriptions of it leaked, I became more interested when the show premiered, and I do really love the figures and the design looks good. I feel like if it goes on discount on Amazon or at Target or something I might end up getting it, especially because previous iterations of main ships from TV shows (the Twilight, the Ghost) have only been made once. Was going to say this in my prior comment, too. It's a totally different market, as none of those figures are really playable, and some of them, if I'm not mistaken, are almost $100 each (I think the Sideshow or Gentle Giant busts are super expensive, if I remember correctly?). On the subject of Funkos, from what I gather, too, the reason the SW ones are bobbleheads and have display bases, whereas all of the other Funko toys are just stagnant figures was because they might quality as action figures? I'm not positive on that, but that was what I saw somewhere.

Also, as I said when this came out, it would make literally no financial sense for them to not sell these figures by themselves. By all accounts, the HP ones sold really well (at least, based on how people here talk about them, they were very popular) and SW is even more character-driven than that. As long as they didn't go the DC route and go too obscure on some of the characters, they'd be flying off the shelves. Can you imagine if they stuck in a P2 Rex or something? It'd be annoying as hell to find, because inevitably the "resellers" would be buying all of them and selling for $20 each, but it'd at least drive the price down on the secondary market ones.

It definitely does seem as though this year has been late for leaks. We had the Maul figure leak and the Bad Batch Shuttle leak a few days before it was revealed, but's it unless I'm forgetting something. I think by this time last year, we'd have the Grievous shuttle leak (which was definitely an outlier, considering that a pic popped up in like February), plus official reveals of the Razor Crest, 501st Troopers, and AT-AT. I'm hoping we at least get something soon (honestly I'm most curious about the Slave I and Mandalorian Forge, plus the figures in Gideon's cruiser, I feel like most everything else is going to be relatively straightforward in terms of appearance).

I watched it about a year ago...the pandemic, man . I will say, it actually gets more watchable about halfway through, there's a cartoon part that's decent and then the second half at least has some action happening, whereas the first half contains things like "Watching Chewbacca's family sit and talk to each other in Wookiee language for ten minutes" or classic lines such as "I don't like fish." In regards to that Maul leak, does anyone know if the saber was correct that he had? The leak gave him a normal lightsaber piece, which would seem strange since they already have a piece that would work perfectly for a double-bladed one. I feel like it might be the person who took the picture giving him the wrong lightsaber. At least, I hope so.

The other thing, someone cited a LSW Reddit thread about Wat Tambor, when that board seems, to me at least, to mostly be made up of younger builders that only want prequel stuff. I have no problem with wanting more prequel stuff, but of course that specific example is going to be wanting more prequel minifigures. I've already seen people complaining on there about the figures in the UCS Gunship, for example. Do I think there's some prequel characters that need to be made? Absolutely - P2 Cody, Shmi Skywalker, Boss Nass (seriously, the Spongebob fish head mold would work so well for him, in my opinion), Captain Typho, some additional outfits for Padme and Palpatine - those would all be great. However, I don't really feel like some of the other random background characters warrant figures in the same way. Yes, we've gotten some super minor OT background characters (some of the pilots, General Dodonna, Toryn Farr, General Riekann, Mon Mothma, Crix Madine, etc), but a lot of them were either included in sets that are UCS/MBS or were just billed as "Rebel Soldier" or "X-Wing Pilot" or whatever, in the same way that the Naboo N-1 starfighter doesn't name a pilot specifically. But, some of the characters people were listing were on par with random Jabba's Palace background aliens or Imperial Officers that aren't Tarkin/Piett/Veers. Many of the background characters that we have gotten (the bounty hunters, cantina aliens, Jabba's palace aliens) are extremely iconic and popular. Not everyone may know who Dengar or Bossk is specifically, but I feel like someone that isn't a hardcore SW fan could probably place them better than, say, Shu Mai, or whoever. I do agree that the prequels have gotten the short end of the stick in some regards when it comes to background characters, but I also feel like a lot of people are overestimating how well known/popular the background characters actually are. Of course, a P2 Cody or Boss Nass would be a lot more requested on average than General Dodonna, but part of the issue with some prequel characters is that there's fewer sets that are a natural fit for them. Most of the OT background characters are easy enough to toss in with a vehicle - Uncle Owen with the Sandcrawler, Dodonna with the X-Wing , [Insert whichever Rebel pilot here] with a Y-Wing, and so on. Boss Nass is easy enough to throw into a Naboo set, they should put Shmi into the next Podracing set, P2 Cody still makes no sense considering how easy it'd be to toss him into literally any Utapau set, but Palpatine isn't really in any action scenes other than the opening of ROTS, which we did already get for him. Same with Jocasta Nu, or Sleazbaggo, or Dexter Jettster, or Valorum, or even most of the Separatist Council (you can probably toss one into a set, and that's likely to end up being Nute Gunray because most people know who he is). Sorry, I didn't intend for this post to be so long, just voicing my thoughts. And again, I do think some of the complaints are justified, but I also feel like some of the characters people are requesting are just way too niche. If there were to be a CMF series, putting in too many obscure characters might cause you run into potential issues that the DC one (allegedly) faced, where it didn't sell well, which I'd imagine in part was because casual fans had never heard of most of the characters in the set.

Okay, so Landino confirmed what most of us believed, this is just someone making up a rumor that seems plausible. He said on his Instagram yesterday that IF something is coming, it's not confirmed.

Yeah, they said it was Star Wars. I also think it's probably fake or just someone trying to establish themselves as "credible" by guessing that this will happen, since the Marvel one is confirmed, but I figured I'd check and see if anyone legitimate had heard of it.

Just to be clear, though, I don't have insider info, that's just my guess based on how the previous release patterns have gone. I really would highly doubt they put out another MBS set this year (especially because at some point, they're going to run out of MBS locations, there's only so much they can do at a $350 price point), but I guess you never know. Last year, people thought we'd be getting an Imperial Shuttle UCS set, and it turned out to be the Cantina. Agree, there's a few Mando characters like Mayfield, Trapper Wolf, Frog Lady, or the guy Matt Lanter plays that would be nice, but not 100% necessary to me.

The person is claiming they're doing a SW one too with Andor, Kenobi, Mando, and Bad Batch, but again, the leaker seems sketchy and it seems likely that they're just making it up based on the fact that we're getting a Marvel D+ one and are then assuming SW may get one too. As far as I remember, no. There was supposedly another $200 set coming this year, but we already have R2-D2, the Gunship, and apparently an $800 UCS AT-AT coming this year, so adding a 4th large D2C-style set seems way too much for one year. Historically the MBS stuff has been on a two year cycle with relatively short shelf-lives, I feel like the Cantina will probably have a relatively long shelf life, just because of how popular it is, but it seems like we'll probably get another MBS next fall, if the pattern continues.

So, there's a post on IG that I assume is probably BS, considering the original "leaker" has about 100 followers, but they're claiming a D+ CMF series is coming. I'm assuming that this is just some guy trying to establish credibility by taking what they're doing for Marvel and assuming it'll come with SW, then if it does happen, they can say "See, I was right!" and spread more BS rumors, but does anyone reliable have any info on this? Or is it just a case of "throw ish at the wall and see what sticks"?

Indy is one of my favorite film series (it changes regularly between IJ, SW, and BttF ), so I'd be ecstatic about the prospect of new sets. There's some stuff that definitely needs remakes and still a few scenes that need sets to begin with. I don't think they could really do a D2C, just because there aren't that many large locations or vehicles that are iconic enough to warrant a D2C. The only set I can think of would be the temple from the opening of Raiders or maybe the Grail Temple, both of which would be awesome as a D2C, but I think might almost be too large and would be better as a playset. Stuff like the truck chase is definitely famous, but that strikes me as something that would be way better as a playset versus a D2C. I also don't see there being an issue with releasing certain figures - they're not doing specific imagery or emblems that would cause problems. Anyone that knows who those figures are supposed to represent has almost assuredly seen the movies, and more than likely wouldn't have an issue with it, knowing that the movie clearly portrays them as the bad guys. To someone that isn't as well-versed in the films or has never seen them, they wouldn't raise an issue because they likely would just see the figures as generic soldiers or whatever.

Extremely minor spoiler for the Bad Batch episode today:

I feel like Indy is more likely to get an actual line, as long as they actually do make sets. I'm not a PoTC fan (only seen part of one film) so I can't say for sure about what's viable from sets for those films versus Indy, but I feel like there's nothing from Indy that's really viable as a large D2C, whereas a large pirate ship makes sense, even if it's unfortunate that there weren't traditional sets in addition. Plus, there's still some scenes from the original 3 films that hadn't been covered yet, or need a remake, though KoTC got most of the sets it could've gotten (including Peril in Peru, which I'm pretty sure wasn't even in the movie), as that was kind of the main focus of the wave. Another problem that PoTC might have is that Lego likes to do a lot of vehicle based sets, and outside of large ships and maybe some smaller boats, there's not much there for PoTC - Indy's got a motorcycle chase, plane chase, two truck chases, at least two car chases, tank chase, minecart chase, boat chase, train chase, Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder and/or hostiles () and probably a few other instances of people being chased that I can't remember.

Hmm...great question! There's a number of sets from the 80s/90s that I look at and say "Wow, I'd really like one of those" but I think I can live without them, unless I would be able to somehow get one for an amazing deal. A couple of sets spring to mind that I'd consider a "dream" set. 10123 Cloud City is probably my most unobtainable, since I'd want a new copy and, well, the price is only going up. I did see a used copy for like $650 a month or two ago and feel like I may have missed on an opportunity there, but that's still a lot of money for one set. Cloud City is my favorite scene/location in SW, and I do have the 2018 MBS set, which I love, but there's a certain allure to the original. As far as "realistic" ones, I'd go with the 6209 Slave I from 2006, or maybe 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge, also from 2006. Those may seem like odd choices, but I've wanted those essentially since they came out. I was fairly young when they did, this being an era when Lego brand stores were much less common, and I remember excitedly saving up enough money for one of them (I still wasn't sure which one, I just knew I would be buying a $50 Star Wars set) before a family trip to a city that would have a Lego store. Come to find out, by this point, it was mid-2007, and they'd already retired. I ended up buying 7661, the Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Ring (let me tell you, the hyperdrive ring in that set was not fun to put together for young me), which I remember being moderately excited about, but I really was wanting a set with Boba Fett. I did eventually manage to find an original Boba Fett figure when I got 7144 (the first Slave I) for an extremely amazing deal, but 6209 still eludes me.

This is the big thing. It wouldn't make sense for them to include 10+ clones or whatever when the set is way out of scale with them. The only UCS/MBS type sets that have included large quantities of figures are the playsets (Hoth, the Death Star, Ewok Village, Cloud City, Mos Eisley, etc) or ones that where the figures are in scale with the model (The Sandcrawler and the second Millennium Falcon). I agree, assuming the rumor is true, it is very strange that we're apparently not getting a Clone Pilot (if it were up to me, I probably would've gone with two Clone Pilots plus either Yoda or Mace Windu), but the model was never going to include more than 2-4 figures being a larger-than-minifigure-scale build. And before someone says "They should've just made it minifigure scale," almost no UCS ships/vehicles have been minifigure scale, and the ones that are were made as such because they can't be represented in minifigure scale at a normal, non-UCS price point. For example, the Slave I or Millennium Falcon are passable at a $80-120 price point, but are way too small to truly be in-scale. Conversely, stuff like an A-Wing, X-Wing, Snowspeeder, etc, those are all easily made at minifigure scale at retail price points. The Gunship falls into the latter category, because the $120-150 versions of the ship are relatively close to minifigure scale. Even if those models aren't perfectly in-scale, they can't really size it up or down that much while leaving it in-scale, just because minifigures have a weird proportion to them, so some proportion is always going to be a little bit off. FWIW, I feel many people (myself included) would probably have been happier if they just went with some other prequel UCS and/or just did the Nebulon B, then put out a regular, system-scale Gunship at $130-150 or whatever. I know there are definitely people excited for a massive display piece, but I sense there will be a lot of disappointed people when this is revealed, despite every previous UCS set pointing to the fact that it won't just be "slightly larger Gunship with 15 clones + Rex + Cody" or whatever people were hoping for. And just to re-iterate, I do definitely still agree that the choice of figures is strange. I get including Mace Windu, because they probably want one named character, but the captain over a pilot is odd.

F1 has a larger following than drag racing for sure, but they've done a lot of F1 cars both in the Speed Champions line and in the past with the Racers Ferrari stuff. Other than one City set, we've never had any Top Fuel dragster, and this one is much more detailed and realistic. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think that set is a lot better than most people are giving it credit for. Frankly, of the cars, I think it looks the most accurate by far to the source material.

At this point, I would make the argument that LEGO is the marquee SW toy. Action figures probably still rival it, but there's fewer figures out at one time compared to the number of sets (or, at least it seems that way, because whenever I go into the aisle at Target/Walmart that has SW toys, it seems to be the same 5-6 figures everywhere). I feel like, more than any other license that LEGO holds, people associate the two brands, a lot. It's not like other licenses aren't as big - Marvel/DC is likely a bigger brand than SW at the moment, but it doesn't seem like it's got the same implicit association with LEGO that SW holds. Ditto for Harry Potter, though I would say SW is bigger than HP still. Maybe it's because there's a big overlap between fans of Star Wars and people who collect LEGO, maybe it's because it's been around longer than any other license, I don't really know. I would suggest that who are millenials/older Gen-Z might even make the association because the LSW video games (I say this as someone on the younger end of things, I know that myself and many of my friends from ages 6-10 were pretty much obsessed with the LSW video games, I think I'd gotten the plot of most of the movies from that before I'd even seen all of them).

I really think the idea of LEGO not listening to fans is a case of confirmation biases. If you look at times when they don't make everything people keep asking for, sure, but there's plenty of times in the past couple of years that they really have made stuff that people have asked for for quite some time. Just in the past 3-4 years, there's been a number of highly requested remakes, figures, or sets in general being made. 501st BP only happened because of fans, ahem, requesting, it. This entire wave of summer stuff is basically going to be everything that fans have been asking for, including Bo-Katan, Gar Saxon, the Armorer, Gideon, and Paz Vizsla. Large version of Cloud City and a Cantina had been common wish-list items for some time now, as well as Ponda Baba, Dr. Evazan, and Garindan. People wanted a prequel UCS, LEGO gave the option in the poll for a ship that people have been clamoring for. People complained about the prices of stuff like the TIE or X-Wing, they've almost halved the price of both for the latest releases, while still making some very quality builds and including a couple of interesting/rare-ish figures (Dodonna is new, the updated ANH Leia was only in a $200 set, and the protocol droid, while not as exciting for most, was only available in the Death Star). I do agree, at times, their inclusion/omission of certain figures or characters can be puzzling, but I truly don't think they just ignore what fans ask for.

I think that's it. The Razor Crest was also directly referred to as "Razor Crest" multiple times, including in the first five minutes of Episode 1, Season 1. I don't believe I can remember anyone referring to the Bad Batch Shuttle as the Havoc Maurauder on the show. (and to be honest, I don't really think it matters much what the set is called. They could call the Millenium Falcon "Giant circular gray junk" and I'd probably still be interested in buying it )

Yep, they did have the Legoland exclusives too, which I assumed was Covid related. I know that Disney Parks had similar stuff with their Cars and Star Wars merch, as a lot of stuff that was supposed to be park exclusive in the summer ended up getting sent to Target stores. Anyway, I know I've seen some of those sets on Target's website before, but I was under the impression that the modulars and winter village stuff was Shop@Home/Lego brand stores only.

I'm not sure about other countries, but I do know in the US that some sets that are technically D2C have ended up at big-box retailers. I was just at a Target store today and they had some of the 18+ Mosaics (Marilyn Monroe, Star Wars, Marvel), the Book Shop Modular, Elf Clubhouse, Ford Mustang, and like one or two others sets that I thought were Lego exclusives. I don't think every store carries them, but it does seem as though they're trying to get sets like this Frozen Castle into stores where their customer base will be less specialized than just those shopping at Lego.com or in a Lego store.

Gotcha, thank you for clarifying. Do you know if there was any credence to the talk that the AT-AT was cancelled, or was that just someone making things up? The only reason I ask is because that'd make 3 UCS sets in a year, which, from what I can remember, is a first?