Kit Figsto

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?

Like some others have said, I just still don't know if I buy it. It's possible recently that the license changed, given that there was some smoke around that lately, but l can't really believe that Hasbro has never had exclusivity. On top of that, as others had said, leaking sets is one thing, but I think the legal consequences of breaching an NDA or something as part of a licensing contract would be much more serious, and it might be easier to trace where the leak came from. But, I digress. So, just to get this straight...75303 and 75369 are both listed as unknown on that site, with 75303 given a $200 price point and saying it's a UCS set. 75369 isn't given a name but other people have reported that's Vader's Meditation Chamber? I don't really understand 75303 being ANOTHER UCS set. We've got R2-D2 and the Gunship pretty much confirmed, Vader's Meditation Chamber is listed as 18+ so I assume it's a D2C, and then there's rumors of the UCS AT-AT and whatever 75303 is supposed to be. I know there was some talk of the AT-AT not being a thing, but it doesn't seem like the source was that reputable (I think it was someone on Brickset?), and that $800 price point set has been there for like, 6+ months now. Did something get lost in translation and 75303 isn't a real set (like, maybe it was R2-D2?). I just can't see them releasing four UCS-type sets in one year.

I wonder if the Rebel Pilot helmet was a cost issue rather than a feedback issue. I know there was a lot of backlash about it, which was probably part of the reason for the switch, but it could've been a scenario where it was significantly cheaper to just use the old mold, whereas there's not a sizeable cost difference between the stormtrooper helmets.

Well...yeah, there's no other sets scheduled for release unless we get a surprise exclusive or something. I'm sure we'll get some more Bad Batch sets in the January wave (or, if it's a similar schedule as this year, maybe one and then some remakes, with most of the new stuff coming in the summer), but it's not really a question of their decisions not making sense, that's how it's always happened. We didn't get Grogu until a year after the show came out, and my guess is that with the Shuttle, they weren't necessarily sure how or when Omega would tie into the story, or how she would be received.

To be honest, and this is just my conjecture, I sort of doubt that this information is publicly available. I think the exact details of licenses (that is, the financials, the specifics of exclusivity, in which areas they're limited, and so on) are probably kept deeply under wraps to both appease the licensee and perhaps make it more difficult for competitors to come in and poach a license (which is unlikely with a major partner like SW or Disney, but for their smaller licenses, it could be a concern). On top of that, they attempted to sell minifigures alone twice and both times cancelled the lines (the early 2000s minifigure packs, then the magnet sets pre-2010ish, when they switched over to glued figures). Now, you could argue that those were simply not profitable, but I think the magnet sets were like $15 or something, which essentially boils down to $5 per figure, plus 3 magnetic bases. Even if that may have cut into sales of some larger sets, I don't think it would've hurt profit enough to warrant discontinuing the line outright. I have no idea what their costs per piece are, but I'd imagine it becomes an economies of scale sort of thing, and I would imagine those magnet sets were probably almost pure profit. Furthermore, the fact that they've had a HP minifigure series offering characters that are also available in larger sets (rather than the Lego Batman movie wave, where most of the figures were exclusive to the CMF series) suggests to me that offering figures by themselves in addition to large sets wouldn't necessarily cut into their revenue from selling sets. I think it's possible that the license has changed recently, especially considering how much smoke there's been around it, but there's no way that it's been the case for the entirety of LSW - that minifigure pack line from the early 2000s definitely would've continued if that were the case.

I think we got factory leaks from the cantina...I'm not 100% positive but I seem to remember Ponda Baba leaking early. And about the latest Bad Batch episode,

Realistically, while most would probably classify all of the GTs as American, they've always stylistically appeared more similar to European supercars than anything to me. They just don't really have similarities at all to any other American sports cars from the same era.

It could be a quality/ease of playability issue. I was going through some sets recently that I hadn't gotten out in a while and found one from 2016 or 2017-ish that had a Snowtrooper with a cloth kama. It looked absolutely fantastic, but I can see where it might get annoying/tedious for kids. You can't make the minifigure sit down on studs or use a vehicle without taking it off, and sometimes with their cloth pieces, I think taking them on and off again repeatedly could tear them or make them lose shape.

Both are fair points, I can agree that they probably should've gone with 2 American and one European/Japanese pack just so the market wasn't so exclusive. I think my impression of what was more well-known around the world was wrong, I assumed the Corvette and Challenger were still somewhat known in other parts of the world. I guess I'm pretty biased because both the Dodge and Ford sets are the ones I'm super excited for out of this line, but I can see why it's disappointing, since the TF dragster is pretty niche, and none of the other vehicles are super relatable to those outside of the US/Canada. I thought of this as well, I think the reason they scaled it down a little bit is because any larger of tires and they'd be bigger than the minifigure. I know dragsters have huge rear wheels in real life, but they'd just be way out of proportion with a figure (realistically they're probably going to look big next to a figure already, but it's hard to really capture the big tire without it looking like that in Lego form). I am, however, excited they went with the Angry Bee graphics, and it even looks like the driver in the set is based on Leah Pruett, which is kind of an awesome little Easter Egg, even if it's not officially NHRA licensed.

I've seen a few people disappointed at the fact that all three double packs are American cars, so it prompted me to go back and look at the breakdown over the past few years of how those packs usually shake out. By my count, we've had four American packs prior to this year (Camaro, Raptor + Model A, Challenger/Charger, and Ford GT). On the flip side, we've had seven European packs (Porsche 919/917K Pit Lane, Mercedes F1 team, Porsche 911, Ferrari Garage, MINI, Porsche 911 Finish Line, Jaguar, and Lamborghini) We've also had three larger sets of European cars (Ferrari Development Center, Mercedes Pit Stop, and Ferrari Truck) I'm not saying you can't be disappointed if you aren't into the American stuff, I'm just saying that this has happened before on the other end of the spectrum, and I'm sure next year it will probably happen again, skewing the other direction again. When the Jaguary and Lambo packs came out last year, I have no idea what either of the Jaguary vehicles were and I think I sort of recognized one of the Lamborghinis.

Yeah, I'm not sure, I'm not in the loop about the stuff for sure, but I did see at least one graphic that said stuff about toy reveals including Lego. I have no idea if that was a retailer that screwed up and though it was getting revealed today, or if it was legitimately scheduled for a reveal today and then Lucasfilm pulled the plug at the last minute to protect spoilers. The good news is that Episode 2 comes out on Friday and it seems likely they could push out any reveals by then, because most anyone that wants to watch the show and would care about spoilers will have likely seen Episode 1 by then. Makes sense to get these reveals out while the hype is still there, too.

I don’t think this was their fault. Based on some Instagram posts, it seems like there were reveals of several toys planned today, but I guess they got pushed back last second to save any spoilers?

After watching the episode, man, I might need to buy this Shuttle! I might just wait and see if we get any more sets with their figures next winter, and if not, buy it then. Doesn’t need to be a day one purchase, but it’s grown on me after watching the show. Minor spoiler for the episode -

Assuming we are indeed getting Paz Viszla, I think it's less likely that Mando is included, otherwise he'd be on shelves in five different sets at once (Trouble on Tatooine, Razor Crest, Arquitens, presumably the AT-ST will still be on shelves this summer, and then the Forge set). Plus, including a Stormtrooper or Flametrooper or something gives more playability . That said, I was probably going to get the set regardless, but that's definitely a must-buy, if nothing else just to get Paz Viszla and the Armorer, since I don't see them being included in anything else (come to think of it, did they appear at all in S2?). Now we just need Kuiil and maybe an Offworld Jawa, then everybody major from S1 will be covered!

I think this line has more potential to last as compared to some of the other licensed 4+ sets. Mickey Mouse is obviously a big license and I think it's going to have a ton of appeal with the target audience for this line, as well as TFOLs/AFOLs buying the sets for the minifigures/pieces.

I had written a whole thing out about why two molds is possible, but then others replied before me debunking that Carry on then! It did make me think, though, if there's any Dark Troopers in the Arquitens, would those require a new mold? I think it'd be nice, but I also think it'd be passable if they re-colored the Death Trooper helmet and made the eyes red.

Apologies if this is way too off topic, but just a slight tangent about the minifig-scale set discussion - based on the picture of the 10775 Mickey and Donald's Farm, Farmer Mickey's torso looks like it'd work really well as a purist Mario torso. Not sure what head would work best on the figure, but just thought that was kind of notable.

If the show is a hit, I foresee this going the way of the Ghost (and potentially the Razor Crest, since I don't really see them re-making that either). The figures do look really good, and I'm wondering if we get them in the future or if they're going to remain rare (ie: Zeb Orelleous). I think at best, they become available in more sets, but they're sort of similar to Boba Fett figure prices, where he's not a particularly rare figure, but just due to demand, he hovers around $10-15 for most versions (not counting the very collectible ones like the UCS Slave I or either Cloud City version). At worst, we only get one or two more Bad Batch sets, all somewhat expensive, and these guys are like $30+ each after this stuff retires. Oh, and the figures look fantastic, by the way. I don't want to put down $100 on the set but the figures alone are so good that it's almost tempting to buy it, hold onto it for a few years, then sell the model once it retires just to get the figures

My two favorites are the Dodge pack and the Ford pack. Some of the other ones do look pretty good, but I’ve always been more of a fan of American cars so those are just the ones that interest me most. The dragster looks absolutely amazing and I love the authentic graphics. Challenger looks pretty good, I think the shaping could’ve been a bit better but it’s kind of a hard vehicle to capture using Lego parts. I think the C3 Vette looks good, but the C8 isn’t really of interest to me and I’m not a diehard Corvette person by any means, so I’ll likely pass on it. The McLaren also looks good to me, but again, will probably pass. The Bronco to me is kind of a stunner, it’s super accurate to the source material and looks great. The GT I can take or leave, maybe I’ll buy it and sell that one to make back some of the cost. Are those new tires on the Bronco?

I agree, I think that seems most likely. Mario is obviously big enough for a wave of sets, I think Zelda could do well with either some sort of D2C or small wave, but I don't really see anything else being big enough to warrant either a D2C (in the vein of Disney doing D2Cs for some properties rather than full on themes) or a full theme. With a CMF series, they could maybe do some alternate costumes of the main Mario characters (Mario, Luigi, Wario, etc), throw in some characters that may not make it into sets (Daisy, Rosalina, etc), a few Zelda characters, then characters like Samus, Fox, Falco, Captain Falcon, Snake (maybe not, actually, unless they only included his box. Probably too many weapons for LEGO ), and so on. Characters like that, especially a Captain Falcon, are very popular (mostly due to Super Smash Brothers), but I highly doubt a set from F-Zero would sell well enough, since a lot of people probably haven't even heard of that game.

There's no guarantee it's revealed on May 4th unless I missed something. I do agree, it seems very plausible, since it was the first one to leak and they've been unveiling merch for the Mandalorian to coincide with around the time of a new season's release date, but we still don't know for sure.

Not as much of a MOC, but when I was a kid, I used to turn the basketball/soccer springy-handle thingies over and use them as STAPs from Star Wars. The Technic pin would be at the front to be the gun turret.

Mid-September is for VIP early access, October 1st is usually the general release date.

It's not totally the same, but they made a full size and Microfighter of the Wookiee Gunship from Rebels that was in one episode for like a minute total, I assume for similar reasons as them making obscure stuff from the movies (I'd guess they get concept art or movie stills without knowing much context, especially for stuff that's not a focal point, they probably just know what characters are roughly included in the scene and that's about it). It's not Lego, but we also did get a BUNCH of merchandise of Constable Zuvio before TFA, who I guess was supposed to have a larger role (well, not a large role, but probably about the size of the role Unkar Plutt had), and was relegated to being in the background of like two shots.

Was going to say this. That same exact thing happened for the prequels. If I remember right, TPM stuff came out in 1999/2000, then we didn't get anything else from that movie until like three or four sets in 2007 (N-1 Starfighter, Sith Infiltrator, Jedi Cruiser, and I think that was it?). AOTC stuff was only 2002, if I remember right, and I don't think we got anything from there put out again until the major AOTC wave in 2013, though that is a bit different because sets like Dooku's ship, the AT-TE, and Gunship all were put out as Clone Wars sets, and are more or less the same thing with different figures. Heck, we're still waiting on a remake of the Coruscant Chase and Jango's Slave I, it's been almost 20 years. ROTS is the only one where it seems like they actually kept making sets post 2006, since we got a couple of battle packs + Grievous' fighter in 2007, and then started getting remakes and stuff around 2010/11.