Kit Figsto

Love the dragster and will probably have to purchase it just for that. The Challenger is one of my favorite real cars, but I'll reserve judgement on it until there's a picture of it built, it looks alright but I feel like some of the 60s/70s American cars just don't capture as well in the Speed Champions scale. Something cool, from what I can see, is that the driver of the dragster appears to be based on an actual NHRA Top Fuel driver, Leah Pruett. She did run a car with the Angry Bee graphics scheme on it, that looks almost identical to the graphics on this car, which is interesting because there doesn't appear to be any license of NHRA or the racing team (DSR) that had this car. So, I guess it's more of a subtle homage rather than the figure explicitly being based on her.

Last year we had the Grievous fighter leak with a super blurry picture in February, official reveals of the Razor Crest/501st Troopers sets in the spring, and an official reveal of the AT-AT in May. Everything else leaked in June, we knew the sets, price points, and piece counts, but there was no details on figures or anything with the builds. It wouldn't surprise me if we got a reveal on one of the larger sets in like May (maybe the Bad Batch shuttle, to coincide with the release of the show?) but it seems like June-ish is probably a safe bet for when we'll get some leaks.

Here's my "probably never going to happen EU/obscure character CMF series" 1. Ralph McQuarrie concept Chewbacca (using the Zeb head mold) 2. Ralph McQuarrie concept C-3PO 3. Ralph McQuarrie concept Luke (either the one wearing the mask with an air tank, or the one where Luke was going to be female) 4. Biggs Darklighter (ANH deleted scene) 5. Fixer (ANH deleted scene) 6. Camie (ANH deleted scene) 7. Boba Fett (Holiday Special) 8. Ackmena (Bea Arthur's character in the Holiday Special) 9. RX-24 (from Star Tours) 10. Mara Jade 11. Jaina Solo 12. Jabba (ANH deleted scene, the guy in a fur coat)

From the Winnie the Pooh set, both Pooh and Piglet's torsos and legs are available, as well as Rabbit's legs. The only other real notable parts in there are the beehive, 1x1 round tiles with ladybug and bumblebee prints, and I think the honey pot was on there too, however, all are sold out, so I don't know if those are going to be available for purchase at any point. So, nothing too amazing out of there, since I don't know how useful those figures parts are without the molded heads.

Just wanted to say that the gray helmet isn't necessarily for the Bad Batch set. I agree that the timing probably would line up with that set, but there's numerous examples of prototypes in random colors made all of the time that don't have any real relevance to a set. It could just be a case that someone took a picture of it and a leaker thought it was indicative of a Bad Batch helmet. I agree it would be very strange for them to not have helmets, but I'm just saying that the helmet picture doesn't confirm or deny anything.

Ignore this, posted to the wrong topic. Sorry about that!

I think you're right about TRU stocking the 2006 X-Wing, I had the same experience here in the US, so I legitimately think that they just kept it on shelves for that long. It's easy to see why, too, because I think it was only $50-60 and the TRU version included basically all of the main characters plus Wedge, if I remember correctly. As far as my oldest set, in major retailers, I honestly don't know, probably a couple of sets that might hang around a year or so after being discontinued, but I don't recall specifically. There's a toy store in my local mall that tends to have some older stuff stocked, and I'm fairly certain they still had the Baze Malbus and Jyn Erso buildable figures from 2016 as of a year ago, haven't been there in about a year, so I can't say for sure. They also had the battle packs from Solo in there for a while, too. There was also a small general store that I went to a number of times as a young kid that, for whatever reason, always had older toys on the shelves, but they were still new in box. It was odd, too, because every time I'd go, they would have different old Lego sets on the shelves. I remember around 2009-ish, they still had some Jack Stone sets on the shelves, and I remember buying the Sports set, 3542 (from 2003), and the Racers set, 4576 (from 2001), both at least in 2007 or 2008. I also found a random late-90s polybag of some basic bricks, too, which was a super weird one. Finally, there's also a Lego resale shop near my house, so technically I've been to a store selling sets new in box that are over two decades old, but I don't think that really counts, since it's less unusual than finding older stuff on store shelves where it's not supposed to be.

The TIE Bomber thing is giving me shades of the Bantha thing from a couple of years ago. As others have said, I'd happily be proven wrong, just because I know how many people want an updated TIE Bomber, but there's been examples in the past of minifigures or builds that make an appearance in either a video game, animated short film, or other mediums that never end up materializing.

Interesting, I've not bought a Speed Champions set in a couple of years so excuse me for a potentially ignorant question, but is this also the first time we've had a real brand (Mobil) featured as a sponsor on the car/figure? I know in the past with stuff like the Camaro stock car, they put wheels that really looked like Goodyears but were not on it, but I don't recall them ever using a licensed sponsor in addition to the car brand before? Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dodge dragster is based on a real design, if they're using actual sponsors on this Corvette too.

I think it's happened before, if I recall right, in the early 2010s there were years when we'd have a Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target exclusive all in the same wave. Before Toys R Us went under in the US () I seem to remember there pretty consistently being a TRU exclusive almost every year in quite a few themes, and then Target would often get an exclusive as well. Walmart exclusives seem to be on a bit less of a regular interval, I can only think of a couple off of the top of my head (2007 Sith Infiltrator, I'm 99% sure that was a WM exclusive, I know in like 2012 or so either Ahsoka or Mace Windu's fighter was a WM exclusive, forgot which one). Either way, I think they've had multiple exclusives on shelves at once. Good to know, I wasn't sure but I thought the initial leak that got pushed through YouTube then copied by a lot of Instagram accounts (like, a lot) said it was an exclusive but I'd be more inclined to trust you on this one.

There was one more unknown set at a $30 price point for this summer, it's supposedly a Target exclusive in the US (Not sure why the Mandalorian Starfighter got leaked if that one is also apparently an exclusive and this one didn't?) but we've had no info other than I believe a price, set number and piece count.

I'd love to see the Haunted Mansion as a D2C at some point, I think that's doable as both a display piece and having playability/an interior. Not sure if they'd do it next because it might be sort of redundant with the Haunted House D2C out right now, but it's a pretty iconic ride that I think would work well as a set. Jungle Cruise would be neat, too, but I don't know if that's feasible as a set since it'd really just be the boat and some scenery/animals.

I'm kind of the same way when it comes to sealed sets. I think I've only got maybe one or two, maximum, in my collection, and they weren't really ones I intended to keep sealed, it just worked out that way. One was a set, I think something from the Police subtheme, I bought on vacation at a LEGO store, didn't build it while traveling (for obvious reasons). I think I bought two or three sets and that one was last on my priority list to build, so it ended up getting pushed back and it took me probably a couple of years before I actually built the thing. The other one was a Western set, 6799, Showdown Canyon. I bought a sealed copy on eBay at an amazing deal, and it was my first (and still only!) Western set, and I just didn't build it initially, I think I bought it at a time when I was very busy and figured I may have to wait a few weeks before building it (it's not a large set, but I didn't want to rush the build). Anyway, after a few months, I was debating building it, but also was weighing the fact that the set, at times, was selling for 4x what I actually paid for it, and I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to open the thing. I still have it, so maybe someday. Besides that, every other set I've bought gets opened within a day or two of me buying it.

Man, this made me do a Brickset search, I'm shocked we've never had a medical subtheme since then, if you can even really consider that a subtheme (three sets, two of which were $10 or less). I absolutely adore that Ambulance still, but it's crazy to me that Hospital/Medical has had a total of 12 sets officially, plus a medical plane that was an airline promotion, but three of them are polybags, so it's essentially only nine sets. The only ones with weaker representation, in my opinion, are farm and harbor. Everything else that has fewer sets is a relatively new theme, and thus has had a lot of representation lately, or something like Swamp Police or Forest Fire. Somehow, it's been ten years since the last harbor subtheme (we've had a couple of boats since, but no cargo harbor) and twelve since the last farm subtheme, we got the combine transporter and the tractor this year, but that's it. Even construction, looking at the 2005-2009 sets, those were fantastic, you had fairly large construction sites, stuff like the semi truck with a bridge, XXL crane, large dump trucks and bulldozers, rollers, et cetera. We do still at least get stuff, but it's more in the vein of a small-moderate size vehicle or two each year, nothing on the scale of the older subthemes. Clearly the subthemes they have, being very story/character-based, seem to resonate a lot with their target audience, which is good, but I do miss the City that I grew up with.

You know, I've never thought about that, but that's quite a good idea. I'm at the age where anything from the 90s is considered "old" to me, but I never had a "dark ages" so essentially anything from the past 20 years that I have wanted, I've had a chance to get, with the exception of some things that I just wasn't into at the time or it was too expensive for me at the time. Anyway, my point being, most of the stuff that I look into buying on Bricklink or eBay is stuff from the 90s or before, which is obviously very expensive MISB, and I don't buy any used sets. Seems like a great way to offset the cost!

The probe droid stand and plaque are super cool and I hope that they continue to include similar details in future droid statues, assuming we continue to get those. I love the Scout Trooper helmet, always liked that design and love the model, and if the price I saw at $50 is correct (a lot of "leakers" under the legoleaks tabs like to spew hot garbage from time to time or have no idea what they're talking about, so I'm not sure), I'm definitely tempted, but I may just not have room in my collection at this point.

Yeah, I wouldn't read into the helmet thing, there's been examples in the past of Spongebob stuff in the background of a video which people interpreted as a clue, but nothing ever came of it. I'm guessing this is just a sketch model or something. It's also way too big to be in scale with the other helmets. We may eventually get one but I don't think this is the set or that this means we're getting one this year. Plus, this was a staged video as opposed to a video shot in the middle of their workshop, I'm sure they staged those models in the background on purpose and I don't think they'd be allowed to leak the helmet in this case, and that certainly wouldn't happen on accident.

CMF ideas, I changed it to go film by film, forewarning that this spoiler is super long if you open it:

I think there's enough variety in character that haven't been released or have only been released once or twice in the certain costumes to where they could feasibly put them out in a CMF. Luke: Endor Luke (one release), Celebration Luke (one release in a book before the medal piece was a thing), Luke from the end of ESB, Farmer Luke with hat + poncho, Battle of Crait, ghost (in the style of Moaning Myrtle from HP) Han: Green Endor Jacket (one release), Celebration Han (one release in a book, again before the medal piece was a thing), they could probably do a dual-molded ANH Han Leia: Celebration Leia (one release almost ten years ago), end of ESB Leia, Endor Leia (one release), ghost Chewbacca: Hoth with snow, goggles/welding tools Anakin: updated Ep II Anakin (it's been like eight years), updated 2003 Clone Wars, ghost Obi-Wan: updated TCW with shoulder armor, 2003 Clone Wars, ghost Yoda: ghost Padme: Naboo battle outfit, all of her ROTS outfits Palpatine: Ep I and II Chancellor outfits You could also supplement that with people like Jango Fett, young Boba Fett, Cody, Rex, etc that don't see a regular release, and then include characters like Aunt Beru, Yaddle, Willrow Hood, various cantina/Jabba's Palace background characters, and such that aren't really major enough to get a release in a set.

LEGO's not going anywhere. The most recent data I could find says they had the 2nd highest toy sales in the year 2019, with a revenue of 5.785 billion USD. #1 was Bandai/Namco with 6.605 billion USD. LEGO was over a billion higher in sales than both Hasbro ($4.72 billion) and Mattel ($4.5 billion). But think about that for a second. Bandai/Namco is more of a video game company (and another thing I found said LEGO was #1 with $6.6 billion the next year), and with Hasbro/Mattel, they both have several major brands under their umbrella. Mattel has Hot Wheels, Barbie, Pixar Cars toys, Fisher-Price, Thomas the Tank Engine, and a few others. Hasbro has Transformers, Power Rangers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, Nerf, and several major board games. LEGO literally just has plastic bricks. Those other brands have dozens of products/lines under their umbrellas that would appeal to all kinds of consumers, and yet LEGO is outperforming them all. Of course, LEGO has several themes and things to where it does appeal to different consumers, but at the end of the day, it's all plastic bricks. The difference between a Friends set and a Technic set is much, much less than the difference between a Hot Wheels car and a Barbie doll. There's no way they're going to stop producing plastic bricks because they came out with a thing to try to compete with Tiktok and they partnered with Nintendo for a Mario game.

Prequel trilogy. Multiple reliable leakers have confirmed the summer wave, we've known since January. From Clone Wars, an Ahsoka vs. Darth Maul duel, set (from Season 7), Mandalorian Starfighter (with Bo-Katan, Gar Saxon, and another Mandalorian), a Bad Batch Shuttle (which is probably based on the show but was featured in Season 7, it apparently contains all five members of the Bad Batch), and then there's still one more unknown set with no indication as to what it could be. So we're getting at least three in this summer wave. The full breakdown of the wave with prices and piece info (plus other info that we have known so far) is in the news thread.

I don't really understand where the expectation for Cody is from. He wasn't on a Gunship in ROTS (Gunships also got about two minutes of screentime in ROTS, most of which was Obi-Wan and Mace Windu on board one talking to each other on Coruscant), and they were never going to do a UCS set based on a cartoon when they've barely even done UCS stuff outside of the OT. Plus, do you really want him in a $300 set that you can't even display him in, or would you rather wait a couple of years and hope to get him in a cheaper system set that he's actually compatible with? Even if he came in the Gunship, 90% of the people that are clamoring for his figure aren't going to want to buy a $300 set just to get him, and on Bricklink he'll end up probably on par with Cloud City Boba Fett (the newer one, not the original) at $60+, even higher than that on eBay.

I think in general, convention stuff tends to only get revealed/leaked very soon before the set actually comes out, probably because they don't appear in any sort of retailer catalog and I'd assume people working in and around a convention either don't know what the exclusive will be/are much less likely to breach an NDA since they wouldn't want to mess up a relationship with a company that wants to be at their convention. I know last year we got info on the Bespin one in like late July or something and the set came out in August I believe?

I think I've seen that it's Vader and an officer, with leakers saying most likely Admiral Piett

Of course! And they're all the elite battalion of clones of Clone Commander Cody! (What's a clone of a clone called...?) I would bet that R2-D2 is similar to how the Death Star re-release was handled. That one I guess is it's own precedent because I don't think they've ever retired a set to replace it with a direct re-release (like, not even retiring that 2005 X-Wing after 4 years on the shelf to bring out an updated model, but literally retiring it for the exact same thing plus a couple of slight changes), but I think there's only so much they can really do to improve upon that set, at least based on how people talk about it. Maybe just simplify a few parts (like, things that took more pieces than necessary, to make them look a bit more streamlined or continuous with newer parts) and then add some more detail in other sections and leave the overall structure more or less the same.