Kit Figsto

That's honestly my main gripe with changing the designs of Stormtroopers/Clones. With Vader or Boba Fett or whoever, it doesn't matter when they change the helmet design to be more accurate, since you can just replace the old one with the new one, but if you're trying to army build and they keep changing the design every four years, it's really hard to accumulate a lot of a figure just from buying sets. Honestly, my issue is mostly with stormtrooper helmets. I don't care if they slightly re-print the torsos/legs to make them more accurate, but I wish they would keep a consistent helmet mold so that they don't look so different. With droids, I get that the ones we've had for 21 (B1) and 18 (B2) years aren't the most accurate, but it's way easier to make a huge droid force when every set ever has the same design of battle droid figure.

Yeah, that one is interesting because I believe Plo Koon's starfighter was released either the same year or a year before and was basically the exact same set re-colored but only came with Plo Koon and his astromech, but was $25. So they basically charged $5 more for one figure. Mace Windu's Starfighter was released around the same era if I remember right (I want to say it was a Walmart exclusive, but that may have been Ahsoka's...) and was around $40 but came with a STAP or something and a bunch of droids. Anyway, point being, I don't love the $30 price point for the Eta-2 fighter, but given that the most recently released ones in 2014 were both $25 and only two figures, I can see why it's $30. Will I buy it? Nah, mostly because I already have the Delta-class fighter and don't have a ton of physical room for repeat-ish sets in my collection, but there have been worse-priced sets.

It also only came with two figures, the astromech droid was just a head attached to the wing. A better comparable is probably the green Jedi Starfighter we got maybe 5-6 years ago that was $40 but came with like five figures (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Nute Gunray, R2-D2 and a battle droid if I remember correctly) and a little dueling platform. I would've probably been more inclined to buy it if they jacked the price up to $35-40 and included a side build plus Rex, but I can understand that this is probably a set to appeal mostly to kids who want Anakin's starfighter, they don't care as much about side builds or price/piece value, although I still do think it's incredibly strange that you can literally get a yellow Jedi starfighter containing the same figures right now. How many parents are gong to say "You already have that one!" if their daughter/son points out the one coming this August?

Well said, I know this may seem a bit contradictory towards my previous comment, and again, I'm not saying people have no right to complain/feel disappointed/dislike the sets. I've definitely done the same. I think my point was mostly that I don't think LEGO's gotten lazy or that the entire wave is worth complaining about. I too would love to have gotten Rex somewhere in this wave. The DS Duel definitely wasn't in my top 5 choices for what the exclusive would've been. I do tend to agree a little bit about the Grevious ship. It seems to me like the Wheelbike would make more sense for a set if they wanted to represent that duel, since it gets more than ten seconds of screen time. But overall, I think this wave is definitely good, mostly since it's got something for just about everyone. Definitely agree here. At a certain point, just due to the physical limitations of the medium, you can't really get any more detailed without either resorting to stickers or techniques that only work in MOCs (that is, not sturdy/easy enough to build). Like, even the 2008 version of Anakin's TCW ship vs. the one that's currently out, the differences are pretty subtle, in all honesty. They cleaned up some angles, made the guns look better, that's really about it. At a certain point, I don't think they can get any better.

I agree with what you’re saying here. Also, some people seem to be forgetting that the Razor Crest is coming too (I can understand why, though, since it was revealed a while ago), which, prior to being revealed, was a huge source of contempt for people since we weren’t supposed to be getting anything Mandalorian related. I mean, it seems like with a lot of sets the attitude is either “Why is this a rerelease? It’s only been six years!” or “It’s been SEVEN years since we got a release of (whatever vehicle). We are SO overdue for a new one, what is LEGO doing?” almost always. Just like you said, kids playing with LEGO were probably way too young to either build or afford the last AT-AT, now they can get one. The last time we had a TCW Ahsoka released, I’d guess a decent contingent of TCW fans either were very young or weren’t into the show yet. People had been *ahem* requesting a 501st set for like four years now, I get that the builds are a rerelease but it seems like most people care about the figures anyway. I’m in no way saying that people have no right to be disappointed or that they can’t be critical of the sets, I’m just saying that I don’t feel as if this wave has the flaws people are saying it does.

If I'm not mistaken, everything except the Razor Crest and Advent Calendar are supposed to show up in August. I know the six sets we knew about + the retail exclusive DS Duel + the Brickheadz were supposed to be August 1st (the 501st set on shop.lego.com says August 1st release date), we didn't know about the Resistance Transport set but August would make sense, and I believe the Razor Crest pre-order says September 1st, I think the Advent Calendar is September as well but I'm not 100% positive on that.

In a similar vein, a reboot of Spongebob would be great too. They wouldn't need to design new molds, since the most recent ones would still work and cover just about all of the main characters other than maybe Larry and Pearl.

Historically we haven't had many Clone Wars sets based on specific scenes or moments, they've more been just generic vehicles with various minifigures that are marginally related thrown in, regardless of whether or not all of the characters/vehicles appeared in the same scene, unless it's a starfighter. Grievous' speeder, for example, comes with Mace Windu, who I'm pretty sure didn't even fight Grievous in the Clone Wars. One of the Umbara sets come with Ahsoka, who wasn't present in any of the Umbara episodes. I'm also guessing LEGO only had concept art or very brief descriptions to go off of for their information, so they just sort of assumed that an AAT was a safe build, like you said.

Well, I finished Rebels, so I'll now give my set ideas for the later episodes, especially since we never really got much from S3 and S4 other than I think the Phantom II.

About the Interceptor pricing, the most recent Eta-class fighters were both $25, which was six years ago. Given how prices tend to increase, it's not that crazy that we only get two figures despite a $5 increase in price. I know that the new one is $30, but keep in mind, most US retailers end up reducing that by $4-6 anyway (the current version of Anakin's fighter could be found for $15.99 at Target). Can't speak for other countries on that, though. Also, the more I think about this wave, the more I think it's great, despite the fact that only one set is a "must buy" for me. I can't recall a wave that's been as diverse as this one in recent years. All three major eras are represented with either iconic scenes and vehicles, or desirable/new figures and ships. You can acquire a ton of major characters (Luke, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Vader, Grievous, Ahsoka, Rey, Mando), there's some re-releases thrown in for people who weren't collecting when the original versions were put out, sets that can be used to army build, as well as three more sets (the DS Duel, Galaxy's Edge transport, and Razor Crest) than we initially expected when the set names/descriptions were initially given to us back in March-ish (Plus the mosaic, Brickheadz, and The Child sculpture).

Yeah I’d imagine Disney Parks would for sure carry it (I think the one in Orlando also opened a Galaxy’s Edge to complement the one in Anaheim?) but it would make sense for LEGO brand stores to carry it as well, since there would definitely be people who either can’t make it to the park or don’t want to but still are interested in the set. Especially now with the pandemic and such, I’d imagine theme park attendance may take a hit for the next few years, so it’d make sense for them to sell it on their own as well.

Just to clarify something, since I saw someone asking a few pages back: according to info we’ve had, 75291 (DS Duel) is the exclusive, whereas 75293 wasn’t previously known, so I guess it could also be an exclusive? I’m not a leaker so don’t take that as me trying to act like one, just trying to clear that up. But the one we’ve been speculating about for like a month is the one that ended up being DS Duel. That said, this has certainly been an interesting year for Star Wars leaks. We had three sets that weren’t even supposed to exist (Razor Crest, The Child sculpture, and the Galaxy’s Edge transport), which was a nice bonus, a really early reveal of the 501st Clones set, and also a really early leak of the Grievous fighter, somehow coming out before we even knew that a TIE Pilot helmet was coming. As far as this wave, definitely an odd mix. I’ll probably buy the 501st set eventually, the AT-AT I’ll consider, Night Buzzard and Grievous’ Starfighter don’t interest me too much, Anakin’s fighter is one I don’t have but for $30 I’d rather get a City set or something, and while the AAT model doesn’t really look all that great in my opinion, I don’t have any Ahsoka figures, so I’ll have to pick that up. The Transport and Duel are both interesting but probably not going to be sets I buy either, I’d rather put that money towards the Razor Crest.

They did actually do this with an X-Wing, I specifically remember the 2005 version (the one with like seven figures) being available at Toys R Us through what felt like 2010 or later. That may have been a TRU exclusive, so maybe they just way overproduced it, but I do remember it happening at least once. I think from LEGO’s perspective, a re-release accomplishes three things. One, they can improve the building techniques/minifigures as new pieces come along; two, they can justify an increase in price (I don’t think they’ve ever raises the price of an existing set, which I do appreciate); three, completionists will buy it because it’s new, even if they already have fifteen X-Wings already.

The sets that you listed are easily the most iconic ships from the movies. They’d be insane to not have an X-Wing or Falcon on the shelves at least every other year because people will buy it. Some kids/parents may buy anything, but there’s also a lot that get into LEGO or Star Wars and want the major characters and ships. There’s always going to be a demand for them as new fans pop up, so they have to fill it.

About the Gunship thing, the quote about the wings seems to imply it’s going to be larger than minifigure scale. Considering that the normal one is basically minifigure scale, I don’t think they’d have trouble with the wings since they could basically adapt those designs. Obviously nothing confirmed, but that seems more and more likely now. In all honesty, I don’t know what people expected. I can recall four minifigure scale UCS sets not counting the playsets, and all of them were models where a minifigure scale version can’t really be achieved at a price point for minifigure sets (Slave I, both Falcons, and Imperial Shuttle). The Gunship is already minifig scale at a mass retailer price point ($120-$140ish), and we’ve never had a case where a UCS version of a ship they can already create at an accurate scale continues to stay at that scale.

You can't forget the sound brick pre-loaded with Anakin's awkward romantic lines!

I could see this either being a complete flop and then LEGO cuts their losses after 1-3 waves of the interactive sets and transitions to brick-built stuff (mostly because there's absolutely no way that this partnership is a one-of), or surprising everyone and being a massive hit. Obviously they won't publish the financials but there's zero chance that this deal was minor since Nintendo is probably the biggest property they've ever partnered with other than Disney and maybe SW (pre-Disney), so I feel like future sets are almost assuredly going to happen.

Some of the other ones have been landscape based (Mustafar, Starkiller Base), so they could do a tan base with some rocks, a moisture vaporator and the speeder or something. Not sure if it would have a ton of appeal but the figures would be desirable at the very least.

I agree with all of your ideas, but specifically would love to see a remake of Qui Gon vs. Maul on Tatooine, and of course Obi-Wan vs. Vader (I'm honestly really surprised that one hasn't been done yet). I could also see a larger set in the form of some of the older duel-based sets (Naboo, Vader vs. Luke part II, or the Dooku vs. Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda) based on the Invisible Hand duel. It could actually be done as a smaller version of the Final Duel set and include Dooku, Palpatine, Anakin, Obi-Wan and maybe a Super Battle Droid for $50-60.

Oh my gosh, this is such a cool concept! That's one thing I love about LEGO, there's so many different ways to create/build new things like this that others (like me!) never would've even thought of doing. I especially like the usage of the Death Star planet and the Vader constraction head, definitely feels like something a real pinball machine would have. The only suggestion I may have is in terms of figure selection. It looks like mostly OT characters, so the clones + Grievous could possibly be swapped to make them fit into the theme of the OT a bit more. Maybe a couple of Stormtrooper variations, Boba Fett, or Yoda? Just my thoughts, but overall, I really like this idea and think the build looks excellent!

No worries at all, I'm glad to have that cleared up! On the topic of the TIE Bomber being possible, I think a $90-100 price point could be doable, I'm going to do some not-very-accurate estimations that can show why it maybe is plausible. The last TIE Bomber was 230 pieces (amazing how few parts some of these old ships had!) released back in 2003. Now, the following year, we had two different TIE sets, one with a TIE Advanced and a Y-Wing (412 pieces) and one with a TIE Advanced, 2 regular TIEs, and a TIE Interceptor (682 pieces). (No other TIES came out in 2003, so I'm just going to use the closest ones, which came out in 2004, going forward in time since the designs typically get more complex). Let's just assume that this 2004 version of the TIE Advanced takes up about 180 pieces, since it's a smaller version of the Bomber, and looking at the box, it's clearly smaller than the Y-Wing with fewer greebles and other details than the Y-Wing, so about 40% of the set's total parts seems fair. I believe that this exact same model was used in the TIE Collection. That means that the other ~500 pieces of the TIE collection are for three ships, all of which are approximately the same size, with the Interceptor possibly taking up a few more parts since the wings look a bit more complex. So let's say the regular TIE is about 165. An earlier version was 171 (with minifigures) and a later version was 159, so that seems like a decent estimate. That estimate, however rough, tells us that at the time, the piece ratio of a TIE Bomber to a TIE Fighter was roughly 1.4 (meaning that the Bomber had 1.4x the pieces of the Fighter). The most recent normal TIE Fighter we had was the Solo one in 2018, which contained 519 pieces and retailed for $70 USD. That piece ratio multiplied by 1.4 gives us 726 parts. Now, keep in mind, this makes a lot of assumptions, namely that the size ratio would be kept relatively similar and/or that they wouldn't mold new parts to keep the piece count lower, but, I do believe that the reported piece count for the set is somewhere in the 700s. So, assuming that they scale it proportionally with the TIE Fighter, it could be done within the 700-800 piece range given the sizing of our current TIE Fighters.

I apologize if I hit a nerve with anyone in my prior post, I was just trying to ask a question that I truly did not know the answer to. At the end of the day, I don't care who it is, I'm not buying the set and it's a toy, not something worth me getting upset over. I'm more just curious because I legitimately was unsure if leakers have said "it's not Cody" which people assumed to mean "It's a clone" or if it meant "It's not Cody, which has no indication that it's a related character." I wasn't aware that I was disputing trusted information, because to my knowledge at the moment, I hadn't seen anything other than one web site which I was relatively unfamiliar with.

Has anyone besides stonewars 100% reported that it's even a clone? I mean, I'm not saying they're wrong, but it seemed like the information may have started on here as speculation that it was a clone, which other sources picked up as fact once the leakers on here said "It's not Cody" but never officially said "It's a clone." I know that the box art is placeholder stuff usually, but there was a guy on here a while back that analyzed the image and thought that the other figure looked like it may have had a purple accessory. I'm not saying "The leakers are wrong" or whatever, but I'm just wondering if there was ever a factual report that we're getting a clone or if speculation on here turned into a fact in other places. I'm guilty of speculating for sure at times (sorry mods) but this seems like a time where the speculation could've became a gray area and then the various news outlets parroted each other. Again, I have no idea, I'm just wondering if the clone thing is actually for sure true. It just seems odd to only have a single clone, especially if it was a new one.

@Agent Kallus Love some of the ideas, and love some of those prices even more! I guess I'll give my "dream" wave a go:

Echoing the others, wow, you're fast! ("Impressive...most impressive" ). The unmasked clone actually looks a lot better than I'd expect for a regular face. Still think that either non-humanoids (ie Chewbacca or Jabba) or masks/helmets work a bit better, but you definitely did a good job on it. The P2s in particular are very, very good. The background color choices also work really well for the various clone legions. Hopefully we see something like this released, and I hope they do it justice as well as you did!