Kit Figsto

I wouldn't put too much into it. These sets leaked super early, last year we didn't even know what the summer/fall wave sets were until April (remember the April Fools that wasn't actual an April Fools?), and I remember in past years, even when we have some set details in February/March/April, it's sometimes not even clear what minifigures are coming until pictures leak. I seem to recall the AAT from 2020 in particular being one where Ahsoka wasn't even confirmed until pics leaked in like late May.

I think in this hypothetical, it would be to find out who is internally (either within the company itself or within LAN) leaking things. If LEGO fed a false piece info to either LAN members or employees (obviously not counting design team members), then it comes out, you can figure out who is passing on confidential info. Let’s say they tell one guy that a set comes with C-3PO and another person that it comes with K-3PO. If on Instagram two weeks later there’s a post saying a set has C-3PO, now you know that the first guy leaked info. IIRC they did something like this with LAN members for the UCS Landspeeder, where they sent out preliminary pics with very minor differences across all of them, and that way could tell who leaked it if a preliminary pic was released, since they were all slightly different.

Since we're getting another $150 location playset, I have a few other ideas for future ones: Cloud City (think the MBS but about half of the size). Includes the dining room, landing pad, carbon freezing chamber, a section of hallway, a small junk room (also doubling as the room where C-3PO gets shot), and dueling platforms. Comes with a midi-scale Slave I. Minifigures are Lando, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, 2 Stormtroopers, Luke, Leia (dinner scene), Han, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, and a Bespin guard. Theed Palace. I'm thinking a two-level build with the upstairs containing the throne room with window ledges outside for figures to pose on, a stairway/hall section, and then downstairs is a hangar bay and dueling area. Includes a midi-scale Naboo fighter and docking area. Minifigures are Nute Gunray, Queen Amidala, Sio Bibble, Captain Panaka, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, young Anakin, Darth Maul, 2 Theed Palace Guards, a Naboo pilot, 4 regular battle droids, 2 security battle droids, and a battle droid commander. Kamino. Includes Jango's apartment, a hallway section, landing pad, the room where Obi-Wan meets the Kaminoans, and an area with the cloning facility/barracks. Includes a midi-scale Slave I. Minifigures are Obi-Wan, Jango Fett, Boba Fett, Taun We, Lama Su, R5-D4, 5x clones, and one clone in the red uniform.

I suppose obscure isn’t the right word…maybe just “smallest” or “subthemes with the shortest run” would be more apt in this case. Wolfpack technically only got 3 sets, if I recall correctly, and while I think it has far outlasted what most people would expect from a 3 set subtheme, I don’t know if it’s as well-known as, say, Forestmen or Black Falcons or Lion Knights. Either way, I don’t think Wolfpack or Ice Planet are necessarily “obscure”, but more that I can’t see many themes that are smaller/less known than those being rebooted in a major capacity (other than, say, an Easter Egg in a set or possibly a CMF). This is true, a Ninja fortress/padoga would make a good Creator 3-in-1, but I think the trouble there is that it’s kind of similar to Ninjago. Even if the builds aren’t directly the same, you have to look big picture and think that most consumers will see “LEGO set with Ninjas” and equate the two.

Agree. I think really the only sets that have a chance of getting full-on Icons remakes are the well-known Castle/Pirates/Space stuff (probably not Town just because a remake would essentially be a modern City set) and then maybe some of the late 90s fan-favorite themes like Adventurers. But when it comes to the Castle/Pirates/Space, it's definitely going to skew heavily towards the well-known subthemes, like Dragon Knights or Blacktron. We're not going to get a reboot of UFO or Imperial Armada or Ninja, IMO. The most obscure subthemes that I can see even potentially being remade as an would be Ice Planet 2002 or Wolfpack, and both would probably be small GWP-sized models, not a full $200 Icons set.

Yeah, unfortunately I think it'll be more akin to the modern Jungle exploration subtheme versus a 1920s/30s era exploration theme. I think the allure of the Adventurers theme, to me, was the heroes vs. villains dynamic, the booby traps and mystical/supernatural aspects of the locations, and the world-building aspect that the theme just nailed, in my opinion. Essentially, it was everything that made Indiana Jones amazing, but they could pretty much do whatever they wanted since they weren't sourcing material from movies. I'd be surprised if they even go for a treasure hunting angle, I think it would more likely be something along the lines of researching plants/animals.

This is a really interesting point that you bring up, and I think it's pretty true, the more I think about it. It seems to me like LEGO is perhaps more popular than ever, especially among ages that previously were "too old" for LEGO (teenagers and 20-somethings - I feel like that was a weird age where you were too old to have toys, but not old enough to where LEGO is just accepted as your hobby the same way other adults collect things or whatever else) but I feel like a lot of that demographic of fans tend to be a bit more casual and are much more into the licensed products. This makes sense, as the company has been putting out way more "black box" 18+ targeted licensed sets than ever before. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think that type of fan isn't someone going onto Bricklink and buying old sets or picking up on the classic set references being put into 18+ sets nowadays. That type of LEGO consumer probably isn't the same one feeling nostalgia for 90s sets.

This is a question that I've thought a bit about and am curious to hear answers from the EB community on. In my opinion, a lot of people, be it EB users, YouTube creators, or other areas where people discuss LEGO on social media, tend to look upon the 1970s-90s era sets (essentially, the first 20 or so years of the minifigure) more highly than a lot of sets, even ones that come out today. The reason I find it a bit odd is that modern sets are more or less inarguably superior from a standpoint of play features and level of detail. Look at a fire truck from the 80s compared with one from 2024, a modern one is clearly more detailed and contains more features to it. It's the same with a lot of sets that are almost direct remakes of previous sets, too. The modern El Dorado Fortress, for example, is much more detailed than the original. I think the obvious answer is nostalgia, but what's strange is that a lot of people looking fondly upon this era of sets weren't even alive for it. I myself am an example of this. My childhood sets were City, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Power Miners, and stuff from that era, yet I've been mostly enthralled lately with a lot of late 80s/90s sets, even though I have basically no nostalgic ties to them at all. With some sets, I can understand why they hold a certain level of prestige. The original classic space line, the yellow castle, some of the early town and pirates sets, I can see why they're held in such high regard, probably in part because they were trailblazers for what was to come later. But with some of these sets getting the hype that they do, is it just AFOL hype feeding off into others (I honestly think that's where the obsession with the trans-neon orange chainsaw comes from. It's a unique piece and the Ice Planet designs and color scheme is really cool, but I don't get why people are obsessed with that one piece)? Is there beauty in the simplicity of some of these sets? Is it the fact that these sets can leave a lot up to the user to imagine? I'm curious what you all think.

True, but I don't really know if that would affect demand all that much. None of these GWPs are limited or tied only to a specific set, and they all have similar $$$ thresholds, so I think that the actual number produced is probably in the same ballpark (within a few hundred, say?). I have no idea how many of these GWPs are out there, I'd say it's in the thousands for sure, but I truly have no idea. You could tell me it's 5,000 or 25,000 and I'd believe you either way. Anyway, point being, I don't think the demand of this being a truly new set would really be enough to raise prices that much. I would guess that a large portion of those buying the Blacktron Cruiser, Forest Hideout, or Majisto's Workshop either don't own the original and can't afford one (a new Blacktron Invader is currently $650 on Bricklink, used will still run at least $50, which is essentially double the cost of a NIB version of the remake) , which could actually raise the prices. Your perspective is interesting, as I actually have the opposite reaction to this. I'm more interested in the GWPs that remake old sets, precisely for the reasons I outlined above, since I like a lot of the classic sets, but wasn't alive when they were out and cannot afford to buy them. This set looks neat, but I don't really have the same interest that I would if it was, say, a remake of an M-Tron or Space Police ship. Either way, though I would be very surprised if it cost more than $30-40 to pick up on BL, just because the actual availability of this set won't be all that limited.

I don't see this GWP having as high of a BL price as some people in this thread are expecting. The Blacktron Cruiser had a threshold of, if I remember right, around $180 in the US and has 343 parts with a new minifigure included, and you can get it for $25 US on BL. Majisto's Workshop was, if I remember right, a $250 threshold, comes with 354 pieces, two figures, and you can get it for $25 US on BL right now. The Forest Hideout was around $150 of a purchase threshold, comes with 248 pieces and two minifigures, both of which I believe have remained exclusive, and is a little over $20 US. The only GWPs that seem to really go nuts in resale price are ones locked to VIP presales of UCS-type sets (like the Star Wars lightsaber promos), or some of the exclusive licensed minifigure polybags from like ten years ago (even that, that totally depends on the characters and figure - Hoth Han Solo is $7, Darth Revan is $250). If it's above $30, especially in the first few months after it's available, I'd be very surprised.

Gah, I wasn't going to get the Sith Infiltrator (the 2007 version, which I was so excited to get back in the day and is still in my collection, still holds up, I will maintain), but Saw is very exciting (and also doesn't bode well for Rogue One sets in the next few years...). I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the Jedi Bob set, the Dark Falcon is intriguing (I don't have versions of the Falcon at all though, so I'm unsure if I want that to be the one that I own, since I think I'll be less likely to buy an ANH or ESB version when those inevitably come in the next couple of years, even though I sort of want one as well), and I like the Tantive hallway as well, but I simply don't have the room for all of this stuff. Decisions, decisions...

Dang, if it's Ezra, that's a big disappointment. Rebel Friend would be my ultimate preference, but Saw would at least be something new (even if I'd prefer to get actual Rogue One sets...please LEGO?).

I think after the whole Cloud City duel/Nebulon-B exclusive debacles in 2020, they said that they were going to stop with regional exclusives (and to my recollection, they have?), so you might be thinking of that? I believe they also implied something about not locking exclusive characters behind UCS sets during the UCS Republic Gunship debacle (there's been a lot of debacles in the LSW community recently, now that I think of it), and it seems as if the philosophy there has been that they'll still do exclusive variants in UCS sets (C-3PO, for example, with the Landspeeder) but might be trying to make desirable characters more available (which would explain why they're putting Rex in a microfighter but keeping Yularen exclusive to the Venator for the time being, since one of those has been highly requested for like ten years and the other, while a character that people like, isn't on the same level of popularity, and at the end of the day is a much less exciting minifigure design than Rex).

I'm a bit confused, so the initial info was that the $200 set was a UCS Batpod, but now Falconfan is confirming it isn't a Batpod? Does this mean there's a system scale Batpod coming, or is that rumor just entirely false, since the three smaller set numbers appear to be accounted for?

Yes, Walmart clearances seem to be super inconsistent. The other day, I was at a WM, actually looking for any Galaxy Explorers that they had on clearance, and they had a few sets from last summer marked 50% off, and then 3 Yavin IV sets with clearance tags marked at...$170. Like, they went through the trouble of printing out those yellow clearance price stickers and moving them from the LEGO aisle to the clearance section, when it was literally the same price that they were already going for. Furthermore, not only is that the original price, it's actually one cent more than it costs to buy directly from LEGO

To the point about the "production time" debate, I feel like the original Razor Crest is probably the best example of how fast they can rush something into production from start to finish. By all accounts, that ship was totally unplanned (my guess is because at that point, LEGO wasn't doing anything for SW TV shows - after the last couple of Rebels sets, we had nothing other than the Mandalorian AT-ST, which was an incredibly safe choice as it was basically a slightly recolored AT-ST with different minifigures). Once the show was a smash hit, it seems like they rushed that set into production, had pre-orders available in like, February or March, and the set came out in August/September of the following year. Part of the reason that it took so long between pre-orders and production may have been since it was a system-scale model that expected large demand, so the quantity that they had to produce was likely higher than a typical D2C set, which I would assume are produced in lower quantities (especially since a typical LEGO store only has like 2-3 on shelves at a time, whereas most system sets have 5-8+ of each).

I wonder if the Death Star build could be a multi-level thing with the back wall being a facade of a sphere section when viewed from the rear. Like, think dollhouse style construction, so the front side is open to access the interior rooms, while the back side is gray walls with a little bit of curvature. I don't know how feasible that is with the piece count, but that would probably be the best way to include the turbolaser.

Ah, sounds very nice! In the US, at least around me, it’s very hit and miss for clearances. Big box stores typically will put some sets on sale after 5-6 months, some of which remain on permanent discount and some will go back up to MSRP. With clearance, though, it’s totally dependent on luck. Sometimes you’ll find sets that are like 80% off and sometimes a “clearance” is 20-30% off. Costco stored here (essentially warehouse stores) also carry LEGO at usually a very good discount (30-50% or more, generally) but they only sell like 4-5 different sets at a time, which is great if they have a set you want, but if not, you have to wait 2-3 months until they get different ones in. With clearance, though, you basically have to get lucky.

The figure lineup and number is unconfirmed. For whatever reason, when the info on it first came out, it was supposedly an $80 set with 8 figures, but it's since been reported to be about double the size, presumably something along the lines of the Yavin IV set, but an Imperial version. I would guess 10-12 figures is more likely given the updated size. I think you have to assume Vader, a couple of Stormtroopers, and Tarkin are almost sure things, and then probably a DS Trooper or two, maybe a gunner, another officer (Yularen, Motti or Tagge?), a TIE pilot, assuming it comes with a midi-scale TIE, and then a couple of hero characters (my personal hunch is Luke/Han as Stormtroopers, that way they can sort of double up the fig count without actually including more Stormtroopers) and then one of Leia/Chewie/Ben, depending on what rooms are depicted. If it comes with the detention block, I assume Leia, but if it comes with the tractor beam control room or the duel hallway, it would have to be Ben.

I didn't realize this set was so expensive, I guess partially because it's the only one to include the Mimbian trooper minifig? I'm shocked that the Dreamzzz set was that cheap already!

Over the years, I've gotten lucky with some eBay scores (though I've never had the same clearance luck that people online seem to get...), so I'm wondering what impressive deals other people have managed to find, whether it's from the internet, secondhand/thrift stores, garage sales, or just plain clearance sales at regular stores. Some of mine that spring to mind - I got a sealed 6799 Showdown Canyon on eBay a number of years ago for $35, when that set was going for well over $100 sealed (and still is at the present). The box was even in good shape, the plastic piece in the front had yellowed really badly over the years, so I pitched that, but the actual cardboard wasn't even damaged. 7144 Slave I, sealed, for $40 on eBay, again, a couple of years ago. I just grabbed 4477, the original T-16 Skyhopper, for $40 sealed a few months ago. The seller claimed it had a damaged box, which was why it was going for around half of the normal price, when I got it, the "damage" was literally just some of the surface of the box in the corner being torn due to a price sticker being removed. The rest of the box was in better shape than most brand new sets I see in stores. Even still, I open and build all of my sets, so the box condition hardly matters to me. When I was a kid, there was a store in a small town that a relative lived in which, for whatever reason, had a bunch of toys from the late 90s/early 2000s still on the shelves as late as like 2010-11. It wasn't a secondhand or antique store or anything, I think it being a small town, they just truly didn't have a lot of inventory turnover. I remember seeing some larger LEGO stuff, but I was still somewhat young, so I either couldn't afford them or they were too advanced for me. I did, however, get both a sealed 4576 Duster Xalax racer and 3542 Flip Shot, both sealed, for the original price, almost a decade after they were originally sold, which is kind of an odd one. The biggest one that I regret not buying was a complete 10123 Cloud City for roughly $700 about three years ago. All of the pieces were there, I don't know if it had Boba and Lando, but I'm almost positive that it at least had Luke and Leia. It was kind of odd, because it was at a store that sold used LEGO (and typically is known for being really overpriced compared to BL sellers), but this one was actually going for quite a bit less than that set typically went for at the time. Ah, well, it wasn't meant to be. Got any good ones?

I'd call BS unless a more proven leaker corroborates that. I don't buy it, if they were going to continue the line, it wouldn't have made sense to go with a spring wave, then nothing from the summer or winter, and then come out with 4 more sets in (presumably what this is getting at) the summer.

I almost wonder if the original set included the Sarlacc Pit plus two skiffs, and that was partly why it had 6,000 pieces. It's strange, because IIRC, that piece count came from the official LEGO survey rather than a leaker, so it must've been planned to be that large at some point, but maybe it was downsized to make it cheaper and create more interior space, since it'd be tougher if the thing was the size of the ISD or something.

The video says that set is cancelled, and since there hasn't been any info on it in like two years, I highly doubt that they just shelved it for a future date either.

There's a comment that reads "What a waste of creative potential if THIS is what prevents us from having an interior in a Sail Barge." If I interpreted that wrong, that's my fault, but I take that to mean "if they can't include Leia -> they designed the set with no interior at all" Both of which are, IMO, overreacting to something that hasn't even happened or been confirmed at all presently, when any of the speculation has been uncertain at best. We have no idea what minifigures are coming with it, and we have no idea what the interior is like until we get either a much more concrete set of details or actual pictures. Would it be disappointing if they didn't go all-out with the interior or minifigures, as they did with the Cantina? Sure, I don't disagree at all there. But I just don't see a point in delving super deep into the hypothetical disappointment when we're 6+ months away from when we'd likely even begin to sniff official pictures.