CasperTheGhost

Really? The Solo TIE is already pretty large scaled next to minifigures, I'm looking at the 2008 Vader's TIE and the original TIE Bomber right now and I don't see how a new one in that TIE shape could end up larger than the latest TIE Fighter. The $70-80 price point for ships these days tends to be with a lower piece count much closer to 500. We can debate pricing to be much higher but I don't see how scaling to meet a larger price makes any sense because at a $90-100 range, you're going to be a lot closer to a UCS model. (meaning UCS detailing on a system-scale model, rather than UCS sizing). This is really just splitting hairs over sets that don't actually exist (I'm aware that I'm quickly going off-topic), but it just seems a bit insane to call it "completely, utterly, unrealistic" unless you either know what's coming, or meant it'd come cheaper than that.

I knew something was up when people kept parroting the "not even 7th best theme" stat without any real sources. Among kids and adults there's no way Star Wars isn't one of their top themes (Especially with this graphic illustrating that among its competitors are Classic, City, & Technic, staple LEGO IPs that don't need the extra markup for licensing and are always going to sell well. Just look at pop culture for the last however many years, right now LEGO Star Wars is trending and the sets from the latest wave have flown off the shelves before ever getting the first 20% markdown. I don't want to venture into off topic territory, but I do think we need to take a step back and re-evaluate a lot of the cynicism that gets re-quoted and spread around here and elsewhere as we discuss the 2020 Star Wars waves. The 2020 sets so far are turning out really well, covering a lot of previously uncovered territory (Ben's Hut, Bantha) while giving us updates for iconic sets that haven't been seen in years, giving a lot of us a chance to finally pick them up (AT-AT, AAT, Jedi Interceptor). Price-wise (especially with the forced movie waves) I'm sure there's some credence to Star Wars underperforming, but that's likely largely because LEGO has been pricing out it's main consumer bracket: kids. I'm optimistic for this clone wars wave though because $30-$40 sets and lower are the golden range for collectors operating on a budget, whether kids or adults. A lot of adult collectors dump on LEGO's standard $30 playsets (Ahch-to, Yoda's Hut, Death Star Escape) but these are available to a much wider audience than priced-up versions of these sets would be, while offering minifigs & setpieces for iconic parts of the star wars films. A large reason why I loved the 20th anniversary wave is because sets like 75261 & the Dropship were reasonably priced while offering a unique array of figures / vehicle or landscape features to either display or play with.

If the new sets do include 501st troopers, I'm hoping they've been updated to a more similar quality as Gree's helmet from recent years. The latest P2 501st trooper from 75002 that I have doesn't have movie-accurate colors (too cartoonish/bright blue, needs to be darker) nor that extra print detail to sculpt the helmet that they used in the Utapau Troopers (212th) battle pack everyone loved. Great to finally find out about the final $29.99 set, but I am concerned about oversizing as lego tends to do with speeders and other SW vehicles. Even with a 1ft long BARC Speeder, there's gotta be some sort of environmental build of a tree or something to justify that pricepoint (There's only so many pieces one can fit on a BARC, even the Battle of Saleucami was only $15 and used up a lot of the piece count on a STAP & environmental piece.)

The new UCS stuff is all fine & dandy, but do we still not have any clue about what's going to be in the May wave? (Aside from the two busts) - I feel like we're a bit more in the dark now than in the past, but to be fair they spoiled us by releasing official images of a lot of the Jan 2020 wave ahead of time...