TeddytheSpoon

Very nice with the functionality! I presume there's some kind of locking mechanism when it's in the upright position?

As mentioned this so often comes down to good old nostalgia, so I don't have too many strong opinions on most of the 'classic' era of space sets (my collection started with the Life on Mars sets, which were great!). That said, the only themes I found myself wishing for sets from when looking through old catalogs were M-Tron and Ice Planet, and my brother and I even found some IP2002 sets at a flea market once. So they get my vote.

Without wanting to get all 'well actually', there are orange ones in production at the moment - they're just printed with the McLaren logo, as they appear with the Speed Champions F1 car. So in theory it might not be too difficult to just include unprinted ones.

The more we hear about this supposed U-wing (and the associated sets like Plo's starfighter), the more sceptical I get. None of the major leakers have said anything so far, at least that I've seen; all the info seems to be coming from different people with little to no track record. Like many the U-wing is my favourite SW ship, so I'd love one that improves on the Rogue One model, but I'm taking it all with a hefty pinch of salt thus far.

I'm sure we had an AT-AT pilot helmet rumoured a year or two ago, no? That's the red flag for me (which would put the U-wing on similarly shaky ground, as I believe that was a rumour from the same guy).

At some point - and this isn't directed at you or anyone in particular - I think we should do a scoreboard of EB predictions, and see who's normally got closest +1 for a brick built dewback, BTW. I know some like specialised molds, but I much prefer brick built creatures, even if they're more parts intensive.

I would speculate that it's done on a case-by-case basis, and that 5 years out of use would the threshold to see if its worth keeping or not. With a character as prominent as Jabba, there's a good chance that TLG were going to use it again, and as @Yperio_Bricks said, no reason to throw it out if it's still perfectly OK (and they don't think they can significantly improve the design). That's just an educated guess, though.

I think the barge could've done with 1-2 extra figures, but any more than that and you'd really struggle to put them all inside. It's roomy, but not 20-30 figures roomy.

The printing on Jabba has been updated, but otherwise the mold is the same. Max I believe is identical.

I'm not so familiar with the nuances of Futuron, but I like the design of this!

Sloane has the added advantage of having been featured in Squadrons, which came out not long before the Bomber IIRC. And the Aftermath trilogy is really solid. I wouldn't say it's essential reading, but if you have an interest in the story immediately post-RotJ it's good. Similar vibe to the Battlefront II storyline IMO.

Small question on the eligibility dates - I see in the FAQs it goes back to September 1st 2022, does that mean the models need to have been completed before September 1st this year? Or is September 30th the cut-off? Say, if someone has a consist that's still work-in-progress...

I'm not sure that's how it works; I presume LEGO's licensing fee is done on a periodic/lump sum basis, rather than set-by-set. There might be something extra for using a particular actor's likeness, but again, I would assume that's built into the licensing deal. With fewer minifigures there might be less printing to account for though. I quite like the midi ships and the helmets, but I do think they're in danger of oversaturating the line with that sort of set. I'd much sooner have more system scale sets.

To be fair, I think that's more of a reflection of general consumer attitudes - LEGO and maybe Hasbro apart, the toy industry as a whole has been shrinking for a few years now.

+1. I love the helmets and midi-scale ships (even if I'm yet to pick up any of the latter yet), and I can see the appeal of the dioramas even if I don't particularly want any. But a brick-built logo set sounds incredibly boring to me.

I didn't get the sense they were indoctrinated against the Jedi, more so that they were just taught the ways of their own Force religion (which aside from the darker magical elements, doesn't seem that far removed from the Jedi). And if that one thing is all you know, but you have doubts about it, then the first different thing that comes along - particularly in such an isolated community - is always likely to have some sort of appeal. I don't find it so unusual, after all it's certainly not the first time a Star Wars character gets disillusioned with their surroundings and wants to go explore the galaxy instead.

Think I'm over the whole flashback thing now, too... a quarter of this series will have been (essentially) the same flashback. I like the reveals and story elements and Kelnacca being a badass, but did that need to be a whole episode?

I agree with this. Is it JangBricks who uses the 'volume of stuff' metric when reviewing sets? I'd sacrifice detail in the main build for a couple side builds, it makes overpricing easier to swallow. (Of course I'd rather have sets be priced reasonably to start with, but...)

The Night Trooper doesn't look very... Night Trooper-y. Maybe better in person but to me it looks like the helmet needs more gold. I like the Sarlacc's play feature with the flying tentacles though, that's fun!

Never thought I'd see a World Racers tribute! Very nice. Perhaps I'm mis-remembering the colour scheme, but could it do with some red or black highlights?

I'm still not convinced it's a Sith to be fair. But yea, Sol had a line in the episode (which I know can't remember) which made me go "welp, he's gonna die soon"

Episode 4 was fine. It felt like a means to an end to get the characters all in the same place. Disappointed we didn't get to see much of Kelnacca, but Ki-Adi Mundi's cameo was fun!

OK, L3-G0 is really clever. I might have to pick them and Darth Rey up on Bricklink. Both sets look good. I doubt I'll pick them up, but they look like such good dumb fun. I'm glad they made these after all.

The spice cream was a little on the nose... I agree that the Mandalorian had me hooked more immediately than this does. Only thing I'll mention is there must be more to this flashback than is being let on. At this point I think we're meant to believe that Mae tried to kill Osha, but equally, all we actually saw was her setting fire to the book. Next thing we know, suddenly there's a massive inferno and everyone else is dead, with basically no explanation. There are gaps here that I think will be filled - I don't think this is the last time we'll hear about what happened on Brendok.

I could, but as usual I think it's people wilfully misinterpreting events to suit their own narrative. I'm assuming people are upset about the whole miraculous conception thing, but as you said - it's fiction, so it doesn't really matter I thought the episode was OK! Some fun stuff in there. I do like how quickly they're moving things along; I wasn't expecting a whole episode of flashback, let alone this early on, and I like that it gave us a good chunk of backstory all at once rather than dripfeeding it.