CallumPears

The LEGO designers were reading the last couple of pages. Unfortunately, they only speak Danish so when they recognised the word "clone" they immediately started work on 27 new clone sets to take up every system-scale set slot for the next decade. Ugh yeah I hate rubber parts. Fabric capes can fray, sure, but rubber can straight up disintegrate sometimes.

That was my first thought: a midi-scale turbo tank. Kinda weird choice, but it could work. Wonder when the AT-ST will release since we already have the May 4th UCS slot as Jango's Slave 1 and presumably the Death Star in the October slot. (Assuming the brick tap stuff is real)

They maybe could've used the First Order Snowtrooper helmet for him if this was a few years ago, though that mould is probably gone by now anyway so might as well make a new one. And yeah as much as I want cloth parts the backpacks are way more important to me. I know the new bracket part doesn't fit with the Snowtrooper helmets, but the Imperial ones we've been getting look terrible without them. Seen on Reddit that it's going to have 813 pieces for $150 (ouch). Source is lego_minecraft_goat; do we trust them? Edit: Ok looks like we do trust them... I'll say again, ouch.

Having thought about it I'm kinda the opposite. Since I'm not a fan of modern Clone figures (hate that they use aspects from the TCW animated style) and already have 2 of the 2018 Ki-Adi, I probably wouldn't have much interest in the minifigures in a Mygeeto-based UT-AT (unless they do a really good job with the Marines) but the vehicle itself is one I've actively wanted for a decade, and I actually have the start of a MOC of one in progress (gonna hold off on that for now since if the set's good it'd be more worth it to buy that than to do a bunch of Bricklink orders for MOC parts). So yeah I was originally hyped for the figures but thinking about it the vehicle is the real main draw for me.

Assuming the UT-AT is real and it does come with Bacara/Marines: I agree with all of these points (sidenote: to this day I don't understand why they made the absolutely terrible 2020 armour style for the Clones. I was a certified "clonebro" back in 2019 when everyone was asking for the 501st pack but the new armour style killed any interest I had in that set, both because it's simply inaccurate and because it's not consistent with the realistic Clones I have. I saw someone mention they wouldn't change the style now for the sake of consistency, but that didn't stop them in 2020 and it didn't stop them from changing the Stormtrooper design multiple times over the last few years either). An important thing I'd also add is that they really ought to have the proper accessories, meaning cloth parts and at the very least backpacks for the marines. Unfortunately knowing LEGO they won't Based on Fives, we should get the shoulder cloth parts but not kamas and Snowtroopers haven't had backpacks since 2017 (I think?). I'd be a lot more excited for this set if we were in 2015 right now. One silver lining at least is that the Marines don't wear standard Clone armour so the 2020 design shouldn't affect them much aside from the torso's belt and back printing (though ideally the latter would be covered by a backpack anyway). Bacara would be affected, but a really good custom of him is super easy to make using a 2014 plain white Clone body with a CAC cloth part and helmet. Again, this is all assuming that the set is even real lol

Not to wishlist but... UT-AT... Galactic Marines and Bacara coming?

Yeah I know it can be a contentious topic but I hate when characters are locked behind super expensive sets. Having an exclusive version is one thing but having a character's only appearance be in a set unobtainable for most people sucks (e.g. Kuiil and Mythrol in the Razor Crest).

If we go by retirement dates, the Ewok Village was only 1 year before Hoth. (Still agree that a new Village is definitely way more important, if nothing else due to the brittle brown issues)

Yeah Hoth especially is one I actually want them to remake and also let's not forget that the previous Assault on Hoth retired only 1 year after the Ewok Village (end of 2017 vs end of 2016). That set was just so badly done and was a blatant ripoff of the 1980 Kenner playset, shown by the same incorrect details such as only having 3 disks on the power generator and having a Yavin-style turret (fun fact the designers claimed in the promo video that that was their idea, which seems unlikely to me since it was from that old Kenner toy and there are other similarities to that toy in the set). For me it was those inaccuracies combined with a not-great minifigure selection and a bunch of other issues like how much exposed technic there was which made 75098 a bad set, not the fact that it had a "UCS" label on it. (Also I need a Wes Janson figure that doesn't require me selling a kidney.)

They spoiled us back in 2015 with part 3626cpb1225 and I was hoping we'd get the same here in the new skin tone.

I don't want a face without the visor; I want a different expression. When their faces are visible (as these pilots' will always be since the helmets are open), it's nice to have a couple of expressions so they don't all look completely identical. This is exactly what they did with the ARC-170 pilot in 2015, which is the head I have given to all of my other ARC-170 pilots (got about 10 from various sets) and trust me they look way better together with the varied expressions, and we don't say it about Rebel pilots... because they HAVE multiple faces, as do almost all modern figures. Just feels really weird that they're skimping on it in this case.

The clone pilot heads only have one face Not a huge deal, but it was double-sided in the 2015 microfighter and this is one of the rare times when a clone face will always be visible, and can easily have the alternate face covered up by the helmet. And I know they're clones but it would still be nice to have some variety.

In other news: grass is green and the sky is blue

I'd like a new mould for the "torso" with a single stud on top in the centre rather than the 2x2 arrangement so that the head can spin. Also make back print the standard. And yeah there's really no difference between an astromech and a couple of regular printed bricks. Same goes for battle droids, and those aren't even printed. Also if they can afford to put dual-moulded legs on PaB for like 40p and in BaM towers for £2 per figure then they can afford to put them on the pilots in such an expensive set as the ARC-170.

Had a quick look at the 360 spins now that the sets are all up on the LEGO site... not a single one of the 3 new astromechs has a back print It really ought to be a basic standard by now.

Yeah even if they have to downsize them (sure, inflation is a thing but LEGO is overcharging at a much faster rate) they could still keep the details right. The fighter tank is actually larger than the previous version from 2017 but the details and proportions are so much worse. The Coruscant Gunship could've also still been good even at the smaller size (of course, a larger one would have been better and more within "minifigure scale") but they messed up details like the bay doors not opening properly.

Oddball's copilot in Revenge of the Sith has the same helmet as Jag so it's correct. It does mean it was a weird choice to make the box art Cato Neimoidia instead of Coruscant, not that it really matters though.

Yeah that was a weird one. The edges of the pieces didn't quite line up right in some spots which is what made people reckon it was AI, but it also had stuff like the S-foils all being identical builds which you'd think AI would mess up. There were definitely a bunch of impossible connections though so I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least some AI involved.

Those pilots are nearly perfect (dual-moulded legs would be the final touch but this is fine, though tbh I might've preferred plain grey legs so they don't have the white boots all the way up on the sides and back. This is kinda like if they gave AT-ST drivers black legs with a grey print on the front). Very happy that they're using the same helmet mould as before- it means I'll be able to Bricklink (or fingers crossed for PaB) a bunch of the new heads with the visor print to replace my old ones. Hopefully they have 2 facial expressions (in the images we have so far they all have the same one). Build looks great as well. Definitely smaller but I'm fine with that. It should mean the wings don't sag so much. Also curious how the S-foils work as I don't see any rubber bands so might be similar to the 2021 X-wing.

Yeah I'm not a huge Night Troopers fan either (they look kinda cool but I wasn't a fan of the Ahsoka show, and also <insert obligatory family guy helmet reference here>). I'm still hoping maybe they will do a full-size dropship eventually, perhaps with Enoch if he's not in the BP, then I could get it on eBay without minifigures to save some money. Agree on the book nook, and it's basically my view on all the 18+ gimmick sets. I just want normal playsets. Midi scale is cool to get ships at not-UCS prices, but the dioramas and helmets just seem like huge wastes of money to me which would be fine if they were in addition to standard sets and not the majority of what we get nowadays (especially with LotR where I'm just desperate for some battle packs).

Where in Europe are you? In the UK it was already on sale at £24 before Black Friday (down from £30) but it has been out of stock for a while now (very annoyed I missed it). Edit: yay happened to visit a WHSmiths where they still had one in stock at the same £24 price

True, but some smaller sets akin to Jedi Defense 1+2, Final Duel 1+2, and Jabba's Message/Prize, would give more minifigures for about the same price and they still exist for other themes (e.g. the Guardians of the Galaxy Headquarters set was cheaper than microfighters and came with 2 minifigures plus some nice usable scenery rather than what we tend to get in Star Wars with a build for the sake of having a build). The 3-figure "accessory packs" also gave a much better value per-figure, and came with actual usable builds instead of a weirdly-proportioned ship or a completely useless mech. I really wish they'd continued those (but without the unnecessary plastic packaging).

Not a fan of the answer in the Brickset interview about the barge not having enough minifigures being to buy the ridiculously overpriced skiff when the skiff itself doesn't have a single guard (unless you count the inaccurate Boba, which I certainly don't) and those "Glup Shittos" are the minifigures that I actually want out of sets like this. It's why the Cantina is so good.

Ugh yeah some people are so condescending about explaining that as if they're a major art critic or something but the reasoning they use isn't even true. "It makes them more consistent because no minifigures have pupils." Incorrect. Almost all minifigures have pupils. That's what the black part is. They don't have irises. These newer ones ("new" technically meaning since 2013 I guess, though I hated it then and still hate it now and they've certainly become more common in the past few years. A similar style was also used in some Indiana Jones sets and on Juno Eclipse in 2008 but again I thought those were weird choices even back then.) have irises but no pupils, making them look pretty freaky and also actually making them LESS consistent with the majority of minifigures. Also, the reason people like me complain about Ahsoka, Ezra, Hera, etc. is NOT that we think they should have the tiny "Sith-style" pupils they used to do for Maul and Palpatine. It's that they shouldn't have coloured eyes at all. Give them the normal black ones. The way they choose which figures have coloured eyes at all seems to have very little consistency itself. You could loosely say it's female "aliens" but even then it's not applied fully consistently (I'm very glad they didn't ruin the 2017 Aayla with them, and annoyed that they did ruin the new Ezra) and even if it was consistent it'd still be a very weird choice since in basically every portrayal we've seen female aliens have exactly the same sort of eyes as every non-alien or non-female character. There's no reason for them to be coloured at all, even if the execution was done well (which it isn't).

As someone who still doesn't like the new Stormtroopers, and who already has too many of the old ones, I'd prefer if they limited the figures in a hypothetical Andor pack to just the "rarer" troop types from Andor. So, keep it to Army Troopers (preferably the Aldhani versions but I'd be fine with some Ferrix security troopers too) and maybe a Shoretrooper. At this point any Stormtrooper minifigures I get go straight into a box never to be seen again, and even without actively trying to get them I've already got quite a few from sets like the Tantive IV hallway, the Imperial Armoured Marauder, etc. They're not exactly hard to get so a battle pack appearance would feel a bit pointless to me, especially since we also have the anniversary set now too. As for Plo's starfighter being a microfighter... not exactly thrilled about that. I love the 2010 set but it definitely shows its age (it was only the 3rd Delta-7 made and they've come a long way since then) and is based on TCW. A RotS version to pair with the ARC-170 would've been great and it's not like it's a set which would be too expensive for most people (unlike the Venator where it was a good thing that they brought Rex into a cheaper set). Same goes for the Night Trooper pack having a chibi patrol gunship. I want a 'real' set of that vehicle, not a barely-recognisable pile of bricks to make an arbitrary contractually-obligated battle pack build. I'm worried it's going to end up being like calling the build in the Jedi+Clones pack a Republic Gunship (that's probably my least favourite of all battle pack builds, and the figures in that set don't exactly save it. I saw someone earlier mention figbashing to reuse the named characters but Barriss and Ki-Adi are, like, the worst characters to do that with due to how distinctive all of their parts are).