CallumPears

Grey actually came first, made for J. Jonah Jameson and also used on German Soldier 4 in the Indiana Jones sets. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3626bpb0203&idColor=90#T=S&C=90&O={"color":90,"iconly":0} Yeah I don't remember whether he's described as having one in the HTTE trilogy but he is in some later books iirc. He actually doesn't have it in the comic adaptation of HTTE but the art in those comics was pretty inconsistent anyway (e.g. Rukh's design completely changes a couple of times).

Nahhhh it's one of my favourites. I actually really dislike the 2016 version. I use the grey version of the original on my Pellaeon figure and it's perfect.

Interestingly there is one spot where the Night Trooper has less printing than a standard stormie. Stormtrooper minifigures have grey squares printed in the black squares on the back of the helmet. For some reason the Night Trooper does not. The Mortar Trooper and Sandtroopers have this same problem. I'm not a fan of the new helmet anyway, but this is yet another issue I've noticed over the past few years.

And you know if they released a new one now she'd have the awful glossy eyes. Looking back, we really got lucky that they didn't put those eyes on the 2017 Aayla. Agree on the U-wing as its whole purpose is to be a troop transport, but I think you might be the only person who wants Enoch in the BP.

My thoughts as well. All of my standard Stormtroopers have had their helmets switched to the 2014-2018 design, and the same goes for my Sandtroopers (though that was a bit more expensive!) but it wasn't possible for modern trooper designs which don't have an older version, such as the Mortar Trooper and now the Night Troopers. I got the Mortar Trooper since I wanted the Marauder vehicle anyway, but with the Night Trooper pack there's really no reason for me to get it.

Hopefully the previous rumour about Enoch isn't true- he really doesn't belong in a battle pack. Though tbh I don't have much interest in a Night Trooper bp anyway. Wasn't a huge fan of Ahsoka, but even if it was my favourite Star Wars series ever I wouldn't be interested in the LEGO set since they'll all have the terrible helmet.

Yeah I only try to collect realistic Clones so I've had basically no interest in any made since 2020 for that reason. Honestly not sure what I dislike more between the new Clone artstyle and the new Stormtrooper helmets.

Wookieepedia says that the officers are indeed extra, so a squad is 9 troops + 1 sergeant, a platoon is 36 troops + 4 sergeants + 1 lieutenant, etc. Yeah this is my issue with that set. I think Barriss and Ki-Adi are literally the worst possible choices they could have gone with. Both have very unique robe designs and distinctive heads which aren't easy to reuse (and Barriss has the eyes ). Plus, both of them had already been made in cheap sets previously and weren't exactly hard to get hold of even years after those sets had retired. I would have preferred Ep2 Anakin and Obi-Wan honestly. Both of them have generic robes that can be reused, and faces that aren't too distinctive. Also Anakin is a pretty hard-to-find figure, especially considering he's a main character, so it would've been good to make him more widely available. Of course a better choice would've been 3 troopers and a lieutenant but I'm going on the assumption that the set is inherently flawed and we had to have Jedi at all.

While this is true, the issue for me is that we also don't have many civillian options to make such ragtag Rebels as customs. In fact, I usually end up going the other way and using figures from the 2016 and 2017 Rebel battle packs as civillians.

Yeah I much prefer the smaller 1-faction packs. 75280 was a blatant cash-grab but people proved that they'd pay those prices. And yes please I've been begging for a new Endor Rebel pack since they made the updated design back in 2015. Crazy that we haven't had a single Endor Rebel since then, aside from the terribly inaccurate Luke and Leia figures in the Speeder diorama.

Yeah we had some really good years for battle packs in the 2010s (other than the stud shooters). I doubt we'd have any chance at a Senate Commando pack today, for example. Bring back the glory days of 4 per year. One for Clones, one for some Stormtrooper variety, and a couple wildcards.

Yeah I get annoyed with LEGO for stuff like the 501st Jet trooper, Fox, and Vaughn where they are objectively just wrong and inaccurate, but stuff like "nooo they haven't made the 420th legion airborne trooper from one panel of the 2003 comics" does go a bit far sometimes. (Though unless they get rid of the hybrid armour style I'm not particularly interested in new Clone figures anyway tbh.)

Ironically he wasn't too hard to make with some spare parts I had. Yotts Oren and Lathe, however...

Yeah idk how the system works for packing sets but I have had some weird substitutions myself in the past. E.g. in my Jedi and Clones battle pack back in 2018 I was missing a 3x3 wedge plate but in its place I had a 2x4 sand green tile.

Another one that happened recently is that they accidentally sent the UCS Hogwarts Express set to someone who ordered the Lion Knights Castle, before the set had even had a single leaked image.

The issue for me is that I am absolutely rabid for anything related Jabba's Palace, hence why I want all the individual guards to be made.

Same. Nowhere near enough figures, the figures which are present have some pretty big issues, and even if it had more figures it'd still cost a good 100 more than it should. A few months ago I was probably the most excited about it being a UCS set out of anyone but now it just feels like they really fumbled the opportunity to make it truly great.

Might be a hot take but personally I didn't care for Rivendell and I doubt I'm gonna care for any set related to the Shire (though it does slightly beat Rivendell at least in theory). Great scenes in the movies, but not really what I'm looking for in a set. I want soldiers and orcs and stuff.

Honestly I just don't think it's a good pick for a MBS or UCS set. Make it a few separate smaller sets, like the Carbon Freezing Chamber and the Bespin Duel. Trying to do everything in a single set just means they all end up getting done badly, especially when they're crammed into an awkward circular shape. Same goes for the Death Star sets.

Never had a dark age, but I remember it being very difficult to get Vader when I was first starting out in 2008 (I was 6 years old so had no idea about Bricklink or eBay back then). Used the Shadow Stormtrooper from the battle pack as him for a while, then added the Vader helmet from Palpatine's shuttle when I got that set for my birthday a couple of years later. Finally got a proper Vader from the watch set with him in. And yeah I also got the 2010 Landspeeder. A bunch of main characters in a cheap set (or at least cheap enough that my grandparents would get it for me for my birthday)? Yes please. Until then I'd been using some random technic parts for R2 (in particular part 32530 for his legs). Anyway that's enough reminiscing lol; now it's time for me to get back to complaining about the lack of guards in the Sail Barge. Still can't get over the fact that the Mos Eisley Cantina has twice as many figures for £100 less.

Honestly I actively do NOT want them to make another UCS/MBS Cloud City for a while. Make a couple of small sets like the carbon freezing chamber so I can finally get Lando without needing to sell both of my kidneys. Yeah we had the Snowspeeder in 2019 but that retired way too fast for me to find it at a good price, especially since I already had 3 previous (and near-identical) snowspeeder sets. Why they didn't just chuck Lando into the 2016 freezing chamber set is a mystery to me; even if it would've made the set cost an extra £5 I would've gladly paid that. Also I'm not really a fan of the shape of the 2018 Cloud City, or the 2008/2016 Death Stars. Just causes everything to be at awkward angles and for the rooms to be a lot smaller than they would be if they were done as individual sets. Mmm yeah I've been meaning to have a go at a brickfilm myself for the past few years (done some short ones but nothing incredible). Got the basics of a script for one set in the Pentastar alignment, and even built some ships and locations for it but not taken a single photo lol. I remember when they first announced the Disney purchase back in 2012. I was 10 years old and the only thing on my mind was "oh cool I'll finally see Mara Jade and Thrawn on the big screen"... then the Great Purge happened.

There was the 4+ X-wing in 2021, the Christmas diorama last year and also some of the builds on the magazines but yeah it's the first "normal" set.

The problem is that most of the characters from Jabba's barge have never been made. It doesn't matter if you go on Bricklink, eBay, or whatever. They simply don't exist. This set was a chance to finally fill a lot of those gaps and in my opinion they completely squandered it.

Agreed, and personally when I'm weighing up the value of sets nowadays I don't include stormtroopers with the new helmet. Any other figure choice would make the set a lot more worth it to me.

I do want a 224th battle pack... the 224th Imperial Armoured Division Ok honestly I'm ok with this for now. Hopefully there will be a real one later without Enoch. And yeah that Jedi Bricks guy is constantly making stuff up so not a surprise.