CallumPears

Yeah this is me too tbh. Subjectively, I don't like the new Stormtrooper helmets (6 years is still "new", right? ...wait I just realised that the Family Guy helmet has now had a longer lifespan than the 2014 design ever did ) or the TCW animation style they incorporate on modern Clone minifigures rather than them being in the realistic movie-accurate style, and objectively there are just so many unacceptable mistakes with modern figures, especially Clones (I've ranted enough about them in the past but, ignoring stylistic choices such as the design template or printed kamas, things like the mistakes on Bly are just so obvious and any competent designer could've fixed them in seconds with very little effort). I'm pretty much done with army-building anyway now. I've already got plenty of Clones and Stormtroopers in the older styles so as far as modern releases go I'm only interested in getting 'special' figures which LEGO did a good job with, like Lama Su or Saw Gererra, and builds I particularly like (e.g. the E-wing or V-19 Torrent, both of which I got cheap on eBay without minifigures) but it's pretty rare for a set to have me wanting both the figures and the build (the V-19 does have the nice TCW Obi-Wan so might get a 2nd one if it has a good discount, and the U-wing would probably tempt me if I didn't already have the 2016 version). It's interesting that outside of Stormtroopers the modern Imperial figures have been pretty great. A couple of issues like the Snowtroopers not having backpacks and Thrawn having the wrong number of code cylinders, but e.g. Scout Troopers and the Imperial Commandos from the Mandalorian are absolutely perfect. Got the original Anakin's podracer as a kid. Nice set, but as all the other podracers were extremely hard to get there were basically no scenarios where I could actually play with it. I think podracers would be perfect for the 2-pack sets we get more often nowadays, like they did in 2011 with Anakin's and Sebulba's. Unironically one of my most-wanted figures for them to make when I was a kid was the version of Naboo guards with the dark-orange tunic and black helmet. Idk why I always liked them. Had a go at making custom ones using the helmets from the 2008 Imperial Navy Troopers but could never settle on a suitable torso. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEGO I BEG YOU HIRE THIS MAN TIE Avenger and these 2 battle packs would make me never complain about anything ever again Also would love a TIE Reaper or a Cargo Shuttle (ideally both but we know they'd never be so generous) for the Rogue One anniversary. Just more Imperial vehicles in general really.

Not sure how long I'd been lurking either but certainly a long time- I remember reading reviews of sets in like 2012ish. Made my account in 2020 to talk about the 501st pack (specifically to point out an inaccuracy that other people hadn't mentioned- I guess some things never change lol) Also coincidentally this is my 501st post

Edit: nevermind, it's from a knockoff

One thing to note is that they didn't run out of the TIE Fighter GWP. It was still available up to when the promo period ended here in the UK, and is still available in the US (where it will end in a few hours due to the time zone difference). Compare that with some previous sets like the Mos Eisley Cantina or the Lord of the Rings Barad-Dûr where the GWPs went out of stock in a matter of a few hours. Same, I basically want Tagge, Motti, Sim Aloo, and the 2 Imperial droids. Maybe Tarkin too depending on whether it's easier to get this one or the 2016 version. If I can find the set at a reasonable price (30% off or better) then that'd be the easier way to do it and I'd get a huge pile of bricks for MOCs.

Yeah the Pikachu looks like they took the worst aspects of Brickheadz and the Mario sets and smushed them together. The X-wing looks slightly better than the sketch, but still pretty terrible. I guess whenever you're feeling down about yourself, you can just think about how someone actually got paid to design this thing. As a downscaled 4+ set or something I guess it wouldn't be terrible, but for $90? All for the sake of some electronic feature nobody asked for? In particular I really don't like the patch of bright red where R2 is sitting- could that be a button or something to activate the Stupid Brick™️? It just screams "look at me" like what they sometimes do with levers and knobs in sets with the more traditional play features.

Some other cool things in the M&G trailer are one of the Dejarik creatures (wouldn't surprise me if we got that as a buildable creature set) and something resembling Amanaman (would be good to get a minifigure of him for Jabba's Palace). I wonder if LEGO knew about the U-wing showing up and whether that influenced them choosing it as one of the Andor S2 sets rather than making something new (such as the TIE AVENGER). Maybe we'll see the Babu Frik mould reused.

Emperor's Throne Room™️ with Darth Vader No™️ sound effect Yeah I don't like when they mess with minifigures. The old light-up ones were already annoying enough. Hopefully these ""smart"" ones are similarly short-lived.

Are we believing the rumour of a new UCS Executor? Only source I can see so far is Bruce Swift and idk if he's ever leaked anything before but he presumably has some inside contacts, e.g. with how he was able to get so many of the Kamino GWP.

Yeah they did really well having the Snowtrooper pack coincide with the AT-AT (even if I do have a couple of minor issues with the minifigures in that one). My main complaint with the Sail Barge (aside from the price) is how few minifigures it has. There was so much opportunity for more Glup Shittos and a battle pack of some sort would've helped with that. Also should've had at least one guard in the skiff. I've mentioned before that I like the idea of the Peridea pack but hate the execution; to me it seems very straightforward that the set should've had 1 Death Trooper, 1 grey-helmet Night Trooper, and 2 white-helmet Night Troopers. Having only a single standard Night Trooper in the actual set really ruins the army-building potential, even on the small scale of only wanting to buy a couple of sets to get a single squad of troopers, and you end up with a bunch of duplicate Death Troopers.

Yeah that would definitely have been best, especially since the Death Star is basically a big diorama so you want the figures to be 1:1 with the scenes from the movie. An Imperial battle pack to supplement the DS, with 2 Navy troopers, 1 Stormtrooper, and 1 technician (with an accurate face with the headset), would've been ideal.

Yeah as I've mentioned before I don't mind the idea of doing this, but as with many things in this set the execution isn't great. Lazy use of a generic female face print on the technician who should be wearing a headset, and Shann Childsen should be a named character. I actually quite like the new chinstrap head though. We've never had a reddish-brown one before so that'll be good for customs (e.g. Army Troopers from Andor), even if it's not accurate to the Death Star scenes specifically. Heretic! Dare ye not try to end his noble crusade!

A couple of nice references on the sticker sheet. The Hard Heart Cantina is from the Death Star novel, and the poster even has a LEGOification of Memah Roothes who is the character that runs it in the book. There's an advertisement for a "NEW T-16" with a picture of a Skyhopper, which is probably trying to be a reference to the Stormtroopers having idle conversation while Ben is disabling the tractor beam but is misquoted as they're actually talking about the "new BT-16", which is a type of walking droid.

(To the designer that this is quoted from) No, you added the *frame* for a blast door. There is no actual door in there, so you can't recreate the scene of Luke shooting the panel to close it (which was present on the 2008 and 2016 sets) Edit: ah, left it too long for them to merge

If they wanted a "modern design": 1) do an update of the TCS or LSW2 design in a modern style or 2) use the Skywalker Saga design This is a completely new design, not simply an updated one. Sounds like bs to me. They didn't need any new colours; the parts are already in production (and the officer legs are literally on PaB).

Kyle Jannin on Instagram has already MOCed up a far better chibi TIE. The official GWP one is just so inexcusably bad

Yeah I agree with all of this. Also there's a red piece on the front of the TIE which shows on the outside which was clearly intended to be covered up, but due to the curvature of the front it is visible. Really sloppy, especially when they could've just made it grey. I don't see why the cockpit is so huge anyway! It seems to be the same size as the actual full-sized set ones, with the only downscaled part of the ship being the wings (though despite this the cockpit is still very much lacking in details). I actually made a regular TIE Fighter to go with 10188; I designed it to fit on the rack included in that set for the little Vader's TIE. It was far, far, better than this, and I was only 13 when I made it. And Vader's TIE in the previous sets is enough evidence that they could've easily downscaled the cockpit to match the wings while still being able to hold a minifigure.

Imagine if we finally get the Avenger and it's done in this scale lol

Where are you seeing that it's a full half-sphere? Don't we already know from the schematic view on the box that it's flat at the back other than Palpatine's window sticking out? And the only curve at the front is the hangar sticking out at the bottom. Are you looking at the 11th picture, of the set half-built and laid down? Anyway the TIE Fighter is awful so I'm definitely not worried about getting it day 1. It being downscaled is one thing, but the proportions and lack of detail don't belong anywhere near a UCS set. Can now confirm that Tarkin, Motti, and Tagge are all accurate (could only see the latter 2 in M&R's video) so I'm pleased about that. Fortunately I have some spare booted legs to complete them , along with plain black ones for Yularen. Does make it all the more strange that they got the code cylinders wrong on Thrawn though. Both the shuttle pilot and the female technician are missing their microphone headsets which is a bit annoying. Probably just lazy reuses of existing head prints. Nice new reddish-brown head with a chinstrap on one of the Navy Troopers though. Will hopefully be getting a few of those for customs (if they re-release it elsewhere which I think is fairly likely to happen at some point). Edit: Actually, I just checked Vader's arrival in RotJ and the shuttle pilots don't have headsets in that scene so that's ok (doubt it was intentional though). Though with that said he's supposed to be wearing the same tunic as the Navy Troopers have, not the technician suit. I guess LEGO have been getting that wrong since 2017 lol.

Rather funny though, and one thing it did give us was a closer look at some parts of the box where it seems Motti and Tagge do indeed have the correct ranks and code cylinders! Not sure I like the choice of hair on Motti, but that's easy enough to change.

Yeah my thoughts as well. There are multiple Mauldalorian designs in the episodes from season 5, and more in season 7. Definitely could've picked a few of those for the 4 figures in the pack, and then allow for mixing to make custom ones. I do have a decent number of the 2013 figures (14), but those don't have leg printing and there's a good chance at least one of the ones in this upcoming set will just be an update of that since it's the most common design. Speaking of which, would we prefer if they had a realistic hand or a LEGO claw-hand print? I'm definitely on the realistic side. It's not so much of an issue with the Mando S3 pack since there are already a bunch of blue Mandalorian figures to mix parts with, and the Imperial Commandos which make up the opposing force in that set were brand new and very good figures. Unless they've vastly improved the helmet print on the 332nd (e.g. got rid of the gaps so they basically look more like the GCC version) they're surely just going to be 1:1 with the previous pack, which is the one I think I've seen on clearance the most so they won't exactly be a draw for people to buy the set.

Nice printed cape on the gingerbread Vader! Curious whether he'll have the usual Vader face, the unburned one from the Dark Falcon, or even a new candy-themed one. Yeah I tend to judge minifigures purely on accuracy. Like, sure they aren't the coolest design but those cadets are absolutely flawless in terms of being a LEGO-ification of the source material. Being a cool design then follows on from the accuracy baseline, so figures like Plo Koon, Lama Su, and General Obi-Wan which meet the accuracy requirement AND are cool designs are very high on my list. The 327th and Galactic Marines, while they do kinda look cool, are absolutely awful for accuracy so are at the bottom of my list (I think I've gone on enough rants about them lol). Yeah with battle droids and the 2008 Stormtroopers I just naturally seem to acquire so many of them on the side of getting other figures I actually want in bulk lots and stuff like that. Gotta disagree on P1 Clones though- love those guys.

Gotta disagree about Aayla. To me she's a definite downgrade from the 2017 version (stupid things like the lips being the wrong colour, and also while the detail on the legs is more vibrant she's now missing the detail of the strings hanging off her belt). I haven't actually bought a single new set yet this year except for the Kamino training GWP, which I got for £20 on eBay (I was also hoping they'd put the torsos on PaB like what happened with the LotR Nazgûl but alas it wasn't meant to be). Good set even if the KE-8 enforcer isn't super accurate (proportions and some details are a bit off), and the cadets are fully-flawless minifigures.

Ooh an official AT-RT driver would be nice. I'm fine with not getting Neyo and the 41st trooper though since I really don't see any direction they can go except backwards from the quality of their previous versions (e.g. they might do the same lazy move as they did with the Galactic Marines and give the 41st Scouts regular trooper legs). For a lot of people the one in the DS is so unobtainable that it might as well not exist, unless it gets Mexico Factory'd, so a repeat of it would be pretty much equivalent to being a new figure.

Yeah no interest in the Hot Tub trooper from me (ugly helmet mould and it doesn't even match the design from the games anyway) so that's an easy bit of cash back. I've already got 2 of the old Krennics (turned one into a generic ISB guy and used the head for a figbashed Cin Drallig) and an old Yularen so don't need those, and don't have much interest in Galen Erso. I'd like *a* Galen Erso figure, but I don't think this one is very well-done. The face doesn't look much like him, and I really don't like that they made him dark green. His suit should be the same colour as regular Imperial officers. Sure, those have a slight greenish tint to them but nothing close to LEGO's dark green, and if they make the officers grey then Galen should be too (especially with how much they go on about "consistency"). Of course, it still depends on whether the ones I do want are accurate.

Yeah me too. The main thing I wanted out of the Death Star was as many of the "conference room" officers as possible. 4 of them (Tagge, Motti, Yularen, Tarkin) isn't bad but I was hoping we'd also get Bast or Cass since they have notable speaking roles in ANH, especially Bast. Or Romodi since they're including some Rogue One figures. I'd be very annoyed if one was locked behind the most exclusive GWP to date. Already got the old Yularen but I didn't get the 2016 Death Star so need a modern Tarkin. Assuming I don't get the new DS, which I'm not currently planning on but if it gets a discount like the AT-AT did in its final couple of weeks then that might tempt me, I'm currently looking at Bricklinking Tagge, Motti, Sim Aloo, and possibly Tarkin but we'll see whether this version or the 2016 one is cheaper. Also interested in the dark-skinned chinstrap head on one of the Navy Troopers, but hopefully that'll get reused elsewhere (on this subject, I'm very disappointed that the female Crewmember looks to have a regular face and not one with the headset; part of what I love about getting more diverse minifigures is getting new heads with the appropriate printed details such as the chinstrap I mentioned). But if any of the officers have their ranks/cylinders wrong then I'll pass. I'm still tempted to get the Thrawn figure (assuming the Peridea set is ever on sale near me; I haven't even seen it on a store shelf a single time since it released, nevermind at the necessary discount for me to get it) since his number of code cylinders wasn't super consistent in Legends anyway. If I was specifically a fan of Rebels and Ahsoka Thrawn then I'd be much more annoyed.