MaximillianRebo

I'm not even a big Clone Wars fan and I think the next big ticket UCS should be a Venator. Sure it'd be another bley model but at least there'd be a bunch of dark red in there. Perhaps it's on the cards to come out eventually but only three years since the UCS Star Destroyer is too short a time. Overall though I'll just be miffed if there isn't an MBS set released this year (which is why I still think a Death Star is possible, as it fits the price point and is more of an MBS model than a UCS one).

Not wanting to tip the scales too much from unpopular to popular, but another vote here in favour of brick built creatures (apart from dogs, cats, mice etc.) Especially in the case of the recent Jurassic World sets, where the moulded dinos seem to have caused an enormous increase to the price (or maybe that's just Legoflation). I can't imagine that a brick built dino, even with the increased piece count, would increase the set price as much. More importantly another brick built model would increase the build experience, which to me is what Lego is about. I think this all plays into the 'accuracy' debate around Lego builds. Sure a large pre-moulded part is going to be more accurate than something built out of smaller square and rectangular pieces, but there is a point where it starts to cross over into action figure territory and I wonder if I'm buying Kenner, Hasbro etc. or Lego.

The preponderance of white, black and bley ships in the SW universe is not the fault of Lego designers, they're just tasked with recreating the designs and colour schemes of the in-universe vehicles, and the movie designers themselves had to deal with the limitations of special effects of the time (especially with the original trilogy) hence why there is not a lot of colour on screen in space battles (the original TIE fighters were meant to have blue accents, but that caused problems filming against a blue screen; it's also why the early 2000's Lego TIE's had a blue colour scheme). It also doesn't help that the original trilogy - and the period of the current Kenobi and upcoming Andor shows - is a time of an authoritarian regime, so the ships won't be very colourful and so any Lego model produced will be another sea of bley. The prequel era appeared to be a much more colourful time hence the better colouring on Naboo fighters, Jedi starfighters etc. Personally I think the new model that you linked looks like a grey box with wings, but a lot of people will buy it as they want a representation of the show regardless of colour scheme, shape etc. (and being a licensed set some people will buy it for the minfigs alone) The price is also pretty bad, but that's a separate issue, and one that Lego is very much in control of. On the plus side it appears to contain a number of 4x2 pointed wedge plates, so it's good that more of those will become available.

That's a great model and would fit right in with the official space sets of the mid 80s. One of my favourite aspects of Classic Space sets was the modularity of different parts of the build, which you've captured perfectly.

Even though it's a mono colour vehicle, I like the Scythe, mostly because of the angles; this new Andor set looks like a bit of a light bley box with wings, plus being a lot less desirable in price. Not the fault of the Lego designers (the shape, not the price) as it looks like a decent recreation of the ship from the trailer, just didn't look like the most interesting ship design. Hopefully the included speeder has an important context in the show, or it'll be like the Bad Batch shuttle with side build included seemingly to bump up the piece count. On the plus side, it does contain a number of 4x2 pointed wedge plates which aren't cheap on Bricklink, at least where I am. Hopefully this will bring the price down a bit.

The Inquisitor ship looks like it could be a great build. Lots of angles, will be interesting to see how it all goes together. Also great to see how much interior space there is, I was initially thinking it could be like the Knights of Ren transport, just an exterior shell, or the interior all taken up by technic beams to hold the outer shell together. And it's so black! Light just falls into it. I'm not a Brickheadz fan but the Vader one looks good; I think the issue with Obi-Wan is just the style used in that theme which necessitates a massive forehead. Reminds me of similar issues with the Constraction figures, where helmeted or robotic characters looked much better than those with human facial features.

16. firefabric

This is fantastic news; childhood me is jumping for joy. I have 918 and 924 and forty years later I can finally complete the fleet!

I hope it was a licensing issue, as who would consciously choose to not use the opening 30 seconds of 'The Touch' from the 1986 movie for this product launch?

There could be something to this; the original UCS Falcon was for a long time the biggest Lego set in any theme by far, but nowadays we've got Titanic, the Coliseum, Hogwarts, football stadiums, an even bigger Falcon ... it could be that along with the 'Adults Welcome' advertising there's just a trend towards sets with gigantic piece counts becoming much more common rather than one-offs that only appear every few years.

Pure speculation, but if a UCS Venator was in development for an upcoming release, that could be the reason for no playscale version this time around to go alongside the other Prequel sets.

Sounds like a great wave with a mix of sets based on PT and new media. Hopefully not too long until we see some photos to find out what the builds look like (and if the prices are 'justified'). Can't wait until the next winter wave which will probably include a few OT sets and the complaints of "why do we always get things from the OT" start again.

Oh, definitely. Whatever decision TLG makes will have always have its vocal detractors; it's a no win situation. Any way to get people to focus on the build, and only the build (ship it in a plain brown cardboard box if I want to go really unpopular )

Maybe I should post this in unpopular opinions but I feel TLG should go back to doing UCS sets with no minifigs. The focus with those sets should be about detail and the build experience, not a vehicle (pun intended) for unique figs, desirable or not. It's kind of ridiculous to have a $350 set on the shelves and 90% of the conversation is about 1 or 2 minifgs. The bulk of UCS sets aren't anywhere close to minifig scale anyway. The helmet series seems to have done ok without including figs (I know some would like to see figs included with helmets, similar to the planets series) as do Technic sets, which are also large scale intricate builds.

That would be the ideal line-up. Other flagship sets over the past couple of years at the same price point have had a similar number of figures (albeit a couple of hundred more pieces) so with this selection for the Justifier, new moulds for Nala Se and Todo, hopefully a number of large/new pieces along with the world-wide trend of shrinkflation, the 160€ price becomes well, not acceptable, but less surprising.

In terms of what sets to buy to reach $160 usd, I guess Lego's plan - especially given the subject matter of the GWP - is that everyone will buy the UCS Landspeeder to meet the threshold, assuming it releases at the beginning of May.

I'm thinking the same. This could have easily been set in the style of Obi-Wan's hut (or bigger) for wide release and sold no problem. Now it will be locked behind a limited release paywall and the aftermarket price will quickly match or pass whatever the GWP threshold is - for just the kitchen and Beru. I mean it looks like a great GWP - a build AND an exclusive fig, but releasing it this way also means it's unlikely there'll be any type of Lars homestead in a regular wave for many years to come.

Now if there was only a way to fit that winged helmet onto a Bugs Bunny figure ...

Looks fantastic. I like how much detail you've been able to give the model at this small scale and even include the door mechanism.

Glad you like them! Personally I think the White Witch is a bit long, mostly because of the seats in front of one another, but I'd also like to make the nose area a stud or two shorter. Sorry that's my fault, I put the photos in the opposite order to how I mentioned them. Rookie mistake... Fixed now with clearer labels.

Literal and figurative bookends, a fantastic idea. I could definitely see Lego supporting this alongside their dioramas and other 18+ sets.

Hi everyone, Here are the Silver Speeder and the White Witch from the 80's TV show Star Wars: Droids. I wanted to put in figs to show the scale of the vehicles but don't have anything approximating Thall Joben, or a Holiday Special era Boba Fett, so a few substitutions were made. The Silver Speeder (well, light bluish grey speeder) - 286 pieces The White Witch - 261 pieces

Let the Phase 2 Cody speculation commence ... or recommence ... or just continue unabated ...

Not actually a Star Wars purchase but just bought the Robot Repair Tech and Night Protector from CMF Series 22 to put in and around my Cantina.

Orchid and succulents are now up on the website and both look fantastic. The succulents are a bit small but I guess that's the trade off for having multiple builds rather than a set focused on one single plant, and by nature don't involve the long stem pieces that many of the other botanical sets use. Lots of useful curved pieces for the various leaf shapes, including Forestmen hats in one of the smaller builds!