MaximillianRebo

Sorry I'm another one who still has all their childhood sets, so nostalgia incoming! 75243 Slave 1 20th Anniversary - the set that brought me back to Lego after a long break 6980 Galaxy Commander - my favourite childhood set, I always liked the modularity of the ship and how it could operate as separate components or one big craft 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van - bought after a camping trip through central and northern Australia 6985 Cosmic Fleet Voyager - similar reasons to 6980 above 6066 Camouflaged Outpost - I like the build on this one for its time, and my favourite that I own from the Castle line 369 Coast Guard Station - an older set, but it checks out. Even though it predates the modern minifig, I feel it still fits in with my 80s era Legoland/Town sets 853 Car Chassis - as a kid I always needed help for the pistons, so had a great feeling of satisfaction finally putting it together on my own as an adult 6385 Fire House - mainstay of my Lego town 75172 Y-Wing Starfighter - I like how much detail this fits into a playset sized model 6930 Space Supply Station - not many pieces by today's standards, but always seemed like enough for younger me.

While there are some who fit that description, I wouldn't lump everyone into the same category. I definitely avoid YouTubers (and others) who complain when a previously exclusive minifig from an expensive set becomes more widely available, or can't understand why a 7+ set might have less detail than a UCS or 10,000 piece MOC. My niece is into Friends, so I've been watching videos to keep up with new releases. I like the variety of builds and the amount of detail and features they get into their buildings, and just the fact that it is building/structure focused as opposed to City which seems to be predominantly vehicles (and the buildings they do make are mostly fire and police based).

Republic Tank is up on the website - one aspect that I think is being overlooked in the criticism of the build is that it's listed as a 7+ set - as was the often maligned AAT. Most recent playscale vehicle builds are 9+ (with a few exceptions like the TIE fighter and Imperial Maruader at 8+). Taking the age recommendation into account makes a few of the design choices like the large side slope pieces and the bulky side cannons make a lot more sense. And I still think using the X-Wing canopy on the front is inspired parts usage.

I'm fine with small scaled animals being moulded e.g. dogs, cats, anything smaller than a human, but above that I prefer brick built. Sure it's not as 'accurate' but maybe I just like building things out of bricks (funny that). If there is a Rancor set coming out in the near future I hope it's brick built, same with a full size Bantha if we ever get one. I also love the brick built Star Wars microfighter animals, particular the dewback and bantha; sure they are smaller than scale so I imagine they are the 'baby' versions of these creatures. One further issue, having seen the prices for the latest wave of Jurassic World sets which contain moulded dinosaurs, and knowing how Star Wars prices have been going lately, I'm dreading how much a moulded Rancor would cost. I'm mostly into Lego for the build experience, and snapping a few limbs and a movable jaw into place for the money being asked isn't something I'm personally interested in.

Them both being dioramas is exactly what makes them similar. Sure just about every licensed set is some type of iconic/recognisable moment (outside of non-canon builds like battlepack vehicles) but the idea of putting scenes on black bases is something very specific and recent. Maybe the Jurassic World team saw last year's Meditation Chamber and thought "that's neat, we should try something similar" and designed their model separate but concurrently to the new SW dioramas. I'd wager that the quote plaques were added later and must have had at least some type of collaboration - maybe both teams were asked to add the quotes by someone higher up in the licensed sets department - as it's unlikely that both groups would come up with this concept on their own at the same time.

As others have said, they have the sales figures, and in the case of the micro dioramas GWP, they can even see what customers were buying in order to obtain the GWP. I think in the case of the GWPs they were popular in part because of the scarcity factor. If it was just another set you could pick off the shelf at Target and available for a couple of years the reaction may have been a lot more indifferent. Vader's Chamber was obviously testing the waters for the coming releases, and clearly TLG is happy with the result. The new sets are a big exercise in marketing strategy: the black box, 18+ marking and 'Diorama Collection', along with 'premium' prices aim them at an adult consumer with (lots of) disposable income, rather than a regular AFOL who enjoys building Lego, and definitely not a parent buying toys for their kids.

There are a number of comments, not necessarily here but on other forums, along the lines of "it's terrible, the worst set Lego has ever produced! Still gonna buy it for the figs". And TLG chalks up the sales and declares the model successful. Agree about the idea that a Lego model should look like Lego, otherwise why not buy something from Hasbro? It seems to be popular at the moment to want to disguise the actual 'lego-ness' in models e.g. completely tiled, not a single stud showing, and while it's impressive what can be achieved with Lego pieces, at the end of the day if my goal is to build something that isn't blocky, at least to some degree, than I'm possibly looking at the wrong product.

I like how this new Classic set covers the 'includes something from all the popular themes' angle, plus a Lego duck!

Reading through the description and specs on Lego's website and I realised the word 'DeLorean' is never used. While the vehicle is obviously a DeLorean (how could it be anything but?) and the front grill features the DMC logo, the model is called the BTTF Time Machine and the plaque also just says 'Time Machine' manufactured by Doc Brown. They even use the quote "Are you telling me you built a time machine?" without the payoff "out of a DeLorean?" Probably all tied up in whatever rights agreement was made between TLG, the film's IP holder and the car company.

I can see some side walls in the photo, but it's hard to judge depth with the front on perspective. Could there be a sliding mechanism in the base to bring them inwards?

I'm appreciating the Trench Run set the more I look at it - it's kind of a master class in parts usage for greebling - but mostly because of the three it's the main one that works as a display set. I also like the X-Wing design, a slightly beefed up version of the Advent calendar model, and the R2 printed tile is great. The other two could function better as play sets - Dagobah as an expanded version of earlier Yoda's huts, and the Trash Compactor model is ... it's just a room. I get that this is the style for diorama sets, but it really needs closing walls which necessitates making it a play set. Also play sets wouldn't need all the black pieces for the base and these leftover pieces could be used elsewhere in the set. As the Meditation Chamber showed, these black box 18+ sets are aimed at the AFOL with disposable income market, but even as someone who primarily displays their sets, I'd still rather play sets with some functionality rather than static display sets like these.

Any of the "quotes" sets have the capacity for a lot of small pieces: Dagobah with the swamp and terrain, Trash Compactor with the trash, and Trench Run with detailing on the trench walls. The piece counts of any of these could be offset with large pieces for the actual structure and completely muddy the PPP ratio. I'm building Boba's Palace at the moment, and while the set is still overpriced, it contains a larger number of big pieces e.g. large plates, long bricks, single wall pieces, than I've seen in other sets and distorts the 700 odd pieces for $100 USD calculation.

Ah, fair enough. I forgot about that

Just to throw in another possibility - it could be an Imperial AT-TE as a Bad Batch tie-in (or has it been stated that it's a Republic vehicle?). With the BB as current media it's possible, but AotC is still the most likely basis for the set.

My money is on a new Death Star - it fits the price point the best out of the other contenders, and personally I'm hoping it's not some of the other choices as that would represent a marked increase on the 'standard' MBS price (I know, there's only been two other sets so far, so the standard could be meaningless). An increase to $530 would be a 66% jump on previous prices ... huh, maybe there's some significance in that figure ...

I can see where the OP is coming from, I also have no interest in the 'look at the several thousand dollars I just spent' haul posts on Youtube and Reddit. Maybe it's just jealousy from me; I try to go for a quality over quantity approach with what I get - or at least that's what I tell myself. Also, I don't think they are trying to tell other people how to enjoy Lego, just that that's not how they prefer to enjoy it. It's an opinion, although apparently an unpopular one. Personally I tend to display rather than rebuild, but I fondly remember the days of trying to recreate all the alternative builds that Lego sets would display on the back of the box. Although nowadays I tend to even keep my MOCs permanently built in my display - it would certainly be a lot cheaper to break them down for parts for the next MOC - but I like how it personalises the display.

I like this. It could be a way for people who want to expand their Lego cities beyond more than multiple hospitals and police and fire stations, but don't have the budget for modulars or their own detailed mocs. I know there was a school released recently, but this could have a market or other shops, plus some houses and other things that don't often feature in the regular City theme.

I was watching a review of that moon base set and it struck me that the main thing that makes this 'City' Space is the figures. If they were swapped out for Classic Space minifigs it would go most of the way to making it a 'Classic' moon base, with the classic inspired logo already featuring prominently in the set. Although, the white and trans blue colour scheme of the base is more Futuron than the blue, grey and trans yellow of Classic

Personally I'd love to see a remake at some point of the LL928 Space Cruiser in the same vein as Black Seas Barracuda. Whether that or something similar should be the 90th Anniversary set though... Classic Space was 'my' era of Lego, but that is different for everyone. Whatever theme they go with will probably have more people saying 'why not something else' than in favour.

Huh, you're right. It's the Bespin Duel box. Obviously no link between that set and these clones, I guess it was just a convenient back drop (although the cynic in me thinks it was there to make the leak more authentic, the set number is clearly visible and obviously not from anything upcoming). Hopefully these are not just good customs, but a few reliable channels are now reporting the news so fingers crossed. Personally this is not a set I'm interested in, but it's always good to see something outside the box as opposed to ol' reliables, from any era.

I think a lot of issues with the length come from the compartment in front of the cockpit that holds Mando's jetpack when he's in the ship - it puts the cockpit a lot further back from the nose than I think it should be. If I was to get this set that I'd try modding that section out to reduce the length. I get why it's there, so that the jetpack isn't floating loose when the figs are in the ship. Regarding prices I've been thinking the same. Last years prices were generally pretty good - not just the downsized models, but also the Imperial Marauder and Mandalorian Starfighter, were all good value for money. So far every release this year, with the exception of the AT-ST, has gone back to everything priced well on the high side. It doesn't help that a lot of the new sets contain exclusive/desirable figs, so the prices seem more aimed at demand rather than value of stuff (which from a business perspective isn't surprising at all).

As a concept I like the idea of using a single moulded piece for force ghosts (or, well, any ghosts). Aside from the apparent breakage issues with transparent minifig parts, doing it this way opens the door for just about any (humanoid) figure to be represented as a force ghost - except maybe Togruta, Twi'leks etc. Even custom figs. Going the transparent fig route would mean being restricted to only the figs which TLG chooses to release in this style, and whatever paywalls they are behind.

What are the chances TLG does a Fennec and gives us Din with a face print under the helmet but no hair piece

I'm not surprised with the BTS set being selected; it's in the same vein as many of the one off TV sets where the target group is fans of the show rather than fans of Lego. I'm a bit surprised it's showing up as an Ideas set, I guess though this showed TLG the level of fan engagement (ie. profit) such a set would bring.

Are there any actual confirmed release, patterns by designers or others in the company? For all the 'Lego producers a system scale gunship every seven years' or 'this year is the 20th, 30th, 40th anniversary of Episode whatever so we should get a wave of...' speculation, it seems to be more often that not coincidental rather than by design that we get certain sets in certain years, and any correlation between set significance and release year is the exception rather than the rule.