The Stud

Those MODs look fantastic! I just got the official set a week ago and I'm really tempted to try to make some of these MODs to it after I build it. Looks like I might have to place a few more Bricklink projects when I'm done with my current Rebrickable project. Great work!

I've gotten a good number of items in the last few weeks. For starters, I've gotten some more custom minifigures all from BrickDaddyMinfigures. I got Galen Erso a few weeks ago, and I ordered their new Cassian Andor and Bix Caleen figures last night. I've made several Bricklink orders, primarily parts for me to build a custom Stinger Mantis model I found on Rebrickable (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-101243/dannyfordjohnson/stinger-mantis/#comments) as well as some parts for a few custom figures to also go on my FO/Survivor shelf. I also got a few pieces to upgrade some of the new Ahsoka figures (shoulder pads for Baylan, capes for him and Shin and some faces/arms to go on my Rebels Sabine figures to match the skin tone on the new figure). As for sets, I recently got two more 75345 501st Specialist packs off of Amazon with a gift card I had. I have five of those now and I think that's enough of that particular battle pack for me, aside from maybe getting a spare one to keep sealed. My birthday was on Monday so I treated myself to all three of the new Ahsoka sets (75357, 75362 and 75364) at the Lego Store. I also got some sets as gifts from my family. I got 75363 N-1 Microfighter, 75361 Spider Tank and a whopping five copies of 75359 332nd Battle Pack from different family members.

Man, this clone/battle droid pack sounds absolutely amazing. The builds may be a bit underwhelming due to their diminutive size (I am happy to finally have some STAPs in my collection though), but this is arguably an even better army builder than 75280 because you're able to build up both factions and the clones included are less specific than the 501st Legion. Being able to easily build up P2 shinies and also having a cheaper option to get some Coruscant Guard/Shock troopers is huge. It's also nice to be able to get 3 Super Battle Droids in this set alone after not getting any in eight years and more B1s are always nice. I ended up with 15 copies of 75280 (actually 16 but I recently gave one to a friend) and I think I'm going to want to get even more copies of this set if it's as good as it sounds. As for the battle pack discussion, I also hope to see Lego starting to give us more. Getting two this year versus one (2022) or none (2021) was nice, even if they were both clone troopers. Really, besides some of the ridiculous prices, not getting a lot of small sets (particularly small sets that are actually good) has been one of the biggest weaknesses with modern Lego Star Wars. If ever there was a time to be doing four battle packs a year, it's now.

Despite me trying not to spend much on Lego this month, I have gotten a couple of things in the last handful of weeks. For starters, I've gotten some more custom minifigures in the last month or two: Fallen Order Cal Kestis from Firestar Toys. Rebels Season 4 Rex from Brick Daddy Minifigures. I've gotten a few more sets as well. My first copy of 75359. An eBay listing for 75346 and 75348 together for $100 total. My third copy of 75345 that I threw into the cart so I could get free shipping on an order.

This honestly makes the set more interesting to me than another diorama honestly. The $55 is a bit of an L but I really enjoyed the Dark Trooper Attack set and expanding the hallway (and my Dark Trooper army) with multiple copies. The price tag will make it a bit trickier to do that with this set, but it should make it easier to army build modern Stormies and Rebel Fleet Troopers at least. I have the 2019 Tantive IV so I'm personally kinda fine if we don't get an updated Antilles. A proper ANH Vader is a must in my opinion since the other figures will probably be reuses. With how many Vader figures we've gotten over the years, it's a bit absurd that his Rebels/RO/ANH design has only been properly done once in a single set from 2016. An updated Thrawn and Ezra are inevitable. Even if Lego doesn't do more Ahsoka sets (which given how much effort they're putting into those three sets this year, more sets in 2024 is definitely not out of the question), these characters will still be prevalent over the next few years, especially with the Filoni movie in a couple years. TVC is doing a new Thrawn figure soon but it's specifically the Rebels version so there might be some sort of embargo or delay on Ahsoka-specific Thrawn merch for now.

You should be good on both of those for another year at least. The most recent version (as well as previous iterations) of the retiring sets list from BrickFanatics has both of those listed to stick around to the end of the 2024 at least.

That 2013 hair mold is most likely retired. Lego would be far more likely to use a modern mold or create a new one entirely (which is less likely).

No offense, but I highly doubt most of, if any, of those figures would be of any interest to the vast majority of consumers. That would be the problem with theming a CMF series off the movies, let alone each movie individually (which would take up over a decade to cover each theatrical film as a series). That problem being that we’ve already gotten most of the main characters from each film and most of the figures we are missing would not be interesting enough to warrant spots in a CMF series. Like someone else said before, the only way I see them ever doing a Star Wars CMF is by doing a broad Disney+ theme like Marvel. And I’m not even sure they would do that since Lego already does at least one set for each series (with the exception of The Bad Batch season 2 and anthology-style series like Tales of the Jedi or the non-canon Visions show), unlike Marvel where What If? was the only Disney+ show to get proper sets. As for the build for the Clone/Battle Droid pack, I’m hoping/guessing that it’ll be a Seperatist vehicle of some sort. Maybe a Homing Spider Tank or Corporate Alliance Tank Droid. That or maybe a speeder of some sort for both factions would be my preference.

You might want to try building this custom B2-EMO I found on Youtube. I've personally replicated this user's design and he looks great. Probably not too far off from how Lego would design him if they included him in a future Andor set.

This may be an unpopular opinion from what I'm seeing but I'm not super excited about what we've heard so far about the 2024 Lego Star Wars lineup. (Also, good lord are we learning things early.) To put it shortly, there's just too many non-playsets for my liking but to put it not so-shortly, here's some of my scatterbrained thoughts: I was no fan of the helmets line but I'm shocked and somewhat bummed that it's not continuing next year. They seemed to be good sellers and there was plenty of potential for more. The 4+ Crimson Firehawk is cool for Young Jedi Adventures fans as it'll likely include the missing characters from this year's 4+ set. Like that set though, this one just won't be for me. The R2-D2 is yet another "why?" set, which Lego seems to be throwing a lot of out lately. (Looking at you Chewie.) I guess it's cool for younger builders and some accounts have mentioned it possibly also having a buildable C-3PO which could help make it stand out from the practically perfect UCS set that's still out. An easy skip regardless. The 18+ droideka is neat. Probably not a set I'd be into but maybe the build will blow me away. Cool to see regardless. Glad to see fans of midi-scale getting more sets from that line, but again, it's just not for me. I am into collecting the Star Wars dioramas so while I'll probably get these new ones, I'm not particularly hyped about either of them. I like that we're starting to get stuff from the prequels here, though I'm not super thrilled about a microscale podrace. As for the other one, it'll probably make for a nice display piece and it will be nice to get some more Rebel Fleet Troopers in the Tantive IV Boarding set. I'm just hoping we'll get another more exciting diorama as a retail exclusive? I'm pretty surprised that we're getting a UCS TIE Interceptor before a standard TIE or an Advanced to go with last year's X-Wing. I like the TIE Interceptor design a lot but a UCS version doesn't interest me personally. As for the playsets we are getting? I'm really liking what we're getting. Getting the Skeleton Crew ship as a large playset in 1HY 2024 is something I've been calling for a while. Those murmurings of the Max Rebo head mold returning are probably related to this set as I believe one of the main characters are of the same species. The set will probably come with Jude Law and the four children characters. I'm trying to collect all of the "Mando-verse" related sets so this one will be a buy for me. Grogu's Escape should be a fun little set. I'm expecting just the pram and BARC Speeder with Sidecar as builds, with Grogu, Kelleran Beq and 1-2 Shock Troopers included, which will hopefully bring the value of those latter figures down. This isn't necessarily the "spoilery" Mando S3 set I was hoping for, but cool nonetheless. The Clone Trooper vs. Battle Droid Pack is very exciting to me. Getting new Super Battle Droids (I would guess that these ones are most likely going to be less prone to breaking) and an easy way to get a bunch of standard battle droids at once is great. I just hope this set includes P2 shinies, whether it be 2-4. I saw someone throw out the idea of this set paying homage to the original Clone battle pack with two shinies, a 327th and a Coruscant Guard trooper and I'd 100% be down for that. Like the 2020 501st set, I'll likely be getting several copies of this set during its lifespan. I guess my wallet should be happy that there isn't much here that excites me (and there really isn't much grabbing me from any of the 2024 rumors for other themes either) but man, it kinda sucks to see so few playsets in the first half of the year unless there are some set numbers missing here like others have mentioned. I personally think this is it until next summer unless they are spreading stuff out more next year versus just having a lot coming out in 2HY like usual. It will be interesting to see what the summer wave looks like next year. For new shows, assuming they don't get pushed around too much due to the current Hollywood strikes, we should be getting The Acolyte, The Bad Batch season 3 and Andor season 2. Lego completely skipped Bad Batch season 2 so I wouldn't be surprised to see them focus more on the other shows, which the former should give us some really cool High Republic-era minifigures at the very least and we could very well be getting the highly desired Fondor haulcraft model to tie-in with the latter. There's also the video game Star Wars: Outlaws due to release in 2024 but Lego will probably skip it like they did with Jedi: Survivor this year. Beyond that, I foresee some more spoilery Mando S3 and Ahsoka sets sprinkled throughout next year's lineup.

The less said about the Chewbacca set the better. Like I’ve said previously, since it’s not taking the place of either of the usual UCS sets this year and is essentially a bonus D2C like 2021’s Gunship, I’m not too bothered by its existence. Hopefully Lego dials it back with these big sets that no one wants (Black Panther, Hulkbuster, etc.). Just because they can make something doesn’t mean they *should*. And oh my god, these Ahsoka sets are amazing. One of the best Star Wars subthemes we’ve ever had in my opinion. The sets are all so colorful and vibrant, there are so many cool and unique minifigures and the sets are all ships that either haven’t been made in a while or haven’t been made ever. It’s basically the antithesis of Lego’s Mando S3 lineup: no drab gray vehicles or boring minifig selections. (I also have a feeling that the Ahsoka show itself will be much better than the disappointing Mando S3.) Ahsoka Tano’s T-6 Jedi Shuttle is a beautiful model and surprisingly the only set to include Snips herself. I was a bit surprised to see that they didn’t go with a white/red color scheme but the one they went with really does work. It’s a bit disappointing knowing that one side of the wings will probably look ugly with the undersides of the studs but I guess I just won’t display it that way. The minifigures all look great. I love the new Ahsoka, so glad to get a new montral/lekku piece for her. I do think its weird they aren’t using the curved hilt piece for her lightsabers. (Maybe that piece just isn’t around anymore?) Huyang looks solid and that Inquisitor/Marrok figure had a surprising amount of effort put into them. They look great. I really like the new Sabine figure, though I agree that she looks off without the printed arms that most other named Mandalorians get these days. She doesn’t seem to have gauntlets in this series but her pauldrons are a notable omission. Besides that gripe, it is cool that they included her hair, helmet and even Ezra’s lightsaber, as well as updating her skin tone to a more accurate color. I was waiting to update my Rebels Sabine figures to see what skin tone they go with for the live-action version and now I know what to use. New Republic E-Wing vs. Shin Hati’s Starfighter is a very interesting set. I was fully expecting the somewhat dull option of just getting a recolored X-Wing or A-Wing to pair with Shin’s fighter but I’m pleasantly surprised to see that we are indeed getting an E-Wing here. Personally I like the dual starfighters sets, I was glad to see them come back this year. I love the color schemes on both ships and how neither of them look undersized, though Shin does look a bit awkward in the cockpit of her ship. The way they designed the fuselage on her ship also looks really interesting to me. The minifigures here are pretty solid for the most part. The New Republic pilot is cool, I like that he has a face with the helmet chinstrap and one without. I love that blue and yellow astromech droid. Morgan Elsbeth and Shin look like pretty good representations of those characters, especially the latter. I feel like they dropped the ball on Baylan somewhat however; they didn’t include his shoulder pads or cape for some reason (I guess so he can fit into one of the ships?) and the hairpiece just doesn’t look right, though I can’t think of one that would work better. I do think the use of red lightsaber blades instead of orange should be noted; I guess we can chalk this up to outdated concept art? (Similar to Ahsoka herself in the 2016 Rebels Combat Frigate.) Fortunately I ordered some blades in that color off of Bricklink a while back. Overall, very satisfied with these Ahsoka sets. They are definitely expensive but they also don’t feel like a terrible value for what you’re getting in each set. Besides the Indy sets that I still need to pick up, these are some of the few 2023 Lego items to really get me excited and make me want to get my hands on them ASAP. Can’t wait til September.

I haven’t been buying too much Lego this summer but here are some of the Star Wars things I’ve gotten since my last post here: -Engineerio Customs S3/4 Ezra Bridger minifigure. -75215 Cloud Riders Swoop Bikes (Sealed) -75082 TIE Advanced Prototype (Used, Complete) -BrickDaddyMinifigures Custom Jedi Survivor Cal Kestis minifigure. I’ve also gotten some loose minifigures from Bricklink: -SW0247 Admiral Ackbar -SW0192 Ahsoka Tano (I replaced her legs with white mid-legs and her face with the 2020 one.) -SW0574A: Ezra Bridger with Cadet Helmet. -SW1007 Scout Trooper -SW0817 Blind Kanan Jarrus -SW1059 Klatoonian Raider -SW0513 Wicket Excluding the microfighters and some of the polybags, I now officially own every official Rebels set and minifigure. (Aside from Thrawn technically but I have a custom printed figure that’s far superior to the official version.) I’m glad to have that subtheme complete in time before the Ahsoka series starts. Aside from some of the new sets and some more custom figure orders, I’ll probably start getting the few remaining Rogue One and Solo sets I’m missing over the next few months and then I’ll be able to complete those subthemes as well. I’m also looking to build this custom Stinger Mantis model on Rebrickable, which I already own most of the pieces for fortunately. (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-101243/dannyfordjohnson/stinger-mantis/#details)

That’s interesting because I just ordered those exact two sets from Lego and they shipped them in two separate boxes, with the GWPs being packed with the Bookshop. Not much protection in my case either though, just some paper filling. Everything in the Bookshop shipping box seemed to be fine for the most part but the Police Station box was a bit more beat up since it was the only thing in its box.

Pretty sure the 2021 X-Wing is retiring this year. Personally, I’m 50/50 on if it will be a New Republic X-Wing or A-Wing but I do really want that E-Wing as a set. I also want that helmet Sabine’s wearing on the bike in that part of the trailer as a minifig part too, so maybe we could just get a separate set based on that scene?

So far, based on the two trailers and rumors for the two unseen sets, I think Lego's done a great job covering the Ahsoka series. All the big characters seem to be represented aside from Ezra and Thrawn, neither of which I thought was likely for the initial wave, plus maybe some specific character variants like long-hair Sabine. I could see us getting some spoilery figures with that dark-sider Eta-class shuttle as a set next year. As for the show itself, I have high hopes. TCW and Rebels are some of my favorite Star Wars storytelling outside of the OT and this show feels like a culmination and love letter to what came before.

I saw the movie on the 4th of July and was just kinda indifferent towards it. As fan-servicey as it was (and with how dodgy the de-aging was in a few shots), I had a blast watching the opening 1944 scene. That felt like classic Indiana Jones to me in a way that, for the most part, the rest of the film didn’t. The rest of the movie wasn’t bad but not great either. Like others have said, it just wasn’t super fun to me. Even the soundtrack was pretty mediocre here and this is John Williams we’re talking about. I will say that Harrison Ford gave an excellent performance during that scene on the boat. As far as ranking the films: 1. TLC (narrowly beats out ROTLA because I love the action sequences in this one as well as the dynamic between the Joneses.) 2. ROTLA 3. TOD 4. KOTCS 5. DOD I honestly had a good time rewatching KOTCS a week or two ago so while it’s definitely worse than the original three, I enjoyed it more than this one. I prefer either of TLC or KOTCS’s endings for the character. I just wish they did more films during the 90s. As for the Lego theme, I still would have liked to see some DOD sets despite what I thought about the film. Like I said, I loved the opening 1944 scene and would love a set based on that, though the Nazi imagery probably takes those options off the table. Same for Voller’s plane. Still, the parade or tuk-tuk chases are good set material. As it stands, I’m still disappointed that the three sets we got in April are probably the only Indy sets we’re getting for this revival but at least those three sets are all incredible. I still haven’t picked them up but I look forward to doing that in the next few months.

Haven’t been active here in a while, but I’m glad to see pictures for some of the September sets. I think the Coruscant Guard Gunship is fine. The $140 price tag is a tougher pill to swallow than last year’s AT-TE, but the set itself is okay in my eyes. The box art isn’t super flattering but in the other picture that leaked, the build looks good to me. I’m excited about the new Palpatine and Padme figures (I just hope Padme doesn’t use the same overused licensed female face the 2019 Padme figure used). New Shock Troopers are exciting. I’m kinda indifferent about this overblown Commander Fox “controversy”. On one hand, yes, I think it’s a bit ridiculous to see the number of inaccuracies on the figure, especially given the $140 price tag here. Do I somewhat agree with critics that Lego has dropped the ball in terms of quality and attention to detail in recent years? Yes. On the other hand, the inaccuracies are relatively miniscule and I don’t particularly care if they got the kneepad color wrong on a minor character I don’t care that much about. Besides, we’ve generally known what the figure would look like for months now ever since he was spotted in that mobile app so I don’t know why people are so shocked about the design of this figure all of a sudden. Again though, the bigger issue with the set is the price. I plan on getting it but I’m not in a huge hurry, and definitely not at full price. I’m going to prioritize Bricklinking the 2013 Gunship like I was planning on doing before rumors for this set popped up. The new Ghost and Phantom 2 set gets me a lot more excited, especially since I’m a huge Rebels fan. I was dealing with a good deal of Lego burnout earlier this year and while I’ve gotten past it, I still haven’t been super into 2023’s offerings. I’ve mostly been buying retired Star Wars sets while I wait to get this year’s sets on sale. This is the first new Lego set in a while to simultaneously wow me and make me want to own it ASAP. And this is coming from someone who got the original Ghost and Phantom sets almost exactly a year ago. The Ghost itself is a major improvement on the 2014 model in just about every conceivable way. Better build, finer detailing, larger interior and it looks more structurally sound. I’m just wondering what that orange and green build is in one of the crates? I thought it could be Hera’s Kalikori at first but probably not. The tiny Phantom 2 looks a bit odd to me but now that I’ve gotten used to it, I actually like it quite a lot. They got most of the shaping and detailing correct, which is impressive given the size. It also fits in with the Ghost so much better than the 2017 Phantom did with the previous Ghost. And overall, it’s just nice to see such a colorful Star Wars set compared to the grays and blacks we usually get. The minifigure selection appears to be solid. The new Hera looks great, the Mon Calamari pilot is cool and it’s nice to get a Rebel/NR officer minifig. Interesting that this Lego figure is our first look at live-action Jacen Syndulla, who thankfully lost the awful green hair. I will say that I’m not crazy about the new Chopper though. It just looks oddly simplified and 4+-esque compared to the previous figure. The tile on top of his head just looks dumb, especially compared to how they printed Chopper’s dish on the top of the head for the previous version. Overall, I’m very excited for the set. I look forward to getting this set and the other two sets from the Ahsoka series at the Lego Store for my birthday in September. Maybe this one being a retail exclusive had something to do with it?

I've been busy the last few days but here are my thoughts on everything. The 4+ set is a 4+ set. I dig the Iron Man figure there but I'm kinda done collecting Iron Man figures for the time being. The Venomized Groot actually looks kinda neat, even if the concept is pointless. The Endgame Final Battle is such a redundant set, it even has the same name as the previous version. I already have most of the figures and am not rushing out to get the ones I'm missing. I just don't get the point of making more Endgame sets if we're not getting more of the things we're missing and want from that movie, like War Machine or Ronin. I will say that the new set makes for a nice display piece. The No Way Home set is a mixed bag for me. The build looks very good and as someone who owns Apocalypseburg, the identical build for the Statue of Liberty head stood out to me instantly but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I do kinda wish we got more of Lady Liberty though, or at least the upper body and the arm holding the Captain America Shield. Unpopular opinion here, but I would have been completely fine with Lego making this a bigger set so we could have gotten a larger build, a more substantial Sandman build (just his hand, really?) and maybe some improvements on the figures. Speaking of the figures, the Spideys all look good to me. My only problem with them is the lack of arm printing, but I'm sure I'll be able to find custom arms to fix that problem. (Firestar already has some for Holland's Integrated Suit.) Electro looks good to me as well. I have a lot of nitpicks with the other figures though. For some reason, they reused MOM Doctor Strange when they already have a NWH version of the figure in the Sanctum Workshop. For using reused parts, MJ looks pretty good other than that hair piece they insist on using for Zendaya's figures which is super inaccurate. Ned's jacket is also the complete wrong color, but again for a figure with all reused parts that didn't *have* to be there, I don't really mind too much. Doc Ock and Green Goblin are the ones I really have a problem with. Doc Ock's jacket is the wrong color (they should have used dark green), that hair piece does not work for him at all and I'm not crazy about his face prints. And that Green Goblin figure is just terrible. I'm definitely replacing the latter two with the Firestar figures. As someone who loved No Way Home and was dying for this set to be made, I'm glad to see it finally arrive though I am disappointed that there's so many shortcomings despite having more than a year and a half to make and release this thing. I'm most likely still going to be getting it and probably modifying or replacing the figures a bunch, but this is just a perfect representation of Lego Superheroes at this point. Most of the time, either the build or the figures are going to be half baked, if not both. Not to mention the prices that just keep going up and unlike something like Star Wars, there aren't a ton of fantastic builds or minifigures to make up for that. I'm also just feeling somewhat burnt out on the superhero genre in general, or at least Marvel aside from Spider-Man who will always be one of my favorite fictional characters. Beyond this one, there's only a few more current Marvel/DC sets I care to get (the Burton Batmobile and Batwing, the second Marvel CMF and maybes on of the large building sets like the Sanctum Sanctorum and rumored Avengers Tower) and beyond that, I plan on trying to mostly stick to Star Wars, modular buildings and CMFs.

I still think the decision to release like five Burtonverse Batman sets this year is incredibly bizarre, and that’s coming from someone who’s second favorite live action version of the character is Michael Keaton. Clearly, the Batmobile and probably the Batwing were supposed to be Flash tie-ins. Some folks on Reddit were even pointing out how it looks like they redid the boxart and had Joker running in the Flash’s place. As someone who’s actually kinda looking forward to the film (and I’m not a huge DC fan and definitely not a fan of DCEU), I kinda have mixed feelings on Lego taking away any tie-in with the new film. On one hand, I respect them for not wanting to be associated with Ezra Miller but on the other hand, they’re like the only toy/merch brand doing this and it feels kinda moot. And this decision makes for two much less interesting sets than if we were to get some characters from the new film included instead of the exact same Batman and Joker twice. Side note, but I think it’s kinda crazy that two of the biggest movies this summer feature the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and instead of getting Lego sets based on these new films, we just get sets based on the older ones. I have no idea what happened with those four supposed Dial of Destiny set numbers (apparently they just never existed), but we know that the Batmobile at least was originally supposed to be a Flash set because of its title in the original rumor and the leaked Flash minifigure that will likely never see the light of day. But yeah, all of that aside, the builds for the Batmobile and Batwing are fantastic. My biggest gripe are the figures: I would have liked to see the specialized ‘89 cowl mold used in these sets for when Batman isn’t in the vehicles and I think the new Joker figure is a fine comic version but a terrible Jack Nicholson figure. I’ll probably have to Bricklink the previous figure or at least the face. Because those figures and the prices make me wince a little bit, I think I’ll save up some VIP points so I can get both of these sets at once for a lower price. It’s weird to me how the Batwing is cheaper than the Batmobile but seeing how much that 2019 promo set goes for, I think Lego knew people would pay virtually any price for the latter set. I understand the Batmobile fatigue but I love getting different incarnations of the vehicle in Lego form. I’d love to get the Schumacher Batmobiles with those wacky character designs in Lego form.

I think it’s very possible that we get this whenever we get a minifigure of “Ahsoka the White”. Speaking of Andor, I’m curious to see how Lego will handle set distribution for the new Star Wars series next year: Skeleton Crew (which is technically slated to start airing before the end of this year but it wouldn’t get any Lego sets until next year anyway), The Acolyte and Andor Season 2. The former two are completely new series with new characters, while the latter is a continuation of an existing series but also a very adult-oriented one that Lego hasn’t done much for thus far. I can definitely see us getting The Fondor to tie-in with Andor, but I’m curious to see how Lego will go about representing those other series. There’s also The Bad Batch Season 3, which I’m hoping they don’t skip like Season 2 (even if I’m not a huge fan of the show). I’m also curious to see if they do anything for Jedi Survivor but I’m not holding my breath. There’s also still some gaps for Mando Season 3 and Ahsoka that I’m sure Lego will fill next year as well.

The mech builds aren't as terrible as I was expecting, but they're still absolute wastes. Microfighters essentially fill the same niche and are actually relevant to Star Wars. I already have multiples of the newer Vader, I have the updated Stormies from the Trash Compacter (which were an unnecessary update in the first place) and I have UCS Slave 1 Boba Fett so no real need to get this new one, even if it looks nice. As for the new leaks: Yoda's Starfighter is an absolutely useless remake. It's not a ship with much screen time and it adds nothing new that the original model didn't already offer besides some minor changes to the build. It's a cheap way for people to get Yoda and R2 but that's about all it has going for it. I hate to say it, but I also feel that the Yavin IV Rebel Base looks <insert that tiresome argument>. As simplistic as it is, I don't necessarily hate the build though that tree looks atrocious. The chibi Y-Wing looks good, though the Astromech looks somewhat oversized for the build. It takes away from the piece count of the actual base though, so I kinda wish they did it as its own set instead of the pointless Yoda set. The minifigure selection is fantastic however; it's great to get an updated Medal Ceremony Leia, as well as Red and Gold Leader. I love that Luke and Han's medals are seperate pieces; it's nice that you can have Luke in his main outfit from the canon comics in between ANH and ESB. Despite my problems with the set, I still want to get it but definitely not without a significant discount or usage of VIP points. The Ahsoka Trooper battle pack is about what I expected. Glad to see it'll be cheaper than we expected. Vaughn barely looks like the character in the show but I still really like the set overall. I plan to get multiples when they're on sale. Overall, somewhat of a mediocre lineup for August but September will be very exciting. I can't wait to see those Ahsoka sets.

Just got back from college on Friday and since I had a ton of mail waiting for me at home, I figured I would do a rundown of everything I've gotten so far in 2023. Two 75345 501st Specialist Battle Packs, one of which is still sealed. The 75344 Boba Fett Microfighter I got for free with Target Circle rewards. 30654 X-Wing Polybag. Two more 75320 Snowtrooper Battle Packs, bringing my total to 6. (I got these two with a $25 gift card I won from a raffle, so I essentially got these two for the price of one.) 75330 Dagobah Jedi Training on sale from Amazon. 75329 Death Star Trench Run Diorama with an open box and sealed bags for under retail on eBay. 5002938 Stormtrooper Sergeant polybag from eBay. 5002939 The Phantom polybag from eBay. Various Bricklink part orders, including a General Hux figure, lightsaber pieces, parts to modify my Ezra Bridger minifigures and parts to do custom figures of Rebels Maul and the Seventh Sister. 75150 Vader's TIE Advanced vs. A-Wing Starfighter used from Bricklink. This is the big and exciting purchase: I got sealed copies of almost all of the Rebels sets I was missing for reasonable prices (relative to what they normally go for anyway) and cheap shipping from a seller in Gibraltar. This includes 75078 Imperial Troop Transport, 75141 Kanan's Speeder Bike, 75083 AT-DP, 75084 Wookiee Gunship, 75106 Imperial Assault Carrier, 75158 Rebel Combat Frigate and 75157 Captain Rex's AT-TE. Didn't realize I had gotten so much until writing it all out. Of course, this was all spread out over the course of four months and I got deals on a lot of it. I'm especially happy that my Rebels collection is almost complete. I'm a big fan of the series and it was my entry point into the franchise, though I somehow ended up not getting any of the sets when they were out. I wanted to rectify that mistake before the Ahsoka series starts later this year and probably drives up the value of this subtheme even more. At this point, excluding microfighters and polybags, I'm only missing the TIE Advanced Prototype set, the blind Kanan minifigure and the Ezra Bridger figure with the cadet helmet; all of which I should hopefully be ordering within the next month.

I could definitely see Lego doing the Fondor at least to tie in with Season 2. There's not a lot of other stuff from the series, or at least from the first season, that I can see them making though, but the Fondor should suffice. As for Fallen Order/Survivor, I'd LOVE to see the Mantis at the very least, but there's so much more set potential from both the first game and from what I've seen of the second game so far.

All of these sets are so mediocre. The buildable figures are just straight-up awful and complete wastes of set slots. Why buy one of these atrocious LEGO figures instead of an actual action figure of the same character? And the Cap/Black Widow bike set is another boring AOU retread. The Black Widow figure somehow manages to look worse and less accurate than the one from 2015. It's a good thing I'm largely burnt out on Marvel and this Lego theme because the NWH set and CMF line are probably going to be it for me for a while.

This is what I want to see most in Lego Star Wars right now: more than one battle pack a year. Sure, we get other army builders like the Dark Trooper Attack, Republic Fighter Tank and (to a much lesser extent due to its size and price) the AT-TE, but it's just not the same. It seemed like Lego was experimenting with those minifigure accessory sets last year, which were a failed effort in my opinion. The Hoth Rebel set wasn't bad but it wasn't super desirable and always overstocked, whereas it was incredibly difficult to get the clone set especially since they stuck around for less than a year. They could have made so much more money by just doing a wide release battle pack of P1 Clones. What would have made a lot more sense to me was to use those Lego-exclusive Accessory Sets for characters that people aren't really going to army build and use the wide-release battle packs for the factions and groups that people are going to want multiples of. I don't see Lego going back to four battle packs a year anytime in the near future, most likely since they got scared off by so many battle packs doing poorly in the later 2010s due to so many weak choices. I could see them going back to doing two a year, probably a light side and a dark side battle pack, and then potentially some more Lego accessory sets every other year. If they went in this direction, I think a 212th Clone Battle Pack and an Imperial Beskar Trooper/Praetorian Guard Battle Pack would make the most sense for the January 2024 wave.