Lordhelmet

I will not be buying any of these sets, if I was I would wait for a deep discount. i think the battle pack can be used as the best demonstration of Lego price gouging. last year the (super?) battle pack was $30 for 215 pieces. It came with four minifigures, three super battle droids, and two battle droids. adjusted for inflation to this year would be $31 the new set has slightly more pieces 258, two less “minifigures” and both had one new molded part. $45. if we consider that increased Tarriffs played a role, then the tarriff charge would likely have been $4-$5 per set. (Import price wouldn’t have been at full retail price). So $36. Let’s say they were complete Jerks and doubled the cost from Tarriffs and added $8-$10 to enhance their profit margin. That should still only put us at $39 assuming they are increasing profit off Tarriffs. i cannot figure out how we got to $45 from $30 for the same product in just one year. Lego is going to need to rethink their business as a whole. Their competitors are getting better and are half the price, while I don’t buy from their competitors (because of my stupid brand loyalty and that I only buy LOTR and Star Wars) I may stop buying from Lego. Especially anywhere near full price. I might pick up the battle pack if it is at 40% discount which roughly translates to a 20% discount off of last years price.

After the Death Star this year, I am only a B-wing, N1 starfighter (yellow), and Endor At-st (not UCS prefer minifigure scale) sets away from having one of every ship and vehicle from the OT movies. After that I’m only looking for ships they haven’t released yet, minifigures, or dioramas from the OT movies (and some other ones I may like) I bring this up in light of the downsizing discussion. I appreciate some downsized sets (as long as they are done well). I bought the U wing. I also bought the Lukes x wing from a few years ago because it is closest to minifigure scale and looks good. However I skipped the tie fighter at the time because it was downsized. I might buy new ships if they are closer to minifigure scale with more detail but not looking for something off scale. so while I do appreciate downsized sets as long as they are done well. I also probably won’t buy many downsized sets to replace the ones in my collection. Some sets need downsizing (still don’t have a small enough snowspeeder) but overall most sets would be better trying to (where reasonable) hit minifigure scale. i am curious how this impacts others collection decisions. Would you buy the MTT at the current size? Or try to find a bigger version? Is the decision based on what you have or don’t have, or details? For me downsized sets only work for very specific things, otherwise I probably won’t buy many to replace other sets in my collection.

I prefer when they name the characters they model things after (major bren derlin as an example). Would be better for them to just use the name.

The first torso, does this equate to learning that Krennic is tied to Ghorman? The energy project isn't real? I am excited to see who else we get if we are getting Krennic, my thought is that it will cover all the different era's of the Death Star (similar to the old ones). Would like to see some new characters we haven't had yet.

Sadly no death Star plans yet. Sets look better than I expected, same with the minifigures.

Awesome work very nice

I would like a N-1 star fighter in this price range again. or if they took a UCS AT-AT approach (highly accurate detailed and scaled to minifigures) for a smaller vehicle. A highly detailed minifigure scale b wing that is UCS quality would be worth that $150 range.

Your argument is that because we got Lando dressed as Tamale Skreej, is that the cloud city Lando is not needed?

It is a strange auto correct of "characters' (should say "not many characters"). Episode V is only missing a handful of characters at this point (mostly imperial officers). But to your point, they have not made enough Lando's (especially recently). It is even crazier that the two Cloud City based Lando minifigures came in two incredibly expensive sets at the time. Cloud City Lando is harder to find than Grand Moff Tarkin, and almost as rare as Admiral Piett.

True well covered (there are. It many ch racers that have not been done and I don’t think any vehicles other than a tie shuttle) doesn’t mean they can’t do remakes which we desperately need from this movie (Lando and Leia from cloud city stand out)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=lor067#T=S&O={"iconly":0}. I can only afford this one

Wishlists for the big anniversaries coming up. Limiting to 5 standard sets, and 1 UCS for each of these years. 2027 - A New Hope 50th - Lars homestead (Include Luke, Owen, Beru). Small build of the topside and interior. $30-40 (I think 30, but with lego inflation who knows) - Mos Eisley Street /lukes land speeder ( Includes Ronto molded figure, Jawa, droid, sand trooper, aliens, Luke, Ben, 3-PO, and R2). $160 - X-Wing vs. Tie Advanced combo $120 ish (want them to be minifigure scaled) - Death Star Cell - Includes Leia, storm trooper Luke, and two storm troopers - $40 - Sandtrooper Battle pack - 2 sand troopers, 1 sand trooper officer, and one alien $25 (Bonus - if they did a sixth one it would be sand people attacking Luke with a molded Bantha for $80) UCS - New Falcon based on the death start docking bay scene (so the whole crew, search crew, storm troopers etc.) Don't want to guess price. 2030 - Empire Strikes Back 50th - Echo Base attack 1 - Trenches - small turret and trench build - 2 rebels, 2 snow troopers - $30. - Echo Base attack 2 - Generators - Full generators and some side build of trenches, comes with Bren Derlin, Rebel trooper, Snow trooper commander, snow trooper (maybe a small at-st or some type of imperial vehicle) ($80-100) - Echo Base attack 3 - Hanger - Main Doors, hanger space with snow speeder, small medical area, small command area (Yavin styled set) - Derick Hobbie Klivian, Leia, Rebel officer, Rebel crew, R5-M2, Wes Janson, Wedge, Luke Bacta, 2-1B, Rebel trooper,). ($180) These could be combined - like Hogwarts - Cloud City 1 - Upper coordidoors - small dining room next to living quarters - Lando, Leia (red outfit), Han, Storm Troopers, Vader ($100) - Cloud City 2 - Carbon Freezing room - Luke Vader duel ($30) Bonus - Dagobah cave - Luke Vader Yoda R2 with a small cave for Luke to fight Vader. UCS - Exectuor (don't want to know the price) comes with Piet, or Ozzel, and some other command crew.

Very excited for this - I will put my wish list in the other chat for this one. (Although, I would add this movie is probably the best covered of all of them to date) I like the idea of the Falcon UCS this year (but maybe executor will be it?). This combined with the 50th will probably make that year not have any clones again, not what I want but could be why we are getting all the prequel and clone sets this year. Agreed on this, we could get another Cantina set that is all unique aliens (probably do two more sets like that to get through most of them). Jabba's Palace has a lot of options too.

There are still a handful of ships/vehicles with screen time (special edition at least) that have never had a set. Plus Bantha and Ronto have never really been in a meaningful set. Could see one or both of those. I am surprised the Death Star was not saved for 2027 but released this year (supposedly). Makes the UCS options for that year interesting (the falcon is a good theory, every ten years a new one?). Wondering if we are getting a ton of clone sets this year because the next two year each have major events (Movie, Anniversary). I still think the problem with sets this year is we are getting 4 buildable characters, 3 helmets, 3 starships, plus the logo which all cut into the ability to balance the sets out better. I think we should have gotten 7 of these at most giving us 4 more play sets to balance things out.

Star Wars has its 50th anniversary coming up in just under two years. I wonder what that wave will be like. Anniversary years make it harder to do balance well unless it cuts into the other subthemes more than the playsets. (They should have done a ROTS diorama of mustafar or palpatines arest, or even yoda vs palp for the record - would have been better than doing a third helmet or third starship or fourth buildable character).

I think this misses the point a bit. People are not upset that there are clones, in fact there were too little clone wars era/ prequels representation in the theme in previous years. I think people are upset about the lack of balance. The other main complaint going around (and from me) is that there are too many 18+ sets and not enough play sets. I complain about both of these things, but that doesn't mean I don't buy sets from either of those groups. We just don't have good balance in the theme over the past five or so years. There are three main eras at this point OT, Prequels/clone wars, Disney stuff, I think the theme should balance these out. The real reason balance is good, is lets say you like OT a lot, but don't really care for Disney related stuff, having 15-25% of the playsets released being OT means you don't have to spend crazy amounts to not miss out on sets you may like, the reverse is true too. If you like prequels/clones, you are looking at spending hundreds on sets this year, if you like OT you spent what $0 this year? (but last year there were only three prequel or clone war sets for $130ish, wouldn't it have been better to swap the star destroyer and the MTT for example)? So spend over the past three years if you like OT playsets (Do the math on the others by the way). 2023 - 2 play sets $250, 2024 - 4 playlets $335 2025 - 0 playsets $0? I would have preferred that one of the 2024 ones had moved into 2025. And honestly things like Rebuild the Galaxy are taking up the valuable slots, alongside all the Disney show sets (and I really want a Tie Avenger). Again swapping the MTT and Star Destroyer would have moved around $150 in opposite directions, giving the OT fans something to buy this year, and a better line up for prequels/ clone fans last year. Balance to the theme (at all price points) is a good thing for all of us. Same for the 18+, there are a lot of good things about these lines (starship, helmet, diorama, buildable characters, random stuff), but we had three dioramas in one year, and none this year, then we had no helmets last year and three this year. just do one each year, that gives collectors something to look forward to without having to spend $300 one year than $0 the next. I think it is good that clone sets are popular, I just wish Lego could plan better around the theme. Look at how good that 4+ fire hawk has been doing, maybe doing a 4+ tie advanced or Bongo would have been a better pick?

if they can make Cobb Vanth, they can make a Tie Avenger. So potentially some good news today. Also, all these leaks about next year, I really just want a minifigure list for the Death Star.

These are the reasons I show up and read this thread everyday.

Lego TV ads still exist (streaming on kids accounts will get you some). They were not as memorable as some of the intense ones from back in the day, mostly some kids playing with sets with imaginative play.

I personally hope the “leaks” are true, that would be six solid skips from me and would save me some good money for when they eventually listen and come out with a Tie avenger.

I had a dark age from 2002-2007 and a significant dark age from 2013 to 2020 missed a lot of good sets, but I am only a LOTR completionist so I was able to get the Star Wars things I missed that I wanted (minus a few things that are worth hunting). The minifig dioramas were some of my favorite sets, specifically Vader meditation chamber, speeder chase, and throne room. i don’t collect the helmets but i do appreciate the starship theme since it gets good sized capital ships for display (they should come with a minifigure). I just wish they would do one of each theme per year. So one diorama, one helmet, one starship, one buildable figure, even give them one spare slot for experiments or an extra in any of the categories. This year though we have ten from these and none of them were the minifigure based dioramas (Mustafar would have been awesome).

Gondor, been the hope for over a decade. I’m a little concerned about the delay to the gollum movie for sets next year, but hoping the movie will get us a few playsets in 2027

Agreed, but if we have to have mechs then I would consider buying with better minifigs. I do genuinely like the microfighter line though especially the ones where we get a decent character.

“I’m with you too” This would be a great way for Lego to make fans happy (and drive microfighter sales) I still stand by one of the best microfighters was the x-wing because it gave us Theron net. It would be good in my opinion for Lego to keep this trend up (or if they are invested in the mech theme use it to do unique characters that don’t show up in every other set there as well). I would actually buy mechs if they had a mini figure that I didn’t have 5 of already. I’d be good with a padme one (we don’t have enough padme options), a dooku one, grievous, Krennic, Mara jade, would at least make them more interesting (I think plo and Rex were good by the way just agreeing we need more like this) I also think bringing back microfighter dual packs would be a good idea if they keep the recent trend of good mini figures up. Like a dual microfighter of plo and grievous on a micro malevolence would have been awesome. Me too, fun to hear how people set up their Lego collecting goals and strategies to get there.

I’m this but for LOTR only, for Star Wars I had to narrow my focus because completion is way too much money. I set my collection to one of each ship and vehicle from the OT (my favorite version of each) and one of every character (again picking my favorite version so for pilot Luke I have the UCS version). I will pick up a random other set if I really like it (u-wing this year) but this way my sets are very focused and don’t change.