BrickPrick

You are shy of a hundred days, my dear fellow time traveler. Definitely the latter. I had to google the "Imperial Dignitary's" name. But I know who Clone Commander Bacara is. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. When I think about Star Wars Glup Shitto's, I always think about the various Alien characters with minimal screen time, next to no lines of dialogue and you usually don't get to know their name. And even if you do, chances are you don't recognize it at first glance. Whereas certain troopers, officers and whatnot, like you said, are more recognizable by default, because you can immediately assign some identity based on ranks alone. If I did my homework correctly, the last Microfighter Dual Pack released in 2021 and retired in 2022. That feels like a lifetime ago. As far as I'm concerned, a risk that hopefully doesn't pay out for them. Of course... just as valid of a point to make. From a collector's perspective, people who already own something wouldn't mind if it stays exclusive... or don't care to begin with. While the people who still need something want that exclusively to cease existing. Personally know both sides and can see were they are coming from. Believe me, I wasn't exactly complaining when they lifted Rex' exclusively from a $650 UCS set to release him in a $13 Microfighter in such a short timeframe.

Yeah, plus they already did brick-built creatures for their Microfighter Double Packs (previously was mistaken by calling them Brickheads), which were a similar concept as Battle Packs with two opposing sides and all. But since the regular format seems to get slowly phased out of the program, the chances of that to happen are rather slim. Yep, it kinda shocked me to what lengths they went with the smart brick stuff. Based on the initial leaks, it appeared to be just two to three sets. But guess what... here is an entire wave of either fully integrated or compatible smart brick business. In terms of the additional minifigures in question, maybe not Ponda Baba and Doctor Evazan, since I occasionally wanna have the feeling of owning something rare and special too ( ), but there are countless other characters that are still missing. But yeah, we appear to be on the same page on this. We just started this discussion on opposite ends. First things first: yes. The first 2004 Cantina, arguably and understandably the most barebones iteration of them all, was very much a product of it's time... yet still has a certain charme to it. The 2014 version, obviously expected to do so a decade later, greatly expanded upon it all. Still holds up quite well today. The 2018 set was clearly a throwback to the 2004 original, while it also gave us a couple of new things... but (contrary to the $40 price tag) retailing for 50€ was on the quite expensive side. The 2020 MBS Cantina is it's own beast. I own it. I love it. I just got reminded to dust it off again. And yep, it brought seven brand new and to this day exclusive characters to the table. That Speeder, like I will never ever tired of saying, is among the very best side builds that the Star Wars theme has to offer. The whole thing is just damn near perfection. That's exactly what I was trying to getting at... Give MBS owners of the Cantina at least a little bit of incentive to buy another play-scale version. It definitely doesn't have to be an either-or type of situation between clearly prioritising new fans and neglecting those who you already got their money's worth. Lo and behold, it can be both. And for the above average collector of minifigs, myself included, one new figure can already be enough to pique individual interests. As for what minifigure that would be, I've got two words: Ham Dezon. The very first character that shows up in the Cantina scene. Let alone the first Alien we ever saw in the Saga. It doesn't get more iconic than that.

Yeah, you are right about this one. I have a tendency to push away the fact that system scale sets are still supposed to have children as their primary target audience. Of course, Lego would need to ensure a set number of play features for kids to enjoy. Rather than going through the trouble of designing one brand new Glup Shitto character for some AFOL's specific needs out there... especially when most would require some expensive new head moulds. Although, I appreciate it when they sometimes cater to both longtime and new fans in terms of figure selection when releasing the newest iteration of a classic set. Yep, I already implied as much. The pieces for the brick-built Dewback should not prevent them from including at least one unique Alien minifigure. And at the same time, no Dewback at all, brick-built or not, would not have guaranteed a brand new character's inclusion. Maybe I looked at the Dewback and just saw a scapegoat in it. Thanks for sharing. Both minifigs look amazing and are obviously the main selling point of the set. Still feel bad for the extra american fee some of you guys have to pay for... or having to wait longer until it hits the desired price point. Though I watched a 360 view of the set and turns out Cad Bane got barely any back printing. Nothing but a few scratches. But given he wears a trench coat, there probably wasn't much more you could have printed on there to begin with.

Well done, this is a well rounded good looking design. You see, going back to my point of execution being key, if Lego does it like that, I wouldn't mind being brick-built at all. But I think it will look much closer to the Brickhead version. And yeah, I might be on the more biased side since I don't see the absolute necessity of including a Dewback, let alone using upwards of a hundred pieces on it, in a Mos Eisley Cantina set in the first place. If you only release a set every five years or so, you better make it count and bring something fresh to the table. And in the case of the Cantina, that means new unique Alien minifigs. Otherwise i perceive it as a missed opportunity.

Okay, that's certainly a interesting take. It honestly never occurred to me that bigger moulded creatures don't feel like Lego or something. Like I said, the actual execution matters most to me. This i think independent of the size. If they can pull it off brick by brick or via hybrid solution, so be it. However, more often than not, that hasn't happen. At least not as far as I'm concerned for the Star Wars theme. Even though I have seen some people who feel the same about certain minifigures. As some more... extraordinary designs for head/hat/helmet moulds can beg the question whether this is still a real minifig or something else entirely.

Yeah, if I were to consider something a positive thing, I would need to see some actual progress.behind it. However, when you go from mould to brick-build, I don't see that exact progress. It needs to be the other way around. We need to go up, R2. Like a Bantha... If this was ever turned into a deserving mould, it can be seen as steps in the right direction. But as it is now, I see it as an unnecessary way of boosting piece counts. At the end of the day, it's a matter of execution. So i agree with you that a mould/brick-built hybrid can yield good results.

Eh, I currently lack the imagination how the first brick-built version (besides the Brickhead thing) based on an awesome mould that has existed forever is one of the positives of this upcoming wave. Sure, this 2026 Cantina is clearly supposed be a throwback to the 2014 version, but the lack of new minifigures (unlike 2014 & 2018) sticks out like a sore thumb to me. So I wouldn't have shed a tear if they got rid of both the Dewback and the Sand Trooper in exchange for some unique Alien characters. Even though I would argue the set is probably expensive enough to justify one or two more minifigs without changing any of the builds. There was an downscaled X-Wing for $50 in 2021 and yep... absolute insanity. But after 2025's Ahsoka's Jedi Starfighter or 212th Battle Back, retailing for $45 respectively, it's hard to get surprised anymore. You are getting so numb to these price points. Oh, hell no. Just give us the classy OT stuff first. Considering this upcoming March wave... more than ever.

As two wise old men once said... That's great. It's gonna be great. That's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. That's gonna be great. Well, it would be a $60 set if all this smart stuff was included. We should feel lucky to get it at a mere 40 bucks! You basically get the worst of both worlds. Some more sought after minifigures, which like you said take some time to reappear, are locked to the smart brick stuff. While infrequently released sets are also impacted for not coming with some new missing minifigures. What a waste. Oh, please don't. You fix Battle Packs as a whole first, then we can talk. Until then, keep it to proper sets. Oh, absolutely. I'm at a point that I'm primarily hoping for some long overdue modern makeovers of old PT/TCW characters to finally show up. Everything else is fine, like sure, there are occasional vehicles that I'm still missing and want to add to my collection, but I hardly get that excited about the whole Extravaganza anymore. The most recent Battle Pack is a prime example of this. We can only hope. But it admittedly doesn't look good right now. A terrible shame, as this set is supposed to be very similar to the 2014 Cantina. Which introduced the Band. Even the smaller 2018 version came with Wuher. To think, you are getting nothing new a whopping seven years later, partly due to new shenanigans, would be pretty disappointing.

Oh, I am happy about this too, man. Just knew you wouldn't let me down on this. And that you would live up to your reputation as Prophet of Positivity. Yeah, there is clearly lots of potential there. I absolutely agree. Considering how Bespin plays a major part in the story, it's criminal how underrepresented it is. Seriously, what a tragedy. Apparently, there won't even be new Aliens included in the Cantina, which I can't even put the blame on the smart bricks.

Absolutely no lies detected! Ha, to say I'm happy with the wave, would be a stretch. Let's say I'm very happy the way Cad Bane turned out. And since I don't rely on single waves to be amazing in the first place, that's good enough for me. When I look at both Cad Bane and Cobb Vanth, I genuinely think this is the quality standard Lego should aspire to deliver for the Star Wars theme. Even for lower priced sets like this one. I mean, it may be much less money to spend on but it's still an overpriced set, especially in the US. So when someone is pouring their hard earned cash into one of your products, what's the best you can do? You make the customer/consumer forget about that. And how do you achieve that? By just making high quality stuff! When you pay premium prices, you deserve some premium quality aspects to it. Such a set absolutely should be 30 bucks TOPS. But when you go all out on the two figs that are actually included in there, it just makes it a bit easier to justify and look over the usual extra fee. Like yes, it still is too much money they ask for, but you are really getting something out of there and are ultimately satisfied, you know?

BY THE ALMIGHTY MAKER, YES! THE CAD'S NOW COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BAG!! Seriously, that arm printing just looks glorious on my boyo Bane!! Come to me, you beautiful bastard! I will rip open that plastic or fake paper bag. I will assemble your precious few plastic pieces like it's the last thing I'm gonna do. I will never touch you without wearing some gloves. Then I will cherish you and geeking around in full force, while annoying everyone in the process but myself. As a birthday gift, this will easily be the best minifigure I could ever imagine. Don't mind me right now. Just an extremely excited, overly happy fella over here.

Eh, of course you gonna wait for quite a while only for the least interesting sets getting officially revealed first, but maybe that's for the better. As you immediately get it out of the way and save the best for last. Even if "the best" is more like "less uninteresting" in this scenario. Because to be brutally honest, if it wasn’t for my extreme excitement of Cad Bane, this wave would do next to nothing for me, but yeah... hopefully the rest isn't that far off now.

Yeah, I'm not gonna do one of those "companies are not your friends TM" kind of speeches again. I just think there are... smarter ways when it comes to communicating to your audience. PR is obviously supposed to move people to shell out as much money out of their pockets as possible... even for stuff you don't necessarily know you want to. But when I don't believe in your average PR fluff piece, in my eyes, that's s bad PR... predictable and ineffective. It's a failed mission, then. The "kindness out of their heart"-thing was exactly what I was thinking... it ain't even about that. That's why their cockiness is bothering me. It reads to me like "we know our sales suck and we could offer you more than that, but guess what... we won't. As it's suddenly not only about that." No commitment to be able to deal with constructive criticism, no aspiration to do better as a multi billion company, no nothing. Just being arrogant out of corporate's greed. I also agree with your remaining paragraph and previous ones (especially the part of "as if we are supposed to feel honored to buy something from them at full price"). Besides being too lazy right now, I don't feel like repeating everything you just said. So for simplicity sake, let's just say... It's true. All of it. In terms of pricing, yeah, we might have already reached that point. In terms of actual sets, we have not... yet. This would be a stupid question for Who Wants to be a Millionaire or something. How do you think will the Lego Star Wars Battle Pack situation continue to evolve? A: It will stay the same with one super BP, one regular, B: two Super BP's, C: one super BP, two regular, D: four regular. I think it will be A for some time, fear it to be B in the foreseeable future, would be fine with C and would love to have D again.

That honestly isn't news to me. They have been this way for a long time. Only difference is they now publicly communicate in such a manner to us. Seriously, screw them. If they feel like projecting their own obvious greed onto consumers who actually made them this successful in the first place, let alone certain longtime fans who saved Lego from pure bankruptcy in the early 2000s, so be it... arrogant pricks. If Black Friday isn't all about sales, which then again can result in a win-win situation for both the company and customers, I don't know what is. Yep, this is why I completely forgot about their Black Friday deals actually being a thing. Like you said, you usually get sales based on either soon to be retired sets and/or extremely poor performing products. You rarely feel like they went out of their way and went the extra mile. Which is freaking disgusting in my book. Just because business isn't a charity doesn't mean you can't be a little more generous and forthcoming to your loyal fans. It's like Lego opened one too many Pandora's boxes in their lifetime. Oh, I absolutely agree. Even getting one big Battle Pack in addition to two regular ones would already go a long way. But at this rate, I think two big ones at the expense of regular ones is more likely. "They're so proud of themselves, they don't even care. They're so fat and satisfied, they can't even imagine it." We should be, but knowing Lego... we won't be. Maybe next week if we are really lucky. But if anything goes to script, more like in the middle of December. Once again, help us, dear leakers. You are our only hope.

Oh shoot, I totally didn't thought about the Lego Shop having some Black Friday deals, too. There is a preview to be found on the german website, but other than some Insider offerings I see no concrete sales yet. In terms of Black Friday, I was actually referring to Amazon, where I got something other than Lego. It honestly would have been stupid to make the first proper christmas themed thing a limited edition. Knowing Lego, this is why I thought it would happen. The next Lego Star Wars magazine, due to release December 29th in Germany and as per usual quite possibly in other european countries, is gonna include the new Clone Pilot. Well, it's that time again to wake up extra early and get going.

As expected, it didn't. I won't get the set now before it retires... possibly ever. Which means no more Lego for me before christmas. Took advantage during Black Friday Week for another collective passion/obsession of mine. On a more pleasant side, I was very happy to see that the Gingerbread AT-AT is reported to be available until the end of 2027. For some reason, I thought it would be a promo item only until supplies last.

As far as upcoming purchasing plans go, I first wait whether the aforementioned Rebel Scout Speeder vs. Imperial Dropship set receives a slight discount in addition to double VIP points for this "Lego Insider Weekend". Other than that, I hope for some extra price cut on the U-Wing for Amazon's Black Friday Week. As things stand, neither of those looks to be case right now, but let's just wait and see.

This is funny, because the Rebel Scout Trooper vs. Imperial Dropship set, while not officially branded as a Battle Pack comes with the same attributes, delivers exactly that... six full minifigures. Even though it's purposefully held exclusive to their Lego shops, as you are also supposed to buy it because of the R2-KT anniversary figure. Let the slop flow through you. The 2016 Christmas Chewbacca is another one of those special figures whose creativity is solely missed in today's Advent Calendars. The 2023 Holiday Ewok came close to that, though. Happy to own them both. The majority of AC figures, actually. Yeah, this again goes to show that the disappointment is not supposed to be defined by the era of the sets alone. Sure, one person may prefer one sub-theme over the other, which is how we people work on an individual level. But the overall execution remains key. The 327th Battle Pack ain't a bad deal because of the subject matter, aka even more Clones. What's there is even solid in isolation, but falls apart when it comes to the limited value it does provide as a product this pricy. At the same time, the smart brick infested madness come fourth next March is not amazing by default just because it's based on the holy OT. If the value is not good enough, I don't think it's fair to blame specific sub-themes for that. Even though you may regret certain shortcomings in your favorite themes more than others.

You are obviously right about this. I don't see it any other way. The majority of Lego Star Wars sets is overpriced in my eyes. The question is just by how much. This has been the case for quite some time. So there are plenty of examples to choose from. However, what i meant is in regards for this particular format... or sub-format if you will. Would the reactions be any different for a 40/45 bucks OT themed Battle Pack in the same vein (more 327th Clone Troopers, less Rebel Scout Speeder Vs. Imperial Dropship), would there be double standards? Based on reactions for other overpriced sets... probably not. But i would like to see the reactions nonetheless.

It's a depressing, if somewhat unsurprising sight to see. Though this Battle Pack retailed for 40€ here in Germany and it was discounted to ~29€ for quite some time now. So it's understandable that people would pick it up for the much more reasonable price point. Problem remains that Lego still gets their full money bag, regardless of price cuts made by retailers. We, of course, only happen to have a tiny fraction of the whole sales picture, though I doubt that the Battle Pack sold significantly less elsewhere. Yep, the Battle Pack sales were to be expected. It's a good thing the Clone Turbo Tank doesn't seem to sell like hot cakes like a usual flagship would do. And in this scenario, gets pretty clearly outsold be the better MTT. However, seeing your bread and butter starfighters so close to the bottom can be indeed considered concerning. I like the new Advent Calendar for what it is. From my first impressions and describing it as "weirdest one", I have come around on it a bit. It brings something fresh and unique to the table. But it still gives me too little incentive to actually grab it like the ones from 2019 until now. Will miss out on the ugly christmas sweeter Jawa, another cool looking Gonk and B2EMO, but that's about it. B1s and B2s don't hurt but are thrown in there every time, so are nothing special. Some of the other buildable droids are cool but not essential either. Already own the BD unit. If I was a fan of the sequels, the inclusions of evil C-3PO and that tiny Babu Frik guy would probably have tipped me over the edge of getting it, but alas... The Advent Calendar, currently not available directly from Amazon DE, was at 10K+ or 12K+ units, by the way. Don't remember the exact number but it was definitely at least five digits. Yes, who would have thought that you don't necessarily need Clones in order for your Battle Pack to still sell well. Hopefully Lego gets the message as well. They probably are aware. Otherwise they would have stopped making them already, I guess. The sales of the Star Wars Logo make me a little uncomfortable. But the lower end of 18+ sets is somewhat satisfying to see. Yeah, I think we will get at least one more 40+ bucks Clone Battle Pack. Ha, while I get the idea of reserving overpriced slop to TCW era only, I would like to see the reaction if it was something from the OT. Would you guys still be just as mad about the price policy? Or somewhat more forgiving, given your hunger for more Rebellion and Empire troops. While I can't decide on which Advent Calendar to actually be the best one, the older ones are more attractive to me than the recent ones. The new ugly christmas sweeter style is cool, but it's wearing thin much more quickly than the original design. It screams "yeah, just put a new torso on it and call it a day". Whereas back in the day you would basically get a christmas-fied figure from top to bottom. Not just a new torso, but also new printed or at least fittingly red legs, some funny accessories for good measure. I mean, look at the 2012 Darth Maul with his red cape, snow stud and a shovel in addition to his regular double lightsaber. Those are the nooks and crannies that I'm missing in today's age. The themed Calendars is conceptionally a good idea and needs to be more explored. If you can strike down a good balance between minifigure count, buildable droids/stuff and micro-builds, it would be much more exciting than the mixture of eras we are getting instead.

So on the topic of bestselling sets, based on last month's Amazon performance, here's many of 2025 major german releases, ranked from highest to lowest: 327th Star Corps Clone Trooper Battle Pack (3000+) Death Trooper & Night Trooper Battle Pack (2000+) Plo Koon's Jedi Starfighter Microfighter (2000+) Battle of Felucia: Separatist MTT (1000+) Ahsoka's Jedi Interceptor (1000+) Jango Fett's Slave 1 (700+) Arc-170 Starfighter (700+) V-19 Torrent Starfighter (700+) Rebel U-Wing Starfighter (600+) Republic Juggernaut (500+) The Force Burner Snowspeeder (300+)

Yeah, you know these 4+ Mickey & Friends sets? Me, the big minifigure afficianado that I am, got all of those sets, primarily because of the figures. I don't know if this alone qualifies as "guilty pleasure", but it surely felt like one. Back to Lego Star Wars, I don't think I have a particular preference when it comes to the kind of system scale set on offer. Sure, my personal wishlist is as big as the next person, but this is more due to specific minifigures only reasonably fitting in so many sets and less about absolutely needing thing X or thing Y. So I enjoy a variety of vehicles from what i consider the core Skywalker Saga. I also like location based sets and would like to see more of them again, be it more compact Duel sets, the larger location format akin to Yavin 4 getting more explored or the return of full blown official MBS sets.

I had a typo in there. You probably got it in the first place, but I, of course, meant constructive criticism. It's something to get used to for sure. But I'm sure it well be much less glaring when the color contrast isn't that high. Other than some guilty pleasure phases here and there, I only collect the Lego Star Wars theme.

Yes, that's it, the difference in design was messing a bit with my inner eye. Contrary to the slick stripe brought forward in 2022, not at all inspired by The Black Series, the returning top banner results in a more disjointed look on the package. At least when the coloring differs this drastically. Upon further inspection, the Cobb Vanth's Speeder boxart actually looks pretty wild. Yeah, it's just all over the place at this point. Of course, more than ever Star Wars sub-themes releasing a couple of months apart means more spreading out sets, which I can totally get behind. All those shows and movies are obviously on Disney and out of Lego's control. It's just these additional Lego Star Wars sub-themes which take things to a whole new level that I can definitely do without. But like I said, since I never run out of sets to get later on, the drought between waves doesn't bother me too much. But I can see the frustration for an omnipresent Lego Star Wars-only fan.

Again, I'm gonna hold you to that. No problem, Mando man. You reap what you sow. Your constructive criticism of the theme as a whole is justified and this title obviously isn't meant to take anything away from it, as one thing doesn't need to rule out the other. It's merely a nice change of pace, I suppose. Just personally thought it was very fitting. In isolation, I like the new Mando boxart. However, I do think it heavily clashes with the more bland Tatooine backgrounds and, in the case of Cobb Vanth's Speeder, a more vibrant set itself. I dunno, I can't quite wrap my head around it... The astehtics sorta have this cheap quality to it. In terms of the worth of waves, there are now just so many tiny ones scattered throughout the year that I find it hard to compare them to the less, but much bigger waves from old days. And even if you are to merge, say, the January and March waves into one, it still feels different due to all these non system scale sets. I've always got enough brand new sets, as well as older stuff to catch up to, on a yearly basis. So I don't care too much about the exact timing of the more worthwhile sets.