HawkLord

One thing I've noticed is that printing can vary even in the same set. For example, I bought the 2014 Star Wars Cantina within the first week it came out. I then bought subsequent copies from the same Lego store later. The first copy had very sharp printing, while the later copies had slightly less sharp printing. Not bad printing, just the kind of thing you'd see as the printing degraded over production runs. I've also seen this same behavior in other sets I've bought multiple copies of over time - other Star Wars and LOTR sets. I reference this because perhaps what you're seeing are some pics where the printing may have degraded. Aside from that, sets that I have bought this year are comparable to sets I've bought in previous years when it comes to quality.

Probably September, as indicated by past years. As mentioned it tends to sell out in November in the US usually before Black Friday.

Number one answer - collect what you like. Personally, I collect Star Wars, Marvel, Dimensions, CMF, and more that I can't remember.

Just tune it out. I don't acknowledge the CW or Rebels, so for me, Maul is dead-dead. If Mace comes back (highly doubtful) then I'll tune that out, too. Realistically, Disney probably can't fit Mace into the new sequel trilogy because the character would be way too old. And as a die-hard Jedi, it's not like Mace could be Finn's grandfather or something (Jedi attachment and all) anyway.

Just tune it out. I don't acknowledge the CW or Rebels, so for me, Maul is dead-dead. If Mace comes back (highly doubtful) then I'll tune that out, too. Realistically, Disney probably can't fit Mace into the new sequel trilogy because the character would be way too old. And as a die-hard Jedi, it's not like Mace could be Finn's grandfather or something (Jedi attachment and all) anyway.

If they start bringing everyone back, this will end up like comic books where no death is taken seriously. The same with Force-ghosts, not everyone should have that power. I always thought brining back Maul was the closest that they came to admitting one of the bigger mistakes of TPM - killing Maul in the first place.

Lego hasn't done double VIP on Force Friday, because there's no reason to. The incentive is the new sets and they don't need to "sell" those much.

If the Yoda hut is true, I'm hoping for a slightly updated Yoda, Luke in fatigues, ghost Ben Kenobi, and the obligatory R2 in the $40-50 weight class. Just enough bricks for a hut and maybe a small creature or two. No X-Wing required.

Scaling down the DS may not be a bad move. I remember reading that when the first DS came out, it didnt fly off the shelves and was not as much of a money-maker as smaller sets that have a better profit margin. Lego may be seeing a new sweet-spot in pricing large UCS sets and might be moving away from the $400 weight class for these technical licensed sets. Hence the $350 GB Firehouse and Marvel Helicarrier.

I also read that and threw up alittle. Sam J wants some attention... And I love that he thinks because Lucas said "yea, whatever" probably in passing that it somehow means we should consider it canon. "Jedi fall from great heights"? Seriously, Palpatine's penthouse was a pretty great height. And Mace got shot to hell with lightning and his hand cut off. Then he staggered back to life and didn't think to go back to the Jedi temple or find Yoda and Obi-Wan? What was he doing during the fall of the Jedi? There would have been time for him to take some action.

The detail will always have to go up. Same with minifigures. Lego has reached that spot as a collectible where it's hard for them to really entice certain purchases because they've done so much already. Hasbro action figures had seen the same climb, where after awhile they ran out of ways to make people excited for Darth Vader or Luke figures because everyone already had gobs of the previous versions. To sustain interest, Lego needs to make more detailed sets and minifigures. Fortunately, the new trilogy and subsequent movies provide new material to work off of, but without those the Star Wars license would have become stagnant. I look at my own collection which demonstartes this - I have so much material and minifigures, I'm at a lost for the new stuff because I just don't need it.

True. Never buy a prototype or test sample unless the seller can completely validate what it is and where it came from. I've seen too many people merely strip the paint off an action figure and try to call it a prototype. Granted this is alittle different, but same kind of scamming can exist.

I have the Eclipse Fighter incoming from the Lego site.

Ugh... you know what I mean. LOTR has a presence in Dimension but no "new" sets. Also, been here since 2012 and posting, so... that's where.

Not necessarily. LOTR for example appeared in Dimensions, but has yet to see any actual sets. I'm optimistic, but the X-Men appearance in MM doesn't mean it'll definitely happen elsewhere.

Those Aragorn legs work really well!

Is it possible the heads are dual printed on Wolvie and Tony?

2017 - the year Mighty Micros become a thing... I'm in for Wolvie/Mags and Tony/Thanos.

2017 - the year Mighty Micros become a thing... I'm in for Wolvie/Mags and Tony/Thanos.

I'll just add that legonused to be a bit cheaper when there were more promos and whatnot. I consider getting free sets with purchase or exclusive minifigures to occasionally offset the cost of Lego, because I can sell the ones I don't want on the secondary to reduce overall costs. The same with buying sets in general. For example, I bought multiple copies of the Star Wars Cantina and sold the extra minifigures which helped reduce the cost of the set itself by at least half. Considering I bought the extra copies to expand on the Cantina, this made the overall build considerably cheaper. Given lines like Star Wars and Marvel where the minifigures are highly collectible but appear often throughout the years, I can sell extras or ones that are almost dupes and not feel like I'm missing out.

I think the bridge could make a nice backdrop for a large scale Marvel supers battle. With the sets we've received this far, it's not easy finding something that's a large enough scale to fit maybe 10+ minifigures, but this looks to be one that could.

I think Abram's Star Trek was really his audition for Star Wars.

I know Hasbro and Funko still dabble in X-Men very infrequently and I'm aware of the X-Men wave of action figures (I knew someone would mention it) but still that's not consistent. Hasbro hasn't released an X-Men action figure in years. Neither company really have X-Men on their radar.

You have to have the coupon that was included with a calendar that was given out last December with purchase. It also included two other coupons.

Well, I think at least from a Marvel standpoint that initially Lego thought once the license came through they would have access to everything. For example, Phoenix came out when we still thought there would be X-Men sets on the horizon and I'm sure Lego thought so as well. Once tensions rose and Marvel wanted all companies to back off of properties/characters they didn't own, then the scope became more limited. Since Lego can only work in worlds Marvel tells them to, I'm hoping this trend with exclusives continues. Maybe we're past the days of getting in-demand characters and now we're looking at more variants of existing characters.