Venkefedo

Supreme Leader Snoke likely isn't human (given he's mo-capped), and Phasma is obviously something special with her (so far) unique armor, so she could easily be a Mas Amedda type, who served Palpatine during the Empire as well. Until the reorganization of canon last year, we didn't know for sure what stormtroopers were at all! Clones? Human? All male? Skin color? Now we know they're primarily human (tho nothing has been said, to my knowledge, to say they must be human), but are any skin color & gender.

Yes...because, again, it's themed: 3 stormtrooper items, 2 available for purchase at SDCC, 1 just a preview. That doesn't mean that's all we'll see at SDCC by any means. Hate from whom? You? They don't care that you hate it. Or that a vocal minority on some Lego fan sites hate it, or even that AFOLs in general might not care for it--if that's even true. And it's up to LFL and Disney's marketing team to decide what to reveal, and when.

...but as you noted, the others were also FO Stormies. There's a theme going on. Rey's Speeder wouldn't fit that theme, and it's still only an assumption that whatever's in her set isn't "spoiler" material--there could be an odd figure thrown in, like Watto/R2 in the Sith Infiltrator, Queen Padme in the Bongo, etc that doesn't belong in that scene.

I like the build, and love Imperial Admiral Dabney Coleman.

Yeah... so that's another redundant minifig from the Naboo fighter set... that makes it a lot less appealing to get both sets.

Sure! But just the ones you like, no need to be a completist if you think any given pack is weak. Get multiples of your faves, too, that's what they're there for: army-building!

I have the 2011 one, and I'm not planning on grabbing the new one. The new pilot looks great, but I'm not crazy about the rest of the figure offerings...and while the model has changed, it's still 'close enough' that I'm not really interested. With that price point in mind, I'd rather go for the Coruscant Police Gunship (even tho it's got TCW-faces for Anakin & Ahsoka), or maybe the B-wing (since I only have the version from 2000).

Technically all the Vader torsos have been ESB/ROTJ, since the printing on the earlier ones seem to have the upper chest armor overlapping the surcoat a bit, when ANH Vader's surcoat overlaps the upper armor. But it's tough to say for sure whether it was just a print limitation on the early Vader minifigs or whether it was really intended to represent ANH Vader's unique surcoat variation.

While Phasma's helmet seems a little different from standard First Order stormies (sharper edge on the bottom of the front), I think Lego will just use the same mold for both. The new TIE helmet and those of the flametroopers and snowtroopers have far more pronounced differences than Phasma's.

"The audience intended" is just Star Wars fans! Remember, this airs on Disney XD, which also aired Motorcity and Tron Uprising, neither intended for little kids, and it airs at 9pm. As for this MOC... gorgeous! So much to love in there.

Go to your entry thread, copy the link in the URL window of your browser. Come back here & start a reply in this thread, type the title of your BP, highlight the title, click the little "chain" button above the edit window (next to the bullet-point/list buttons... it has a little white + in a green circle below the chain), paste the URL into the window that pops up, accept that, and then click the "Post" button below the edit window.

I like the 2013 versions a lot more, but of course they can be pricey. A low-cost option is to give your old ones black arms, and maybe black legs with white hips. The other drawback, besides price, is that the helmet is incredibly outdated...it's the same one they've used since getting the license! The ROTS Kashyyyk Troopers got a nice new sculpt, but it isn't quite right for OT Scout Troopers... hopefully a new sculpt is on the horizon amidst all the hoopla over the new films, and hopefully it'll be available in whatever Endor BP they tackle next (whenever that is) for easier updating/army-building. Maybe the Scouts will appear in Rebels eventually, giving another avenue for getting new versions of the minifig!

It's the first Star Wars "Anthology" movie (meaning, it's not part of "the Star Wars Saga" aka the movies with "Episode #s")

Those sets were likely too far along before last April's "EU is now Legends" announcement to be scrapped & replaced (the BP would've been simple enough, as the speeder could be used with any troops). I'm hopeful they'll still be allowed to tap the potential of the EU for sets, tho with all the new films plus shows and old films there isn't a lot of room... but the sooner the Story Group starts injecting some classics into canon, the sooner we can get a MicroFighter Ebon Hawk with HK-47 as a pilot, dangit!

I think it's more likely that we'll get a non-chrome Phasma in a main set (silver, pearl grey, whatever), with a chromed version as a promo figure.

It won't all be available in the first wave, especially since one of those key older characters (unless you meant Han/Chewie/Leia) is... . Might we get a couple sets in the winter wave? Or is this meant to be SW's "winter wave" for 2015, with only some BPs and Microfighters perhaps showing up in January? In any case, they probably aren't gonna hit everyone at once. It was a miracle they managed to get all the dwarves into the first Hobbit wave! They still missed Azog and Radagast there, tho, who each figured prominently in the first film. Yep, that's it. There are also big "wheels" or cogs inside the wings, surrounding the pylons connecting 'em to the cockpit. That small window is on the back of the TIE, too, and there's that belly-mounted turret, so it's easy enough to rack up the piece count on those alterations, even if it otherwise mostly resembles the last TIE build (which I wouldn't mind; I really like that one!)

...the plain dark bley version of it is in a bunch of 2013-14 sets and can easily be had on BL, but the downside is it's kinda small. It's probably possible to rig up a hinged brick built version with various clip & bar plates, then maybe tile it all over if you want it smooth. That way you'd be able to adjust the size pretty easily.

No prelims. They've got everything under wraps... well, aside from the instruction manuals for Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle

This could be quite different, tho! It's essentially an Imperial snowspeeder, so likely not just a T-47 (or, allowing for 30 years, a T-52 or whatever the Resistance might use for combat airspeeders). It's the first snowspeeder I've been excited about since... Well, okay, since the Microfighters one (it's cute!), but otherwise in a really long time.

The Wild Karrde!!

Rey. Finn is the stormtrooper. Hopefully she'll be in several sets over the course of the sequel trilogy... It's nice that she'll likely appear in small sets, too, unless her speeder is thrown into one of the big ones.

That's one of the most galling bits... he makes sense in this set, and in the N-1 fighter, but he's much more expendable in the N-1 (and not just because he was in the same set a few years ago)--they could've replaced him with Padme in her Theed Battle outfit since she was in the hangar along with Obi-Wan & the pilots.

Should, but can't... levers need to be attached to bases, clone/Mando rangefinders can't 'legally' be connected in that fashion, I think... but it's really, really neat!

Maybe it was a first pass that got leaked, or didn't have the right people approving things... Hasbro often has their Transformers mis-transformed in official photos, and especially at conventions where you'd think they'd have someone on-hand to make sure they look right.

In the image I linked? They're not fully deployed... The wings each have 2 sections, and in that picture the small rectangular sections where the wings meet the body aren't tilted fully under the fuselage as they should be for flight mode.