Venkefedo

7140 was good for its time, and still looks pretty nice, but it's still the Lego equivalent of the original Kenner X-wing: too small with not the best proportions and a weird-looking R2 (I always hated the original way they printed the astromech heads, wondering why they didn't just print the heads over the whole piece instead of just that top section... and don't get me started on the oddball decision to have Luke's eyes be so tiny!) The 2012 set is just so much nicer in about every respect... but 7140 has something the recent set doesn't: Biggs!

It's not an odd choice at all, it's the Inquisitor's ship and is a predecessor to Vader's TIE that shares the wing-folding feature of the Sith Infiltrator. For those who haven't seen it, this is a pic of the Hasbro toy.

Not all of those designs are very successful; I would hope both Jedi Starfighters would be a little nicer/cuter when Lego takes a crack at them. Still, I like the inclusion of bounty hunter ships. The 2015 MF Gunship is rumored to be a Republic one, tho (I'd prefer the bounty hunter one, tho a Rebels chibi Wookiee Gunship would also be fun--but very confusing for adults shopping for presents for kids!)

Sure! Laketown's kinda ramshackle, so even if it isn't a perfect stylistic match it could still match the spirit of it. Good excuse to keep it on display after the holiday season!

I'm fine with lots of Rebels sets provided they give us some great builds with good figures, and aren't all seemingly old concept-art vehicles turned into "a few years prior to ANH" vehicles. I hope there are some OT vehicles in the Rebels line, too (great place for alternate decos) that would still be in service 5-9 years later, and brand-new vehicles not strongly tied to 30+ years old concept art. And lots of actual OT sets, of course. It's time to move on from Hoth and Tatooine (unless said Tatooine sets give us Jawas, Tuskens, banthas, and/or Deleted Anchorhead Scene Biggs). Cloud City needs a lot of love, Dagobah, the Death Stars... still plenty of ships & environments/locations they can tackle before the sequels dominate the movie part of the theme.

My guess: it's on a city street, during a festival--but located away from the festival itself, which is why nobody is around. It's early, however, and the vendor knows that word will spread, and more will arrive as they hear about an ale stand that doesn't have the long lines of those in the heart of the activities. It's worth walking 5 minutes to get a refreshing drink rather than stand in line for up to an hour just to be closer to the excitement! The other reason it's so empty is because creating facades of all the buildings lining the street behind it would be too involved, and steal focus from the vendor stand!

Geez... maybe I should rethink my plan of bringing an entire clan of dwarves into Mitgardia, since you seem bent on having bandits kill every dwarf in sight!

Disappointed in the rumored Microfighters... I know the Gunship and Spider Droid will probably look adorable, but I was hoping we'd see a little more OT (or even EU) in the next wave... Y-wing, B-wing, A-wing, Sandcrawler, Cloud Car (would be odd, but I'd love to see it), E-wing, Hound's Tooth, IG-2000, Slave II, Moldy Crow, Ebon Hawk, Mynock, Outrider, Mon Calamari cruiser, Rebel Frigate, Rebel Transport, TIE Bomber, Lambda Shuttle... and several PT/CW ships, too, of course. I just hope the PT figures in this one are more interesting than "2 battle droids and 2 clone pilots" The Rebels sets sound unsurprising, but I'm still looking forward to them. Never been too crazy about the T-16, but it could be intriguing (especially what figures/creatures it might include--DARK TAN hair for Luke, please!). The AAT might be okay, but would it be too much to ask for it to be crewed by Neimoidian Warriors from the current Vulture Droid set? The Shadow Troopers BP sounds most interesting; I've got 3 from the drop ship and TIE Crawler, but more would be welcome and could also be a sign that they'll still tackle some EU, even if only in small sets (again, Micro Fighters would be great for that!). A regular Stormie BP is overdue tho... It's been ages since the drop ship BP!

Those are BrickForge's broken bottles, I believe. Nice adult lemonade stand you've got there, Gunman!

Mine is up as well! The Great Snowy Ram

Rams are commonly bred for Dwarven riders in the higher elevations of Mitgardia, where even dwarf-bred ponies find the going difficult. Over time, ram-breeding descended to lower elevations as well, with the creatures proving equally adept as mounts and beasts of burden in the flatter terrain of Mitgardia's valleys and tundra. Largest among the Dwarven rams is the Great Snowy Ram, also known by some as the Frost Ram, originally from the western mountains of Mitgardia. Chiefly bred for battle, these beasts are capable of climbing steep slopes with ease, and can gain tremendous momentum in a charge over even rough terrain. With the amount of force their heads & horns can bring to bear against other objects, there is little wonder why the dwarves of Mitgardia tend to avoid employing handmade battering rams in sieges; it's far simpler & more effective to send in ram-mounted troops in turn one after the other until the enemy barrier lies shattered beneath their hooves. Still primarily raised in the west, they have found their way across the realm, even finding use among human travelers and mounted units. I built this guy the first night of the mini-challenge, immediately inspired by the contest and the mention of Warcraft (the Stormpike Battle Charger and Swift Brewfest Ram are two of my favorites among the ground mounts in the game). "But that was weeks ago!" you might say; I wasn't happy enough with it. The first horns I made were a bit more organic, but didn't get the look I wanted. The ram was made largely from studying the Legend Beast Lion for structure, and then liberally stealing joints and some other parts from both it and the Legend Beast Eagle. I'd sit on it a few days, then tweak one part or another until yesterday when I reworked the rear legs, and then redid the front legs today right before snapping new pics. Hope you enjoyed!

I hope that's allowed, as I'm planning to do the same for my Tower phases (and possibly more categories, due to limited supply as well as the concept I've got for many kinda depend on those categories showing a single location thru all 3 phases) I like this a lot, the changing seasons, altered decor & additional building work well with the aging family to show the passage of time. And the chobos are a delight! Sad to see them retire temporarily, but that will make it all the more enjoyable when they return! edit: fixed a typo

Sounds good. He'd be my only character using anything beyond (cross)bow-and-arrow technology anyway; even my one gnome minifig hero doesn't use anything of the sort.

I hadn't realized firearms were completely off limits. I spent a few years playing World of Warcraft frequently, and always enjoyed the rickety steampunk Gnome & Goblin technology. I thought I'd seen some of that sort of thing pop up here & there in GoH, but I could easily be mistaken. As Behemoth suggested, it doesn't have to be gunpowder at all, maybe pneumatic or involving strictly springs & gears. Haarits can switch to a crossbow if the rifle's too problematic!

Enter Haarits Runeseeker, Dwarven ranger of the western mountains of Mitgardia between Nordheim and Erikson. Primarily Haarits patrols the pathways thru the mountains, keeping them clear of encroaching orcs from the nearby Orcish Marches as well as the odd yeti or any other dangers that might present themselves. Often seen in the company of an ice-bear or a lightning-marked wolf, Haarits is a force to be reckoned with. He is armed with a firestick reputedly of gnomish origins that lets him pick off enemies from great distances with remarkable accuracy, but he always keeps his axe handy for close encounters. True to the Runeseeker name, his curiosity often compels him to explore beyond his usual routes, venturing into the wilderness and often discovering ruins, hermits, dangers, and the odd forgotten treasure.

I love the CMF wave idea, tho since we've had so many characters already they could skip to the "wave 2" choices with alternate prints (Rohan Merry, Gondor Pippin) as well as most-wanted figs like Faramir, Eowyn, Witch-King, Gothmog, and a Gondor Soldier. Pretty sure we ran thru many possible assortments awhile back, but others could include orc-armor Sam and Frodo, an orc with the same torso design as the Moria orc but perhaps the cloth is in a different color, with a new helmet to match the armor print... a different Rohan soldier might be nice too, with the video game Eowyn helmet (so even if "civilian" Eowyn is in the series, we can swap torsos & headgear with the Rohirrim and have Dernhelm... and a dude in a dress )

Just venting... I wasn't crazy about the switch to fire & ice, but I did like new tribes being released... Only took a good look at the mammoths recently, and was so disappointed by the exposed-bone trunks. Bone?!?! Kinda ruined what were otherwise pretty awesome elephant/mammoth heads (and bigfig!). I like the look of more ice vehicles than fire, but the decaying nature of the ancient tribes weakens the figures' potential IMO. The translucent limbs are neat, but I could've done without the decayed prints.

Lego has never made a Union soldier; they've made US Cavalry. It's a slim but important distinction.

Great! Now you can order the Death Star, as you should've done in the first place

That was something I was hoping for after seeing those games... all they'd need is a story and names for the various heroes, and they'd have a Castle character-based theme that could stand alongside most recent & recurring themes (but hopefully with more structures and fewer wacky vehicles, as was discussed recently in another thread) Yes! The_Cook's Troll Town project makes me want more development of that faction even more... Heroica could aid in that, as they're one of the main villainous factions in the games. I'd also dearly love to see the CMF Elf Warrior get some friends (with Hobbit/LOTR Elf hairpieces w/ yellow ears) and see more development of Lego's own dwarf faction, along with new Fantasy races and maybe lots of creatures. As has been noted, flesh figures represent characters played by actors (or voiced by them, in the case of licensed cartoons like Avatar: TLA). It's for licensed themes only. ...but they do tend to be more expensive. Seems like tons of fleshie heads go for $1.50+ (tho it's nice to see the Ghostbusters heads are affordable!)

I still think calling this set "Death Star Troopers" is kinda like releasing a battle pack called "Snowtroopers" containing a couple Hoth Rebels and a couple AT-AT Drivers... ...but I love it! The guards are nice (tho the telescope should be reversed from the instructions/box, with the grey bar plugged into the narrow end; it means the guards grip it higher, but visually looks better IMO), and the DSGs are incredible. Love the different head prints; like with the Republic/Sith Troopers pack, TLG gave us nice faces when they could've used plain black or grey heads. But more of the actual Death Star Troopers/Navy Troopers would've been nice. Half the reason I got two TIEs instead of one was so I could have two DSTs

On the one hand, I'm glad it's correct... OTOH, I was kind hoping it WAS black so it'd be a spare in a different color if I got any other sets with Kanan. MOAR PIECES, MOAR COLORS! Guess it's just bad lighting in the photos (I looked at the box when in a store last week, still looked black to me) Still hoping a later Ezra has his tousled hair in dark blue. A long shot, but it'd be fun to see.

I'd love a return to Kingdoms, since we never really got plural kingdoms! No nobility/royalty among the Green Dragons to indicate they're anything more than some rogue knights harassing the Lions. Then the Joust teased us with a new Black Falcon shield & armor (lacking only the dark blue plume and a silver-trimmed body/leg print instead of Green Dragon gold)... more kingdoms would've between nice to see. Much as I adore Fantasy and the MMV, Kingdoms was a lot of fun--and I really liked the Mill "Village" Raid. More peasants!! I'd love to see the Forestmen and Wolfpack return, too; maybe the Forestmen could harass a "bad" kingdom, and the Wolfpack (who always seemed a little less "well-intentioned") could harass the "good" kingdom. But mostly I just hope there IS a Castle presence in 2015!

Why not check out the instructions for Jek-14's Stealth Starfighter for ideas on breaching that wall? It's the only official "E-wing" we're likely to get...

Here's the thing: none of the Western themes Lego has done have been Civil War-based. They're all Old West, ostensibly set after the war, so that's why there are no Confederate soldiers. All the boys in blue are technically US Cavalry, not "soldiers of the North".