Venkefedo

Seems like an odd dispersement of what are thought to be main characters. The TIE Striker looks like pure army-builder as far as sets go, with no named characters (AFAIK)... Rebel trooper, TIE pilot, Imperial Landing Crew/whatever, and a Shoretrooper. The tank looks a little weird, but seems like it'll be a nice set... the AT-ST looks okay so far, the Striker looks bigger than I expected, the U-wing as well (which means little doubt it's a transport more than a starfighter), and the Imperial cargo shuttle gives us all the black bricks we should've had in Kylo Ren's shuttle Hopefully there are a couple Death Troopers in 75156... nice to see the Director has black pants! Also hope Cassian Andor gets another appearance in the next year or so in his officer's uniform rather than the heavy "Hoth" jacket. Kinda surprised to see no RFTs, but there are always the Battle Packs in January!

Not stocking well isn't the same as not producing. Hasbro made a ton of characters and, mostly, had fairly even distribution. But not every character sells equally fast, so stores are at the mercy of whatever assortments they have... with 6" figures, there is usually only 1 per case of a given character; they tend to double up on troopers or villains (Kylo) in some assortments, but that's about it. So if they stock 2 boxes, then there'd be 2 Reys... and since Rey also has BB-8 with her, that makes her extra desirable! So they might sell quickly, and all you're left with are Finns, Chewies, Stormies... whatever.

Hasbro has more Reys than Lego. There's basic Rey, Resistance Rey, Speeder Rey, and multipack Rey (with Finn, Maz, and BB-8)... that's just in 3.75". There is also a 6" Rey with BB-8, and a much-newer Hero Class 12" figure. Lego has one Rey in 3 sets as a minifig (only one of those offering her goggles/mask option), as a keychain, and a buildable Constraction figure.

Only in the loose photo, where they were way deeper a blue than Ezra's blade. In the box photo, they're far lighter than Ezra's and seem like they'd be trans-clear.

Where is this coming from? On the box, it looks like she's got trans-clear saber blades, which is close enough.

Lost Stars and Bloodline have gone into this... probably Aftermath, too (haven't read it yet). The defeat at Endor caused the Empire to panic. Lots of in-fighting happened early on, which weakened the military further, and the massive effort at Jakku did even more damage... following that, however, much of the Imperial fleet that was in the Outer Rim disappeared even further, hiding from the eyes of the galaxy, pooling resources and beginning to plot the eventual return of the Empire (which, it seems, morphs into the First Order at some point). There were still Imperial remnants within the Mid Rim & Core, but they were bound by treaty to their territory and, it would seem, were defanged over time. That way, rather than three decades of constant war, you have a Galactic Republic that's become complacent and doesn't want to risk another galactic conflict just like the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War. You've got the successor to the Empire that'd been biding its time in far corners of the galaxy, able to amass resources to convert a world into a planet-killer, to develop more powerful ships, etc, and putting forth a legitimate claim to statehood or whatever while appearing to stay in line with the Galactic Concordance. Then you've got the Resistance, a very small group who recognize the threat of the First Order for what it is and want to be prepared for when they strike. The Republic mostly dismisses them as rabble-rousers, while the leaders of the First Order can use them as a convenient propaganda tool to play the victim & justify striking at the heart of the Republic, destabilizing much of the galaxy and opening the way to the First Order restoring the Empire. In other news, Dave Filoni teased "there's a bit of truth in legends" on Facebook the other day, with a photo that seems to be a closeup of the SW logo on the binding of the hardcover edition of Heir to the Empire. Seems like a big tease that Grand Admiral Thrawn will be in Season 3 of Rebels (albeit maybe at a lower rank)... it's long been suspected he's the "fleet admiral" in Aftermath, and the publicity for Aftermath's sequel, Life Debt, has confirmed that the fleet admiral is, in fact, a Grand Admiral. So there's potential for a lot of Thrawn activity in the new canon very soon, and with Rebels at least there's the potential for a Thrawn Lego minifig!

Very nice!

That won't happen, because VIII won't bear much resemblance to ESB at all, which is made clear in the articles about exactly why TFA had so much of ANH in it (never forget that TPM had a lot of ANH in it as well), rather than the articles merely complaining that TFA had too much ANH in it. I'm very glad the BB-8 keychain's being released! I hadn't kept up on any rumors about new keychains, and just a few days ago ordered a non-Lego Alliance crest keychain because I'm in desperate need of one (my keyring's a lot lighter these days, so having a proper chain will help)... and I couldn't find any Lego BB-8 versions. So, yay! Something to add in the near future...

The new Dengar doesn't use the new pirate bandana...he has the bandage headgear from CMF Clumsy Guy! The detailing on it is nice, even if the height isn't as great as the 2011 old pirate bandana. Switching from reddish brown to dark brown's also a big improvement, but I agree that 'white' probably shouldn't have been the base color for the torso for accuracy, tho it fits for 'theme' at least (the film costume is meant to be white, but grungy, I think)

This is typical of many characters from the OT... Vader & Luke were only available in the Throne Room Duel set; Han & Leia in the Tydirium. Tho we also got TFA Han as well, and TFA Leia not long after... If, say, ROTJ was brand new this last year, we'd probably see more than one Leia per wave. It's just not the priority right now, unlike Rey or Finn or other new characters.

The doubts are still valid; Andor's hair/beard color is wildly inaccurate, goggles can't attach to Bodhi's Kanan hair piece, Chirrut's eyes probably shouldn't look like Jek-14s, Baze should probably have Thorin hair rather than Ezra hair (tho that'd probably interfere with a backpack), etc.

Quiet! They'll hear you and change it!

Yularen's pants are tougher to track down, since they're only barely visible in his second scene when he's wearing a hat, too, but Krennic's are visible from the teaser, Celebration poster, etc... so they should give him the right ones I think the concept art thing is true, considering Kylo's shuttle and some other odd choices for characters/builds in various licensed sets.

The big tip-off for me that it was fake (besides the "new member gets a scoop, just after a reliable source posts some observations!" thing) is that it calls the Imperial tank "Imperial Shore Tank" and it only comes with a couple Shoretroopers (and Chirrut)... It's a common misconception for those who don't pay attention, but Shoretroopers are not the same as the Tanktroopers we saw in the teaser and the leaked VSG pages. I suppose Lego could make the same mistake by not paying attention (Yularen's pants!), or by having few materials provided to them for designing the sets, but it still stood out as something inaccurate within the list itself.

Contracts. And Disney isn't looking at it from our perspective, either. If Hasbro's merchandise tanks--which many predicted due to the terrible distribution of things before TFA's merchandise hit, and the resurgence of 5POA figures (less articulation than a Lego minifig!)--then maybe the contract might be renegotiated when it's up for renewal years from now... but probably not until then (and it doesn't seem like it's tanking anytime soon). Meanwhile, Lego is still being insanely profitable for 'em. Maybe if the Disney CMFs do gangbusters, beyond all expectations, they might look into something like that, even for the DC/Marvel stuff, too, since those lines aren't quite as successful and when it comes to specific costumes/characters, there's no way the sets will cover them in the limited non-movie sets each year (and SDCC exclusive minifigs is absolutely not the way to go). As much as I love the regular CMF line, I wish we could get more themed sets...and that they'd run concurrently, so the regular CMFs wouldn't keep getting bumped back! Disney probably could throw their weight around a little when it comes to companies like Hasbro, but I'm not sure there's much motivation to do so at the moment. In the meantime, there are always the Custom & Purist minifig threads in the Minfig Customization Workshop section for SW & Superheroes

There's a whole thread about it, but the consensus seems to be it's about contracts. Hasbro has a very specific contract that allows certain loopholes (Disney's Elite series of 6" die cast figures that are very similar to Hasbro's own Black Series), but otherwise prevents even Funko from releasing their Pop vinyl SW characters (and most--tho not all--Marvel characters) as 'vinyl figures', instead adding a bobblehead feature to 'em... and as such, Lego can't release SW minifigs on their own without being packaged with items like books or with buildable models, or as 'gift with purchase, not for individual sale' polybags. So CMFs are out, tho there's still plenty of fodder in the Saga and associated licensed works to fill multiple CMF series and still have lots of desirable characters/variants available for sets.

I think Actor Builder's referring to this alternate clone/stormtrooper head that's been used a few times in the last couple years, that Biggus Brickus used in his Professor X recipe.

The regular tan from Battlefront also showed up in Shattered Empire, as I recall... on a mission post-Endor, Han's strike team (which he was still leading for a little while, with Poe's father as part of it) were attacking another Imperial base and wore pretty much tan versions of their Endor hoodies & whatnot, so very much like the Battlefront Alliance troops in the Battle Pack.

The face looks fine, the helmet looks great, and the torso print's pretty cool... plain legs is a disappointment, and we can't really use the B-wing pilot/Ten Numb legs since there's a white hose that wouldn't match the torso, and the white hips would be redundant with that printed belt there... what we really need is a Nien Nunb in his ROTJ outfit with pockets printed on his red legs (dual-molded boots optional), preferably in a cheap set, so we can get an extra pair of legs for this guy (and have another Nien head for more Sullustan customs)! Hopefully he'll be a "spend X on SW Lego to get for free!" figure, as we can just buy the TIE/A-wing set that he probably should've been in all along (if not the Ahsoka set)! That'd be a waste of a 'promo figure' slot perhaps, but at least we'd be getting him alongside a set he fits with, should we so choose. The downside is if he's a TRU figure, then we'd be risking TRU markups on their sets.

I haven't heard tell of updated Y-wings in VIII yet... it's possible, I suppose! Wouldn't hurt to post yours here, tho

The legs are from CMF Series 12 Dino Tracker... the head, I think, is from a merchant & guard in Prince of Persia. It looks a bit different there, tho, so maybe I'm wrong.

At least we should get another Y-wing helmet here (even if it's classified as a B-wing helmet on Bricklink), tho that might mean the pilot will have an opaque gold visor print on at least one side of his face (ala the goggles on AT-ST Drivers)... not ideal. ...but you can make your own passable L'ulo right now with the existing ROTJ A-wing pilot body & helmet, and either a Starhopper Cad Bane or Battlefront Rebel Alliance Battlepack Duros head! Sure, L'ulo's a little more turquoise in a shade Lego doesn't really have right now (somewhere between Sand Green and Aqua, but not quite as light would probably be about right), but either of those might work nice enough for now. His helmet deco ideally should be different, too, but the basic A-wing helmet is close enough, as it doesn't have brown on top like the other uses of the mold.

August 2, according to Amazon. Could be an informal name, never used by any characters on-screen or even 'officially' by the Empire itself. It's not like anyone ever said "sandtrooper", "snowtrooper", or "biker scout" in the OT itself, after all!

Shoretroopers are the ones with the tan helmets & armor we see running with stormies inside the Imperial base about 1:13 into the teaser trailer (not to be confused with the tank-troopers seen earlier in the trailer, or in the leaked Visual Story Guide pages... the two types of troopers have big 'visor' things across their foreheads, but that's their main similarity)

In today's episode of Lucasfilm's The Star Wars Show. Death Troopers confirmed, Shoretroopers & All-Terrain Armored Cargo Transport names revealed.