ResIpsaLoquitur

I like this set. I would think that the 1x1 bley clip on the left side of the speeder is to hold Rey's staff--at least, that's where I put mine, so she doesn't have to awkwardly hold it. Two criticisms--one, I wish there were somewhere to store her hair when she's not wearing it. Similarly, I hate how these stud shooters come with an abundance of studs--I mean, that's nice to fire them, but keeping them with the sets can be tricky. I just plugged all the spare studs onto the bottom of the speeder, where they're not really noticeable. Second complaint--I wish her mask were in two pieces so that we could display Rey with her face unmasked. Pretty sure we see her in the trailer with her face but not scalp uncovered. This seems to me to be a single use mold--I can't think of any other MF that could reasonably use the piece--so why not make it in two parts, other than cost? Oh well.

Good to know! I buy the ACs because I love getting the ACs for their own sake, though. I just wish they'd include some Episode III characters for once (other than the Phase II Trooper from last year). I'm guessing that era is done if the ACs shift to Rebels and the new movies in the future.

...Advent Calendars, too. Seriously, I love how many hard-to-get minifigs I've gotten from the ACs, like R2-Q5 and the Ewok Village Biker Scout, and this year we get a Jawa. I wouldn't be surprised if next year we get a Rebels or TFA calendar. Santa Phasma for the win!

I'm not really collecting them, but I guess they're not a huge draw because the lady at my Lego Store offers me "unsold" ones when I stop in. The folds drive me crazy, though--it really does limit what you can do with them. Obviously, rolling the posters would make it much harder for Lego to ship them, but it's a huge drawback. Related--my local Wal-Mart had some unfolded "Droid Tales" posters that were free in one of their cardboard SW display cases, so we took one of those.

Thanks. I was hoping someone could give some suggestions on how to get angled thrusters at that scale. The minifig-sized craft obviously has a lot more freedom to get four thrusters tilted at that angle and I'm not sure how to do that here.

I love mini-scale polybags, because they let me get Star Wars starships in a more manageable size. So with TFA coming and the announcement of at least one polybag (the First Order TIE Fighter), I decided to whip something together.... I think it still needs some work. I did make it so that the front hatch actually opens (and I wish I had some Games-scale Stormtroopers to put in there). I don't like how the back turned out, but I'm not sure how to duplicate the thrusters in mini-scale since they go at an angle. I'm also not 100% sold on the tower using the mailbox element, but it was the best solution I had with the parts available. If anyone has any thoughts for improvement, let me know. I love mini-scale and would love to see more TFA sets in polybags in the future.

...so...rerelease with a printed head somewhere down the line?

Does Phasma have a face under the helmet?

Got my TFA brick as well, along with Rey's Speeder, the First Order Transport, and some Advent Calendars. Target has none of the ACs right now, but they didn't have City or Friends either...so maybe they'll have them out in October.

Note the " " in my Vader post. But anyway: -- You'd be surprised what I'm building for my Advent Calendar Santa figures. Lego and the imagination have no limits!

Vader came in a $40 Advent Calendar last year. Well, I really don't want to blow $300+ for all these sets--I just can't afford to do that. For me, my choices are among clearance sets, buying the individual minifigs on eBay or Bricklink, or else getting their keychains from the Lego Store and doing the old "yank and pretend this is an actual minifigure" technique.

My store in Annapolis now has some kind of "spare parts" PAB-bin with a lot of miscellaneous pieces. My guess is it's from disassembled sets. Anybody else's store doing this?

You know...I'm pretty tempted to avoid buying a lot of these sets, if only because Lego has a tendency to remake Star Wars sets over and over for the course of many years. That, and a lot of these characters will probably reappear in cheaper sets down the line. I mean, it'll be three years before Episode VIII. I'm guessing Finn and Kylo and Phasma will appear in smaller, cheaper sets at some point, like in Microfighters or something. Lego will want to milk these molds for awhile. And maybe we'll get Santa Phasma in the 2016 calendar.

In past years, I've seen them utterly disappear no later than mid-November. People aren't thinking of Christmas that early, with Halloween coming. But yeah, once Halloween passes, they really start to move, and by the week of Thanksgiving they're gone.

No, I think I'd want the cherubic cupid. That's a commercialized enough character that I think it would be fine, particularly since we've had a number of holiday-themed minifigs: the Leprechaun, Santa, and all the Halloween/Monster characters. So I'd want a cute child face, wings, short legs, and a bow and arrow. Come to think of it, I'd like a modern commercialized angel as well: wings, harp, etc. (And a stone version for cemetery scenes.) Yeah, it has religious overtones, but classic Biblical angels tended to have multiple heads, eyes, and wings.

Got my Advent Calendar at the Lego Store today. That thing's going to go quick.

Cupid would be an obvious one that I'm surprised they haven't done yet.

...we ARE getting a whole wave of Halloween minifigures, you know....

Found a Halloween set at the Lego Store today. Got the last one on the shelf. I'd assume more are coming (or were in the back).

Last year, I rebuilt my 1986 1555 Santa Claus. Many years ago, I kragled it together to make it into an ornament. I decided I wanted to rebuild it, so I got the correct modern parts...excepting the face and red slopes, which I salvaged from the original.

I think they went a little overboard in making it look "Halloween." I will say that American households vary in how much they decorate their homes. Some people just put out a jack o'lantern. Others (like me) might go all out with decorations, fake graves, spooky music, etc. Back in April, I bought an extra Easter Egg set and rejiggered it into a front porch that matched the kitchen. I didn't go overboard decorating it--I kept it consistent with the kitchen in terms of colors, and just added a pumpkin. I wish they'd gone with something a little more muted that matched the previous set. That might work for future seasonal themes--make them interlocking with Technic pegs so that you can build a larger house that showcases different seasons of the year.

If they wanted to keep the life story of the Valentine couple going, then the Halloween set could have been two skeletons in some brick-built caskets. Hey, given today's Thanksgiving revelation, looks like this post turned out to be correct. I wonder if the Christmas 1 and 2 scenes will interlock or form a larger scene together? Also, I wonder if the ornaments in the clear plastic balls will make a comeback this year. I regret not getting one last year. Lastly, I wonder if there will be another store-exclusive ornament this year. Last year we got a train in a little bag with a "2015" on it. Supposedly a new train car would be out every year. Any insight?

I think it's more that these are supposed to be "Creator" style sets, so they're less likely to use highly specialized parts and more likely to use "traditional" Lego parts, if that makes sense. A few things are throwing me with this one (which, who am I kidding, I'm getting it). One: the vignette looks too much like a tiny house rather than a front porch. I think it's supposed to be a front porch, but whereas the last two scenes were a clear "slice" of a house, this one is less box-shaped than the previous ones have been. Two, the skeleton doesn't really feel appropriate, since it seems like there's an actual, moving skeleton at the door. (And maybe there is?) If they'd used the Skeleton as a decoration, it'd be different. I'd prefer if there had been a person at the door giving candy rather than this. Lastly, I agree with everyone on the corny torso. The second minifigure needs to be a kid, but this could have worked well if they'd give us maybe a vampire torso and hair, along with a short cape, vampire hair, and a kid head. Something like that.

I think it'd be logical to have a poly or two. They're gateway drugs, and they give TLG an extra opportunity to use up a mold. I'd assume a poly would be either Scooby or a mini Mystery Machine. Maybe Target will get one for Halloween?

OK, need that 3PO. Hopefully he's as readily available as Rocket and Dareth were--my TRU had tons of 'em for awhile. And I'm not down with 3PO with a red arm, but I could always Bricklink a comparable gold torso and pop and switch. Wonder what Polys we're getting. Hopefully a Falcon? A simple mod should make it an easy OT Falcon. I'd guess the TIE, X-Wing (simple color swap with the last X-Wing poly), and that Shuttle. Heck, if we're lucky, maybe we'll finally get some SW polys with some minifigures?