Beagle

Wait a sec... IS it dark red? Maybe I'm going blind.... or colorblind at least, but I honestly can't tell if that's bright red or dark red. *wacko* I thought it was pretty much confirmed it was dark red, but that looks plain red to me!

I noticed that too! Especially the brown pieces, they look like they've been painted. Like you said, I'm sure it's because it's a prototype.

Gettin' them all, no question. Probably doubles of the interceptor, V-wing, and A-Wing. If these are technically considered "January 2006" sets, does this mean they'll actually be available for Christmas '05? I'm assuming that's the case, it seems strange to release something AFTER the biggest shopping season is over. (Sorry, this may have already been answered in an earlier thread, I can't remember.)

"Okay, over the sword, off the shield, off the wall, over the giant wolf...... nothin' but net."

Beautiful MOC! Funny how you can see Cloud City hovering up there above the fray...... ;) Really, though, this is great work. The catapult is ingenious, and I love all the little details in the set: the culvert in the wall, the battering ram, the curve of the stairs, etc. I think my favorite detail is the little ironclad "back door" off to the right of the main drawbridge. Very cool. Anyhow, inspiring work!

No way! SW is its own genre, and as a film license it should be grouped with other film licenses. Of course many pieces from the SW line are great for Space as well, but that's not enough justification to lump it together. It's a pretty distinct line. My $.02.

Yeah, much as I'd like to be an iconoclast, it's hard to argue with Redbeard. He's a classic, one of the most iconic lego minifigs (not to mention all the now-classic pieces he introduced: the peg leg, the pirate's hat, the hook).... so I had to cast my vote for him. Second choice would be Broadside, for the underdog value. Poor second fiddle Broadside.... what kid would want to root for the Imperials?

Not to be a whiner, but I think they should phase out the KK swords in the Viking line. Actually they should just phase them out altogether, unless they're planning on some sort of "Space Knights" theme.... they just look too sci-fi. They'd look great in a futuristic feudal theme, but they're woefully misused in a medieval or viking theme. Bring back old-style swords! Oh, and yeah, some domestic Viking villages would be nice. :-D

Heh... guess that's what I get responding to a four-month-old thread. Oy. Next time I'll pay more attention to the date... :$

Very nice ship, really classy! I like the simplicity and (as someone else mentioned) the elegance of it. I like the use of the droid arms for the interior, and the blue and chrome engines are beautiful! The only very minor thing I might suggest (not sure if this has already been addressed) would be to add a little more meat to the "saddle" part of the engine pieces. It feels a little conspicuosly empty right now, especially with the bare studs on top of the engine. It might be nice to beef it up with some slopes or vents there, and maybe a tile along the top of the engine. Overall, though, really great little ship!

The interceptor is still my favorite actual ship of the bunch.... but I had to vote for the A-wing because I think it is the best re-design of a pre-existing set. Tough call, though, they're all quite appealing.

A-Wing looks great, though I agree 'tis a shame about the stickers. But I guess the good thing about stickers is that if you want to you can go for the SUPER clean look and just leave 'em off (I leave off about 70% of the stickers that come with sets... just think it looks better that way). Honestly, though, even with minor complaints here and there I have to say that there is an amazingly strong lineup of SW sets coming up. Far from losing steam, the theme just seems to be improving. I mean, sheesh, check out what we have to look forward to in the next few months.... awesome! :oD

"You may have a fancy helmet, but at least I can bend at the waist." or... "Hey, after this let's take those shoulder pads of yours and make us some waffles!"

Hmmm, well, Vikings and Pirates do both have boats, after all.... hey, come to think of it, maybe Pirates should be grouped with Vikings, Divers, Aquazone, Boat.... and, what the heck, Hockey, since it takes place on frozen water. They're all pretty much the same, right? Heh, just kidding.... just trying to get a rise out of Mr. Phes. :-D

Actually no, the V-Wing is a prequel trilogy set. You see them at the end of "Revenge of the Sith," escorting Palpatine's shuttle to Coruscant. That's why there is a clone pilot. They're intended to be sort of a precursor to the TIE fighters. Check out the thread above regarding the V-Wing.... DinoBot posted some nice pictures of them.

I like it. Simple, elegant, long overdue, and constructed entirely of pre-existing lego parts (as far as I can tell). The only very minor criticism I have is that on the "arms" (the part connecting the wings to the cockpit) both the normal and inverted slopes are blue. I think I'm one of the few people who actually LIKES having blue TIEs, but I think they should have done the underside inverted slopes in grey to or something just for variation's sake. Ah well, very minor issue. I'll be getting a couple of these, I think.

This is only peripherally related to this topic, but I just wanted to say how darn cool the lego skeletons are. I love how, instead of looking like a "lego-ized" version of a real human skeleton, they actually look like the bone structure a minifig would have under his little plastic skin. So cool. :^D Oh yes, and this set rocks.

I know this'll be just like all the other TIEs.... I know it won't offer many surprises..... And yet, I am SO excited about this set. I think it's because I've wondered for so long when the Interceptor was going to come out in System scale, and now it is and it just makes me very happy. A gaping hole in the Lego Star Wars universe is about to be filled! Woohoo!

I would just make your own... after all, cloth capes are probably one of the few lego pieces that the average person (i.e. one not in possesion of an ABS plastic mold) could conceivably duplicate themselves. Just get some thin, stiff white fabric, an x-acto knife, and use one of the existing lego capes as a template. Sure, it wouldn't be an "official" lego part, but it would be better than waiting for something that may or may not ever be released. Hey, I just thought of something else.... I wonder if you could bleach a black (or other colored) cape? Anyone ever tried it, just soaking that sucker in bleach till it turned white?

For $10 I think it's all right. Cheap enough to buy a pair. My only concern is the flimsiness of it.... looks like the s-foils on the wings are just held on by little clips, and the nose looks too thin to be very sturdy either. It kinda reminds me of the Sith Interceptor set.... it's a similarly-shaped ship, and in both cases they kinda blew it and made the front section too blocky and not pointed enough.

Ha ha, that's funny, I had a similar idea as well. I thought it would be cool to put a lego castle in a fish tank. Though I like xwingyoda's idea of a pirate ship even better... that hadn't occured to me, but it makes much more sense. Only one problem: I hate fish. :-D

Sigh.... even though I should really buy this set for completeness' sake, I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm just really not fond of the "faceted" look of the design. I know it's really hard to make a nice-looking sphere in lego, but for $300 (US, at least) I just feel like it should look better than this. Although it was smart, on their part, to make it the second, under-construction death star..... at least that's a lot more interesting stuff to look at in the uncompleted section.

XWingyoda, Yeah, I'm all for that kind of Hoth set.... as long as the AT-ST looks better than the old version. Though I think it makes more sense to have a Hoth set that contains tauntauns, a wampa, and a probe droid. Er, sorry, off topic again. Back ON topic, though, regarding the Slave I..... so, are they pretty much completely phasing out the old-style hinge plates? You know, the ones that always used to be car roofs, with the four little teeth on them. It seems they're always using the new, locking ones now. Not sure how I feel about that. Sometimes those locking ones offer too much resistance (the front of my Sandcrawler tends to rip off when I open the cockpit). And they don't look quite as elegant somehow, with those big knobby hinges. But I guess they are stronger. :/

I like it. It seems that they took the things that worked about the Jango version and just improved and updated it (no need to re-invent the wheel, after all). The color scheme is great. As for the figs.... well, I guess it makes good financial sense to recycle the Ninja headgear for Dengar, but it does seem like a slight copout. The Bespin guard is fairly unremarkable, but it's neat they made him black. I really like SuvieD's idea of adding a small rubberband to IG-88, that would really make it spot-on! I like the gunmetal metallic color quite a lot. Can't wait to see the A-Wing, Interceptor, etc. Now where's my re-designed AT-ST??? :-D

Yeah, I was thinking not too distant future.... so you'd still have recognizable buildings and whatnot. Like you said, kinda similar to Back to the Future 2, or maybe Futurama. Not Jetsons, that's just straight-up Space and not as fun.