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In other Star Wars news we just got a new preview for the VR experience which is coming to Anaheim and Orlando this winter. I have a friend who's dad works at the Void which is the development company for these VR experiences, so I am excited to see how this plays out.

Yes I saw that too. It makes sense in universe, the new walkers we see the FO are used in important conflicts; but their garrisons and stockpile of equipment is mostly classic AT-AT's etc. with some upgrades. It reminds us the FO isn't as wealthy as the Empire, instead putting their cash into new projects (Mega Class Star Destroyer, Starkiller Base) but penny pinching elsewhere by retaining old vehicles in surplus. Also was anybody absolutely confused by the trailer? Was Kylo Ren offering to take Rey's hand??? What?!?!

UCS details and minifigure scaled interior play spaces? Epic!

Timothy Zahn has official written a sequel to Thrawn! Preemptively named Thrawn: Alliances so our chances of seeing a new Thrawn trilogy completed in the new canon are looking pretty bright right now!

I agree the front needs some work, like the nose needs to be a bit sharper or something but I can't really describe how to fix it without having it side by side with a P42DC model or photo. However the rear end is spectacular, and really captures all the weird angles and details that are in modern passenger locomotives. I like the hood design too.

Well this ties into the whole price of living issues with large cities. I am from a rural area personally so the thought of every home having one or two spare rooms for a hobby isn't unusual or for the wealthy only; but in-fact common-place! Since my other hobby is model railroading, I am aware of many retired men who have been able to dedicate their ENTIRE basement in my area for wall upon wall of trains and display set ups. Still I am aware of how coastal metropolitan areas have such jacked up prices. My Seattle based uncle and his wife and their five children used to live in a home smaller than my parent's home in Utah; and his Seattle home was probably as expensive or twice as expensive as my parent's Utah one. He has been able to purchase a new home and move up, but it was after years of work and saving before he could do that. The discussion of cost of living country vs. the city is interesting though to consider in light of hobbies, especially Lego. The coastal cities in the US are expensive and their it becomes prohibitive to amass a major collection, while in a rural area the space for a collection is easier to obtain although the stores which actually sell Lego are far more limited than they would be in a major metropolis. Lastly another thing to consider is how natural disaster affects the hobby. There have been a few people on this forum in Texas/Florida etc. who have lost their collections to the hurricanes. In Utah I often wonder what an earthquake or wild fire might do to my collections. A coastal Tsunami or a California quake could be just as devastating. A natural disaster might be the start of a long term "dark ages" for many people, as rebuilding their home takes priority over rebuilding their Lego collection.

Oh wow! So very sleek. I had the original Naboo Starfighter from the 1990's which looked like a flying brick, so your model is definitely impressive to me! How sturdy is it?

Seeing the words Pacific Rim and my mind instantly rushes to that over the top guitar driven soundtrack from the first film! "Bumbundundundundundundun dundudndundun bumumumumm!" The first Pacific Rim was a fun film. It was stupid, very silly but it seemed everybody knew it was silly and just had fun making it. Highly entertaining. Hopefully the sequel captures the same sense of spectacle and fun the original had.

To be honest... I am a bit upset it is likely that we won't see ANY comic based sets until summer. Comic sets are a mixed bag but they are where we get most of the unique figures (Phil Coulson, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, X-Men, Sinister Six, Miles Morales...) and occasionally some great builds (Bridge Battle). There is a mountain of interesting characters I could list that I would love to see in comics sets. Still between the film stuff; Infinity War will be satisfying if the wave is on-par with the Age of Ultron sets. Ant-Man and the Wasp would be the next film wave I'd be excited for, especially if it brings us a cheaper Ant Man figure. I wish I bought his set when it was still on market back in 2015!

I honestly am bummed out that we have seen all the 2017 sets. I still feel this year was lackluster for Lego Marvel. I am hoping next year will be a return to form or else I feel my excitement for the theme will diminish if we get another year like this one...

He didn't explain how he got the tops smooth and studless but I worry his answer would have been even more non-purist than the paint...

I think some of you might get a kick out of this. On the cover of the Model Railroader November 2017 issue is a story about John Sethian's O Scale Pennsylvania RR layout, which features classic PRR equipment rolling through city scapes with many retaining walls and bridges. Well inside the issue John reveals his method for making those brick retaining walls... "Block walls from Lego bricks: Someone at Lego must be a fan of the Pennsylvania RR, because the size of a standard Lego brick is pretty close to that of a standard Pennsylvania RR stone block in O scale. I use the following Lego brick technique for bridge abutments and tunnel portals as well as retaining walls. First I spread drywall joint compound on the face of each individual Lego brick that will be visible on the final model. Next I use my fingers or a small trowel or artist's palette knife to form an irregular "stone" surface while the joint compound is still wet. Once the joint compound dries, I paint the bricks with various shades of acrylic craft paint. To build the walls, I paint all the brick's mating edges with Folk Art Barn Wood craft paint. In addition to simulating the mortar between the bricks, the paint acts as an adhesive to help them stick together. After assembling the structure, I wipe away any excess paint and add weathering." -Sethian, John Model Railroader November 2017 p. 39 In total I count at least 3-4 different photos including the cover image where the "weathered spackled" Lego is visible. I honestly didn't notice they were Lego until I saw the article itself, but now the familiar shapes of 2x2, 4x2, 1x2 bricks are seen all over this guys layout... I know its not traditional Lego train modeling and isn't purist by any means... But if you ever have some scale modelers telling you the Lego hobby is not a part of scale modeling... well now you have an article to prove him wrong with! Edit: You can see the cover for the magazine issue here, see if you can spot the Lego bricks in the model: http://mrr.trains.com/issues/2017/november-2017

So Disney has started releasing another batch of Forces of Destiny. I didn't watch any from the last batch and from the comments made here I am a bit hesitant to watch it... Maybe someone will make a "best of" list someday so I know which ones to skip.

Wowsers. Seeing that Jrennic Shuttle set dwarfed by that tower is amazing.

I'd rather have another Disney series than another Lego Batman series, but sadly we are getting more Batman and no word on more Disney. There might be some licensing agreements limiting another Disney series from being made, but Disney is such a fount of possible figures that Lego could have a field day making another series. I can't think of much that was in the Lego Batman film which hasn't already been made due to that theme's large amount of sets and the already existing figure wave. The reveal of the Batman D2C set today makes it clear we are even getting the White-Disco suits from the end-credits for the main cast! So yeah, oversaturated with Batman. Would rather have a Lego Goofy

Rogue One Y-Wing, $12 less than the original MSRP ($48 in total). Great set!

For a moment I was wondering if you were joking... The Ebon Hawk's freighter class, canon again and it somehow went under the radar? Then I found this little picture: http://outerrimnews.com/reading/comics/comic-previews/idw-reveals-star-wars-adventures-2-preview/#jp-carousel-35869 So not only is the Dynamic Class freighter canon again, they are now seen still in service as late into the timeline as Episode VII... wow!

Wow it's great to see the Ebon Hawk done so well! It's a ship that hasn't been made into a MOC a lot since 2004, and the surge of new renditions this year keep getting progressively better. This one has nailed the shape perfectly.

Saturn V $120 Old Fishing Store: $150 Assembly Square: $280 Resistance Bomber: $110 Kylo Ren's Tie Fighter: $80 Ultimate Battle for Asgard: $50 Plus some random $10 Brickheadz or something... Gosh this little exercise made me remember how darn expensive Lego is! I had to cut Ninjago City from the list because of it's price dominating the field... I didn't even consider Destiny's Bounty or the UCS Snowspeeder either since they really really would have bumped the prices as well. I actually want in real life the top four sets I listed and now I feel a bit bummed to see all the prices added up!

I think I remember hearing Lego has a sticky legal situation since the baseplates are made using vacuum molding instead of injection molding, they licensed them to a 3rd party manufacturer. So the 3rd party makes them, Lego buys them back from them, then Lego sells them. I don't know how true it is, but from what I understand it is why Lego is avoiding using baseplates beyond special sets; because they don't want to have to buy more from the outside manufacturer than they need to. Now why Lego doesn't invest in their own vacuum molding tech and buy back the molds from the 3rd party is a question I have with that report, but mass product manufacturing is a strange strange world anyways...

Yeah I agree I don't normally like to see Lego bricks painted like this... but it really works for this figure. Is it done using weathering chalk (charcoals or pastels)? The way I see it clean armored Stormtroopers are the types that serve in bases such as the Death Star, Star Destroyers, and patrol the streets of Core Worlds. The dirty troopers like this though would look at home on Tattoine or Wobani!

So its the interior to the new Falcon removed and made a separate scene? I kind of like it. I imagine the crowd who does brickfilms would find a "set" like this highly useful since it separates the details from the bigger ship.

How do I feel about Lego right now? There is a lot I like; I am a Star Wars fan, I love Superheroes, and I love the Creator Modulars. Great time right? Well there are things that frustrate me. Marvel Superheroes is a theme I love but this year has landed very very flat for me. I enjoy the minifigures but I want a bit more, meat to the main sets themselves... Star Wars has been decent this year, but I feel last year's sets were better in a few ways. And the best sets in Star Wars are priced out of my purchasing range (Most of the TLJ sets and the UCS Falcon as proof of that). Lego Batman Movie has been fun for the CMFs and small sets but I haven't bought anything from that line worth more than $15... On top of it all my reignited interest in CCBS from 2015-2016 failed as soon as Bionicle collapsed. I have only bought like two CCBS sets since then and while fun, the appeal isn't there anymore to collect them like I used to. I would like to get into Technic a bit but the prices on the sets I want kind of make it hard to dip my feet in there. On top of that I am trying to break into new hobbies and while I buy plenty of Lego, sometimes I put my Lego purchasing on hold if it means I can buy an HO scale train I wanted, or a few nice books to read. The weird thing is for all of my interests you know what was my funnest Lego moment this year? Helping my young cousin build the Minecraft Nether Railway set and playing with him. That one set, a flat base of a few basic bricks was more entertaining than many of the sets I have bought for myself this year, at least seeing my cousin's manic play with it. Maybe it is a sign I'm getting to old for this So yeah weird year in the Lego hobby for me. Lots of fun stuff but some downers in the mix too.

I would like to see an Artiquens Light Cruiser someday. It's medium sized cruiser aspect would be a better fit for a $120+ set than trying to compress the massive Star Destroyers (such as The Finalizer set that just came out). I think it would do good as a "Rebels Legacy" one off set that could come out in 3+ years much like how we are getting one off Clone Wars sets right now. Just a way to keep the characters from Rebels in a regular but small release schedule. Speaking of the TV shows, I'd love to see an updated Clone Wars era Rex and Asohka in a one off set in the future. Both of those characters deserve to be redone without the Clone Wars eyes! I know we have Rebels versions of both, but their Clone Wars Era figures are more iconic in my opinion.

JJ. has a great visual style and can direct his actors to portray emotion very well. However I hope he doesn't touch the script writing to much. TFA was way to similar to ANH, and we are all hoping JJ doesn't turn E.9 into ROTJ 2!