Clone OPatra

This makes no sense given that they are an entirely different phase. Phase I and Phase II already are not going to match because they have different helmets. A Phase I clone amongst Phase II clones looks as out of place as an Empire Stormtrooper amongst First Order Stormtroopers. Why should their armour be aligned for no reason when it looks different in universe? There's an argument to be made for removing any distinction between animated and film-based styles within one era so that figures that belong together match, but saying Phase I and Phase II Clones should have matching torso styles when in fact they don't and don't interact with each other makes no sense to me at all.

I'd love a Snow White's cottage with all the dwarves in theory, but the big noses are so much a part of their looks that I fear the Minifigures would end up looking like the Flinstones men, so obviously missing something. I don't see any way in heck a Pride Rock set would happen. Way too many new moulds needed for the characters, unless they base it on the "photoreal" version of Lion King so they can use the lions they've already made. The other possibility would be to make it a smaller display piece with just a couple of out-of-scale figures on the side.

Folks I think this is getting decidedly out of the realm of LEGO discussion at this point, but there's always the Stat Wars topic down in Culture & Multimedia to carry it on if you wish.

That's not a new mould, just a new print. Other animal moulds very ripe for CMF inclusion or the otter and hare patronuses. They need to be made as their real animal selves!

Whadayaknow, Vision looks almost exactly like this concept art:

This is pretty much exactly what I said just put another way . The statement "not as bad as they were made out to be" doesn't equal "as good as the OT". What I said was that the PT has become more popular than it was, but still not as popular as the OT. For my part I've loved RotS since the first time I saw it, but I don't buy UCS sets because display pieces and very expensive sets aren't the LEGO things I'm into.

All of the new sets are now 50% or more off in Australia from one major retailer and matched by two online only ones (well, all of the stores will do a price match if you ask them, but that's another matter). That does potentially seem like bad news for those hoping for more of this theme, and I wonder if Bandmates S2 will be exclusive to LEGO/Certified Stores. Good news for people that want the sets but don't want to pay anywhere near full price, though.

It depends on development production timelines I'm sure. Sometimes a part is developed for one set or theme, but then able to be used first in a different one (there was a recent example of this confirmed by a designer that's now escaping me). But I'm sure in some cases the opposite also happens, that a part is in process but isn't ready yet for an earlier release, so can't be used. From what I've read, it also used to be with CMF that any new CMF part that designers wanted to use in sets actually had to be remade in Europe because CMF production was entirely in China. However now that CMF production has moved to be partially in Europe just like sets, that might not be the case any more.

They have nothing else to do, need money to live, trust Syd as a handler, so why not? I am looking forward to the last episodes of the first season with the promise of the Batch and Crosshair coming head to head. I do find Crosshair interesting even if his personality is super one dimensional at the moment. I'd like to see the Batch capture him and forcibly remove his chip and where that would go, but I don't think the show will go that way.

I also wouldn't say that the PT has swung to OT levels of popularity. Though a number of factors have certainly elevated the PT's standing and appreciation of it, I don't think it will ever command the type of widespread love that the OT has. Even people who liked it as children can change their position on it in light of its flaws. Whatever happens with sales of the Gunship, people are going to make a LOT of claims in the next couple of years about how it has impacted the future of the UCS line.

All of the information stated in terms of who might appear in the film has been officially reported, confirmed by cast members, or widely circulated. HOWEVER, we have said before and I guess it bears repeating, discussion of leaks about movies doesn't go here. An early leak about a trailer is pretty much a leak about a movie until the trailer is released. Once a trailer IS released, its relationship to known or rumoured LEGO sets is fair game to discuss, but until then there's really no need to be talking about it. Some people do indeed want to be surprised by whatever is in a trailer when it drops. That's part of getting hyped for a movie. Already knowing what's in a trailer in advance undercuts that excitement a bit. FYI this is a statement and not an invitation for discussion. If anybody wants to talk about it, PM me.

For sure, and I guess I was already on the edge of bored enough in the Bad Batch that I was scanning the crowds for the repeats. If they don't have the budget or whatever is needed for proper crowd scenes that's fine, but then they just shouldn't do them or find a more creative solution. Given that AI things can generate huge hordes of characters and probably alternate all of their looks etc, I'm not sure why it's unachievable, but I'm not an animator. This time frame could definitely be explored in an anthology series, and it does come down to your individual expectations and wishes for what the show is or should be. For me, as a show called The Bad Batch I expect it to be about The Bad Batch. To your point about the Batch themselves not getting enough character development, it could be a symptom of the same thing that led the showrunners to lean totally into a Ryloth episode without the Batch. They almost seem more interested in exploring other characters, stories, and aspects of the state of the Star Wars universe post RotS than they are in really exploring the characters that are supposed to be headlining the show. After a while, it becomes too convenient/coincidental that the Batch keeps interacting with ALL of these previously established characters to the point that it should be an anthology instead. All that said, I've still been enjoying watching it week to week, way more than The Mandalorian. It's a breezy watch and fun to see various Star Wars stuff that isn't hampered by the limitations of live action, and some of the visuals are the most impressive they've done in animation to date.

There's a rumour going around from Promobricks that the baby croc in the Disney+ CMF series might not have Loki horns at all. That'd be good news for purely animal fans if true.

As others have pointed out, the timing might be better now than it was before. A generation of fans who grew up with and like the Prequels might have more money to buy UCS now, plus general opinion has swung in favour of the Clone Wars show especially, if not the Prequels as a whole. Not to mention that the adult/big display piece market for LEGO in general must be continually growing given the ever growing number of huge, high priced items they're producing each year. It's high time they delved into the Prequels for a UCS again. They themselves might be surprised by the sales. Or not, and we'll all see that it's still the OT that commands attention on this side of the LEGO Star Wars market. (As an aside, the Aus/NZ LEGO Certified Store social media has been referring to the Gunship as being from the Battle of Geonosis in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Technically not untrue, but amusing.)

Personally the show started to completely lose me at the Hera backstory episode. I'm probably in a tiny minority, but I really don't like or need every piece of media to so blatantly connect to other media. The first of the two Ryloth episodes has nothing to do with the subjects of the Bad Batch show, and is only cool or interesting or whatever if you've seen Clone Wars and/or Rebels. I have seen those, but I don't suddenly need a completely out of place story shoehorned in. The second Ryloth episode at least focused on the Bad Batch, and to be honest would have worked totally fine and even been more intriguing WITHOUT the first one. They get a distress call - Cham is in prison set up by the Imperials and has told Hera to contact the Bad Batch or something like that - and then they're thrown right into the thick of it. We'd get little hints of the backstory and understand that the Empire is undermining autonomous planets. That's all we need. Whatever else happened would be left up to the imagination. I do get the complaint that there hasn't been much character development with the Batch themselves. Personally, I'm not sure how much I care, but it's definitely a criticism that stands. One thing that bothers me in the show is the crowd scenes. The animation overall, especially the atmospheric animations and simulated cinematography, are so good in this show, but the crowd scenes are weak. They're just not populated enough, and everyone seems quite stiff, like a SIMs person. Also in the episode with the Separatist Senator, multiple character models were repeated throughout the crowd, who then also appeared in Syd's bar at the end! I thought that was hilarious.

Wow, all of that info is the opposite of exciting. Will still hold out for the true Reve and reviews to make a final judgement, but it sounds like a fair number of things that would be cool won't be. I am excited about the croc though, if no crown is true. I want a baby croc and have no interest in the Loki-croc character.

Alright, I think the point has been made, more pleasantly by some than others. Unless there's any really new angle to this whole discussion, it might be time to call it a day on the whole topic of the Gunship's minifigures.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Sprout, Bellatrix, and Myrtle all had alternate non smiling faces, and Griphook is a sneer and not a smile. That's half the series who weren't restricted to smiles. The other Weasleys and Luna all made enough sense to have multiple happy expressions, as did Dumbledore. Kingsley could only have one expression because of his hat, and it was just slightly bemused. Arguably only Harry's parents should've had something other than smiles, given their whole predicament. It does seem pretty weird for characters who very have much have emotions other than being happy to only have smiles.

All that printing on FalCap, and they still couldn't give us a wraparound headprint which we know they're capable of doing. Especially for a figure with short hair, that's super d'oh! Personally I don't even understand what some of the details on the side of his legs are supposed to represent.

But why would you want a new helmet mould locked behind that huge price? You really aren't making any sense. Minifigures are just a tiny bit of window dressing for a UCS set. When you say "they are the set", what that means colloquially is that they make or break the set - i.e. they are the main point of a set. When it comes to UCS, they most certainly are not.

Fun review Jack. I could read a review from you on any subject, your style is so engaging and entertaining. It happens that I really like this set too, despite never having seen an episode of Seinfeld. The characters have a lot of personality (plus new hairpiece!), and the set is so wonderfully detailed. It's also so well priced in the US that the Australian price isn't terrible, though not amazing either. A few notes (of contention? not sure): Elaine's annoyed face is actually a design copy of Chandler's original annoyed face from the Central Perk, used again for Ron Weasley's annoyed face in his CMF Series 2 appearance. They've changed around the eyebrows and such, but the mouth shape and eyes, and thus the overall expression, are exactly the same. Central Perk is most certainly not too rectangular, nor a mere excuse to sell the figures. It's got a nicely engineered angle and step up for the musical couch section, the whole right side of the set basically. It's also chock full of recognisable details and had a very decent price. Totally agree that the Big Bang Theory set comes across as a rectangular box to sell the excellent Minifigures, though.

You've done a fantastic job on the modifications and power functions for this! The model already looked great, but now it's epic! It looks like a lot of fun to control and play around with. A word of advice, I think your choice of Topic heading might put people off. Your modifications deserve more views and engagement, but your very long topic heading with so many things in it comes across as a bit spammy. Something simple like "[MOD] 76139 1989 Batmobile - Motorized with Added Functions" is more in line with what people expect from a topic title, and would grab their interest.

If they feel set on including FB characters, and need to include the trio, I sincerely hope they're willing to break out of the current "12-figure" box they've put themselves in. The first Wizarding World series was 16+6 after all, very clearly a standard (at the time) 16 figures for Harry Potter and 6 FB ones tacked on. Maybe they could do 12+6 this time, though there are more than just 6 FB characters who it might be nice to get also depending on if LEGO does FB sets.