Blondie-Wan

I think Cult_Of_Skaro was talking about the one in the third column, 5th down, actually.

I overwhelmingly focus on the OT era (that is, sets from the OT itself, plus EU material set in that timeframe), but I do also get prequel-era stuff from time to time, particularly when it contains elements that lend themselves to incorporating in OT-era MOCs and/or when I find good deals. I usually don't get sets right away, as I'm perpetually behind in my acquisitions, and I'm in a constant state of "LEGO triage," trying to scoop up all the older sets I want before they're gone. I do make exceptions from time to time, though. I particularly like getting sets that go together (i.e., Jabba's Palace, the Rancor Pit, Jabba's Sail Barge, and the Desert Skiff), and I also try to army-build, though it gets difficult and frustrating when they keep "updating" the prints on uniformed troops.

With the new Sandcrawler coming out, I'd love to see an Beru Lars promo. It might be the only way we ever get her. I wish they'd gone with her for May the 4th instead of Darth Revan, but oh well. Any free minifigure is still better than no free minifigure, and there'll probably be some other promotion going at the same time (it never has been limited to just a free polybag, has it? They've always also had some other sale, giveaway, contest, etc., or some combination thereof...). And I do still need a bunch of items...

Indeed, I'm more concerned about getting TC-4. Prequel deleted scene character or not, I can always use more protocol droids (and astromechs, power droids, etc.). The beauty of them is that they'll work in the prequel or OT eras equally well.

Good points, as BD said, except that the books in which Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn first appeared emphatically did not appear in the '80s, but in the '90s. They are not three decades old. (It probably doesn't seem important to you, but speaking as someone who remembers very well when they came out, I'm really really not ready for them to be that old yet!)

Well... assuming this is all legit, it could be that Darth Revan was chosen over someone like Mara Jade because LEGO's target audience - not just Star Wars fans, remember, but young ones - is going to be more familiar with him than her. Mara Jade originated with three adult novels published 20 years ago (gaahhhh, just typing that makes me wince at my age), and I doubt most kids half that age are going to have read them. But a bunch of much more recent videogames? I think that alone might tilt things towards Revan and away from Jade, even if greater Star Wars fandom skews more adult. That said, just to add one last anecdotal note to the discussion of Mara Jade's popularity among fans, many years ago the Star Wars Insider polled the readership to determine fans' favorite characters, and published a list of the top 20 (this would be in the early / mid-'90s, when there wasn't nearly as much SW lore from to draw, granted, but there was still plenty). Mara Jade was the only character originating outside the films to make the list. (Granted also, Darth Revan wouldn't even have been created back then...) Back to LEGO's plans for the franchise for 2014... if this minifigure isn't for May the Fourth, as Darth Mallet indicates, then what will we get, I wonder?

Right in time for the 30th anniversary - the first movie was released June 8, 1984. (Man, I can not get used to all these anniversaries for things that happened in the '80s. I'm getting so freaking old... )

Oh, I certainly have! Given that I don't have a lot of money, I actually rely quite a bit on sales, clearances, and just plain weirdly low prices to help me fill out my collection. These are some of the more spectacular deals I've gotten, just off the top of my head: 2 copies of 3537 Skateboard Street Park (MSRP: $19.99) for $0.80 each - yes, 80 cents ~ 18 copies (I don't recall the exact number I got at this price, only the final total number I have) of 7201 Final Duel II (MSRP: $6.99) for 75 cents each 3 copies of 3856 NinjaGo (LEGO Games board game) (MSRP: $24.99) for 55 cents each All of these were new, unopened copies bought from regular retail stores (Target, Walmart, the now defunct Kay*Bee, etc.). I'll try to add more as I think of them.

Yeah, I waited as long as I could out of financial necessity, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sit this one out much longer - the one I picked up was actually the last one I've been able to find on any local store shelves in the last couple weeks, and might well indeed have been the last one for sale anywhere in town here, AFAIK. With it I have three of the four recent Jabba / Tatooine-themed RotJ sets of the last two or three years, and need only Jabba's Sail Barge; I'm planning on waiting until I get that one, and building all four together at once (the palace, the Rancor pit, the sail barge and the desert skiff). I might wait until I can also get the new Mos Eisley Cantina and the new Sandcrawler, though, and build all seven sets (those six, plus the most recent Droid Escape) in one massive all-Tatooine build session. Hey, I still have some unopened older Tatooine sets as well, including 10144 Sandcrawler, 7659 Imperial Landing Craft, 4477 T-16 Skyhopper, 4480 Jabba's Palace, and 4476 Jabba's Prize - maybe I should throw those into the mix too. All Tatooine, all the time!

Huh, that's strange. I thought TRU's insane prices were at least standardized across the chain, so that you'd pay the same inflated price at one store as at another, but I actually just got that same set myself one week ago today, and my markup on it was "only" $10. (I actually hadn't realized that until looking it up just now; I'd somehow gotten it into my head that the normal price was in fact $129.99, so that it was a rare example of TRU actually having a normal price on a Star Wars set for once; I obviously should have known better. I don't normally get prices mixed up like that, but after so many years and so many prices on so many sets, I'm bound to slip a bit from time to time. I don't regret it too much, since this was a set I really wanted and it's disappearing from stores everywhere now after having been out a couple years, and a $10 markup - less than 10% the usual price of the set - is negligible compared to the premiums we might see it commanding on eBay in the very near future).

That's the second time in this thread you've used the term "GWP" in as many posts, yet I've never encountered it before. What does it mean?

A couple years ago, TRU had 4737 Quidditch Match, a Harry Potter set with a list price of $19.99, for $39.99, fully twice the MSRP (and a penny more, just for good measure).

Very cool. Are those flashing lights all pure LEGO? I'm not familiar with those. Great camera work, too. What are you using?

This long-time fan is much, much more fond of the Thrawn trilogy than Shadows of the Empire, actually, and I suspect the same is true for most other fans who've read both, but granted, it's not as though I've polled people on it or anything. I'm sure this Darth Revan selection tickles some, and I'm happy for them, though stuff from that particular realm of the canon isn't of much interest to me. I imagine I'll still wind up getting at least one of these anyway, though, with my own May the Fourth purchase(s).

I think you're right about Barney, Moe and Duffman being out, and quite likely Rev. Lovejoy. I further think Patty and Selma might be out as well, since their primary distinguishing characteristic is that they both smoke like chimneys. Professor Frink is my #1 choice, mm-hley. I simply must have him.

Thanks for the review, WhiteFang. I particularly appreciate that you made some effort to research the characters with which you aren't familiar so you could discuss them from a Simpsons-related perspective. Often, people here review sets from licensed themes only from the perspective of LEGO fans. If you will forgive a few minor corrections, I just want to comment on a couple things: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think "Collectable" has ever been part of the traditional name of the line, at least not officially. I believe it's just the way FOLs refer to them. As far as I know, LEGO's official nomenclature for the theme has always been simply "Minifigures," with a capital "M" to distinguish this particular line from minifigures in general. While The Simpsons did technically begin running in the 1980s, note it began at the very end of the decade, with a Christmas episode first shown in December of 1989. Aside from some short segments which ran as part of The Tracey Ullman Show (which launched this show), that was the only episode ever shown in the 1980s. The series became a phenomenon immediately after, in the 1990s, and is probably most closely associated with that decade. Actually, Itchy isn't the very first mouse cartoon character in LEGO form; Mickey and Minnie are:

Lots of locales, such as the school, would indeed be unfeasible as sets if built in their entirety, but I think many could work as commercial releases if done the way most other buildings in official sets are, as facades and other partial structures. However, I can also see TLG leaving it at just the Simpsons' house and a number of series of minifigures. Having a few more series, with all the attendant accessories and whatnot, would actually offer a pretty substantial base of material for MOCists.

They actually crossed that boundary with skirt-like fabric pieces, actually, starting with the Minifigures Series 3 Hula Girl, and they've done it several times with other so-called "CMFs" since then (including in this set - look closely at Lisa).

Really? I think the gear looks great, particularly given that it's recreated entirely with existing elements. I think the minifigures overall (including their gear) look great, with the slight exception of not having the shoulder patches of the logo. That's disappointing, but not enough to keep me from getting and enjoying the set.

These look great! I see it turns out Itchy & Scratchy are indeed there, as promised, and as two complete separate minifigures rather than sharing a packet. The accessories all seem well-chosen, even if they're perhaps not quite so abundant with this line as with most of the "regular" series. I do wish Professor Frink were here, but oh well. Perhaps in a later series...

A few Lucasfilm character minifigures do - Short Round and Chief Chirpa both have regular stone grey legs, and Teebo has dark stone grey legs.

I think it's quite possible to bend it like that, and I don't see how it could have come out of the mold that way. Perhaps it was still warm and pliable after coming out of the mold, and got bent immediately after being made, but I do think it's entirely possible for it to have been bent like that after being packaged. The same should be true of the visor, though for that I'm much more surprised that it bent rather than breaking, as the transparent elements tend to be more brittle than the opaque ones. The visor is incidentally one of those elements for which there's usually a spare in a set that includes it, so normally having one bent like this wouldn't be a problem. Was this the only one in the set's polybag?

Trans-yellow is the trans color I think most of us associate most closely with that original Space era (the one from which Benny hails). I think of trans green mainly as an accent color, on things like wingtip lights or details on pieces of equipment.

I've never spilled one myself, but a store associate once spilled some of the contents of a holiday PAB box while he was trying to help me fill it.

I wonder what LEGO's sales expectations for CUUSOO sets are like now. This whole thing started out small, with very modest expectations and goals (as far as LEGO's sales are concerned), but it has now yielded at least one runaway smash hit (successful enough to launch its own whole theme) and one more set that's apparently very popular despite mixed reactions to the design, and it appears the Ghostbusters set will also do really well (possibly better than the Back to the Future one thanks to the beautiful design and increased minifigure count, even though it's more expensive). Do these successes spell doom for any more niche sets like the original Shinkai 6500? Is TLG still willing to consider producing sets that might sell "only" 10,000 or 15,000 units or whatever?