Robianco

Well it's a new design torso and skirt print so someone would have gone to a lot of trouble just for that. His right hand is angled inwards so looks complete to me. Wand looks to be white version of the new mould which I don't think anybody else has. So lots of things there that are quite elaborate for a hoax.

We can just leave this here and the designer from Firestar can see it and maybe make an adjustment to the print. ;)

I'm glad at least one person spotted that. :)

Ah... Probably confused by the description on BL which includes POTC in the title.

I got stick on a FB group for this but I think of all the sets people can complain about the Advent Calendar isn't one of them. We have around 60 SW sets a year? Maybe more? And one set is designed for small children to open in the build up to Santa visiting them on Christmas Eve. It's made up of builds of 10 parts or less that are so simple the instructions are a single image. These builds are supplemented by a few minifigures... one of which normally has a Christmassy theme which in this case is snowman again... and there are normally a couple of army builder types. But really... The Advent Calendar really isn't something that should disappoint AFOLs. Just enjoy the Merrick figure and let kids enjoy their little builds.

Ollivander's old torso was actually a POTC torso reused I seem to remember

I think so. Just the head is different.

I think in the EU it was defined as IG-88B, who was the assassin droid on the Executor (Fett killed the two other physical IG-88 droid later on while IG-88A implanted himself in the Death Star II apparently). Subsequently though it's just a droid.

I bet those bootleg Praetorian Guard figures might be a little more popular now, especially as there are three unique helmets.

HAHAHAHA... So.. How many people who have previously been so anti bootlegs will be picking up those Pogo figures just for the heads to expand their Praetorian Guards?

The RA-7 droid that was shown with the Sandcrawler at the Toy Fair looks to have an Imperial torso on it (mistakenly obviously as the promo images show a different torso for it). I can't place this one from an existing figure so I'm assuming it's an officer of some kind in the remaining two Solo sets? Well he was with the pile of scrap with the Ugnaughts when Chewie recovered 3PO. So you never know... Maybe it's to put add some decoration to a room on the UCS CC? Also... Is that a terminated Zuckuss there too?

I'm not someone who jumps into finding small things in sets such as silhouetted images of ships on boxes and expecting them to be a precursor to a release... but... It's quite interesting that there's a very tiny Cloud City build with cloud car circling it in the micro builds from the Advent Calendar. It's the only ESB build in the calendar... along with IG-88.

I can't see why people would complain about an Advent Calendar. They're genuinely just made for kids to open each day across December and make tiny builds. The fact that any unique figures get released in them should be enough for anyone and I'm much happier with Blue Leader Antoc Merrick being in it with both hairpiece and new helmet print. Some generic trooper figures which are always included, A couple of other named characters and various tiny builds. Same as any other calendar. I don't see the reason for just a Santa version of a character. I'll take Merrick over that any day. The Pauldrons are the only unique thing in the Landing Craft but I'll see how much I like it when I see the build in a Lego store. Hoth Medical bay looks like a great addition to any Hoth build so I'll definitely be picking that up. It was certainly something that was missing from the UCS Hoth set. Is the yellow droid the only unique thing in the Sandcrawler? Actually it looks like the RA-7 is a new print. Not sure why the medical droid is there though. I don't recall there being one in ANH.

I've never had a single issue with any figure I've received whether they've been licensed, CMF or older figures. I've removed and replaced arms, hands, legs, hips etc and never had an issue with things. Nothing cracked, damaged or otherwise obviously inferior to any other figure. My 8 ur old has had loads of CMF figure for years and has played with them, chucked them in a huge box of lego and bashed them round... they still all look perfectly fine. I've never seen a issue and have no reason to feel concerned about where the plastic is from. When people refer to it as 'cheaper', what exactly do they mean by it? Is it still based on reports of older, inferior toys by other toy makers in China being cheap with 'lead based' paint?

Those new helmets are horrific. These figures will go in a box and I’ll be keeping my old ones. I even prefer my custom Biggs head made from the Bard the Bowman figure. I’ll be gutted if Dreis is made with this new mould.

That’s precisely what I think will happen

I thought it was a mug and immediately thought it would have some garish cat design printed on it.

I know we've always been told that selling individual minifigures wasn't possible due to licensing constraints but I wonder if the new TRU minifigure packs for Harry Potter, Marvel and Ninjago could be a sign of a possible similar item for SW at some point. I know we have Battlepacks and I think the closest thing we've had recently to something similar would be the Bounty Hunter pack giving us 4 named and different characters in one set. But with something like the HP one they have Madame Hooch (as an add on to a newly released Quidditch set), Professor Slughorn, Dolores Umbridge and Boggart Snape (Snape could be an add on to getting Lupin in the Train set). A couple of these seem to be directly related to new sets with a couple of others more awkward to place in sets at least for a few years. They're linked as all being teachers at Hogwarts in various guises. The idea of a Cantina add on pack has always been requested but I wonder if these figure packs may bring something like this closer to fruition? I don't think there are any entirely new moulds here but with the wolf and Ithorian heads already made Lav Sivrak and Momaw Nadon would be possible.

Those figure packs look fantastic. I can’t see Lego not releasing them in both the UK and US. They’re too big of a market. I can see them being available at Lego retail stores at least.

And Antoc Merrick in the upcoming Calendar... Don't forget him!

Ultimately I think a good wave of 22 figures is worth every penny of the £88, which I'm sure is how you feel too. But hopefully it's £66. If there are figures which are proving to be harder to get hold of then buying a box early and selling a full set at a little profit (assuming there's a second full set in a box) would be a good way of helping offset that cost. Someone would easily buy a full set at a slightly higher price to ensure they got them all in one go. I know a few people who did that with the German Football Squad sets. After they've been around for a while the clamour for them drops slightly so best to get in early.

I wasn't aware the prices had gone up on them. They're still £3 at the Lego store near me and at supermarkets as far as I can remember. I don't buy many of them so I'm not 100% sure. If the price has gone up then a box will go up too. Just looking on Amazon and a retailer has a Batman Series 1 box for £150 which they're probably trying to shift as it's a few series old now and the value is obviously dropping. The recent CMF series is £180 as it's a current series. If you find someone to sell them at wholesale price upon release then fair play to you. If as Deskp says the price has gone up then expect the full box price to go up too. I certainly hope they're not £4 per figure. That would push a box to £240.

Most retailers that will sell a box do so at full retail price. They're £3 each... so you want a box of 60 it's £180.

The recent CMF policeman was only 1 per box and there are plenty of those around. Every CMF wave has figures that are only around 2 per box and the fact that there are 22 figures in this wave would indicate that some will be harder to come by than others due to there being 60 figures in any one box. The Dementor is a pretty easy figure to feel for too.

I made my order in February of last year so it's now15 months since I ordered. If you've had emails from them recently I'd say you were in the very small minority of people who might have been getting a response. There's people all over the world who are still waiting for figures as well as 3D printed parts packages. I've actually gone ahead and started a claim myself. I think the more people that open up claims and give information to Paypal the better. It shows that it's not just a few disgruntled people. I think Cyclops had every intention of delivering figures and making a business out of it but they've not bought their pad printing press with the money received from all their pre-sales and I just don't think their finished product is as good as they'd hoped. Especially as they're 3D printing the cowls instead of injection moulding (which almost everyone else is stepping up with). So things aren't looking as perfect as they need to be for a 15 month delay. The site going down is either them stopping any pre-orders so they can continue to work on what they've already got outstanding (this is the hopeful me) or they're just ready to tear it down and walk away without delivering anything (the more pragmatic me). If Cyclops Bricks (Myles Dupont or Braxton Chassagne) do decide to fold up and walk away then don't be surprised if another customiser starts up somewhere else under a completely new name in a few months time. Barring some kind of miracle I'd say Cyclops Bricks as a business is dead in the water.