Well, that worked out (maybe)

In my last post - almost half a year ago! - I detailed the 1st wave of Force Awakens sets (hereafter: Ep7). I haven't been impressed with any of them enough to get over the sticker shock, so most likely they will not be purchased (though the FO TIE fighter is "on sale" for $55 at Amazon right now...sort of tempting).

Luckily, I was right about Lego releasing a cheaper set to get some popular characters in for the 2016 initial wave:

As you can see above, we have a nice, reasonably sized set that not only includes 2(!) FO Stormtroopers, but both Jedi Finn and Rilo Kiley! Not only that, but Ril- ok, fine, Kylo Ren is done right. I didn't care for how the minifig on the Command Shuttle set had a redundant mask beneath the helmet (I get how it works with the hood, but still). This time, he can show how Kylo really looks, with his face and hair. This also pretty well confirms that Adam Driver is Not Mark Hammil. Honestly, this set kind of sucks overall; I would have probably preferred another vehicle. Additionally, though this is guaranteed to be cheaper than the command shuttle, it'll probably still be $55 or some shit. If it is less than $40 I'll eat my hat. At the end of the day, it's the first Ep7 set that I'm pretty sure to buy.

This thing looks pretty damned cool, though! It's also guaranteed to be around $50, so without any priority characters for me (Leia is tempting, but not enough), it's a no-go.

I'll get this. 

I'll get this too. More Stormtroopers = a good thing.

Hey! A way to get the new Snowtrooper without blowing $40! Also, the vehicle actually looks plausible, so that's a bonus.

Sam kind of deal here. Previously expensive trooper with a reasonably plausible vehicle. Yay!

I'm kind of obligated to get this, though it looks like I will have to mod the astromech socket to get R4 to fit all the way down. Kind of dumb since they got it right for Anakin's two Actis fighters. I still really wish they would release the Darth Vader version of this set.

This looks like the best of these action figure sets. The Stormtrooper is just too slick. Better looking than Cody, too.

Ren looks pretty neat here. 

Phasma really just exists to remind me that they still need to release a good minifigure of her that actually has a face under the helmet.

Take a look...

Ok! Official Force Awakens Lego pics!

Rey's Speeder: not a bad set. I'm pretty sure it's $20 and I'm not sure it's worth that, but it's a decent vehicle and you get the main character with a cool looking bad guy. I did expect BB-8 to be included, and I'm disappointed that he's not and therefore will be expensive, but it is what it is.

Man, this thing is gorgeous. This TIE Fighter is my favorite thing from this wave (partly because I wondered if we would ever get a non-grey TIE). My only disappointment is that they didn't use the rods on the radiation panels like they did on the 2012 one. I can't quite tell how much I like the new pilot helmets, but at least they seem not to have a gap at the back for the head to show through. The inclusion of the officer and the...other guy is nice, if highly reminiscent of the 2012 set. So far, this is the only definite buy for me.

Just what I always wanted, a land sub! Seriously, this thing is bizarre. I do like the FO figs, but the good guys are terribly generic looking. This is a maybe, largely because of Capt. Phasma tempting me.

Oh, boy. We actually got a crappy leak of this one back in May, and it did not get me excited. I have to say these new pics aren't doing the job either. The big problem here is really the source material; it's such a phoned-in designed. On top of that, it's awkward as hell, with the "wings" being so damned tall with such a short fuselage. The landing mode actually looks quite a bit nicer because of this. However, someone online reminded me that in the trailers/posters this thing's wings angle down to produce more a a V silhouette; there is no indication that the set can do this. Even Rilo Kiley himself doesn't look that great, though I'm sure that I'll pick him up if he shows up in a cheaper set next year (hopefully with some hair, since his is so long). Particularly with the high price, this set is a no-go.

This one, on the other hand, actually looks pretty fun. The vehicle looks great; one of the best land speeders yet (compare to the Flash Speeder), and three Snowtroopers. I do think the Snowtroopers are too similar to the flame troopers - one of my initial complaints about this set was going to be that you could just get these guys in the Land Sub  set - but again that's and issue with the source material. Loving the Gatling guns on the side, and this one is a potential purchase.

New stuff...

New old stuff

More YES

YES

Stardate: twentyfifteen

Another bigag in posts...sorry about that!

This is my first post for 2015 and it's already April; time is going by way too fast!

Toy Fair was two months ago, and as such Lego showed off its newest products for the summer wave, of which Star Wars interested me most (with one "minor" exception).

So for summer Star Wars, I am all about some Naboo Starfighter. I know a lot of people that have been in the hobby for a while lamented yet another system scale iteration of this thing, and I can't say I blame them. Even so, the last one was released in 2011, not too long before I actively started buying Lego sets again and thus it passed me by, so I'm happy to see this one released. It also will have the first young Anakin and Padawan Kenobi that I will own, and the pilot at least looks pretty different from the one I got with the Naboo planet set when I found it on clearance a year ago. The Starfighter itself looks really nice, if not overly different from the 2011 set; I do like the incorporation of the newer green spring loaded missiles and some clear blue pieces on the rear of the engines to give the impression of propulsion. I also appreciate the pilot's ladder leading up to the cockpit; none of my other starfighter sets have included something like that. More destroyer droids are nice, too.

The other SW set I'm most intrigued by is another Phantom Menace set, albeit one that yet to be fully revealed - the newest iteration of the Sith Infoltrator Scimitar! Again, I know there are a ton of fans who who lament the fact that we are getting another of these so "soon" after 2011, but again I'm happy that I get the chance since I missed out on that release. I'll be particularly happy to get a normal, non-CW Darth Maul to add to my Black Council, and this set also includes Qui-Gon Jinn (between this set and the new N-1, last year's MTT has been all but rendered obsolote in terms of minifigs), another young Anakin (I would have preferred Padme a la the 2011 set), Anakin's owner and an umpteenth R2-D2. We haven't seen a good pic of the Scimitar itself yet, but I'm hoping that it avoids a lot of the things that made people complain about the 2011 set. 

Most of the other new sets I'm not really interested in:

- Flash Speeder: no thanks. Just nothing interesting here.

- Final Duel: in theory is like this a lot, but it's a bit similar to Palpatine's arrest, and I'm not too fond to the updates they have made to both Vader and Sidious. Love those windows, though.

- Tydirium shuttle: again, another set I should really like, but it's too expensive and doesn't come with a single imperial character. I get that it's the stolen shuttle from Ep VI, but come on - one of the rebels could have been dropped in favor of an imperial pilot or officer.

- UCS TIE: I love me some TIE series ships, but man this looks awful. There is no reason why my 2012 TIE fighter should look better than s UCS set. It's prohibitively expensive anyway, so at least I won't be uselessly pining over it. 

- Imperial Assault Carrier: an interesting but flawed and ultimately overly expensive set. Interesting because it's anew imperial craft that is basically the poor man's Star destroyer (it only carries four TIEs, and on the exterior, at that!) and includes a helmeted Sabine, a helmetless Kallus, and some sweet evil astromech. Flawed because, basically, I don't care for starships that are supposed to be huge but have a system-scaled interior. Yuck. I know it's not new - the latest iteration of the Star Destroyer does the same thing - but I just don't like it. Too bad this is the only new Rebels set for the summer.

advent Calendar: I've never gotten one of the Advent sets, so I'm not exactly worried about getting repeat builds in this set, but I do like this year's version due to the diversity of models. Cool models: probe droid, Sandcrawler, Sarlacc, Sail Barge, AT-AT, A-Wing, etc. Also, I'm pretty sure that all the minifigs (aside from the doofy Christmas-themed droids) are new to me: Jawa, Hoth Rebel Trooper, new Stormtrooper design, Ewok, etc. I'll probably get this one, but it won't be easy sharing it with the kids!

Ok, what about that "minor" exception? It's the Ant-Man set! I've only recently become interested in the Ant-Man movie (having never really cared about the character before), but man does this look like a neat set. 3 different sci-if looking dudes (Old Ant-Man, Paul Rudd, and bad guy YellowJacket). The kicker is that the rat of the set is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-style giant versions of tiny things! Naturally, it comes with a nice, brick-built flying ant for Ant-Dooter to ride, abut also some screws, "giant" Lego bricks, etc. it's just a neat idea for a set that allows it to work within the gimmick concept of the movie/character but having normal minifigs doesn't prevent you from having them hang out in normal size with other Avenger minifigs. Plus, it's only a $20 set, so not too bad for some pretty cool stuff!