New sets discussion (2014/15/16/17)

[Ben-Jammin]

Ain't no shame in my game. I am a ROBOT RACIST...especially when those robots are so friggin stupid. We could have had an awesome Clone War...we got inept robots that get confused and talk to each other in stuttering foolish speak. Rodger rodger?!?!? FUCK ROBOTS!

I don't think there's anything wrong with robots, though I will agree and say that those battle droids wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to designing an army. (Despite the fact that I have dozens of them.)

[Tennysoul]

I have many "battle droids" myself...and every single one of them is disassembled and being used for other purposes. This is a case of Lego creating an "idea" and trying to sell it to us. I'm sorry they don't count...you know what does? C3PO and R2D2 even...
I didn't buy the "battle droid" form as a minifig when they were the Aliens in the Lego Life on Mars sets in 2001, It was a cop out and cheap then and they sold poorly...so much so that the line was discontinued after only the one year. Giving them a new head and legs didn't make them any better. They litter the shelves always. I don't know of any Lego Star Wars sets that sell as poorly as those with "battle droids".

[Battlegrinder]

I bought the battle droid carrier set back when it came out, but I don't think the droids lasted more than a few weeks before their joints got so loose they were falling apart. I've heard the newer battle droids don't have that issue, but between what happened to my first bunch and the wear that my general Grievous mini is showing, I'm not interested in building a collection (plus, they don't fit my army's theme anyway). If you ever need robots, I'd suggest getting the ones from exo-force, they hold up as well as minifigs and look awesome.

[stubby]

I didn't buy the "battle droid" form as a minifig when they were the Aliens in the Lego Life on Mars sets in 2001, It was a cop out and cheap then and they sold poorly...so much so that the line was discontinued after only the one year.

There's a rumor - and I don't know if this is actually true - but the rumor is that the terms of the Star Wars licensing agreement say that any element created for Star Wars can only ever be used for Star Wars. So if there Star Wars elements that Lego thought would be useful in another line, they had to move fast and release them in other sets before the Star Wars sets came out, and that's why Life on Mars hit when it did. There were some other pieces besides the battle droid bits that I don't remember now either, but it was pretty believable at the time.

Now of course you're finally seeing lightsaber handles in non-Star-Wars sets (Chima for instance), so I don't know if that means the original rumors were wrong or if the licensing element limitations only lasted a certain number of years or something.

Hey! We don't serve their kind here!

I don't think there's anything wrong with robots, though I will agree and say that those battle droids wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to designing an army. (Despite the fact that I have dozens of them.)

I wish we had a BrikWars-ified version of those battle droids like we do for Jaw-Jaws and Dimmies.

[Zahru II]

Idunno about that rumor, both battle droid arms and battle droid torsos have appeared in non-licensed stuff before LoC (it was in Vikings; and Space Police 3 definitely had those in their small sets). Maybe it's long overdue by now?

Otherwise I wouldn't mind if they just overhauled the entire BD design (heck even the SBD, those are brittle as shit), but I can see why it's easier to just roll with it by now (cheaper and AFOLs already have legions of them so they might get booty bothered if a sudden design shift rendered them invalid).

ANYWAY, behold the dullest set review of all time on the Thunder Raider - http://www.brothers-brick.com/2013/12/0 ... er-review/

[aoffan23]

There's a rumor - and I don't know if this is actually true - but the rumor is that the terms of the Star Wars licensing agreement say that any element created for Star Wars can only ever be used for Star Wars. So if there Star Wars elements that Lego thought would be useful in another line, they had to move fast and release them in other sets before the Star Wars sets came out, and that's why Life on Mars hit when it did. There were some other pieces besides the battle droid bits that I don't remember now either, but it was pretty believable at the time.

I'm going to go ahead and guess that isn't true, just because the battle droids came out 2 years before Life on Mars, at least according to Bricklink.

[stubby]

Wait, Sensei Wu is evil now? How did that happen?

[Zahru II]

No idea, I bet they're pulling a picard on us:



(my ST knowledge is marginal)

[Tennysoul]

It took them until recently to change the arm on the battle droids so that they weren't holding the blaster sideways. The designers clearly made these originally as a "cost effective" replacement for minifigs. I'm not saying you have to like my take on it, after all it's only my opinion, but this brings up a larger "Star Wars Lego" issue altogether. The original sets, from Slave 1 to the Millennium Falcon to the AT-ST were all hastily put together and largely inaccurate representations of Star Wars vehicles. Just google image Star Wars Lego 1999 and just look at the set images, they're almost horrible! Not that I didn't buy a MASSIVE amount of them mind you, but look at the evolution of these vehicles as an example: Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, Snow Speeder, AT-ST, Speeder Bikes and the X-Wing. The revision and updating of these sets shows that Lego really wanted to please the real die-hard adult fans of Lego by revising the designs to better match our expectations. Meanwhile Lucasfilm wanted to market their film crap and as a result in 1999 and 2000 the most highly clearanced sets were Gungan Patrol and Droid Fighter (the latter couldn't get sold at the toy store in my town and ended up 3 for 5 dollars). My point is: With all of the work that Lego has done to update the Classic Star Wars sets it amazes me that they have not taken the same approach with Episodes 1-3 sets (unless perhaps they actually KNOW that they don't sell and so why bother).

[Battlegrinder]

It took them until recently to change the arm on the battle droids so that they weren't holding the blaster sideways. The designers clearly made these originally as a "cost effective" replacement for minifigs. I'm not saying you have to like my take on it, after all it's only my opinion, but this brings up a larger "Star Wars Lego" issue altogether. The original sets, from Slave 1 to the Millennium Falcon to the AT-ST were all hastily put together and largely inaccurate representations of Star Wars vehicles. Just google image Star Wars Lego 1999 and just look at the set images, they're almost horrible! Not that I didn't buy a MASSIVE amount of them mind you, but look at the evolution of these vehicles as an example: Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, Snow Speeder, AT-ST, Speeder Bikes and the X-Wing. The revision and updating of these sets shows that Lego really wanted to please the real die-hard adult fans of Lego by revising the designs to better match our expectations. Meanwhile Lucasfilm wanted to market their film crap and as a result in 1999 and 2000 the most highly clearanced sets were Gungan Patrol and Droid Fighter (the latter couldn't get sold at the toy store in my town and ended up 3 for 5 dollars). My point is: With all of the work that Lego has done to update the Classic Star Wars sets it amazes me that they have not taken the same approach with Episodes 1-3 sets (unless perhaps they actually KNOW that they don't sell and so why bother).

A lot of the early Lego sets were bad, star wars was no exception. Compare the early Lego space/town/castle/underwater themes (really, any of the lines that Lego remakes every 3-4 years) to the later stuff in those themes, and you'll see the same evolution. An I'd argue that the newer=better equation doesn't always hold true. for example, here's a link to pictures of all 3 snowspeeders:
http://brick.jamescook.nu/?p=164
I'm kinda split between the original and 2003 versions as to which looks better, but the '07 one looks like crap (at least to me).

If you're interested, here's a forum with some more side-by-side shots.
http://www.fbtb.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2610

Also, lego has been updating the episode 2 and 3 sets, in the clone wars line (which isn't technically the same as 2 and 3, but the same vehicles are being produced. I do wish they'd do something about the ugly faces on most of the minifigs). And frankly, I can live without new episode 1 sets.

[Tennysoul]

I would add that I believe Star Wars and the new franchise series sets (Harry Potter, Comics, LOTR etc) have actually helped to evolve Lego pieces more than any other thing since they were first made. Now we have a lot of really great parts that just weren't available prior to 2000 and I think it's really a response to making an effort to create more accurate models.

As to which sets historically are better? I think they all still need work. I usually disassemble my models or rework them to be more accurate anyway.

[stubby]

Everything at Lego was pretty shitty from 1999-2001 or so, because there was this big Brand Management fad sweeping the business world for awhile and they forgot they were a construction toy company rather than a lifestyle brand. Later they had their "Back to the Brick" reformation and everything started getting good again. Rather than trying to appeal to the adult fans, they just hired them. And that's how I got where I am today.

[Tennysoul]

To the comments section of the BrikWars forums...quite a journey.

[Zupponn]

My point is: With all of the work that Lego has done to update the Classic Star Wars sets it amazes me that they have not taken the same approach with Episodes 1-3 sets

You forget that few people actually care about episodes 1-3.

[Tennysoul]

My point is: With all of the work that Lego has done to update the Classic Star Wars sets it amazes me that they have not taken the same approach with Episodes 1-3 sets

You forget that few people actually care about episodes 1-3.

And yet we still get crap from them in Lego form.