LEGO Star Wars - Future Product Rumors/Ideas/Wishlists

[Drock]

I really want a Darth Vader bust, similar to the Darth Maul one. If designers could make it look good. Some may find it kind of boring since it would be all black, but would be cool if Lego could pull something off.

[yankeeken]

I agree. If it looked good, I would buy a Darth Vader bust in a heartbeat.

[starwarslegosforever]

Go to Google and type lego 8098 clone turbo tank. once the websites pop up, scroll down a little and click on the website that says LEGO.com Star Wars -- 8098 - Clone Turbo Tank. By doing this you'll get an early glimpse and discription of not only the new clone turbo tank but also the new plo koon starfighter and general grievous starfighter. I've been unsucessful on finding any other summer sets in this fashion. Update us if anyone else finds out how to.

[Solo]

Those descriptions are all available at the link: http://starwars.lego.com/en-gb/Products/Default.aspx Just click the icon with the set numbers on the left and each set will come up with a little promo animation and the description.

[kyphur]

The building instructions are up on the Lego Website!!!!

[DrippingWaters]

I think someone said this a while ago, but I'd still like to see a Lars Homestead set. Including the little exit dome thing, and the hole-in-the-ground house. I think Lego could pull off a real nice $125-or-so set out of that.

[Plo Koon]

The question is in the title; they have the license, so TLG should do it. I know I would buy them!

[infallible]

That's a tough sell for LEGO. I'm talking about the first Knights game, since I haven't played the second one yet, but there's really only 1 ship in the game, the Ebon Hawk. So for construction toys, there's not much to do. I'd love an Ebon Hawk, but I'm not sure how well it would sell.

Hasbro did a bunch of EU figures this past year, and I don't know how well it went for them. They said they're re-focusing on the movies this year, so take that for what it's worth. I was thrilled to get as many EU figures as I did, but I'm not sure if the EU market is big enough. We only got one set from Force Unleashed, and that was a HUGE marketing push from Lucas and the licenses.

Plus, with Knights, you don't have a single central character like TFU. You can be male or female, three classes, and like 10 different head/hair designs each.

But, hey, there's always Pazaak.

[HothTrooper]

infallible hit the nail on the head. KotOR (as with most EU material) would be a fairly tough sell for LEGO. Most EU material simply isn't recognizable enough to casual buyers (i.e. parents and children) to generate much in terms of sales. The few EU sets that have been produced by LEGO are either closely tied to the aesthetic of the movies (TIE Crawler, TIE Defender, and TIE/d) or were part of a massive marketing campaign by LucasFilm and its licensees (Rogue Shadow). KotOR doesn't fit into either of those categories. That being said, I remember back in 1999 when the line was just getting started. Back then, a lot of the LEGO Star Wars products out today seemed completely impossible, so I'd say nothing is impossible.

[legomatt]

Just to echo HothTrooper, expanded universe would be very low on my 'to do list' currently, especially when so much of the original movies, prequels, and even animations, have yet to be done. I'd want to see every key sequence/ship/monster in the original movies recreated before moving to obscure stuff, simply down to brand recognition. How many will buy a Rancor monster compared to an EU referenced ship that only the most die-hards would recognise?

Having said that, i don't see why they can't just do downloadable instruction books for sets that don't exist to buy, but fans might like to see done. It would even be a good way of getting feedback on a design idea from fans, i mean there are some amazing builders out there with some canny construction techniques.

[Plo Koon]

I could think of a lot of KOTOR stuff:

-Ebon Hawk
-Star Forge
-Endar Spire
-Dantooine Academy
-The List goes on...

[HoboBob1138]

Having said that, i don't see why they can't just do downloadable instruction books for sets that don't exist to buy, but fans might like to see done. It would even be a good way of getting feedback on a design idea from fans, i mean there are some amazing builders out there with some canny construction techniques.

I second this. That's a very good idea but it probably wouldn't happen unless they want to open a new department just dedicated to putting sets/instructions together for random sets. Would be nice though.

[MrCRskater]

Having said that, i don't see why they can't just do downloadable instruction books for sets that don't exist to buy, but fans might like to see done.

I agree that this seems like a good compromise. The only problem with this is that it would still cost LEGO to come up with the designs (at least in terms of labor hours, and probably some form of promotion, if nothing else), and it would ultimately be a product that would not generate a direct profit. Seeing as how LEGO has been very profit-driven the last couple of years (profit margins remain high, and yet they continue to increase prices while decreasing part numbers), it doesn't seem like they'd throw us a bone on this one. . .

[TwistedFate]

Having said that, i don't see why they can't just do downloadable instruction books for sets that don't exist to buy, but fans might like to see done.

I agree that this seems like a good compromise. The only problem with this is that it would still cost LEGO to come up with the designs (at least in terms of labor hours, and probably some form of promotion, if nothing else), and it would ultimately be a product that would not generate a direct profit. Seeing as how LEGO has been very profit-driven the last couple of years (profit margins remain high, and yet they continue to increase prices while decreasing part numbers), it doesn't seem like they'd throw us a bone on this one. . .

The solution is for fans to do it. A lot of AFOLs are as good or better than TLG at designs. With LDD, SR3D, MLCAD, etc... the tools are there. It wouldn't be licensed by LucasArts or LEGO, but as long as no money is being made on the sale of those instructions, most companies are pretty flexible about allowing fans some slack on things like that.

[legomatt]

Yep, that's all good. A fan created instructions resource/database, tagged by theme and designer (so that if you really liked mr.bob's starfighter, you could search what else mr.bob had designed on the database).

You never know, such a project might even eventually help some really talented lego designer get official recognition... someone has to do the official job at some point. But that would be far too far in the future, for now a searchable database of fan-built instructions could be a 'go-er' for someone dedicated to hosting it.
Bandwidth/downloads might be an issue at some point... would need to be addressed either by clever circumvention, (ouch, sounds painful), or a club membership scheme (which would possible also need careful working to avoid breaking licensing laws). I dunno', just throwing out ideas. Possible.

[TwistedFate]

I've actually started brainstorming on it. I hand in the printed and bound copy of my Master's Thesis on Wednesday, which means I'm finally done with school and I've been looking for a new project to play with. I get grumpy if I don't have a project to play around with all the time. May as well toss this around the brain for a while and see what can be done.

[Robzula]

...I'm surprised there isn't a fan site like this already out there

[TwistedFate]

I was surprised too, which makes me wonder if the powers that be stepped in and closed them down. One thing I have noticed, though, is that AFOLs seem very different from other creative types I've dealt with. I come from a background of building plastic models. We help each other with new techniques or improving old ones, even in a competitive environment where the person you are helping today could end up on a judging table beside your work tomorrow.

I haven't seen a lot of the AFOL world, I've only been out of my Dark Age for a couple of weeks and working on finishing my thesis for a lot of that, but the ones I have seen have shown a distinct aversion to sharing anything other than pics of their work. I don't want to generalize all of you under that umbrella, but could a lack of community support be why there isn't such a site? Or have I just seen the unhelpful side of the hobby?

[Tyrant]

I was surprised too, which makes me wonder if the powers that be stepped in and closed them down. One thing I have noticed, though, is that AFOLs seem very different from other creative types I've dealt with. I come from a background of building plastic models. We help each other with new techniques or improving old ones, even in a competitive environment where the person you are helping today could end up on a judging table beside your work tomorrow.

I haven't seen a lot of the AFOL world, I've only been out of my Dark Age for a couple of weeks and working on finishing my thesis for a lot of that, but the ones I have seen have shown a distinct aversion to sharing anything other than pics of their work. I don't want to generalize all of you under that umbrella, but could a lack of community support be why there isn't such a site? Or have I just seen the unhelpful side of the hobby?

I don't know about other parts (other themes rather) of the hobby, but at least for Castle there is a place with at least some "how to" type pages. http://www.classic-castle.com/ And there is usually discussion about techniques there as well.

[ThatGuyWithTheBricks]

Well, there is the index of SW MOCs on EB...