75014 Battle of Hoth Revealed

[ufjason]

We just had the Wampa Cave and Echo Base which together equal this set. They retired just this January, in fact my Barnes and Nobles still have both sets here and there! I don't mind rotating sets with redesigns but wait three years between the releases!

[Flynn]

Yeah, that's what bothers me here, is that they could've easily kept the older sets in circulation longer and not bothered with a redesign.

I mean, I understand perfectly the need to keep circulating key ships of the franchise, but if the line is becoming so tired that they have to recycle ships within months of the last release to pad out the next wave, that's a sign the line's probably dying a bit. And we've still got three years until the next new wave of source material can breath life into it again.

[lego the hutt]

Yeah, that's what bothers me here, is that they could've easily kept the older sets in circulation longer and not bothered with a redesign.

I mean, I understand perfectly the need to keep circulating key ships of the franchise, but if the line is becoming so tired that they have to recycle ships within months of the last release to pad out the next wave, that's a sign the line's probably dying a bit. And we've still got three years until the next new wave of source material can breath life into it again.

I don't think the line is dieing. They are just taking the easy way out...and by easy I mean cheap and cost efficient. Recycle old sets, put them together in a new configuration with little change and sell them as a new set. Quick easy money maker.

I would much prefer more sets based on the forest moon of Endor than Hoth. Maybe I am in the minority? I know many people prefer empire to jedi. I always favored jedi. But I do understand how, like mentioned in the above paragraph, it is cheaper and easier to have a small white baseplate and call it Hoth landscape than it is to have trees from Endor.

I'm still hoping the 30 yr anniversary of Jedi gives us an ewok village (summer release maybe?)...I probably shouldn't hold my breath.

[Ultron32]

^There was a rumor of a possible ewox village a little while back. I've been waiting for one too. Also, I would prefer that to this, even though I like empire better than jedi. (the movie, not the forces in the movie)

I've been trying to post pics of this on flickr, but it's just not not working.

What they really need is a generator mixed with like a tauntaun battle pack. If i'm not mistaken, each time the tauntaun has appeared in a set there has only been one; wouldn't it be nice to get a few more? And really, the generator is the most important piece of hoth that they've been forgetting to make. Unless you count ghost obi-wan, that is.

[fallenangel327]

I don't feel it would be particularly reasonable to expect either the ion cannon or shield generator in a set. I'm guessing that with an approximate price point in mind the designers were made to choose between those two structures or more speeder bikes and turrets and went with the latter due to it being a more minifigure-friendly option. Even if they were to include an 'exploding' function, a shield generator would be little more than a large, isolated piece of scenery; I can see how that would seem less exciting to someone buying the set than the tired old snowspeeder, E-web and speeder bike. An ion cannon would be slightly better as it could be fired*, but again, there's the issue of size. Both could very well be seen by a child as two large structures that can't really be played with much.

That being said, including one or the other would certainly have made this set at least appear more worthwhile.

One of these wouldn't have been bad either:



*

Spoiler: show

You know, at the Midi-scale Star Destroyers none of the kids bought.

[Flynn]

I don't think the line is dieing. They are just taking the easy way out...and by easy I mean cheap and cost efficient. Recycle old sets, put them together in a new configuration with little change and sell them as a new set. Quick easy money maker.

I think there's evidence to believe they are running out ideas by this point, which is to be expected when you've been making 13 years worth of products based off of 6 movies and a TV show.

I mean, the line is going to continue to sell well and they'll keep going with it (especially with the new films on the horizon), but I doubt we'll see a huge creative renaissance in the line until they've got a new well to draw from- in other words, when the new films come out.

[SDIronClaw]

"cough" Thrawn Trilogy "cough"

Seriously, a lot of Star Wars fan agree that the Thrawn Trilogy was perhaps the best trilogy after the orginals. I personally think so,and that there are a lot of options for ideal play sets. Problem is I do not see Lego going there, especially with the new movies coming out.

[mcs4616]

It'd be great to see some Shadows of the Empire based sets too. We passed the 15 year anniversary with not even a murmur. The closest we had was an alternate build on one set a few years ago. I have to agree that I don't think Lego is going to stray too far into the E.U. unless they think some money is there to be had, and basing sets on source material from multi-hundred page novels or video games from a long long time ago probably isn't going to go over very well with the target audience of children. The movies transcended that relevancy barrier because...well...they're that good, and the license initially started as Episode I was coming out with the Special Editions still being fresh in people's minds. They're always going to stick with things the kids know about, and unfortunately they don't know about Shadows or Thrawn. I think our best hope would be that they could come out with a big UCS set that covers several aspects of one of these stories in a large one-off kind of a deal. Something similar to the Death Star, but on the $200 level. We're the kind of fan they make UCS sets for, and they should have an idea that we're interested in that material. For $200 I know I'd buy an Outrider/Star Viper set with Dash Rendar and Prince Xizor.

On a different note, I'm probably going to buy this Battle of Hoth set. I really like Snow Speeders(despite already owning 2 iterations), and I missed out on the last set that had a Probe Droid. However, I am also really tired of seeing white Speeder Bikes. It's not in the movie(if it had 3/4 of a second screen time I would be more forgiving), and who would pilot such a thing if it was? The Snow Troopers are more like Marines, they're running around on the ground with blasters, and beyond being transported they are not really vehicle based. Wouldn't the AT-AT Pilots be flying these things around? You know, after the Rebels defeat their walking laser proof armored tanks with a steel cable, in the instance they are able to survive the fall and escape. The AT-AT Pilot armor was designed for all weather conditions, and they're trained on all aspects of the AT-AT, which most likely would include the Snow Speeder Bikes that Lego (and Hasbro) indicate that AT-ATs carry around for the occasion of an attack on a frozen planet. I'm just saying that in 8084 Snowtrooper Battle Pack I put the one guy who had Pilot in his name on the one vehicle that came in the set, not behind some missile launcher. He looks right at home there too...

[gomek]

If there was new printing on the Hoth soldiers this would be a must have. Even an extra helmet from one of the other pilots (Jansen?) would have gone miles. As is, I just buy the new lone figure on bricklink and call it a day.

-cg