Friday 9 January 2015

LEGO Star Wars Summer 2015: Rumour Analysis - Part I

A list of LEGO Star Wars sets rumoured to be released in Summer 2015 has cropped up on the UK’s favourite Star Wars website, Jedi News. What can fans expect from the next bunch of sets? Should LEGO collectors be excited, or be saving their cash for when The Force Awakens product hits?


Click here to check out what Jedi News has revealed, which also includes a look at a new Hasbro product. Now on to the analysis…

75091 Classic Flash Speeder £34.99
The word that makes this one confusing is ‘classic’. The Flash Speeder everyone knows is a Naboo vehicle featured in The Phantom Menace. ‘Classic’ of course implies based on the Original Trilogy. Following this line of thought for a moment, this could be a place holder name for a background speeder glimpsed at Mos Eisley in A New Hope, or more plausibly an old McQuarrie design dug out for Rebels that happens to have been called a Flash Speeder.

But the fact is it’s called a Flash Speeder, and the vehicle we know is the one from The Phantom Menace, so for the time being that seems most likely. The original Flash Speeder (7124) is a nice nostalgic set for the days when LEGO Star Wars felt like a very close cousin to other LEGO sets, with many standard LEGO pieces included and the Naboo Pilot even featuring a classic smiley face. That said, it’s a fifteen year old set and there seems no harm in giving it a fancy-pants update. 

What’s baffling is how LEGO will get this one to reach a £34.99 price point. £19.99 with two mini-figures would make sense. But £34.99? If this set is at mini-figure scale it really won’t be huge, so chances are LEGO will stuff this with some extra characters to make the rather non-action based vehicle more popular. This could be a way for LEGO to release Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon together at a low price point, or if long time collectors are very lucky Padme in her purple battle outfit. Hopefully there will be a little bit of extra building in there too, although no doubt that would be a STAP if anything!

75092 Naboo Starfighter £54.99
It’s actually a little surprising that this set is back already, last being released in 2011. LEGO seem to be feeling The Phantom Menace love this year, which is surprising as under Disney Lucasfilm have been steering most licensees in the direction of the classic trilogy. This will most likely include Anakin Skywalker again along with a generic Naboo Pilot or maybe Ric Olie, hopefully for good measure it will at least be a chance to get another new Naboo character. What would make it extra fun is if there was a set of slidey doors in there to build with a Darth Maul mini-figure to reveal behind. Wishful thinking though, this was around the £40 price mark last time so could easily have crept up the price ladder without adding a lot new.

75093 Death Star Final Duel £69.99
This could be something pretty special. It surely must be the final duel aboard the Second Death Star, as a chunk of corridor with Obi-Wan and Vader duelling would not warrant a £69.99 price tag. The mini-figures that would be included are very predictable – the Emperor, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and a couple of Royal Guards. The only way LEGO could feasibly surprise is there is to throw in an Imperial Dignitary or two to please fans of vintage Kenner action figures.

If it really does just have the five staple mini-figs, though, it’s a really great opportunity to have a set that’s virtually a replica of the scene from the movie. The Emperor’s thrown, with window behind, steps, it feels like a lot could be fit into a £69.99 set. It’s not like the Mos Eisley Cantina (75052) where LEGO can throw in a Dewback to reduce the brick count, surely there is very little that this set can do other than provide lots of black, dark grey and trans blue bricks to make a really awesome LEGO version of the movie scene. This looks to be the most interesting release of the wave.

Be back on Monday for more LEGO Star Wars Summer 2015 Rumour Analysis, looking at the Shuttle Tydirium, Imperial Assault Carrier and The Force Awakens rumours.

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