LEGO Con 2021
The biggest news in the LEGO world this week comes from the first ever LEGO Con. Many expected this to be an E3 type event, and as a result, many were disappointed. The event was mostly a show for kids, with little in the way of new set reveals.
The UCS Republic Gunship
The most anticipated reveal of the event would easily be the potential UCS Gunship reveal….. yeah.
Sadly there was no news about the Gunship this event. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, especially given the “mid-summer” window the LEGO designer gave a few weeks ago.
The Mandalorian Set Reveal
The only real reveal of LEGO Con was the reveal of the Mandalorian sets we saw leaked weeks ago. This comes as a disappointment to many, but a surprise to few. It’s worth mentioning that these sets were never officially revealed, so in hindsight it was pretty obvious these are what they’ll reveal.
It’s a shame LEGO didn’t use this opportunity to reveal something Gunship-related alongside these sets, I think. They can’t control the leaks, and they definitely shouldn’t adjust their reveals to account for them, but given that these sets have been floating around for weeks now I think even just a teaser would’ve gone a long way to quell the complaints. Regardless, below are some of the new official images of the Imperial Armoured Marauder, the Imperial Light Cruiser, and Boba Fett’s starship.
Boba Fett's Starship?
One of the stranger things to come from these reveals is the rebranding of the Slave 1 set. LEGO decided to rebrand the “Slave 1” into “Boba Fett’s Starship”. There has been no official reason given as to why, but here are a few theories I’ve seen circulating.
- Kids may recognize the ship from The Mandalorian but be unfamiliar with the official name. [Most Likely, imo].
- Searching “Slave 1” produced results containing the ship alongside BDSM products. [Possible, but I doubt is the driving factor]
- Potential copyright issues. [Similar thing happened with the Razor Crest. So possible]
- Disney interfering and moving away from the negative cannotations of the word “Slave”. [Ridiculous. Star Wars canon is full of slavery]
The outrage for this decision is completely unfounded to me. I think people are disappointed by the lack of Gunship news and are lashing out at an otherwise trivial change. Sets that have undergone a similar name change include the following (among others).
- Bounty Hunter Transport (Razor Crest)
- Bad Batch Attack Shuttle (Havoc Marauder)
- Knights of Ren Transport Ship (Night Buzzard)
- General Grievous’ Starfighter (The Soulless One)
- Mandalorian Starfighter (Nightbrother)
On a brighter note, the set comes with it’s own display stand! Not quite UCS level displayable, but a welcome surprise to be sure.
LEGO Ideas Foosball Table
Outside of LEGO Star Wars, the only noteworthy reveal would be the Foosball Table. The set was designed by Donat Fehervari and was the recent “We Love Sports” contest on LEGO Ideas.
This is honestly such a cool idea and could be really fun to play with. Hopefully the scale makes playing somewhat viable. Looking at the submission (and assuming minifigures will be used), I’d say I needn’t worry.
LEGO Ideas Third 2020 Review results
LEGO this week revealed the results of the third set Review stage for 2020. This round had 25 sets to choose from, each of which achieved support within the 4 months.
The project selected to be made into an official set is the “Motorized Lighthouse” by Sandro Quattrini (Roses Must Build). As disappointed as I am that Bag End didn’t make the cut, this is easily the next best project to select, in my opinion. I can see it being used by many within a beach scene in a modular city, for example.
The next wave for review is set for Fall 2021 and contains no less than 57 projects. Out of these, I’d confidently predict for the Bookend sets to be made official, but I’d love for “Welcome to the Black Parade” to get it aswell. A man can dream.
Recyclable LEGO Bricks!
On another week, this would be the top story, but it’s been a busy week!
LEGO announced this week that they will be producing bricks made from recycled plastic bottles in between 18-24 months. They already include bricks made from sugarcane-derived plastics today, but this breakthrough would apply to all future bricks used (potentially).
LEGO prides itself on it’s generational quality control with regards to how the pieces click together. As a result, you can imagine jeopardizing this would be catastrophic for the company. They’ve apparently invested nearly 150 engineers and 6 years of research into this technology. That’s a strong indication to me that they’re not about to biff this. Here’s hoping!
Hopefully soon they can phase out the use of disposable plastic bags in their packaging too. Thankfully, they’re getting there, so time will tell.
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