LEGO Star Wars – 2016 sets, first and second wave

Nuruodo

In last days we've seen on Brickset a lot of sets belonging to 2016 Star Wars collection. But we can still see some image missing, like for A-wing, meaning that we can't be sure about the "official" release of some set. So, now that we're very close to 2016, and after the images here --> http://brickset.com/article/17530/images-of-2016-star-wars-sets-and-minifigs I'm asking myself: is it possible that we will see on the shelves only these sets (and, for example, TFA ones) in the first half of the year, and the ones we can see on the site, but that don't appear in the catalog I linked, in the second half?

I hope it won't be so, because I don't particularly like these 30€ sets, except a couple of them. So I'm crossing my fingers till 2016 will start. What's your opinion about this situation? Do you have some certain information? Thanks for reading :)

Bumblepants

The bigger/biggest sets always come in the second half of the year for just about any Lego line. I believe I read in the past they want the biggest stuff still new and fresh (relatively) for Christmas sales as that is when they move the largest amount of product by far. Can't recall source but it makes sense.

tecjam

Well, this year (2015) we had the Slave 1 in January and the Tie Fighter in May - those are 2 large sets (UCS) in the first half of the year.

In the 2nd Half we didn't have any large sets apart from a couple 1000+ of the new TFA sets (Millenium Falcon & Kylo Ren Shuttle).

My guess is the new UCS set will probably be released in May (Hoth most likely).

Bumblepants

^True, I was speaking just to regular product waves though, not Direct-to-Consumer/Exclusive stuff.

Nuruodo

I was talking about regular sets too, however. Because I've seen only very low price sets to be released in Jenuary...

Redbullgivesuwind

Basically, yes with names and/or pictures in the data will be the items released  early next year. The start of the year sets are normally between £6.99 - £50 with more expensive ones coming later. This seems to be for three reasons: the first is that selling the big sets at Christmas keeps them fresh and on top of kids Christmas lists; second they are looking to tap in to the kids with Christmas money market so by pricing at those levels it is easier for them to buy it; thirdly after Christmas and the sales there is normally a big slump in purchasing  as people recover from the most expensive time of the year so putting out expensive sets now would mean they would just hang around.

The UCS comes out whenever because it isn't aimed at children - it is much more for adult collectors who are less restricted with money.

I have seen pictures of the homing Droid and it isn't all that. Just Yoda, a clone, druids, spider Droid and a dawf spider Droid. The fact that we haven't seen the A-wing, to me, suggests that it could be a TFA set.

Nuruodo

^ I never thought about something similar, but... Yeah, it could be true: A-wing could be a set from TFA. Everyone was talking about this set as coming from "Rebels", and I had the same opinion, but it could just appear in the movie. And maybe... Maybe it could have Luke as minifigure, reason why we haven't seen images of the set...