As you can imagine, LEGO will celebrate Disney's 100th anniversary as it should be this year. The manufacturer even splits an announcement to insist on the subject and confirm that the long-standing partnership with Disney will lead to many activities and other products during the year 2023.

While waiting to find out more about what LEGO has planned for the occasion, we already know that at least one pack of four BrickHeadz figurines is planned for February 1, 2023 at the public price of €39.99, the reference 40622 Disney 100th Celebration. In the box, 501 pieces to assemble four figurines, Oswald the lucky rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Tinker Bell. Other products of the same barrel celebrating the history of Disney should follow.

In a more general way without necessarily making direct reference to the 100th anniversary of Disney, the LEGO set 43219 Disney Princess Creative Castles which is now online on the official store will follow in March 2023 with an inventory of 140 pieces, the Belle and Cinderella figurines and a retail price set at €34.99.

Today we quickly fly over the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75345 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack, a small box of 119 pieces available at the public price of 19.99 € since January 1, 2023.

The product is looking for a bit of an identity with a packaging that could be reminiscent of a toy derived from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) with background artwork based on the Battle of Yerbana seen in season 7 of the series but content that also seems loosely inspired by the Star Wars video game Battlefront II (2017) and logo-embossed packaging celebrating 20 years of the very first anime series Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003). LEGO therefore hits the mark so as not to forget anyone, so much the better for those who seek to attach this product to one of their favorite content.

The ultra-simplified version of the AV-7 cannon to be built here is not very interesting, we feel that LEGO is trying to add something to build in these boxes without doing too much to stay within the budget .

The barrel can accommodate a minifigure which remains in place by being blocked by the feet, it is equipped with a Spring shooter accompanied by two missiles, it is vaguely steerable and its legs are (a little) articulated. Not enough to cry genius even if the construction will easily find its place in a diorama.

The minifigs are generally successful with very detailed and well executed pad printing. The Clone Officer wears his rangefinder in the hole placed at the top of the helmet and not in a hypothetical second hole placed lower as the visual on the product packaging might suggest.

The most faithful position is however the one seen on the retouched visual, but LEGO is in fact content to deliver the new helmet to us with two side holes which are in the case of the use of the rangefinder placed a little too high. We can also regret the absence of a real fabric kama to avoid the somewhat ridiculous effect of the frontal pad printing of the clothing accessory which does not go around the character's waist and legs.

The Clone Specialist is the only one of the four soldiers to benefit from blue arms and he wears a pair of really well-made macrobinoculars. A second copy of the accessory is even present in the box. It may lack a touch of color so that the element is really faithful to the reference accessory, but we will do with this very convincing new mold which, moreover, in my opinion, makes the usual visors a little old-fashioned in terms of design.

The two Heavy Troopers provided also seem to me to be very successful with impeccable pad printing and a very successful backpack. It may lack directly injected legs in two colors and a side bag for these two Clones to be completely faithful to those of the Battlefront II video game.

The accessory that holds the Tile 1x1 placed in the back makes these two miniatures slightly higher than the other two, those who line up these minifigs to build homogeneous armies may find this an annoying aesthetic detail.

The pad printing of the helmets smudges a little in places on all the copies provided, LEGO obviously still has a little trouble reaching certain areas of these accessories to correctly align the different colored areas. For those who are wondering, the three identical legs are those already seen in several sets of the Star Wars range in 2020. The rest is new, except of course the usual four heads. The blue visors and the rangefinder are delivered in a separate bag which contains four copies of each of the two accessories.

This Battle Pack therefore does not really provide generic minifigs as was the case in the set 75280 501st Legion Clone Troopers (285 pieces - 29.99 €) but in my opinion there is plenty here to bring a little variety in the formed squads.

The era of €15 Battle Packs is over, it's now €20 that you have to pay to afford this handful of minifigs and the construction that accompanies them. I find it a bit expensive, but we know that the fan of the 501st Legion does not count when it comes to accumulating minifigs to build an army.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 13th January 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

Notice to fans of plastic flowers, the LEGO ICONS range Botanical Collection will be expanded from February 1, 2023 with two new references: a bouquet of wild flowers of 939 pieces which will be available at the public price of 59.99 € and a centerpiece made from dried flowers of 812 pieces which will be available at the public price of €49.99.

It's as usual, you see, some will find all this distressingly old-fashioned where others will see a great effort of creativity. Tastes and colors do not argue.

The LEGO team in charge of evaluating LEGO Ideas projects that have reached 10.000 supporters will once again have to roll up their sleeves: 36 projects have been selected for the third phase of the 2022 review.

As usual, the selection is made up of more or less interesting ideas, slightly wacky projects that a priori have no chance of passing, various and varied licenses, modulars, medieval sets, etc...

Fans have voted, now it's up to LEGO to sort out and select the idea or ideas that deserve to pass on to posterity. Always so difficult to risk a prognosis, we know that LEGO sometimes has the ability to surprise and disappoint us at the same time. All will not be lost for those who see their project go down the drain, they will receive a consolation endowment consisting of LEGO products with a total value of $500.

If you want to find out more about all these projects, go to the LEGO Ideas blog, they are all listed there. Result expected for summer 2023.

As far as I'm concerned, I just hope that the project Classic Thunderbirds by Andrew Clark will be validated, it's all my youth.

Update : there are in fact only 35 projects in the running, the one inspired by the film The Neverending Story having been withdrawn following a request from the rights holders.