2012, it's done, let's move on to 2013 ....

This is the site yakface which unveils the rumor: The official packaging of the products derived from the Star Wars license for 2013 could see Yoda replace Darth Maul who dresses the 2012 range.

Don't get carried away, this is just a rumor, which would come straight from Lucas Licensing anyway, and the visual above is a montage from YAK_Jayson meant to show you what it could be like ...

We will probably know a bit more in the coming weeks.

The and 9515 Malevolence is arguably one of the most successful of this new wave of Star Wars sets slated for mid-2012.

If you do not know this ship, here is a few words what it is:

The Malevolence was General Grievous' flagship. It was equipped with two gigantic ion cannons, which caused the loss of many Republic ships.
The fleet led by Jedi General Plo Koon was destroyed by this mastodon, which was then sent by Dooku to attack a medical center near the Ryndellia system.
But Anakin Skywalker and his teammates, aboard their Y-Wings, destroyed the Malevolence's two ion cannons before the attack.
Padme Amidala was also a prisoner of Malevolence, before being freed by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Grievous managed to escape and the Malevolence was destroyed while attempting to enter Hyperdrive mode when it was no longer functioning, crashing into a nearby planet.

Basically, that's it.

But this ship has been interpreted by LEGO in the past, and few remember it.
I told you about it already in january 2011 : You just need to participate in the game LEGO Star Wars: The Quest For R2D2 in order to gather the 4 parts of the instruction booklet allowing to build the Malevolence (749 parts) with the contents of the following sets of the 2009 range:

7748 Corporate Alliance Tank Droid
7749 Echo Base
8016 Hyena Droid Bomber
8017 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter
8018 Armored Assault Tank (AAT)
8019 Republic Attack Shuttle
8036 Separtist Shuttle
8037 Anakin's Y-Wing Starfighter
8038 The Battle of Endor
8039 Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser

Obviously, Hoth Bricks saves you time by offering you the 4 pdf files you need here:

Malevolence - PDF Instructions - Part 1
Malevolence - PDF Instructions - Part 2
Malevolence - PDF Instructions - Part 3
Malevolence - PDF Instructions - Part 4

What would I not do for you ...

Forget the Wookiepedia visual that everyone has been posting since this morning, I really turned the whole internet around for you and found you a real RED Republic Starfighter visual that served as the inspiration for the set 9497 Republic Striker Starfighter...

This ship appears in the webcomic  Star Wars: The Old Republic Blood of the Empire, a series of comics distributed on the web and which takes place in the world of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.

He will presumably also appear in the video game.

By the way, if you are a fan of comics and understand English, take a look on this comic in 3 acts. It is top of the range.

And all of a sudden, this 9497 set takes on a little more meaning: This ship is really red, it has these shapes, and the LEGO reproduction is convincing.

So, thanks who?

Many of you are probably wondering where some of the ships in the sets of the second wave 2012.

Look no further, they come either from the Extended Universe, or from the massively multi-player online game. Star Wars The Old Republic whose official launch is scheduled for 20/12/2011. (Note the official Star Wars The Old Republic game logo at the bottom right of the boxes of sets 9497 and 9500)

So the set 9500 Fury Class Interceptor, reproduces the ship of Sith Lords used in the game. Originally designed to perform missions of very high importance, it was later adopted by the Sith Lords who have made it their preferred means of transport.

Although this ship does not belong to the canonical Star Wars universe, its distant kinship with the generation of Tie fighters and Tie Defenders and its obvious resemblance to the Sith Infiltrator especially at the level of the wings allow it to integrate rather well and I must admit that it is a priori rather successful.
This machine will be delivered with a Sith Lord whose name we do not yet know (Darth Malgus ??) and two Sith troopers.

This second wave of 2012 sets therefore marks the opening of the LEGO Star Wars range towards extensions of the canonical universe.

Some will see it as a logical continuation, with the main ships having already been produced and LEGO being forced to renew to perpetuate the license, while others will cry blasphemy and treason because they do not consider The EU or the video games drawn. of the license as canonical.

It is a vast debate that I would not launch here, but which deserves to be opened ...

As with the Star Wars range, it didn't take long to see the first preliminary visuals of the 2012 LEGO Lord of the Rings range appear.

9469 Gandalf Arrives - Gandalf & Frodo

9470 Shelob Attacks - Samwise, Frodo & Gollum

9471 Uruk-hai Army - 4 x Uruk-hai, Eomer, 1 x Rider Of Rohan

9472 Attack On Weathertop - Merry, Frodo, Aragon & 2 x Nazgulhs

9473 The Mines Of Moria - Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, 2 x Orcs & Cave Troll

9474 The Battle Of Helm's Deep - Aragon, Gimli, Haldir, Theoden, 5 x Uruk-hai

9476 The Orc Forge - 5 x Orcs

Those who expected something exceptional are at their expense. While these visuals are drafts, it does feel like this line is a big joke. We will have to wait for photos of the final versions to be sure, but I think that apart from the minifigs (and more), we should not expect much. It really feels like we're getting sets from the 1980s ....