Important for comparison purposes: The 2014 Ghost set (75053) did NOT include the Phantom. You had to buy them as separate sets, either Phantom I for $25 (75048) or Phantom II for $30 (75170).

$.10 per piece on average has been the LEGO way for decades now, despite inflation. But, this is a Star Wars set, most licensed sets like this or MCU command more money beyond the average per piece price. 

After finally watching through Rebels earlier this year I came to the realisation that the Ghost might actually be my favourite Star Wars ship. Something about the design just really works for me. The Phantom neatly slotting into the docking bay at the back is definitely part of it. $160 is still a hell of a lot…

I think the issue is likely what we mean by derailing. The article makes the assertion that living as we do in this ever unfolding Marvel megaverse has made the franchise-building moves that they make stick out like sore thumbs that are distracting even if they don’t take up large chunks of the movie. The example that…

There’s a big difference between “franchise movies,” which have been around for nearly a century, and the current shared universe model, which didn’t emerge as a mature form until Avengers.

There’s a certain... I don’t want to say “Marvel Derangement Syndrome”, but certainly there’s a mindset that something that’s a tiny bit of the movie is actually The Entire Movie. Like how people said the entire third act of Black Widow was “just a CGI Slugfest”, when at most the only part that could be considered…

The begging is the Key.

The MCU is aggressively mainstream, the way Star Wars was in 1977-83. Hundreds of millions of people around the world, most of whom have never read a comic book, love and pay money to see these movies every year. They don’t really need some sort of alpha geek elite in order to reach a wide audience. That phase is in…

Thanks. =) I personally don’t get their continued insistence on assuming all comments are in bad faith unless explicitly approved, nor the idea of an approval system based on random whim, as most other sites have done fine without such a system. I used to be able to comment openly on Kotaku, now I can’t. But,…

While it’s true that a lot of these franchises feel a little like serials, serials have often been tremendously popular in our history. Novels used to be published as serials. Pulp magazines had decades of popularity, and so did the comic books that allegedly started this trend. Soap operas were the Mom’s MCU for half…

There’s a big difference between “franchise movies,” which have been around for nearly a century, and the current shared universe model, which didn’t emerge as a mature form until Avengers.

That’s a very valid point. Apparently just being entertained by our entertainment isn’t enough anymore.

Same. To me Quantumania was a relationship comedy (like, you know, the previous two Ant-Mans) set in a trippy dimension. And I enjoyed how they used the rules of the setting so that, say, Scott could create a swarm of himself and solve a problem using actual ant tactics. Or that the setting allowed MODOK’s giant face…

Beyond the commercial imperative, which is obviously important, the fact is that humans love retelling familiar stories and linking those stories together. We’ve been doing it since time immemorial. From Greek Myths to Arthurian Romances to the Marvel Universe, humans are very good at collective storytelling. 

Luckily, a lot of us commentators will look at the pending comments, and when they’re thoughtful and in good-faith like yours? That comment’ll likely get ungreyed.

Blaming DC and Marvel for franchise movies is a bit short sighted. Did we forget the Mission Impossible franchise, Fast and Furious, Transformers etc? Or even James Bond? At the end of the day franchises appeal to studios because they see it as a way of making more money from a built in audience. As soon as a movie…

“Bird Box Barcelona” sounds like a fusion hot wing place.

I didn’t feel the push to link it with the other movies

I’m a Marvel girl, always have been. I like a few characters and issues from the DC side, but that’s it.

So are we all just pretending there was absolutely nothing going on in Snyder’s life that contributed heavily to him leaving Justice League now? It’s strange how his daughter’s death has just faded away, and now people only talk about WB getting cold feet.