It was less than 36 hours ago that I postulated the hypothetical answer to the question of “When will the 2013 LEGO Star Wars Summer sets be released in the United States?”, and now we already have a definitive answer to that question. And that answer is this, LEGO fans: You’ve waited long enough, and the LEGO Star Wars summer and fall 2013 sets are now released in stores in the United States!

As I talked about in my post a little earlier tonight regarding the newly-released LEGO Legends of Chima summer wave of sets, I heard a rumor going around that the LEGO Chima and LEGO Star Wars sets for the summer/fall had been sighted, so I roused myself from my migraine-induced slump and forced myself out the door to hunt for the long-awaited goodness of the last major mass-release, non-exclusive LEGO sets of 2013.

And my diligence was rewarded, as I stumbled across each and every set I hoped to see at my favorite local Toys R Us store! I took photos mostly of the box backs, as everyone’s seen plenty of hi-res photos of the fronts of the boxes of these LEGO Star Wars sets over the last few months.

The good news was that Toys R Us still has an ongoing sale on this week (which ends Saturday, July 13th) for Buy One, Get One 50% Off LEGO Star Wars sets. The bad news was that Toys R Us had already worked their inflated price magic and skyrocketed the set prices of most of the new sets through the roof. This particular practice irritates the crud out of me, so I declined to pick up some of the sets that I’ll be purchasing for their actual suggest retail price in just a few more weeks (*cough* LEGO Jabba’s Sail Barge *cough*).

The LEGO Star Wars Summer 2013 sets now released at Toys R Us and their prices are as follows:
LEGO Star Wars Jabba’s Sail Barge 75020 $139.99
LEGO Star Wars Republic Gunship 75021 $139.99
LEGO Star Wars AT-TE 75019 $110.99
LEGO Star Wars Jek-14’s Stealth Starfighter 75018 $84.99
LEGO Star Wars Duel on Geonosis 75017 $47.99
LEGO Star Wars Homing Spider Droid 75016 $34.99
LEGO Star Wars Mandalorian Speeder 75022 $29.99
LEGO Star Wars Corporate Alliance Tank Droid 75015 $24.99

For some inane reason, I really, really wanted to buy LEGO Star Wars Jek-14’s Stealth Starfighter on sight. I thought it was stupid when I saw the prototype of the set, but once it was right in front of me, I wanted that charmingly blueberry-colored Special Forces Clone Trooper minifigure quite a bit. However, at the outrageous price of $84.99 for a 550 piece set, I had to back off for now. Oh, I will have that blue LEGO Clone Trooper, mark my words, but it won’t be for a ludicrous 16 cents per piece set. Next month.

I’ve heard good things about the LEGO Star Wars Duel on Geonosis fall 2013 set, but at the scalper-like price of $47.99 for a couple minifigures and what’s essentially some background diorama props, I had to let that set go as well. I’ll probably give it a shot at regular price once the set starts selling for below its suggested retail, however.

The two sets that I did pick up were the modestly priced 75015 LEGO Corporate Alliance Tank Droid and the 75022 LEGO Mandalorian Speeder. There was never any doubt at all that I was going to get the LEGO Mando Speeder–I’m a Clone Wars fanatic and thus this was a total must-have.

The Corporate Alliance Tank Droid LEGO Star Wars set was not even near the top of my list, but I needed a set close to the price of the Mandalorian Speeder to take advantage of the BOGO offer, and the Jango Fett minifigure won out over the LEGO Adi Gallia minifigure from the LEGO Homing Spider Droid set.

Notable by its absense from the store was the Jedi Defender-Class Cruiser. As I suspected, this set does appear to be a store exclusive (and most likely not to Toys R Us). The set is probably going to show up in LEGO Stores August 1st, before appearing wherever the set is an exclusive to (Walmart or Target) a bit later on. It’s also possible that the set is a Toys R Us exclusive and is just late, though I’d have expected it to have arrived with these other sets if it were a Toys R Us exclusive.

I’ll be photographing and reviewing both the LEGO Mandalorian Speeder and the LEGO Corporate Alliance Tank Droid over the next few days. Be sure to ‘Like’ Bricks and Bloks on Facebook if you want those reviews as well as other LEGO news and updates beamed straight to your Facebook Newsfeed!