star wars "saga"

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Didn't the Major "Cliff Clavin" figure count as the mustached Hoth Rebel? I have no idea what the Lumat retcon stuff is about.

I'm kind of surprised Target is continuing with those 3-packs because they always seem to end up on clearance.

I believe I'm caught up on all the stuff I intended on getting except for Wedge.

Major Derlin doesn't count for me as an update to that Hoth Rebel, since the vintage figure is the white-suited infantry guy that fights in the trenches, not the brown-suited officers that stay inside Echo Base.

I posted more in-depth about Lumat a few pages back, but basically, someone reassigned the name "Lumat" (originally a light brown Ewok) to a different Ewok who looked a lot like Graak (with black and white stripes). The 2007 Hasbro Graak figure looks like it was sculpted to be the original vintage light brown Lumat but was painted with the black and white color scheme. Now they're finally releasing a new figure based on the vintage figure called Lumat and calling him "Lumat" (though I haven't seen the card, so for all I know they could still change it). No matter the name, there's going to be an update to the vintage figure, so that's good enough for me.

I just got Wedge yesterday, finally. I'm still looking for Darth Malgus, the Imperial Navy Commander, the 501st Clone Trooper, along with the released-online-but-not-in-stores-yet Tarking wave. Of course, those three are fucking hard as hell to find right now, but at least things are finally shipping, albeit slowly.

EDIT: I realized that the Power Droid is actually a different sculpt. I have to wonder if it will be released elsewhere, as I doubt they would tool it just for this set.

[Ran]

Just saw this on Rebelscum. Toys R Us exclusives:

Speeder Bike with Scout and Cannon
On October 1st, Toys "R" Us will begin selling the Speeder Bike with Scout and Cannon set for $19.99. This set will include an all new Speeder Bike, a Biker Scout (which also appears to be all new) and a tri-pod cannon not too different from the ones the Stormtroopers used on Hoth. The Speeder Bike itself looks awesome! It has the proper handle bar grips, and pedals. This set seems to be limited to 30, 000 pieces for the US market. No word if that number includes International stores as well.


Adventurous Ewoks & Yavin Pilots Multipacks
You may remember seeing images of these packs some time back, but now we can tell you that they are TRU exclusives. Each set is limited to 30, 000 pieces and will be available on August 1st for $34.99 each. The Adventurous Ewoks set will include Teebo, Kneesaa, Tippet, Corpsey the fallen (LOL), and an unnamed Ewok with an E-11 Blaster. The Yavin Pilots set includes Gold 5 "Pops" Davish Krail, Gold 2 Tiree, Red 5 Porkins, Vader's Left Wingman (with a numbered helmet?)*, and Porkins' Astromech.

* The number, if it appears on the toy, is from the film, not a prototype identification stamp.

There is also a vintage packaged Slave 1 and Endor AT-AT

So...30,000 of each. How many of these things do they usually make? I've never had trouble finding TRU exclusives in the past. Just wondering if this will be the first. I'll probably get the Ewok and Pilot sets, but skip the biker scout.

[jjreason]

I love the sounds of these pieces. If the Slave I is all new or a repack of the repainted Jango's version I might step up. Not getting the ATAT, just no room here (or desire to go again on that scale - it's too big). I might be begging for help with these if it turns out they're not coming to Canada.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I'm fuckin' excited as hell for the Ewok set. Corpsey was renamed to Nanta, and the blaster-toting Ewok is Flitchee. Still, it's a shitload of Ewok awesomeness in one set - they could easily do one of these every year or so and just repaint existing parts and I would be all for it. The Yavin set gives us a new Porkins, his droid (only very slightly different than R5-D4), another TIE pilot (this one has silver dots on his "forehead," which makes him slightly unique), and the other two onscreen Y-wing pilots:


Now the only speaking in-vehicle Yavin pilot who hasn't been made is Theron Nett (Red Ten), which gets me more tingly than perhaps it should.

I wouldn't be surprised if the 30,000 number was similar to other exclusives they've done. It doesn't sound like those numbers were meant to be released, but the only time I can recall them giving a number like that was the 50,000 for the Target exclusive lava Vader for the ROTS figure launch (of which I have two).

I'll be wanting a few of the speeder bike if it turns out well. I could live without a giant Endor AT-AT - I already think the 2006 one was a little unnecessary in the first place - but I'll get it if it's different from the Hoth one. I can't see why the Slave I wouldn't be a repaint of the Clone Wars one they put out in late 2010, though I wonder if they'll implement any other changes.

[anarky]

Pics of the new Bespin Leia are out. Man. She doesn't look even as good as the 2004 figure. Granted, the detail on the soft goods are gorgeous, and she's got a lot more articulation, but, well, the figure just looks like shit.

I'm afraid the "slap more joints on a figure who's not exactly first in line for needing a resculpt, never minding it looks like shit, and charge $10+ for it" strategy is going to finally kill this line. I'm wanting so few figures, and so many I think I want are easy passes once I see them and take into account they're twice what they were a few years ago. Never saw Sandstorm Lando, of all fucking things.

I mean, damn, for the most part, Joes look nicer than they did in 2004, not counting the cheaping out on the first few waves of Retaliation tie-in toys. There's no improvement in SW. You get more joints, but the joints look like crap.

[Ran]

I blame Yarna.

Looking at the back of the card, there are a bunch of resculpts. Are those real figures? I ask because I was wondering if there is a great demand for another Pruneface or Sandtrooper? Not to mention Nien Numb. The Royal Guard looks fine. And is that a Palpatine Fried Vader?

I'm glad you bumped this thread up. It reminded me I never opened the Evazan and Skiff Guard i bought over a month ago.

[anarky]

Third or fourth fried Vader, in fact.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with their resculpting. I thought the Vintage line was supposed to be a mix, but everything seems to be new, or partly new. We're getting yet another Sandtrooper. Crazy.

Of course, I'd consider Tarkin and Evazan to be two of the most important ANH figures. It took twelve years to get decent resculpts (and Evazan was particularly bad). In that time, there were three fucking Hammerheads. Three. The first figure was awesome. Sure, every one was a little better, but that doesn't mean they need to be made. We got three Greedos; the first needed improving, but maybe not as quickly as it happened, and the second nailed it. Fuck, we got two goddamned Bultar Swans.

[Jargo]

I blame Yarna.

Don't you dare blame Yarna!!! I fought long and hard to get her pegwarming.

Evazan looks good. Snaggletooth does too. Too bad the fucked up Ponda Baba by shoving blood on his sleeve so he looks dumb with his arm attached. Nice that they're continuing with cantina denizens though. Only another 23 to go and the scene will be complete.

[Ran]

I'm glad we got her, but I blamed Yarna because Hasbro did a poor job disguising her articulation.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

This post links to some big-ass pictures. Deal with it, fuckers.

Evazan looks good. Snaggletooth does too. Too bad the fucked up Ponda Baba by shoving blood on his sleeve so he looks dumb with his arm attached. Nice that they're continuing with cantina denizens though. Only another 23 to go and the scene will be complete.

The Ponda Baba figure has a couple different right arms - there's the full arm with ball-joint elbow articulation, plus a separate arm stub that can attach to the removable lower arm. Only the arm stub and removable lower arm have blood on them - the full arm does not. Either version can have either the flipper or the hairy hand attached.

Pics of the new Bespin Leia are out. Man. She doesn't look even as good as the 2004 figure. Granted, the detail on the soft goods are gorgeous, and she's got a lot more articulation, but, well, the figure just looks like shit.

I'm afraid the "slap more joints on a figure who's not exactly first in line for needing a resculpt, never minding it looks like shit, and charge $10+ for it" strategy is going to finally kill this line. I'm wanting so few figures, and so many I think I want are easy passes once I see them and take into account they're twice what they were a few years ago. Never saw Sandstorm Lando, of all fucking things.

I mean, damn, for the most part, Joes look nicer than they did in 2004, not counting the cheaping out on the first few waves of Retaliation tie-in toys. There's no improvement in SW. You get more joints, but the joints look like crap.

You honestly think this:

Is better than this?:

Granted, I didn't think a new Bespin Leia was all that necessary, but the new one does look pretty good. Sometimes articulation can look shitty, but I'm not seeing any issues with that on the new Leia. Her collar is situated too high in the carded image, but I'm sure it can be lowered.

I know you dislike updates unless you find them 100% necessary, and I would also rather see all-new figures over updates to older figures (in most instances, anyway), but there seems to be enough people to buy them that I don't think they pose any real threat to the line since at least they sell. The repacks and fucking horrendous distribution seem to be choking all the life out of the line just fine.

Third or fourth fried Vader, in fact.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with their resculpting. I thought the Vintage line was supposed to be a mix, but everything seems to be new, or partly new. We're getting yet another Sandtrooper. Crazy.

Of course, I'd consider Tarkin and Evazan to be two of the most important ANH figures. It took twelve years to get decent resculpts (and Evazan was particularly bad). In that time, there were three fucking Hammerheads. Three. The first figure was awesome. Sure, every one was a little better, but that doesn't mean they need to be made. We got three Greedos; the first needed improving, but maybe not as quickly as it happened, and the second nailed it. Fuck, we got two goddamned Bultar Swans.

It's the third release of an Emperor's Wrath Vader. There was an all-new POTJ one in 2000, and then a TSC release with a retooled right arm, additional lightning accessory, and some slightly different coloring (whether that's different enough to be considered a completely different figure is up to you). This is the first all-new (or at least considerably new) Emperor's Wrath Vader in 11 years.

What do you mean about this line being mixed? The repacked figures are a big part of what's fucking up this line, from my perspective (some have sold well, but most of them have been heavy pegwarmers).

Hopefully the new Sandtrooper sells better than the retail poison that was the 2010 version. Then again, that one had a lot of things going against it - a sparkly clean, all-white figure whose first release had come just a year before (in the Walmart Dewback set), on a Special Edition card that could have been off-putting to OT purists. The new one looks to be all-new, or at least has a never-before-released blaster and sandy crud on his armor. I still think it might be too soon after the last one.

We've gone over the resculpt issue before, but hey, why not revisit that well one more time. Hasbro tends to revisit the more interesting-looking aliens, action-oriented characters, or figures with vintage counterparts over other choices. Tarkin may be more important to the plot of Star Wars than Greedo is, but old men figures are never as fun to play with as aliens. (They did release another ANH Tarkin in 2006 - it was a repaint of the ROTS figure, which wasn't ideal, but was fine enough to tide me over until the new one.) Evazan was overdue from a collector standpoint (there was the 2002 retool of his legs as well), but I don't necessarily see him as being a huge hit outside the collector market. I dunno, though. They're here now.

I guess it is a little annoying how, out of those figures shown on Leia's cardback, the Old Republic Trooper is the only one who has never been made before. (Lumat is a vintage update, and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are getting their Clone Wars looks ported into the realistic style for the first time, but still.) I do want the Nien Nunb, as the POTF2 one doesn't really cut the mustard anymore. I'd prefer other new skiff guards, but the POTF2 Weequay does look kinda shitty around the newer figures. Same goes for Orrimaarko - I would have rather had the third Dressellian than another Orrimaarko, but they're probably doing this one for the vintage card update and all that shit.

[Jargo]

I stand corrected. Though I'm only a casual observer these days. haven't bought a figure in years. I wasn't aware of the gazillion arms.

The head on that new Leia looks Oriental. the older one at least bears a passing resemblance to Carrie Fisher and I think even though it's a cheated sculpt I prefer the plastic robes to the soft goods. A Bespin Leia doesn't need a lot of articulation unless you're going to make a stop motion movie where you need her to accurately hold a blaster and semi crouch. 99 percent of people buying it are either going to leave it carded or just put it on a shelf and gaze at it. Always seems to be carded collectors screaming about super articulation when they don't have any need of it. No jibe intended at you guys I mean in a general sense.

[anarky]

Yeah, JJL, I do think the 2004 figure looks better. The new one just looks like they're trying too hard, but intentionally holding back to keep some improvement for the next resculpt. Like Jargo said, she really does nothing in that outfit, so she doesn't need 30 points of articulation, and the face looks much better on the old figure.

I'm not against resculpting figures, but their priorities still seem off. Your point about Tarkin is good, but how about Evazan? After 1995 Leia and R5-D4, there's not a Star Wars figure who was more screwed over with their first figure release in the modern line--which was his first figure ever. He's not an old man. He's a bar thug, and distinctive-looking one at that. He not only talks, he gets in a physical altercation where he seems badass (given that there's no way he expected an old dude to pull out a lightsaber), and is the first scene where we actually see what a lightsaber can do. Twelve years to get a figure who doesn't look like a supporting character from a Goof Troop cartoon. Meanwhile, his buddy--who doesn't say anything that anyone can understand--has gotten three distinct figures, not counting reissues. That's just wonky.

The 2004 figure also cost $5 and was relatively easy to get. The new one is $10, if you're lucky enough to find her at retail in a store that still has "reasonable" prices. She'll cost most people $15 or so after tax, at the bottom end of the spectrum. She's simply not a $10 improvement (or $5 improvement, if you're going strictly on MSRP).

My bad on thinking there were no more repacks. I thought they were making some change, no matter how slight, to all the figures to get people to buy them.

Then again, only one of us here bought those 1978-styled BattlePacks.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I'm not against resculpting figures, but their priorities still seem off. Your point about Tarkin is good, but how about Evazan? After 1995 Leia and R5-D4, there's not a Star Wars figure who was more screwed over with their first figure release in the modern line--which was his first figure ever. He's not an old man. He's a bar thug, and distinctive-looking one at that. He not only talks, he gets in a physical altercation where he seems badass (given that there's no way he expected an old dude to pull out a lightsaber), and is the first scene where we actually see what a lightsaber can do. Twelve years to get a figure who doesn't look like a supporting character from a Goof Troop cartoon. Meanwhile, his buddy--who doesn't say anything that anyone can understand--has gotten three distinct figures, not counting reissues. That's just wonky.

The actor, Alfie Curtis, was evidently born in July of 1930, making him around 46 when they filmed his scenes. The character has gray hair. He may not be as old as Obi-Wan or Tarkin, but he sure ain't no spring chicken.

Apart from the vintage version, Ponda Baba has the 1997 one, which was retooled for the Cantina Showdown cinema scene that same year (the same set where Dr. Evazan made his first appearance), and again in 2002 with new lower legs and a removable arm for the Walmart exclusive individual cantina bar release (and that version was re-released with Obi-Wan and blue "Zutton" in the Kmart exclusive cantina bar set). His first all-new sculpt since 1997 only came out last year (and was supposed to actually be released two waves after Dr. Evazan, before that wave was delayed). So they both have the same number of all-new sculpts in the modern line, though Ponda Baba has an extra retool (and an extra release of that retool).

My bad on thinking there were no more repacks. I thought they were making some change, no matter how slight, to all the figures to get people to buy them.

I wish they were doing that, because then it would target more than just carded collectors to get them.

It's a slow day at work, so here's a list of figures released in The Vintage Collection that are either completely unchanged or only slightly different:
9. Boba Fett (The Empire Strikes Back) - first release 2008, repainted
9. Boba Fett (Return/Revenge of the Jedi) - first release 2004
10. 4-LOM - first release 2007
14. Sandtrooper - first release 2009
16. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Revenge of the Sith) - first release 2005, cloth robe included in other releases
19. Clone Commander Cody - first release 2009, incorrect upside-down belt now fixed
31. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Attack of the Clones) - first release 2008, undershirt now a lighter shade, cloth robe similar to other Jedi
42. Han Solo (Yavin Ceremony) - first release 2004 (body), 2009 (head)
43. Commander Gree - first release 2008
62. Han Solo (Trench Coat) - first release 2008 (based on 2006 figure), coat slightly different
63. B-wing Pilot (Keyan Farlander) - first release 2008, leg straps now white instead of tan
64. Leia Organa (Slave Outfit) - first release 2009
65. TIE Fighter Pilot - first release 2009
75. Qui-Gon Jinn - first release 2008
76. Obi-Wan Kenobi (The Phantom Menace) - first release 2009

There are also clones and other figures that use existing parts to one degree or another but offer something noticeably new, like paint or substantial body parts. Aside from Boba, Cody, Gree, and Leia, those figures are, by absolutely no coincidence whatsoever, some of the line's biggest pegwarmers (there's also the ROTS clone, with its shitty yellow head, and ROTS Anakin, which reused parts from the same Anakin that had been released and slightly retooled over and over for years).

Then again, only one of us here bought those 1978-styled BattlePacks.

Yeah, yeah.

[anarky]

I'd count the one with the removable arm to be a second version, because that's a pretty significant change. Technically, the one from the Cinema Scene is different as well, but that's minor.

I'm torn about ordering a few figures (Lando, Nom Anor, and Dr Evazan, primarily) from Amazon. On the one hand, it saves me gas and trouble. On the other, not ordering them and waiting for them saves me money if I don't.

And, besides, if they've been made, they'll be somewhere. Even if it's Marshalls next year. These guys aren't the last wave of a particular packaging style, which is the only time to truly worry.

[Ran]

There is another Lando coming out? I'm kind of behind on what Hasbro is doing. I know I want Wedge, the Ewok, Royal guard, and Hoth Luke. Maybe Tarking, too. I planned on skipping the Bespin Leia and Sandtrooper.