Things I'm not buying

[Tycho]

OK, well today I got myself a fleet of Gunships and I'm putting in them my army of Clone Troopers. Sure it cost a lot. Here's where I skipped out and saved some bucks by not being a completist:

I did not get:

Darth Maul
Qui-Gon
Luke Bespin
Han Solo
Chewie Bespin Escape

Luke's Snowspeeder
Luke's Landspeeder
Luke's X-wing
12 inch Luke on TaunTaun
AT-ST (have 4 POTF and 2 vintage versions)
TIE Interceptor (have vintage)


I don't plan on getting:

Tusken with Massif
Watto
Anakin (flipping) Deluxe
Flying Geonosian Deluxe

Death Star Trooper Acc Set
Biker Scout Acc Set
Hoth Soldier Acc Set

Star Tours R4-M9
Star Tours R3-D3 (most likely. Might use 1)

I don't know why I started this thread, but I guess I didn't want to be a downer in the threads that praise some of these toys.

Now I wish I got the Playskool stuff - all of it.

I am also quite surprised, but I'm collecting ALL of the Unleashed and really fancy it.

[Geonosian]

Please buy the Geonosian Deluxe!

If it seels well we might get more Geos.

[AdmiralPiett]

I highly recommend the Luke Bespin. I know that he's been done before but this figure is really nice. It has good articulation. I don't really care for the weather vane much. I just have it standing upside down on my Carbon Freeze Chamber playset to look like another piece of equipment (you might also be able to use it as a weather vane on the Lars farm on Tatooine). I have Luke in an accurate ESB diorama of the fight in the Carbon freeze Chamber. My Luke is sitting on the ground, leaning against the stairs with Bespin Vader standing in front of him (similar to the "You are beaten" pose). That actually happened while they were in the Carbon freeze Chamber area though so that's why I say it's accurate.
And as for Playskool, I could never find the Wampa one which looked the cutest in my opinion. I never saw the Endor one either. I saw plenty of the Ep. I set which was kind of cute (especially the little Maul) but I wasn't about to settle for that before I got the Wampa.
Piett

[Tycho]

Oh, I want

3 3/4" Poggle the Lesser

12 Inch Poggle the Lesser

3 3/4" non-deluxe Geonosian with sonic blaster (prop style so it looks right)

-the sonic blaster with the Deluxe is too large and not authentic enough.


I will also gladly buy at least 2 of the 12 inch Geonosian Warriors.

When I see the Deluxe one, I might pick it up for at least the addition to my Arena Playset.

[Rogue II]

The only 2 you skipped I would really reccomend buying would be Bespin Luke and Chewbacca.

Yes, Luke has that ugly little button coming out of his back, but he has great articulation and comes with some cool accessories.

Bespin Chewbacca is probably the best Chewbacca to date. He is also well artuculated and holds his blaster (or a bowcaster, if you have an extra one). I plan on using the C-3PO in a Bespin junk room. I just customed an IG-78. I plan on using the conveyor belt from the Deluxe C-3PO(when I find it).

[LusiferSam]

I'm not sure what I'm not getting. It's one of things I'll have to wait and see what I don't like.

[bigbarada]

You skipped Bespin Chewie?? The best Chewie ever made and the perfect figure for any ANH Death Star diorama you could ever want to do? Seriously, don't pass on this figure. In fact he is so common right now that you can probably stock up on several when they go on clearance.

Well, for me the only Star Wars toy I plan to buy (figure/playset/vehicle) is Ephant Mon. Nothing else. Sure the Gunship looks nifty and I am glad for the re-release of the Shuttle, but not only do I not have space for these monsters, I don't have the money. As for figures, nothing from the prequels is really jumping out at me right now, and I might just wait for Hasbro to get tired of this action-gimmick fad before seriously collecting again. I have no use for the Geonosian playset, or the Cantina Packs, or any of the announced deluxes.

So, since I have wanted him for over 15 years (I didn't see a good pic of him until 1987) I will hold out for Ephant Mon and then hope that things will get back to the quality of the POTJ days come 2003.

Until things change and we see a return to more quality OT figures, I will be hanging out in the sidelines waiting for things to improve.

[Tycho]

ROGUE 2, BIG BARADA:


It's really the resculpts of figures I already have that ache. My '95 Chewbaccas are now a part of my Star Wars nostalgia - he was amongst the first 9 figures they ever made this time around - the start of a legacy of over 400 now! So this Chewie carries the '98 Threepio in his cargo net just fine.

I've seen Chewie at all the stores I've shopped at, and he does look wonderful. I just have an extra Chewie Mechanic and a Boussh's Prisoner one for Senate Wookiees or some EU scene left to do with Han, and I don't need any more.

I'm really for an all-new Wookiee sculpt with something other than an ammo-bandolier on. The Senator from Kashyyyk from TPM would be wonderful!

But I bought 25 CloneTroopers. I don't have the cash to patronize resculpts. I have to make a choice and I choose my dioramas.

With Luke Bespin, the same thing goes. I think his knee articulation could have been better hidden though. But again, it's a very nice figure. I just don't need it for any reason, not any more than I need my old Bespin Luke sitting around with nothing to do were I to replace him.

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ROGUE 2: you're idea of using the 3PO deluxe assembly line prop to make the Cloud City smelting room with Chewbacca and the Ugnaughts and IG-87 is wonderful! Good luck. I hope I get to see pictures! That is a very cool and original idea!

[bigbarada]

I understand what you are saying about the 1995 figures being part of Star Wars nostalgia. I feel the same way, even though they generally sucked, I have learned to accept their flaws as they represented a simpler time (no Special Editions, no Prequels, GL was still considered a genius not a dottering old fool wandering his mansion speaking in Gungan ). I really dig the 95 Chewie as it was my favorite figure back then, but I like to use him more as a timeline type figure to show where Star Wars toys began in 78, where they were in 95 and where they are now in 2002.

Maybe since I don't build dioramas I can't understand the mentality, but I can't understand passing on such excellent updates of these figures.

[Tycho]

Hey Big Barada

As to the mentality of diorama builders - it's a costly hobby, so you're always looking out for ways to cut costs on what you purchase, because your pocket hurts when you go for army builders.

I just realized I'm going to need like 16 of those pilot Clone Troopers (groan!)

The other thing is, that once you set up a scene, you like to build a different one, or add new CHARACTERS, or tweak the construction or the art - not replace the heroes it all was built around (from my personal point of view).

As to back to '95, Han and Chewie were the ones I wanted to get first, but they ended up being the ones I bought last.

I was at a Star Trek convention that Sept. - because I do like Trek, but also because I'd heard StarWars was coming and I knew they'd show up at a con's dealer room first.

The dealers weren't the big rip-off artists with their StarWars stuff the way they are now. I met a man and his daughter (both some years older than me) who were selling the first wave.

They had them for all $7-10, but Vader and the Stormtrooper were $15 I think. C-3PO wasn't in the cases then, or at least not theirs, so there were only 8 of the 9 figures.

They told me that Leia in white (Senator) was going to be rare and that I should get her and Obi-Wan quick, as cases had them sort of short-packed. I bought them at $10 each and also got Luke and R2, because they sort of go with the first 2. The dealers told me that Han and Chewie would be the most common on the racks, and that Darth Vader wouldn't be too hard to get.

I opened them right away in my car in the parking lot! Wow! R2-D2 was perfect and just like I'd always wanted.

I thought Leia looked good, if a bit stern, since they sculpted her from a photo of her shooting the stormtrooper on the Blockade Runner. She came with a lot of plastic with her inner-and-outer cloaks, even if they weren't authentic (she had no cape in the movie, but rather needed a hood folded down behind her). She looked like a man only so much as we - meaning humans - are genetically identical between the sexes when it comes to most things but our reproductive anatomy. Some features are more feminine, and some are more masculine, but we also look more one way or another depending upon what we are doing. Typically, we picture males shooting someone. Her stern "don't give me any trouble" expression was befitting the Princess in that scene, and I was ok with it. Apparently, people wanted a more Barbie-style look to her, though Carrie didn't wear that much make up to play the part in the film. I've joked using the term "monkey face" for the figure, but that's just because it's widespread that this is how people have come to know which Leia you are talking about. The connotation is not quite that much deserved. Meanwhile, I got Leia possibly 7 months before people were really finding her! She shipped more in cases once Threepio had been released. So that is why I liked the figure - for months I felt very lucky to have her!

Obi-Wan - had a little bit too rounded of face, but he was the next best value for plastic-for-your-buck. His outer cloak style would pre-empt the dawn of the molded style that gave movement to the outfit and said that the days of flimsy vinyl were long gone for good. (see Vintage Kenobi) But putting him in the landspeeder without brown sleeves coming out of a white robe was not going to work out well. It wasn't until the Episode ONE accessory packs, FOUR YEARS later, that you could outfit Obi-Wan and make him dressed appropriately for riding in the speeder. Still I was stoked, because while the vehicles hadn't hit, as a kid, making Ben and Luke race across the floor, then spin out (running over Jawas and Tusken Raiders) was one of my favorite ways to play Star Wars. Hmmmm. Too bad that in reality, the Jedi typically respected other life forms. Oh well. Luke's dad would have had fun doing this!!!

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R2D2 - with a 3rd leg that was retractable and a light-up eye port that made him seem somehow alive and everything? Too good to be true!

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Funny, I didn't recall Luke Skywalker ever being so buff. Oh-well. Having a Luke figure again was still too cool!