Not at all happy with the current direction of SW EU

[Tycho]

Oh, I haven't even started Bel-Cam.

It's just a thing to do - but I purposely pick out things to do that are HARD. That makes me feel accomplished and I don't finish too soon and slip into boredom.

That being said, I want to go through the whole chronology and figure out dioramas I could create with my action figures to represent as many eras of the "whole story," as possible.

From Naga Sadow to Cade Skywalker.

With figures, the earliest I can go is Exar Kun / Mandalore - though it's obvious that Cay, Nomi Sunrider, Sylvar, Warb Null and various factions of soldiers, including the Mandalorians and Krath factions are missing from the lineup. I was inspired when Darryl DePriest, who is a fan of all of it, was getting these out in the Comic 2-pack format.

However, I think the Marvel offerings killed it, IMO. That was almost all the shelf-warming 2-packs I'd find left over. They were essentially repaints of existing figures and my guess it was offered to save costs by eliminating the expense of new tooling (for yet another Darth Vader, Chewie, R2, etc?)

Bad move - we never got the Noghri (HTTE) and you know the Hasbro team wanted to make them.

Now they could bring this back - but they'd have to reissue the earlier offered characters again, else how could you have an HTTE line be viable without Luke, Mara, Thrawn, and Karrde being available - as much as I'd like the Noghri and Leia and Han in new wardrobe changes, Joruus C'Boath, a new Lando, etc.

New Jedi Order could stand for a line as well - single carded Yuuzhan Vong or army-builder packs would be great - but they are not clones and individually distinct if it's possible to craft that. Meanwhile, Jacen and Jaina could be made in OTHER outfits (Jedi, and X-wing Pilot or tan training fatigues respectively), plus there's Kyp Durron, a Jedi Corran Horn, 'Vong commanders, a Jedi Mara Jade Skywalker, Droma, etc.

Legacy comics could continue, too with Emperor and Princess Fel, Morigan Corrde, and more.

OK - you know what I'm talking about. But you could also use existing aliens like the Gotal, the Saurin, and existing troopers like the Stormtroopers and Rebel Soldiers (though they should have had new uniform changes created for them for these distant future comics) and round out your dioramas that way.

I'd love to set these things up. Harder to find the time and the room nowadays, and my "hobby" (hopefully profession) as a writer has taken over! I started wanting to write Star Wars stories. But as you're aware, I'm very opinionated, enjoy being politically incorrect and shocking, and I was told by LFL that I first needed to establish myself with my own work. (SW authors are invited because publishers promote them to LFL in hopes of popularizing them with SW fans so that their other non-SW titles sell - like Tim Zhan or Terry Brooks for examples). So there you have it.

Hopefully, the figure hobby will still be around long enough for me to get the literary characters I still want.

Feeling overwhelmed by everything and choosing to focus on my work with my own fiction (Buied Values is action-adventure concerned with American social-political life throughout our nation's history, beginning with books set during the Civil war) I have many years of already occupied time ahead of me

[El Chuxter]

I must admit, this looks promising.

[Tycho]

I must admit, this looks promising.

Yes it does!

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I must admit, this looks promising.

Clicks the "Like" button.
Hmm, I might even buy the books WHEN THEY ARE RELEASED, rather than waiting for a trade paperback.

[El Chuxter]

Even aside from finally getting this story (and not in the Clone Wars cartoon, so it won't thoroughly pee on everything else), I'm happy to see Ostrander and Duursema on a non-Legacy book. Even those two names and the talent attached to them couldn't get me interested in the fanfic festival that was Legacy.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

If anyone buys the new paperback of Riptide that came out recently, make sure you have the complete story. The one I bought went from page 191, 192, 193, 51, 52, 53, ... 70, 71, 227, 228, 229, ... I took it back, found one that went in the proper order to exchange, and handed the clerk the other three books in which I noticed also had the error. Did I just give away a variant collector's item? Apparently that part of the storyline is SO important, they printed it twice!

[OC47150]

If anyone buys the new paperback of Riptide that came out recently, make sure you have the complete story. The one I bought went from page 191, 192, 193, 51, 52, 53, ... 70, 71, 227, 228, 229, ... I took it back, found one that went in the proper order to exchange, and handed the clerk the other three books in which I noticed also had the error. Did I just give away a variant collector's item? Apparently that part of the storyline is SO important, they printed it twice!

It is a variant! Rare, hard to find. ; )

That happened with me on a hardback several years ago. The clerk looked at me odd when I exchanged it.

[Tycho]

Crimson Empire III finally came out!

And it looks good, too.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Here's yet one more update of upcoming books over the next few months...

Star Wars: Choices of One (6/26/2012) Timothy Zahn (paperback)
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived (5/29/2012) Paul S. Kemp (paperback)
Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare (5/22/2012) Jason Fry (paperback)
Star Wars: Scourge (4/24/2012) Jeff Grubb (paperback)
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse (4/3/2012) Troy Denning (hardcover)
Star Wars: The Secret Life of Droids (3/19/2012) Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff (hardcover)
Star Wars: Red Harvest (2/28/2012) Joe Schreiber (paperback)
Star Wars: The Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual (1/31/2012) Ryder Windham
Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace Visual Dictionary (1/16/2012) DK Publishing Staff (hardcover)
Star Wars Beware the Sith (1/16/2012) Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff (hardcover)
Star Wars: Darth Plagueis (1/10/2012) James Luceno (hardcover)
Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul (1/1/2012) Ryder Windham (hardcover)
Star Wars Folded Flyers: Make 30 Paper Starfighters (1/1/2012) Ben Harper
Star Wars: Shadow Games (11/29/2011) Michael Reaves (paperback)
The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic (11/16/2011) Daniel Erickson (hardcover)
Star Wars The Old Republic #3: Revan (11/15/2011) Drew Karpyshyn (hardcover)

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I finished Riptide by Paul S. Kemp. I seem to have enjoyed his first book in this "series," Crosscurrent, but this newest one was only so-so. Very predictable, or either unrealistic, which are two opposing concepts that seldom blend well.