2012 Vintage Wave 5

[mtriv73]

My case of wave 4 is shipping from Big Bad Toy Store today. I'm looking forward to Tarkin and Oddball and I'll be glad to finally see a Malgus when it comes in. The pegs in my part of Maryland still have nothing but leftovers from Wave 1 so I'm glad at least the internet is coming through for me.

[bigbarada]

I think this is technically wave 5.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

Hasbro lists the waves as such:
Wave 1 - The Phantom Menace wave
Wave 1.5 - Deleted Scene wave
Wave 2 - Darth Malgus wave
Wave 2.2 - Dr. Evazan wave
Wave 2.5 - repacked Bespin Han wave
Wave 3 - Grand Moff Tarkin wave
Wave 4 - Jar Jar Binks wave

Though it seems that collectors are saying this:
Wave 1 - The Phantom Menace wave
Wave 2 - Deleted Scene wave
Wave 3 - Darth Malgus wave
Wave 4 - Dr. Evazan wave
Wave 5 - Grand Moff Tarkin wave
Wave 6 - Jar Jar Binks wave

The number of revision cases and repacked figures throws it all off, and fans don't seem to be considering the Bespin Han wave re-release to be its own new wave (and just considering Wedge and the Gamorrean to be regular ol' repacks). There's also the issue of wonky distribution (I saw wave 4, or at least its first case without the 501st clone and Wedge, before I saw anything from wave 3). And don't forget that Dr. Evazan and pals were supposed to be out last year, so their cardbacks and numberings are reflective of that earlier time. It also appears that the Jar Jar wave has been moved up to be released before the wave that includes realistic Clone Wars Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, and the repacks from the Walmart Discover the Force wave (Aurra Sing, Gungan Warrior, etc.), so the numbers will be off.

[JediTricks]

It's wave 5, that's even how EE has it and they usually just go with Hasbro's numbering system. Hasbro's been really bad with numbering lately, not just SW either, but Transformers as well has suffered this same issue. I've retitled the thread to correspond.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

EE's listings don't match up with what's printed on the boxes of the figures - for instance, the deleted scenes figures were shipped in "W1 R1" boxes, meaning that, at least from a business standpoint, Hasbro considers it to be a new ratio of wave 1 figures. The 2011 SDCC slides list the deleted scenes figures as wave 1.5, though NYCC changed it to wave 2. The 2011 NYCC/2012 Toy Fair slides are numbered on the assumption that the Bespin Han repacks are wave 5, and the Tarkin wave is wave 6, realistic Ahsoka is wave 7, Jar Jar is wave 8 (Orrimaarko and the TOR Republic Trooper are included in wave 8 here, though we now know they aren't shipping in the same cases, at least not initially). Conspicuously absent are the Walmart repacks. My "collector" list corresponds to EE's listings, apparently, but if anything, this all shows that there's no concrete way to sort these waves.

[bigbarada]

I think using only whole numbers for the waves is much less confusing.

Anyways, I'm highly anticipating the Nikto Skiff Guard, obviously; but Grand Moff Tarkin is going to be a figure that I will need to see in person before I decide if I'm going to buy it or not. Nothing else from this wave really interests me at all.

[JediTricks]

EE's listings don't match up with what's printed on the boxes of the figures - for instance, the deleted scenes figures were shipped in "W1 R1" boxes, meaning that, at least from a business standpoint, Hasbro considers it to be a new ratio of wave 1 figures. The 2011 SDCC slides list the deleted scenes figures as wave 1.5, though NYCC changed it to wave 2. The 2011 NYCC/2012 Toy Fair slides are numbered on the assumption that the Bespin Han repacks are wave 5, and the Tarkin wave is wave 6, realistic Ahsoka is wave 7, Jar Jar is wave 8 (Orrimaarko and the TOR Republic Trooper are included in wave 8 here, though we now know they aren't shipping in the same cases, at least not initially). Conspicuously absent are the Walmart repacks. My "collector" list corresponds to EE's listings, apparently, but if anything, this all shows that there's no concrete way to sort these waves.

I understand all that, but that information is essentially useless to the collector because it's clearly contradictory nonsense thanks to Hasbro's bungling and juggling.

Were Hasbro to have kept the '10/'11 numbering system, we'd STILL be calling these "Wave 5" because they're the 5th unique, separate wave of figures to come out in the 2012 line.

There's nothing in their "Wave 1 Revision 1" line of figures that has ANYTHING to do with Wave 1 at all - wave 1 was all TPM figures and W1R1 is all deleted scene ROTJ figures, it's become ordering-system gibberish, they might as well name each wave after a non-letter character: "wave &#@$!" since that's how we all feel about trying to track them down anyway.

[Snowtrooper]

My order from BBTS shipped today, so I should hopefully be seeing these some time early next week.

[Snowtrooper]

I got my order yesterday, earlier than i expected. All in all, its a good wave.

BigB, I don't think you'll be disappointed with Nikto. I'd say he's the best figure of the wave. As far as I know, he has all of the details correct, but i don't have your knowledge of skiff guards, so I could be wrong.

Malgus is the other big winner. Kind of like a Darth Vader on steroids. I also liked Shae Vizla really well, even though I'm not into EU very much.

I'd have to say Tarkin is the biggest disappointment. I think the overall shape and articulation is fine, but the soft goods does not work, the uniform color is wrong and I don't think they got the face right. The cardback, however, looks great.

[mtriv73]

I agree with everything you said snowtrooper. I like the Odd-Ball figure as well though. It will be nice to have a little diversity in my Arc-170 cockpit. Hopefully they'll rerelease Tarkin in a more greyish green uniform that looks more screen accurate and give him a little time in the sun to darken his skintones a little. Still, he's a big improvement over the other ones. I don't like the female head of Shae Vizla, it looks a little too unrealistic, but the helmet is great. I'm officially done with Starkiller. I think I wouldn't have even picked him up if I'd found the wave in the wild. Is this the 5th or 6th version (or more) of this guy?