The Bespin Guard and Sy Snootles on that list are really an exercise in splitting hairs. 

There have been 4 different Bespin guards offered in the modern line.  One of which is clearly aimed at reproducing the vintage black Bespin Guard.  And at least 2 of the modern Bespin guards would be acceptable modern stand-ins for the vintage, moustachioed Bespin guard.  IMHO the Carbon Freeze Chamber pack-in Bespin guard or the POTJ Bespin guard fit that bill.  On this particular topic I don't think every purist would be completely satisfied unless at least TWO more Bespin guards would be made:  one with the mustache like the vintage Kenner figure, and one with the beard like the Bespin guard on the vintage Kenner cardback.

As for Sy Snootles?  Guess what:  a theatrical release version ain't gonna happen.  That is just wishful thinking gone horribly wrong.  It took a major fanboy movement to get the theatrical versions of the OT released on video.  A small group of theatrical release Sy Snootles fans aren't going to get the puppet version released as a figure.  The character has been represented in the modern line, and in the eyes of most REASONABLE PEOPLE that makes it a done deal.  The word "WE" in that article does not represent the views of the rest of the staff of JTA.

As for the others?  They're pretty legit.  And it seems that Hasbro agrees on Kithaba, which may very well be on the way this year.  And we're probably going to get the remaining Ewok eventually.  I don't know how confident Hasbro is with Sim Aloo though.  They seem to be avoiding that one quite a bit.

The VERY surprising pegwarmers in my neck of the woods?  The Episode III Clone Trooper and the Sandtrooper.  4-LOM is close to pegwarmer status, but can't hold a candle to the other two.

Saw this last weekend and passed.  At least for now.  It was at TRU and their prices are just a little too high for my tastes.  As much as I'd like to see TRU succeed in light of the pressure from Target and WalMart, it's difficult to justify their price discrepancies.

I don't think they really have to even worry about it - they know the SW brand is so huge that people will almost throw money at it regardless of what they do with it as a company.  When you have something as golden as that, I wouldn't think one would need to waste time/energy focusing on it - when they could be investing that time/money hopefully creating the next big thing.

Star Wars is a huge brand.  And with that come huge licensing fees.  The reason why Star Wars figures cost so much more than GI Joe is because of those licensing fees.  The margins on Star Wars are significantly tighter than on Hasbro's own intellectual properties.

As for Hasbro regarding the collecting community as "cellar dwellars"?  How is this anything new?  Really.  The collecting community is a very vocal minority.  But it is still very much the minority.  The cumulative dollars we collectors are spending pales in comparison to what almost every mom & dad are shelling out for their kids.  Hasbro has repeated this in the past, and with the collecting community it really has not registered.

Mixing it up a bit....


Katy Perry





Adrianne Curry

Comedian Greg Giraldo Dead at 44

Wasn't really a fan, but I always saw him on various Comedy Central shows, and he was pretty funny. RIP.

Sad news.  He really tore it up at the David Hasselhoff roast.  An incredibly funny guy.

The whole Bounty Hunt Foil promotion reeks of desperation.  EVERY figure in the ROTS wave has a Bounty Hunt Foil variant.  Hasbro appears to be very clearly trying to lure people back into buying multiples of each figure through this variant promotion.  I think that they designed this promotion to get back collectors who have completely moved away from collecting both carded and loose figures.  Will collectors see through this?  That remains to be seen.

Whoever works PR for Hasbro really needs to step in and say, "Look, this is getting borderline-sexist, please stop commenting on the characters' gender as a justification for determining which properties get green lit for production."

I feel like they harp on that way too much. I have 2 daughters and resent the implication that the heroins and villainesses are somehow second class. The show has really strong female characters, and it's a disservice to the female fans to imply that they are insignificant from a marketing standpoint.

I think they're trying to give an honest perspective about what sells and what doesn't.  Historically action figures of female characters do not sell that well.  That's not discriminitory.  That's a business statement on how well one class of products sells compared with another. 

Hasbro was also stated for years that they did not think the Cloud Car would sell well.  Lo and behold they finally offer one and guess what?  It's not flying off the shelves as fast as the Snowspeeder.

There's a lot of discussion on a lot of forums about what Hasbro should or should not be doing.  But sometimes when it comes to female characters, or how well a vehicle may sell, you've got to trust some of Hasbro's market research.  They do on occassion get things right.