Syril seems to be living his dream of serving the Empire.  And when he made his report to Partagaz and Dedra, finishing with "This is the greatest day of my life" while he's in the same room as the woman he's in a relationship with?  Oooof!

Dedra seems to be using Syril as a field agent.   Considering the secrecy that Krennic is trying to maintain around the Empire's goals?  It seems like managing the situation from a distance is the way to go.  She's got too much attention on herself personally to be directing operations on Ghorman, but I think eventually she will be there.  One of the shots from the trailer shows her in the safe room Syril transmitted from when he was reporting to her.  And it seems like the ISB (or at least Dedra, Partagaz and Krennic) want to maintain a degree of distance to let the insurgency on Ghorman build.  Dedra spelled it out in the first episode while talking with Krennic - they're looking for Rebels to get worked up and do the wrong thing.  The Imperial authorities are looking for a reason to crack down on Ghorman and exert full control over the planet so they can strip mine it to whatever end - just so Krennic can get enough Kalkite to coat the reactor lenses for the Death Star.

I can't say that I'm surprised by the news.  Disney must have invested SO MUCH into the design and development of the D23 exclusive Starspeeder that another release seemed like a near certainty.  What company could seriously afford to make that vehicle and only release 3000 of them?

Oh, that bull****?  I'm always in favor of calling that out.

I prefer to deal in real, verifiable news.  Please forgive me for not getting the distinction you were trying to make, because I know that the Chicken Little crowd has no shame in their never-ending quest for clicks and likes.

I’m just going to wait two months and pick up the caped variants that are 100% going to happen.

But Rob, if you buy THESE, then we can absolutely guarantee that the cloaked versions will be released!


Kidding aside, I'm wondering if Hasbro will opt to make a new headsculpt for Baylan as played by Rory McCann?  Or would they start over?

I was surprised to see that this was not being discussed.  But seeing "Revenge Of The Sith" in the theaters again to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release is something pretty remarkable.

I went to see it this past Friday night.  The presentation at the theater I went to on Friday night was amazing! Such great sound and the movie looked fantastic. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many enthusiastic and relatively young cosplayers in attendance - and they had the good judgement to NOT light up their lightsabers until they were outside of the theater. The Vader helmet popcorn bucket looked cool, but I couldn't justify it at $45. Still, the intro by Hayden Christensen was a very nice touch.  And evidently he and Samuel L. Jackson both turned up at one screening.

The unfortunate takeaways? Some fans really need to be more mindful of their hygiene. Please, guys - regular bathing, deodorant and doing your laundry aren't difficult life skills. ALSO? A movie theater is not your living room. I don't need to hear you recite the dialogue like it's Rocky Horror.

I finally got through all 3 episodes.  I do not think the pacing of the episodes lends itself to binge watching each story arc as they get released.

The TIE Avenger was pretty phenomenal.  And was it me, or were those TIE Advanced V1's that were chasing Cassian?  It's kind of cool to see those, as we had only ever seen the Grand Inquisitor fly one in REBELS.

The Chandrila wedding story arc took a surprising turn.  Luthen has an uncanny ability to pump people for information.  And Kleya seems like she's much more valuable to him than we've been led to believe.  All the while Vel is blending in, and the palace intrigue is unfolding with Mon Mothma, Luthen, Perrin, Davo Sculdun and Tay Kolma.  Meanwhile, Luthen has Cinta at his disposal to deal with loose threads.

It was a bit of a shock to see Yavin 4 revealed.  And one of the beasts there was kind of eyebrow raising.

One of the sleeper moments?  Dedra dressing down Eedy Karn and taking control of that situation.  She came prepared to deal with Syrils mother like I had not expected her to do.

Sad to see what happened on Mina-Rau.  And a little shocked to see how dark things got.  The Imperial Lieutenant that attacked Bix was beyond anything we had really seen before.  But considering where ANDOR began in season 1, I guess we shouldn't have ruled something like that out.

Jayson's notifications of when products have arrived in the U.S. have never been quite so relevant before now.  Because everything that arrived up until about a week ago (and cleared customs) should be shipping at the original prices.

But I look at everything that I've received or found in stores over the past few weeks or found in stores, and almost everything has MADE IN CHINA on the packaging.  The only exceptions were the Epic World of Action Scout Trooper with Speeder bike and SM-33.  Those were produced in Vietnam.

I'm wondering what Hasbro might have to say about this at Star Wars Celebration.

I now have most of the wave in hand, and it's pretty good.  What I noticed only recently though is the complete lack of any main characters.  I know this is a Fan Channel wave, but it's something that struck me as odd.

CHOPPER - I always liked this paint scheme on Chopper when he would infiltrate Imperial facilities.  And this release, the 2-pack with Sabine, as well as CH-33P following the AHSOKA version of Chopper all made it very clear that Hasbro was trying to maximize their return on investment for this new droid tooling.  But Chopper has so much personality as droids go that I can't resist getting him.  I got mine at GameStop, but my Amazon order is still MIA.

AURRA SING - The updated deco looks really good.  And I can appreciate the alternate cardback - especially since the actress is back on the autograph circuit.  I'd really like to get this version of Aurra Sing signed.  What troubles me is the fact that Hasbro left out the case with the lightsaber hilts that was included in the original release.  I'm glad I have that version because that accessory alone is a personal favorite.

LT. CALLAHAN - I think the figure looks great and true to the character on screen.  I'm glad that Hasbro went with a new character like Callahan, but I am fully aware that the reason why is directly linked to the release of the E-Wing vehicle.  A ship without a pilot is pretty pointless.  Now if Hasbro wants to complete the scene, and make Sabine with her speeder bike?  I am all for that!

SNOWTROOPER - I bought a case of them, and I think it's a fantastic step forward from the VTSC version.  I was expecting Hasbro to make the most of the new tooling, and they didn't disappoint.  The troop builder 4-pack already leaked.  I'm expecting a deluxe version with an E-WEB within the year.  And hopefully we get the officer at some point, too.


DR. EVAZAN - I held off on ordering this one.  I have the original release, and I didn't feel a great sense of urgency to get this re-release, photo-real paint or not.  I'll probably pick it up soon.  But I don't know if I would even open the new version.