I just watched the trailer again because I've had a theory about Alistair Petrie's Rebel Officer character.  People seem to be wondering if his character has some measure of significance.  His jacket in particular has made me wonder... is this Captain Antilles?  But I made a point of freeze-framing the trailer and making some comparisons from Antilles to Petrie's officer.  The jackets are different, and so is the rank insignia.  Both of them seem to have 5 dot rank insignia, but on Petrie's coat they're red in color, and on Antilles' jacket they're blue.

In the case of this movie I have to wonder about that whole canon navigation aspect.  Because we do have some OT characters popping back up.  Vader is the biggest of them all, clearly.  And there were the reports that they were going to have a digital version of Grand Moff Tarkin in this movie.

There's also the matter of what Jimmy Smits is calling his "cameo" as Bail Organa.  Mon Mothma is in the mix, albeit played by the actor who played her in Episode III.  And it looks like there's one Rebel officer who bears a striking resemblance to General Jan Dodonna.  Plus, with the movie ending some 10 or 15 minutes before the opening of A NEW HOPE, I wonder if we can expect to see the plans "beamed" to the Tantive IV by the Rebel spies that Vader described during his interrogation of Leia.

I like what I've seen so far.  Gareth Edwards seems to be hitting the right notes in terms of capturing the classic OT aesthetic of the Imperials, but the filmmaking techniques are obviously far more up to date.  And it's attention to those details like

I also like the covert ops nature in which these Rebels are conducting themselves.  That really seems to be the way they would need to conduct themselves in order to operate under the noses of an oppressive force like the Empire.

Jedah is very interesting.  I've seen some writers describe the locale like something out of the Ottoman Empire.  And seeing that walled city atop that butte/hill?  It made me think of Masada in Israel!  I'm liking the concept of broadening our knowledge of The Force, and that it serves as something of a galactic faith.  The high temple at the one end of the city looks intriguing!

Having seen that wide shot of the Jedah city, it definitely looks like those 4 winged shuttles are some sort of heavy cargo carriers.  And given some of the backstory about Riz Ahmed's character, Bodie Rook?  I'm thinking that his ship, which I think is called the Raven Deluxe, may actually be one of these 4 winged shuttles.  You also can't help but think that both Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe are a couple of badasses!

And that final shot? Yes!

The TIE Fighter has routinely been getting down to about $80 with Prime shipping on Amazon.  If we can get at least another $20 or more below that?  I'll probably bite.

"Kids like it better" was pure marketing speak, nothing else.

I can't say that I care for the price, either.  But we've seen this sort of price creep happening for a little while now with both the Marvel and Star Wars Hasbro lines.  It leaves me wondering if Hasbro might shift manufacturing from China to another locale that can offer less expensive labor costs.

Ah!  Thanks for the reminder.  So we've got a little while to go before the TIE Fighter gets down to it's lowest price.

From the time I placed my order to the time I got my confirmation email?  Over 2 hours. I wasn't really panicked. I had gotten a confirmation from PayPal, and the order showed up with a confirmation number in my HTS account. But seriously... get those emails out faster.