The lousy part is that I want to leave negative feedback for the seller, but I'm worried that the seller is just gonna leave a negative feedback on me in retaliation.

Sellers can't leave negative or neutral feedbacks anymore, so no need to worry about retaliation. The worst the seller could do is leave a positive feedback with a negative written comment, but that is something eBay will remove.

Hopefully the Cantina Showdown is actually an assortment of 2 multipacks (4- or 5-packs), similar to the Geonosis and Pilot sets in years past. Maybe some boring humans, random aliens, Mos Eisly droids, and/or a Sandtrooper or two.

As for the Rancor set, since it is more expensive I'm hoping it is all straight repacks like the Endor set. More articulation is the only way they could improve the existing Rancor, and that might not be enough to get me to buy. Unless it's bigger of course... like AT-AT size.

I think there is a fair balance of real/prosthetic and CG aliens in the prequels. None of the CG aliens really take me out of the movie. The most "offensive" use of CG in the prequels were the clone troopers, especially in the scenes where Commander Cody had the helmet removed.

I wish the Five Belows near me were stocking the Ultimate Wave. Only the Night Viper wave hit down south, and there haven't been any restocks for a few weeks now.

Jesse, if you want a Lade Jaye and/or Colton LMK. I might be interested in trading for some Ultimate Wave figures if you can get them.

Personally I will only buy factory-made toys. No resin figure kits or 3D printed dioramas for me. Factory-made toys are just what I have grown accustomed to so that is what I stick with. I don't want to worry about being gentle and delicate with more fragile pieces, otherwise I'd probably go for statues and high-end figures instead.

As for the success of the Marauder figures, I think a lot of that had to do with capturing what makes GI Joe appealing (detailed, highly articulated modern-military with a hint of Sci-Fi) while adding in the fresh modular aspect. The figures look close enough to Joes to fit right in with existing collections. The modular aspect is a cool looking feature that should appeal to troop builders, customizers, and people who always wanted to customize but don't have the time and/or skill (like me!). I certainly hope the figures perform well for Marauder once they start selling them thru there online store, and perhaps well enough to warrant real carded packaging and sales thru other retailers.

Looks like this Jabba will be $65 (compared to $40 for the regular version). 

$65 is reasonable, though why they couldn't at least squeeze Salacious into the mass retail version is beyond me. I imagine the Dais would have added at least another $40 to the cost, if not more.

last year's HAN SOLO in Carbonite (no longer available).

Thanks for rubbing it in 'bro. 

It is going to become very difficult to determine which figures are repaints or repacks as well as which releases to purchase to only end up with one of each figure. I know I'll be tracking down Plo Koon, Bossk, and IG-88 for sure.

The Marauder Kickstarter ended with a bit over $244000 from around 1200 backers. Crazy how such a small market was willing to shell out so much.