I was passed along this link from another, non-toy board I go to on occasion.  I'm not trying to glorify war or condone anything in Iraq.  This is simply WWII related and I found it an interesting read.  I have yet to finish going through the comments on the message board it is posted too, so cannot comment on whether or not I agree with the comments therein.  But the first post with the original story and the pictures is fantastic and a grim reminder of what happened in past generations to buy our freedom. 

Iwo Jima photos and story

Just picked up on the fact there'll be a mini saber from MR at C3, so that's two lines that I know of thus far.  I thought we should keep track, if only for fun....

1. C3 exclusive talking Vader figure
2. C3 Master Replicas mini-saber (details?)
3.

My latest two orders online for Star Wars stuff have been a fiasco.

EE - Sith bust ups case.

SSW.com - chrome bust and stormie bust ups

Background: I've ordered from both of these retailers before with great success, using one of two credit cards, depending on varying factors.  I've always listed the delivery and billing address as the same, chuckles address in Minnesota.  Why?  Simply because both organizations pretty much rape Canadians on shipping, then we get bent over again for customs and/or brokerage fees.  It is (SADLY) cheaper for me to get them shipped first to MN and then on to me here via USPS.  That is first order pathetic.  I've ordered from EE about 3 times and a good half dozen from SSW.com. 

Situation: Both of my credit cards have been rejected by both retailers this week.  Two different credit cards, two different retailers.  They are telling me that the issue is with the bank.  Nuh-uh, not buying it.  I called both card issuers, explained the situation, both in terms of what I'm ordering and where it is being shipped.  No big deal they say, do what you want, we're not declining anything, you spend way too much money. 

Why it's ******* up: Back during the Gentle Giant Luke Stormie bust fiasco, same thing happened.  Their own software would not allow them to ship goods to a delivery address different from the billing address.  I gave in on that one and got biatched for $30 in brokerage fees.  I also was utterly annoying to GG's customer service department and they've (supposedly) resolved the issue.  Monday will tell on that one.  Now I suspect that both have changed their software quite recently and that is causing the error. 

Remember, I ordered and have received the chrome stormtrooper bust from SSW.com in the last couple of weeks and ordered my series 1 bust ups from EE. 

The worst part, I called EE today to resolve this.  They put the card through while I was on the phone.  It was approved and processing. I received a confirmatory email from them and an apology from a CS rep for the trouble. 

Now I have to continue the fiasco, probably going to happen with Gentle Giant on Monday too.   

And oh yeah, Amazon had no problem on Tuesday of this week doing just what I always do.  Gggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok, I've got a meeting coming up in West Lafayette, Indiana.  I need to fly there and will do so on Northwest, my only real choice.  But on checking nwa.com I am not able to fly direct into W. Lafayette, something that strikes me as strange.  I was hoping to avoid renting a car, but it is appearing I'll have to fly into Indianapolis and then drive out   Anyone have any suggestions of how to do this...can I fly direct into W.L.?  Is there a closer spot to fly to?  Where's the airport in Indy, will I have to drive through/around the entire city? 

Stoopid Purdue. 

Just to be a little different, I'm about to start pulling stuff off shelves.  We've spent the last couple of days painting and doing general fix-up stuff for our house.  We've been planning on getting a different house for a while, but now that I know my job is stable (for a while, anyway), we've decided to get the house ready to sell.  We likely won't list it until we buy a new one (or build, we've given ourselves a short period of time to find a house we like, otherwise we need to build). 

As such, I'm about to start the packing up process.  My wife thinks that a room dedicated to star wars toys is not really going to be a huge selling point.  She also suggested that having stuff I don't want stolen sitting out on shelves is probably not a good idea (hello blue snaggletooth).  I am rather inclined to agree with her, so instead of opening more stuff up to display, it's getting put away. 

Most of my material is in tupperware tubs and there are more of those than she is aware of   I'm thinking this stuff will also make the same journey to plastic bins of hell, but I'm not sure some of it should be there.  So I'm kind of looking for suggestions from folks as to what should be done.  The vintage collection is what I am most worried about.  I have piles of loose figures in ziplock bags already stored in tubs, so the modern stuff will suffer the same fate.  But is that good enough for vinty stuff?  I'm not inclined to bubble wrap 100+ figures, but maybe I should? 

Unleashed will turn into a huge pain in the ass I believe.  They're great loose, but how do you move those things in a huge group?    The rest of the stuff isn't so bad, but all of a sudden I have way too much stuff

Anyone ever packed up and moved an entire collection before?  Love to hear some suggestions.  Please.

Everyone loves their Ipod, no doubt about it.  But recently I've been reading a bit (subjective stuff, nothing definitive) about the Dell Digital Jukebox.  Now RobL chimed in about the Sony Network HD Digital Walkman at 20 GB.  So now we have three choices, all by reputable brand names. 

Not sure on the pricing of the Sony, but Rob's statement

...but if you will only be recording from CD, want top quality at high compression and you want the smallest HDD player out there at the moment, then go for the Sony).

pretty well describes what I'm after. 

MP3 sounds a little muddy to me, but that might be my Sony MiniDisc player I currently use.  It's nice enough and keeps me happy with the assorted discs I can make for working out, but obviously it is limited.  Is it the player or the format?  Seem to have lost a lot of the dynamic range in the sound?

Ipod's are, obviously, IT right now.  Huge marketing campaign and seemingly, by all reports, a very well made product.  One drawback is that you can only transfer music from one computer once the software is installed, is this indeed the case?  Any conflicts with Windoze software occurring? 

Dell is obviously a huge player and their 20 GB player comes in at about $100 less, not an insubstantial amount.  Is the user interface as friendly as the Ipod?  Oprah  recommends this one, just about enough to send me screaming the other way, but I'll try and keep my biases out of it.  I haven't seen much more than subjective criticism of Dell's player - Dell is a bigger company ()...copycat...not as well done as Ipod - but nothing that is really based much in fact?  Is the product too new? 

How does the Sony compare?  Aaaaaaargh!  Too many choices.  What sayeth the audiophiles?

I don't mean commercially, I mean personally.  As in are there any technologies that you've been pleasantly surprised by or anything that worked in just the manner you expected that you'd recommend? 

I bought my last winter jacket off ebay, a nice Summit Series North Face Gore Tex shell with a fleece jacket inside.  When I got it in the mail, it pretty much fit as expected and I knew Gore-Tex was a good product - breathable and water repellant as expected.  But when I tried on the jacket, the fleece inside was pretty damn thin.   No damn way that would keep me warmn in a Canadian winter.

In the past, I've worn fleece jackets as a layer - they are typically available in 100, 200, 300 weights - the higher the number, the heavier and warmer the fleece is.  The North Face fleece is probably about a 100 weight fleece.  BUT... it has a layer of Gore Windstopper fabric in it. And that's the product I've found a new respect for.  It is not, as I expected, warm enough for winter up here, so I added a 200 weight fleece vest (thanks MEC) underneath and now I'm as cozy as some dumbass Californian thinking it's cold at 60 F.  The windstopper layer does an amazing job of blocking the wind, much better than any conventional fleece jacket.  I first figured this out in Hawaii on top of Haleakala crater, where it was a little cooler and the wind was blowing pretty good, yet I was plenty warm. 

Gore-tex and Gore's Windstopper fabric get my nod of approval.  The former is no surprise, but the latter was to me.

So, anything you folks would stand behind as a quality product? 

Anyone going to preorder the Vader statue?  What retailers aside from SSW.com are going to carry it?  Any chance of picking it up for less than $200?  Not bloody likely?