I missed the Vader on the first day since I had a lot of work to do...  I missed a LOT on the first day actually, just in general.

Second day I vowed to get my Vader early so I went with my Volunteer badge to get it...  The Volunteer/Associate/Exhibitor (yes, the Exhibitors could use a SPECIAL line to get in early   ) line was quicker than the regular line, but still I was one of the earlier people in line and had a 1.5 hour wait to get my Vaders...  The cards aren't even minty mint really.  I got one seemingly flawless one, while others were rough around the edges...  mostly curled corners.

The Vader thing was a fiasco at best.  The whole issue of lines was though, in retrospect.  They wouldn't open the "VIP" line till 9 when the Fanclub folks came in...  Why, I do not know, as they could've had that VIP line open immediately so people who were in that line could go in, get their stuff, and leave, leaving a whole other line open for people to get into.

The same could've been said for almost everything though...  I had to way Sunday to get into the LFL archives exhibit for no reason other than they weren't opening the exhibit till 9 again...  We stood for a while waiting till MORE people came in, to stand in line and wait...  They could've moved 100+ people through the LFL Archives before 9...  cut that line down some.

People waiting for clearances is a sign of actual demand though...  If they really wanted it for $x, they'd pay it.  If they don't, they wait, whether they find it or not.  I tend to see very little of people kicking themselves over NOT finding something on clearance, and more that if people wanted it badly enough they bought it while others either waited and got it or missed it because demand just wasn't as strong as it may seem to a handful of us.

I'd love a Death Star...  not sure I'd like the spherical one shown on Vic Wertz's panel myself, as it's sort of "different".  Reminded me more of an AF type of playset, but if they did something akin to a stackable playset...  Maybe one you could even connect multiple sets together side-by-side and atop one another, then to me that's great.  Sadly though, for those who want things like this, the big stuff doesn't have that strong a support in the general collecting community I think.  Not from what I see...  Stuff wouldn't go to clearance if people wanted it that bad.

G.I. Joe has two luxuries in its favor Star Wars doesn't.  They have had stronger sales #'s generally, and of course they're Hasbro's property to begin with.  Believe it or not, Joe has done very well, even with a slump last year+.  Star Wars has had some very bad times though...  two years of film toys that either did flat out poorly or didn't meet expectations, and then non-movie years that weren't a juggernaught of sales.

I think if ROTS really makes a big impression, larger items are more likely as there's new people involved in the hobby to drive it, but till then I think we'll be more apt to get a Cloud Car and Cantina endcap before an AT-TE... 

I will say, if you got to see the Lucasfilm Archives exhibit (one of the more consistantly LONG lines in the event), the AT-TE they had on display is almost dead-on 1:18 scale, and so was the Millenium Falcon model.  OOOOoooo baby!  I took lotsa detail pictures for "future projects" hopefully. 

See how thorough we are here?  We asked the same questions every where we went.

Hey man, welcome on at JD.com...

The others will be in to say hey shortly, but with many of us at C3 they're probably just now getting home.  Looks like I'm one of the first to get back I guess.

Have a good one, and enjoy the forums, it's a good, and very close community.  Any questions, just ask away...

Take it easy!

I was gonna say Bacta...  The all-healing Jello bath of the Star Wars universe.

We have shirts?

Son of a bitch.   

Just wait 'til we've pounded several hours worth of Guinness first though.

We gotta get our "Soccer Houligan" thing going...