And by the way, Hurricane Ivan, from what I could tell, was wearing a blue shirt, grey pants, black boots, and a white helmet...

And guess what?  He sucked.

I read the title of this, and maybe I'm just a perv but immediately thoughts of a personal moment with your significant other came to mind...

Namely for me a kitchen counter that wasn't utilized for dicing up vegies one time.

Just something about this one's title struck me REAL funny Dave.

Very neat Dave...  I've got similar plans set for some things when I start redoing a room here, but if I'm gonna have to move I may just wait on all this. 

That must've taken some time to organize so it fit right I'd think.

The ARC's definitely animated...  I wish they'd gone al out with the non-animated one like this.  The holsters rock I think.  That's a figure I'd take a SA version of...

Unfortunately, the CW line appears to be all animated, which while they're neat, they're not my cup of tea.  I like the classic looking figures though, and think it was a great EU line.  Even little Frito Bandito Yoda.

Hoth Han doesn't have a decent figure to this day...  That's my only gripe, ever.  I think it's a brown coat though, but I always did.  The photos from the DVD do tend to influence that thought even more IMO though.

doesn't jive, but EU's got it goofed up that way.

Finding a friend in the UK's your only choice unless I get some word on this from De Agostini direclty.

I'm trying...

They have a phone # too Matt.  I know I can't afford to call overseas, but perhaps you can and have the patience to.

This expansion, I believe, is something that makes the game more like WEG's old game, the more I read up on it.  Terrain's important, etc...  Still watered down in comparison though, and doesn't go into as intricate detail.

The terrain looks really neat.  Pre-made and they just send it to you.  God I wish we had this in the states and it was just simple to get.  I felt the same way on the Fact Files, and I STILL don't have a full Fact Files set because I can't afford the huge shipping from overseas.

I for one don't mind them...  At least not the majority.

When the SE's came out, 2 things, and 2 things only stuck out to me as "bad" ideas right away.  Later, I'd say 3 or 4 possibly...  But they're things I was easily living with.

For me, the two things I hated, absolutely HATED, were:

1) Han shooting first...  Asinine in its inception, and deplorable in its execution.  The scene looked fake, and to me short of 100% changing it to Han blasting Greedo cold turkey, I can't see it being "fixed" totally.

Han's a bad ass.  Han murdering Greedo, and by the context of their conversation it IS murder because Han DOES owe someone money and is ducking them, and he DOES shoot Greedo under the pretense that all he'd lose is his ship to Jabba, not his life unless he tries physically stopping them from taking the Falcon. 

And I like Han that way myself.  I like him being just a nutjob with a gun out in the galaxy.  Lucas's skewed sense of "nobility" when he's trying to make a galaxy that touches every one of your senses as being "real" just strikes me as stupid.  Don't make Han anything more than he was originally in the film.  A scoundrel scumbag who's redeemed.  In a sense, he was pulled from the darkside himself by the very thing (love/attachment) that sends Vader to the Darkside.

That makes Han a much more deep sidestory.

Anyway, and...

2) Luke's sissy ass scream on Bespin.  Lucas fixes this on the DVD though, so no harm no foul.  The mere thought he was making an improvement there is disturbing to me though.

I mean, one little thing can totally RUIN an entire sequence...  What the F dude, Seriously?

The runners up then are:

1) Jedi Rocks...  I didn't like it, and I feel Lapti Nek was MUCH better.  Boy am I glad I got the soundtrack box set ages ago wtih the full Lapti Nek on it before they killed it.

Jedi Rocks also includes my dislike for CGI Sy over puppet Sy.  While Puppet Sy makes an appearance, CGI Sy sucks.  Joh Yowza's ok and all, but I feel the whole sequence is mucked up by the song mostly.  Lapti Nek was much more "alien" sounding to me, and less blatantly "comical" in attempt than Jedi Rocks.  plus, Jedi Rocks as a title blows goats.

2) The ending sequence where the music's altered around, and we see all the planets rejoicing...  While I can see the point of seeing all the planets rejoicing, I think it skews time and the time it'd take for the "word" to get out to all these hick planets.

It has its place and all, but I just am not all that fond of it I guess...  The song replacement sucks too because I liked Celebrate The Love in its original format much more over whatever the new song is.  I don't know why.

Now, as far as that goes...

I liked the rest.

I liked the beak on the Sarlacc personally.  I think it adds a menacing look, and suddenly the Sarlacc's not a vagina with teeth, which I think I've dated some girls that could have that analogy made of them, but I digress.

I liked the openess of Cloud City, and think it really enhances what was one of the more bland sequences of ESB, IMO.

I like the Han/Jabba exchange in Docking Bay 94, and personally I like Fett's glare at the camera.  I think the dialogue establishes Jabba as not such a bad guy...  A "real" character, instead of the evil slug we see in ROTJ.  He's not just a jerk, he's a jerk running a business getting screwed by another jerk, but a jerk who he sort of likes and wants to give a 2nd (or 3rd even) chance to.  Plus I liked his thug gang of Rodians and dirty humans.  Cool...  But the animation sucked the first time...  I'm happy they changed it though, and I think it's neat when he steps on Jabba's tail, again establishing what a douche Solo is actually as a person.  I can stomach the CGI, which when technology changes every month practically, I can even let it pass because it is merely dated more than actulaly "bad work" as it were.

I like the whole Mos Eisley expansion.  I think the city needed to be bigger like it is, I liked the swoop dude cutting off the Ronto, which I liked Ronto's overall...  I like the enhanced speeder driving around with scurriers running...  I liked the various craft landing and taking off. 

I'm 50/50 on the Cantina addition of the Pacithip, etc...  Cool in a way, but I liked the wolfman myself.  Then again, I see Lucas's point that it's cheesey, and in the end I got my Lak Sivrak figure so, I can live with the cut.

I like the X-Wings and TIE's at Yavin, and only would I add MORE fighters if I were to make a change...  More X-Wings or Y-Wings, and I'd have a brief shot of A-Wings buzzing off to do some high-altitude covering/diversion perhaps.

I'd have changed Endor to have MANY more ships as well.  Far more than what I'd want at Yavin of course, but I'd actually like to have seen a bigger battle at Endor.  I imagine a Blockade Runner suiciding into the bridge tower of a Destroyer or something, addition of a B-Wing assault intercut with the background destroyer's explosion or something to imply they were the ones blowing it up as was originally intended, added fighters, maybe add another freighter similar in design to the Falcon...  Add more Rebel Cruisers going toe-to-toe with Destroyers to imply a greater series of old-style naval combat going on.

That's just something I WOULD add if I were in charge...

I like the wampa on Hoth, and I think it was a nice addition.  I think however that the Wampa in Echo Base would've been better as an addition.

I like the Biggs/Luke exchange at the Hangar...  I think it deepens Luke's loss and has an element of loss in war that the film doesn't always convey.  The same kind of element I think the final battle is missing witht he Falcon NOT being destroyed (with Lando) when it blows up.

I like the addition of the Stormies in the hangar being in the hundreds if not thousands.  It makes Han's over-zealous 'rounding of the corner much more comical, but in a GOOD way.

And I think that's about it...

Overall I like the improvements.

On the DVD, which I've not gotten to watch yet, but I have seen some of the changes, I like the Vader/Emperor change for Empire...  I think that's important.

I think the Imperial March should've been added to Vader's arrival in ANH on the Tantive IV.  Just a personal quip there.

I DON'T like Temura Morrison's voice-over of Fett.  Lucas doesn't realize (or care, or whatever) that accents aren't genetic, and Morrison's acting is deplorable.  He did better on the freaking Bounty Hunter game.  Fett's old voice was more memorable and menacing.

Beyond that, I'm pretty content though.  I'm REAL happy Lucas didn't change the STormtrooper voices to leave that up to fans.  That all but concludes any argument about Stormies being Clones to me.  It says "You decide" rather than "Yeah, I decided to scrap all my EU and make them all Clones".  Lucas actually giving EU a nod is nice.

So, that's my figurin' on this.