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« on: January 3, 2013, 05:56 AM »
-- Best Figure: Clone Wars Anakin. Gotta admit that everything we got was really nice, even the kitbashes were using superior sculpts. Maul and the Skiff Guards really stood out though, and I was also a fan (probably the only one) of the new Battle Droid. Having to pick one single figure though, I'd pick the CW Anakin due to the playability. You can put him in a variety of poses, action and neutral, plus he fits in vehicles and he always looks great. I'd probably throw a vote to the Imperial Navy Commando but I've never seen one, and I'm not paying the $30+ secondary market prices for them.
-- Runner Up: Darth Maul
-- Best Vehicle: Class I Dropship, and it's not even close. I'd probably vote for the Naboo Starfighter but we all know how that turned out. The Dropship is just FUN though, and while I have yet to find any non-animated figures that fit inside the ship and the carrier pod (haven't tried too many though) the CW figures that do fit work great and it's always useful for when you have 10 minutes to kill and just want to imagine dropping some Clones/Jedi into a war zone.
-- Runner Up: None. Terrible year for vehicles.
-- Best Exclusive: TRU Speeder Bike. Long waited, and worth every penny. I own three currently and I rarely even buy vehicles, which means the bike and the Dropship are really impressive. The Bike is significantly upped due to TRU offering a BOGO sale on them the week they hit en masse. My stores still have plenty and I have to fight the urge to buy more each time I see them, but I'm holding out for the eventual Luke/Leia rereleases. Heck, I'd even buy a Nick Sant version! And the Biker Scout included is fun and super posable too, both on and off the bike.
-- Runner Up: K-Mart multipacks. I haven't opened mine yet, but I'll take Jesse's word on them. I have no K-Marts near me and was lucky enough to find them at the local Sears Grand once, and I doubt I'll ever see them again since Sears Grand never seems to stock toys.
-- Best Multipack: TRU Ewok set. Again, haven't opened mine but I still should probably buy a second one for the extra hoods. Customization ability = good! I just wish I had waited to buy this set, I rushed and bought it online before I saw them in stores, and then a few days later these went on sale for a BOGO and hit en masse, although they were still hard to find.
-- Runner Up: Wal-Mart Royal Starship Astromechs. I'm still not a fan of using the B-A-D sculpt in waves/sets where they should be using "regular" Astromech bodies but came around on this set. Some minor flaws keep it from winning out over the Ewoks though, such as the green Astromech not having its "mouth light" painted.
And just for kicks, here are some extra categories:
-- Best Movie Heroes Figure: Jar Jar, aka the only one worth buying
-- Best Repack/Kitbash: Sandtrooper. Awesome accessories and paint job brought new life to a figure literally nobody wanted to see
-- Worst Figure: Any Movie Heroes figure. Pick any one of the THREE versions of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. No need for the same figure to be on the pegs in three different cards.
-- Worst Vehicle: Take your pick. I lean towards the overpriced TRU Vintage Millennium Falcon
-- Worst Multipack: The new Battlepacks with the unarticulated figures. Just terrible.
-- Worst Exclusive: TRU Podracer Battlepack. I was more than happy to purchase this since I owned none of the figures in it, but I also paid less than $10 for it. These things were waaaaaay overproduced and waaaaaaay overpriced, and the result is a giant stack that will NEVER sell through, even though TRU has pretty much had this thing on clearance (and they NEVER put stuff on clearance!) since it came out. Runner Up is the Target Vintage 3 Packs that required you to buy two repacks just to get a single new figure.
I'll save the rants on distribution and prices and such because we've heard it all before but one terrible decision I've noticed Hasbro making a lot more lately is in the pins of figures' joints being completely different colors from the main body parts/armor. Main examples include the Biker Scout that comes with the Speeder Bike having black pins in the shoulders where there is white armor, and Weequay having blue pins in brown pants. Like, the Biker Scout isn't so bad, distracting but not bad, but Weequay, why? His pants are one solid color!