I'm just glad that 2013 is going to be an inexpensive year for me, collecting-wise, that is.

I wonder if that's a prerequisite of being a Royal Guard, growing a beard.....

And of course any collecting site that feels the need to tell their readers mid-article that they need to buy every figure they see to help support the line... really? No, really? I'm sorry, but I already buy 3x of every figure that comes out - two to open and one to keep on card, and you're telling me I gotta go buy more?

No offense, and I don't mean to single you out, but this is a big part of the problem.  Why do collectors buy one of every figure, or worse, three?  Is everything they make really worth buying just because it has a Star Wars logo stamped on it?  That's the kind of thing that sends the wrong message to Hasbro and allows them to get away with the stupid decisions they make.  Like you said later on in your post, both the Movie Heroes AND Legacy Collection are going to have, minimally two EXACT SAME characters at the EXACT SAME time - the Red Geonosis Battledroid and the Sandtrooper.  This is the same kind of thing Hasbro did this year by releasing Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in both the Vintage line AND with Movie Heroes.  Oh yeah, AND in a Battle Pack.  With regards to the upcoming BD and Sandtrooper, are you going to tell me that both sets are worth buying? 

To be honest, I'm glad there were problems with figures showing up at retail this year.  You know why?  Because it sent a signal loud and clear to Hasbro that not all collectors will gobble up the crap they put out.  Hasbro released way too much TPM crap expecting collectors to go nuts over it (which they kind of did, initially), but then they kept sending more of the same with carryover figures in other assortments and what happened?  Walmart, Target and TRU are stuffed to the gills with all the undesirables (which is pretty much everything for the exception of Darth Maul).  The result: retailers didn't want to order any more cases because they might just sit on pegs like the other stuff.  The big retailers don't know the difference between a Battle Droid and a Death Star Trooper.  They just see Star Wars.  So this is precisely why a bunch of cases are sitting in a warehouse.  Distribution problems?  Nah.  It's hard to distribute what isn't being ordered.  Let's see what happens with Droid Factory and let's see what kind of message collectors give Hasbro.  Will they gobble up yet another batch of Clones, Anakins and Obi-Wans?  We will see....   

Even though we have like a million different Vader figures, this upcoming Bespin Vader came out looking pretty good, especially with the blaster bolt deflecting action going on.  Mara Jade looks pretty good, too.

Spotted the "lost line" wave at Walmart earlier today.  Looks like Walmart is back in the game.

That certainly would be welcomed by most collectors but then you would still have that bunch who would cry that the Royal Guard wasn't re-released on a vintage card.  Boo hoo.   

I found the new Battle Packs at Target today.. picked up the Luke / Boba Fett set...

I really dig the Boba Fett figure in that pack, as well as Bespin Luke.  I've contemplated picking up that set, but so far, I've held off. 

Picked up the special action set from Target today (villan set). I didn't know snaggletooth was such a big deal.

I absolutely love the new Snags fig.  And again, I really dig the Boba Fett fig because of the newer "better" paint job.  And seriously, can you ever have too many Tuskens?  Solid 3-pack IMO.

Putting things in perspective, $12.99 isn't too bad of a price to pay for any vintage figure released post-TPM.  I mean, sure, Walmart or Target might have them priced at $10-$11 retail, but how many times have you seen anything beyond TPM vintage hanging on the pegs?