Talking about Gamecube makes me want to dig our old one out and play some Bounty Hunter as well (or Rebel Strike/Rogue Squadron), always loved those games.

I've been thinking the exact same thing Jesse.  We've sort of discussed this in the "future" thread, but I get the feeling the 3 3/4" line is moving towards 5 POA by the time the new movie rolls around as well.  Especially if the 6" line really takes off with collectors.  It seems to be off to a good start, and with Wave 2 including Fett, Solo, and Slave Leia, you could really see the popularity pick up.  We'll see I guess.  They've been selling pretty good here, from what I've seen, but honestly, it seems like anything "new" from SW is selling.  A starved market and all that.

I'm right in line with Jesse's thinking - a scaled by "collector" 3 3/4" line, spaced out, and more focus on OT.  We're at the point where they have really covered so much, and covered it well, that we don't need 50 figures a year here - at $10 a pop.  I'm also picking up the 6" stuff (the OT ones at least, although I do have Maul too), but I'm still a 3 3/4" collector through and through as well and hope we don't see that go away.

I haven't picked up any of the new Legends/Mission Series stuff yet, so I can't speak to their quality.  I don't hate the cheaper, lower articulation idea as much as some do (particularly for figures we already have great versions of anyways), but I think if the paint was as wonky as some have said it would bother me more.  Otherwise, I kind of dig the $6 pricepoint, and the vintage type throwback that line offers.  I'm actually really looking forward to the Han/Chewie and droids packs, as well as that Jedi Luke.  Now, when it comes time for Ep. VII, and it is all new characters (or looks for old characters) I think if everything was 5 POA it would bother me more, but I don't know for sure.  If I'm being honest, unless the quality (sculpt/paint) really took a dive, I think I'd likely still buy some stuff, especially at that lower price.  If they were moving figures like the ROTS days, maybe the price would even drop back to $4.99.

Back to the topic though, I do think Hasbro is gearing (hoping?) that the 6" line will become THE collector line.  We'll have the Legends style for the basic line, and then the 6" collector figures.  Vehicles, beasts, etc. will be exclusives or not much until the movie years start.  We're really going into uncharted territory in a couple of years with new movies each year (at least that's the plan), so we may even have a new "focus" for the action figure line(s) each year.

I was reading through Adam's Q and A at Galactic Hunter this week, and really liked some of the points he made in his wrap up section.  You can check it out here, if interested:

http://www.galactichunter.com/gh/story/qa-big-figures-big-articulation-and-old-figures-gear-eternity

After all the questions, he talks about how the action figure/collectible (and video game) world is changing - and the effect it has not only on collectors, but on kids.  To be honest, the kid aspect is something I've thought about before, but this really hit home for me the way he wrote it.  I order the majority of my stuff online (I collect primarily SW and Marvel), partially because it is easier for me, but also because I feel like I'm maybe not taking a kid's chance away from finding it if I just order it from an e-store.

I can't imagine how difficult it would be to be a kid collecting an action figure line these days, even without the distribution issues we've seen.  In the vintage days, I could take my ROTJ cardback and see what figures were available, and probably find most of them at the local store - or at least have a decent shot.  Also, although I personally didn't do this at such a young age, but you could probably stay reasonably complete on the action figure side of it with prices being low ($2ish I think?) and different figures being more in the 10-20 range in any given year from 78-85.  I know times have changed a lot, but it sort of saddens me that you can't do that anymore.  Heck, I have a tough time keeping up, and I'm an adult with some disposable income.

Anyways, I just thought it was a well written and interesting read - and something I think about a lot these days too.  I do wonder if these recent stripped down, basic figures are more of an attempt to get kids and a broader fan-base back.  I think maybe Hasbro really did price themselves out of a lot of collectors and casual buyers/kids the past few years.  ROTS had to be one of their modern heydays (and the POTF2 days too, not sure which would be more), and the figures were in the $5-6 range then since they were moving so much product.  I wonder what we'll see when Ep. 7 rolls around - if the 3 3/4" line will be all these 5 POA, and maybe the 6" stuff will be the "collector figures" much like other lines are doing these days.  Also, on a side note, I find the quote that Adam started his write up with (Head of DC Comics: "We don't publish comics for kids, we publish comics for 45 year olds") kind of sad...sad, but true.

I see now that the Infinite Earths subs are struggling to meet their goal (on Monday), Mattel has announced that the Damian Wayne figure is now subscription exclusive (as in not available day-of-sale).  I wasn't planning on getting the sub anyways, but I'm a little disappointed I won't be able to get a hold of that figure (at least at a decent price).  Sounds like numbers are pretty low for the subs this time around, we'll see if they magically soar up above the goal by Monday again.

I hadn't looked at these in awhile, but decided to walk down the aisle after our Target reset the other day and was surprised at how much new stuff there was.  Still no Batgirl (my daughter was disappointed), but Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet, a JL Javelin, Black Manta's sub, and new figures like Cyborg, Darkseid, Grodd, Green Arrow, etc.  Quite a bit of new stuff for one year, kind of neat.

You can see a bit of them within this gallery, but there are pics of other DC lines mixed in as well:

http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=346&itemid=20787

I'm sort of interested, but as Jeff said, I don't too much care for the video game stuff really either.  If they start getting into more comic styled stuff (like Marvel Universe) I'll take a closer look.  It is strange how Hasbro and Mattel seem to be going opposite ways with their Marvel and DC lines these days.  One starts to focus more on 6", one nearly abandons 6".

I'm in the exact same boat as you guys.  The figures look great, but I'm just more interested in OT stuff anymore.  There really isn't much that can get me excited about clonetroopers anymore, and much from the prequels in general.  Not that they don't make nice figures, but I'm pretty happy with the ones we've already gotten for the most part.  That being said, I'm glad to see Merumeru here, we could use a new wookiee.  This is probably one of the more exciting waves to me that we've seen so far, but I can't say any of them are overly wow-ing me.  I had a Wave 2 set preordered through BBTS, and cancelled it today realizing that I really wanted less than half the figures.  Why pay $10-$12 for stuff I don't want all that badly?  I used to just preorder the set from each wave and be done with it, with the luck we've had at retail the past couple years, but until we get some heavier OT waves, I think I'm done with that.