For anyone outside of the US who is already able to buy these at retail, can you give a description or image of the backside of the card? I don't believe Hasbro released a photo of the backside and I'm curious to see what they did. I'm hoping it's someone stylized like the old vintage cards.

Looks like I got 2 for 10 with ESB 2009, like others I'll keep Bespin Han on until we actually see solid proof it's coming...

1.) SA Echo Base Hoth Soldier (Vintage design)
2.) Ghost of Obi-Wan (Hoth, hood up)
3.) SA Luke Skywalker (Hoth)
4.) SA Leia Organa (Hoth) SA Snowspeeder Pilot Wedge Antilles
5.) SA Han Solo (Bespin)
6.) SA Captain/Admiral Piett (Needa sculpt with swappable rank badges)
7.) SA Bespin Security Guard (with head variants including the alien guard) Treva Horme
8.) Star Destroyer Technician
9.) SA Luke Skywalker (Dagobah w/ softgoods jacket)
10.) Toryn Farr w/ Comms Console

I got my HTS order in of the ROTJ Wave on Saturday and I gotta say overall it's an impressive wave. Some quick thoughts on each figure, noting that I skipped Rancor Keeper and the B-Wing Pilot...

Jedi Luke - If I hadn't seen the pics of this figure in advance I'd be extremely disappointed, instead I'm just let down once again by Hasbro's inability to follow up on the greatness of the 2004 Jedi Luke. The headsculpt isn't bad at all, though it looks a bit too old for Luke in ROTJ, the hair styling is spot on. The torso and the swappable chest piece work out great, I actually expected it not too but was shocked. However, the use of the 30AC Luke arms, legs, and waist ruin the figure. The limbs are too bulky, especially at the joints, to properly detail Luke in ROTJ. As mentioned before the shoulders are the worst examples as they are just not sculpted well at all. If I wasn't a collector of all things Jedi Luke, I would never have gotten this figure.

Slave Leia - This figure is way better than I expected, the Hasbro pics did not do it justice. The headsculpt is pretty good and the detailing across the whole figure is perfect. The swappable lower half works out nicely though the skin tone on the "sitting" legs doesn't match the rest of the figure, but it's passable. One key thing to note, is when putting the regular lower half back on, make sure to push all the way through otherwise your Leia will look a little bow-legged.

Nikto Gunner - WOW! The sculpting details on this one is amazing, all the folds and creases put into this show what great work the Hasbro designers can do. Even the small straps on the legs and torso are separate pieces, top notch stuff! And the likeness of the headsculpt is so good it makes me want many head casts of this guy, leagues better than the Nikto Jedi of 2002.

Giran - This one is an almost WOW! Like Nikto, the sculpting is outstanding, but it's so good it actually screws up the articulation. The shoulder and knee joints are hampered by the sculpting such that you do not get the full range of motion you should. While not the end of the world, I think Hasbro could have fixed this issue easily. Still, this is another winner from Hasbro.

Major Panno - Another well done figure, though there aren't a lot of details here that stand out when compared to the Jabba goons. Most notable I think to me is that it's a great base for SA Rebel Soldiers in the future. Also keep note on the "pouches" on the cloak, you can use them to hold his weapon and communicator.

Ewoks - Not a lot you can say here, other than a good job on the headsculpts and weapons. These are the same Ewok sculpts we got in the last 2 pack, nice job for the Ewoks but nothing to write home about. Paploo does look spot on from the movie though.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchases and despite the end "being nigh" as is being rumored, I see that from an individual figure standpoint Hasbro is overall doing just fine with the OT goodness.

Now that his Olympic bid failed maybe Obama will make a bid for Chicago to host Celebration V.

I'm sure King Richard has his cronies spending the leftover money from the wasted Olympic bid to bribe Uncle George to bring CV to Chicago.

The question of location of the ideal Chicago convention centers came up. I'll give a brief overview of the two locations just to give everyone an idea of what to expect should CV come to the Windy City...

#1.) McCormick Place - this is a HUGE convention center just south of downtown Chicago, not too far from Soldier Field and the museum campus (Adler Planitarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum). McCormick Place has been host to the Chicago Auto Show forever and was once the home of the Summer Consumer Electronics Show when it was open to the public. While gentrification has sprung it's ugly head around this area there aren't that many things for visitors directly by McCormick Place - the city expects out of towners to get hotels in downtown Chicago which is readily accessible by bus, taxi, or rent-a-car via Lake Shore Drive. Now of course there are a ton of things to see and do in downtown after the show all easily accessible by foot, bus, or train, but being the downtown of the 3rd largest city in the country everything will be pricey - food, hotel, theater, etc. If you're flying into Chicago, you'll have to get transportation to downtown separately though not difficultly. If the idea of getting a hotel outside of downtown intrigues you, well the best place would be right by O'Hare airport and if that's the case then you'd prefer we go to location #2...

#2.) The Rosemont Convention Center - is a significantly smaller venue than the McCormick Place but what it has going for it is a centralized location. Being that it's about 2 miles from O'Hare makes it easy for out of towners to readily access the con center and all of the hotels surrounding it. The con center is in a business district, so you have many hotels, office buildings, and restaurants nearby. It's also just right off I-90 so those driving in can get to it easily, and it's 2 blocks away from a train line that takes you right into the city to go do all those touristy things on a lighter budger. The Rosemont Convention Center hosts the yearly Wizard World show and other collector events, often hosting multiple events at once. Though smaller than McCormick Place it should do the trick if the entire building was dedicated to CV.

And now you know...

awesome pickups Rob, they looked great in person so definitely worth the investment

Just picked up the Obi-Wan from this wave this morning. A great figure as the sculpting details are solid. My only beef with the figure is that the soft goods portion of the skirt doesn't come close to matching the color of the plastic portion. It looks as if my sample uses the soft goods skirt from the Ep3 Obi-Wan, does anyone else have the same issue? Also a bit of the dye from the robe came off on the figure, got it mostly out but that was a bit of a downer as well. The only other figure I saw from this wave was the Pod Racer and he's a big pass. Too little for too much as they say.

So I just came back from a run trying to get these and found that at the store closest to my house some ******* had returned four EVO sets with figures swapped out. There were several employees in the aisle so I let them know and they appeared very grateful. But then when I asked if they could check to see if they had any in stock that weren't swapped returns they wouldn't do it. WTF?!?! I try to be helpful and that's the thanks I get? I bet the next time I go into that store, I'm going to find those sets back on the floor. UGH! One day I'd like to find the guy who has been returning all these swapped items over the years in this area and give him a piece of my mind.

On the plus side though I just got word that Rob hooked me up with the Rebel set I need. So big props to Rob for that, YDM!

I was surprised to see the title of this thread when I was viewing the main page of the boards so I had to take a look.

My thoughts on Yoda's exile when taking the Prequels into account is that the power of the dark side which had hid Palpatine's machinations from the Jedi for almost a generation and led to the Clone Wars and the Purge is what led Yoda to his self-imposed exile. He didn't have the power to defeat Palpatine on his own and knew he had to get away at the very least to save himself to help with the future - the training of Luke and Leia. Having felt the deaths of so many other Jedi, yet taking into account the dark influence over the Force at the time, Yoda may very well have believed he and Obi-Wan were the last of the Jedi and being incapable of defeating Palpatine (remember they think at this point Anakin is dead) figure the best course of action is to go into hiding and re-group when the twins are ready for their destiny.

Someone brought up why doesn't Yoda go searching for the survivors of the Purge as Vader was easily able to find them. Keep in mind Vader had the vast resources of a Galactic Empire to hunt down the Jedi. There were Imperial Forces - Stormtroopers, Dark Jedi, Inquisitors, Emperor's Hands, etc - all across the galaxy keeping an eye out for Jedi, this is something Yoda did not have available to him.  Assuming he knew there were survivors he may have thought it best not to look for Jedi in the belief that it may help them survive longer. Palpatine and Vader essentially know Yoda survived the Senate Duel so they would be keeping an eye out for him and one would assume he's a big target in the Force (I know doesn't exactly explain why he wasn't found on Dagobah) so Yoda looking for Jedi might not have been the best idea at the time. There's also the technological impact, after hiding away on Dagobah for so long, it's possible that little Wookiee ship he was on would be incapable of flying him across the galaxy in search of Jedi, essentially leaving him stuck on Dagobah until someone (Luke, Leia, or Obi-Wan) came to him.

One of the problems with the Prequels is that it's warped the scope of the Original Trilogy. If you read any of the pre-production work for A New Hope and the other two movies you can tell Lucas initially had different ideas for the time between the Clone Wars and Luke's Jedi training than what the Prequels give us. In the early ideas for Star Wars, the Jedi were wiped out long ago and there had been no survivors for a lot longer than the handful of years we find it out to be thanks to the Prequels and EU. So Yoda being in hiding is much easier to explain since it can be assumed that there have been no Jedi for 40, 50, 100 years. But the events of the Prequels change that and thus we have to change our viewpoint on the actions of Yoda and Obi-Wan. I think we find that their actions are made out of a belief that they (and perhaps any Jedi survivors, whether or not they are known) are incapable of stopping Palpatine and as mentioned that only Luke and Leia can do it. But if they do anything before the twins are ready to take on their destiny they risk the chance of destroying their only hope - which would be why Obi-Wan doesn't attempt to train Luke - sidebar on that point when isolating ANH on it's own and from a storytelling pov, Luke can't be trained until a personal trauma (the death of his family) leads him down the path of abandoning his current way of life to follow his destiny.

Oh and as far as how long the events of ESB take, I always felt it was a couple of months. As mentioned, the Falcon did not have a fully functional hyperdrive after they escaped the Imperial fleet so on sub-light and assuming their current position was less than one light year from Bespin, this timeframe could be months. Also there's a lot of training for Luke to do, despite his affinity for the Force I highly doubt he could learn all he did in just a few days. From a storytelling pov that's not believable, which yes I know is saying a lot when you take into account some of Lucas' work in the Prequels. As for Han and Leia's clothing, my guess would be they shared some of Han's clothes on the Falcon (he should have some sort of laundry unit on the ship) and that when they got to Bespin any additional clothes they received were either gifts from Lando or bought with any money they had or perhaps earned (Han could have always won a few hands at Sabacc).

Ok so that was a lot, you can see I think an awful lot on this kind of stuff - 30+ years of viewing the movies and reading the EU gives the opportunity to expand what we think and know from Star Wars to fit it into our own liking. This is how I personally can fit much of the EU into the Saga and resolve conflicts like the various timelines created by the comics between ANH and ESB (Marvel, Sunday Comics, Dark Horse) and that's what is best about Star Wars. Regardless of what Lucas has written, especially with the Prequels in contradiction to the Original Trilogy, we as the audience can decide what has truly happened at least for us individually.