Jared, Plano is still making cases, although they are slightly different from in the recent past.  The case that was pretty much the standard as far as SW figures go, the 3700, disappeared from most retailers near me overnight, and although I found a stockpile of 8 at an out of the way K-Mart six months ago, I had not seen any others until recently.

Plano apparently decided to upgrade their latch system on the sides of the cases (instead of being part of the actual mold, they are now a solid, and more secure, latch as a separate piece) and in doing so, introduced a few new cases (as well as sneaking the 3700 back onto the market).

Wal-Mart is the predominant carrier of the 3750 (I think) case.  This has slots for 12 figures, but unlike the 3700, the slots are done in a fashion where the left-most six slots are horizontal instead of vertical.  While this makes for a tighter fit on the vertical slots, this enables the horizontal slots to hold figures that the 3700 could not (such as Luminara Unduli, the Darktrooper, or Dexter Jettster) lying flat.  The only drawback is that the new latch system actually takes away from the slot space on these horizontal slots, so many of the taller figures will still not fit in the case.  That being said, I was able to fit Graxxol Kelvyyn (from Watto's Box) in three of the horizontal slots when I removed the dividers, so there you go.

There is also another case (3770?) that has the ability to make "angled" compartments.  I don't have any of these, so I can't comment on how good they are, but it looks like it's the same size and slot distribution as the aforementioned box but with "flexible" tabs.

The classic, though, is the 3700.  I have about 30 of these myself, and they're damn near perfect.  They have also apparently just reissued them, although WM doesn't seem to be carrying them (I saw them at K-Mart), and they have the new latch on the sides.  This is easily the best, the sturdiest, and the cheapest (4.00 give or take per case) case on the market for loose figures.  I've been using them since 2000, and I could not store my figures in anything else.  I even loaded up on these and the 3750 above so I would have room for the ROTS figures.

You can find the Plano cases in the fishing tacklebox section of your local WM or K-Mart, but KM seems to be the only place that has the 3700 "Classic" right now.  Trust me, Jared, I swear by these things.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Oh, and the only figure I have that does not fit in either the 3700 or the 3750 is Shaak Ti from Saga, believe it or not.

Just a quick thought to those of you who still have a RS forums account and can do so (but only with his blessing, of course):

Why doesn't someone post an open thread asking about KBZ's ignored emails and PMs regarding Wise using his personal email address for private correspondence for his own spam mailing list?  If Wise won't answer it in private, maybe someone needs to make that public information as well.

Like I said, I wouldn't do this without KBZ's permission, as given the RS forum's level of maturity, they're liable to call him a "poo poo head" or something equally damaging, but it's obvious that Wise is avoiding the issue and sending his lapdog to lock down the forums so that nothing can get through, so maybe it's time this was taken public.

Okay, first of all, I have to say it:

IN BEFORE GNT STARTS THE OFFICIAL EARLY BIRD CHECKLIST (if he has not done so already; if he hasn't, I'll give a shiny new nickel to the first person who starts such a checklist on the RS forums) 

And on to the (relatively) serious stuff:  If Hasbro relaunches SW for the new year, I'm going to be simultaneously irritated and relieved.  Irritated because they will (most likely) begin ignoring the background stuff and/or things that we've been asking for for several years and concentrating on the main characters.  Don't get me wrong, I would love a SA/Ultimate Maul/Jango/Qui-Gon/etc, but at the same time, part of what has made the line such a success (in my opinion) is the large variety of characters available.  It's why (in my opinion) lines like SW, GI Joe, and Marvel Legends succeed while the Batman lines continually fail: Mattel (like Hasbro before them) makes 50 million versions of Batman and one villain per wave. 

I'm also going to be irritated because (and this is based on the assumption that this will be an "Ultimate" line where the figures cannot be improved upon) Hasbro will start out doing a great job on the figures (along the lines of Pete's suggestion), but will gradually stop putting forth the effort.  We need look no further than the VOTC, where Threepio seemed like an "Oh ****, we forgot to do Threepio" type of figure that was done at the last moment.   Or (and this is again based on photos), as with the ROTS line, we'll start out getting Bail Organa-esque posability and we'll eventually wind up with Captain Antilles POTF2 statues.  Hasbro is like a child these days: they are interested in something for ten minutes and then something cooler catches their attention and they couldn't care less about the original thing.

The relief would come from the hopes that they would do these figures in a completely new scale and the 4" line would end.  While I would be pissed off that they would not have completed the big holes in my collection (Sith Infiltrator, about 15 different Padmes, a decent young and old Owen and a young Beru, a Cloud Car, etc), at the same time, I would not follow this line (from a completist standpoint) to a new scale and if they went bigger (size-wise), it would save me a lot of money, which would in turn, give me a lot of relief.  I would still collect the Unleashed line (unless Hasbro decides to abandon it to devote more time to the by then hugely popular Force Battlers*), but if they went to a new scale, it would be a pick and choose situation for me. 

The thing that I find completely ridiculous about all this is that Hasbro hasn't even released a clear statement and/or photos of what these four figures for the Early Bird set look like.  With their present mindset, I wouldn't be surprised for Hasbro to start out spreading rumors that these would be part of a new line, only for them to abandon plans for that line completely and end up shipping everyone either Vintage repros of those four, or the VOTC versions in a white mailer box.  Then they could say, "We never said what versions they would be, you guys just drew your own conclusions."

And also, have they actually said how long people will have to wait for these figures once they mail in their certificates?

*complete and total sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.   

I gotta say, I long for a BD 3-pack of just 3 BD's anymore.  Damned if I'm not hearing that BD in ROTS's line isn't as flimsy as Saga's was though too.  Sad  Why can't Hasbro make a Sturdy droid like they did in Episode One's line?

Because that would require effort on their part, and if the non-ROTS specific offerings this year have shown us anything, it's that, in the words of Homer Simpson, "If something is hard to do, it isn't worth doing."

I'm sure if Hasbro was asked why the BDs are so flimsy (and if I'm not mistaken, isn't the ROTS BD the same one as the Saga BD?), they'll say, "Well, the Episode I Battle Droid figures had thicker limbs due to the fact that we were basing them on preproduction artwork.  When we saw how thin the limbs were, we wanted to be as accurate as possible, so such thin limbs are not condusive to high quality plastic."

Then we can point out to them that the POTJ Security and Boomer Damage BDs had these "thin limbs" but were also made of a high quality plastic that didn't bend, and Hasbro will turn their heads and say, "Did you hear that?  I think someone was calling my name.  I have to go now."

Hasbro is cheap, pure and simple.  They will throw around these excuses for making the guns flexible ("safety issues") and other things to compensate for the quality of the SW toys as compared to their other lines, but when you get right down to it, they're cheap, they're lazy, and they aren't going to do anything past what they can get away with on a line that they don't get 100% profits from (such as GI Joe and TF, which Hasbro pretty much owns outright).

And I'm not even going to get into the fact that the "Deluxe" Obi-Wan (which implies that he is something special by the very name of the subline) looks horrible and cheaper than the regular "Basic" Obi-Wan that will be about six feet away at the other end of the aisle.   

Oh, but of course someone at some site will post how easy they were to find and thaty they're "on clearance", and that "if you don't go often then you didn't try hard enough because I saw a ton", and other such nonsense.

This has always irritated me to no end when certain individuals talk about nothing being hard to find if you just look.  You know, we can't all be independently wealthy people who have the time and money to go to 15 retailers twice a day every day, and for some other sites to imply that if we can't find something at retail, it's our fault is ridiculous. 

There also seems to be a prevailing attitude of "If I found it, it wasn't hard to find, so stop bitching" going on with some of the other sites as well, but the moment that they can't find something, it's automatically the hardest item to find since the Holy Grail and they'll make public appeals for someone to help them out with one.  The thing that makes this worse is that when they're telling everyone else how easy something was for them to find, they never make the first offer to pick one up for someone at cost, but they expect their readers to favor them just because they happen to work on a popular website.

I won't name names, but a few months back, someone wrote into a site and asked if it was possible that Hasbro might do another Unleashed reissue wave of some of the more difficult to find figures, such as Boba Fett, Yoda, or Darth Maul.  This was (I thought) a perfectly legitimate question, but the person made it sound as if it were the dumbest question ever asked and basically said that these figures were out in abundance and neither difficult nor cost-prohibitive to purchase, so such a request was unwarranted. 

End derail...

Back to the three packs though, I have a feeling that this is going to be endless rehashes.  We'll probably get Secret Ceremony Anakin, Mustafar Anakin, and VOTC Vader in the first three pack and when they eventually do an Obi-Wan three pack, they'll reissue the Naboo Obi-Wan from TPM, one of the two Obi-Wans from ROTS, and then VOTC Obi-Wan.

Even if it is rehashes, the Clone three pack could stand to be a big seller.  If they go the straight rehash, they could do a SA CW Clone, a SA ROTS Clone, and a VOTC Stormtrooper, and I would be thrilled.  They could even do the paint variants on the Clones and I wouldn't complain.  I just really hope that this doesn't turn into Saga Clone (the one that was red originally), ROTS #6 Clone, and POTF2 CT Stormtrooper.

After watching the last four episodes in Season III (I missed the first one) and watching the DVD on a big-screen television, I really want this line to continue.  The show itself is easily the best EU story that has been associated with SW (I personally find Mace going all Superman on SBDs to be much more fun than reading about Sun Crushers or Luuke or Clone Emperors) at least in my opinion as a bitter *******.

Rewatching Seasons 1 and 2, I realized that they really need to make an Illum Padme, a Clone Armor Obi-Wan, and the droids.  And with Season III, there is just so much stuff they could do. 

I'm probably in a minority, but I am actually happier and more interested in the animated figures right now than I am the ones that actually come from the films.  I'm weird though, so take that into consideration.   

Okay, I'm going to go on the assumption that the Clone thing is true for the rest of this post.

The first thing that came to mind was the EE Clone four packs.  Even though I know this (probably) won't be the same thing, I wonder if the high price of the EE packs (and their apparent brisk sales) served as kind of a "How Much Will You Pay?" experiment for Hasbro?  And naturally, instead of doing something like this with the Clones as a mass market release, they're doing it as a store exclusive, at a higher price, and using an outdated concept for the "project."

Now, honestly, what would you rather have seen as a mass market release: ROTS Clone four packs in varying colors, or those 5-figure Battle Packs with one rehashed figure after another?  Which one would sell more?  Sure, the "kids always want the main characters" line will come out, but if you have 20 packs of Grievous/Obi-Wan/Anakin/Yoda/whoever alongside 20 packs of Clones in various colors, how many of the first will be sitting there after a week and how many of the second?

Ten years into this line and Hasbro continues to astound me.  Sometimes I just want to write them a really quick Dr. Evil letter that says, "You just don't get it, do you?"   

While bending over and buying gas earlier today, I noticed that the station had put up a M&M "tower" with ROTS artwork on it.  It was a cardboard thing about five feet tall, with Anakin on one side and Vader at the top on the front.  There were little "bowls" that jutted out in front of the box slots that held the differently packaged M&Ms.  I saw packages with M's dressed up as the droids, an M dressed up as Anakin in front of the moisture farm, but the number for my food order was called, so I didn't get a chance to look much closer.

What I did see is that they had several packages of the "Dark Side" chocolate M&Ms directly under Vader near the top of the tower.  I almost bought one, but then I remembered that I hate dark chocolate.  Also, there was no mention of the stuffed M-Peror (the one food tie-in that I really want) or M-Luke, or else I would have bought one to get the coupon for them.

So, if this is any indication, the food stuff is coming sooner than thought in unusual locations.