Well, I was wavering on this, but I will back it, and here is why:

Every year there are a 3-6 figures that are total losers. They are either characters done in too many poses with too many gadget features, or simply utterly lame characters that maybe shouldn't have been in the movie much less made in to plastic. I have bought many of these, thinking I would always be a completist.
Well I'm not a completist anymore, and here is why:

Bib Fortuna.

 It may be a little more complicated than that, but when I saw him in January, at seven dollars, I knew Hasbro had gone too far.
Sure a 12.00 Greedo is about as welcome as a cold-sore, but the 3rd poor version of a gland challenged lackey to a slug had me saying enough is enough.

I know that I will happily buy Willrow Hood over Bib # 4. Short pack him, keep him in only 1 or 2 waves, and he won't be hanging around like some of the sludge to be put behind a bubble on cardboard. Heck, throw in an Ugnaught and this think risks being popular.

Plus I like the effort that has gone in to the process.

But I won't back it to snub AP. I've been reading his take on Star Wars collecting since I picked up this bad habit again in 1995. I know sometimes people who seem to be in the spotlight of the collecting community take a beating, but I appreciate his efforts and enthusiasm over the years. 16bit.com is a pretty cool site too, and I've started adding that to my weekly web wanderings.

I will buy Willrow, and I will hope they get the price under 6.00 again before the end of the year. And if Willrow can prevent just one Bib Fortuna in the future, it will have done good.

My complaint with the dewback was more about pose and play than the sculpt. It is so heavy up front that it collapses the front legs. While the sculpt of the pose is good, I tend to favor "at ease" or standing poses. Plus the vintage one has a cute factor (baby dino look) that they will probably never recapture. unless Kubrick made a dewback somehow. That would rock out loud.

Ditto that Spuffy, I'm looking forward to the CW gunship as well. That will sit so cool in the middle of all the animated figures-  Time for another cabinet...

I love the ships, but space has definately become a big factor. Now I will only buy/keep them if they fit in to a theme I have. I have a cabinet that is all Imerials, so my stormtroopers, tie pilots, etc etc go in there. There is a shuttle, two ties, two interceptors, a bomber, Darth's Tie, and two AT-AT's. It's nice, because the different shelves are like hanger bays. The AT-AT's are surrounded by snowtroopers, the ties by pilots, the standard shuttle scene, etc.

I also have a cabinet devoted to Tatooine, so that has the landspeeder, sandcrawler, Falcon, and miscellaneous swoops.

Last is the rebel hanger with a couple of Y wings and A wings, plus luke's x wing. This gives the pilots and astromechs some props to hang around.

I really like the action fleet ships, but since they are not to scale they sit in a rubbermaid bin. It's too bad, because at that scale you can actually line up a dozen ties and x wings and create some really cool scenes. Unfortunately, there is never enough space.

Regardless of the cause, I also am turning to online etailers for cases. 15 trips in the last 7 days has netted me 1 Ut clone, and nothing else (although I could have scored Sora, but I passed). The pegs have a poggle, Bib, or Reiken (sp?).

Considering that buying the 5 cases that will net you the 10 figures comes to approximately 400-450 shipped, and that you would end up with 50 extra figures to do with as you please, this is one of the dumbest ebay purchases I have ever seen. If you spend that same grand buying cases, you would get an extra 100 figures for the same price or less. And you'll get them just as soon, if not sooner. Wow.

I think there is still a discrepency between what the store has pegs for and what they are ordering. This may be a local phenomena, but the Targets and Wal marts I check all have 4-5 pegs "set" for basic figures. These same stores generally have anywhere from 3-6 figures. All of them would easily fit on one peg. And the figures are not sitting in the back; I keep checking the scanner, and it insists the only figures are in the aisle. When I do run into a fresh restock, it is quite clearly a single case, usually with the clones missing. And like you have described, the unleashed, transormers, and force battler pegs are full, along with a full compliment of the choppers. So I would agree, bare pegs are definately a common sight for early 2006 hunters.  I think it is a combination of timid ordering and a popular product. The scalpers will most definately be a problem come "Galactic Hunt" time, no question.