2008 Wave 2 - The Force Unleashed

[Brian]

I was surprised to see this whole wave at our Super Target across town on Saturday.  I didn't see Maris Brood (wasn't interested in the figure in particular), but the rest of the wave was there (1 each), so I picked up the two troopers, Vader, Shadow Guard, and Juno Eclipse.

[jedi_master_sal]

A note about Maris Brood-Her head fits nicely on Juno Eclipse's body and makes for a nice different female IMP officer. Since tehre are both the black (Juno) and the grey (Deeana Shan) sculpts out there now, you've got your choice of which body you'd want to use for the head swap. I don't have pics at the moment, but I'm going to futher custom the head by clipping off the long tendrils of hair that are in front, as well just painting over the small horns. (Though I may sand them down a little.) This will make for a nice Admiral Daala figure once her hair is painted red and the Sith eye makeup has been removed.

Also, you might want to use the Maris Brood head for a Ysanne Isard custom with the female IMP officer body.

Anyway, though my fellow customizers might want to know this.

-Sal

[Phrubruh]

Also, you might want to use the Maris Brood head for a Ysanne Isard custom with the female IMP officer body.
Anyway, though my fellow customizers might want to know this.

-Sal

That would work for Isard. You would then have to repaint only one eye. 

For Daala, I perfer the latest GI Joe Scarlett head.

[jedi_master_sal]

Does that head fit with no problem or do you have to fudge it at all? (Pack it in or sand down the neck bulb?) <---knows this is going to be misquoted...

I've been looking at the Scarlett figure for awhile now thinking it would make for a good custom. I may just pick one up now, though it seems a bit much for just the head (as I'm not a JOE collector).

[CHEWIE]

The neck holes on Joe figures are tiny - about .5 seconds with a dremel takes care of that though.   

[Scott]

The only FU figure I'm not too high on is the female Imperial, to me it just seems absolutely silly and while it a well done figure I can't get over the fact that:
#1 We got a female black tuniced imperial officer with a removable cap before we got a movie one
#2 There are no female officers in any of the movies
#3 There are no female officers in the Empire (unless you count EU I guess)
#4 See #1

I just hope Praji or Jir get the same treatment

The rest of the wave is absolutely great, I love the battle damaged Vader way way more than I thought I ever would,  The troopers while EU form a likely bridge between the PT and the OT and I dig their designs, I stuck Rahm and Maris in my Episode II figures and the two Shadow Guards with the Shadow Stormtroopers. 

[Jesse James]

I agree with #1 wholeheartedly, but on the #3...  It is EU, but at the same time they're (seemingly) relegated to support roles for the most part, so for that I kind of dig her and Lt. Shan as "army builders".  You don't see them in the movies but they're out there kind of a deal...  That works for me.

She's really sadly the best Imperial Officer figure though, period.  I'm not even talking the color of the uniform but overall, she's just vastly superior to the others.  It gives me some hope that, someday, we'll get a super articulated, generic sized/sculpted, Imperial Officer, and that he'll get an olive deco, a grey deco, and a black deco...

It's the one Imperial army builder that is sorely missing in the line right now.  They're everywhere, they're numerous, they're almost as blank looking as the Stormtroopers...  I'd love a nice army of each color.

[Spacey]

My grades so far...

Jumptrooper: B

The sculpting and articulation is some of the best I've seen on a SW figure... really superb. Great detailing, very poseable, etc. He gets knocked down from a surefire A+ for two reasons. The first is that he's a bit larger than the figures around him! Next to stormtroopers or regular scout troops, who would be his natural squadmates, he's just slightly too big, and is like half a head taller than them. I noticed the same thing with Baron Fel - dude is huge. Don't Hasbro's people design to a spec? The second negative point is that the card blurb goes on about how they use their super-cool railguns as their primary weapon, and then they don't include this - only a regular blaster, of which I have loads of spares. Cheap, Hasbro! A black plastic railgun (using a gun sculpt from one of the clone's heavy guns) would have cost like .5 cents or something to include. Lameness.

Shadow Guard - A

Very nice all around, high quality sculpting and articulation... although just a repaint of the Comic Pack ones we've seen. He looks super cool, the lightsaber-staff thing is neat, and overall a solid figure I'm very pleased with. 

[Darth_Anton]

To me, an imperial is an imperial, and while everything Scott said is true, she gets an easy pass from me.

[Phrubruh]

I think its interesting how Juno Eclipse seems to be the peg warmer of this wave around here.

[CHEWIE]

I really don't care for her either.  While the figure is great, I guess I prefer to see women doing laundry (just kidding!!!!).

For some reason though, I just don't like her.  It's probably because this sculpt is out as a comic pack at the same time, and we've never gotten a male officer that has this much detail put into it.

[Dressel Rebel]

Found 6 cases of this wave today at KB Toys. 

The battle damaged Vader is top notch **** and bought x 2.  Outstanding articulation and playability, can be posed any which way.

I passed on every single other figure in this wave.  I gotta say the evo trooper and the other one are the biggest disappointments, the helmets look nothing like the artwork. 

Grade A on Vader, bad job on the stormies, indifferent on the rest.

[CHEWIE]

KB Toys eh?  If there was one close to here, I'd swing by there.  But all but one closed down a few years ago; and that one's close to an hour drive each way.

[iFett]

I don't even think there's any KB's left in my entire state.  It was a small step up from Kmart, but I kinda miss stopping there every few weeks to see what was new.  Still wishin that I would have picked up those Metallica figs that were clearanced out.   

Still haven't seen a lick of w2 anywhere yet, but I've got two months before the CW stuff comes out so I think I'm safe.

[Brian]

We just lost our local KB as well.  We had one left in our mall, but I guess it recently closed (right after Christmas I think).  We rarely went to it anyways, it was always so congested and seemed dirty.  Actually, the majority of KBs I've been in lately seemed that way a bit.  Plus, they rarely had anything new.  If anything, it was a good place to go for older stuff it seemed.