Do you ever get to work, see your voice mail light flashing and cringe? I do. All the time. I usually have a couple of dozen emails to respond to and more than enough other crap to do, let alone what I'm supposed to do in my job (like post in JD). Anyway check the one message (thankfully) and it's a guy I know telling me that a Walmart a half hour from here has 12 different ROTS figures
The guy is a LOTR collector so he's at least cognizant of subtle differences and I have no doubt he is telling the truth. Out the door I go and what do I find?
Revenge of the Sith - Collection 1, Wave 1 -
April 2nd March 08, 2005
III-01 Obi-Wan Kenobi
III-02 Anakin Skywalker
III-03 Yoda
III-04 Super Battle Droid
III-05 Chewbacca
III-06 Clone Trooper
III-07 R2-D2
III-08 Grevious’ Bodyguard
III-09 General Grevious
III-10 Mace Windu
III-11 Darth Vader
III-12 Emperor Palpatine
Yawn, so passe now.
The figures are pretty nice, to some degree and disappointing in others. I haven't opened any of these and I don't intend to keep most of them. I'll pass them on to JuvyD (collects trilogo carded figs) if he wants them. Otherwise I'll keep some and return some others. General comments based on what I could see through the bubbles:
Obi - nice sculpt, decent likeness. Two hilts and they're different (?)
Anakin - at first look he looked good, but then I looked a little closer. His non-gloved hand looks like crap to me and he has a really good tan going on his face and hand?? I don't think I like this figure (right now).
Yoda - sucks. Really, he does. He's got this (relative to his size) uber long neck thing going on and the face sculpt sucks, IMO. Some weird accessory tucked in the bottom of the package as well and I have no idea at this point what it is, it doesn't show up in promo pictures.
Super battle droid - if it doesn't break apart at the slightest movement, it's an improvement. If it does, why did they release it again (for the children!)
Chewbacca - is ******* huge. That's cool, I think.
Remember those pics of Tarful (sp?), the warrior and Chewbacca? Well this chewie looks to be bigger than both and both of those were bigger than any previously released Chewie. The loss of scale relative to other figures (Saga, POTF2, etc.) pisses me off. They have a marker - Luke. All things should be relatively sized to that. There is no need to make Wookies even bigger now. This is a nicely done figure though, the paint app on this is pretty nice though I'm not a fan of the bowcaster like it is.
Clone trooper - basic clone, what else could you want? Well, better paint apps, but most of the flaws on mine were under the arms, so I can live with that. Large and small weapons are more than welcome. Like the new helmet.
R2 - ummmmmmm. Ok, the paint is a bit weird, but maybe it'll make sense once I've seen the movie. The dome paint is ****, no other way to put it. A couple of attachments and a base of some sort tucked in there as well. I like R2, so I'll own one, I just don't know how happy I'll be.
Bodyguard - whatever. Doesn't do much for me right now, hopefully will when the movie comes out. It seems small and I have a feeling it's going to be out of scale relative to the Wookies. Again, need to see the movie before passing final judgement.
Grievous - nicer than the preview figure but as I don't have it open I can't really compare. They cheaped out on the saber hilts but they did that with Obi as well. Obi's saber he's holding is blech, the packed in hilt is really nice. It's an ok figure, but we're bound to see what? 4-5 of him?
Mace - finally. The face sculpt isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good and a far sight better than anything we've seen yet. I do like this figure and wouldn't complain about paying full price for it.
Vader - looks....
thin? It's ok, the cloak looks nice - it's double and the cloth looks like it's decent and will fit properly without being bulky like the VOTC Ben/Luke cloth. The neck chain bites as it sort of sticks out front unnaturally. I'm tempted to glue it down
Palpatine - neat, the face is just a tiny bit off, but the paint apps are good, the neck is well done. His face is just a little too round and the eyes are a bit funky, not quite realistic. His saber is a piece of crap too, the hilt looks shorter than Yoda's for no explicable reason.
These things cost $8.92 up here at Wallyworld so no price increase and no decrease either. After taxes that's $10 and change but it's normal for us. Of them I'd be happy paying full price for Vader, clone trooper, Mace. I'd be okay paying full price for Chewie, Palpatine and Obi (my biggest surprise by far). I think lots will like the Grievous and his bodyguard, they aren't badly done. Anakin, Yoda, Battle Droid and R2 bite. Honest.