30AC Wave 2 - The Battle of Yavin

[Scott]

My only problem with the Vander X-Wing sculpt is the height, he must have been as tall as I am (over 6'4")...he towers over the rest of the squad.  I'd hope they could at least shorten the legs a little bit or something

[Darby]

Luke looks great.  Lots of articulation there.  This has to be one of the most well rounded waves in a very long time.  What a great start to next year (and all two per case!)

[Jesse James]

I'm with you on the Biggs figure, Scott.  I'm bothered by that sculpt...  I'm not satisfied with the Wedge that uses it, and Biggs will annoy me some too.  It's not definitive...  Maybe something to bring up to Hasbro at some point there.  It is definitely taller and stands out.  Hell with Luke there it looks akward.

The Han's arms are a surprise...  I'm ok with it, it's still very poseable, but just seems odd to resculpt that.  Did anyone else notice that Han either has a NEW blaster sculpted for him, or he's using the one his Hoth figure had?

And finally Luke!

-Luke Ceremonial...  Outstanding sculpt.  The head's paintjob seems iffy...  Articulation seems fantastic, and it's nice to see Hasbro heeding the question they got asked about the new "holsters" being a sort of standard.  The thigh-strap adds a ton of realistic detail IMO.

Oh, and now in the new picture the Rebel Guard has a RFT's blaster while in the Lee's photo he has Bo Shek's...

I'm assuming these are hand-painted prototypes.  You can tell mostly by the paint being so thick and vibrant, and the joints not fitting together as well as production stuff does...  Great photos though to give us an idea of what we have coming.  This is a wave of home runs to me so far.

The likes of which we haven't seen since 2004's Cantina Wave if you ask me.  2005 had some great stuff in it though, don't get me wrong, but the fact this is all classic, includes great resculpts and obscurity...  And it's all top-quality it seems too...  Man this is why I still collect.

[CloneAlpha]

About modifying the figure's legs so the stance isn't nearly as wide...

I take some clear rubber bands ala what Nick mentioned, but I wrap them around the figure's hips...  But first, here's what I do to make the rubber band trick permanent.

I boil the figure ala a boil & pop in customizing...  Very simple, nothing major for customizing or anything...  I pull the figure out, and wrap a sturdy clear rubber band (one of the thicker ones works better) around the figure's legs at the hips so it secures his hips in the lower torso sockets VERY TIGHT.  This is to keep the hips from bowing outward in the next step, and it prevents the hips from loosening up then from stretching).

What I do then is take the figure who is very soft and pliable now at his limbs and such, and I push in on the figure's knees so I'm pushing the legs together.  Sometimes I use a small ajudstable clamp I have for hobbies (you can get these mini clamps at Sears for cheap if you're wondering).  I put the figure in a bowl of ICE water...  I do this all fairly quickly by the way.  He freezes in place and the plastic retains the shape...  It narrows the stance down, trust me.

It works on Jerjerrod, it worked on Endor Rebels too who have a horridly wide leg stance...  I've done it since the POTF2 days to get like my Ceremonial Luke to stand straight for instance. 

It's a thought...  It does improve the looks a lot.  My Endor Rebels are tolerable now...  well despite the ugly arms.

Hey Jesse James, thanks so much for this info. The wide stance on the DS Trooper and Honor Guard really do annoy me and I think I'm seriously going to look into following your technique above.  Do you have any pics of what your figures looked like after you narrowed the stance?  Is it in a thread somewhere?   I may try this out on an extra RotS Obi Wan Pilot if I can dig one up.... my only concern is that the ankle articulation might be screwed up if the boil and pop isn't just right.

[speedermike]

Just wondering, if you squeeze the legs together,  don't the feet end up at a strange angle?

[CloneAlpha]

Yeah, that's why I wanted to see some pictures first before I try anything

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but Galactic Hunter is confirming that the Concept Boba will include BOTH helmets -- thankfully there is no "chase figure" as some worried.  Regardless, I'm buying two anyway so I can display both helmets at once...

[Jayson]

-Luke Ceremonial...  The thigh-strap adds a ton of realistic detail IMO.

The only problem I see with the thigh strap is that it limits the range of motion for that leg – being that the leg is now tied to the waist through the holster.

Not that we'd need him in any position other than "at ease" or "attention".

[Jesse James]

Not on my Endor guy they didn't, but what you could do is have the figure held to a stand when you put it into the ice water...  pics may be possible, I'll just have to try sometime.  My camera isn't compatible with my old computer here at home though, so I do my photographing at my gf's place if I do it at all, haha...

Anyway, the feet can be "froze" flat like anything else...  I've found often times though that the feet on Hasbro figures aren't flat anyway so sometimes you actually freeze them straight by default.

About the thigh-strap, Garindan had one and it really didn't limit the movement of the right leg (that I recall, my figure's not handy to check better).  I think though he could be posed sitting...  the holster just basically moved with it and didn't tear or anything.  Definitely looks better than the hovering holster of VOTC/VTSC Han though, that's for sure... 

[Jayson]

Definitely looks better than the hovering holster of VOTC/VTSC Han though, that's for sure... 

True dat

[Darth_Anton]

I hate to say that the Luke is looking to be the sharpest one in the wave. The BBTS picture of the DS Trooper makes it look better than the magazine photo, thankfully.

[Daigo-Bah]

I have a strong suspicion that we really have JJ to partially thank for the standards of this new line, based on his Reviews (and the Q and A questions that everyone here submits).  It just seems too convenient that all the new figures are SA, and Hasbro repeatedly stated that SA costs are prohibitive (yet the new figures have it anyway, and about the only place I can think of that demands SA in figures is here!).  So thanks, JJ!

[ruiner]

That and the annivesary - on Pawlus' editorial at EE.com he mentions that these Yavin figures fill a void that was not filled in 1979.

So far, Hasbro seems to be pulling no punches in regards to 2007 - let's just see how the pricing works out...I have a feeling it won't be pretty...

[Rob]

Wow, just when I thought we were hitting rock bottom with all of the repacks and repaints set to come out, they throw us something that completley restores my excitement about the line in general.

I'm going to probably end up buying way too many of the troops.

Great stuff all around!  If the other upcoming waves are going to be at this level of quality, it's going to be a great year for SW.

[P-Siddy]

"Do I seem to have the leaning curse??"

Or is it the photograph?? 

[jedipurge]

this is awesome.  I better go into my work website and reroute my direct deposit right to Hasbro in 2007.  '07 is an Amry builder/Customizer wet dream so far.

airborne clone trooper
galactic marine
concept boba (easily repaintable for Mando army)
DS officer
rebel sentry
removable  helmet stormie
All the Saga Legends AOTC/ROTS rereleased clones
concept stormie
SA Super battle droid
rumored VTSC snow trooper

 

I think I'll only have cash for them and nothing left over for regular main figs.  The only thing that concerns me with the DS officer is, besides the head he looks kitbashed from several figs.  let me know if you think I'm right or just paranoid.  

Legs: black version of pilot Obi
skirt: black Jerjerrod's modified with those silver box thingys.
Torso & arms: Dooku's instead of the removable hands they're the extra long gloves.

Also where does that hose on Han plug into 

I hope it's not cliche to quote my own post but with the new pic of Luke coming right after mine I wasn't sure anybody would have bothered reading it, not that what I have to say is that important, but I was really curious about what everybody thought about my hypothesis about the DS trooper