Nice they redid them, but the idea of redoing them points to how repetitive and irritating Star Wars collecting gets. If they'd done the mold right the first time, there'd be no need for this set. It wasn't like they were doing super articulated troopers then, either.
Also, TRU exclusive = $50 price tag probably.
This is where I'm at...
I wanted the Rep Commandoes redone from the get-go... They chinced out on the knee joints, a must IMO, and something they should've done from the start.
I'm glad to see it done, but dread the price. I'll probably pick a set up, but one set (no extras for me), and I'll just be pleased to finally have these guys done PROPERLY in the line.
As far as army building goes, every figure has a saturation point... Clones out in bulk in the Legends line probably has a
little something to do with Clones in the Vintage line not doing so well. Steady releases of Sandtroopers in all varieties since 2007 probably isn't helping him. And so on.
Meanwhile, other army builders are moving... New Clones seem to do well, but pickins for what Hasbro can do, especially from the movies, are becoming less and less. Till all army builders are seen like the ROTS Clone in the Vintage line though, it's tough to make blanket calls like "army building is over".
I'd say $9.99 figures has a lot more to do with army building slowing down than character popularity, personally, and I think it's impacted the line as a whole. But that's just me. I know I've gone from 100+ of various characters to, at best, half that. And that's a real rarity.
Plus most of the army builders that come out are just more of the same. Again, character saturation. I like the new Stormtrooper, I just already have hundreds and hundreds of suitable ones, and suitable ones have been on pegs steadily now for literally years. Retire him a while, come back with something
all new, from the blaster to the sculpt of the figure itself, a year or two down the road like the new AOTC Clone, and that's probably a much stronger lithmus test.
I see AOTC Wave clones... But I don't see a lot, and I'd never label them pegwarmers yet, despite seeing refreshes of that wave steadily now for some months. Toss a Super Duper Scout Trooper out on shelves that takes the VTSC to insane new levels, and I think that's a more fair way of looking at it.
Some should certainly see full retirement, or at least get shelved for a year or two. Others need a ground-up redo, and I think they'd see a whole new army building life.
