The only good thing I'd consider doing with that Slave I is painting it in some sort of Death Watch colors and having it stand in as some sort of a Mandalorian starfighter.  Otherwise, I find this whole assortment completely useless.

VolkerC posted some images of the first wave of Class 2 vehicles both packaged and loose.  And OMG does that version of Jango's Slave I look just RIDICULOUSLY small!

I was disappointed to find only a single Y-Wing Scout Bomber at retail.  I think it was far and away one of the best mini-rigs of the year, and it was nearly impossible to find.  But I get the feeling that the first wave of SOTDS mini-rigs wound up being placeholders at retail while Hasbro scrambled to get the new designs produced.  It's like the Episode II Action Fleet scenario all over again!

Not sure how I missed this, but another classic Avenger may be introduced in Iron Man 3.

I finally saw the movie last night.  And it was thoroughly enjoyable!  I like the fact that they did another prologue.  Given how much Tolkien fleshed out the world of Middle Earth in appendices and such, you really do need some background before getting into the story.  And I REALLY liked that Peter Jackson gave the Dwarves some really good established backstory.

Another interesting thing?  Almost everyone came into this having seen The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.  And when we saw that we knew Gandalf and Bilbo to be old friends.  Seeing their introduction as Gandalf tries to enlist Bilbo into the company of Dwarves was enlightening.  Especially Gandalf talking about Bilbo's Took lineage.  And then to contrasting these scenes with the first part of the animated version of The Hobbit?  The difference is like night and day!

I'm definitely going to see it again in the theater, time permitting.

The reviews of the 48 FPS presentation have been mixed.  People seem really accustomed to 24 FPS projection, and it's really a result of their eyes having been trained by a lifetime of movie-going.

The general sentiment I've been reading in articles is that the first 30 minutes tend to be an acclimation period.  And after that a lot of viewers are able to forget about the higher frame rate & resolution, and finally focus on the story.

Darth Maul and Mandalorians, pleeeeeeease be the next arc!

Hate to say it, but I think the mid-season hiatus (complete with re-runs) will be the next arc.  I think we might have about 1 or 2 more new episodes before the hiatus, with new episodes probably resuming in February.

I'm perfectly fine with the TLC2013 line being delayed.  Until Hasbro gets this inventory mess sorted out with the remaining cases of The Vintage Collection, the works are going to get gummed up.  Let them work it out and get the distribution system running correctly.  And then we can *HOPEFULLY* get back on a regular schedule where we see a new wave at retail every 4 - 6 weeks.

However, I'm disturbed to see some Star Wars collecting websites abandoning reason and throwing out alarmist nonsense like "THERE'S GOING TO BE NO NEW PRODUCT FOR 2 YEARS"!  Really?  Based on what?  If you want to call yourself an authority in the Star Wars online collecting community and you go spouting off nonsense like that, you'd better be prepared to back it up.

This bit of news from Hasbro regarding the return of TVC figures to the pegs took a lot of people by surprise, but it's far from unexpected. We knew from a number of statements from Hasbro that they had a tremendous backlog of TVC basic figure inventory. This was caused by Hasbro's massive miscalculation on the level of demand for the EPISODE I themed wave of Vintage Collection figures. And Hasbro has openly acknowledged that they over-produced the TPM wave and that had a ripple effect on subsequent waves of The Vintage Collection getting out to retail chains. This led to an overstock of later TVC basic figure waves in Hasbro's warehouses.

Hasbro also announced that they would be offering a great deal of TVC basic figure stock to closeout chains like 5 Below, TJ Maxx, Big Lots and others. But there were still at least 5 WAVES of TVC basic figures that followed the EPISODE I wave. So what to do with those? As much as I like buying TVC figures for $5 a piece at 5 Below, I can't see that chain and TJ Maxx being able to take on the tremendous backlog of stock that must have been the result of the TPM wave logjam. Hence this announcement that 2012's wave 4 & 5 will be returning to brick & mortar retail!

So where does that leave things? Very likely, we're probably going to see TVC basic figures continue to ship through the new year and Q1 of 2013. That gives Hasbro and the retailers about 4 months to try to work through this backlog of TVC stock. And Hasbro will probably transition over to THE LEGACY COLLECTION of basic figures & vehicles for Q2, which begins in April 2013. Plus, the way the toy business works, we usually see new licensed lines launch within a month or so of Toy Fair. And that takes place in mid-February.