I've seen remnants of the newest wave a couple of times, but not all of it.  All I need are those elusive Padawan kiddos and I'll be caught up ...for now.

 

I don't have any insider information unfortunately, but I do hope to see the following stuff made this year or at least before EPIII comes out:

PLAYSETS

- Emperor's Throne Room
- Sail Barge
- Bespin Gantry (dueling area)
- Tipoca City
- Theed Palace

VEHICLES

- Giant Spider Droid
- AT-TE
- Y-Wing repaint
- Cloud Car

FIGURES

- orange Handmaiden
- Rep Teers (Gungan official)
- Yarael Poof
- Daulty Dofine
- Kitster & Wald
- Graga

- generic Kaminoan
- training fatigues Clone
- Cliegg Lars
- Owen and Beru
- Dorme
- death stick dealer
- robed AOTC Obi Wan
- black Naboo retreat fireside outfit Padme
- blue belly dress Tatooine outfit Padme
- AOTC Nute Gunray
- Gunray's aid
- Senator Tikes
- Bail Organna

- Myo the cyclops
- Kitik Kidkak
- Rebel Honor Guard
- Stormtrooper Han
- Stormtrooper Luke
- General Tagge
- Wiosely

- General Riekken
- Admiral Ozzel
- black Bespin Guard
- Cloud Car pilot
- holo Emperor's head (deluxe w/ Vader?)
- holo Imperial Officer
- General Veers w/ small holo Vader
- pre-carbon Han (no jacket w/ deluxe torture rack?)

- Hermie Odle
- Dresselian commando
- J'Quille
- Endor Battle Leia
- well articulated Scout Trooper
- Imperial Dignitary
- Yarga the six-boob lady
- death bed Yoda
- funeral pyre Vader

There's definitely more that I could list, but I would probably be more than happy if this stuff all came out before 2005.

 

If collectors have to rely on the web soley to get their figures, Hasbro will still be able to turn a profit.  Who knows, we might be able to order from them direct someday, or we might have to go through the Fan Club and pay outrageous prices...

...but I do think that if any retailer keeps a Star Wars section for a long time after EPIII, it will be TRU.  They might sign a contract with Hasbro to keep the product coming in to them as an exclusive retailer, which would be fine by me (at least it would be available somewhere at retail).

Truth be told though, the demand for Star Wars stuff is still very high, and I don't see collectors just calling it quits.  Remember, Hasbro has the rights to this stuff for 15 more years; they aren't going to totally discontinue it when they know there is still money to be made.

As for a 3rd trilogy, why the heck not?  If Lucas wants to do it, I say we support it and continue to live our lives being children in the bodies of adults.

 

Exactly Spuffy.  Not being able to find any new figures is complete nonsense.  Hasbro has some real issues.  If they can't even get SAGA right, what is there to make us think that they can tackle two seperate lines at the same time?  

I think that the upcoming SAGA assortments are going to be much harder to come by as the retailers will try going with the CW line, seeing that it is new and is backed up somewhat by multimedia.  I'm definitely not going to miss any preorders on cases for a while now, because I am afraid of some hard times as a collector being on the horizon (like they aren't bad enough already!).

Newforce cancelled my Wave 12 order, and have been pretty slow generally lateley (not saying it's their fault), while Entertainment Earth always seems on top of things, so I think I am going to start taking a lot of business to EE.  EE has also lowered their prices on cases drastically to compete with other e-tailers.

 

Great input guys.  I think the Clone Wars line could definitely lead to a large EU expansion in the future.  The future of EU figures could depend on the success of the CW line...

 

Sounds great Jedirhino, I would try to be there for the grand opening if I were you.  You might be able to get some brand new stuff.

Yep, dimetrodon, I had a little extra time today while I was out, and went by a Walmart that is pretty far out of my way.  I thought to myself, "aw hell, maybe they will have some newer stuff in, I might even score another red Battle Droid, Imperial Officer, or even a Yoda/Chian finally."  But heck no, I went by there and they were stuffed with the Watto/Lott Dodd wave.  Yay.

 

This is a great topic and I ressurected it from days past because I am in favor of many more playsets being made.  

Would you all want it to be exactly like the vintage version?  Or an all new mold?

I would prefer an all new mold, especially if they made the plastic look more realistic.  And a couple more Ewoks would be awesome, they could also include the shield generator bunker from 1997 by simply packing it in.  It would definitely add to the play value for the kids.  Hell, put several figures in this:  clean Scout Trooper, CT Stormtrooper, new Ewok and Endor Rebel 3rd head variant.

 

I think we all already agree that this probably won't ever be made, and I'm certainly not holding my breath, but somewhere down the line they might end up making one.  You never know for sure what Hasbro might try and pull off, especially if these appear in the Clone Wars cartoon (that would actually be very cool).

As for the Reek, well Hasbro was stupid by not releasing the Acklay at the same time, or at least the fat lard beast that tramples Anakin on Naboo.  They overproduced the Reek big time.