I know I've expressed similar sentiments before, but after seeing this latest batch of photos (the 2005 Quick-Drawn Clone?  The 2002 Deluxe Droid Factory Battle Droid?  REALLY?), I'm convinced that this is all some kind of expensive prank on the part of Hasbro, or the genius who was in charge of the 2002 line has been reappointed to head the SW brand.  It's as if Hasbro just threw up their hands and said "**** it."  I just can't figure out the logic in some of these figure choices. 

Even if we grant Hasbro the "fact" that yes, kids love their action features, I don't think anyone is going to say that kids also like horribly dated and substandard crap.  Combined with the almost total lack of new Clone Wars stuff next year and what will likely be yet another wonderful (sarcasm heavily implied) distribution year for Vintage, I think this is indicative of the worst year in SW action figure history during the modern era. 

Oh well, Lego will be getting even more of my money than previously planned. 

Wait, there's a wave 9?  Was there a wave 8?  What about a wave 7?  Hasbro is still making vintage figures past wave 5?  I did not know this.

(Insert "beating a dead horse" emoticon here)

Above and beyond the call of duty, Ryan.  Above and beyond. 

Yet another wonderful transaction with Jesse for some Kenner/Hasbro 12" figures.  Everything arrived quickly, was well packed, and as I told him in a PM, I can neither confirm nor deny I immediately shouted "IT'S A TRAP!" when I opened the 12" Ackbar.

Thanks Jesse!

I saw this personally at a local Target and Wal-Mart yesterday.  Wal-Mart's wasn't as noticeable, since there were still one or two each of ROTS Obi-Wan, ROTS Anakin, R5-D4, DSE Luke, Ceremonial Han, and a single Endor Trooper.  Target, however, had ZERO vintage figures on the pegs, since their entire stock consisted of ROTS Clones, Cloud Car Pilots, Sandtroopers, and Dengars.  TRU wasn't touched, as pretty much everything pre-FOS display disappeared during their last 2 for 11 dollar sale.

So far, from what I've seen, the figures that have been pulled are:

-Dengar
-4-LOM
-Cloud Car Pilot
-Sandtrooper
-Clone Trooper (ROTS)

I'm just curious how long it will be before stores get huge shipments of Wave 5 that will clog up the system again.   

Okay, so the two day film marathon is now officially over, after having watched Empire and Jedi back to back earlier this evening.  As promised, here are my thoughts on the final two films as they are presented on BR:

-Empire looks and sounds AMAZING.  The sound during the Battle of Hoth is so full and immersive that it's almost like a totally new film.  And, mercifully, Empire is the one film of the six included in the set that has the absolute least done to it.  As in, "If I didn't know ahead of time that they'd fixed the Wampa puppeteer arm thing, I'd think they didn't do anything at all."  There is nothing noticeable in terms of alterations in Empire (that hasn't been in previous alterations; the new Wampa, Palpatine hologram, and silly "Alert my Star Destroyer" shuttle montage are still included).

-On the other hand, Jedi comes across as the film that LFL totally half-assed in this set.  The picture quality (and this may just be my perspective) is lower than any of the other five films in the set, and vacillates between pristine to cloudy.  It's almost like LFL made it through the restoration and upgrades on SW and ESB only to say, "That ****'ll do" on Jedi.  Disappointing.

-And, again, as the opposite of Empire's BR presentation, Jedi has the most alterations but, again, several of them seem really half-assed.  Everyone knows what most of them are already, but here's a rundown for those who missed them:

1.  Jabba's got a big(ger) ass door now.  The problem is that while it's big on the outside, it's the exact same size as before when the shot is looking out (as it does when Threepio and Artoo enter, and when Luke enters). 

2.  A randomly wandering Dug apparently had to go to the bathroom while everyone else was asleep just before Luke walks down the stairs into the throne room.  I actually would have been okay with this had the Dug actually stuck around in the background, but it's literally him walking across the screen and then you never see him again. 

3.  The famous Ewok blinks.  The photos we've seen are all of Wicket, and for good reason, since (outside of a single shot of a Wokling blinking) he's the only Ewok that blinks.  Yes, tons of close-ups of Teebo, Paploo, even Wompus, and none of them blink at all.  But Wicket does.  Now, when Wicket (and Wokling) blink, it's done so well that you'd think it had been there since 1983; the problem is that (from my viewpoint) if you're going to make an Ewok blink, make ALL the Ewoks blink. 

4.  Darth Vader says "Nooo.  NOOOOOOOOOO!" prior to throwing Palpy down the reactor shaft, true, but in what is either a giant step forward in picture quality or another alteration that hasn't gotten much publicity due to the "DO NOT WANT" utterance, Vader's skull is MUCH more visible and defined during his electrocution than I recall it in earlier versions. 

5.  Little things that I had hoped would be fixed (Fett's flopped rangefinder, Lando's flopped holster) remain as they have always been: obvious and annoying.

6.  In the pinnacle of half-assedness, the much ballyhooed improvements to the lightsaber color corrections are totally random on Jedi, with Vader still having a pink saber with no white core in many shots.  It's like LFL saw people complain about the "crossed sabers" shot and corrected that, plus another few here and there, and said, "**** it, don't we have an episode of Clone Wars about poisoned school soda to work on?"

So yeah, out of all 6 films, here's my rating:

The Phantom Menace:  Video-4.5 (of 5); Audio-5 (of 5)
Attack of the Clones:  Video-5 (of 5); Audio-5 (of 5)
Revenge of the Sith:  Video-6 (of 5; best of the bunch); Audio-5 (of 5)
Star Wars:  Video-4.5 (of 5; mainly due to source material); Audio-5 (of 5)
The Empire Strikes Back:  Video-5 (of 5); Audio-6 (of 5; best of the bunch)
Return of the Jedi:  Video-4 (of 5); Audio-4.5 (of 5)

Will be cracking into the prequel bonus features tomorrow, although I did watch the Grievous/Obi-Wan chase animatic that Spielberg assembled/directed.  Really wish that was how it played in the film, as it was, to be quite blunt, pretty ******* awesome.

Was planning on getting the set at Target anyways, but don't like the fact they put those "don't steal me" devices on there which damages the packaging..oh well.  I guess I should be more concerned with the movies instead.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Target put the only two copies of the Complete Saga they had in those oversized boxes instead of the Iron Man chest reactor thing with wires, I wouldn't have gotten it there either.  When the last two Harry Potter Ultimate Edition BRs came out, I made the Target electronics woman go into the back storeroom to get me two non-reactorfied boxes, as the ones on the shelf had huge divots dug into them on each of the four edges.  I also don't buy any BRs with those cardboard outer sleeves at Target, as the security boxes are too small for them and Target just crams them in and/or pulls them out indiscriminately, ripping the sleeve in the process.  If I'm going to pay for something, I'd prefer it not to be damaged before it even gets in my hands.

Okay, back to the BRs:  I have now watched AOTC and ROTS (in addition to TPM; yes, I watched all three prequels in one day because I had a day off from work; no, I do not live in my parents' basement; and yes, I have known the touch of a woman), and here's the rundown on what I could notice different in those:

AOTC:  Audio of Shmi screaming for Anakin to help her has been added to Anakin's dream on Naboo.  I would assume this is to tone down the Oedipal creepiness of the original version, when he's laying there with his hands under the sheets saying, "Mom, no" over and over.  It works.

AOTC:  A major change that is extremely jarring and pretty much leaves you thinking your BR/DVD player is ****** up occurs near the end of the film.  An entire 30-second time period has been reedited from the point that Dooku topples the tower over on Obi-Wan and Anakin and Yoda catches it, and the point where Padme and the Clones come in the hangar. 

ORIGINALLY:  Tower topples, Yoda catches it, Dooku runs onto Solar Sailer, Yoda moves tower away, Solar Sailer takes off, Padme and Clones shoot at Solar Sailer, Dooku goes into space, Anakin gasps, Yoda looks concerned, Anakin and Obi-Wan get up, Padme and Clones run in, Solar Sailer approaches Coruscant

BLU RAY:  Tower topples, Yoda catches it, Dooku runs onto Solar Sailer, Yoda moves tower away, Anakin gasps, Yoda looks concerned, Solar Sailer takes off, Padme and Clones shoot at Solar Sailer, Dooku goes into space, quick shot of Yoda looking concerned again, Anakin and Obi-Wan get up, Padme and Clones run in, Solar Sailer approaches Coruscant

This might not seem like much on paper, but IT SUCKS.  And what makes it worse?  The music isn't even reedited to match the transitions, meaning the scenes themselves have just been reassembled with the audio intact, which makes it extremely jarring to hear and see.  It's like turning an FM radio dial from one side to the other really fast, but with Yoda and Natalie Portman and you can imagine John Williams punching the wall.

ROTS has no really obvious changes, although I did notice that there is a great deal more Clone chatter when they first arrive on Utapau (during Obi-Wan and Grievous' duel).  This may have always been there and was just buried in the mix, but either way, it was much more noticeable this time around.

Tomorrow is OT day.  Will update with whatever changes I see when I finish watching them.