My gf got her son the JTA battlepack...

I picked up a VTSC Scout and Sand Person for myself tonight.

Not much else on the pegs worth buying though...  Other VTSC but restraint got the better of me.

This has happened to me too, though I will say to Hasbro's defense that factory QA issues seem to be pretty in line...  Few flaws get out there to retail as compared with other lines.  I know I love to point out the military lines I collect for their great aspects, and they have a lot, but Quality Assurance isn't one of them.  There's definitely issues there sometimes...  Not that it's overwhelming, you just have to be picky of what you buy...  I'll get a deformed "short" foot, or 2 left hands...  It happens, so you have to just be cautious when purchasing.  Look over figures if there's more than one to get the best one. 

If we're talking VTSC too, I'm gonna go with Han's trenchcoat.

The coat has working pockets for christ's sake!  How can you not love that?  That's incredible if you ask me, to come out of a mass production toy.

The Geonosian Weapons from Sun Fac are nice too...  I mean, Hasbro made a staff that doesn't need Viagara...  Where's the love for that right there?  I applaud them when they do it, because god knows they don't do that nearly often enough.

Lushros's console is a good one though...  It's simple overall, but it's the kind of thing you want more than one of.

I'm ok with being underwhelmed by accessories if the figures are great...  Unfortunately TSC's been somewhat of a letdown to me because figure quality isn't on the up and up as it should be.  It's a notch below 2005 overall I think...  Some hits, lots of corner-cutting though, and so the accessories stand out as not all being fantastic.  I mean, Derlin coming with the crappy sculpt of the Rebel Blaster from the POTJ Fleet Trooper, and NOTHING else, is kind of dull...  If you're not going to give the figure a little extra umph in articulation, then give him something special as a pack-in...  A cargo box perhaps, or *gasp* god forbid, the Sensor Screen from Riekean maybe?  But I guess if Riekean didn't even get that, Derlin wasn't about to.    Anyway the point is, they have it, it's "on-hand" to be made at their whim...  Sometimes that little extra value packed in at no major cost impact is enough to make the figure go from "eh" to "yeah!" pretty fast...  Not always, but sometimes.

Throw behind them then that BBI "ups the anty" routinely, and 21st matches it...  I think SW is a lax line because there's nothing to say "hey, you can do better, look at this...." to Hasbro.  They figure they have a line that doesn't have to compete.  I disagree with that personally, and feel they are competing for dollars at retail with any other boy's toys line in the aisle... 

But with the 1:18 military lines they're in direct competition for your dollar.  I buy both the major lines myself though.

The way these lines show what you can get for $5 to $8 though...  I saw the new modern infantry paratroopers tonight.  $8 you get a LOT of stuff on a SA figure, and a working parachute...  And sculpting that Hasbro is really miles behind on.  I usually applaud Hasbro's sculpting, they're not bad, but BBI shows how it's done IMO.  21st is more comparable to Hasbro though.  BBI is closer to real than anything in this scale though, and this from someone who finds the Hasbro and 21st sculpts to be perfectly fine.  BBI's just that much better.

Uhura never did it for me, and was anyone else really sort of disturbed when she danced nekked in the one ST film?  You only saw her silouette, but something about that whole thing has really bugged me.

The fun hatred continues...  It's fun god dammit, fun.  Enjoy these days of shameless fun for the Fan Club.

Yeah Doug just gave me a ring the other night actually...  He's a good buddy of mine too.  I got to hang with him a good bit at Celebration 3 actually as we both worked the FFURG.com customizing booth, and we were there first Wednesday to set up early for the con...  He and I have an afinity towards custom vehicles, so we used to spend hours talking about our respective projects.  He's less active on FFURG than he used to be because of school and stuff, so I miss those talks.

Good to see you aboard SBB, a friend of Doug's is a friend of mine no doubt...  Glad to have you aboard.  Hope to see more of you Ohio-ans around.  I'm from Pittsburgh, not too far out...  Coming out to Columbus for the WSMI Tour...  I'm mostly interested in taking high-detail shots of the LFL models actually.  It'll help me with current and future projects.

Good to have you on man, you should drop a line in the new members area to say hi and intro yourself...  Give a clue on what all you're into with collecting and stuff.

MJones is working for us...  Not a deal anyone was terribly upset with but it is against our rules here so we stick by our guns.  Ironic we have relaxed rules with language, but we also make that a voluntary choice on the part of the user to turn on/off their filter as they see fit...

It's the way we run things is all Jones, no offense and I'm glad to see you understand and are ok with it.  We're relaxed but our rules are in place and taken seriously by the staff and such... 

Anyway, glad you're aboard, good to see you here...  I've seen your nick (the full one) before, so I'm familiar with you...  It's nice to not be walking in unknown I suppose.

Anyway, look around and enjoy the forums...  Seek out what you like and post away.  If you've got any questions or anything feel free to drop a line to the staff.  As I always like to say, we're active on our boards, so we're around and accessible to the membership generally.  And of course, have fun and enjoy yourself man.