Agreed on Bespin Han, especially considering the ANH one was just out not long ago, and didn't exactly FLY off shelves.  I know I saw him repeatedly...  Sold eventually, thank god.

The POTF2 figures, almost in their entirety, are figures I'd like to see redone in some fashion...

-Wicket...  Needs redone.  I'm sorry, he's oversized, he's POTF2-ish in sculpt and needs that update to really make him pop out.  I'd even pay the $4.99 JUST for Wicket.  No other Ewok, just him...  Spare me this POTF2 rehash.  Not to mention this figure's not exactly ever been tough to find.

-Bib Fortuna...  Easily one of THE tops among my resculpt list, the Bib Fortuna is terrible.  He was terrible when he was first released I thought, with his awkwardly sculpted body, undetailed headsculpt, etc...  Imagine a layered sculpt today, with the robes separate pieces, the Twi'Lek armor thing a separate piece...  Not to mention, once again, he was extremely easy to get all through his run.  Sure he goes well with Jabba, but...  God Hasbro, are you TRYING to make pegwarmers?

-Gammorrean Guard...  Yeah, I know, I like it too...  One of the rare instances I wouldn't care about resculpt or not much, but would changing the skirt piece to have a functioning holster with a blaster (or even the one Luke comes with) be that much of a problem?  Would new arms at least be much to ask, so he could hold a pike?  Or would even a unique "cleaver" axe ala the vintage have been too much?  Come on.  

Are all these decisions poor?  No...  Like I said, I agree on POTJ Bespin Han being a GOOD re-release idea, but some of these are terrible.

The only + I've seen so far is it's a break from collecting in general.

I love the cards too...  And I love Lobot and the Cloud Car Pilot's shaping up to be a top figure barring any unforseen snafu's.  

Short of that though, these repackaged figures are not Hasbro's best foot forward for a DVD release they've known about for some time from what other LFL Licensee folks have said.  

The Vintage OTC are looking more and more appealing, no matter what the price...  I dunno about you all, but come next fall I think I'll be so desperate for new stuff I'd pay $30 a piece for good new figures, much less $10.

All the while, I'll be looking at figures I already own on really nice cards that I'd like to have NEW figures on them.

Personally...   Just looking at it and what I know of horned animals I'd have guessed it WOULDN'T grow back but I'll wager it's an EU cop-out to his horn being cut off sometime in the Clone Wars which the EU came up with.

Proof (as far as I'm concerned) that Lucas treated Clone Wars like all the rest of EU, despite the claims of a few...  It's just EU, not his story.

I rather liked his horn damage, but guess Lucas didn't.  To each their own.

Spuffy makes a good point...  How many people will say "F it!" to this line when they have a long break?

I've seen more peoople drop Star Wars in the last 2-3 years anyway...  I dunno.

I question how many "new" people are in this hobby...  Clone Wars is over, and with its end I see less "kids" in the toy aisles looking at the Star Wars.  Maybe I'm wrong...  I know kids are an important market, but to me without a "film" (not the DVD's) I am curious to see how this obvious pandering to kids is going to play out.

Of course, they could simply be catering to the carded collectors...  I wonder how much is a lil of A, and how much is a lil of B here...  Not to take a shot at the carded collectors by any means, do as you please, but they're the only ones who seem to be roped into these rehashes really.  The "kid" market doesn't strike me as realistic right now.

I'll be curious to see...  I know I'm passing on MOST of these myself.  I'll nab a Stormie maybe or two, and TIE Pilots, and of course the NEW figures...  I'll be miffed if any of the new guys are hard to find though.  Another kick in OUR teeth if they are.

This has been widely debated over the years, and we've touched on it here partly I think, but in the recent Insider (#76) there's an interesting note from LFL about the situation.

Lucas has always said he intended Clones to = Stormtroopers, but some discrepencies in the films, EU, etc.,  have said otherwise.

Lucas still holds that Clones = Stormies to him, but he's seemingly (or so was said in Insider) backed off that stance somewhat and has himself explained the height and voice differences of teh films away...

Insider says that Lucas feels that new hosts were used (an early fan theory) and thus the variances in height and voices, but also that the process by which hosts are picked is politicized and subsequently less thann "perfect" hosts are chosen.  A high ranking officer's nephew is chosen based n the officer's position rather than the young man's personal military skill.

So Lucas is taking a somewhat fan-based stance, ok, cool...

He goes on further to say though that the EU's NOT incorrect and that conscriptions, volunteers, and other sentient humans are within the ranks as well...  IE: Kyle Katarn, Davin Felth, etc...

It's interesting to see Lucasfilm themselves back off the idea that "They're Clones, that's what I always intended", which Lucas has more or less claimed, and now that they're trying a more EU friendly approach.

I'm more in tune with the new "answer" as it were...  I still debate the validity of cloning at all.  Personally I think Clone ranks are thinned down dramatically (my persnal preferential thought oon the matter), and are hardly used anywhere.  Deemed "creepy" even by some troops perhaps?

The article's interesting nonetheless.

And irregardless, nobody's answer is canon still...  The ranks aren't proven to be either on-film and I highly doubt they are ever actually explained in a canon fashion.  Suits me, but it leaves some interesting theories by both fans and Lucasfilm itself.  

Yeah, that's always a kicker witht he city driving.  I go to classes in PIttsburgh but fortunately I avoid most of the heavy traffic and take some short-cuts.

The rest is mostly highway driving to my area here...

I go out in the city a lot though, for just something to entertain myself, and that has gotten costlier.  A trip down and back, not counting time in any traffic I may hit...  At least I go down that way at night when there's not really any traffic till you get to the entertainment areas.

For my Le Baron, it's about $20 now with the higher prices, though I've not had to fill up on my week off school between semesters.

For my Thunderbird, it takes premium...  I couldn't even tell you right now what it'd cost since I'm not driving it right now, but it'd be pretty outrageous.  It's a SuperCoupe so I have little choice but to go with the recommended fuel.  It's unhealthy for it otherwise.

Fortunately that's just a toy, and one I'm likely to sell anyway, so I'm not filling it.

My girlfriend's got a small SUV...  A Toyota I believe, of some sort, and it doesn't cost entirely too much to fill it (comparatively), but she's not one to go all over the place either so she's not running it out a lot.  Her work's like 15 or 10 minutes away too.

Where I'm hosed is that I drive my LeBaron 39 miles a day, one way, to school...  I do that two or three days a week.  Needless to say I don't make little piddlying trips around here then unless I have a  need to.

Yeah, about a week late or so...

E3 took place this past week I believe, and Lucasarts made the announcement of Knights of the Old Republic 2: Sith Lords.

I'm just now playing KOTOR 1 all the way through on X-Box...  It's enjoyable, if not a tad slow, but I just can't devote enough time to it.

I'm almost dreading WANTING to play another KOTOR game I can't devote time to, haha.