Maggie and Glenn are both part of the same wave - Series 5. 

ToyWiz also has a new pre-listing up for Series 6, check this out:

Rick Grimes
Hershel Greene
Carol Peletier
Abraham Ford
Bungie Guts Zombie

Somewhat surpised to see Abraham on the list since he hasn't even been introduced on the show yet. Great to see Carol and Hershel on there though, was worried we might never see them.

They also mentioned a 10" Rick figure for October I believe.

 

That list for Series 6 sounds almost too good to be true. I wouldn't complain if it ends up being real though. Hershel and Abraham in the same wave would be killer.

As for 10" Rick... I might have to pass on that. I just opened the Daryl figure this evening, and I must say I am extremely disappointed. It was extremely difficult to get the crossbow and poncho into place on the figure, and I have trouble keeping it balanced (possibly due to the poncho). I expected easier display from an unarticulated figure.

It sounds too good to be true, but my fingers are crossed! If stores kept stocking as they have (1 or 2 cases per wave per store) I think distribution problems might be solved. Time will tell...

I'm diggin' that Snowtrooper. It seems to have an animated vibe. Perhaps the character will appear in Rebels and this sculpt repacked in the toy line?

Maul is definitely redundant. I already have the Movie Heroes version, so this new sculpt will have to be a significant improvement for me to even consider getting it.

Quote from: McMetal on December 20, 2013, 09:33 AM

No, it actually was an honest question, but I think Greg answered it nicely in his post (thanks). I do recall there being some modification of the Azog character but I didn't pick up on how Bolg related to that. I won't even get into Fimbul and Yazneg.

Ah, I didn't see Greg's earlier answer too...  but yep, that's what's been speculated.  I think once the PJ decided that he needed a more intimidating Azog and went the CGI route then the design for Bolg (his son) needed to change as well.  Also in the original two part story, Azog wasn't even going to be the main Orc bad guy - this was supposed to be Bolg.  If fact, originally Bolg was the orc stationed at Dol Guldor with the "Legions"... this all go turned around when PJ decided to expand to 3 movies and inserted Azog as the main baddy. So Azog ends up in Dul Guldor and Bolg is sent out to do the dirty work.

Since Azog was added about 5 weeks before the movie was released (or so the says the internet speculation) then all the merchandisers were left with a toy (old Bolg) that was actually only added in a flashback scene to the Battle of Azanulbizar.  Look closely and you can see young Dwalin killing this character.

There was also a change to the Smaug design... originally he was a four legged / two winged dragon and then was later changed to be the "integrated" wing/leg design we have now.  I believe this even changed from the Theatrical release of AUJ and the Extended Edition DVD/Blu release.

What's interesting about Azog is that the digital model actually matched pretty closely to a very early concept sculpture that they made. The EE DVD feature highlights the process where they go thru a bunch of costumes and finally land on a digital version that wasn't far off from what they originally made.

Regarding the old Bolg at Azanulbizar, I think they actually filmed with the character versus adding him in later. The old Azog design was definitely filmed in the sequence, with the final digital version I guess being composited over the live-action version. Pretty crazy how many changes they made during production, and how close those changes were made to release.

I hadn't heard anything about Smaug being changed, but that doesn't surprise me. I plan to look up info on that as it has me curious to see the changes.

Bleh, tough to pick stuff this year. Few items really stand out as great additions to my collection.

My top picks would have to be the following:

Ewok Catapult
Black Series 6" Sandtrooper, Fett, and Maul
Black Series 4" Wave 3 (Neyo, Vizam, and Merumeru in particular)
Droid Factory (especially at the $30 and lower price point)

The above items seemed to deliver the most bang for the buck this year, along with very few quality issues. Below are my runners-up, which were all above-average but had "issues" that held them back from being what I deemed the "best":

Endor AT-AT - great paint but the price was killer
Republic Gunship - once again a topnotch repaint, but the price was awful
Black Series 4" Mara Jade and Stormtrooper - solid figures but hair and paint issues made me sad
K-Mart Scanning Crews - good sets overall, but seemed to have more paint and plastic quality problems than normal
Fett's Slave 1 - Great repaint, but the quality-wise seems like a step-down compared to the 2010 Jango version

Overall I agree with Brian that this was a slow year. There was a decent amount of product, but the releases were mostly repetitive and/or very spaced out. I doubt we will get more items next year, but hopefully we get more "new" and less "repeats".

Holy crap... glad I just collect modern figures. I truly feel terrible for anyone who has invested in these figures. Surely this will decimate interest and values in this aspect of the hobby.

Added split-up Amazon Droid Factory figures/sets if anyone wants individuals, as well as some Star Tours and Black Series figures.