Thanks Chewie.  I do like what y'all do in the customs section and will say so on occaision.  I really try not to critique people's work since I don't really know the first thing about customizing andall these years of AF supervisory training have taught me not to critique something unless I know of another way to do it.   

I kid! I kid Jedidefender.com! But seriously, this is my favorite SW site, and I'd like to see Chewie's hard work get a little more attention from people who have maybe never even looked in the customs section.

That was my point exactly!  I don't customize, and just stumbled upon the photonovels because I do like to occaisionally see some customizing work.  I do like the mini-secton for them in the customizing section. 

July/August sounds about right, but who knows?  People seem to be showing more interest in ROTS than they are for the previous two movies (with the exception of TPM's MM sales).  There is a lot of figures coming out (56 that I know of so far) and there are aquite a few that just aren't moving already (Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and the like).  So we'll just have to see.

So Corran, you trying to see how long it'll take until you can army-build on the cheap?  

Thanks Matt, I tried to be as detailed as possible.

In the 1:24 scale, there was the Jeff Gordon TPM car and the John Andretti AOTC car.  The AOTC car looked just like the AOTC car in the cheeros mail away, only on a larger scale obviously.

For ROTS, there is the Jeff Gordon Car, Dale Jarret, and Elliot Sadler, along with the Promo car I got today.  The Jeff Gordon car I pre-ordered through QVC.  The other three were available through the SW Shop in their diecast vehicle section.  I procrastinated on pre-ordering them and missed out on the Promo car and got it through ebay (for a little less than the FC).  If they're available anywhere else, I'm not sure.

I'll make one thread for this and post my review of each car as I get them.  Today I received the Episode 3 Program car, 1:24 Scale.

Packaging:  Very Nice, although there's no window to view the vehicle, the packaging has the Revenge of the Sith look similar to the Carded figures with Vader's head over the boiling Lava.  The car is packed in a form fitting styrofoam inlay to the box itself and also inside a soft bag...similar to cheese-cloth to keep it from being scratched.

Paint: The paint scheme on this thing is awesome!  The primary color scheme is black, with red along the bottom as well as the sides of the roof.  The hood has the Star Wars Logo in color and a greyscale picture of Darth Vader's Helmet with flames behind it.  On either side there is a side shot of Vader's head with flames coming out of it right by the car's number 05, although they look metallic and bolted onto the car, just paint but a nice effect nonetheless.  There is also a Star Wars Racing logo over the rear tire and a Vader Logo on the back.  The hood has the 05 number and the release date of the film.  The Trunk has the Star Wars Logo, and the hind end has another Darth Vader head, with the metallic flame design coming out of each side.

Detail:  There is plenty of detail on this car.  The hood and trunk open to reveal the engine and the contents of the trunk, which looks like a fuel cell.  There are also two roof flaps that open.  The interior has some incredible detail right down to the dashboard guages.  Also, the safety net on the driver's window is much softer and realistic to the previous cars.  Even the undercarriage shows the exhaust and suspension system in greater detail than previous years.  There are even tiny goodyear decals on the bottom of the tires like you'd see on new tires!

Overall:  I give this car a 5 out of 5.  If the program car is any indication of the rest of the series, these will be the best of my car collection!

No, I grew up in New York, right across the river from West Point.

I went to school at UCF because they had a great engineering school and it was 1,000 miles from home.  I wanted to get out and see the world.

Oddly enough, I ended up getting my degree from UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks)...talk about the other end of the spectrum! 

Damn..I was thinking pot bownies.

Did I just date myself??

I've been working on a story, but it's sort of Post ROTS.  It's hardly beyond the rough draft stage yet (a lot of it will depend on what happens in the ROTS movie and I'm trying to avoid spoilers).

I'd be happy to contribute to the story section if you want.  I get plenty of time on alert to put pen to paper.