Yeah it'll be a flop to me personally if they crap out on scale...  I'm ok if fighters are absolutely TINY miniatures.  Like smaller than a figure.  Anything to keep the scale right in my book.  It'll suck if the SSD is half its appropriate size to accomodate larger "small" minis like fighters and such.

This is what makes me curious about the Starship game, as the SSD is big even in its mistake "official" dimensions.  An actual scale one would be 17.8 km long or so...  Dwarfing other capital ships, it'd be a playing field unto itself almost I'd think.  Gaming with miniatures, to me at least, was always about having a realistic battlefield layed out...  Scale of a tank was matched to a trooper on the field and visa versa.  I just dread this game making concessions on some craft's size then because starships can get outrageously huge.  Of course, the SSD is kind of on the far end of large ships of course, but I'd still prefer scale or don't do an SSD mini.

It depends... 

My TF Vader stays carded because, to me, that item is only interested carded because it is only interesting with value behind it...  Without value, it's a Vader with silver paint all over it...  if I wanted that, which is basically worthless, I'd spray paint one.   Carded is all that keeps the piece "interesting" to me, even without wanting to sell it.

For me, a complete silver carded figure set looks interesting...  As dull as it is, the complete set is a kind of weird centerpiece to a loose collection.

If someone's uncommon and I happen to have an EXTRA, I'll keep that extra carded, but let's just say for argument's sake I had two Cody's...  One's gonna get opened irregardless of how "rare" or valuable he was at any given time.  The one I need gets opened, the other sits.

UGH I don't open but then again I don't find them much either...  if I do, I buy them to help out friends who've helped me.  If I found an UGH Cody and didn't own Cody, I'd offer the UGH to someone for a non-UGH one or some other similar swap to help someone out... 

In my collection, the only carded stuff is kept so because it's interesting that way.  A loose Lava Vader is dull...  A carded Lava Vader w/my ticket from the morning and stuff, that's still sort of dull but it's at least got some "value" to it that makes it a little less dull.  Plus it with the other '05 exclusives look good.  Those kinds of things NEED some "friends" on the wall carded to make them look good.  It's why I think everyone wants to find taped VTSC figures, so they can have a set to open but keep the packaging to hang with the purdy VOTC packaging...  Then it looks more interesting.

I'd agree Scott, except it's not happening with other toy lines that I can see...  Just Star Wars.  Nothing I collect is seeing these...  Nor is much of anything else.

From the delivery of a pizza to tupperware, I don't see a lot of price increasing overall...  Not personally anyway.

But keeping it strictly to toys, and even plastics in general, I haven't noticed costs go up in anything I buy except Star Wars...  I think it's just a matter of Hasbro and retail realizing the demand is there and so they're going to milk what they can while they can...  I can buy two HUGE ABS sheets for $60 today though the same as I bought 3 or 4 years ago...  Not one cent more.  And I can buy my X-Treme Detail figures for $4.99 even from etailers the same as I always have...  Star Wars just keeps inching higher and higher in price though...  So I don't readily accept the oil or inflation reasoning on these.

Yeah Jared, great photos as always...  Highest quality on the net, far superior to what else is out there. 

That paintjob's iffy to me.  The head's paint just seems off to me, and I prefer the old Luke's paintjobs in the comparison photo.

The chest is really neat...  I like the details.  I guess the training remote isn't removable though?  That's a bummer.  I thought it was going to be... 

I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who's actually happy about the delay. Too much stuff came out this month. It's nice to spread the cost out.

I'm with you actually Anton...  THis is just one more thing to track down right now, and I'm still sort of in recoop mode so I'm ok with a delay.  Though, this is a set that I like but will only want a max of 2 of I think...  Just hard to justify more with the ARCs being such a letdown...  Gotta get that great ARC Sergeant and Heavy Gunner though in at least doubles.

I'm happy with the wait though on these.  Gives me time to continue focusing on playing catch-up.

Kashyyyk BARC Troopers had more differences than the helmet though as well, so that's another figure I think that an all new sculpt is in order, not just a repaint of the VTSC Biker Scout...  That'll leave the molds of that open to make more Scouts too.   He needs a new Bike as it is for a $10 - $15 figure, so that's where the efforts of the mold need to go IMO.

The Kashyyyk Trooper and Mygeeto Marine definitely are different enough for my tastes that I prefer new sculpts to just sloppily repainting an existing one.

I'm having Gree flashbacks here...  He's got enough differences that Hasbro's half-assing on that figure is still a huge disappointment to me.

To keep the Aliens Vs. Predator Snap-Kit theme of fodder running too, there's some majorly great news I'd talked about in the Other Toys section here for the past month or so.

The Hot Toyz line is expanding with a 3rd series now of "Aliens" Snap Kit figures.  The Aliens are resculpted and there's 6 new versions.  Alien A, B, C, and then each has a subsequent "battle damaged" variation of itself, so really there's 6 unique Aliens coming.  These Aliens don't have the canine-shaped legs on them, but rather they have the more human looking legs classic from the "Aliens" film.

The real news though...  Marines and Ripley.  Drake, Apone, Hicks, and Ripley to be exact.  Where the other really main players are, I do not know, but this series seems to be doing well for HT.  The line also appears to be revamping articulation at least on the humans to be hopefully a bit more sturdy and versatile.  Judging by photos anyway, the humans have what appears to basically be a ball/socket elbow joint on a pin-swivel.  It looks more strong and stabile to me.

These should be really great fodder, and really they should just be great collectibles too, as the S1 Aliens Vs. Predator figures are top-notch.

Amen...

Drop the coat even as cloth does spike cost a bit...  It's costlier to include and things due to sewing it and such, but this figure looks great without the cloak on, and really it's a whole other figure... 

I figure when I see them, If I have a couple bucks (well, $10 or more), I'll pick one up...  But when you figure that's like 1/3 of a tank of gas then you really have to be cautious...  I try to only buy extras right now here and there, and when I'm sure I have the extra $ and nothing else I need more...  Buying is a really weird thing now with items like these, where I'm weighing my purchase a lot more...  I'm thinking to myself, "hmmm, extra Tusken or do I want to really hold on incase I see something else I want more at some point?".  It sucks but when a figure's $10+ you have to think that way.

With scouts I'm not as deep in thought to make a decision.  I know I want it in droves, but for the Sand Person I really want it but I know I don't need/want as many as the Scout so I'm pacing myself more on these.