I can't find a picture of it on the net, but I believe thats the toy skiff that came with the Jabba's Palace Play-doh set from 83. With that set you could make your own little playdoh star wars figures and they needed something to ride.

Whoa nelly, just got the Alternators Smokescreen and it's just downright awesome. Words really can't explain how great of a Transformer this guy is, but I'll do my best. The transforming of this guy is outta sight, took me 15 minutes to get him completely transformed on the first try. There's just so many intracacies that you could easily miss the first time thru. The paintjob, sculpt and detailing  are top notch. Standing in at around 8 inches tall this looks like what a Transformer SHOULD be, not some disgusting piece of plastic like the Energon Optimus Prime. He's just so fun to play with and just look at, I'm really happy with this purchase. And for $20 you can;t go wrong. If you were just thinking about picking this one up, once you see it in person all doubts will go away.

Well someone has to start one of these threads and I figure since this was something I was thinking about earlier today I'd kick things off. A slight disclaimer though, I am including anything that was officially released in the year 2003 from the Saga line and it's Clone Wars subline, whether or not it was meant for 02 and came late, or meant for 04 and arrived early.

Best 3.75" action figure: Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker - I'm just a huge mark for Jedi Luke figs and this looks to be the ultimate Jedi Luke. A great sculpt, a copious amounts of articulation, and great accessories, top notch all around.
Runner-Up: Clone Wars Clone Trooper - If the Jedi Luke would have waited just a few more weeks to be released, the Clones would have definitely been the best to me.

Worst 3.75" action figure: Acklay Battle Obi-Wan Kenobi - A horrible sculpt, pathetic looking action feature and no waist articulation make this the worst of the worst.
Runner-Up: Total Control Mace Windu - Aka Lollipop Mace, while I'm sure a fun little toy to play with, it has a horrible implementation and up to this point they had yet to get an AOTC Mace head sculpt to look remotely good.

Best Deluxe action figure: Durge w/ Swoop - Now this IS a deluxe figure, a splendid sculpt with all the articulation one should expect from a $10 figure, all those bada$$ weapons and a swoop to boot!
Runner-Up: I can't say, none of the other deluxe figs this year struck me as being amazing, some were decent like the Spider Droid, but overall just a paltry deluxe year.

Worst Deluxe action figure: Destroyer Droid Launcher Set - Since it's not technically an army builder set, it has to be a deluxe set, and man does this thing just stink. We get the same old Droidekas (standing and rolled up) from different sets and a poorly functioning launcher. Plus the damn things are still clogging shelves 4-5 months after their release.
Runner-Up: Clonetrooper w/ Speederbike - While I like the concept, the poor sculpt on the figure makes him look like he's a pinada and the cheap plastic used on the Speederbike causes severe warping of the front vane. Hasbro was best left to just re-release the set they had in 2002 instead of resculpting parts.

Best Vehicle: Imperial Shuttle - It's the Imperial Shuttle, the ultimate cool in Star Wars ships. Outside of the issues revolving around its supposed exclusivity and price, this toy is just outstanding, especially as its a direct re-use of the 1984 mold, it shows how great Kenner was and how great toys can still be today. It just looks so great in either a landing mode surrounded by your Imperial troops or flying about as you make those engine sounds we're all prone to making now and then.
Runner-Up: Hailfire Droid - This is just a great toy, fun to put together, fun to look at, and most definitely fun to play with and looks true to the model in AOTC. All those rockets launching can be a blast, and the big wheels moving about your dining room floor just harken back to a simpler time of playing with toys.

Worst Vehicle: To me there aren't any, despite several repaints, the offering of vehicles this year from Hasbro was top-notch stuff and proves that vehicles can still sell and get the job done with kids and collectors alike.

Best Subline: Screen Scenes - A great concept, if not a bit high-priced based on the amount of toys received. But where else would we get such obscure characters as San Hill or Yaddle. Mostly great sculpts, with a couple of questions on articulation (namely Mace Windu, but hey at least they got his head sculpt right for once!) and a great set of accessories. Hopefully more will come down the line now that the Xmas rush has cleared most away.
Runner-Up: CW Army Builder 3-packs - Sure the lack of articulation is questionable, but for the average of $10, you get 3 nicely sculpted figures that will look great in any diorama you make. Due to them being placed in the same assortments as the aforementioned Droideka Launcher sets, its been hard to find them for many, but its apparent everyone wants them.

Best Move By Hasbro: Getting rid of the action features and putting an emphasis on detailed sculpts and articulation.
Runner-Up: Adding extra accessories and/or stands to the basic figure line.

Worst Move By Hasbro: Using cheaper and softer plastic on their toys has caused many to become easily warped and damage, i.e. the Clonetrooper Speederbike.
Runner-Up: Continued wackiness in case assortments. Continuously putting out Droideka Launcher sets (yeah I keep harping on it, but it's such a good example) with successive army builder cases had for months covered the pegs with stuff no one will buy until xmas when its a late push for gifts. Same thing goes for the CW Anakins and Yodas.

Well those are my thoughts on the Best and Worst for 2003, what about you? Anything else catch your eye that maybe most others have overlooked?

Well I've gotten the Hoth Luke and Hoth Trooper from this wave just the other day (btw is the 2nd Imperial Dignitary and Ack-Mehd Beq also part of this wave? I got them alongside the Hoth figs). And Jesse's concerns about the Hoth Trooper are well founded, the lack of articulation for an army builder is sad, what could have made up for it was a more action-oriented pose. The only real pose he can have with his rifle is sticking out in an awkward position that no infantry personnel would use in firing his large weapon. The sculpt could be a bit better, it's a stocky guy and it does reek of POTF2 which in this case isn't a good thing. He does fit nicely as a background trooper in my Hoth display and I'd probably buy a 2nd one if the paint job isn't as shoddy as on the particular figure I bought. BTW The holster is NOT functional, the blaster is sculpted onto it.

Onto the Hoth Luke, this is a nicely sculpted figure that should have been used as the basis for the Hoth Trooper, but I'm intrigued on the choice of articulation when I compare it to Ack-Mehd Beq. The articulation given to this Luke is ok for what is intended, Luke hanging upside down in the Wampa cave. He has ball socket shoulders and an interesting secondary neck articulation point that allows Luke to look up and down. But why does a figure of a tertiary character who got about 2 seconds of screen time get 14 pts of articulation when the main character of the Original Trilogy who has a figure in the same wave have half the amount of articulation? It's just mind boggling. And the paint job on the accessories of the Luke are spotty and flaky just like on the Hoth Trooper. I hope thats not a trend of shoddy painting for the future. Oh yeah, the holster that comes with Luke is not usable, it has no gun in it, but it couldnt hold a gun either.

As of yet I've not heard that they will be exclusives, here;s hoping their not so the price can be relatively low. So far I've read that the following will be or have been made:

Smokescreen: Subaru Impreza WRX
Hound: Jeep (as shown above)
Sideswipe: Dodge Viper
Bluestreak (called Silverstreak for copyright purposes): Subaru Impreza (a rehash of Smokescreen, which is ok since thats how the original G1 line was made)

You could also throw the Masterpiece Optimus Prime into the Alternators line since he's a true rendition of both his cartoon form and of a huge big rig. Here's to hoping we get a Masterpiece Starscream, that would be soooooo sweet.

LOL! I can't believe you just asked this question.  

Joka's explanation is dead on as to what the record industry is doing nowadays to thwart pirating. Many CD's have a form of encryption on parts of the discs that allow for them to be copied (either to another CD or into MP3 format) but some or all of the songs will have distortions come up that may make listening unbearable.

Also keep in mind where you are getting the mp3's from. In some cases you are getting sabotaged copies sent out by the record industry or you are getting trojan horses from idiots who like to send spyware, adware, virus, executables, etc hidden in a package that's supposed to be an mp3. Also there's always the possiblity whoever created the mp3 just made a bad copy, though that rarely happens nowadays, it was something I saw often during the early days of P2P music sharing.

Oh and one final thing JJ... GO DOWNLOAD MOZILLA ALREADY!!!  

Quote

I'm wondering now in retrospect if the Wedge Gunner station got far enough into development that the figure wound up being put in the 1999 Rebel Pilots Cinema Scene....

i would have to say no, only because the wedge fig that we got didn't have articulation at the knee, and if i'm not mistaken the other gs figs all had knee articulation, did they not?

Only the Vader had knee articulation, according to the image archive at Scum. I have the Han and I know for a fact he didn't have articulated knees. In fact looking at the pic on Scum of the GS Vader, it looks like it was the Complete Galaxy Vader without the removable helmet.