JediMAC hath claimed the Twi'lek Mini Army for himself and friends.  Thanks for looking!

Let me get this straight:

-I get to wake up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning to get a ticket?
-I get to stand in line until the store opens at 8, most likely with some rather unpleasant smelling overweight guys who you can imagine saying "WORST...PROMOTION...EVER!"?
-I get to be laughed at by people driving by for this 90 minutes because of the fact that I am standing outside Target on Saturday morning for a toy?
-I get to pay over double the price of a regular figure for a fancy repaint/redeco of a 1997 figure while I'm on an already tight budget?
-I get to experience a feeling of wasting my time and money when I get home later that day from doing all this?

HELL YES, SIGN ME UP!   

So, um, yeah, I guess the short version is that Target can have their "Lava Vader."  I guess this makes me 0 for 2 on the ROTS exclusive figure front, since there isn't a TRU within 75 miles of where I live and I'm not driving that for the "chance" at getting a figure.

Did you know that Episode IV and V had no music during the duels?  The sound of the lightsabers was deemed to be musical enough!  ************

My problem with Burtt and his "sound design" doesn't have as much to do with Williams not scoring scenes, but with Burtt deciding that scenes Williams has scored don't need music and that his sound effects should take center stage.  A perfect example of this is the first part of the arena sequence in AOTC (Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme vs. Acklay, Reek, and Nexu): JW scored this entire sequence (it's all on the CD) but Burtt deemed it necessary to drop the entire score right up to the point where the Droidekas roll into the arena.  The really insulting part is that Burtt replaced Williams' music with his own generic percussion in the background.  He even talks about this on the AOTC DVD commentary.  Way to go Ben.   

There are some parts where I think the film works without music pretty well, but the editing on the prequels has been so horrible as far as sound goes that it's almost embarassing.  I get the distinct impression that Burtt harbors something of a secret grudge toward JW for the degree of fame he has gotten from his film scores in general, if not only the SW films, while he isn't even mentioned in mainstream media when the sound effects are brought up.  I am not discounting the work that Burtt has done on the sound effects as it wouldn't be SW without them, but at the same time it pisses me off to see Burtt being so passive-aggressive in burying or hacking away at JW work so his own can be heard more prominently.

I mean, really, was there a reason for the music during the chase through Coruscant in AOTC to be edited the way it was, with haphazard looping?  Why did the end credits music for AOTC get hacked to pieces at all, since the music that made the soundtrack (which ends with a hauntingly beautiful rendition of Anakin's theme from TPM) was infinitely better and the exact same length?  Why was the music from the duel in TESB dropped completely in the carbon freezing chamber when, thematically, it made a point (just pull out the RCA or Sony 2-disc sets to hear what I'm talking about)? 

Again, it's all so Ben Burtt could show everyone how big his penis is at the expense of John Williams' music. 

I've gradually moved away from my OCD (at least as far as SW collecting goes), but I've got to agree with you, Nataku: this is too much, too soon, too fast.  Hasbro cannot possibly think that *any* child out there is going to be able to collect all these figures, either from a financial or overall interest standpoint, and I have a feeling this will be the year that breaks SW toys because either one of two things will happen:

1.  Hasbro will finally see that the collectors are what fuels the line and due to their ongoing spite toward collectors, will say the line is "on hiatus" and essentially cancel it because of the impending overstocking and overproduction of ROTS toys.

or

2.  Collectors will scoff at Hasbro's action feature laden crapfest that is Collection 1 and concentrate on Collection 2, while kids won't touch anything at all from the film except lightsabers (as usual), and sales will be even worse than we already know they will be.  They will plan a whole lot more ROTS stuff for next year, but the line will be killed after the yearly financial statement because "SW performed very poorly for us at retail and we can no longer count on it for income since there will be no more films.  It is with this in mind that we are placing the line on indefinite hold."

Jeez, if us grown adults who actually have access to (some) disposable income are complaining about the breadth of figures being released all at once, how does Hasbro expect kids, who are lucky if they get a 5 dollar a week allowance, to look at all the other stuff in a toy aisle next to a crappy Yoda that spins and say "Oh yeah, I want Yoda."

Let's face it, and begin preparing for it: the ROTS line is the last spasm of a line that Hasbro wants to die, and they're doing their best to help that happen as soon as they can.

To say that I am dancing about the figures definitely being "interactive" is an understatement.  I'm seriously considering just going out at midnight and buying the three Unleashed figures and waiting until the next day to get all the action figures.  Beating a dead horse, but three years ago, if you told me this line would be the highlight of my collecting, I'd have asked what drugs you were taking and why you weren't sharing.

This being said, the photos on GH.com look as if Hasbro cheaped out on the "lava" that comes with Anakin and Obi-Wan (being that they aren't as luminous and more "solid" if that makes any sense; I was anticipating material not unlike the jet pack exhaust on the Boba Fett), but nevertheless, they will look magnificent as the centerpiece of my Unleashed shelf (or shelves, as the case will no doubt be before long).

Bumped and updated.  Thanks to everyone who has helped me on my quest to quell my hypocrisy thus far. 

I was going to put this in the "Creating General Grievous" thread, but this is such genius that I had to give it its own.  If it does need to be moved, mods, please feel free to do so.  This has made me laugh for nearly the last twenty minutes since I ran across the link and it's brilliant.  This is easily the greatest prank that has ever been played on certain individuals who break their legs putting their pants on and our "good buddy" PW's "other" site (TFN) was the first to basically propogate the rumor to a point where it was fast becoming fact.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I fell for it hook, line, and sinker, but I have a very small ego, and all I can say about this in regards to the "perps" is: WELL PLAYED, GENTLEMEN. 

So, ladies and gentlemen of JD.com, I give you the greatest use of INTERNET to incite hilarity...

Star Wars III, John Rhys-Davies, and a Grievously Bad Pun