Mara Jade VS Asajj Ventress for the finals?  It's easy for me to pick this - Asajj Ventress.

Here character turned from that of a henchman (henchwoman?) for Dooku in the Tartakovsky Clone Wars into something far better developed in the 2008 Clone Wars series and beyond.  She was the one executing the plans in the movie that launched The Clone Wars in 2008.  She was a device for showing the treachery of the Sith when Sidious and Dooku tried to dispose of her.  Then she was the device for introducing the Night Sisters of Dathomir into TCW, and that in turn brought to light the notion of disparate factions of Force users who tapped into the Force in different ways from the Jedi and the Sith.  And then the long arc of Ventress finding her way after her exile by Dooku led to some interesting storytelling, including her working her way into the final season of The Bad Batch.

Seeing how I'm pushing for Ventress to win?  Here's some of my reasoning:

WHAT HAS PREVIOUSLY BEEN RELEASED:
-Clone Wars (2002)
-Tartakovsky animated style (2003)
-ROTS Battle Pack (2005)
-The Clone Wars animated style (2008)
-The Legacy Collection Comic 2-Pack (2008)


It's pretty eye-opening to me that the most recent 3.75" version of Ventress is 17 years old.  Especially in light of how her character was developed over the course of The Clone Wars series which debuted in 2008.  Only one of the figures actually has articulated knees, and that's the 2008 Clone Wars animated version - not the one from the 2008 Legacy Collection comic pack.  The Black Series version is really good, but that's a 6" figure.  That could be a good template for a TVC version of Ventress.  But the basic features of things like softgoods, an excellent likeness, and reasonable levels of articulation like knees and ankles don't seem like extravagant asks.  I'm not one that has gotten over the top discussing rocker ankles or the new hip joint design.  If that had been offered as a 3.75" TBS figure?  I wouldn't make the argument for a new Ventress, because I recognize how much "Because Vintage Cardback" is not a good enough reason.  But reasonable, modern figure design standards?  I think that's worth arguing for.

There's also the matter of what has been released from the same entertainment.  The Clone Wars is actually one of the best represented entertainment sources in TVC.  It only seems natural that some of the villains would get a similar degree of attention from Hasbro.

Here's my voting for the Elite Eight

ECHO VS  MARA JADE
LUTHEN RAEL  VS  BAZE MALBUS
WRECKER  VS  ASAJJ VENTRESS
CROSSHAIR  VS  TECH

Somehow, I got tricked into voting for characters from The Bad Batch!!!  And I'm hoping for a final of LUTHEN RAEL VS  ASAJJ VENTRESS.  With that matchup I would consider it a win either way.

Here's how I voted:

THE STRANGER 
ARLEIL SCHOUS
LUTHEN RAEL
BAZE MALBUS
TWO TUBES
ASAJJ VENTRESS
ENDOR REBEL COMMANDO
PADME AMIDALA (Geonosis)


While I really enjoyed The Bad Batch as a series?  I feel like Hasbro's neglect of the show in The Vintage Collection led to me just checking out on them.  Sorry, not sorry.

It looks very likely that a new preorder is coming on March 26th.  Check out EE's Drop Zone, because it looks like a vehicle is in the mix along with some figures.

Now that's an exhaustive list!!!!  I would kid and ask if you had a definitive list from the Richard Pryor Star Wars bar sketch, Jeff, but I would think you might have a draft of that in the works already, LOL!

Interesting updates on the YF rumor list.  I've been trying to predict what some of them are, and have had varying degrees of success.  These are my current guesses:


-Imperial Armored Commando officer - THE MANDALORIAN
-IG-11 (Marshal of Nevarro) - THE MANDALORIAN
-Hera Syndulla (Season 1) - REBELS
-Ezra Bridger (Season 1) - REBELS
-Sabine Wren (Seaon 1) - REBELS
-Captain Rex - REBELS
-Agent Kallus - REBELS
-Savage Opress - CLONE WARS
-Maul (Spider Legs) - CLONE WARS
-Dengar - Reissue - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
-Cassian Andor (season 2 - like TBS version) - ANDOR
-Luthen Rael - ANDOR
-Owen Lars - ANH
-Beru Lars - ANH
-Morgan Elsbeth (Sword of Talzin) - AHSOKA
-Ahsoka Tano (Battle of Teth Flashback) - AHSOKA
-Ezra Bridger (Peridea) - AHSOKA
-Zombie Death Trooper - AHSOKA
-SM-33 - SKELETON CREW
-Obi-Wan Kenobi - ROTS



Most of these were pretty well reasoned.  Some were cynical.  And others (Owen and Beru) were a shot in the dark.

Rob beat you to it!  And it's something that's going to affect all goods produced in China.  That's not something that's an insignificant consideration.

Oh, as for placing orders on Hasbro Pulse?  I got the pleasure of trying to deal with that mess.