There's definitely been a move towards keeping the feel of the game familiar to OT and PT fans.  Jesse mentioned the Republic Troops.  The armor is definitely reminiscent of the Saga, and even the faces of the troopers themselves look similar to the Prequel Clones.  And in an attempt to appeal to some SW gaming fans I've seen plenty of Sith in the trailers who are wearing masks that would remind you of Darth Revan.

He certainly looks that way.  This is the Darth Malgus maquette that was standing at the LucasArts booth at NYCC:



In the SWTOR cinematic trailers you see some of the backstory in Malgus's injuries.  In the "HOPE" trailer he sustained the injuries that led to the breath mask.  From looking at the maquette, it seems like everything else is armor.

Slight delay in getting to the Times Square TRU.  I should get down there in the next few days.

pics of new figures over at toy ark  http://www.toyark.com/news/marvel-toy-news-4/avengers-display-at-toys-r-us-times-square-5652/#images

It is sad seeing the scale of the figures on the hellicarrier
hope we get some close ups of Fury and the baddies on the rides soon too

Nice!  I may have to stop in there tomorrow when I'm in NYC.

Definitely liking the Ven Zallow a lot!  From a sculpting standpoint I think you really nailed him.  The armor pieces look fantastic.

Look at the original Clone Commander Cody.  That figure came across looking like a pinhead.  Now, compare that with the remade Commander Cody figure from the Vintage Collection, and you'll see a noticeably larger helmet.  The Airborne Trooper you cited looks good, but it's a completely different helmet design from the standard phase II armor's helmet.

There may be some other issues at work here.  Notably the toy safety standards that came to light with toys produced in China in the past few years.  Those issues ranged from hazardous paints to potential choking hazards.   And a small accessory like a helmet might have been seen as one of those hazards.  Additionally, these standards might also dictate the grade of plastic that can be used in an item like a helmet.  A more rigid plastic might make for a helmet that looks more film accurate, but might not put the design in compliance with child safety standards.  I'm certainly not trying to apologize for Hasbro.  But this sort of criteria likely seems to be at work.

I think the better option is to go with something along the lines of the CW Obi-Wan Kenobi you mentioned:  2 seperate heads that are interchangeable.  But in that case Hasbro is going to be dealing with slightly more expensive tooling, and we the consumers, are going to have to eat that cost increase at some point.

I remember one thing that Derryl DePriest said Hasbro-Star Wars was going to try regrading case assortments:  Offering cases of new figures with repacks that would be geared towards troop builders.  These cases would be steered towards online retailers like EE, BBTS and the other outlets that were selling figures by the case.  In the forums it seemed to be a popular idea.  But in practice it turned out to be a disaster for the retailers.  The assortments didn't sell through.  And it was evident that this move came well after the army building phenomenon had reached it's peak.

I think that the Hasbro Star Wars brand was run pretty well from the time that Derryl DePriest came aboard (circa 2004) through about 2008.  It started to take a turn when the economy tanked in late 2008.  Coincidence?  Probably not.  And we've seen a good number of toy licenses underperform in this same time period (2008 - 2012).  Anybody recall some of the massive bombs in the toy aisle in recent years, like the Green Lantern line?

Frankly, I don't think the case assortments are designed to help collectors.  Hasbro tried this and it bit them in the ass.  The case assortments are clearly designed to replenish brick & mortar retail.  Case in point:  Darth Sidious and Darth Maul as carry-forward figures.  When the TPM wave hit those were two of the most difficult figures to find from that initial TPM case.  At retail now I am only starting to see the TVC Darth Maul every so often.  Because that figure is selling through, and is worth replenishing.