Ok, now that I can't complain about action features I'm turning my sights to something that seems to be more and more common on new figures in the last wave or so - the head on a ball socket. It looks like Saga Padme Tatooine, CW Mace, and CW Asajj Ventress all use it... to the detriment of the figure.
I just cracked open Asajj tonight, and the figure is wonderfully well-done, even for EU, which I normally stay away from. Except for the head! The neck of the figure is a stationary part of the torso plastic, terminating in a ball at the end. The head pops onto the ball, allowing it to move up, down, left, right, and anything in between. That's great articulation, and I know, I know, we all scream for more articulation, but OH GOD, does it make human heads look terrible. In exchange for movement, Asajj (and from what I've can tell, the others, too) gets a spindly thin neck, a jawline so profound that when viewed in perspective it looks like a skull, and, from behind, well... it's pretty ugly.
I hope this doesn't become a trend moving into '04. I think its a great idea for non-human and helmeted characters, where anatomy isn't a factor in the success of the figure (Vader, Stormies, Fett would all make sense), but I'd much rather have a standard swivel neck on humans and sacrfice movement so they look better.
Random observation for the night.
J