Also, I'm shocked about the nastiness I am seeing aimed at Hasbro SW team members. Sure DePreist made a snide comment about the 15th Cantina guy, but how many times has this guy been called an "idiot" or "moron" or "evil" in SW forums. People seem to think it's all his fault. It's also his fault that we got the BMF.
+1
The virtriole and hyperbolic fanboy whining that has been sent in Derrly DePriest's direction has been ugly and uncalled for. How some people can look themselves in the mirror after spewing venom like that is beyond my comprehension.
Does anyone REALLY remember the state of things around 2002/2003 before he took over the Hasbro-Star Wars team? Things were NOT good. Hasbro failed majorly on the Clone Troopers that were central to the title
ATTACK OF THE CLONES by giving us a Clone Trooper with rank markings that we barely even saw in the movie. And when Hasbro offered up a plain, white super articulated Clone Trooper? I can still remember the mad scramble for that figure from 10 years ago. It was RIDICULOUS. It was a great figure for it's time, and collectors were so amped for the Clone Wars that they were clamoring for that figure, but nobody could find them to do the army building they wanted to do.
Collectors wanted more Clones? We got them, and in spades!
Collectors wanted more articulation and less pre-posing? That happened, and higher levels are articulation are pretty much standard
Collectors wanted a Big Millenium Falcon with lots of details? We got it, and it's pretty awesome.
Collectors wanted other large vehicles, like the AT-TE, AT-AT, Turbo Tank, etc? We got them.
Are things perfect? No. There are serious concerns over distribution at this time. But things got a whole lot better for Star Wars collectors in the period following 2004 than they were before then.