I picked up the black pauldron Sandtrooper last night at Walgreen's. He and Vader and Luke were actually sitting on top of another shelf away from the toy aisle with the rest of their overstock. Nice figure, definitely will be adding another one of these guys at some point. I need a break from Walgreens for awhile though.

I had a fun experience at 3 different Walmarts today trying to track down a Proto Boba and Sandtrooper:

Store #1: Paydirt! They had both figures plus a Chewie. While waiting in line to check out, I notice the Sandtrooper's right arm is completely broken off inside the package. Sheared off right below the shoulder. Unbelievable. A closer inspection of Proto Boba reveals an unsightly silver blob on his visor. Since I have a friend supposedly holding on to an extra Boba for me, I reluctantly leave him and the broken Sandy behind. (I did point out the broken piece to the clerk but fully expect this will show up again)

Store #2: Refuse to send anyone into the back room to even check for me, despite them having two employees just sitting there. Said their Fall reset is a jumble of boxes and they can't be bothered to go digging around for SW toys. Astounding customer service. Didn't even bother to press the issue, although I did note that none of the other stores I had visited had had a problem checking on this for me.

Store #3: Found someone willing to help, they came out with a fresh case - 2 Vaders and a Jedi Luke. Doh. So close!

I'm starting to wonder if Boba will actually be harder to find than I thought. A lot of stores aren't even getting one in their initial allotment of 3 figures. I could see each store getting their 3 and never restocking again after that. (Though that would be crazy the way these things are selling for them)

I opened up Jedi Luke, Chewbacca and Darth Vader tonight. Initial thoughts:

Chewbacca is terrific, the sculpt and paint apps really seem to mesh well here and even the elognated neck isn't too annoying. The eyes on mine were pretty on point, but still seemed to be the weak point somehow. Maybe the pupils are too small? Sounds silly but it's the only thing that really bugs me about the figure.

Jedi Luke is growing on me more than I thought he would.  You can get a good range of poses out of him, and the two handed lightsaber grab is no problemo. The face sculpt itself is ok, but again the eyes are the weak point here. He's got a real case of puppy dog eyes, but even worse, no matter how you position his head he always looks like he's just staring brainlessly at nothing. Obi Wan had a similar thing going on. I think a scowl would maybe come across better.

Vader bugs me. I noticed in the package his helmet was slightly ajar and after opening him I found I cant really keep the mask pressed down tight to the bottom piece. It keeps floating up and looks stupid. A separate old Anakin head would have been a much better way to go. On the bright side, the cape sewn through the chestplate isn't as atrocious as I suspected it might be. I was able to drape it over his shoulders in such a way as to hide the strings. I gotta jimmy with those inner robes though, they definitely do not look right around the codpiece. And yeah, he needs a neck. It's an ok figure overall, I just wish they had done a little better job with arguably the central character of the whole franchise.

Stopped by a Walgreens after work that had nothing but did encounter a helpful manager who kindly printed out an inventory summary for all the local stores showing any stock for the SW 6" BS. That led me to another nearby store where I was able to get someone to pull a few from the back for me. Apparently around here they are only getting them in groups of 3. I got Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Jedi Luke. 

I have a friend holding on to an extra Proto Boba for me, so now I just need to track down a couple of Black Pauldron Sandtroopers.

Look forward to busting these out tonight!

It's a number of different things IMO, viewer fatigue is certainly a factor, but the writing has definitely changed over the years. (Which makes sense as guys come and go, like Conan O'Brien) The early episodes have more of an edge, more biting satire. The newer stuff is shmaltzy by comparison.

The main problem now IMHO is the proliferation of "celebrity" guests. They rarely leaned on that schtick back in the day, but now it has become a staple of almost every episode. Enough already!

Hackgate 2014!

A guy from 4chan apparently hacked into Apple's iCloud and is slowly releasing a bunch of celebrity nudes. Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton have been the biggest drops so far and apparently there are many, many more.

It's like looking at a car crash, I know it's bad and I should feel bad but dammit I'm gonna look.

Those Kate Upton photos made my whole weekend.  I could have done without seeing Verlander's naked ass though.

Picked up the Charred Zombie for $10 at a local comic con today. Will be an opener.