Jedi Defender Image Database- TSC 013 Darth Vader
(As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words)

Ahh, I seem to be developing a habit of reviewing these figures which are often heralded by yawns and grumbles from all you real collectors What can I say, I buy them because of my mostly wimpy POTF2-era collection, and since no one else seems to review such things I figure why not.

So, without further ado (except this paragraph), the perhaps biggest repack monster this year with the Saga Collection, a figure abounding in seemingly every case of figures since the Hoth Wave first appeared, and one which is planned to reappear in at least one more wave in the near future- and on top of that, one of the biggest main characters ever likely to become a pegwarmer!

Sculpt: 4.5/5
This figure, originally released as 500th Figure Darth Vader, is perhaps one of the best-looking Vaders I've ever seen, challenged only by Evolutions Darth Vader. In this incarnation Vader has lost his breathing chamber set/diorama/whatever you call it, and his second right hand which I believe was in a more open position so he could rest it on his knee.

Vader looks darned good- the texturing on his suit is all highly detailed, with wrinkes in all the right places and his chest tunic piece "droops" very nicely. Everything seems to be in the right proportions and is very crisp and cool-looking. Especially great is Vader's helmet, which is about as close to the real thing as a figure on this scale can get.

But Vader loses a half a point- which most readers familiar with the figure are probably thinking is darned generous- for some play flaws that stick out. For one thing, Vader's helmet is even worse than POTF2 "Escape the Death Star" Vader's removeable helmet in the way it doesn't stay on his head at all. Basically, all that holds it there is the clear plastic, and once you take him out the only thing keeping it on is gravity.

This can be fixed by a number of customizer-ish methods- in my case, I used a small lump of this product called "tacky stuff", which is easily attached/removed to things without permanent damage and is relatively sticky, placing the lump right in the center of the top of the helmet. This holds it on very nicely and all my complaints were gone, but some collectors might not want to risk sticking such foreign substances to their figure. *shrugs*

The other problem is Vader's right hand- it looks good and is sort of in a grip, but it's very loose and tends to drop the included lightsaber quite easily. I haven't found any really good trick for this; I just try to squeeze his hand shut (it's very soft plastic, almost rubbery)  when nothing's in it, then stick the saber in carefully and have him grip the bottom half. With a little care he can hold it okay, but it's still a noticeable flaw.

Articulation: 4/5
When I saw pictures of this guy I thought he looked okay in this department, but not great. Upon closer inspection I discovered ball-jointed knees, and once I got him out of the package I'm really kinda impressed. Vader has 14 articulation points: standard neck, shouders, angle-cut elbows, turning gloves, standard waist, hips, ball-jointed knees, and swivel boots. The points are all somewhat easy-to-use and well-placed, so this means a great poseable Vader.

He's not super-articulated or anything, but the articulation is a lot better than many of the new figures in The Saga Collection, and the fact that they reprinted him directly and so largely is both kind of nice, and at the same time makes you question any excuses about why figures like Carbonite Han are as articulation-challenged as they are.

Paint: 3.5/5
Vader is one of those characters who doesn't need a lot of paint, and as such he looks pretty good here. I don't know if it counts under paint or not, but the gloss on the boots and helmet is very nice as is the dullness of the libs. However, Vader's facemask seems a bit too dull next to his helmet for some reason, and I'm no sure if it's really accurate. It's not very noticeable unless you look at him in really good lighting though. Vader's chest panel and belt are also pretty nicely painted, with light colors and silver applied in the right places.

So what am I complaining about here to give the paint an average score? The chest armor and "shoulderpads." I'm not 100% sure it's inaccurate, but it doesn't really look quite right here- the left shoulderpad is completely black, the right one has a strange streaky silver paintjob, and the chestpiece is a lighter, solid dark silver. Isn't this thing supposed to be all one color, and- while it would cripple the figure's poseability- technically, isn't it supposed to be one piece?? I believe 500th Vader also had a different paintjob here, with a slightly lighter shade. I'm not sure rather the darker or lighter shade is more accurate, but the shade this Vader has isn't bad- it's just the way the shoulders don't match up.

Accessories: 3.5/5
Vader doesn't have too much in the way of accessories: his removeable helmet and his lightsaber. I think they've used an older sculpt of Vader's saber here, though it might be the same one that was used on 500th Vader; but's definately different than ROTS Vader's. It looks pretty good and accurate, but the handle seems a little short and makes two-handed lightsaber poses that much trickier with this figure, which was already a little tedious with his loose right hand grip and his open left hand. It's not bad enough for me to really chastise though, just something of note.

The removeable helmet is always fun, but as I noted under sculpt, this one is kinda lame straight out of the package because of the way it doesn't stay on Vader's head.

And then we have our old TSC pals, the stand and the hologram figure. My Vader came with a stormtrooper Holo, and I have to say that while I'm not much of an armybuilder, this is my favorite of the holos I've gotten so far. The details are pretty good, the pose is accurate, and overall he's pretty nice... although I'd still like him better if he were painted.

The stand is great, and compatable with this Vader! It has a nice ESB Logo embossed on it, an simply reads "Darth Vader" on the front (as it should). This makes it nice and versatile at the same time- if you wanted you could stick nearly any Vader (not Death Star Clash Vader or a ROTJ removeable helmet Vader, but others) on here and it'd look fine standing there. Handy

Packaging: 3.5/5
I'm pretty fond of the TSC packaging, and Vacer's is as good as any, and I really like his backdrop- though it's sadly a little hard to see thanks to the way his cape is placed- of Snowtroopers. Vader looks great on-card, in each variation I've seen (mine was in the action-pose).

But for openers, Vader's packaging is somehow a huge pain that most figures aren't. For starters, they've taped his cape to the plastic in four places to make it furl out a lot- it's amazing that it hangs okay on him once you get it out, isntead of being stuck in a Batman-esque posture like ROTS Vader's had. There's also a clear rubber band around Vader's ankle for no reason I could figure out except, I think, to further hold and manipulate the cape. The cape is also fed from Vader's neck through a hole in the back of the plastic, and it's a little small and so you kind of feel like you might rip it as you try to pull it out.

My Vader was also packaged pretty dynamically in the plastic, and that can't be good because it means he's all the harder to push out. The combination of these issues makes Vader very hard to pull out of his case, and is why he loses half a point next to other Saga packaging I've reviewed.

Overall: 4/5
I don't think most people would agree here, but I think this  Vader is a pretty good figure. He's full of poseability and with a little loving handling, he can look pretty darn good. He's not awesome for a lot of playing with, especially with that right hand grip and the helmet, but with "TLC" he can be messed around with and displayed a number of ways very nicely.

He's definately satisfied what I was wanting: a not quite ultimate (that's what Evolutions Vader is for), but very good Vader to have in my collection and eventually have as a second Vader, so I can put my coolest one with my ROTJ stuff and this one with my ESB stuff

Is he worth your $6-$7? It depends what you want. If you want an ultimate Darth Vader figure, ignore this and get an  Evolutions set or at the least the real 500th Vader. If you want a Vader for kids to play with, also pass over this one. But if you want a pretty nice-looking Vader to fill in displays/dioramas, or a Vader to primp and pose and carefully play with and display at your own musing, or perhaps a Vader to customize with, this guy can be great.

For me, he's good, I think.

I'm looking to give one of my Carbonite Han Solos a gunbelt, but am not sure of the best way to go about it. I might wind up trying to make one out of some kind of putty, but I've seen some customs with borrowed gunbelts before.

Obviously the VOTC and new VTSC Hans have great belts if you can afford to borrow one, but I don't even have one of either of those figures yet (though I plan to), much less multiples to customize with. So I'm wondering if there are some other places I could get a gunbelt/holster or parts to make one.

Ideally I'd like to be able to fit a blaster in there- something like a Saga Bespin Luke blaster or Cantina Han blaster, ideally.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I'm sorry I keep posting questions instead of finished customs- I've got three boring customs complete as of today (a boring traditional Jedi outfit Luke, a repainted Millenium Falcon Chewie with enhanced accessories, and a "Hantrooper"), but I'm waiting to take some decent pictures and post stuff until I get something a little schnazzier done, like the Mara or better Jedi garb Luke I'm working on.

Well, I currently have possession of one UGH figure, and I've agreed to trade it to someone for two other figures I was wanting. It's a good deal in my book, but I'm wondering: what's the point of these figures? The silver stands and packaging look cooler, but... why? Is the entire thing a ploy to make MOC completists run out and spend money trying to collect them??

I don't really get it. I like the silver stands, but not enough to run out "chasing" anything.

Is there a point to this that I'm missing, or have I hit the nail right on the head?

Jedi Defender Image Database - TSC 019 Yoda

Ahh, Yoda. Yoda is a character I put off buying new versions of with each new movie based on the money-saving excuse that he didn't really change in appearance a whole lot (though after AOTC I did find myself wanting one, I never found any that looked all that promising and thus spent no money on him). Ahh, the days when I just gave my POTF2 Yoda the extra green lightsaber from Count Dooku! Yeah. Needless to say it was time for a new Yoda figure in my collection.

So how does he fare, and how does he seem to compare to other Yodas? Well, he's a reprint of ROTS "Firing Cannon" Yoda- the second one made IIRC- packaged with different accessories from a previous Yoda (I'm not sure which one though). I saw no differences in the design of these items by photo comparison, but I'm sorry if I'm mistaken on that account- I didn't check for this review.

That said, I'll be reviewing Yoda from my typical behind-on-things perspective, discussing him as though he were something more new and exciting than he is. But is he really exciting? Let's see...

Sculpt: 4.5/5
Yoda's looking pretty good, but while this figure is packaged as an Attack of the Clones figure, he really doesn't quite look it. He has a removeable soft plastic cloak- not unlike Pilot Gear Obi Wan's cloak- and can't pose too many different ways with it on. The cloak itself is very nice looking, with lots of folds and detail, and it does a decent job of hiding the fact that it's sleeves are in fact, very very fake and are really just sleeve-shaped bumps to accomidate Yoda's arms inside.

Yoda's outfit is simplistic, as it was in the movie, but it's well sculpted overall. The "pants" or leggings (it looks kind of like a jumpsuit) are kind of windblown-ish, but not in an original Saga collection "With dynamic action windblown clothes!" kind of way, and are passable for when Yoda is just standing around talking with his Jedi Concil buddies.

His hands are nicely detailed as well, and his face is pretty good. He has a worried/tense look on his face, which I guess is pretty accurate for AOTC and ROTS, and is pretty multipurpose within those films. The details are nice, and the head overall pretty much looks correct- but it seems a little small. I know Yoda is small, but I could've sworn his head was about human-sized, but here it's a bit smaller than normal.

Articulation: 3.5/5
I want to give this articulation a better score, but can't because he simply can't move much with his cloak on, meaning he has to be uncloaked to really get the benefit of his poseability. This is unfortunate because Yoda didn't do much in this form except fall as he lost his battle with Sideous in ROTS (and the scenes thereafter IIRC), and he was never seen this way in AOTC.

That said, Yoda has a lot of joints for Yoda. He's got 9 points: ball shoulders, turning wrists, standard hip articulation, ball ankles, and a ball head. That's pretty good, but I think this figure would've benefited if they could've got in a turning waist- I know there's not much room in there for it, but it would've really made him a bit more poseable in light of the cloak.

Otherwise, this is pretty good, and Yoda can do a lot of lightsaber poses and force-wielding and such. The ball ankles are a little odd-  I guess they let you pose the legs a little differently, but it's hard to really take advantage of this, and they wind up feeling kind of useless. Useless articulation is still articulation though, and since this doesn't damage the sculpt I can't complain. The only downside is you need to be a little careful in standing him up- either align the ankles before doing so, or push him down gently on a surface and they should confirm to a stand-able pose.

With his cloak on, Yoda can pose his arms a little differently, spreading them a tiny bit or having them meet to hold his lightsaber two-handed- he can also sort of look like he's gesturing with the force with one hand and holding his lightsaber in the other. The wrist articulation is a lifesaver here in regards to how he holds the lightsaber.

Paint: 4/5
Yoda looks pretty good paint-wise, with no real flaws I can see. The cloak is nice- it's done in two tones of that bright beigey color it is, so it sort of looks shaded yet maybe dirty, maybe not. It looks realistic I think.

Yoda's head/hands/feet are good also- I think they're molded in green plastic, but the eyes are okay as are the nails.

His "jumpsuit" is prety uncolorful, and is just molded in this maroon color. I'm not sure it has any paint on it except the neck.

Accessories: 3.5/5
Yoda comes with some dark side lightning that kind of swirls on the end (I think he's suppose to "repel" it?), his tiny lightsaber, and his cane.

The lightsaber is great on detail, but I never noticed Yoda's lightsaber seeming quite this short in the movies- it might be accurate though. The cane is nice except Yoda's hands seem a bit big for it and this makes it hard for him to hold- you kind of have to lean it on the hands to get it to stay really. The lightning is okay, but he can't seem to hold it up either- and what's even worse is it doesn't stay on a normal figure's arm unless the swirling end is on their arm! This doesn't really look that scene-accurate, and as such I'm really not too impressed with it, though I am glad to have another lightning accessory around. Maybe I'm just not using it right?

Yoda's cloak could be considered an accessory, and as such it's pretty nice. While it doesn't agree with the arm articulation much, it's hard for a soft plastic cape to do such a thing. It looks really nice and is as I said full of detail, so I kind of like it, but perhaps if they'd given Yoda a soft-goods cloak it would've been better; it would lose it's nice detail, but it would've let him move around a lot plus given him the advantage of being able to raise his hood, though he never does this in the movies. As such though, the cloak is nice I think.

I would've liked to have seen a hole on Yoda's belt and a saber hilt, also. Most later ROTS Jedi figures seemed to have one, and I think it would've really enhanced this Yoda, especially given the memorable way he pulls it off his belt with the force to land in his hand. It's okay that he doesn't have one, but it would've been cooler.

Yoda also comes with the standard TSC swag: a stand and the ever-awesome "exclusive hologram figure!" The stand is embossed with the Attack of the Clones logo, and while I like these stands and for the most part they're very cool looking, I have to say the AOTC logo looks kind of silly when you compare it to, say, the ROTJ logo. But that's a tangent, and the stand is overall very nice. It simply says "Yoda," no subtitle such as "Hanger Duel-" so this makes it multipurpose.

There's one problem with this stand- Yoda's feet have holes, but they aren't deep enough and are a little too large to fit well on this stand. This means he's hard to really put on the stand in the traditional way and I find myself just having him stand normally on it, so it's not really a sand so much as a fancy plaque. Not a major issue, but it's kind of disappointing.

These hologram figures are mega yawn-worthy, though maybe I'd be swayed if I had a Fett or Vader or Stormtrooper, or heck, even a Luke (who really shouldn't have had his cloak up IMO) to show for any of my purchases; sadly, the only Yoda I found in stores had a Yoda figurine, which makes two I have now. zzzzzzzz...

A question for the readers to ponder, because I don't think it has a real answer: what's "exclusive" about these holograms? It can't be too exclusive if I keep getting doubles.

It's not really that I detest pack-ins; I rather like a good freeze frame, and force profiles can be nifty to glance over. But these hologram figures are really kinda boring. I like the suggestion by someone to make a chess set from them, but I don't have enough to do that as of yet.

Packaging: 4/5
I still really love the TSC cards, and Yoda is not exclusive to the aspects that make TSC cards nice. It has a scene-specific backdrop, kind of a generic picture of the hanger where AOTC's climactic lightsaber duel takes place. This is fine and accurate, but it's kind of boring as TSC backdrops can go, with no other characters or items to make it really interesting. Maybe Obi Wan/Anakin lying in the background, or Dooku looming somehow, would've jazzed it up a bit? But as such it's okay and Yoda looks pretty good on his card.

Yoda's cardback is okay- there's the usual mediocre shot of the shortly prerelease figure (in this case you can't tell any differences, unlike say Carbonite Han who looked kinda wonky on his), and some text describing what Yoda was doing during part of the movie. There's also those cheesy three lines that are all "So and so: so and soes," and Yoda seems cheezier than most here with his "Engages: Count Dooku in a lightsaber battle" and such. These lines make my eyes glaze over and I tend to ignore or not even notice them before buying a figure.

Maybe it's just a fluke, because I think the bubble's the same size, but when I opened Yoda I found that his bubble was completely below the Star Wars logo- I could swear on my other figures I tore off part of the logo to open the packaging! I should dig out my cards and check this, because I see no reason why it should be different in this case.

Overall: 4/5
Yoda's pretty cool, but he could be better. He's fairly versatile but the cloak is limiting on how poseability and dynamic he can really be. This figure is better for fighting Sideous than Dooku/Tyranus, what with the removeable cloak; but he's not terrible for this scene either.

All in all, I like my Yoda, he's probably the best Yoda I own (vs. original POTF2 Yoda and POTF2 Dead Yoda Ghost), but that's not a very fair comparison. If you like Yoda and didn't get this figure in the ROTS line then I reccomend this version, and I prefer the lightning and cane to the looks of that "Firing Cannon" he came with originally.

Not an awesome figure, but a pretty good figure I think.

Maybe I missed it when I checked just now, but I could've sworn I saw a thread titled "UGH Vader - Why are people paying so much" or something like that.

I hope I don't tee off a bunch of collectors here, but I was in Wal Mart today and thought I'd glance at the SW figures, expecting to see the same stuff hanging there that's been there for two weeks. To my joy, they've restocked, and there were some of these "Ultiamte Galactic Hunt" figures blended in with the others. Among these was a Darth Vader.

I kind of wanted a TSC Vader because, while I intend to buy an Evolutions Anakin set, it's good to have more than one cool Vader for display and after skipping out on many opportunities to do so I don't think I'm actually going to buy a 500th Vader (is it really worth $10 more for the chamber and the extra hand?). So, against my better financial judgement, I decided to pick up a TSC Vader. A quick price check determined that either Wal Mart raised their prices and didn't change what the pegs said, or that UGH figureswere $6.60-something where the normal figures were $5.88. No big deal, and vaguely recalling a mention of it, I decided to buy the UGH Vader instead.

So now that I have him, I'm wondering if he's in-demand to collectors or anything- perhaps I could/should trade/sell him for a tiny bit more and go back and buy the normal Vader and have a little more money/a cheap figure to show for it, or something? Or is he worth no more than a normal figure?

If he's not really in-demand like that or anyhting, I could just open him and keep him as is- I love the vacuum-metallized stand, shiny silver things are pretty

Also of note, the not-really-holographic-whatsoever figure is in silver (standard to UGH I'm guessing) and is Palpatine.

So basically, my bottom line question is, is a MOC UGH Vader with Palpatine figurine worth especially more than other new TSC figures, or should I open him and display him and carefully play with him as I would do with any other figures I buy?

It should be noted that I don't always have a whole ton of money to spend on Star Wars figures, sadly, so I'm sorry if I'm not able to take you up on some of your offers. I do not wish to set prices in advance, but I will most likely not be able to pay more than $14 for any single figure (except for a complete evolutions set or something like that, of course).

Should I run out of money to spend for a while, then I will post saying so and mention when I should be able to buy stuff again at that time.

Since the list is a bit long, I know some might not care to read it. Therefore here's a short version of items I'm especially interested in:

-----
Cheap Outland Peasent Disguise Anakin (all I really need is the torso/waist/lower torso really)
VOTC Lando at a good price
EU Mara Jade
VOTC Chewbacca
Fodder: Lando Calrissian Heads, Cantina Han/Cantina Han Legs
-----

Miscellaneous:

ROTS Early Bird Kit Chewbacca, R2D2, or whole set
Min condition: loose, fairly stiff joints/no major damage. Accessories prefered, but depending on price I could do without,

Cheap POTJ Bespin Escape Leia
Min condition: loose, fairly stiff joints. Blaster(s) not required, but if you have them that's good too.

Cheap Stormtroopers, Snowtroopers, and Biker Scouts of various kinds
Whatever you've got for less than $5 apiece I'd like to hear about... unless it's a POTF2 Stormtrooper, and then I'm still interested if it's dirt cheap. But generally, POTF2, POTJ, TSC, loose vintage, whatever! Paintwear and playwear must be within reasonable limits and please describe what you're offering if you reply.

Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader evolutions set
Min condition: loose with all accessories, no major paint wear, joints as tight as they should've come in the package. Can be varient with or without scar on the episode III Anakin but with scar is preferred. Vader with tighter grip right hand preferred if such a varient exists.

POTF2/EU/POTF Commtech:

EU Mara Jade
Minimum condition: loose with no major paint damage and tight joints; accessories would be nice but are not absolutely neccesary.

Cheap "All New Likeness" Princess Leia Organa or heads from this figure
Minimum condition: loose with no major paint or joint damage, okay if accessories and freeze frame are missing.

Final Jedi Duel Cinema Scene (from ROTJ)
Min. condition: loose with all parts included in good condition. Might be interested if Vader is missing but the rest of it's there.

Cheap Final Jedi Duel Cinema Scene Luke Skywalker
Min. condition: Loose with fairly good joints, no major paint wear, lightsaber included.

Cheap Ceremonial Gear Luke Skywalker
Min. condition: loose with decent joints. Accessories nice but totally unrequired, however his removable "vest" part of his jacket must be included. Freeze frame not needed.

Cheap Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper disguise (Purchase Pending?)
Min. condition: Loose with decent joints, no major paint wear, helmet included.

Cheap Commtech Luke Skywalker
Min. condition: Loose with good joints, no major paint damage, accesories good but not neccesary.

VOTC Figures:
VOTC Chewbacca
Min. condition: loose with no major paint damage and tight joints. Should preferably include bowcaster accesory; I don't mind if you don't have the VOTC bowcaster and steal a ROTS or similar one though ^.- Just something better than a POTF2 bowcaster...

Original store-cost or less VOTC Han Solo
Min. condition: loose with no major paint damage and tight joints. Blaster would be good but isn't neccessary.

Original store-cost or less VOTC Lando Calrissian
Min. condition: loose with no major paint damage and tight joints, and undamaged cape. Blaster would be good but isn't neccessary.

VOTC Stormtrooper
Min. condition: loose with no major paint damage and tight joints. Blaster would be good but isn't neccessary.

2006 Saga Collection:

Cheap TSC Boba Fett
Min. condition: loose, minimal paintwear/reasonably tight joints, should include blaster and stand, "flame" piece and hologram mini-figure are not neccesary

2002-2004 Saga and/or OTC figures:

Cheap Outland Peasent Disguise Anakin Skywalker[/b]
Min condition: as long as he's got both halves of the torso, I'm interested ^.-

Saga/OTC "Jabba's Palace" ROTJ Jedi Luke
Min condition: loose, decent paintjob if available, tight joints preferred. Preferably with accessories.

Saga/OTC TIE Fighter Pilot
Min condition: loose, decent paintjob, tight joints preferred.

Mega cheap Saga Throneroom Duel Luke Skywalker... actually, just the lightsaber is good too
Min condition (if it's the figure): Black right hand, otherwise in about as good a condition as this dude could ever hope to be. Must include lightsaber, rest of accesories are good as well.

Custom Parts/Fodder I'd be interested in:
Lando Calrissian heads, especially a Bespin Escape Lando heads. (Some pending, but can you have too much fodder?)
EU Dark Jedi, POTF2 Bespin, or Commtech Luke Skywalker Heads
"All New Likeness" Leia Heads
Cantina Han/Cantina Han Legs
Saga or newer Imperial Captain/Moff/Admiral-type body parts


Non-figures:
Cheap Micro Machines Star Destroyer, vintage or 1995-era
Min. condition: loose with no major damage.

Titanium Series Star Destroyer
Min. condition: loose with no major damage.

Thank you for reading!

Okay, I posted about this on FFURG a couple weeks ago, but I figured I might try asking here too to see if anyone had some advice.

Long story short, I'm wanting to take a ROTS (or better yet, I want to get my hands on a TSC Battle of Coruscant version for the cloak <3) "Pilot Gear"/Red Leader Obi Wan, remove his head, and replace it with an EU Dark Jedi Luke head. I would prefer to avoid the route of chopping off Obi Wan's neck Luke's neck post and then glueing the Luke head on in one position; so, I'm toying with the concept of cutting out part of Obi Wan's head and neck, probably including the "bottom layer" of his robes (just the darkest brown collar really), inserting my Luke head, and molding a new collar piece to hold the head in place. But that sounds pretty darn iffy and like a good way to destroy an awesome figure if I screw up.

So, does anyone have some advice on how to go about this? This might be a good time to point out that my customizing experience is pretty limited so far.

I could skip this route altogether and use a different Jedi body for Luke, but I really want him to look good and have quite a bit of articulation. Super-articulated would be perfect. The idea of using a ROTS Dooku and then molding (or maybe even glueing on some properly measured, appropriately chosen fabric to do some basic soft goods?) new robe parts on crosses my mind. Basically, my goal is to use my Dark Jedi Luke head on a highly articulated body for post-ROTJ (more likely post Thrawn Trilogy really) Jedi Master Luke. If all else fails I could use one of those "Naboo" robed episode 1 Obi Wans as they look fairly good, but the articulation would be kinda lame.

Also, while I could possibly get my hands on one from a family member (buying one isn't likely to happen any time too soon), I do not have a dremel tool at my disposal at this time. I do however have an X-acto knife.

Living in a smallish city with no place to buy figures 90% of the time besides one Wal Mart or the internet, combined with "jumping on the wagon" a bit late, I've missed many, many figure lines. So I find myself buying a lot of used figures that I want on eBay in the last few months, and that's worked out pretty good... for the most part.

However, there are a few pieces that have gotten rarer, and I can't seem to find for humanly affordable prices on eBay. Increasing this problem is that nearly all of these auctions only sell these rarer figures MOC, which is nice but I really don't need, preferring loose figures.

Eventually I might cough up enough money to actually buy these things (though I feel a bit guilty spending $20 on one figure in any situation), so I'd really like to explore some other options for buying these figures. I would like to find the least expensive way available for getting ahold of these figures, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

This isn't a "wants" trading list post or anything (yet, at least), just some examples of the figures I'm wanting and having trouble finding under $20 (or in the evolutions' case, $30) on eBay:

Mara Jade (POTF EU)
Han Solo (VOTC)
Chewbacca (VOTC)
Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader Evolutions

I'm having a less extreme version of the problem with finding a few other things, such as the Saga/OTC Jedi Luke.

I'm sorry if this thread is out of place or full of noob-ish annoyance >.< I know it's quite likely I won't find these figures below $20 anywhere, so I'll understand if that's the case. Thank you for reading and any assistance/advice offered.