Ok - so I finished the book about five days ago and I'm just getting back to this thread...

Anyway, I think the novel and the movie should definitely be taken as two different takes on the same story.

Things the book glosses over (or moves quickly past or even only casually mentions) appear, at least from the trailers, to get A LOT more coverage.

Like Scott said - the book doesn't touch on Yoda & the Wookies at all. From what I can gather based on Spoilers I've read there are two stages to Yoda on Kashyyk - (1) first he's commanding Clones to fight along side the Wookies in defense of Kashyyk and then (2) when Order 66 is given, the Clones under Yoda's command turn on him and the Wookies help him escape.

I think the author might have originally intended to have the book be longer or to delve into more things, but it is impossible to write a book based on a movie that is constantly in flux and will be in flux until the day it is released (the digital version at least) and have that same book out over a month before the movie. He probably became very frustrated and started to cover all of the events loosely because he had no idea how GL would present them in the final film.

I could almost read the frustration of the author at the end of the book because in the start of the book he goes on for pages about the thoughts in Dooku's head, yet at the very end Yoda being left on Dagobah was given ONE SENTENCE.

Personally, I would have LOVED to see some internal dialogue of Yoda at that point - Dagobah was to be his home for the rest of his life, he KNOWS that and we don't get any insight to why he picks Dagobah or where he sets up his hut or anything?

I know the book can't please everyone, but for me the greatest part of the AOTC novellization is that the book went BEYOND the movie - the book doesn't begin with Padme's ship blowing up - the book begins with a "While Anakin and Obi-Wan are on Ansion..." look at the life of the Lars family on Tatooine - how close Owen and Beru came to be with Shmi, how Shmi loved Owen like a second son and still longed to see Anakin once more, how kind and generous Cliegg was - it establishes the strong foundation that is needed to establish them as "good people" worthy of caring for the newborn Luke Skywalker.

Now - I have heard that there is going to be a book coming out later this year that deals directly with events right after ROTS ends. So perhaps the author of that book will talk about Obi-Wan and Yoda both starting their respective exiles and training under their "new" master. I certainly hope it does at least and I hope it also delves into early family life for both of the twins. I fear however, that the book will deal only with the "young" Darth Vader.

So I'd give this book a 3 out of 5 stars simply because it doesn't uniformly deliver an experience that takes you beyond the visuals of the movie that it should have. Perhaps I'm being to harsh, but that is what I expect from a PT movie novelization. The overall story of ROTS though - ROCKS! This is going to be a great movie, it's just a shame the book wasn't a good book.

These scenes sound cool for at least DVD extras.  I have to say that some of those deleted AOTC scenes were not that great and I'm glad they were not in the film itself.  Not all but most of them.

True - but the scenes with Padme's family on Naboo not being in AOTC were a real loss IMHO. It was nice to see them on the DVD. I also would have preferred Dooku holding court with Padme and Anakin instead of the 3-ring circus that was the Droid Factory scene!

I ordered a case of these - a complete set of four to open, a set of four to keep MIB and another set of four to I dunno what with...

Anyway - these things rock! I was pleased to see that they put peg holes in the feet of these (just like the Target ROTS SA Clone).

I opened one box last night - the clean ranked Clones - I'm pleased to now have a Captain (Red), Commander (Yellow), Lieutenant (Blue) and Sargeant (Green) all in the SA sculpt.

Kinda pricey, but I'm glad to finally have a nice size AOTC Clone Army to fill my AOTC and Clone Wars Gunships with.

I would love it if Hasbro and EE went back and took this four-pack concept one step further and offered us the Delta Squad Commandos from the Republic Commando game - that would rock! I would gladly pay $40 - $50 for a set of those.

Thanks for the clarification Jeff - I had figured that out a day or so later....

I'm mixed on these Holo figures...

To me, I would have thought they would have started giving us Holo versions of Jedi that sit in the council as holograms. That is the nicest thing about the Yoda - he DOES appear as a full-size hologram sitting in his regular chair during a Jedi Council meeting in the movie.

So does Ki-Adi Mundi and I believe, Plo Koon.

To me, regular-size holos of these figures made so you can make a Jedi Council scene with masters in attendence via Holo MAKES SENSE.

A regular size holo of Jedi Luke for your Jabba's palace sorta makes sense because R2 projected Luke a tad bit bigger than human size, but since you don't really want a 7" holo Luke, a 4" one is just as fine. So again, makes sense, I'm all for it.

Darth Maul in his cloak with the hood up and arms crossed appeared as a lifesize holo to Nute Gunray - so again, this figure makes sense.

A regular figure size holo of Leia or Qui-Gon Jinn or whoever appeared as a small hologram display DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

They already got the holo of Leia from ANH right - with the R2-D2 figure! They already got the holo of Obi-Wan from AOTC right - the display base that came with the Saga version of Bail Organa!

To me, a holo Leia like this just is un-necessary. Personally, I would have preferred a Holo Ki-Adi Mundi to add to my ROTS Jedi Council Scene. Just make the figure out of the Saga mold and make sure he can sit - should have been easy AND it's a ROTS based exclusive. The card for this Leia has me confused - I guess they really do intend on changing the packaging once the line starts including OT characters again... oh well, just when I started to really like the ROTS cardback...

This applies to my troop builder idea as well.  IF Hasbro makes these with kids in mind and at the same time realize that most kids never ever got to see the SA Clone or Clone Pilots from the AOTC lines then why don't they start over packing troop builders?  Do they think that inciting excitement over chasing figures is something that attracts parents to by a product for their kids?  No, it's a collector theory,  Make something that people want and slowly trickle more into the market causes people to buy more product in the long run.  How many Targets to you go to looking for a figure and how often do you just happen to walk out with another product. 

Here's a funny story - I was in my local WalMart and there was a mom with her son. The mother was clearly frustrated as her son was digging through the pegs. He was looking for the "red" clone - at first I figured he meant the Clone Commander, but in hind-sight he may have been looking for the Red Senate Guard - I'm not 100% certain.

Anyway, my point is that I could see that this mother was obviously trying to reward her son and bring him all over trying to find the figure he wanted, but she was CLEARLY getting tired of all the looking.

It doesn't matter what figure he wanted (Clone Commander or Red Royal Guard) the store didn't have either, so my son who was with me as well, went up to him and said - we already looked, they don't have that figure here - which was the truth, we had just got done looking for a clone commander ourselves. In the end, the kid and his mother left without picking up ANY figures.

So what Violentfix is saying is true - if the army builder figures like the Red Royal Guard, Clone Pilot and Clone Commander were readily available on the shelves, this kid would have made a purchase. But, because it wasn't, WalMart lost out on a sale AND the mother left with a very poor opinion about the Star Wars line - you don't think parents were fond of the Power Rangers toys when those figures were selling like hot-cakes do you?

Hasbro keeps telling us that they "do it for the kids" yet everything they do points to "doing it for the collectors". If it's truly for kids and not collectors then things like VOTC, Evolutions 3-packs, Unleashed or even the 500th Darth Vader - should not even exist!

The Kenner line was for kids - there was ONE Tatooine Luke, ONE Darth Vader, ONE Chewbacca, ONE Emperor, etc... Only a collector line will support continual re-releases of the same character in the same outfit for ten years.

That's cool.

You knew where I was going with it---I hate to see scalpers buy four only to take those four and resell them on the monster that is ebay.

 

Oh totally - I wasn't offended by your comment at all. I totally understand the frustration on the part of many JDer's who went to CIII, were either shut-out from buying one or got fed up, only to see other people wandering around with entire cases of them!

Personally I think what is happening now with this figure is what should have been done with the Jorg Sacul. You just can't meet demand accurately by limiting the figure to a specific event in a specific location. I hope that all of those dealers who bought boat-loads of them this past weekend have to eat them!

Want to see something funny - check out BriansToys - he has the C3 Vader up for $80 on his site - what a joke!

In stock at the swshop - run, don't walk...NOW!

WOO-HOO!

I just placed my order for four of these things!

Not to gloat too much, but based on the horror stories I've heard from CIII, I'm so glad I decided to save my money for buying ROTS toys instead of travelling to Indiana!

Ok - so I just opened one at work - this figure doesn't have any socket or plug-hole for an attena to be attached to so this isn't exactly figure #41 with a different paint-op.

The figure comes with a pistol and a rifle and is articulated with ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, ankles and knees. Unfortunately the hips are the standard pivot joint - I would have LOVED it if this figure had the hips of the AT-TE Tank Gunner.

As people have already noted the red half-circles symbol is painted on the chest, the helmet, the right upper-arm and the right thigh.

Is this figure a great army builder? YES! But I'm sure you all already knew that. Which makes the price tag and exclusiveness of this piece all that more annoying.

The packaging is the same as the Lava Vader except for the following:
1) The star-case outer shell is made of sturdier plastic.
2) The star-case has a J-Hook instead of a hole to be punched out
3) The backer card that is behind the figure is printed on thicker cardstock then was used for the Lava Vader.