I don't know that I'd have any lower an opinion of a "gamer" in full dress for their respective game than I would a 501st stormtrooper decked out in armor that required him/her to make a vacuform machine, find a plastics distributor, make negative molds, and then the process of making the suit (Then buying the pieces one could not make such as shoes, the body glove, etc.), and then making accessories for said suit, such as an accurate E11 stormie blaster.

Are they losers?  Well, loser is in the eye of the beholder.  I guarantee my friend Dan would say "yes", but I personally don't feel so...  Then again I like Star Wars.

Gamers just have their niche hobby like we have ours I suppose...  Or ST fans have their hobby they love, dress up for, and speak a recognized language for (Klingon).  To each their own I guess.

Personally I've only done Star Wars Miniature's Battles gaming myself (Which still is actively played at cons) though that game doesn't have the public support that ones like Magic The Gathering do.  Personally the whole CCG thing never appealed to me, but then again neither does poker (Though Blackjack's addictive at the casinos).

As far as RPG's and such though, those can be fun...  I find them tedious to be involved in now though, especially with computer games there to fill the RPG void.

Still, with the lacking "realism" of real-time strategy games, or the lack of "scale" in them sometimes, that's why a game like SW Miniatures battles holds a great appeal for me.  I was at an event where the one guy came dressed as an Imperial Officer (Controlled the Imperial side) and took it quite seriously.  He even ran things with less of his own personal "strategy" and tried to think like the Imperials in the movies (Straight forward attacking, very violent and swift assaults).  I mean, whatever floats your boat I guess, but it cost him a couple games as I recall.

Anyway, I really see it as just like Star Wars fans (Some anyway) but in a different hobby.  Maybe the gamers laughed at people dressed up for the last STar Wars movie and waiting in a line for 4 or 5 hours?   Who knows...

I'm personally one to only do FPS's on PC...  That's my platform of choice for a few types of games (Strategy, FPS, Flight Sim)...  I do prefer consoles for racing and "arcade shooters" like Rogue Squadron's series though.

To me, the keyboard/mouse gives you and insane ammount of freedom and customizeability over what a console's controller offers for thhis type of game.  the need to have things come up at the touch of one button is great often times, especially in multi-play, so I think PC is the best route to go generally.

http://www.lucasarts.com/products/jediacademy/

Check it out folks...  Lotsa fun for everyone!

While I'm disappointed to see a game that may not have improvements on blaster/ranged weapons, I still think the game looks sweet.

The screen of the docked ship at a Tatooine-Esque spaceport is VERY nice work.

Take note that the Jedi are wearing "Hoth Rebel" uniforms while on that cold weather planet...  Pretty nice attention to detail.

I float around occassionally to a few different boards, though the only 2 I check regularly are here at Jedidefender.com (of course) and Rebelscum.com

I used to float over to GH.com often, but now it's about once a week...  GH is alright, but loads entirely too slow for my taste, and the board has little traffic really...  

Scum I read now more than post...  

Sometimes things just BEG me to reply to them though, like someone recently posting "Well Star Wars figures are bought by kids more than G.I. Joe, so that's why SW figures have rubbery weapons".

I like Star Wars too, but let's call a spade a spade and realize that Hasbro's just cheap here...  Joe's been outperforming the SW license for some time now I believe.  It's a shame people just can't admit their favorite toy line maybe isn't dominating the toy industry like they'd like it to though.

Scum's full of posts like that anymore though, and arguments, and fights, and general tedious nuisance junk that really just makes it not worth getting involved sometimes.  Thus my migrating over here was not a difficult decision.

I generally don't post that much on forums at all though anymore...  No time it seems.  Not like I had in the past when I could type out a 3 page relpy to someone being completely foolish in a topic.

Anyway, I also sometimes pop into.......

http://www.gpxd.com/Index.htm

This is Ground Pounder's 21st Century Toys X-Treme Detail website/forum...  All forms of small (Under 1:6) scale military toys are discussed there though, even Star Wars (Since it has a military theme).  Mostly just XD (and their 32X) though, or A18 (Dragon's line) or BBi's Elite Force 1:18.

Sometimes I run over to http://commandchamber.net/ also...  This site is dedicated to the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight/Mysteries of the Sith/ Jedi Outcast series of games, and the editing/modding community that goes with them.  You'll find add-on levels and such for your games there...  It's predominantly single-player though, as multi-player has a large separate community and SP is grossly overlooked.

If you want the most out of your game though, check it out because there's some GREAT add-on levels to games that have come out...  I'd say the better add-ons are VERY superior in overall quality to what Lucasarts themselves put out.  And the good ones are like mini-games unto themselves really.  

My opinion on the sets isn't changing too much, though hearing some negative things about the QUALITY of the Imperial set has sort of put a sour taste in my mouth.  

The Imperial set had the most appeal to me as an army builder, since the AT-ST (Imperial Army Regular) driver is sorely in need of a better sculpt, and that sorta fit the bill.  The R4 astromech is always welcome, and of course stormtroopers can never be turned away.  The Vader's sort of dejecting though, and just like the upcoming Saga Snowtrooper...  WHY THE CANNON!?  I have umpteen of those things already, I'm all repeating blastered out here.

The BH set has the least appeal to me, as has been pointed out by a few others...  The swoop bike is a nice improvement over the SOTE swoop, but it's tough to justify buying 4 figures I already have for the bike...  Like others have said though, if the deco on each figure is greatly improved I could maybe see it, but I'm just not so sure on that...  I mean, nobody in the set can even ride the swoop, can they?  

The Hoth set's title is a tad misleading...  When I hear "Battle of Hoth", I don't expect what's given in the package.  While the Taun Taun w/Guts is a nice addition for sure, the Hoth Luke, Lame Hoth Leia and astromech make it tough to stomach...

Now, had they made a "Major Derlin" variation out of a Luke figure (w/new head), and replaced Leia with a semi retooled Hoth footsoldier (Change the legs somehow and give use the upper body of the Deluxe soldier with Saga Han's arms) then I maybe would've been excited over this set.  The astromech's not bad (But why not use R3-T7's body since it's better?) and the Taun Taun is ok, so I'll likely be more excited about this one than the BH set...

No matter what though, this 4-pack idea...  Just like the Cantina Sets and accessory sets...  isn't being given the best treatment, and Hasbro could've done better with the execution of these.

As always, Hasbro has nice ideas that they bungle in one way or another...  From the army-building 4-packs in white boxes to these.  There's always some lil screw-up that makes them not as cool as they COULD have been.

Too bad...

I'm surprised you didn't care for the A-Wing in any incarnation Dimetrodon...

I've been happy with all of mine actually.

It's to-scale (My biggest complaint of SW vehicles)

It has great detail, even for a modern vehicle (Seat pads in the cockpit, poprivets on the armor plating, etc...)

It has working landing gear that don't collapse under its weight, and the cockpit functions well (with a hidden button).

And both of the modern versions have a figure...  Albeit neither has a great figure, but the new one's figure is not too shabby.

I'm pretty content with that...  I'm not into lights and sounds myself though.  I just want something accurately scaled (It's possible, just look at XD's to-scale WW2 vehicles), and detailed well.  

How'd you break two vintage ones?  Yikes!  There goes a hundred a piece now, haha.    

I'd love to have 3 of these for a small flight of the Green Squadron ship.

With how Target is though, I may only wind up with one, if that even.  They're an unreliable store in my area, as far as exclusives go.

The Arvel figure is nice and unique...  He'll go nicely on the shelf with the old Arvel figure.

Either way though, I still want a PROPER Arvel Crynyd released on the card...  With the proper uniform, with proper chest box, and proper helmet...  And the proper race.

Arvel was just a white dude, not the Asian chap Hasbro's mistakenly made...  The first pack-in pilot had poor details on the uniform (got the color right though) and the second pack-in is based off the improperly named/designated Y-Wing pilot from ROTJ that came in the 3-pack.

Ship looks great though...  I wonder what the white box is that the helmet is on though.  That's odd.  Could it be some generic Hangar accessory?  Or just cardboard and part of the packaging?