Just thought I'd bump this up with the relatively negative talk regarding 2011's Wave 1 pictures. Granted, I'm sure we have a lot of other great stuff on the way next year, and I think Hasbro has sort of admitted this is a "filler" wave a bit before a larger/neater Wave 2....but looking at the lineup, it does seem a bit boring. Not only that, although I'm all for needed resculpts and all that, I know some people really just look forward to the "all new" figures. Judging by many of the lineups in TVC figures so far, those are going to be few and far between. I mean, looking at this 2011 wave, there really isn't anything "all new". Sure, the figures are changed/updated a bit, but I'm not sure it is enough of a difference to get people buying a ton more Stormies, Utapau troopers, etc.
Obviously, this is a case where a few small changes could have made this wave a much more positive one. I realize that it is tough having things "ready" and all that, but some line planning could fix much of that. I can see now that they want to have main character "anchors" in each wave, so why not having a new Bespin Han or a new Hoth Luke in place of the ones they used here (although the Luke doesn't look too bad). You think about other "anchor" figures, and they have sort of used a lot of them already. We've already seen the already nice AOTC/ROTS Obi-Wan's re-used, as well as ROTS Anakin, Jedi Luke, Bespin Luke, Vader, etc. Plus, I don't know how many more "niche" versions of these guys they can find. I'm still excited by the line, and like I said - I think we have a lot of good on the way in 2011, but I am starting to wonder about the future of it if the waves continue to be this way. Even out of the first two waves (ESB/ROTS), I can't say - aside from a couple figures - that any are very difficult to find.
I think, after a few more updates and maybe a minor tweak here or there, they could just repack previous versions of the main characters and then use the "tooling budget" to put a couple all-new figures in each wave. I mean, thinking about many of the main characters, and most of them already have some near-perfect versions out there already:
Luke: Resurgence, Stormtrooper, X-Wing, Snowspeeder, Bespin, Jedi, Endor
Han: ANH (VOTC), Stormtrooper, Hoth
Obi-Wan: TPM, AOTC, ROTS, and ANH (although I don't think they consider "old" Obi an anchor figure)
Anakin/Vaders: AOTC, ROTS, or any number of Vaders
Chewie: Early Bird, VOTC
R2-D2: Resurgence
C-3PO: Endor Throne, or possibly a B-A-D repaint
Troopers: Any variety of Clones, and the Stormtrooper/Snowtrooper/Biker Scout/TIE Pilots all have pretty great versions
Anyways, the list could go on, but there are a number of characters they could draw on for repacks at this point if they need to. Honestly, I think if we got all-new versions of Hoth Luke, Bespin Han...and possibly updates or tweaks to Endor Han or a new Carbonite version, I think I'd be fairly satisfied with what we've gotten for the main characters (not counting a new ANH Leia, but I doubt female figures are considered "anchors" either).