Although some of us may not have all of the figures from this line that we want, and are still searching (General Lando, where are you? )...with the last waves of Saga making their way through stores, and some OTC being found at various parts of the country now....we can begin to start to talk about the Saga line as a whole.  Did you find everything you wanted (or are you still looking)?  How would you grade the line overall?  What were the strong or weak points?  Finally, what are your favorite figures, ships, beasts, etc. from the line (1, 5, 10, however many you'd like to list)?

While out shopping this weekend I got to thinking about this.  As far as the lines you collect, which do you feel are the "easiest" or least stressful to get.  As far as finding the figures, price, chases, etc., tying all those aspects in, which work out the best for you?

For me, Star Wars is my first priority and it has always seemed around here that if you see new figures, you buy them then and there, or you might not see them again.  Sometimes they later show up in greater abundance, and sometimes they don't.  As a general rule of thumb, from now on if I see it (and have the cash), I buy it.

Marvel Legends/Spidey Classics - I've just started collecting Spidey a little more, but did find all of Series 9 this weekend.  I passed on Rhino, only because I had already bought two figures this weekend, but I'd like to go back and pick it up (if still there).  I haven't had much troubles finding the Marvel Legends figures I want...although I haven't collected the line in its entirety either.  I will say when I have checked the pegs, I don't think I've ever seen any of the previous "chase" figures (Doombot, Goliath, etc.).  However, the regular releases seem to be somewhat easy to locate.

Lord of the Rings - The only other line I collect much at all right now, and even so, not much of it.  These seem to sell really well around here, Wal-Mart stocks and sells out pretty regularly.  I've been able to find most of what I'm looking for...but again...I don't collect the whole line so it is kind of tough to judge.  Right now it is kind of slim around here, lots of Gollums, King Aragorns, and 8" Treebeards.

I also dabble in minimates, but it doesn't seem like the TRU here carries them at all.  The one we used to visit had the 4 packs, but I haven't seen them here yet.  These will probably be bought online if I continue collecting them.

That's about it for me, but I was just curious what you feel are the most stress-free lines to collect.  We all know that each line has their problems here or there, but if there was one or two lines that would be easiest for you, which ones would they be?

I used to be pretty big into collecting baseball, football, and basketball cards growing up, until I quit collecting them sometime during my high school years.  I think at the time I was getting out of it because packs had gone to the $1 to $3 price range, with less cards in each pack.  Those were some good times though, and I still have many of them.  Boy, has card collecting ever changed since those days....I couldn't believe this article:

Card Collector Strikes It Rich

Aside from repacks, case assortments, and other issues that so many of the toylines seem to suffer from nowadays, which toy line do you think combines aspects such as sculpt, articulation, accessories, packaging, and overall price point into the best "bang for your buck" if you will?  I'm not familiar with each and every toyline, mainly paying attention to Star Wars and a little bit of Marvel and Lord of the Rings, but while looking through the toy aisles this past weekend, this question popped into my head.  For example, if you look at the new offerings in the Star Wars line this year, the sculpts have been pretty spiffy I think (especially for the smaller scale), accessories have been hit and miss depending on the character, but not too bad overall, and articulation is definitely hit and miss, although better than it has been.  To me, although I'd always take them cheaper, I think $4-5 isn't too bad for these figures, especially remembering the $7-8ish days of Episode I and POTJ while unpacking some things this past weekend.

On the other hand, since the new Trilogy line of LOTR figures has come out, it has been even tougher to leave these on the pegs.  They are bigger, so you're already getting more plastic (although for me, I like the 3 3/4" scale, and have a tough time displaying the bigger figures), usually pretty good accessories, great articulation (even if it becomes loose after awhile), as well as great sculpts more often than not.  All this for around $5 to 6 from what I have seen (closer to $6).

The same holds true for Marvel Legends.  Although they are somewhat limited, not seeing quite as many releases throughout the year (which is ok sometimes), you have overall good sculpts, articulation above and beyond most other lines, some pretty neat characters, usually a comic book included (depending on your neck of the woods), and a decent sized base in most cases.  Accessories are somewhat limited on many characters outside of the book/base though.  These seem to be in the $6-8 price range, usually on the lower end depending on store.

Otherwise, those are the lines I am most familiar with off-hand, and really they aren't too bad of values on any of them to me.  Like I said, I'll always take them cheaper, but the prices aren't too bad (especially considering most were higher priced before).  There are other action figure lines which approach the $10 range per figure, some that have "packs" where the price is spread out (minimates are $2ish per figure in the 4 to 5 packs, but much smaller figures for $2 a piece as well).  Anyways, I guess I was just curious which line or lines out there right now are a good "value" in your opinion?

Not sure if this is the right section, since this is broader than just the OTC, so sorry if it isn't.  After reading a number of posts, and particularly Scott's, regarding the OTC rehash lineup for the rest of this year, it got me to thinking about the future of Star Wars...collecting-wise.

Sure, we know Hasbro has the license until 2018, but we don't know exactly what it means.  It might just be "just in case", it might be so other companies don't have it, who knows.  We also know that there might be a TV series (cartoon or live action) coming up after the movies are said and done with.  And, of course, there will be more DVD/DVD set marketing pushes in the future with the Episode III disc as well as the inevitable "super duper spectacular fantabulous ultimate edition six disc set extravaganza" in the future.  My question is, do you think Star Wars figures (or other collectibles) will still be available in retail stores, come down to just specialty shops, just online, or nothing at all?

Personally, I think we'll always have some sort of Star Wars.  We may not have it at the retail level, like Scott mentioned, MOTU and Simpsons both have their die hard collectors as well, but they got dropped this year too.  However, with so many smaller, more specific lines still going through various direct market sources, you would think some sort of Star Wars would be able to last (maybe even through SWShop.com, since they have such a great track record {sarcasm}).  Do you think we will continue to see 3 3/4" figures, ships etc., just more limited in scope (instead of 40-50 a year?).  Do you think it will move to more specialty, collector-driven pieces such as the Unleashed line (which I like), Gentle Giant's statues and busts (which look great as well, although I don't have any), or another avenue?

I was just curious what some of your opinions are on the future of Star Wars collecting.  Of course there are always things to catch up on, vintage or otherwise, via ebay or other sources...but I was thinking more of the "new" product future.  What will we see come, where will we be able to buy it, and what would you like to see happen realistically?

I wasn’t sure where to put this, since it doesn’t “specifically” apply to vintage, or Saga, or OTC, but collections in general.  Hopefully this is an ok place to put it, sorry if it isn’t.  I don’t mean for this to be a negative post, just something I was thinking about.  If you ever lost your collection, due to theft, flood, fire, natural disaster, etc…..would you try to get it back?  Would you just go after a certain focus?  Would you try to pick up your favorites from your collection, maybe 10-30 figures, a couple of ships, a couple of beasts and just have one nice little display shelf?  Would you just start collecting from what figures were currently out and in the future?  Or, would you just hang it up and quit?  I guess when I was thinking of this, I was thinking mainly of Star Wars collecting…but it can apply to anything and everything you might collect.  I think honestly, if for some reason I ever lost my collection…I wouldn’t try to replace each and every bit of it.  Not that I don’t enjoy it now, I just don’t know if I would.  I’d probably get a condensed collection using one of a few options….(1) a handful of figures from each movie - favorites (2) focus on Original Trilogy collecting only, or (3) pick up “ultimate” type figures (such as upcoming VOTC figs), and main ships from the OT.  As far as other collecting, I don't have much else...mainly Marvel stuff.  With what little I have, I'd probably try to pick up what I had...or at least a Spidey, and a few X-Men.  I hope no one here ever has to go through anything like this (not just because of collection reasons), this is more just a hypothetical question and I was curious what some of you thought.

Are there any commercials out there that due to the people in them, the product it is for, the frequency of its appearance, or something else about it just starts to anger you each time you see it?  For me, there are a couple off the top of my head.  I'm not sure if these are just shown in our area or not but....

 - First of all, a series of Hardees commercials shown around here (not really showing anymore), that was featuring their burger and saying how it was just as good as a sit down restaurant burger, etc.  Anyways, the one that especially bothered me was the one about a guy on a construction crew who had to get lunch (since he was the new guy), and brought back Hardees burgers....and the construction crew told him "Hardees? We don't eat Hardees"...then they proceed to try the burgers and tell him he's getting lunch all week.

 - The other one that is really bothering me now is a new McDonald's commercial showing around here (for a while now I guess), with four or five guys playing cards and "gambling" using McDonald's fries.  The song that accompanies this commercial gets me in the spine .

How about you, any commercials that annoy you?

I'm limiting my collecting this year to only Star Wars and Marvel, but I noticed that Mezco has some good pics up of their first wave of Family Guy figures.  I always enjoy this show, be kind of cool to have a Peter or a Stewie...and the evil monkey that comes with Chris is a must .  You can check them out here:

Mezco's Family Guy Figures