The Vintage Collection
Wave 3 (Return of the Jedi)
Wicket W. Warrick

The next review I wanted to focus on a character I liked, but who was also not easy to find for me, at least as far as this wave stands now in the middle of December.  It's still fairly new, so certain figures are going to be tough finds like the Gammorean Guard or Endor Rebel, but this one surprised me that it's still a tougher item to get. 

So for my next review, I'm taking a detailed look at the latest Ewok upgrade with Wicket, possibly the most important Ewok figure in the line, and which hasn't seen a new figure since the 1990's.  It's really kind of shocking that Wicket hasn't seen any upgrades for so long though, given that he was quite the marketing image from the 1980s, and had two films that kind of focused on him, as well as a cartoon series.  Sure, it's not 1983 anymore and Ewoks were the placeholders of Jar-Jar levels of hatred for many years, but it still is surprising Hasbro had a pretty weak sculpt of this character out for a long time without any upgrades.

But now here we are, it's 2010, and Hasbro's looking back at a lot of their efforts from the early part of the modern line, and we're getting substantially improved figures.  Wicket shows all the love and attention that a full-sized figure gets these days as well, however he faces the uphill climb of being one of the tiniest figures in the line, and packaged in a card/bubble style that doesn't lend itself to doing 2-packs very well.  Can Hasbro make up the tiny stature of a figure for a full-sized price?  It's a balancing act Pawtucket bean counters know all-too-well, and they took an interesting direction to add value.  Read on, won't you?

PROS

-Sculpt:  This was a figure that I immediately went to my Endor shelf to scarf the POTF2 figure, and compare with the new sculpt.  If you think there aren't lightyears of difference between figures then and now, you're not paying attention!  First, the sharpness of almost every detail, from the eyes and mouth, to the shape of the ears, to the fur, is completely different.  It really is like looking at a bootleg, when you compare old with new. 

Wicket's body is sculpted to give the fur a bit more depth than his predecessor, and it's a shorter more curly looking fur as well, which seems to match the costume a bit better than the POTF2 figure, who has a longer fur look to it.  The hands and feet both have some nice detailing on the digits as well, with unfurry fingertips and toes that each sport a sculpted fingernail or toenail.  Turn Wicket up on his head, and you'll see his bottom's of his feet have the same unfurry "pad" look to them as his fingers and toes, like  the little pads on the bottom of a cat's foot.

OK, take a trip with me into the weird and creepy for a moment as well...  come on, stick with me on this.

Wicket has a butt crack.  Weird?  Yes.  Weirder that I noticed this?  Absolutely.  An Improvement?  Compared to the POTF2 figure's lack of one, I think it shows a greater attention to detail and realism, I guess.   The POTF2 figure completely lacks this... oddity.  It's some strange level of anatomical correctness I guess.  If you're a Wookiee, I guess you've got longer fur to cover your pooper.  But for Ewoks, and their shorter/curly fur, Hasbro had less options and decided to make the character have a little bit of evidence of a butt.

Anyway, from one end to the next, Hasbro really put the most detail into Wicket's face sculpt, which is quite detailed and full of his fierce, yet somehow cute, personality.

First up, he's got a toothy smile, showing his 2 little bucky chompters jutting out from his slightly opened mouth.  It's not much, and Wicket's mouth on the costume didn't seem to be able to open a lot anyway.  It's just right to give him personality without completely closing the mouth, nor opening it too wide to look odd.  It also was cool of the sculptor to give the puffier cheeks to the figure, compared to the broad and flatter face sculpt of the previous figure.  Add in then the nicely recessed eyes under a furrowed brow, and there's just a lot of "life" sculpted into the face.  The POTF2 figure looks just like a smiling face, but the new Wicket could be scowling, concentrating, smiling...  There is a lot of different looks in this one sculpt.

Overall though, night and day.  This is just a vastly superior sculpt, and it's the kind of figure that proves that Hasbro can go back to countless figures they've already done, and make vast improvements people will be glad to buy.  All 6 films have figures in need of resculpting, so this line has a lot of years in it yet.

-Accessories:  Hasbro painted themselves into something of a corner with the new packaging.  2007 maybe spoiled collectors a little bit too, as that line dolled out some of the greatest accessories packed in with basic figures that the line had ever seen.  2008/2009 didn't help with Build-A-Droid figures helping each wave give you an extra figure or two if you bought them all.  The new cardbacks are great looking though, but the bubbles and staying true to the vintage look means that you cannot really pull a "2-pack" of figures off without compromising the card, and the bubbles are much smaller than the past several years.  That means a diminutive fellow like Wicket is $7.99 for what ammounts to a figure half the size of any average figure.  Where do you make that up then to consumers?

Well Hasbro went the rout of packing in somewhat obscure accessories that no previous Wicket ever came with, and at the same time giving you a completely unique way to display the little furball!  Of course, this tricks many of us into buying a 2nd figure to display with the extra gear, but it's the kind of trick most of us are pretty happy to pay for.

Wicket comes packed with:

• Movie Style Hood
• Spear
• Sachel
• Ewoks Cartoon Style Hood

That's a lot of gear for one little furball, and I'm sure it's making a number of collectors ecstatic that they can now do a realistic styled "Ewoks The Cartoon" Wicket figure.  Does this mean Hasbro opened the door for other Ewoks Cartoon figures?  If they're realistic sculpts, I'm for it.  We got Droids Boba Fett afterall, right?

The gear is all pretty great too, which is the really cool part.  The extra hood is very nicely decorated and colorful.  It's a large cape/hood, forrest green in color, with a black wash that highlights all the cool stitching sculpted into the hood.  Check around the ears, as I thought that was a particularly nice detail that they put the stitching sculpt into.  It also features a leather belt that must wrap around underneath it, with some kind of little bone button thing sculpted onto it and painted light tan and white.  At least I assume it's bone. 

Wicket's spear is sculpted to look like a simple wood shaft with a stone head tied on the end.  It's a great sculpt though that makes the shaft look uneven and very "wooden".  Unfortunately the plastic it's molded in is the color they kept, and it's oddly shiney.  However the stone head is decoed nice and light grey, and the binding wrapped around it is a light tan.  It's a lot of deco on the weapon, and pretty cool.

Wicket's sachel is another great sculpt for a tiny accessory, but lacks paint aps at all.  It's sort of a shame because there's even more stitching and a little clasp for the flap to keep it shut.  It's sculpted to fit snugly over the figure's torso, and you actually have to remove the head to get the sachel onto him.  I believe the sachel only should go with the Ewoks Cartoon hood though, and doesn't really fit well with the cartoon hood on.  It really only fits really well with the movie hood, but that's ok to me.

Wicket's film hood is then his final accessory, and again it's filled with detail.  What I really liked here though, is that Hasbro cast the hood in the same forrest green plastic they cast the cartoon hood.  They then painted a leathery-brown deco over the green, but it's not super thick so just the slightest, tiniest hint of the forrest green shines through.  Go get your Wicket figure, and check this detail out.  It's barely noticeable, and incredibly under-appreciated.  Hasbro also saw to painting some dark brown stitching on the front of the hood, something you can see in the films on the costume, and that's a cool little detail they made sure to catch.

By the way, both hoods are sculpted incredibly tight to the figure's head.  It's a little difficult getting the green hood on/off the headsculpt, as both are sculpted to rest in the head's fur detailing snugly so it's as close a fit as is possible.  It makes interchanging the hoods complex, but if you're buying 2 figures or don't swap hoods much, then it's no problem really at all.  Love these accessories because they're fantastic pieces made with lots of attention to detail.

-Accurate Scale:  This is the first time that a truly diminutive Wicket has been done, and that's a glorious thing unto itself.  This is somewhat an extension of gushing over the sculpt, but I sort of consider proper scaling a separate positive because scale is such an important aspect to an action figure line to me.  Wicket was like so many other figures in that he's look absurd on the shelf for a long time.

For instance, POTF2 Wicket next to any Leia?  You're laughing at it.  Leia is, herself, quite small.  Carrie Fisher was just a petite woman, and yet she was picking Wicket up off a log with ease, and he was tiny next to her.  POTF2 Wicket is almost as big as the current Endor Leia figure!  It's comical looking, and so getting a finally accurate height/dimension version of Wicket is great.

Compare your new Wicket to other current Ewok sculpts though, and you'll see that he's a good deal smaller than any of them.  I have him next to several of the new sculpts, and it's great seeing him look tiny compared to even these new, smaller sculpted Ewok characters.  This is the same way I felt when hasbro made their first tall Chewbacca figure with the Power of the Jedi line.  They got this one right, and now Leia can stand with Wicket on my shelf and not have me cringe at the comparison of the two.

-Articulation:  Articulating Ewoks isn't totally easy, but the Hasbro designers manage to squeeze a fair ammount of poseability into characters so tiny, and still hide it.  With Wicket, they cut back in one aspect of articulation, but moved forward in another aspect, making a character as poseable as his tiny frame is probably able to be, and making these little bears able to fight with the best of the Empire!

Wicket features articulation at:

• 2 Ball/Socket Shoulder Joints
• 2 Cut Wrist Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Hip Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Ankle Joints
• 1 Ball/Socket Neck Joint

For a total of 9 points of articulation on a figure who stands just a hair over 2 inches tall!  That's some serious poseability, and it also marks the first time Hasbro added ball/socket hip joints to an Ewok.  This is an articulation point we're seeing more and more from Hasbro in the Star Wars line.  So far most are insert-molded, however Hasbro's also used traditional "ball/socket" joints where simply tension holds a ball joint into the socket (such as on the current Battledroid sculpt).  It's something I hope more figures get in the modern line because it's hidden and adds a good deal of range of motion to a figure's poseability.

Wicket did regress in one articulation point though, compared to other modern Ewoks.  Others feature a cut waist joint, and unfortunately Hasbro saw fit to remove this point on the little guy, but it's not impacting the figure's ability to be posed in a myriad of positions.  One of my favorites is him holding Leia's hand, leading her away from danger on Endor, however I've had him throwing his spear, sitting down, running, and even crawling up on some prey.  He's a really cool little figure to play with, so enjoy your Ewoks responsibly.

-Eye Paint:  I'm not overall completely happy with Hasbro's paintjob on the figure, it's where they cut back a lot, but they did do something pretty cool worth mentioning here on the eye's paintjob.  Hasbro got the simple glossy black of the recessed eyes down perfectly, but what I liked that they did was added little white dots to each eye, for the glint of light off Wicket's eyeballs.

It's a little detail, but a cool one.  When you're watching Return of the Jedi again, take note of Wicket's eyes and the glint.  They almost seem like pupils of his eyes, but they're the light glare (Greedo has a similar thing going on), and Hasbro made sure to add that glint to them.  You have to appreciate that even if the rest of the paintjob is lacking.

-Packaging: How can you not love this line's packaging? Even as a non-carded collector, I'm tempted to buy figures and leave them packaged. I've always opened and pitched, it's been how I've done things since some years ago I realized carded collecting was a virtually futile effort, reinforced by Hasbro's love of repacking virtually everything they ever make. The Vintage Collection gets even the most stalwart opener to take a second thought about opening that toy though.

So far I've not kept anything carded except a Rocket Firing Fett, but I am on an effort to save the cardbacks of every figure I buy. It's a work in progress to try and preserve them, but I'm trying. At least they're flat and don't take up a lot of room.

Still though, there's something about the Vintage packaging that was really special. It's colorful, it's bold, it's uniformed, it's diverse, it's iconic, and it's expanding with this line to encompass the prequals. There is a lot to love and Hasbro knows it.

The obvious drawback is the space on the blister to add extra gear. We were given so many great characters wth great gear for the last 5 years. Changing to a small coffin-style blister meant less cool pack-ins. Hasbro has kept up somehow and given us decent gear with some figures, but others are getting the shaft and it becomes somewhat noticeable. Other figures seem like they've come with quite a bit though.

They have to get high marks all around for what they're doing with this line's packaging designs though.

CONS

-Paint Aps/Decoration:  Unfortunately, while the eyes are neat, the rest is pretty simplistic, or completely lacking, or pretty sloppy.  Let me break each of those down though, respectively.

First, the figure's largest paint application is the blonde-ish highlighting of the fur sculpt on the body and face.  The paint is blotched onto the body's front belly ok, but on the face it sort of goes everywhere and seems sloppy.  It also has a glossier look compared to the belly's color.  It's nothing flashy, and on the face it's more of a wash than anything.  It's not the worst though, or why this category is a negative, but it's not great either.

Second though, although the figure has fine detail sculpted into the fingers and toes so that he actually has fingernails and toenails, Hasbro completely neglected adding any paint aps to them.  It's a small paint detail if it's added, but it would highlight the sculpt significantly because some effort was put into adding those details by the artist who did this figure.  Paint aps are getting cut, it's a fact of life with the line, but you hate to see it when it happens is the point.

Third, my figure's paint ranges from good in a lot of spots, to sloppy in others.  Some of the washes strayed, but some of the details like the lips, eyes, teeth, and even the insides of the ears are nicely applied.  The wash just got a little sloppy, and really since Hasbro doesn't do them often, I appreciated seeing 2 distinct washes/highlights being done to this figure.  It's just when it strays or gets sloppy, and it gets onto some of the finer paint details like the mouth, that it becomes a little disappointing.

I'd say the paint applications are disappointing, but only slightly.  If I had a category for in between Pro or Con, I probably would've put this into there instead.  I'm not bothered enough by any of this to let it ruin the figure for me.

-Price: What's a good review without a good major gripe, and with this line (and lately, the line in general), the price is pretty out there. $7.99 is the base price for The Vintage Collection. That's a good bit of money for a little bit of action figure, generally. The lack of accessories, and the easy comparison with figures right on the pegs beside any Vintage Collection figure really makes you question some purchases.

When compared to Legends and Clone Wars figures, which are all to be $6.99, and then the fact that they come with their Galactic Battles card, stand, and dice, and that Legends figures feature a mix of extra weapons as well... well how can you not compare? They're all Star Wars figures obviously, so you really can't help but look and think that the Vintage Collection is at least $1 overpriced.

Since prices jumped above $5.99 though, I've been pretty focused on doing my army building and custom fodder buying when there are sales. Sales don't always hit when you want them to though, so you're stuck shelling out quite a bit or cutting back. Myself, I've largely cut back. Figures I'd have not thought twice about buying 2 of in the past, I now put one back. Army builders I'd have bought 20 of (I'm, sadly, serious about that) I now only buy a couple of, or wait for sales all together. It's a rough time out there to afford the hobby, so price factors into the review I'm afraid.

OVERALL

So where can I put Wicket?  Well, clearly I'm pretty pleased with him.  The paint aps were a very minor gripe to me, but it just detracted from the finer details enough for it to catch my eye, so I was annoyed.  Honestly, Wicket's hood covers up most of the paint blotches on my sample even, so I'm even less distracted by them once he's all put together.

I, like probably many, picked a second Wicket up to put the Ewoks Cartoon hood onto him.  He's tiny enough that he doesn't look too different on my shelf, so I can't really consider him a completely unique Ewok with the other hood on.  I prefer the Movie hood then, and will just have the cartoon one standing next to him as a comparison.  My extra cartoon hood I am hoping I can fit onto another Ewok I have laying around.  I love army building Ewoks so extra hoods are always nice.  I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine it works.

By the way, here's your "Tip of the Day" from me!

Did you buy Indiana Jones figures?  Did you get the Ugha Warrior?  If you did, A) you have two great Ewok weapons, but B) you have a great Wicket-specific weapon.  Take the Ugha's bolo/sling weapon and, at least to me, it looks really awesome in Wicket's hands over his head for the classic scene where he slaps himself in the face trying to use the sling weapon.  Sling...  Bolo...  It's all the same to me.  And the Ugha's axe makes a neat stone axe weapon for a random Ewok you have who doesn't have a "can opener" handy for using on Stormtroopers.

Anyway though, I love Wicket's new action figure.  He's rocking tons of poseability with his articulation count, he's got a fantastic sculpt, he has great accessories, and he has an adequate paintjob with some neat extra tiny detailing.  You'll feel better owning two of this figure rather than one, though the price may be the biggest hurdle for anyone to really get over.  $8 is a tough pill to swallow when paying for a figure who is about the actual size of some pills I've had to take, haha.

If you can get over the cash hurdle though, or simply find them cheaper (which I did, so I'm guessing many others did as well), you're good to go on picking up two of these fantastic, and long overdue resculpts. 

Hasbro, resculpt EVERYTHING from Power of the Force 2.  Figures like this prove you've got a deep well of figures that need redone, and that you can really blow away those old figures at this point.  Seriously, that old Wicket looks like a knock-off by comparison, it's that bad.  The old figures only make me appreciate the quality of the new ones even more.

By the way, as of me writing this, Wicket is still not common anywhere I shop.  Hopefully this wave will be out in more abundance soon.  Figures like this shouldn't be difficult to find because everyone deserves awesomeness like this little guy.[/list]

Entertainment Earth Exclusive 2010 Comic Packs
Baron Soontir Fel & Yssane Isard

Ah, comic packs...  Where did you go wrong?  That's a matter of debate to many.  If you talk to some collectors, they'll tell you the key to that sub-line of EU glory succeeding was more new figures and tooling, less repetition.  If you talked to others, you would hear that it's all about Dark Horse material.  Still others will demand that the Marvel Comics get their share of the pie.  And what sold where is just as mixed.  Some areas, the packs made for the army builder, from Rebel Pilots to Ewoks to Clonetroopers, flew off the shelves.  Elsewhere, the Marvel stuff did great, while it was the Dark Horse sets that stank it up, even with collector-demanded characters getting made.  This sub-line was a tough nut for Hasbro to crack just right.  They dealt with price hikes that saw the packs jumping from $9.99 at their start to $15-ish, and then balancing the costs of the sets with tooling budgets.  Then doing the same balancing act by wave...  It really was anything but a cakewalk I suppose.

Flash forward to Fall 2010.  Jedi Defender sponsor, Entertainment Earth, start shipping what is (for the foreseable future) supposed to be the last wave of comic packs, and collectors receive them well.  Hasbro now is back to deciding if the line needs some kind of reboot or not. 

Love or hate the EU, the comic packs have made some pretty slick figures...  and at the same time, they've made some dismal choices too (Leia with cankles, we're looking at you, and your absurd feet).  The sets from Entertainment Earth may have fans, but they're not immune to the problems the regular releases to mass retail had.  I'm going to take a look at at least one of the sets, maybe more as time allows, and give my thoughts on the character choices, the figure designs, and all the details that make these "hit or miss", at least in my eyes.

And first up, we're going to check out the set that I was most looking forward to!  I'm going to review the Baron Soontir Fel & Yssane Isard from the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series.  Who the hell are they?  Well, they're an Imperial fighter ace, and a weird Imperial chick with 2 different colored eyes, red outfit, skunk stripes in her hair, and a pretty strong following...  at least from the people who follow the EU.

Hasbro knows that these two characters have some fervent support among the fans of non-movie characters, and so they seemed like logical choices as figures.  Did they succeed in satisfying the collecting world?  Read on!

PROS

-Isard Sculpt:  Isard rocks the re-used mold, for the most part, of the Force Unleashed figure, Juno Eclipse.  She had a solid sculpt to begin with, with hidden joints, a small/feminine frame, and scads of detail.  There's lots of wrinkles in the uniform at places which make perfect sense, such as just above the belt but below the chest, at the knee and elbow joints, and so on.  There isn't too much though, which is perfect since she's a high-level Imperial, and as such, she should have a fairly pressed and proper uniform to reflect her level of authority.

When was the last time you saw a General or Admiral looking like a schlub, ya know?

One minor flaw is the character's rank badge, which I'll get to later.  Otherwise the sculpt's pretty sharp, even with texturing to avoid the overly smooth look of early POTF2 Imperial officer uniforms.  Not much else is new, but it's a solid base to do a female Imperial from anyway.

The headsculpt is new, and it's really incredible.  There is a lot of depth to it because Hasbro's sculptors/designers made the head and hair, two separate pieces.  This is nice for figures with longer/bulkier hair because it generally gives that greater 3-dimensional look to it.  Her facial expression is nice because it has a stern look to it, and reflects the character's fairly ruthless and evil nature.  It's nowhere near over-the-top, however.  It's just the right ammount of "evil" to look neutral, or focused as well.

So, sure it's re-used mostly, but it's not a bad re-use besides the rank badge.

-Accessories:  The accessory count for the pack isn't attrocious by any means.  It's also not knocking much out of the park, but these two characters really can't come with too much gear beyond what they come with, and Hasbro went the extra mile on the Baron Fel figure. 

Isard comes with a pretty basic Imperial Rifle...  Besides maybe an officer's baton, or giving her a pistol (since she's an officer), then that's about right.  Fel comes with the same Imperial E-11 Isard has, and so many other Imperial characters come with, but he also has some headgear.  Hasbro included his black Imperial kepi hat, which was pretty nice since not all officers get a removable cap like they should.  He also came with a big surprise though. 

Fel ultimately defects to the Alliance and winds up flying for them.  As such, he winds up wearing some more Alliance-like flight gear, including an X-Wing helmet, decorated in a unique all black paintjob with red striping and a Rebel logo.  Hasbro included the pilot bucket as well despite the figure being in his non-flight uniform.  It's a cool little "extra" thrown into the package, and was appreciated.  It also was a surprise because early images of the figures didn't picture this.

So hats off (nyuck nyuck) to Hasbro for giving the, basically, appropriate gear and then a little bone thrown to the fans of the storyline these figures are from.

-Articulation:  Both figures rock a good ammount of articulation, and Hasbro's stepped this side of their line up on most all accounts.  On comic packs though, it's great to see two figures with articulation sufficient to meet "minimums".  Or at least minimums as I choose to define them, as a collector who likes to be able to pose his figures any way he chooses.

Baron Fel features articulation at:

• 2 Ball/Socket Shoulder Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Elbow Joints
• 2 Cut Wrist Joints
• 2 Cut Hip Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Knee Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Ankle Joints
• 1 Ball/Socket Neck Joint
• 1 Cut Waist Joint

For a total of 14 points of articulation.

Yssane Isard Features Articulation at:

• 2 Ball/Socket Shoulder Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Elbow Joints
• 2 Cut Wrist Joints
• 2 Cut Hip Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Knee Joints
• 2 Ball/Socket Ankle Joints
• 1 Ball/Socket Neck Joint
• 1 Cut Waist Joint

For a total of 14 points of articulation.

This allows for a lot of poseability on both characters, and generally when you have this much articulation, not much can mess it up...  However, a molded "skirt" piece on a figure can accomplish that negative, and Fel has that issue.  Isard's molded skirt extension of her officer's coat actually doesn't inhibit the legs much at all.  It's shorter and the plastic is more flexible, which both help. 

Still though, both figures pose pretty well.  I've had them both in action poses, firing blasters 2-handed, standing at attention, and at ease with their hands clasped realistically behind their backs.  It's a great thing when the figure can do pretty much anything you want.  Hasbro just needs to make a standard for molded skirts where they are flexible, and have cuts at the side that let them flex so the hip articulation isn't inhibited.  That, or go with cloth instead.  Will fans accept cloth on an Imperial Officer's "skirt" piece though?  That remains to be seen!

CONS

-Fel Sculpt:  Right off the bat, I was disappointed in the sculpt choice Hasbro made on Baron Fel.  Again he's mostly re-used, except the headsculpt and hands, which aren't great.  However, the bigger letdown to me was the choice of re-using the Captain Needa sculpt from 2008.  Unfortunately, with that figure, you often got an oddly wide leg stance, the pants didn't have have the poofy look at the thigh that Jagdpur pants officers wore should have, and which is utilized on the Vintage Collection AT-AT Commander figure.  Hasbro dropped the ball by not at least using that figure as the base, as most agree that it's a good deal superior.

That's not to say the sculpt is horrible.  There are lots of small details in this sculpt that, on another figure, don't look so off.  It just has the very odd leg stance (and some may be better than others.  That was the case with Needa, and the Death Star Trooper the original sculpt was based on) on my figure, and the figure's rank badge wasn't changed as well.  Hasbro even sculpted the badges on Needa to be interchangeable now, so they could actually swap out a different and more accurate badge if they chose to.  Unfortunately on Fel they chose not to go that route, probably for cost reasons.  It would've been nice though since it was more a choice than on Isard's figure.

Add to it that this sculpt was made for a more average/slimmer built guy, and Fel's supposed to be a fairly large/muscular character, and it really was just a poor choice as the base.  Isard's was pretty spot-on (it was really their only choice as well), but the male Imperial Officer probably needs a ground-up resculpt in general, and Fel probably needed his own unique officer sculpt to really look accurate.

The hands and head on Fel are all that's new then, but not great.  The hands are simply gloved ones like a pilots, but Fel's headsculpt doesn't really resemble the character in the comics as much as I think it should.  It's more narrow looking, more gaunt it seems, and it features another angry/focused look to it.  On a typical Imperial I think this would be cooler looking, but on a guy who's changed to the Alliance supposedly, I find it odd.  It's not horrid, but it's not great either.  It just isn't what I had hoped for from them I guess, especially since their first Fel figure they did (also a comic pack figure) wasn't too great either.

-Paint Aps/Decoration:  Both figures I got were lacking a little bit in the paint aps department.  This is really something that can vary, or you can see a trend, and it just simply depends on factories and such.  Since you can't pick these out in a store, you're kind of stuck with what you get.  I have no clue if this is a trend, but it stinks.

On Isard, her deco is fairly good till you get to the face.  One of her defining features is her different colored eyes, and unfortunately my figure's eyes are lopsided.  The left is significantly lower than the right.  The eyebrows are painted on in a "raised" look for the right eyebrow, but something looks off on my sample there as well.  Like they're too far apart and the raised right brow is too sharp upward.  Also Hasbro didn't paint the code cylinder in her left pocket silver.  Since it's sculpted there, it should get a paint ap so it doesn't look goofy.

On Fel, the paint aps are a bit better on the face, however the shoulders are where he loses it some.  This is actually a common problem, but Hasbro generally casts the pin of a ball/socket joint in the color of the costume.  In Fel's case though, he has black/red pin stripes on the sleeves of his coat and shoulders.  With the pin of his shoulder joints cast in grey, it stands out pretty significantly against the black/red piping when right at the shoulders there are big grey gaps.

Paint aps are cut these days, it's just a fact of life.  When you're costing things out, you have to make cuts, and Hasbro's making it in the deco.  It's a shame sometimes because it impacts some fantastic sculpts.  The deco highlights the fine work some of the artists have put into these figures.  It's always a shame when small things like that impact the overall look of a character though, like it does with both these figures.  It's particularly disappointing on Isard though, who is really a fantastic figure till you get to her spooky eyes.  I hope others have better luck with the paint aps on her.  Fel, I wasn't wild about the sculpt either, so it's less of a disappointing paint application I guess.

-Fel's Rank:  I'll reiterate the disappointing find that they didn't change Fel's rank.  This was particularly annoying because Hasbro specifically designed Needa's torso to have the ability to change the ranks, if they needed to.  His rank in the comics has a lot more bars than the Needa rank did from the films, so for Hasbro to use a sculpt that wasn't maybe the best choice to begin with, and to then not change the rank on that sculpt when they specifically made that a possibility, well that's just a little bit of a bummer.

Had the legs been changed to the Jagdpur style pants that the current AT-AT Commander has though, I probably wouldn't have cared about this nearly as much.  Sometimes one thing can offset something else.  But on Fel it is sort of a situation where when it rains, it pours.

OVERALL

Sometimes I include price, or availability, or some other factor into my reviews...  Not this time though.  The prices varied depending on when you got your order in, and when it's an exclusive and you have to order it, the price is going to inevitably be a little more than you probably wanted to pay.  I got mine in a case I split on a pre-order we made the day they went on sale.  So for myself, these sets were pretty much as cheap as I was going to get them if I wanted them now, and I was content with that. 

Likewise, availability...  they're at Entertainment Earth, so that was simple at least, but you're not going to get to play the price-comparing game much.  It's a trade-off.

So I'm left with really just the product to stand on its own without the other factors.  In the case of these two though, they just don't stack up to what I personally would've liked.  These seemed to be the sets that were the "filler" for the wave.  For me, I was disappointed in them then as I probably was most interested in these two, and more importantly I was geeked at getting a new Baron Fel.  I'm a huge pilot fan from the Original Trilogy, and Expanded Universe.  So Fel's now had two figures out, and both are sub-par in some capacity or another.  I'd love to see both redone but I hold no hope for that. 

Isard's good enough for me though, and so I'll happily display her on the Imperial shelf as soon as I'm done writing this.  She's not flawless, but she's passable.  Fel is going to need a little modification from me though I'm afraid.  I may even slip him into my Imperial shelf without the stripes on the sleeves or something.  This set gets a failing grade from me then as I really think Fel's the anchor of it and Isard's more like a bonus.  Others will view that ratio differently probably, but it's my column so tough toenails.

Will the rest of the EE comic packs hold up though?  Well I just opened my others tonight, and I can tell you that I was happier with the other three sets.  A couple in particular were really fun, and I think Hasbro could make the comic line work if they rethought it, set some "standards" with it, and maybe tried to limit it a little more.  When it was at mass retail, it was out of control at times the number of sets that a store would have from a single wave.  Like was said at the start of this review though, what works and what doesn't work has a big gap between areas around the country.  Only Hasbro knows the truth, and they've deemed it not worth going on with the line for the time being. 

Here is to seeing more sets in the future though.  Or at least some exclusives coming out here and there to satiate the die-hard fans of this line.  I really want that friggin' Noghri and Wookiee we got teased with.

I was thinking of figures that I'd like to see get minor upgrades (major would be cool too, if done well, but minor upgrades to already pretty good figures is what I'm thinking).  What are the figures you'd like to see get these minor tweaks?  Like, as an example, Stormtroopers getting the ball-jointed hips and coming with maybe a new E-11 and rifle like we're going to get...

I'm into that figure, just not his utterly shite helmet and rifle.  If the helmet and rifle are better than initial pictures, I kinda dig that figure a lot, actually.

My first figure...  Commander Bly.

We've gotten a version or two of Bly, but none have been quite perfect...  They're neat, but I'd gladly take a new one using the ball-jointed hips Clone, maybe a cloth kama, and god-willing a completely accurate paintjob.  Not major tweaks there, as all that pretty much exists.  The only thing new would probably be a removable helmet and possibly a headsculpt (perhaps one that matches his CLone Wars animated headsculpt's look somewhat).  I like the removable helmets, so I'm biased there, but I know CHEWIE doesn't dig them, so I sort of left it off as a major upgrade.  I suspect it would happen though.

I'd live without Bly getting redone though, is my point.  But it's the kind of tweaks that would make me happily rebuy him too. 

This is probably the direction Hasbro will go, with many figures, I believe.  The precedent is obviously there...  Taking something that exists, and doing a little bit to it to make it "better".  I think it's a big part of the realistic line's future.  Hell, it's already in the Clone Wars line even.

As per the front page...

Suffice it to say, he's got a pretty good shot at a figure in the near future. 

But as always, nothing's confirmed till Hasbro, blah blah blah...  but yeah.

Articulation appears as though it'll be limited.  Like I said on the front page, perhaps more of an accessory to a figure, than a figure.

I figured since the pre-season has kicked off, it's time to start the new regular season thread... 

Console Energy Center (Igloo 2?) opened tonight.  What a monumental occassion for me.  I'm going to be very sad to see the Civic Arena go.  I'm already planning to buy a chair or two, if they go for sale.  They're talking about putting some of the stainless steel dome parts into the ceiling of the new building as decoration.

The Penguins looked sharp...  err, well they sounded sharp anyway as it wasn't televised tonight.  a 5-1 win over Detroit.  Osgood looked like **** though too.

The Penguins are stacked and will have some interesting cuts to make.  Jordan Staal's going to miss the opener because of a nagging issue from last year's playoff loss to Montreal.  Hopefully he'll be back soon because he's a monster of a player, and fast becoming one of my favorites.  Crosby left the game early with a minor hip flexure, nothing serious, but didn't want him playing with it for no purpose.

I'd like to get to one game this year at the new arena.  That's my goal...  Well, that and Winter Classic tickets.  Not counting on the latter though. 

Fantastic work at the new arena though.  I guess the boards are a little lively though, but they're just settling in and finding the little nuances of it out right now.  The goalies are saying the boards are similar to Detroit's in some ways.

Bill Guerrin is on a try-out-basis with Philly.  I'm bummed about that because he's a great guy, and got involved in charity and stuff here locally immediately, and wanted very badly to stay because his family loved it here.  I'm just bummed he's not been brought back.

Anyway, hockey is here!  Yay.

Oh, and one of the funny kinks they have to work out at the arena is the horn was pumped directly into the mic, so when a period came to a close this booming loud horn would go off full tilt.  Mike Lange and Phil Bourque were cracking up about it and I guess Lange took over and was turnign the volume down.

I have all 3 Target Lava Reflection Figures I'd like to sell as a set... 

Obi-Wan Kenobi MOC
Anakin Skywalker MOC
Darth Vader (including the ticket I was given the morning I bought him since it was a lottery system) MOC

I liked them as a set, but I'm trying to cut down on my carded stuff and this is a set I'm cutting out I think, after much thought.

I'd like $30 for the set of 3 + $5 shipping.

PM me if you're interested.

They posted a video tonight on StarWars.com where Filoni answers a Question someone mails in, and so on...  Seems like an on-going series.

I found it kind of interesting that the question was regarding seeing Plo Koon without his mask on in the series, and the answer evolved into a bit more.

First, I found it interesting that Filoni was pretty easy to say "Would I follow how he looked in the EU or the Hasbro figure?  I don't know".  He did say he'd confer with Lucas on it, but it is just one more nail in the coffin for EU's importance IMO...  To so freely disregard it like that seemed telling to me.  He didn't say he wouldn't of course, but he seemed like it probably wouldn't be even a concern that they consider how Plo's look is established already.

Second though, I found it interesting how he has wanted more characters to have subtitles, but that the constraints of the series don't allow for it.  To me, that's huge, and makes me somewhat disevow the voices of the characters in the toon...  It's like the constraints of video game EU, having to allow for the dynamics of the game, or the constraints of the movies themselves having to condense time so the movie flows better and more quickly.  IE: The trip to Bespin from the asteroid field was probably pretty long, but the films can't show it.  The Rebel fleet's trip to the DS2 was probably a good while (and thus the Rebels were on Endor a while), and the films just can't show it.  Those things have always been of interest to me because I never felt the movies conveyed time/distance well.

Likewise the toon has to rely on more english-speaking than is maybe desired, but because it's a kid's show, and kids can't necessarilly read quickly, the subtitles get shelved.  It makes me view some of the characters differently.  Like Bossk...  I didn't like Bossk talking.  I do like him growling/slithering with his noises like in ESB though, and I sort of take Filoni's comments to maybe mean he's viewing them as though they're speaking their native languages as well, not English.  I had hoped for more subtitles myself, but I guess that's one of those things they have to bend for the series regardless of how much sense it would make.

Sounds like a new vehicle slipped into the 2010/2011 stuff...  2010 I guess from the sounds of it. 

Curious to see good pics of this.