Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Jesse James

Pages: 1 ... 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 [1158] 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 ... 1530
17356
Customizing Tips and Tricks / Re: Fodder Alert!
« on: May 25, 2006, 01:14 AM »


It's blurry because i don't feel like digging for better right now, but the new figures are the 4 modern ones.  The two WW2 figures are from a wave ago but resurfacing alongside these moderns...  For most into this line they're still sparsley shipping as they're brand new.

There is a:
-US Special Forces: Afghanistan (the bearded guy w/ballcap)...  The figure lacks wrist joints and a removable hat, oh and no working holster.  Beyond that he's not too shabby.

-US Sniper...  He's the guy in the shrug (Guille Suit(sp?))...  Nicely articulated, interesting accessories for possible customs.  I've got him and only the back and helmet come off, not the arms/legs portions of the camo-ing.

-US Navy SEAL...  Best figure of the wave... Again though, no working holster.  Lots of other useful stuff for a diver figure though and whatnot.

-US Night STalker...  Chopper pilot, has laptop and whatnot, but again lacks wrist articulation for no real reason, no working holster.  Good figure though for the most part.

The WW2 figures both feature full articulation and removable headgear.  They also each come with a "heavy weapon" of some sort.  One with a Bazooka and I think the other had a Bazooka as well but now I forget and it's all clumped together so he maybe had a mortar. 

All new headsculpts on all of them too btw.  A little "older" but not bad.  The WW2 guys should've had really young sculpts IMO though.

Anyway, these are just showing up now so your luck finding them will vary.  Only one TRU in my area got one case in as far as I have been able to find...  Good luck.

17357
Toy Reviews / New JD Review: VTSC Greedo
« on: May 25, 2006, 01:07 AM »
Another week and another new review here at JediDefender.com.

This time around we're taking a look at another in the Premium "Vintage" Saga Collection of figures...  A Vintage that not everyone wanted, but now that he's out I'm sure we'll all be happy to own him...  Greedo!


Clicky Button, Ready Review

So you thought Hasbro was done putting Greedo figures on the shelf?  Wrong...  But thankfully they have made the definitive version of this character with his "Vintage" incarnation.  If they re-use that Commtech Sculpt they should be beat with piles of old Greedo figures I think.  Though, here it is in 2006 and we're seeing COmmtech Han get re-used...  again...  and no VOTC version re-issued, so is it really that far-fetched to think we'll likely see Commtech Greedo repainted again?

Still, at least we're getting a definitive Greedo NOW...  ANd what a load of figure to love.  A great felt vest, a nice new spiffy holster for an all-new film-accurate blaster pistol...  And articulation galore. 

And really one of the pluses to Greedo, and something that makes plunking another $10 down on yet another Greedo figure, is that there are so many Rodians (especially in A New Hope) roaming around Mos Eisley in the same outfit, that I don't feel like I need to retire all my old Greedo figures...  THey just all become nameless Rodian thugs for Jabba's SE scene or they fit nicely in with the drunkards in the Cantina.

No muss, no fuss, no figures put into storage.  PLus all the repaints of Greedo look different to some extent so they blend nicely together.

Enjoy this figure...  Hopefully Hasbro sees fit to re-release THIS one if they feel the urge to put Greedo on the pegs again down the road.  There really should be no other out at this point.

17358
Watto's Junk Yard / Re: Civil War Reenacting
« on: May 24, 2006, 05:31 PM »
Quote
besides, the Union is very picky about the unifoms your wear,

AIn't that the truth...  I was Union with a regiment out of Kittanning, PA up here...  This hobby, like all others, is littered with ******** who will do their damndest to ruin your "good time" if they possibly can...  Beware the maroons.

I got out of it because of that...  I moved on to F&I War re-enacting, and while there's a lot of snoots in it too, there's a lot of positive people...  Generally the Indians and Colonials/Militia.  YOu get into the Brit regiments and French regiments though and they're a bunch of jags to you at events.  Particularly the Brits, as I was in a Scottish Light Foot regiment, which basically were like Wild Scots with loose dresscodes...  They adopted Indian atire readily and the Indians respected the Scottish Light Foot regiments a bit more and accepted them almost as another tribe.

It was cool because I had equipment that ranged from an Irish Hilted Broad Sword for an Officer's sword all the way to a Tomahawk as well as two muzzle loading weapons.  When we'd show at the bigger reenactments though, we got lots of hell from the prim and proper British regiments in their fancy expensive uniforms...  We'd have bone buttons on our red jackets, they'd have brass and polished, and they'd argue that we're not "proper" in our uniforms...  Some would even refuse to deal with us actually...  The French were usually a little better, but the guys in British uniforms almost always had a problem with us...  Especially if they had Blackwatch with them.  Ugh.

Still, I had fun with it, and it was a lot better experience for me than the Civil War re-enacting was...  That got to be a chore, especially because I was really young at the time.

17359
Hey Hasbro! / Re: More Ewoks Please!
« on: May 24, 2006, 04:32 AM »
What we REALLY need...

-Ewok Warrior 4-pack:  The 4 figures are all variously painted Teebo sculpts.  They each have either a unique hat/hood sculpted for them, or they each can just get a uniquely colored/decoed Wicket hood (it fits the Teebo head perfectly).  Pack-in weapons include 2 spears, two bow/quivers, 2 stone axes, 2 slings.

The Teebo sculpt is the best EWok sculpt.  It's neutral in looks and height and all.  It's also the best articulated Ewok out there which doesn't hurt it.  So that'd make a dandy army builder set I think...  You buy multiples of it, you mix/match the accessories, and you have that many more unique Ewoks in your army.  I don't care about the names, I'd just want to see that set made so I can finally army build Brad Err I mean Ewoks.

17360
Yes, it can be, but from what I've heard of toys, companies like Wal-Mart and the their ilk tend NOT to loss-lead with high-profile licensed toys...  TRU I've heard doesn't do the lossleading gig with much of anything, much less Star Wars, so considering theyr'e comparable prices between stores, I'm back to my original thought that the profit margins on SW product are exagerrated and they're pretty ample for the retailer to profit from.

Like I said though, I've heard the TRU sale they ran not long ago that cleared the pegs at every store in my area was still a huge profitable success for that product line for the company, and it brought figures down to $4.50 or so in my area...  I believe that to be true personally but that's me...  I've had no reason to doubt it.

I've heard that WM's loss-leading plan focuses on toylines they're contracted with manufacturers on, like Motorworks and others, and not products like say Lord of the Rings defunct line, or the current POTC or Star Wars lines generally. 

17361
Saga Collection '06 / Re: Battle of Endor Wave
« on: May 24, 2006, 04:21 AM »
Here's a better idea... Why doesn't Hasbro have a mail order, without any lame gimmicks, so we could buy SA Stormies in baggies... No fancy packaging, nothing that could add to the already expensive cost... Just offer us the SA troopers and accessories for a cheap price.

The funny thing about your quote Brad is that it seems that even the collectors are so downtrodden by Hasbro stupidity that we've got to come up with ideas that really ultimately have Hasbro thinking behind them...

Asking for baggied VOTC Stormtroopers for on the cheap via mail-order is incredibly logical and I'd buy a ton.  Even if they were full basic figure price ($7 or so) I'd buy tons I'm sure...  Negating the baggie positives.

But even I've got it in my head that this is just asking the impossible...  It's logical, it's gotta be profitable, but it's just not something they would ever do because, well, they are Hasbro...  :(  I'm kinda disappointed in myself for not just saying "Hey, why can't we just get VOTC Stormtroopers at a store in good quantities?", haha.  Hasbro has beaten me!  Dammit.

17362
Saga Collection '06 / Re: Battle of Tatooine Wave
« on: May 24, 2006, 04:15 AM »
I gotta admit, Garindan's not bad...  I still am always baffled by swiveling boot articulation but no knees...  I mean, what's the point?  It's the same as ankle articulation but no knees.

Either way though, Garindan has features VOTC/VTSC Han's both should've had, a separate legstrap for the pistol holster.  I love that...  :)  Too bad the Han's don't have it because that's perfect.

I like that they re-used Tessek's gun.  I don't mind pistol re-uses like that and that's a gun we haven't seen again since Tessek I believe.  So that's pretty cool I think...  The lack of knees sucks, but the inclusion of a cloth cape is great to me.  I'm surprised they ran with that.  Not often they use cloth on basic figures afterall. 

And the communicator on the belt?  That's just amazing detail. :)  Now we have a communicator accessory for a hoped for future Luke Stormtrooper resculpt...  He has to come with that.

It's nice to see that Garindan's arm articulation is on-par with what the basic line's standards should be too.  He's a step up from Momaw who lacks a LOT of articulation.

Oh and the headsculpt is great...  One flaw beyond the knees though is the goggles don't come off.  :(  I'm a little bummed by that because I'd hoped to see a complete Garindan sculpt there...  Be neat to see hte species' looks without the goggles.

Anyway, Garindan may be my favorite in the wave...  It's a figure that REALLY needed a resculpt too, unlike Momaw who I honestly could've lived with what we have, especially given that they didn't improve it beyond the sculpt details.  Sculpts great, articulation's just excuseless though...  It's not a matter of what these characters do, but what kind of toys they should be...  Hasbro's still years behind other companies with this line, so that's what's disappointing me.

Garindan's on my positives list though, I like that one.

17363
Watto's Junk Yard / Re: Last weekend
« on: May 23, 2006, 05:41 PM »
I re-enacted, and honestly I've never heard of men wearing corsets during the period, at least not as anything "mainstream".

Most of the soldiers in the military on both sides were just as they are today...  Poor.  Affording something like that wouldn't have been in their budget...  Sounds like someone who just liked to wear ladies underwear, even in period clothing. :)

17364
I don't believe the prices personally...  In TRU's last sale I heard from a source I personally have no reason to disbelieve, that they still made money despite figures costing only $4 & change...  I think the margins are grossly overestimated by people... 

I have heard the excuse that retail uses toys as loss leaders, but what people who cite that example neglect to mention is that they don't often use licensed products to loss lead their toy department...  Just from experience though, stores rarely do a "sale" on an item unless it's still profitable for them, and like I said TRU's was supposedly still a profitable sale...  I heard K-Mart's recent (decent) sale was profitable too, and they weren't taking a loss...  So I'm not willing to accept that Star Wars is just so close in cost to sale price like that.  If it were I don't believe retail woudl support it like it does for this long.  Movie years perhaps, but not non-movie years.  They'd need something more legitimate than a hunch it'd bring people to their store for them to dedicate any level of space to it, much less the relatively large space they always devote to it  year in and year out.

17365
The guy that hugs Malakili is on my top Jabba's Goons list actually.  I'd buy him in a heartbeat...

Luke Toshi Station and Jabba's Prisoner Chewie already exist.

The beedy eyed rancor keeper's friend though, I love that guy.  He had a cool voice too in the film, all weepy and stuff.  I want that figure actually.

17366
Newbies / Re: Well hello there!
« on: May 23, 2006, 02:32 AM »
Hey I Am Sith, welcome aboard JediDefender.com...  Enjoy your time here, look around and get involved.  Ask anything to the staff if you have any questions, we're available.

Enjoy the site, and hope to see you active and around some.

17367
Newbies / Re: "What are you, new?!"
« on: May 23, 2006, 02:31 AM »
Hey Kit, welcome onboard at JediDefender.com.

Glad to have you here with us...  You've been browsing already but feel free to do so more and jump into any conversation you want to and chat it up.  If you have anything you need to ask or anything, feel free to contact some of the staff.  We're available if you have any questions.

17368
Watto's Junk Yard / Re: Jeff For Fan Club President!
« on: May 23, 2006, 02:28 AM »
What a coincidence?  The biggest supporter of Dustin gets his ebay auction pimped on the front page.   ::)

haha, now that's funny.  I actually mentioned that to someone too Jay, funny you caught it as well...

Kind of ironic after all that was said in their now locked campaign thread, and then out of the blue an auction link's on the main page for the biggest Rebelscum supporter in it all...  I mean, come on...  It doesn't look any better either that it's Dustin throwing the Ebay Today story up there and I don't think that's something he ever did before.

Hey, it's like a real political campaign though...  You scratch my back, and I scratch yours...  :)  Fun fun fun!

17369
And like I mentioned...  I can buy sheets of styrene that are 3'x5' today that cost me not one red cent more than they did 1, 2, 3, or even more years ago...  Other toy lines aren't costing more now than they did in as far back as 1999... 

A pizza delivery may cost more, but the impact of oil in plastics manufacturing industries doesn't seem, at the moment, to have outward increases....  From toy lines to tupperware.  For Star Wars to continuously increase substantially (relatively speaking), is just a sign of gouging to me...

As far as profit margins, I think the closeness of the profit margins are greatly exagerrated online...  For instance TRU's recent sale that put figures in the $4 and change range still was yielding a tidy profit for the store from what I heard.  I think there's a lot of misinformation about how "hard up" Hasbro is to sell the line to retailers sometimes.

17370
Saga Collection '06 / Re: Battle of Tatooine Wave
« on: May 23, 2006, 12:14 AM »
Jared, great photos of the new Momaw Nadon...  The figure's actually really true to the West End Games miniature in its pose and the staff and such...  That's kind of cool in its own right.

That stand he comes with is really cool too...  That's a better accessory than an oversized hand cannon for sure. :)

That said, I am highly disappointed in the articulation...  6 points total...  For $7?  Come on Hasbro, sheesh...  That sucks.

Great sculpt, an improvement no doubt over either sculpt...  Not a figure I was clamoring for a resculpt on though, so I'm a little disappointed to see Hasbro only improved the looks and didn't make this a better toy...  This year's continuing its trend of underwhelming toys and pretty statues. 

I will say though, it'll be nice displaying this Momaw with his past incarnations.  It's like the VTSC Greedo figure...  i don't feel compelled to retire the others, but instead just slip them in as background Rodians.  The same will go with Momaw here...  The past two sculpts are so different they'll make good background Ithorians while this new Momaw will be the Hammerhead in my bar.

Pages: 1 ... 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 [1158] 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 ... 1530