Jay hooked me up with battledroids I had needed, and on the cheap too, so I really appreciated his help a LOT.  Thanks man!  Trade with him in good confidence, he's very helpful and trustworthy.

A+++

It's tough to say they're not twice as good as what we're getting though when you look back and I think the majority wanted what we got...  3PO is undoubtebly the stinker of the lot, but as Ben's go the VOTC Ben is still considered one of the better ones by a lot, though it's lacking a lot too...  Still, it's the only Ben you can sit in a landspeeder and for me that meant a lot since that's where he's displayed.

Han though is twice as good as Han Carbonite by a long shot...  VOTC Stormtrooper trounced every Stormie to that point.  Chewbacca may be the greatest figure of all time arguably.  Fett's top-notch.  R2-D2 was nothing to snooze at though I personally don't care for it as much as the Bar2-D2 version.  Vader was the best till that point.  Lando's fantastic.  Leia's the best to that point and I'd dig her re-released with a hood-up head actually...

3PO sucked, Ben was so-so, and Luke I personally put in the sucked column only due to the unnecessary goofy shirt (he didn't have a removable shirt in vintage so that figure still strikes as a "huh?  " figure too...  But that means 9 hits and 3 misses or mediocres out of a short 12-figure line...  Then the next wave comes, and honestly I don't know too many people upset with them unless they simply don't like cloth which this line's obviously got a focus on using cloth...  I like it myself when it's done right and the two iffy ones are tough to tell how good the figure is underneath the coat, and the coat's tough to judge on a card, so I'm leaning towards really liking them just based on early photos...  The price sucketh though, no doubt.

Is Veers a good figure?  He's ok...  I've seen customs that were far superior though...  No back tot he armor, the goofy fit of the helmet over the hat-head, and lacking leg articulation on a body that, with the right leg articulation, would've been really REALLY good to reuse down the road....  And an argument can be made on his height being a bit odd looking too, but the other items I think are a bit more "substantial" to some people...  Veers doesn't strike me as even close to VOTC quality then. 

Carbonite Han is ok...  Veers is ok...  They're neither one near as good as the Cantina Wave in 2004/05 though, and those are basic figures, and background characters at that.  So it's tough to say they, or most of the rest of Saga 06 compare well to the VOTC in terms of quality...  VOTC isn't really double price quality to me though either, I don't care for the price at all, but if it's the only way Hasbro delivers then how else can you look at it?

As far as Leia goes, I gave her a good review...  She coulda been better, mostly with how her arms pose, but I like her.  She fills a hole, and I'd say she's sorta like the AT-AT Driver.  I think he's a better figure than Leia really, but she's a close runner-up.  She's still not VOTC quality to me...  Better than Ben and the line's worst like 3PO, but below Vader, Lando, etc...  If I were rating by comparison that is.  She has flaws like the somewhat static right arm due to sculpt, the sculpt's iffy on the face (I didn't mind it, but it's not their best by a longshot).  She's not a bad figure though, I kinda dug her.  I like VOTC Leia better though, I can safely say that.

So to that end, I think what people are saying is that they WANT that high quality that, most of the time, VOTC has developed...  They don't want that price that comes with it though, but I'd say most are to the point where they see Hasbro seemingly in refusal mode to really take the line to the "next level" as a standard...  Not even VOTC level, but a straight across the line overall standard increase that at least matches figures like the AT-AT Driver resculpt.  The VOTC seems to offer your best chance at your best figure (to most) but with a price...  The basic line is like a craps game though.  You'll see a figure listed on rumors, and when pictures finally surface, what are you going to get?  Sometimes you win with an AT-AT Driver, sometimes you lose with Scorch...  This makes some people happy irregardless because they just don't give a ****, this doesn't make others happy... 

Right now I have a tough time gauging how sales are going with Saga but I know I haven't seen much more than a couple cases out at a time so pegwarmers are tough to judge.  They're not dumping tons of cases on shelves right now though so it's tough to say Carkoon wouldn't pegwarm if it hit en masse...  I know Bib's a pegwarmer here, so that's one anyway and he's ok for what he is too, just not popular.  Tough to say...  Geonosis is a better mix I think so I'm not worried about it, Carkoon is the one with the earliest back-up potential if there happens to be a lot of that case out there in circulation I think.

I did know you were from PA, but not out that far east...  thought you were from close to Pittsburgh, but guess I was off by like what, 4 hours of driving the pike?

And yes, exclusives can tickle my balls most of the time...  Don't care for them all the time.  I like some stuff though, like the Coruscant Clone pack.  I enjoyed that for what it was...  Target Clones though...  Yeah, they sucketh and we're in for more high-priced stuff this year just like it.

An interesting thing...  Knowing what I know about Wal-Mart, and knowing what I remember about VOTC there in 04...  I remember the first cut in price there dropped them to $7 right away...  That was pretty much nationwide, but not all at once, and they went lower than that at numerous stores over time, but the first big drop seemed to happen across the board to $7...

Now, retail isn't a place that often cuts prices to a loss right away, and WM doesn't unless the item was set for that fate like a loss leader, but SW toys are not those...  So, while it's a guess, I'd bet they still were making a tidy profit off $7 a figure for VOTC...  So I agree with CHEWIE that I don't WANT to pay $10 a figure and I do believe Hasbro can deliver high quality at a low price...  They don't always, but I believe they can "in general"...  Obviously I too dont' feel every figure needs the VOTC treatment in quality, like I'm ok with Bib Fortuna as he is mostly, but figures like Veers, Han Carbonite and others this year haven't met my standards or other even quite secondary characters standards from the past in this line.  I think Hasbro can deliver that VOTC (or near it, like the new AT-AT Driver) quality for on the cheapy cheap for most of the line.  I think the VOTC was a REALLY profitable sale for them, but that's me.

I don't think anyone is saying they WANT to pay $10 a figure though, I think there's just a look of realism on the situation in that Hasbro seems to NOT want to give us these high quality figures for $5 across the board (or the line in this case).  So if you can get it for $10, you bite the proverbial bullet...  Which I tend to agree with Jared, but it kills my army building habit...  And customizing to an extent...  But Hasbro's definitely saying "you can't have that for this".  Hell there's a huge gap between most of the VOTC quality compared to the basic line as of today...  The AT-AT Driver is, so far this year, the only actually "close" figure to super articulation out of the first two waves.  To me he's the only thing rivaling VOTC in quality...  2006 hasn't been real impressive thus far...  And testament to the point of this discussion, I hate the $10-ish pricepoint but ya know the most "excited" I got for a figure this year so far is the VOTC line...  And Cody who I'm hoping is more articulated than I fear.

$10 pricepoints are definitely risky things though and can cause consumer burnout so it's a risky thing, and I too can see Hasbro and retail shooting themselves in the foot on this potentially... 

Depressing for me is that I will inevitably want multiple Sun Fac to replace my Geonosian army with, or at least "improve" it since the Saga figure really sucked butt and fell routinely.  The basic and the Masstif one.

Then Utapau Grunts...  I can't even put a number on how many I want.

And as much as I loathe the Clone Commando's legs, I will buy probably two so I have one for my set and one for customs since the upper body is perfect.  Damn the half-assed legs and lacking articulation on them though on him and Sora Bulq...   

I've sorta pondered if a SA line at the high price point wouldn't just satisfy what it is that I want and if I should just bite the bullet as this is what I'd be most likely to get, if I got what I wanted...

I want SA figures, or even just slightly better than what we've seen through most of 2006 anyway, and for the basic pricepoint...  Army building would be what kills me at the $10-ish price is all.  I'd probably not mind as much if not for the fact I love to have multiples of most everything, especially these better figures like Pilot Obi-Wan for instance. 

Now the Obi that's great, he was cheap, but like VOTC Han I had a hard time justifying buying multiples for customizing until he was on sale...  And the Stormie I bought plenty of, few on clearance, but it stung and I hate to say it but even if I saw 200 of them I couldn't have bought them all simply because it would have been financially impossible to justify.  I'd want to, but $10 per would kill it as a possibility.

Hasbro can do better by us though I believe...  They can offer better articulation, I've seen nothing to indicate to me they can't and excuses offered are hollow to me when compared around the toy aisle, even with the license they have.  The more "in" on other lines I get, the more I learn about their hardships as organizations and what they put out there in terms of quality, I cannot accept Hasbro's "wha wha wha, we can't afford to deliver anything better" lines of bull****, I'm sorry.  Fact is Hasbro could profit off the line even with quality increases to the basic line overall...  Even more if they'd cease the dead-end spin-off crap like Choppers and Transformers...  and even more still if they'd capitalize by re-releasing definitive figures instead of odd choices, but that's my opinion.

This topic is really a tough one to grapple with as a collector though, no doubt...  VOTC's the best Hasbro offers (short of Evolutions) yet you want these things that you know you don't want to feel the financial burden with.  Figures cool, price horrendous, and we are torn...   

Hmmm, I'm not wild about the choices for re-release personally...  Some are ok, others though, meh...

-Vader...  Seems overkill to me and he was one of the only figures easy to find down till Christmas.  Is he really needed again when other versions of him ship in other waves?  Wasted slot in the case for doubling up on an army builder IMO.

-Clone...  I don't mind the SA sculpt being re-issued, I think it actually probably outsold the #6 sculpt.  I'd want the Shocktrooper re-issued too but at 1-per case that's not getting many more out there.  A good white SA Clone should be on the pegs routinely I guess...  Then again so should a Stormtrooper, an AOTC Clone, etc...  Instead we get none of those or an inferior sculpt like the CT figure.

-Clone Pilot...  Don't mind this either, I'm ok with it since while it wasn't a huge seller, I know I'd like more and it still did sell by simply being an army builder.  This may afford me the chance to nab a couple more for a nice round total.

-Mace Windu...  Short of getting a new figure this is as good as one could hope for.  Funny how his photo there looks almost like a new figure because it looks noticeably better than the ROTS figure we got.    I know it won't be better, but somehow that photo spiffed him up.  He sold though, kids want him, so that's good I guess...

-Bacara...  Why not release Bly with the correct paint like DD says?  I wouldn't expect the Gree since, to correct him really, you need a lot more than a good coat of paint...  But Bly just needs put out there with the RIGHT paintjob.  Or for that matter why not put out the #33 red or green Commander?  Neither one sat in my area as much as the Bacara figure did...  Believe it or not, it does seem that inferior figures for poseability DO sit compared to their better counterparts.  The Bacara/#33 Commander debate proved that point to me...  POseable, even if it's not in the movie, won out in sales last year it seemed.

-Destroyer Droid...  Again, did this really go over well last year?  Hell, put the battledroid (even though I hate it) in its place, that was a lot harder to find than the Destroyer and inevitably cost less to make.  WTF is up with these decisions though?  Destroyers sat till Christmas and beyond some places.

-Grievous...  Exploding Grievous?  WTF?  Again, why not release a better sculpt?  The Preview figure, the Deluxe (is it really a $10 figure afterall?), or the 4-armed basic figure...  But the exploding one sat last year beyond any of the others, so why re-release that one?  Weird choice.

-R2-D2...  Wasn't terribly hard to find as I recall, and other R2's are coming in other waves...  Is this necessary?  How about sneaking R4-P17 in since he WAS hard to find, or how about the Wookiee Heavy Gunner who was nye on impossible to find?  Yeah they're not the "main" character everyone maybe wants but R2's gonna get other releases in other waves so htis seems wasteful to me.

-Obi-Wan Kenobi...  One of the easiest Col. 1 figures to find last year and they're re-releasing it?  How...  stupid.  Why not release the pilot version at least?  It's simply better overall.

-Anakin...  It's silly to even ask for it at this point but it would've been cool had they decided to actually put a GOOD sculpt of Anakin out instead of this.  Had they opted to actually sneak the Evolutions Anakin in there, that would have been great...  Too much to hope for from the company, especially given what they are deciding to re-release, but it would have been a fantastic choice.

-Yoda...  OK I guess.  Better than the spinning one which, at this point, I'm surprised wasn't the one they decided to put in the case.  This Yoda wasn't too hard to find either but at least it's a better figure generally.

-Chewbacca...  Makes sense mostly.  It was a main figure that turned out to be hard to find for a lot of folks...  The rest of that case is a whole lot of head scratchers for sure though, with a couple ok choices. 

Found Tarkin and Spider Droids on the cheap today.  $3 each, nice!