I thought I saw someone post about this on JD somewhere, but couldn't find a thread.

If you haven't checked out the Light and Magic documentaries on Disney+ you should give it look.  Its fairly comprehensive, but there are some really cool things in there that I hadn't seen before.  It was great to watch while on the treadmill.

It spends a lot of time on the early years of ILM and the people that drove the OT special effects.  It moves a lot more quickly from '83 until now.

One big thing that I didn't realize is that John Knoll (from ILM) was one of the co-creators of Photoshop with his brother.  He was trying to figure out how to do some digital editing and morphing and essentially created the original Photoshop before it was sold off to Adobe.  I checked, and his and his brother's name are still near the top of the list for credits when Photoshop is loading.  Very cool.

Is this the complete list of what is up for pre-order tomorrow?
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (Wandering Jedi)
- Darktrooper
- R2-SHW
- Hoth Rebel Troop Pack (Pulse)
- Multi Color Retro Snowspeeder Luke (Target)

No Black Series, correct.

In the spirit of Festivus...

There seem to be more this year.

- Rancor fail
- Excessive repaints
- Price increases, especially for "deluxe" figures
- Product management team at Hasbro
- Hard to find retailer exclusives and pre-order windows that last 90 seconds

We have gotten some really nice 6" figures this year, and its nice to see them going back in time to fill out things like Rogue One.  We've received a few new 3.75" figures but not nearly enough.  I'd really like to see them "world build / expression" out some of the secondary characters from The Mandalorian. 

I do like the troop packs they've started releasing this year, and I'm really looking forward to finally receiving the Razor Crest.

One more - I've been filling my display and finally opening long stored vehicles and figures.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when a figure's foot peg whole is too short or narrow to set on a stand.  I can usually modify a stand by sanding the peg narrower and shorter with my Dremel tool, but foot peg wholes should never be too small.  Luckily this happens less than 10% of the time, but its still annoying.

I've got a complete carded collection of the Saga and Power of the Jedi I'm looking to offload as whole sets.  I'm guessing everyone here has what they need, but if you know of anyone looking for these please send them my way. 

From 4-LOM to Zuckass (Twitter) states that there will be a new Black Series reveal and pre-order tomorrow.  Not sure if this is a Wal-Mart exclusive or not.

I finally built a display to house a bunch more toys, so I'm cracking open a lot of dusty boxes and filling the shelves.

I thought I would post some quick commentary on what I'm opening.

- OTC Sandcrawler - Kinda weak in my opinion.  $60 toy from 2004 is biggish, with three figures, but limited play value, and no electronics.  The side door doesn't even reach the ground so your droids can roll in and out.  I never picked up the new Disney version so I'll have to see if that might be worth my while.

- Imperial Combat Assault Tank (Rogue One) - All kinds of awesome, but you already new this.  The detail on this thing is amazing.  The working hatches, the moving treads, the kyber crystal holders - so cool and really a decent value for what I paid for it ($72).  I gotta track down all my Imperials and fill this thing up with a driver, a gunner, etc.

- U-Wing (Rogue One) - I know people griped about this not being to scale and not having room for a small squad in the side/back, but I think this is a pretty cool "toy".  Love the Nerf launcher (I know some people hate this feature, but I would have loved this as a kid and prefer these are toys vs. models).  The wing sweep mechanism is simple and different.  Overall pretty solid especially at a $45 price point (maybe it was more at retail but this is what I paid for it).  Sure it'd be nice if they made it twice as wide so you could have a K2-SO in the cockpit too, and room for a few figures in back, but I'm guessing that would have easily sent the price point to $100-$120.  Overall its very nice.

- 6" Snowspeeder - I was really on the fence about getting this because these vehicles take up so much room, but I did want the Dak Ralter.  I'm glad I got it on sale because I'm really not that impressed with it.  Its nice and all, but still big and not super cool.  I'm more impressed with their smaller vehicles/beasts than this thing.

- Jabba's Palace (TVC) - Overall its really a good value for $50.  Two figures and cool scenery.  It took me forever to figure out that the Han in Carbonite was magnetic and stuck to the wall lever thing.  It coulda used some better directions.

Jeff posted this info in the vintage section as well, but there are also three all new 6" figures coming as part of this.



https://www.starwars.com/news/clone-wars-2d-micro-series-figures

- ARC Trooper
- Mace Windu
- General Grievous

Its interesting that they're making three all new sculpts here while the Vintage versions are just repacks.  While I'll always take new figures, I'd sure rather have something more current from Rogue One, Solo, TROS, etc.

If they keep this going I sure hope they make a Yoda, and ideally a deluxe figure of Yoda on Kybuck.