(Click HERE for the discussion on Wave 4...  )



So the Official Site has finally shown off the final 3 figures in the Star Tours line.  I really think that when they hit the stores in a few months, they'll be on the Saga card backs, rather than the former POTJ ones, which would be kind of a bummer since they won't look like one nice complete, and uniform, set when all placed together.  So what do you guys think of them?

The R5-D4 looks pretty good, though his blast mark is a tad big.  I really hope his head is articulated, as it's hard to tell from the picture.  I'd like to get a comparison shot of this one with the ANH version, to see how they compare.

This SK-Z38 "bird" figure is frankly a huge disappointment, and flat-out dumb IMO.  A bird?  C'mon...  

Finally, the G2-9T is just a repaint of the earlier droid of the same make.  Disappointing too, though we knew this one was coming.

Oh well, not too thrilling overall - especially after all the build up in recent months, though I'll be snatching them all.  The R5 has some nice potential, but I'd like to see one in person before I really judge it.  I just hope that another R5 droid is eventually released in the regular line, so we can customize armies of them for half the (Disney) price...

So what did everyone think of last night's Academy Awards show?

Certainly some interesting, funny, and heartwarming moments.  I thought that Steve Martin was a great host.  Very funny, and kept things light, despite the goings on in the world (and protests thereof at the show).

It was great to see Adrien Brody pull the Best Actor award, and give such a heartfelt and appropriate speech.  Not to mention him laying down a fat 15 second smackeroo on Halle Barry!    I thought that Daniel Day Lewis was an equally worthy nominee for the award though.

Chicago cleaned house, taking home the coveted Best Picture award, Supporting Actress (a very pregnant Catherine Zeta Jones), and several other nods...  We're actually working on an audit for one of their producers in that film which is based on Box Office receipts, so it's nice to see the flick get so much publicity and recognition.  Should make our client a happy fella!

Nicole Kidman and her prosthetic nose won for Best Actress.  Would've preferred Julianne Moore or Diane Lane myself, but Nicole was certainly deserving.

AOTC got shut out, losing it's one (or two?) categories it was nominated in.  LOTR beat it out for one of them, but surprisingly didn't win much else.  I'd have to agree with most folks that Gollum pretty much blows the AOTC Yoda away...

And the highlight of the night was of course when Michael Moorer won for Bowling for Columbine.  Got a huge ovation, to which he responded with the (at some point) expected political statement about the war, at which time most of the cheers turned into resounding boos.

He said something to the effect of:  "We live in fictitious times, with fictitious election results creating a fictitious president, who has lead us into a fictitious war for fictitious reasons."  I would've preferred for a more subtle statement of protest as offered by various other stars in attendance, but oh well...

Not too thrilled about any of the musical numbers in the show, which seemed rather uninspiring to me.  Another highlight was the surprise winner for the Best Song category:  Eminem for "Lose Yourself" from 8 mile.  Barbara Streisand's face just wilted as she had to (annoyingly) announce him as the winner.  Pretty funny!  Too bad he wasn't there to accept the award though.

On a weird side note, one of the performers and Supporting Actress nominees - Queen Latifah - was at the El Pollo Loco fast food place right next to our office this evening!  I live at the base of the hills where a lot of the celebrities live here in L.A., so I see a fair amount of them cruising the neighborhood...  

So what was everyone else's thoughts on the show and the winners?

BTW, Zuckass44, I think you owe us some poll results on the matter, don't ya'?!  

Alright, this may be a rather lame question for some of you younger folk, but for those of us getting a little "long in the tooth," it's a fairly important issue...

So do you guys "exercise" at all, and if so, what do you do?

As for me, much of my life growing up (until I hit about 28), revolved around sports.  I played a lot of basketball, beach volleyball, soccer, baseball, etc., so sports was just always a part of my life.  Not to mention that I did a lot of hiking and running and was out dancing (strenuously) several nights a week throughout my 9 years in college (yes, I said 9).  As a result, I never had a need to "find time" to exercise - it was just built into my regular lifestyle and I was therefore always in excellent shape.

But then came the real world...  I finally had to "grow up" and get one of those damned full time jobs in order to hang on to my lady, and well...now I sit in front of a computer almost all day long at my auditing job, and as a result, all those physical activities I used to be heavily involved in are now virtually nil.  I'm 5'11" and was a perfect 165 back in my "playing days", but with the last several years of stagnating and complacent lifestyle, I've ballooned up to a rather large, and definitely overweight, 190 (it's all in the belly).  I'm beginning to look a bit like my father-in-law, and he rather resembles Santa Clause, so that's not such a good thing...

Basically, I need to get my butt back in at least decent shape, but just don't have much time to devote to exercising (which is what it's now called at my ripe old age of 32   ).  I've tried to cut back on the fast food and beers, and have hit the water pretty hard rather than those sodas always calling to me at the office, but it's clearly evident to me that things aren't gonna change until I add some exercise into the mix.

My wife and I do still get in the occassional tennis match, round of golf, or 1 on 1 on the hoops court, but it's only once a month or so.  I'm too lazy to hit the gym (which is a mere 500 feet across the street from my office, and partially owned by Magic Johnson BTW  )  My Mom even gave me her old NordikTrak for the house, but I haven't unboxed it and put it all back together.  We don't have any kids to chase around the house either, but we do partake in that "other" form of husband/wife exercise on occasion...

My body's breakin' down on me and I need to get it in gear or I'll be toast before I hit 40!  So what do you guys do?  Any quick and beneficial exercise tips?  Better pay attention here to the rest of you also fighting the battle of the bulge, and I ain't talking about looking at those Shania pictures!  

DSJ, Morgbug, MPL...?  You guys might be the only ones older than me 'round here...  What's your game plan?

Help me health nuts, you're my only hope...

- Fat Matt

Two of the well known fellas from the Vintage collecting community, Isaac Lew and Bill Cable, have designed a couple of really COOL Star Wars collecting T-shirts, that are currently available for sale for around $15 - $18 each (shipped).  There are two styles of shirts - Modern or Vintage (collecting).  The Modern shirt is only available in white, but the Vintage shirt is available in both black or white colors.  If you need further info or would like to place an order, drop Isaac Lew an e-mail at ilew@attbi.com, and please tell him JediDefender sent you!

I got both the white Modern and black Vintage shirts from Isaac a couple weeks ago, and let me just tell you that they're WAY cool and well worth it!     Just think of all the babes you could pick up by sporting these sweet duds around town (or maybe just at C3  )!  Without further ado, here they are (superimposed graphics in these shots, but the real thing looks just as nice, if not better):

Modern style front (only in white)


Modern style back (notice what Fett's holding?)


Vintage style front (black)


Vintage style back (black)


Vintage style front (white)


Vintage style back (white)


Get 'em before they're all gone!  They won't last long...

E-mail Isaac at ilew@attbi.com if you're interested!

Hasbro just unveiled a couple new figures from the upcoming Clone Wars line, due out in the fall:  Anakin and Durge.  Check 'em out:




Some more pictures and the full story is at this Hasbro link:
http://starwars.hasbro.com/bountyhunter/repnews_content.cfm?id=113

Hmm, interesting...  Can't say that I'm terribly thrilled with these, but I guess this line is EU after all... Nicely detailed and accessorized, at least.  What do you all think?

It's only been almost 11 months now since many of us toughed out the wild late night crowds for the AOTC (& Saga) version of Midnight Madness (Part II) last year, but what were your experiences, if any, related to the original Midnight Madness back in 1999, corresponding with the release of the new Episode 1 figure line?  Did you go?  What was it like?

I had earlier staked out a local Toys 'R' Us in Orange County, to swing by at midnight to pick up the new Ep. 1 figures.  I had my wife stalking our local KayBee up by our house for the Midnight release as well (just to cover all bases).  Little did either of us realize what was in store for this event...

I swung by the Tustin TRU around 11:30pm to hop in line a little early just to be safe.  What I saw as I entered the parking lot was a site to behold.  The line was already several hundred people long and wrapped all the way through the entire shopping complex.  After regaining my senses following this surprise, I immediately jumped on the phone and told my wife she better get over to her KB quick, as this was going to be far bigger and more crowded than I ever expected.

I hopped in line, disappointed at my prospects at this point, and waited.  Finally, at around 12:15am the doors opened, and all madness broke loose.  No crowd control or plan was initially implemented at this TRU.  Hundreds just bumrushed the SW section, and grabbed at anything they could get their hands on.  Total insanity!  By the time I finally made my way in and through the crowd, the majority of the figures were gone, and people were starting to brawl over the last few pathetic little "Battle Bags" - that's how bad it was.  I didn't even attempt to find anything.  Just gave up and took the whole scene in for posterity's sake.  A true spectacle to behold.

After a good 45 minutes to an hour of pure bedlam, the TRU employees asked everyone to make their purchases and exit the store.  They said that they'd quickly clean up the mess, restock the pegs, and let us all back in for round 2 if we were interested.  With nothing in hand, I bolted for the door, and a prime spot at the front of the line, while everyone else was proceeding through the checkout lines.

When they re-opened about 45 minutes later, the TRU employees had developed and implemented a game plan to keep the chaos to a minimum.  Single file line, grab one figure from each peg and keep moving in a slow and steady manner.  It surprisingly worked quite well the second go 'round, and I got pretty much all the loot I was looking for - completely filling up my small hand basket (no room for carts) and overflowing items out of my shirt, arms and anywhere else I could stash stuff.  I unloaded my figure stash in my car and went back in for round 3 to pick up more figures for the loose set and the vehicles and larger items that I couldn't carry earlier.  I eventually wound up with everything, so all in all, I was pleased and can look back on that night with some very wild and fond memories!

Not so much for my poor wife though, as there was a similar scene, though in a much smaller and more confined store at KB.  She dove in there like a real trooper, amidst a good 75-100 guys, and grabbed whatever she could.  Took one helluva beating in the process too...  Worked well though, since she wound up with some nicer cards than I had found, so we combined the goods, picked the best stuff, and returned the extras.

What a night!  So how 'bout you?  What are your memories of Midnight Madness back in 1999...?

Just polished off my second great transaction with the Canadian legend known as  Morgbug!  As smooth and enjoyable as I expected with Brent (aside from his incessant Celtics babble).  A total lack of creativity when it comes to him decorating his packages though...  

Just don't let him sucker you in with all the little freebies he likes to include in his packages - especially if you're an obsessive compulsive completist!  Sheer marketing genius from this clever Canucklehead.  Of course, I gave him a very nice freebie in return...    

Thanks B.  A pleasure as always...  (and no more bills in the box, I promise  )  Cheers!