Found the second wave of the 2 packs at Wal-Mart today, and picked up the droids and Han/Chewie. These are the first of the newer 5 POA figures I've grabbed. Overall, not too bad I guess for the price. It is tough to say really, since we've been spoiled over the past 5-10 years with some pretty nicely done figures. It felt nice paying $9.96 for two figures though. If these had come out in the early POTF2 days, instead of the He-Man figures, I'm sure they would have seemed pretty great. Now, they're "ok for the price" I guess. I do appreciate the simplicity, and I will say that all four of them stood instantly out of the package without any problems - which is nice too. I think a little more in the way of paint apps could have improved them some as well (particularly on Chewie).
I'm sure it is more cost effective because of fewer parts, but I wonder how much different it would be if they just re-used old figures that have been around (and re-used) like the VOTC Han and Chewie and stuck them in a two pack. I suppose the number of parts would make that more expensive for Hasbro. I think I'll keep picking up the OT ones though.