Is whatever that is supposed to be that the discs are on to the right of the volcano supposed to be white?  I thought I had seen them on a red blob in the Toy Fair photos, and was kind of surprised when I saw the white blob today.  Oh, and can anyone point me to photos of the back of the playset (the area under those catwalk things in the back)?  Every photo I have seen has been from this angle and I'm wondering if Hasbro cheaped out on the back the way they did with the Arena.

See kids, this is what happens when you stay away from most of the big spoilers: you (that is, me) make no sense whatsoever.   

And now, the question that had to be asked sooner or later: is there going to be an "Amputee BBR Anakin Skywalker" figure released at some point, or is that going to be another "we'll leave it to your imaginations" figure?  Years ago, I'd have said there wouldn't be a chance of it, but now, with two Darth Mauls that split in half, who knows how many Lukes and Vaders and Anakins and so on whose arms are removable, and the headless decaying corpse included with Amanaman, I'd be disappointed if they didn't make it.

Hey, there's your mailaway exclusive to close out the ROTS line for the year!

Just a strange idea I had when you mentioned the "head popping" Valin: what if they did rerelease the VOTC Stormtrooper, but they released it with three heads, all in the same package as a regular carded figure:

1 Stormtrooper head
1 Luke Skywalker head with helmet
1 Han Solo head with helmet

They'd probably have to do some retooling on the ball joint at the neck to make this work, and even though Luke is shorter, we could really use resculpts of both Han and Luke in the armor with a new accurate body.  This would allow Hasbro to reuse an old mold, release a figure that people would be guaranteed to buy at least three of (to get one of each figure in a "permanent" manner), and it would allow people to buy multiples of a regular (and the most superior sculpt of) Stormie to build armies with.

Of course, this will never happen, but I like to live in a dream world.  That's where I'm a viking. 

Okay, a couple of questions for the Unleashed collectors out there about some things that I'm confused on right now:

1-What are the differences between the first and current Darth Vader UL and the Removable Helmet version?  Is it just the head and the base that has changed, or are there any other differences in the figures?

2-Has Hasbro said if they will be rereleasing some of the other more difficult to find (and ridiculously priced on Ebay) UL figures in the future?  I'd really like to get a Yoda, and I'm sure a lot of other people would love to have a Boba Fett or one of the other more difficult figures, but it would be nice to not have to sell my kidney to get one.

3-Have the rumored UL for this year (Ventress, Palpatine vs. Yoda, Chewbacca, Clone Trooper, Han Stormtrooper) been confirmed or photographed anywhere?  I know they were not on display at Toy Fair, but I didn't know if Hasbro had said anything in any of the Q and A's about them.

Still on the lookout for that Stormtrooper...and still feeling like a huge hypocrite for my interest in this line.   

Darth Broem, I agree with what you're saying as far as the action features go.  As much as I loathe and despise them, it was the only way we got certain characters in the AOTC/Saga line (your avatar, for example, as well as Count Dooku).  Some of the action features worked quite well and didn't harm the figure's aesthetic appeal at all (Kamino Escape Jango is the first one to come to mind), but others were a complete disaster (Acklay Battle Obi-Wan and his overly friendly right hand, as well as Tatooine Attack Anakin with his "slightly miffed" Jedi foot nudge).  The way things look, several of the ROTS figures are on the non-offensive side of action features, but the way that some of these features depend on leg squeezin' makes me worry that the figures won't be able to sit down at all.

So, when someone finds the Anakin or Obi-Wan figures early (since apparently the only time the local WM employees can read is when it affects my ability to find things), can they do a quick check to let me (and everyone else) know if they can actually fit inside the Jedi Starfighter(s)?  I was hoping they would start giving everyone the "gummy" skirts (check out the Outlander Club Obi-Wan for an example of what I'm talking about) as opposed to the traditional stiff rubber skirts so they could sit down, but off the top of my head, I think that's the only figure they've done that on in the last few years.

After rereading my post, I also wanted to point out that back in the day, I also had to walk to school every day, uphill in both directions, wearing nothing but cardboard boxes on my feet, in the pouring rain without an umbrella. 

As for the robe thing, I'd rather have one "ultimate" version of a character in a particular outfit than 15 different versions of a character where no single one comes close to doing it justice as a "perfect" figure.  I know that Hasbro doesn't want to do a "perfect" figure (how else would they sell the 1000th version of Darth Vader?) and holds back in some areas, but why there are going to be two figures of Anakin in the same outfit (okay, so one has a robe and "spooky eyes") on the first day of release, while neither can serve as a pilot figure for the Jedi Starfighter that will have already  been out for almost two months by that time is beyond me.

There was an old Dana Carvey standup special where he was talking about how his son went nuts over a particular brand of toy, and he was talking about how often, the only difference in the toys would be (and this was reaching) the position of one of the hands.  "Megator, Megotee, Megotoo...each click of the finger means $7.99 more from you!"  (I probably have the quote wrong, but that's the spirit of it, I think)

Even with the VOTC figures, Hasbro held back.  With at least half of those figures, you can look at them and say "well, this would have been better if (fill in the blank)."  If there was a theoretical Collection 3 (WTF am I thinking?  More glut?) with just the main characters in a multi-articulated, non-action feature marred assortment, I'd pass on Collection 1 entirely.  But then again, that's probably the reason there aren't mega-articulated versions of the main characters: if there were, nobody would be buying their "Darth Vader with projectile vomit" action figures and it would kill their whole "kids love action features" theory dead in the water.

Okay, I'm going to stop being so negative about all this.  This is what happens when you have a bad day and decide to post.

My one and only request for Collection 1.  I want an Obi-Wan, an Anakin, and a Mace with full Jedi robes.  No stupid action feature that mars the robe itself.  They can even put Agen Kolar's robe (modified?) on them to do it so they can have their stupid action features still...I just want a figure of each of them in a robe. 

To think that we have yet to get an Obi-Wan from AOTC in a full robe that isn't drenched in water or that has been assaulted by the fluff cycle is baffling, and there hasn't been a Mace figure in a decent robe since the Episode I Sneak Preview figure is baffling to me.  I'm hoping this will not continue with the ROTS figures.

As for the action features, back in the day we had what is apparently now rare these days: imagination.  We didn't need oversized firing rocket launchers for arms or "Sith Lightning Attack" missles coming out of people's sleeves; we just made believe that they were there.  By that same idea, I again point out that I have yet to see a single child buy a Star Wars toy in the last three years that is not a role-play lightsaber.  Either way, this is the last year where Hasbro can claim that they have a huge fanbase of children buying the toys, because after this year, the collectors are all Hasbro is going to have.

Anyway there are nice loose pics of Dooku over at Rebelscum.  Big Spoilers though on that figure if you don't want to know.

Although the figure looks really nice, I think that they (RS) kind of pushed something a little further on the "spoiler" feature than it was intended to go, or Hasbro has screwed up the spoiler itself.  I'll attempt to explain this by darkening the text, although this hasn't worked in the past...

The left hand post surgical removal, ha ha, doesn't look like it was intended to be removed.  Where the right hand has the peg on the hand/wrist and the hole in the arm, on the left arm, the peg is on the arm and the hole is in the wrist.  Maybe I'm not up on the latest SW universe skeletal structures and everything, but I always figured that if the Chosen One sliced through my arm with a lightsaber, it would leave a "clean" cut.

The figure does look great though.  Needless to say I'm going to be going after the Collection 2 figures first and the Collection 1 non-Clone figures will wait (probably only a few minutes, but they will still wait).