Got mine in today's mail.  Postage was fully paid for on LFL's end, so it's interesting to hear of postage due from other people.  Got the GC, three Clone Wars promo cards, and the two patches.  

What does it say about me that I was more excited to get a package that had a return address of Lucasfilm than I was to get all the stuff inside?

You know, my main gripe with Hasbro (of which there have been MANY over the years) is that their eyes are bigger than their stomachs, so to speak.  They have put out around 18 figures so far this year (not counting the HOF wave) and out of those, how many of them can we honestly say we've seen on a regular basis?

Three.  The Hoth wave, which came out in early December.  Through the help of online friends, I've managed to keep up to date through the Yavin wave, but I have yet to see any of the Luke Jedi wave or J'Quille on a peg, and I only saw Lando, Rappertunie, Holo Luke, and Elom once.  The Yavin wave I have seen a few times, but they're there a few hours and then they're gone again, not to show up again for weeks and weeks.  It took me three separate times to be able to complete that wave, and that is with characters that, let's face it, aren't exactly going to be flying off the pegs if they were put out in decent numbers.

The point to all my incessant rambling is that Hasbro keeps on cranking new stuff out but doesn't spend enough time getting it to the shelves.  By the time a new wave comes out, people should have been able to find the last wave, for pete's sake.  Instead, Hasbro just gives some excuse like "those cases are in the system" as if to say, it's not our problem.  If they're not going to work on getting the stuff out, then don't make so damned much in the first place.  I like having a lot of different figures come out in a year as much as the next guy, but a large variety does no good when nobody can find anything.  Hasbro can moan all they want about retail not ordering enough, but they're to blame as well, if not moreso for the lack of new product.

For me, the POTJ line will always be the pinnacle of case packouts.  There weren't any constant recards and it seemed as if every case was evenly packed with new figures.  If a figure was shipped in a subsequent case, it was because there was a demand for it.  And outside of a few figures (primarily the Bo'Shek and Eeth Koth waves), none of the POTJ stuff was particularly difficult to find (oh, and the clean Biker Scout, which I saw once and from there on out it was always the dirty version).  To me, that system worked.  Why Hasbro went back to their POTF2-era four new figures and 8 pegwarmers is beyond me.  To make it worse, they've started shortpacking figures that are new to a case (Elom, for example) while repackaging figures that everybody either already has or doesn't want in the first place (Hangar Duel Anakin, Coruscant Obi-Wan).  

The thing that is scaring me is that these last two Saga waves are going to be a repeat of the last few waves of the other lines.  With the OTC coming up, Hasbro will be switching to a new SKU for those figures, and the Saga SKU will pretty much go away completely.  I don't think I need to remind anyone that's been around since the beginning of POTF2 of the Spacetrooper/Darktrooper wave, the Sio Bibble wave, TC-14/R2-B1, or the Motti/Leia wave problems.  

And the thing that irks me most is that even after all the problems they've had over the years, and the success with the POTJ case packouts, Hasbro still hasn't figured out case assortments.  Sad.

1.  I love old television sitcoms (especially Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver)
2.  I am allergic to cheese
3.  I just accidentally ran a red light a few hours ago
4.  I take at least one shower every day
5.  I am proud of the fact that I am a "dork"
6.  I still believe in chivalry and practice it regularly
7.  My left foot is asleep
8.  I think waitresses are underappreciated for doing a largely thankless sub-minimum wage job that depends on the kindness of strangers for financial reward
9.  I once gave David Prowse the finger (he didn't see me)
10.  I think that anyone who charges money for their autograph out of a desire to make a quick buck for themselves needs to reevaluate why they became an entertainer (this relates to why number 9 occurred in the first place)
11.  My favorite book is "To Kill a Mockingbird" and I even thought the movie was great as well (a rare thing for me)
12.  I have been cheated on by every girlfriend I've ever dated because I was "the type of guy you marry" and not the one you want to date seriously.  

While I do think that this whole thing has been a total and complete disaster, free patches, $50 GC, or not, the one thing I am more worried about is people getting other people's order information.  Luckily, I received my own order info, but I have no idea if anyone else received mine by mistake.  The thing that worries me is that my email confirmation *did* include part of my credit card number (the typical XXXXX followed by the last few digits), and that is something I've never liked etailers doing in the first place.  So, while most of the number is hidden, if someone got someone else's order information, they also had access to part of their CC number, despite what the folks at SWShop or their partners say about it.

I seriously hope they iron out all the glitches before they open the site up again.  Still, it's going to be a pain when I try to reorder the Kermit and the site continues to crash because they've underestimated demand again.  As has been said before, I have a bad feeling about this.

"Bus Stop" by (I think) the Hollies.  Or "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.

From the list of items I've seen, the only thing I'm really interested in (or that I can actually-probably-afford) is the Indy Kermit figure.  I grew up on the Muppets and I love the Indy films, so this is like fanboy heaven for me.  My main concern is that this will be a very limited item like the other Palisades Muppet con exclusives; you would think that LFL would order a lot, as it's sure to be one of the hotter items tomorrow, but if I've learned anything in my years of collecting, it's that people always either over-estimate or under-estimate demand.

I just want my Kermit figure!  Is that so wrong?

I was just perusing the archives and noticed nobody had replied to you about this RT, so here you go, some five months later.

Basically, with "Evil Dead" the best version to get if you just want the movie itself is the single disc Anchor Bay SE released in 2002.  It has all the extras included on the "Book of the Dead" set (although some of them aren't accessible through the menu; you have to manually enter the title numbers; if you'd like, I'll do some digging to see if I can find the info on how to access them) but at about a third of the original retail price.  I see this at Wal-Mart on a regular basis for just under 15 dollars.  If I'm not mistaken, the BOTD version is out of print now and the SE has all the material it has anyway, so unless you're wanting the packaging (which admittedly, is extremely cool), I'd say to go for the 15 dollar SE.

As you noted, there's only one version of Evil Dead II available at this point and it's actually quite good.  The transfer is the best I've ever seen the film look and the commentary is easily one of the funniest and most entertaining I've ever heard on any DVD.  This one is fairly cheap these days as well, and is well worth picking up.  It's my favorite of the three films and my favorite of all the DVDs done of the trilogy.

"Army of Darkness" is a film that I'm still not as fond of as the other two.  That said, the best version of the film can be found on the two-disc "Boomstick" version.  It is actually just a repackaging of the Anchor Bay THX version and the "Bootleg" (also released previously as the "Director's Cut") version in one two-disc package.  Disc one is the theatrical version and only has a trailer, the alternate "future" ending, and a short (30 minute) documentary on the making of the film.  The second disc (the "Bootleg"/"Director's Cut") has a version of the film that is about 15 minutes longer, a commentary track with Bruce, Sam, and Ivan Raimi, and a few deleted scenes.  If you get the "Boomstick" version, you've got everything that has been released before.  Anchor Bay just keeps changing the names and artwork for reissues and what not.

That being said, the transfer on the "Bootleg"/"Director's Cut" disc is horrible at times.  They used some really dodgy sources (often video dailies) for some of the added scenes and it looks like a tenth generation bootleg VHS copy at times.  Plus, and this is just my opinion, the film works better with the S-Mart ending and at the shorter theatrical run time.  Your mileage may vary, though.  AOD's European distributor actually released a DVD of the Director's Cut with a pristine transfer (apparently they had the original source material on film whereas AB/Universal US didn't), so with AB's history of releasing this title over and over, it wouldn't surprise me if yet another version of AOD is coming in the next few years with the improved transfer.

So, to sum up, if you're keeping score, here's how I would go with the discs:

Evil Dead: Anchor Bay SE (2002) in keepcase
Evil Dead II: Anchor Bay SE (2001) in keepcase
Army of Darkness: Anchor Bay Boomstick Edition (2003)

Hope that helps you out and sorry it was so late in coming!

Obi-Dad: the bases for Obi-Wan and Jango do indeed fit together.  Jango's base comes in three pieces: the "flip stand", the column (which is telescoping), and the column base.  The flip stand attaches to the front of the column base to make one big base for Jango.

The Obi-Wan's "base" is also in two parts: the column, and the column base.  There is a "hook" in Obi-Wan's column base that fits nicely into a notch on the side of Jango's column base.  So, when you get them both, they do fit together to make one (slightly) large Kamino base with two separate columns.

I'd also like to alleviate some concerns I had before I was able to locate these last year (through an online retailer): Jango's "flipping" action does work quite well and his magnets are strong enough to let him catch onto the column easily and quickly.  It's a very cool action and is miles ahead of the crappy "this takes practice" approach of the Force Flipping Deluxe Jedi from the Episode II launch in 2002.  So, in essence, for once, the action feature Hasbro included actually does work like it's supposed to.