Online shopping is so unsporting--like those canned hunts where somebody trees a bear and then you go shoot it down. Not a fair fight.

If I could hunt down Target employees, hit with a dart filled with "How Can I Help You" serum, tag them for future hunts and move on, I'd be happy with that. 

I do like the hunt when the stuff actually makes it to the pegs - in other words when I can find stuff.

I absolutely HATE the hunt when I can read that people are finding stuff all over the country and the pegs in my area are either bare or stale - this happens A LOT and I don't casually go hunting for new stuff - I hit stores EVERY DAY.

While there are some definite downsides to ordering online (unless then have a mint condition guarantee, you are always vulnerable to less than mint merchandise arriving), there are sometimes that I find myself wishing "If Hasbro would just let me buy from them directly, I wouldn't have to go through this bull****!"

Hasbro should run a RELIABLE "one of every figure" club, sort of like a subscription, say they have 60 figures a year. Let them have $8 per figure - that means $480 per year gets you one of every figure, MOC in a starcase. I would also make it where the purchase is divided up - charge $40 a month and if you want, do like what Cell Phones do - have it be year-to-year and if someone cancells early, charge them a cancellation penalty. If $80 a month got me doubles of the five new figures that month to my door w/o any searching, extra gas expense or frustration, I think I would be REALLY hard-pressed not to take Hasbro up on a deal like that.

Sweet! Good thing I haven't bought a BARC yet.

Although considering the spoilers I've seen, I think it would make more sense to put the Wookiee with the AT-RT and the clone with the BARC.... *scratches head*

*spoilers*

Actually, if you take a look at, I think, issue 3 of the ROTS comic book adaptation, Chewie and Tarful help Yoda fight his way past what looks like a squad of the clone that comes with the Barc - so perhaps they actually got it right (if the comic is to be believed).

I'm in the same predicament that Jared is in.

I'm tempted to have them shipped to my job 'cause I should be moving in the next month.

I find it hard to believe that after you have to send in the UPC, the original receipt and the certificate, Hasbro would still have the balls to tell you - "sorry, we're out, didn't you read the fine print, it says 'while supplies last'" - cause part of me wants to just wait to send it in after I'm sure I'm in the new house - which could be as early as mid-June.

Agreed Pete on a lot of your points.  The first Act was way way way too in depth while the end was way way way too rushed.  It is not even close to being on par with the TPM and AOTC Novelizations IMO

You're exactly right, I've read almost all of the PT hardcovers:

Cloak of Deception
The Phantom Menace
Rogue Planet
The Approaching Storm
Attack of the Clones
Shatterpoint
Cestus Deception
Jedi Trial
Labyrinth of Evil
Revenge of the Sith

and I hate to say it, but out of all of them as books that tell a story - the Revenge of the Sith novellization is the worst. Labyrinth of Evil was leaps and bounds better.

I think Hasbro did it out of necessity for preserving the action feature.

You can't have the lightsaber loosely fitting in the character's hand and then have the character wave the arm about widly and STILL expect the figure to be holding the lightsaber. Solution: mold the lightsaber into the hand. Placate the Collectors: Make the hand removable and include a regular hand holding nothing.

As far as I'm concerned I don't mind them, at least Hasbro tried with these to accomodate as many people as possible. Personally I don't need a lit lightsaber accessory and prefer having all of the options offered by the first Obi-Wan and Anakin figures.

I picked up a case of Wave 2 today at WalMart - unfortunately the packaging on all of them was trashed so I ended up leaving one of the Vaders behind.

I've opened up the Vulture Droid, one of the Jet-Pack Clones and the Vader here at work. The Vader is FANTASTIC. This is the deluxe Vader figure that should have been released first. While I do like the quick change Anakin/Vader figure - there really isn't a point to it when you have a deluxe figure like this second Vader come right after it.

The Jet-pack Clone is great. I know some of you don't like the lack of articulation on the trooper, but I'm fine with that and I'm glad I didn't put the second one back - my Clone army needs at least TWO aerial combat units.

The Vulture Droid is nice - I'm glad they didn't try the split wing legs like they did on the 3 Droid Fighter set for TPM. I don't mind this being a repaint/re-release or the price. I would have preferred that the Buzz droid have a peg like the ones that came with the Droid Tri-fighter to plug into the sockets on Anakin and Obi-Wan's starfighters.

I think this assortment is completely messed up - I can see Vader and Jet-pack Clonetrooper being INCREDIBLY popular. Why not just release a wave of just those two figures - three of each in the case? Everyone loves Vader and the army builders are going to snatch up the clone.

Yoda and the Vulture droid could have been saved for the next assortment, just throw in either the Clone Troopers or the Dwarf Spider Droid and you're set with that assortment. I don't see why demand of those two deluxe figures would be any less - to me the Vulture Droid is an army builder in its own right.

I too am surprised the Blue Jedi Starfighter bronze dome R4 isn't coming down the pike either.

Perhaps if the Anakin one sells well, TRU will want it. I mean, how many versions of this Jedi Starfighter to we need really?

And don't forget we also saw Mace fly a purple one in the Animated Series - so that's another variant possibility.

I just wish they were giving us Anakin with a soft goods skirt so he could actually SIT in the fighter!