I saw a new wave listed in the latest issue of Toyfare.  It's got Flash, Snake Eyes (original uni in black), a Crimson Guard, Iron Grenadiers Destro and Snowjob.  This line is getting tougher to resist with the quality of the figures.

Wow, this thread fell by the wayside.  I guess everybody's had their fill of what, the third release of a TIE Bomber?  I had to admit though, I like the paintjob on this version.

Natalie Portman has a very similar stance on the movies as well.  I think that they might have all approached the project thinking that it was going to be incredibly fun to do, as they might have had great memories of the original movies.  But the actual process of making a movie like this can seem like total drudgery.  There's so much blue/green screen work that the actors are totally taken out of their element.  And truth be told the dialogue isn't so great as to show off their acting chops.  Harrison Ford has said as much numerous times. 

Plus as film projects go the pay for these movies isn't that high.  There are definitely residuals from the normal outlets and licensed products though.  But a big selling for the prequels has been "Hey, you're going to be in Star Wars!"

And then there's the fans.  Thinking about it objectively, we tend to be a somewhat....obsessive lot.  I imagine that a good number of Star Wars fans always trying to track down these actors for autographs can seem like a bit much.

There's also something to be said for Ewan McGregor basically being too cool for school.  And it's something that a lot of British people in general are guilty of from time to time.  They love something intensely for a while and then all of a sudden it becomes uncool and they hate it.  I see it all the time with the British music scene.  They'll be completely mad for a new band for about 6 months or so, saying that they're the best band ever, blah blah blah.  6 months go by and all of a sudden they hate said band that they were raving about.  Whu?!  HUH?!?!?!  This kind of about face is the toughest one to understand, but if you're familiar with British pop culture you no doubt know what I'm talking about.

But given most of these things, I can somewhat understand the potential for disillusionment with the actors in the Saga.

It's not totally unexpected that the clips would get pulled offline.  Zeppelin's late manager, Peter Grant, was incredibly protective of the band and their rights.  He was even known for going into record shops and personally confiscating Zep bootlegs back in the day.  This seems like the modern embodiment of the way he did business and represented the band.

The cell phone videos aren't going to eat into DVD sales by a longshot.  I think the band's concern is more about the quality of the sounds and images and their desire to give the fans a proper presentation...and to get paid.

They transposed the keys on the songs down by about one whole tone.  Plant's voice can't hit those same high notes anymore.  That's actually a natural occurrence with voices.  As people age their vocal range tends to diminish.

Found the Galactic Heroes cinema scenes today.  But I keep on thinking WHERE ARE THE COMIC 2-PACKS?!?!?

Hmmmm.  So Incinerator Stormtroopers with Vader and Shadow Stormtroopers with Palpatine, huh?  It looks like they possibly redid the softgoods with Palpatine, but that remains to be seen. 

The one thing I wonder about the Troopers with Palpatine is if they're actually all black, or if they're the grey/chrome troopers.  The photo simply isn't good enough to make that determination.  But at least we know now where some of these troopers are going to be slotted, because it was getting pretty obvious that they wouldn't release some of them in the Basic Figure line.