Just a heads-up on the next wave of Collection 1 that is already out in some areas.  I found the wave (Explodo-Grievous, CC, CP, and the Palpatine) yesterday at WM buried behind all the usual figures on the front.  And yes, for those of you who don't have it yet, I think you will really enjoy the Clone Commander, but I'm also going to come out and say that I think the Clone Pilot isn't so great.  I know he's going to be sitting in a seat all the time, but still, they could have at least made his head turnable.

So, my question/statement is this:

1.  (the question) Has the Palpatine with the correct (his own) saber been spotted anywhere.  I was really hoping that the red saber would be hidden behind the photo inlay, but no such lucky, and I am really pissed off about this, as it is a figure I really wanted badly.

2.  (the statement)  I also wanted to give everyone a heads-up on the Explodo-Grievous.  You're going to want to keep a couple of those clear rubber bands hanging around for this figure, because he doesn't exactly hold together too well.  There is a small magnet on the base of his spine that connects with where (I guess) his coccyx (sp?) would be, but it's not all that strong, and his upper torso doesn't hold together too well under the weight of the cloak.  It's not Saga Mace Windu's Battle Droid bad, but it's not that far from it.

First of all, the Anakin and Obi-Wan are amazing when you put them together.  They are literally the centerpiece on my coffee table right now.  Easily the best Unleashed that have ever been done when combined.  Even my mother who came by for a visit was saying how great they looked.

As for your situation, Beth, I'm going to try to explain this the best I can (although it's very difficult to do without pictures):

Regarding Anakin's "lava" attachments, there is a very strange way to do things that isn't even made clear by the packaging or any photos I have seen. 

The two lava pieces themselves fit together by inserting a peg on the back of the right piece (the one that angles left over Anakin's right shoulder) into a hole near the top of the left piece (the one that angles over his left shoulder).  Also, near the base of the right piece, there is a square peg that fits into a square slot at the base of the left piece.  This makes the lava into one big piece of, well, lava.   

The lava fits onto the base like this:  take the side of the base with the three little designs (the opposite side has two and is the side with the hole for Anakin's foot near it) and the square hole and face it toward you: this is the front.  The right lava piece slides (obviously) into the hole on the top of the base.  The left lava piece slides into the hole on the front of the base.  You may need to connect the lava in the method I mentioned above first to do this, but it's fairly easy to do either way.

Once you have the base assembled for Anakin, you slide his metal foot peg into the hole on the base, and there is a peg on the left lava flow that fits into a hole in his back on his belt.  His foot will then sit directly to the left of the left lava piece and will make it a whole lot more stable (and realistic, as otherwise he'd burn his foot clean off). 

Finally, the two bases (Anakin and Obi-Wan) fit together by inserting the piece of upward jutting lava on Anakin's base through the last elongated slot on the front of Obi-Wan's lava.  It's a loose fit, but Obi-Wan's lava lays perfectly on top of Anakin's and it truly joins their bases together in a secure and aesthetically pleasing manner.

If you have any other questions, just post and I'll do what I can to answer them!

First of all, Sponge is adorable.  It's always good to hear stories about saving animals from shelters, so big thumbs up to you DBK!  Easily the best thing anyone got yesterday!

Okay, the MM story from my neck of the woods.  There are two WMs within a 20 mile radius, so I decided to hit the larger one first, as I figured they would have a better selection.  Well, at 11:45, they hadn't done anything.  Apparently, according to someone else in line, instead of actually stocking the toy aisle in addition to the tent, they stocked everything in the tent and claimed to know nothing about being listed as part of the MM promotion.  So, they had to start pulling stuff in from the tent into the store to keep people from rioting.  Naturally, the first three pallets they brought in were the Clone Wars/OT DVDs (which they had been holding for April 2nd for some reason), the Titanium series/Force Battlers, and the Vader carrying case.  At 12:15, I decided I had had enough, so I walked out of the store buying nothing.

And, naturally, when I showed up at the second WM in the area, they were completely dead, but they had stocked the toy aisle and aside from two very nice guys who were trying to find what they were looking for, there was nobody else in the aisle.  There were several figures in short supply at that point (anything Grievous involved peg rifling, including his guards) and the guy who stuck around helped me find anyone I didn't see on first glance.  So, as I said in the Lava Vader thread about someone else, anonymous WM aisle guy, I salute and thank you!

I picked up the new Unleashed, deluxe Anakin and Sidious, and figures 1-27 (minus either Royal Guard).  They had up to 32 at this store, but the guy helping me out had gotten the last four Jedi plus the second Anakin.  He said that they had only put out two cases of the 25-28 Collection 1 and one guy had yanked three of the four Anakins and was looking for the fourth one to get when my aisle friend found it instead.  He said they had only gotten one case of the Collection 2 Jedi, and nothing past 32.  We talked about the Clone Commander and Pilot not showing up and how cool they were, I thanked him for his help and walked out of the store, to come home and rest.  I won't retype the Target story, as it's over in the Lava Vader thread, but everything there went well too.

I decided I would check K-Mart and see what they had going on, and they had very little.  The ROTS stuff was confined to the regular SW aisle.  They had one case of the new Unleashed, one case of the first Collection 1 wave (the one with 1 each of each of the 12), Legos, and a metric ton of the Palm Talker things.  Way to get yourself out of bankruptcy K-Mart!

The WM that, the night prior, had left everything in the tent and caused quite a few people to leave early (according to someone I saw in line at Target who was also there the night before) had this come back to bite them in the ass when a huge rain and windstorm hit earlier that morning, flooding the ground on which the tent sat, and actually soaking quite a few toys.  Needless to say, the only thing I picked up there was the 12" Sidious (the only Grievous was in a kid's hands, which is where these things need to be if you ask me).

The other WM was much luckier, and I was able to pick up the last 12" Grievous they had.  Still no sign of anything other than 1-28 (plus the one sighting of 29-32), and several things were in short supply, including the overhyped Royal Guards, who everyone was buying up like crazy, rambling on about "needing to find the rare variant" or something.  Whatever guys, whatever.   

My haul:
-Unleashed Anakin, Obi-Wan, Grievous
-Basic figures 1-28 (no red RG)
-Deluxe Anakin, Sidious, Grievous, Obi-Wan
-12" Grievous
-12" Sidious
-Lava Reflection Darth Vader
-Boga, BARC Speeder
-ARC-170 Starfighter

Oh, and I did not see anyone buying a non-Vader Force Battler or any Attacktix yesterday.  As I said a month or two ago, see you in the clearance aisle guys!

I'm really curious to know if the thread that was started about the Pope passing away (which I think was yours, LJ) is going to be allowed to stay open.  Even though it is a very sad and historic (for the wrong reasons) event, I wonder if Wise is going to allow a discussion regarding a religious leader to remain active.

Oh, and in the immortal words of "The Family Circus:" NOT ME.

I just tried to log into my RS forums account to find that, per my request, the account had been "banned or locked."  While it isn't the badge of honor that being banned entails, I am very proud to say that, from this point on, I will not have anything to do with RS whatsoever.

And if he's resorting to questioning members' intelligence through email?  That's just the epitome of class.  I'd very much like to see the text of those emails, unless it would be invading someone's privacy.

Well, I ended up going the third route.  I went ahead and PMd an admin to have them delete my account.  I'm a very private person and I'd hate to have someone I had traded with in the past see me ****** GNT or Wise and disagree, then subsequently decide to post my private information.  So, I went the diplomatic route which, while the least fun, avoided adding any more fuel to the fire.

Besides, Wise is doing a good enough job of burning the whole village down by himself.

Welcome ruiner!   

In addition to all the great attributes of this board and all of its posters that have already been so eloquently expounded upon by the staff, you can also say "****" here.