Definitely liking the Ven Zallow a lot!  From a sculpting standpoint I think you really nailed him.  The armor pieces look fantastic.

Look at the original Clone Commander Cody.  That figure came across looking like a pinhead.  Now, compare that with the remade Commander Cody figure from the Vintage Collection, and you'll see a noticeably larger helmet.  The Airborne Trooper you cited looks good, but it's a completely different helmet design from the standard phase II armor's helmet.

There may be some other issues at work here.  Notably the toy safety standards that came to light with toys produced in China in the past few years.  Those issues ranged from hazardous paints to potential choking hazards.   And a small accessory like a helmet might have been seen as one of those hazards.  Additionally, these standards might also dictate the grade of plastic that can be used in an item like a helmet.  A more rigid plastic might make for a helmet that looks more film accurate, but might not put the design in compliance with child safety standards.  I'm certainly not trying to apologize for Hasbro.  But this sort of criteria likely seems to be at work.

I think the better option is to go with something along the lines of the CW Obi-Wan Kenobi you mentioned:  2 seperate heads that are interchangeable.  But in that case Hasbro is going to be dealing with slightly more expensive tooling, and we the consumers, are going to have to eat that cost increase at some point.

I remember one thing that Derryl DePriest said Hasbro-Star Wars was going to try regrading case assortments:  Offering cases of new figures with repacks that would be geared towards troop builders.  These cases would be steered towards online retailers like EE, BBTS and the other outlets that were selling figures by the case.  In the forums it seemed to be a popular idea.  But in practice it turned out to be a disaster for the retailers.  The assortments didn't sell through.  And it was evident that this move came well after the army building phenomenon had reached it's peak.

I think that the Hasbro Star Wars brand was run pretty well from the time that Derryl DePriest came aboard (circa 2004) through about 2008.  It started to take a turn when the economy tanked in late 2008.  Coincidence?  Probably not.  And we've seen a good number of toy licenses underperform in this same time period (2008 - 2012).  Anybody recall some of the massive bombs in the toy aisle in recent years, like the Green Lantern line?

Frankly, I don't think the case assortments are designed to help collectors.  Hasbro tried this and it bit them in the ass.  The case assortments are clearly designed to replenish brick & mortar retail.  Case in point:  Darth Sidious and Darth Maul as carry-forward figures.  When the TPM wave hit those were two of the most difficult figures to find from that initial TPM case.  At retail now I am only starting to see the TVC Darth Maul every so often.  Because that figure is selling through, and is worth replenishing.

I finally found a Y-Wing Scout Bomber today at a TRU in the greater NYC area today.  Very happy to pay retail for this, since it was going for at least $40 from the scalpers on eBay.

We've talked about a 6" Scale here before and I for one am more in favor of it than I ever was...I really think they could do some really cool stuff.  Just don't start with 6" TPM figures

Does anybody have a memory?  Do we need to relive the Mega Action Figures all over again?

When did they get Wave 2 over there? JTA is always on about this 2-4 week delay from figures arriving over there to them hitting here but that seems completely unpredictable to me.

It's conjecture, but somewhat rooted in the realities of distribution. 

Asia tends to get product first just by virtue of the geography in the production/distribution chain.  Figures are produced in or around Hong Kong, and go into the global supply chain from there.  It's a lot easier to get figures in the Phillipines or thereabouts earlier simply because HK is that much closer to them than the North American ports of entry like Seattle, the SF Bay or Los Angeles.

Once product makes it to the U.S., you've got several stops before anything makes it to a store shelf.  First, U.S. Customs.  Then it's onto a Hasbro distribution center.  The next step in the chain is to get product from the Hasbro distribution center to the distribution centers of retailers, and this could involve multiple stops.  And then it's eventually onto stores. 

However, this is the ideal situation.  It doesn't account for how one retailer may have existing inventory that they want to run through before they take more deliveries.  Or potential shortages from the supply side.  This is where the conjecture of "2 - 4 weeks" goes off the rails, since it's not accounting for the inventory issues that any one retailer may be dealing with in their supply line from Hasbro.

Online retail does offer something attractive:  they do shorten up the supply chain from Hasbro to the customer by a couple of steps.  But they also have a much more limited inventory than a major retailer.

I absolutely love just how many sites have joined in.  GH, Imperial Shipyards, JTA, Jedi News, SWAN, & Yoda's News are all in on it too!

I get that feeling, too.  Based on my own conversations with him, I think he needed some time off.  But there could also be a delay in the return of Curto to the online collecting community.  I know of at least one site that has their staffers sign a no-compete contract.  And given the scale of RS in the community, I think it's entirely possible that he may have had similar circumstances.