The one figure that stood out really badly to me (in terms of a "WTF?" moment) was the Mace Windu.  Great idea, Hasbro: take the single most overproduced and underselling figure of the Saga era, which also has a garish action feature that makes it nearly impossible for it to look good holding a lightsaber, slap a new head on it (presumably; as has been said, the lighting isn't that good), and put it in a five pack as a "new figure."   

I do like the fact that they are doing a Yavin IV Anakin (I can only hope that the Ventress is "damaged" as well), and I'm cautiously optimistic about the Clone Armor Obi-Wan (my fear is that it will just have the snap on pieces from the Saga/CW Deluxe Clone with Speeder Bike as its "armor"). 

More than ever I'm convinced that Hasbro is reusing their old stock that they bought back from retail for these four packs.  I mean, out of all the figures they could pick, they pick Geonosian Rescue Mace, Final Battle Jango, and Deluxe Anakin?

Is it just me or does this whole ROTS marketing push resemble something Krusty the Klown would put together as the days go on?   I just have this vision of an assembly line at LFL with Vader dolls with knives sticking out of his neck, electrical arcs coming out of Palpatine dolls, and "Lucas Brand Dog Food...Now with More Entrails!"

"Kellogs Corn Pops with Severed Hand Replica inside!  Collect all 12!"

That being said, I still have horrible memories of eating two big boxes of Froot Loops to get that damned Stormtrooper Han figure back in 1995.  Not to mention the bottomless grease pit of Lay's Potato Chips to get Cool Mint Obi-Wan in 1997.  Needless to say, I have not eaten Froot Loops or Lay's Potato Chips since these promotions.  The only thing worse was buying the GI Joe cereal when I was a kid so I could send away for the "Starduster" kitbashed figure. 

This is what I will be doing on April 3rd:

Repeatedly saying to myself, "I spent THAT much money on toys?  No wonder I'm single."

 

Just wanted to give another big thumbs up to SiteC!  I just completed a wonderful transaction with him that could not have gone any smoother.  He hooked me up with some Unleashed figures for cheap, and I can't say enough good things about the purchase.

Thanks again SiteC!  Highly recommended!

It'll be here tomorrow, but, sheesh. USPS and FedEx will just leave it at my doorstep, but UPS has to be all difficult about it.

It looks like it's time for me to really disturb people regarding the practices of the USPS, FedEx, and UPS.  After I tell you guys this, you'll probably never look at the three biggest shippers in the US of A the same way again, but this is all information that I have gathered from employees of said companies over the past few years and it also explains why I am so paranoid about each of them in their own ways.

First off, UPS has a system as to whether or not they will leave a package or a notice when you receive something from them.  According to a former employee, UPS has an unspecified hierarchy of residential areas that decides whether or not they will leave a package, leave a notice, or some other option.  Here's how it works:

Level One: at this level, the UPS delivery person will leave the package hidden somewhere on your property and leave an InfoNotice on your door to point you to where this is.  This is usually only done in "secure" areas, such as gated communities, rural areas with low traffic flow, or otherwise "safe" places.  My parents live in the second category and UPS routinely leaves packages in their barn with a notice on the front door.

Level Two:  at this level, the UPS person will only leave the package if you give them written permission to do so, or they will leave it with a neighbor (who, Jebus willing, won't bitch and moan about it after they agreed to do it in the first place, but I digress).  If you give them neither, they will leave you an InfoNotice and attempt redelivery.

Level Three:  at this level, UPS will only leave an InfoNotice on your door and would probably prefer it if you come to their distribution center to pick it up so they don't have to come back out to the DMZ. 

So basically, the nicer the area/neighborhood you live in, the quicker you'll get your UPS packages.  When I found this little tiered structure out last year, I got really depressed at being in Level Two. 

Also, UPS is less reliable the larger your package is.  One ex-employee said that anything bigger than a television that said "FRAGILE" on it was basically tagged as being target practice.  He said that the employees would treat these packages in a much more haphazard fashion due to the working conditions they operated under.  Kind of a Fight Club-esque revenge on people that have nothing to do with their work conditions, I suppose. 

FedEx is the company that literally doesn't give a **** about you or your package.  If you want it fast, they'll get it to you, but they are a slave to their computer systems.   One story had a guy ordering a computer with five-day delivery only to have it arrive at the distribution center three days early.  This distro center was a mile away from his home (he lived near an airport) and when he saw this on his tracking summary, he went to the distro center to see if they would give it to him.  The people there said that he paid for 5 day and that it would not be given to him any sooner, despite the fact that it was right there.  FedEx will often just throw the packages out of the truck (depending on how close to the residence you are) and several times (personal experience) they have not even knocked on my door to let me know that my package has arrived.  They run up to the door quickly, throw it down and speed away.  On one occasion, I literally tripped over the package as I walked out my door.

Their customer service is generally atrocious too.  I can't recall all the details, but there was something said about them randomly taking days off and purposely not answering the phones at other times.  And they're generally seen as having the absolute worst record at being able to find your package if it is lost.  Also, keep in mind that FedEx Ground is operated on a local level (similar to a franchise), so often times, they don't communicate so well with the actual company.

As for the USPS, their attitude is basically "We're the only game in town, so deal with it!"  They will more or less come right out and tell you that 90 percent of their services are useless, and that unless you want to be 100 percent sure you will get something when you're supposed to get it, you have to spring for their highest level of service (which is, predictably, more expensive than either FedEx or UPS).  They also like to randomly acknowledge/deny their relation to the US Government.  This changes from day to day, based on the given situation.  If it benefits them (as in "federal holiday"), they will say they are in the govt.  If it does not benefit them, they deny it. 

So, in short, this is what they are good for:

UPS: packages up to the size of a television
FedEx: documents/letters that are time sensitive
USPS: cheap ways to send letters but otherwise nothing

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Just completed a wonderful transaction with Kevin.  Not only did he put up with my incessant questions about relative minutae, he sold me a fairly hard to find item at an amazing price.  So thank you for the Maul, Famine!  Highly recommended!

Yeah, that is the problem with these retailers.  They have all probably bought 2000 cases of the first products and that is what will sit until they sell.  Then they will blame the consumer because Star Wars "does not sell."  You know the drill.

And lest we forget that Hasbro, for the umpteenth time in the last ten years of doing modern SW toys, has once again loaded down the initial assortments with the less interesting figures and put the ones that people would be more likely to buy multiples of in the later assortments.

They did it with the Darktrooper/Spacetrooper wave of EU figures, they did it with the CommTech Stormtrooper, and they did it (in a huge way) with the Clone Wars SA Clone Trooper.  Now they're doing it again by putting the three arguably coolest deluxe figures in the last group of figures.

At this point, Hasbro should just start putting "Ebay Exclusive" on the packages even if they do ship them to regular retail.   

It will probably be the three Unleashed figures (Grievous first) that fall victim to my shaky "Oh my goodness, new SW toys!" hands immediately after I get home around 1 AM on the 2nd.  Then, the pillow will be my next victim as I am getting a little too old to handle being up so late.  Plus my arthritis will probably be killing me. 

The next morning, I'll probably open what I've picked up in numerical order when I get back from driving around to the other retailers in the area.  If it's anything like the Saga 2002 onslaught, I'll be able to say out loud how the figures get progressively better the higher their numbers get, at least as far as Collection 1 goes.