yeah, I'm on Win 98 for god's sake... 

I've gotta get a new computer before I move on with gaming...  I've got a good system now but my OS is definitely out of date and I don't own a DVD-ROM to play most new games.   Sucks to be me...  I wanna have 2 PC's running and just run my old games on this one and run new games on a new one...  But man, it's tough justifying a new PC when this one's really running AOK.  Well, for the most part AOK anyway.

If you watch trends with the line they're all over with scale from day one, i wouldn't say they're upscaling anything.  There's a lot of figures that are perfectly scaled from 2005/2006 when compared to "average" characters from earlier lines...  Then you get a freak like Veers or Organa...  Neither are correct when compared to, say, VOTC Han Solo or a Clone Trooper figure, and you just sorta scratch your head in amazement that these even slipped out.

Hmmm, I'll try tacklign some things...

-Fleet Riekean...  Not sure if you're wanting Riekean in the Madine outfit or not Anton but if it were me I'd dig up a Captain Antilles figure and pop the Riekean head onto that uniform since, to me, that's the "Fleet" uniform plus the insignia's match up of course...  I consider the Madine duds a whole other branch of the military...  Not to get into technicalities or anything, it's just how I explain the differences in duds.

-Hoth Madine...  On the Major Derlin body, I haven't popped one yet but I'm 99% sure that the neck peg is separate and pops out of the body.  Why, I have not clue as it's somehow more complex without adding squat to the figure but Hasbro's done this with a couple figures int he last year or so.

Like CHEWIE mentioned, if you have a dremel that's your best bet...  Without having them both popped apart completely it's tough for me to tell ya if a Madine noggin' would pop into the Derlin body and retain articulation and move fluidly, and still look right too (IE: would the neck length of Derlin be long enough to fit on Derlin's body and look right?).  What I'd do is cut the Madine head off and hollow it so it fit the ball on the Derlin neck, however this gets touchy and could be fairly easy to mess up if you're not "comfortable" with using a Dremel tool...  Or fitting a regular neck/head figure to the new "ball/socket" necks.

That's some advice from me...  Not a lot, but we can keep the discussion going at least and see what we can come up with.

if you're looking to retain articulation, I think fabric/softgoods may be the way to go...

For instance, depending on what you use, the right thickness of fabric could build up the figure where you want "bulk" just right and add a flexible "sleeve" or whatnot to it.  I'd glue it in place of course at each spot since it's covering something you don't like, so you wouldn't want to remove it.  Some 2-part adhesive would work well for a permanent glue-on.

You could really cover it well with fabric though at the various areas you wanted to.  Like make maybe a "bell-bottom" to the pants by sewing a conical shape that you glue up towards the bottom of the knee joint, and the fabric sort of lays on the foot...  You'd have to paint the legs to match the fabric in color but that's not as huge a deal really.

Something similar could bulk up the shoulders, and a wrapped scarf with a thinner fabric could be made any color you wanted and would hang on the neck well while moving with all joints on the figure itself.

Just some thoughts from my end, but I'm a fan of using cloth on figures to retain poseability too so I'm biased.

Find a local guy, you usually win out by getting service because he wants you to come back.  That's what I've done.  Guy built my PC, and he's worked on it any time it needed it or I needed help...  Sometimes for free.  He also does upgrades on the cheapity cheap.  If you find a good PC guy it's like finding a good mechanic.  Keep him and be appreciative.

I have managed to learn to do a lot myself, but I know when I'm in doubt of myself on anything I have a good backup plan.

I have NOT gone to see the new Curious George movie, and actually I'm a little disappointed in the animation.  CG got an updated look and I'm not totally fond of it really...  I like the simpler animation style he'd had since really his first designs.  I have some paintings of Curious George actually because I've always appreciated the sort of simplistic way he was drawn.

The new toon looks good for kids but not very heavy with adult humor like say Toy Story, so I'm not sure I'll be going to watch it anytime soon.  I don't have young kids to take who maybe would enjoy it I think... 

On CG animation stuff, I happen to have some VHS's I was bought a while back of Curious George in stop-motion claymation type animation.  Very weird, and I've never seen them anywhere for sale.  I got them as a birthday gift some years ago.  They're pretty cool...  Truer to the books I'd say, and they really capture Curious George's look perfectly.

On another monkey note, I am highly enjoying the "Career Builder.com" commercials out there where the guy works with a bunch of primates.  The best one is where they are partying to "Come on feel the noise" from Quiet Riot in the board room because they thing sales are up...  The boss is lighting a cigar with money, it's great (if you haven't already seen it) and then the guy (human) comes in and tells the chimps sales are actually down and he puts the graph they have rightside up...  But like Enron execs they turn it back around to where it was and continue partying and the boss demands that the guy dance with the other chimps.

That's just a classic commercial...  I laugh harder every time I see it I think.

There's a whole series of those that are really funny though.

My support for this is obvious...  Certain figures just deserve the super articulated treatment.  Actually, army builders are highest on my list for what I'd like to see in this line before it's run dry.

My list goes:

-SA Rebel Fleet Trooper...  POTF2 was a joke, and POTJ was an improvement in sculpt but its articulation is limiting to what you can do with poses, and with the pre-posed "caved in" chest sculpt it's just not a pretty figure if its arms are down...  With a removable helmet and working holster along with super articulation (or really REALLY close to it) this would be the perfect rebel trooper to build a force to match my Stormtrooper army with!

-SA Endor Rebel Commando...  Same as above, except neither sculpt of this figure has ever been that great really.  POTF2 was nice to look at with barely any articulation.  Saga Endor Commando was a step in the right direction but pre-posed sculpt and articulation was once again limited.  Nice helmet though.  Hasbro can deliver a Super ARticulated Commando to us with a removable helmet (hell they have the helmet sculpt now all ready to go, just like the Fleet Trooper helmet), and that'd be a great new figure to add to the army.

-SA Hoth Rebel Soldier...  Do I really need to go into the previous incarnations of this Rebel Trooper?  All Hoth Troopers have been dismal so far.  The Saga Hoth Trooper was laughably bad and arguably one of the worst figures that we saw that year.  A good super articulated Hoth Rebel Foot soldier is in desperate need in the line I think.  So is his target the Snowtrooper though!

-Imperial Naval/Death Star Trooper...  One sculpt exists and it's in a constant walking/running pose that barely is able to stand.  This should have been one of the priority resculpts at Hasbro I think.  Super articulate it and put it out in droves.

-Scout Trooper...  He's getting the royal treatment it seems but at a premium.  I don't know many collectors that wouldn't buy this or the Stormtrooper in bulk if they were offered to the public.  HOpefully Hasbro keeps the price down though as those Clone 4-packs have just been too expensive to buy like army builders want to do.  If you can offer 4-packs for $20 - $25 a piece at retail, you can sell TONS of these figures.

-Snowtrooper...  POTF2 figure is weak...  Saga figure is weak...  Combining the POTF2 and Saga figures to make the Saga 2006 Snowtrooper is INCREDIBLY lame, so we still desperately need a Super Articulated Snowtrooper in the line.

While I'd love Super Articulated figures across the board for the above troopers, I'm also a flexible person too and realize that giving them:

-2 ball/socket shoulders
-2 ball/socket elbows or angle-cut elbows (No angle-cut on the armored troopers though)
-2 standard wrist joints
-2 standard hip joints
-2 ball/socket knee joints
-1 ball/socket neck joint
-1 standard waist joint

For a 12 points of articulation format, that's not bad for these figures or any figure.  It omits the complex ball/socket torso which I love but which isn't always a necessity, and it also omits the ankle joints which I also love but which the figures CAN deal without.

Knee joints, elbow joints, wrist joints, and all the standard points of articulation...  These are what the army builder figures require at a MINIMUM.  Anything less is a letdown.  It's why Major Derlin is not as cool as he could be.  he's an army builder really, but lacks the knee articulation I wish he had for buying extras to put out in my trenches leading the troops. 

Anyway, Army Builder figures should at least be that articulated, and if they're armor-clad (Clones, Snowtrooper, etc.) they really should be sporting the ball/socket elbows beyond the angle-cut joints.  I'd love for the Rebel soldiers to all have ball/socket elbow joints too though, as I think it just is a generally better point of articulation entirely.

Hasbro, please don't let us down on articulation, you've got my financial support if you don't.  I'll go broke buying all those figures if they're super articulated.  It'd be a long while before I ate well, I know that much.   I'd be a happy collector though, that's for certain.

I like the scowl for fighting since the ROTS Dooku has a more passive face...

The cool thing about both Dooku's is to me the Evolutions Dooku makes your best "basic" Dooku.  If you want Dooku fighting in the hangar with Yoda or fighting Anakin on the Invisible hand, or EU fights or whatnot...  He's great to display in any of these ways.

The great thing though is that ROTS Dooku is really nice to own as well because he's got the arms removable at the right place for Anakin's taste of dark side aboard the invisible hand... 

ROTS Dooku has noticeably weaker leg articulation (he's not got ball/socket knees but rather hinged knees with swiveling boot tops), and his arms look a little odd with the cut at the forearm.  I prefer displaying that one on his knees waiting for his fate then.

That's just me though...  I have the Evo one duking it out with Anakin right now but stuff's gonna go in storage here shortly while I build stuff around my display area(s).