It's recently been brought to our attention behind the scenes here at JD that we're losing one of our finest...  Actually, the finest.

OCB/Scott is officially hangin' 'em up - both as a Staff Member here at JediDefender, and to a lesser extent, as a collector and forum member as well.  Sometimes our priorities in life evolve, and though Scott's been considering making some changes for a while now, it took that horrible car accident to really bring his decision to fruition.  As a husband and father of two, Scott's going to be focusing on the family more now, as well as some new responsibilities at his job.  Though it deeply saddens us to see him go, we understand his situation and fully respect and support this decision that he's made.  The good news (for us) is that Scott promises to still stop in from time to time to keep up with the old gang here...

Personally, I can't say thanks enough to Scott for all of his contributions both to this site, and even moreso to the greater collecting community as a whole, in which he's become one of it's icons.  Would anyone have ever heard of ICMG without Scott's actions?  Highly doubtful.  Would we have gotten the Blue AND Brown Hoth Hans last year without his fine debating skills and color splotches?  No way.  Would we have ever found out what GNT looks like?  Nuh-uh.  Would you be reading these posts here at JD right now without him molding this community into such a tight-knit group of friends?  Nope.

Scott's the one that brought me aboard 2 1/2 years ago, showed me (and others) the ropes, and helped us turn JD into one of the premiere Star Wars collecting sites on the net.  JD very well might not even exist today, if not for Scott's Herculian efforts.  Not to mention, it's no secret that he's at or near the top of just about everyone's favorite forum member lists out there, and has been for many years.  He's always been the fun, quick-witted, hip collecting compadre that makes this forum go, and to some of us, he's also become a good friend.

So without further ado, and before I get too much more ******' sappy here, let's all show our gratitude for Scott's efforts, and bid a fond farewell to our good friend.  Best wishes in your future endeavors Scott, and you make sure you stop by and visit us from time to time buddy.  We're gonna miss you...   

- Matt

P.S.  We already had a bit of a going away party in OCB's honor the other night.  So cheers to Scott from me, Jared, Deanpaul, and in keeping with JD tradition - of course, the Hooters girls!   

Well, it looks like we're gonna be getting some more DVD 3-packs, this time for the Clone Wars season 1 & 2 DVD release.  This probably mostly just affects (annoys) the completist carded/packaged collectors, though I think they do look kinda spiffy.  Just not excited to buy more packaging variations on stuff I've already got several times over now.  But hey, that what I do. 

Here's a shot of 'em, courtesy of Mousedroid.com:



So, who else is buying these besides Jared and I...?   

I accidentally won two seperate auctions for the Series 3 Kubricks (just the standard line of 6, no chases), so I'm selling one of them for cheap!  If anyone's interested in Series 3 (in opened boxes, but sealed bags) for just $49 shipped (in the U.S., maybe a little more for Canada), then please drop me a line!

Series 3 includes the following (as pictured below):

C-3PO
Lando Calrissian
AT-AT Driver
Jawa
Wickett
Han in Carbonite Block



Probably won't find cheaper than $49 shipped for this Series, so holler if you need 'em!  Thanks.

- Matt

One of the new blurbs from Action-Figure.com mentions this:

Autumn 2005
Evolutions Assortment: Awesome 3-pack showing the changes the characters have made throughout the Star Wars movies. Wave 1 features Anakin (good), Anakin (bad) & Darth Vader.

Very cool idea.  What else do you guys expect to see, or would like to see in this line?  I guess some of the more obvious choices would be:

Obi-Wan TPM/AOTC or ROTS/ANH

Palpatine Senator/Chancellor/ROTJ madman

Not sure how "evolutionary" they're wanting to go with this, but I'd like to see some OT only assortments, of:

Tatooine Luke/Bespin Luke/Jedi Luke

Cantina Han/Bespin Han/Endor Han

ANH Leia/Bespin Leia/Slave Leia

ANH R2/ESB R2/ROTJ R2...  Oh wait, that one doesn't work too well now, does it?!   

So whaddaya guys want to see from this line?  Hopefully they keep it at a tolerable $15 price point, but it'll likely hit $20 as most 3-packs usually do...

My work's been stressing the **** outta me lately, specifically the fact that we're always running over budget on all of our auditing jobs.  We seem to intentionally low-ball our estimates of completion to our clients, in order to land the job in the first place.  Then we blow through our entire budget about HALF way through the job, and after that the **** hits the fan and the stress level goes up immensely.  We even kid ourselves (or at least the partners do) into thinking we can achieve these phony budgets we throw out there.  Then it lands on all of us grunts who actually DO the work.

Get it done faster!  Be more efficient!  Are you done yet?  Are you done yet?!  Are you done yet?!  The client's getting impatient, and upset at the charges, and won't pay anything more until they see a finished product or settlement check.  So hurry up!  Get it done, but don't work on it anymore, or we'll have to bill them more money which they'll refuse to pay.  Pretty much a Catch-22 all the way around...   

Plus the fact that we have to keep approximately 90% of our hours worked during the day as billable.  Yet if we work more billable hours, we have to charge the clients for it, and then we get yelled at for being overbudget.  Etc, etc, etc...  Deadly cycle, and an extremely stressful one on pretty much a daily basis around here.

On the homefront, painting stresses me out.  I don't mind doing it really, but with my meticulous and perfectionist ways, painting just one room can take me an entire week (or more).  Painting the whole interior of the house, which is my current undertaking, is completely overwhelming at this point.  When I start feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I tend to shove the project aside and procrastinate.  That of course drives the wife nuts, then I get prodded and scolded by her, which in turn stresses me out even more.  And don't even suggest we get painters, or I get some help with the project, 'cause my OCD won't allow anyone else (including my wife) to assist with the painting.

Then of course driving often stresses me out, but we often discuss that in the "Things that piss you off" thread, so I'll not get into that one here...

Those are just the couple main points of stress in my life right now.  There's plenty of smaller ones though (like when the Lakers lose), but I'm not going to nitpick those just yet.

So what stresses you guys out, on either a daily, or less consistent basis?

Since I'm falling rather far behind on my "Other Collectibles" collecting of late, and also planning on adding some other lines into my repertoire soon, I figured I'd keep track of the stuff I need right here, since most of it falls under the 'Other' category.  I guess I might as well add in everything while I'm at it (4", Legos, Action Fleet, etc).  Feel free to do the same if you'd like!  Who knows, maybe some of us could even help eachother out with some of this loot...

JediMAC's Collecting Needs:

Master Replicas FX lightsabers

• Darth Vader
• ROTJ Luke
• ESB Luke
• Mace Windu

Master Replicas mini lightsabers

• Mace Windu saber
• Jedi saber case x2
• Sith Collection: Vader, Dooku, Maul sabers w/ case
• ANH Obi-Wan (UK/WM.com exclusive)

Code 3 diecast vehicles - Shut up, I don't wanna hear it!   

• X-Wing
• Slave 1
• AT-ST
• AT-AT & Vader's TIE (Soon!)

Gentle Giant busts - OT only

• Darth Vader
• Chrome Vader
• Boba Fett
• Biker Scout
• Grand Moff Tarkin
• Greedo
• Bossk
• Stormtrooper
• X-Wing Luke
• Gamorrean Guard
• Gold plated Sandtrooper (hah!)
• C-3PO
• Leia Boussh & Sandtrooper(s)(soon)

Kubricks

• Carded Boba Fett
• Loose Speederbike set
• Loose Droids R2-D2
• Carded and Loose Sandtrooper
• Carded and Loose Droids Boba Fett
• Carded and Loose Holo Leia
• Series 3, Logray & Vinyl Jawa chases
• TRU boxset - boxed & loose
• Max Rebo Band boxset - boxed & loose

Gentle Giant Bust-ups

• Spirits of the Rebellion - Glow in the dark
• Series 1
• Clear Yoda (EE exclusive)
• Series 2 - Sith Lords (plus 2 chases)
• Holographic Vader & Maul & Sidious
• Blackhole Stormtrooper(s) x3 

Riddell mini helmets

• Stormtrooper

Unleashed (loose)

• Darth Vader x2 (removable helmet)
• Boba Fett
• Han Solo
• Emperor
• Stormtrooper, IG-88 and Aurra

Legos

• UCS Star Destroyer
• Cloud City
• OTC Millenium Falcon
• UCS Y-Wing
• UCS Snowspeeder

Action Fleet/Micro Machines

• Tie Defender (loose)
• MM Epic novel sets #4-6
• MM mini head set #7

Modern 4"

• POTF2 Freeze Frame Weequay & Sandtrooper MOMC
• Ep. 1 Yoda with "Episode 1" text printed on card MOMC
• McQuarrie Stormtrooper variant, with lightsaber in the UPWARDS position MOMC
• Ep. 1 "Bonus" Pit Droids: Anakin w/ WHITE Pit Droid MOMC, and any BPDs w/ Sidious or NRG

Vintage

• Yakface (loose)
• First 21 - MOMC 

Yep, that should just about do it!  I'll see about adding in some estimated dollar amounts later, to see how truly screwed I'm going to be here...   

I just noticed over in Dustrho's Chicagoland Expo thread in the Conventions Forum that Christine Hewett ("Tonika Twin") would be making an autograph appearance there!  First I've ever heard of either of them hitting the SW autograph circuit, and/or getting involved in the SW universe/saga again.

I think this is potentially a very hopeful sign that maybe they (or at least she) will finally approve their likeness rights over to Hasbro so we can finally get a Tonikka Sister figure or two made!  I'm sure she'll be getting hounded with this question by the SW collecting fans in attendance at the show (and future shows, if she continues to sign), so hopefully that will turn up the heat/pressure on her to finally say OK, or at least to realize it's not such a big deal after all...

Whaddaya guys think?  Do we have a prayer here?  Even if just this Christine lady agrees, but the other lady doesn't, that means we should at least be able to get one Tonikka figure, which in turn could be easily customized into the other.

This is assuming the whole rumored "they won't sign their likenesses over" issue is indeed a true one, of course.  Which I still find rather strange/unbelievable.  Maybe someone in attendence (Chris?) could actually ask them if that's indeed the true story...   

Looks like I've got an couple extra Silver Sandtrooper left over from Comic Con now.  Both MOMC.  Both $11.  Both Shipped MUCH better than the bull**** job that SWS.com does!   

LMK if anyone wants it one or both of them!

I've got a couple extra Silver Clonetroopers and R2-D2s too.  MOMC.  $6 each.

Get yourself 60% of a complete Silver Collection in one fell swoop!   

- M