Agreed, including a greater variety of accesories would be fantastic.  I know I picked up a bunch of GI Joes at Marshalls over the last couple of years on clearance (my Wife is adamant that I DON'T COLLECT GI JOE! ) solely because of the weapons/backpacks/etc. that they included.  I don't know if its just because of the EU-Stormtrooper (Hondo Karr) who was big into knives, but I think a Stormtrooper looks wickedly menacing holding a big knife (they gotta have a blade tucked away somewhere in the armor right?).

I know its probably lame, but I didn't pick up the Interceptor Tank, or whatever they called the TX-130, until it had the blue repaint.  Now I want the Red version.

Its not a mid-size vehicle, but now I want the AT-TE to complement my Imperial/Republic armor...

Great topic.

Yeah, I got one yesterday and sent away for another today.  I was thinking about sending for a third, but I think two should do.

Been out of the loop lately, but all the TRU that I stopped at had was the CW Y-Wing for vehicles and for battlepacks the had the one with QuiGon, Anakin, Darth Maul and his speeder and the one with Vader, his operating table and two medical droids (no idea what those were titled...).  Oh well.

Great to see Star Wars stuff on sale again...

Oh the Prius would probably win hands down.  If Top Gear were a show that accurately assessed cars, then SpongeBob is a show about cooking.

Without straying too far into "pit" specific talk, the reason that the price for Chinese goods are rising isn't because the dollar is depreciating, its because the Chinese have made atleast show efforts to stop manipulating the renminbi.  Meaning they are actually letting the value of their currency rise; some.  Which means you need more dollars to purchase goods made in China.

Higher commodity prices don't have a 1:1 relationship with rising consumer prices.  Action figures have a significant portion of their cost tied in the labor costs.  Which is to say the Hasbro (or freelance) sculptors, the factory workers, the packaging designers, the marketing people, the people that stock the figures, etc.  For the most part those costs haven't been escalating.  Of the $8+ of the cost of the action figure the actual value of the plastic contained in the figures is only a few cents.

It's inaccurate to state that the higher commodity prices directly lead to higher consumer prices.  Its only true for consumer items where the underlying commodity makes up the majority of the price structure.  For goods where the majority of the price is tied up in non-commodity components (for example items with a high labor content), price increases can only rise when inflation gets baked in (ie when we see increases to core inflation).

Hasbro has realized that the Vintage line sells at $8-$9 at a rate sufficient that they think they'll increase their margins if the increase prices to the $9-$10 range.  Similarly Walmart and Target have realized that they are leaving money on the table and not gaining market share by pricing their figures lower.  Its not a commodity story, its just business.

I finally opened up the one I bought, at KMart clearance about three months ago, over the weekend.  I love this sucker.  I too have bent nose guns (or else they were aligned by Lt. A$$h%le....  )

My four year old and I spent the weekend engaging in dogfights between my 3 3/4" CW Y-Wing and his Galactic Heroes CW Y-Wing.  Needless to say he found it much funnier when his ship shot down mine and his seemed oddly impervious to damage (I think he was cheating).

I like the design, especially for the price I got it at.  Maybe I should pick up a second at TJ Maxx clearance and give it a red paint job...  Oh well, wishful thinking.