I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere, but I saw this man (Jud Laipply) on the Today Show earlier this week doing a portion of his act/routine.  He does a routine called "Evolution of Dance" covering different dance crazes/music/etc. over the years, and I thought it was pretty good.  If anyone is interested, you can check out YouTube video of it HERE.

Just a few things I'm looking for, if anyone happens to have extras.  I'm not super familiar with LEGO, so I realize some of the minifigures I'm looking for may be sort of rare and/or expensive.  I was sort of just looking to build a little assortment of the main Original Trilogy characters, and thought I'd post here in case any LEGO collectors had any extras they might be willing to sell.

LEGO Minifigures
Han Solo (Blue Pants Preferred, Brown Pants Ok Too)
Chewbacca
Luke Skywalker (Tatooine)
C-3PO
R2-D2
Darth Vader
Princess Leia (ANH)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (ANH)
Boba Fett

Lego MINI Sets
4484 X-Wing and TIE Fighter Advanced
4486 AT-ST and Snowspeeder
4489 AT-AT

3 3/4" VOTC
Princess Leia Organa (ANH) - loose
Luke Skywalker (ANH) - loose
Yoda (ESB) - loose

12" POTF2 Figures
Princess Leia - ANH

2008 McDonald's Toys
Han Solo
Chewbacca

I don't know if anyone else has noticed it, but at our stores in town it really seems like different retailers support the various lines (at least the ones I pay attention to) at different levels.  For example, Target seem to push Star Wars stuff the most - despite their high prices.  They have a larger section overall, and usually have the most stock this year.  I stopped by there this morning and they had 3-4 basic figure pegs (mostly Derlins and Geo bugs), 3-4 VTSC pegs (freshly stocked with everything), pegs for Galactic Heroes, Unleashed BP, Force Battlers, Transformers, Talking Vader Helmets, Ultimate Lightsabers, and a place (although no stock) for the Senate pack.  On the other side of things, Star Wars seems to be almost an afterthought to our WM.  I mean, I did find the VTSC figures there in abundance first, but the remains (all Greedos and Hans) have now been moved to one of those little racks hanging on the aisle down by the model cars.  They have 2-3 pegs for basic figures, which are right now full of Geonosians and a few other figures, but have spent half of the year being filled with other non-SW product.  WM has an absolute ton of the SW transformers and Unleashed BPs, but haven't had Galactic Heroes since December of last year.

On the other side of things, from the Superhero (Marvel/DC) figures I look at.  Since the reset, Target has one peg for Marvel Legends, 2 for the X-Men line, and a couple more for SMC as well as some other Spidey stuff.  They have 1 Legends figure I believe, a Thing from the Legendary Riders series.  They do however support the DC stuff better than WM, with pegs for DC Superheroes, and a few for Justice League Unlimited.  WM on the other hand has all sort of space for Marvel Legends, especially with the new WM Wave, 2 Packs, Masterworks, etc.  They also have a full stock of SMC, but no X-Men or F4 figures as of now (or yet this year).  They haven't carried DC Superheroes yet this year, although they do have a peg tag for them, and they briefly carried the JLU singles before getting rid of them and now just seem to carry "The Batman" and some Superman Returns stuff on the DC side of things.

Anyways, I just though it was interesting how different stores here treat the different lines.  Do any of you see similar situations at your stores?  TRU is probably the most consistent overall, as far as space for the lines.  Star Wars has a nice sized section, they carry all of the Marvel lines, as well as the DC stuff (and probably everything else) - but they normally don't keep up very well with selection (or prices in some cases).  I know they have had 6 Hoth Vaders and 1 ROTS Mas Amedda on their pegs for over a month now.  Anyone else notice differences?

Aside from the obvious army building qualities of the Biker Scout and Sandpeople/Tuskens, are any of you picking up extras of the other figures - or did you during the initial VOTC 12 run?  Although the price was a big factor, I didn't really buy many extras during the first VOTC (1 Han, 1 Chewie, 1 Stormtrooper), but I find myself wishing now that I did (if I could afford it).  This time around, I'm considering picking up extras of figures like Han and Luke, just because I sort of want to display them in a couple of places.  Right now, I have my VOTC figures on a shelf on our desk, and have the rest of my loose collection in a display case.  I've thought about buying extras so I could display one of these in each area, but maybe that is ridiculous.  Do any of you buy extras of these (despite the price) just to have a few, since they are (usually) the highest quality figures we get of our favorite characters?

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I thought I'd start a new thread.  I don't know that there's necessarily much to discuss, but one aspect of this new line that I really like is the stands.  They aren't anything overly spiffy, but the fact that the movie and figure/character name are on them, and they're all uniform, kind of makes them cool to me.  Plus, it has been handy with keeping things from falling over in the displays.  Sure there are a few that they don't necessarily work with (Poggle, Foul, Obi-Wan for me), but overall I really like the stands concept.  I kind of wish I had them with/for more of my figures now.

Although it seems that tv commercials for Star Wars toys (aside from Vader Helmets, lightsabers, and LEGOs) are all but extinct, I have noticed more and more print ads lately.  From the Star Wars Insider, to comics, to the recent ToyFare, I've seen a few lately.  I just thought it might be interesting to post any that you find throughout different readings, or by some miracle, on TV.

In all three of the readings I mentioned (the comics being SW comics) I've seen an ad for the VTSC collection.  It shows all five figures, and mentions the mail-away (and pictures the head in a shadowy "mystery" box), although it doesn't say exactly what it is.  It just says "receive the ultimate tribute figure, a character who is literally one with the Force!"  Kind of a neat ad overall, and nice to see.

Another one that I saw in this week's ToyFare was kind of neat too.  Its an ad featuring the upcoming Hem Dazon action figure.  The top lines say "Three seconds on the screen.  Forever on display."  Then there is a picture of the figure, and below that it says "Hem Dazon 00:44:50 - 00:44:53", followed by "You might have missed him there, standing in the cantina (no doubt wondering how to get more salt on his margarita glass). But fear not - now that moment of celluloid stardom has been captured for all time, as part of our Star Wars collection of 3 3/4" action figures."

Anyways, nice to see a few ads for figures, although I kind of miss the vintage days of seeing various figures/ships/playsets on television.  Those ads sure look cheesy now, but they are still kind of neat from a nostalgia viewpoint.  I don't remember the last time I saw SW figures advertised on TV, maybe during AOTC.  I seem to remember 1 or 2 commercials then.  Then again, you don't really see lines like Marvel Legends/Classics or the like advertised either.  Probably because, even though they don't want to admit it, they are made for collectors more than kids.  I see more along the lines of TMNT, Power Rangers, etc. if anything.  Anyone else seen any SW ads lately?

As we are all well aware, the Phantom Menace has taken quite a drubbing over the years...and continues to today.  It probably (maybe deservedly) gets the majority of the blame for when "Star Wars lost its way" to some people, and seems to be generally looked down upon by both fans and the general public (some of that, prior to ROTS, seemed to be because it was "cool" to rag on Star Wars).  For some reason recently, I got in the mood to give it a watch again.  I don't think I have watched it for at least a couple of years, aside from maybe catching portions when it was on TV.  Although it is probably my least favorite of all the Star Wars movies, and there are things I would have liked to see done differently, it doesn't seem as bad to me now.  Maybe I've just given it enough time, and I'm thinking back a little to the excitement of "a new Star Wars movie" coming out when I first saw it in the theatres, but I think I can appreciate it a little bit more now.

I'm more of an OT-person overall, but I do enjoy all of the movies in the Saga.  Revenge of the Sith in particular is my favorite of the PT, and almost on the level of parts of the OT.  The prequel movies never quite seemed "the same" to me, but they just aren't.  Its a different enviroment that the movies take place in...its not rebels and rogues, its senators and Jedi...and later clones.  Looking at the movies as seperate trilogies, instead of comparing one to the other helps more.  Don't get me wrong, there are some parts of TPM that really bug me.  The Gungans/Jar-Jar is a big one.  I don't necessarily mind the gungans overall, and I think that the character of Jar-Jar could have been better received with a smaller part and maybe a different voice/manner of speaking.  There also gets to be a lot of the political stuff in the movie, and that maybe could have been pulled back a bit too.  And, we all know the complaints of Jake Lloyd as well.  Maybe not as much him as the dialogue, but something could have been improved there.

But, overall there are some things I really like in the movie too.  Qui-Gon Jinn is one of my favorite characters of the PT, and I enjoyed Liam Neeson in the role.  Too bad he didn't last too long, but I thought the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan team was good.  Also, Darth Maul really was a pretty cool villain, even though he sort of ended up being a throw-away character.  Heck, even Watto isn't too bad.  The ending lightsaber battle is arguable one of the best in the Saga, as well as the Duel of the Fates theme that accompanies it.  Anyways, this is getting longer winded than I intended, but basically do you feel that The Phantom Menace is as bad as it is known for?  Obviously its not a perfect movie, and for most people probably ranked "last" as far as the Saga goes, but is it really that terrible?  What changes, subtle or grand, do you think could have been made to improve it?  Story changes, actor/character changes, the designs of the ships/cities, etc.?  Just curious what some of you think.