The trials of C-3PO...

Episode IV Sandcrawler Storage
*Gonk Droid
*CZ-1 (CZ-4 repaint)
*Treadwell
*C-3P0 (Saga2 version with restraining bolt retool)
*R2-D2 (ROTS R2 unit repaint with restraining bolt retool)

Episode V Bespin Junk Room
*Chewbacca (EB repaint)
*Big Ughnaught (redeco)
*Li'l Ughnaught (redeco)
*IG-88B (Vintage repaint)
*C-3PO pieces and other junk
*conveyor belt

Episode VI Jabba's Droid Dungeon
*EV-9D9 with computer
*8D8 with branding press
*Gonk Droid (upside down, duh)
*half of CZ-4
*tortured 2-1 droid on rack (ROTS 2-1B retool)

Looks like perhaps two playsets are on tap.

I'm gonna spoil the enthusiasm here by pointing out the Playskool line is called Adventure Heroes and the speculated playsets are called the Ultimate Adventure Playset and Sword Adventure Set. Look for a Spidey & Friends-type playset.

I for one am happy for this change in format. Not being a completist or coin collector, I will be skipping the initial releases of these figures for the pack-in I would prefer. Kudos.

I wouldn't be too hard on Hasbro for the change, either. The 30AC obviously had a lot of problems getting into production, and things have been delayed all year. In any other year, Hasbro probably would've just bumped the last couple of waves into the next year's line. (Like what they acknowledged happened to the Yavin wave this year.)

Unfortunately, the 30AC promised a certain amount of coins to fill those albums and they have to deliver, hence a couple of waves where only half (or whatever) of the production run will be ready in time to get the coin treatment. Remember, there are figures from waves one and two that have been shipping all year, if these last few waves have the same production numbers as those, we should expect to see them shipping out for a while too.

Have you considered a training remote accessory? The way to make it work (as discussed among the community years ago) would be to allow it to clip to a lightsaber blade via a laserbolt, as if the shot is being deflected.

This one should be pretty high on the "iconic accessories not yet tackled" list guys!

I'm going to go against the grain and say that no, 2007 has not been the best year ever for collecting. That honor will have to stay with 2004, which gave us the OTC and the VOTC. This year has been a good year for figures, but a bad year as far as collections go.

OTC and VOTC were cohesive collections. The 30AC is a mish-mash of (conceedingly well-made) figures from both trilogies, most of which are an attempt at "never-before made figures," which by year twelve of the modern line really means "obscure figures." I mean, Lava Miner? LIN droid? Cut scene Biggs? Rebel Honor Guard? Good figures, bad collection.

Saga Classics could have brough back great figures to tie the line together, but chose to offer lots of clones and droids as a grab for army builder money. Good figures (I guess), bad collection.

The Vintage line works only as a continuation of the previous two vintage lines. While it was neat to see ESB Luke and Han on packages like I found them on in '80 (while still speculating what ESB was going to be like) this is not an iconic, cohesive collection of heroes and villains like we had in '04. Good (even some great) figures, bad collection.

The comic packs are great for selling loose EU figures and a comic no one really wants, but they can hardly be said to make a cohesive line since the comics jump around and don't lend any sort of cohesiveness to the collection. Good figures (except the marvel paints), bad collection.

Then there is packaging...who could argue against the OTC being the gold standard of packaging designs thus far? The one thing I'd say they have going for them this year (the asthetic they seemed to push) is that the figures in the packages look like they actually come from the Star Wars galaxy.

Then there is distribution. Here it is fall, and half the figures have yet to really show up in stores. The case packs are awful. OTC seemed to dump everything virtually at once, in more even numbers (most cases being twelve unique figures) resulting in a Star Wars section that looked like it was trying to sell a varied collection of Star Wars toys, rather than legions of Galactic Marines. Or Fire-embossed R2s. Or Kenobi-cloaked Vaders.

I am glad for the new stuff, but only because I have the old stuff. On it's own, I'd call 2007 superfluous.

Found this today, and did a little bit of soul searching over whether or not I would actually buy it. The Y-Wing was one of my favorite vintage toy ships, so it really had that going for it, but having a modern one already (the Target exclusive one) I didn't really feel it was missing from my collection.

In the end I bought it because of the strength of the pack-ins, and I am glad I did. Neat to have Lepira and another R5. Love the more accurate new chin guns. A couple of "new" deco changes I see are the engine covering pieces being molded in a bright orange plastic (gives the interior of the enginge more of a glow) and the purple tint to the cockpit glass. The landing gear are not nearly the issue of the Target version--I remember having to take that one apart and put the pieces together correctly myself as it could not stand up on its own. Seems like that is corrected.

Overall, I feel this is more than a decent buy for the price. I am satisfied in the "value" of the ship.

Looking it over, I am still amazed at the level of intricacy of the sculpt that still doesn't seem to be done justice by the much-improved paint aps. The only gripe I have is the lack of attention to the parts of the astromech sculpted on the ship itself--these should be off-white but instead are the same gray/dark-gray wash as the rest of the ship. Perhaps having this Y-Wing will finally free me up to do a touch-up paint job on my other and see how well I can make it look.

Saw these at Target the other day and picked up the Luke & Mara set with mixed feelings. I want to like it a lot, but instead I just like it enough.

Mara's headsculpt is a little dodgy, but passable. Seems like the ball at the top of her neck and her head-hole do not match up right either--hole too small or ball too large to work properly. Her hair is sculpted to sit on her shoulders but hovers a fraction of a millimeter above instead.

Luke's permanently bent elbows are frustrating (especially since Mara's articulation could have easily been copied to give him more posability.) Otherwise, this is what I want in an EU version of a movie character: an outfit we can believe but didn't see in the movies. I like the way in CHEWIE's pictures above he has the waist-piece turned aorund, makes for another option on this figure's appearance.

Lightsabers were a little confusing as well. I'm not complaining about these really, I would always opt for more/different accessories over nothing. Luke's is a blue version of his RotJ saber...and Mara's may be her personally constructed lightsaber, but she's years from building that in this story.

The holsters are just too ridiculously bulky. I have solved this problem to my satisfaction by cutting off Mara's oversized gunbelt, and choosing to have Luke wear the ammo belt backwards, so the clips show across his chest and the holster is over his shoulder.

Why was there no Tusken Masttiff repaint thrown in as a vornskr? Seems like a logical choice to me to "complete the play pattern" as it were.

Looking through the comic that comes with this set also makes me think of all the "Heir to the Empire" sets we ought to get -- enough characters appeared in this one issue to make me realize they could easily reprint the whole series with sets of:

#1-Thrawn/Rukh
#2-Pregnant Leia/Khabarakh
#3-Pellaeon/Joruus C'Baoth
#4-Rallra/Salporin
#6-Tallon Karrde/Ghent

I just got Biggs, Jawa, and Luke from this wave, and I have to say these are some toys I have waited a long time for. Luke's face is kind of scene-specific, but head-swappable and thus forgivable.

I am so pleased with that moisture vaporator...I have waited patiently, and after six years it has finally come to be. The perceived hole in my collection is now filled. I was so giddy driving home with that toy, it was nuts. Between that and the excellent jawa and completely gratuitous "technically EU" Biggs, I played with Star Wars toys for the first time in a couple of years today. Wow.

Edit: And I just discovered that popping off the dome reveals all the interior sculpted goodness of the LIN droid...so now buying another Jawa makes a lot of sense, to have an exposed LIN as a different looking droid.