Re: Lohan.

Wow.  Actually, I take that back.  Yikes.

If you look really closely against her hip, you can see the outline of a crackpipe hidden in her dress.   

I found one each of the Destroyer Droid, Wookiee Warrior, and Neimoidian Warrior yesterday at my local Wal-Mart.  They were hanging on the front of the pegs in the (overflowing) SW half-aisle and there was (surprise!) no sign of the Clone whatsoever.  I was walking around in another aisle and found the case that the figures came in (literally) ripped open at the top and lying in the middle of the floor.  Wow.

In case anyone is wondering, the Droideka is practically the exact same figure as the 2002 Saga version.  New copyright date, and the missles have been modified a bit near the nose of the projectile, but otherwise it's the same figure.  The Wookiee is very cool, although mine's right arm keeps coming apart at the elbow joint and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell that totem pole thing is used for.  The Neimoidian is cool, but as far as the Big Ass Cannon, WTF?

Hasbro needs to figure out this Clone situation and pronto.  It's not funny anymore (it never was) that the figures that more people are having more trouble finding than anything else are all Clones (Clone 6, Clone Commander, Clone Pilot, AT-TE Gunner, Clone 41, and I'd be willing to be Commander Baccarra is going to be just as hard to locate).

I wanted to finally get in on the fun in this thread, but alas, I cannot find a photo online of my belle d'jour.  To add a little incentive to my regular offer, I will give not only a shiny new nickel, but also a slightly off-color penny to the person who can find one of her that is a decent size and post it.

Giada DeLaurentis of "Everyday Italian" on the Food Network.  Absolutely stunning, and she is a chef.  Wow.  Cue the drooling smiley.

I just wanted to chime in here and say that the cockpit that Plo Koon is sitting in in Nick's photo appears to be from one of the ROTS-style Jedi Starfighters and not one of the AOTC style Jedi Starfighters.  The "Making of" book actually has photos of animatics of this scene, and Plo's flying a ROTS style Jedi SF there as well.  At first I wrote off the difference, saying it was an animatic and wasn't a finished shot, but now I'm not so sure.

It seems like either:

1.  LFL screwed up and while we'll see the interior of a ROTS fighter, it will be an AOTC fighter for the exteriors.

or

2.  Hasbro screwed up and didn't think it necessary to correct their mistake.

Very curious.  I guess we won't know until May 19th what the real Plo Koon JSF is.   

Back to the Clones and, particularly, who serves under Stass Allie: didn't Hasbro update with photos of that deluxe wave (with Allie and the Speeder Bike) a few weeks ago, and include something about the planet she was on with the bike?  I'm trying not to look too closely at things at this point, but those of you more knowledgable as to the individual planets the Clones are on might be able to start there.

So while they're may be selling, Wave 1 is filling most of the stores to the maximum peg capacity. I don't see a lot of a chance for future waves to reach anywhere near the saturation necessary to accommodate pulling cute little repaint stunts at 1-per-case within the Deluxe line.

What gets me is that they (once again) saved the Clones until the last wave of Deluxe figures (at least the last wave we know about), and you just know that they'll do about four different color variations of those.  There was a report at GH around the time of C3 that basically said that Hasbro was going to do a few variants of it. 

So, you'll have two Clone three packs per case, in an assortment which has clogged pegs (predictably) since the first day of release, that stores aren't ordering a large amount of because of that initial glut, and it's then that Hasbro decides to start doing paint variants of Clone Troopers.

Way to go Hasbro!   

[translate:language=hasbro]We're sorry that you collectors called us out on our cheap ill-concieved cases, and will try to come up with better bull**** in the future, right after we sling a few more insults about the toys being meant to be played with, not kept in the packaging at your buy-anything-we-make asses. Eat it, collectors![/translate:language=hasbro]

You forgot this part:

"As punishment for daring to question our obvious genius, we will ship solid cases of Cantina Han Solos for the next year due to what we'll call 'an overwhelming demand' but what is actually us being bitter ********.  Lick our collective ******* while you're on your knees, fanboys!"

 

I must have been on the phone with someone there at the same time you were Jared.

I just attempted to cancel my order for the Battle Arena (since I actually found all three at Target earlier this afternoon; I only bought the Sidious/Mace and Anakin/Dooku sets just to be safe) and was told by the very nice and very helpful (no sarcasm here folks, he was a nice and helpful person) HTS representative that my order had already shipped.  On May 6th.  Last Friday.

I asked why it was the account section still said that the item was shipping on May 12th, and why if it had shipped I hadn't gotten a confirmation email, and he said he didn't know.  He did confirm that my order was shipping USPS standard though, so knowing Hasbro, they probably sent it by horseback and I'll get it once Episode VII finally comes out.   

Again, I will update with further developments on my own order, but I will say this: I think they've got the customer service side of things going pretty well (in terms of overall congenial attitude amongst the operators), but in terms of knowing what the hell is going on at any given time with an order, we're/they're completely in the dark.

If Hasbro starts putting up HTS exclusives, we're all ******. 

This is a spoiler question (so a "yes" or "no" with no explanation will do just fine), but is Order 66 just an order that Palpatine gives or is it some kind of post-hypnotic suggestion type thing that simultaneously gives the final order to eliminate the Jedi and brings all the Clones under his direct and total control? 

I've always wondered if it was the latter, since by the time of the OT, all the originality and distinct armor styles for individual troops was nonexistent; making them total subservient automatons would pretty much wipe out that need for individualized armor and identities.

That Clone guy with Yoda is awesome looking; he'd be my first choice for a figure.  Cody would be cool too, mainly since he was seen in the CW cartoon first, and it's always nice to see a CW character tie into the films (at least for me, Grievous will be a CW character who went into the movies, rather than the other way around).  I really wish that Hasbro would just ship the hell out of either the #6 or #41 Clone (if only the latter didn't have that antenna) and keep repainting them until they've exhausted all options for grunts.  Needless to say, this won't happen, as Clones apparently don't sell as well as constantly reshipped Obi-Wans and Anakins and Yodas (I guess that's why I see so many of the latter and none of the former hanging around these days).