Just playing devil's advocate here - what if the pics of the Antilles and Zett figures were prototypes and they both will have the same level of articulation that most Collection 2 figures possess? Since they most likely put the figures in the poster together VERY quickly to get it out there, some of the later figures (#51 - #56) could have been quickly slapped together for photographing.

Take a look at the Turbo Tank Driver in the poster and compare it to the picture from GH. They are NOT the same figure - if you look at the legs, arms, paint detailing, the fact that the poster's figure has the absence of the utility pack strap, etc...

Another factor is to consider the #35 Palpatine figure - that figure was photographed with a correct Sidious lightsaber at some point in the production process. NONE of the figures produced so far have the correct handle for the lightsaber.

The final factor is the interview with the Hasbro Star Wars team member in the latest EE catalogue. While his answers were very vanilla, he did re-iterate the fact that Collection 2 figures contained softgoods and lots of articulation. Antilles and Zett (as pictured) both seem to fall short of the collection 2 standard.

Perhaps it is part wishful thinking on my part, but I hope that these two figures show up in a state that is more befitting ROTS Collection 2 than say POTF2 from 1997.

Clone Commanders and Clone Pilots are starting to sit (the latter because the Gunship and ARC-170 still haven't shown up in numbers enough for people to buy more than one), and the AT-TE Gunner pops up once in a blue moon, but if it's a Clone and it doesn't have a jet pack, it disappears before you can say "Genetic Copy of Jango Fett."

In this area even the Deluxe Clone w/Jetpack is now impossible to find. Sure it was easy when the Wave 2 Deluxe figures were hitting en masse, but now good luck getting one. Practically that entire Deluxe Wave 2 is gone already. Stupid Jedi Jump Obi-Wan is still clogging the pegs, but the fact that (a) the Vulture droid had variants, (b) Vader on Operating Table and Clone w/Jetpack are in high demand and (c) Yoda on Cancell is now also being shipped in the Wave 3 case - the only non Wave 1 Deluxe figure I can find w/o any trouble is the Yoda. Even the Wave 3 shipped Vader on Operating Table flys out of the store.

So here's my biggest complaint about case assortments so far... the Deluxe line should have been four waves of three, not three waves of four. Especially if you're going to have the cases fit only six figures. Better yet, ship the cases so they fit eight figures and re-ship two figures from the previous wave. So for example:

Wave 1
2x Quick Change Anakin/Vader
2x Quick Change Palpatine/Sidious
2x Deluxe General Grievous
2x Lousy Jumping Obi-Wan

Wave 2
1x Deluxe Grievous
1x Quick Change Anakin/Vader
2x Vader on Operating Table
2x Yoda on Can-Cell
2x Clone w/JetPack

Wave 3
1x Vader on Operating Table
1x Clone w/JetPack
2x Vulture Droid
2x Spider Droid
2x Stass Allie w/BARC Speeder

Wave 4
1x Vulture Droid
1x Stass Allie w/Barc Speeder
2x Clonetrooper 3-pack (all white)
2x Clonetrooper 3-pack (w/unit markings)
2x Crab Droid

Also if they could have made it so Waves 1 & 2 shipped simultaneously and Waves 3 & 4 shipped simultaneously they could have ensured that NONE of them were really peg warmers. Perhaps I'm crazy but case assortments like the ones I listed above would actually make it EASY to find the entire Deluxe Assortment AND reduce the number of eventual peg warmers.

Don't even get me started on the basic figure assortments, they are just bass-ackwards. Why SO MANY older figures are being re-assorted when the new figures first come out is anyone's guess. Hasbro instead of having the single case shipping at any one time mentality they should have two cases shipping - the "new figures" wave and the "Catch-up, replenishment wave".

When they launched the line instead of 1-12 and 13-24 being 1 per case, it should have been 2x of each figure and split the cases up. The Blue/Red Guard should have been split into two separate figures as well.

After that, since the pace has been what it is, ship the next six figures from both Collection 1 and 2 at two per case so that would bring us up to 36 figures. At the same time you're shipping what would be my Wave 3s, this would be the time to ship "catch-up" cases of 1-12 and 13-24 at one per case and with case product levels of 1/3 to 1/4 the number of "wave 3" cases you're shipping. Then when you have the next six figures (the wave 4s) from both collections shipping, have a mix of the first 18 figures from each collection in the case, packed 1-per focusing on the core characters from 1-12 or 13-24 and then 1 each of the follow-on six figures.

Keep continuing the method of large production new figure cases, smaller product "catch up" cases and we would be at 48 figures released so far, all with excellent and sensible distribution.

The fact that you're also offering "catch up" cases allows you to offer different mixes, army-builder heavy mixes, mixes that make up for the "hey we had no idea that figure would be in so much demand" foul-ups, etc...

Hasbro would never do it 'cause it just makes sense, but in the future, I do not see the line surviving unless they start making cases of 100% new 2 per case figures so that online retailers can start offering cases (and half cases) on a subscription-type basis so all collectors can remain "caught up" on their complete collections. Sure this would mean the collectors who "pick and choose" which figures they want to buy would be a bit screwed, but with the case assortments now, they're getting screwed too - at least help the completist collector who wants one or more of each figure - in the long run that collector will be buying the most product.

While personally I'm EXTREMELY jealous that good 'ole Poppa George put his teenage son in a VERY memorable un-named role. In fact, I feel that the emotional impact of this teen Jedi getting taken out by members of the 501st legion was leaps and bounds above seeing Aayla Secura, Ki Adi Mundi and Plo Koon getting wasted by their troops.

Also - we've gotten plenty of adult Jedi, we got three Younglings - now we have a teenager Jedi - nicely rounds out the various ages of the Jedi in the temple.

That woulda been nice... as would the WHOLE Meditation Chamber, not just half with a lame cover.

Jeff

Yeah - I would have gladly paid another $10 - $20 just to have the meditation chamber be COMPLETE, not completed by the packaging, which IMHO is just a cop-out.

- Peter

Also - if you use the scene on Utapau as the basis - I think the scale of the Crab Droid is perfect - I wish the "knees" were articulated so I could have a "dead" one with a clone standing over it with his gun pointed straight down (like in the movie).

I agree with Darth Anton - I'm completely confused as to why the sculpt varies between the SA Clone Trooper, the Clone Commander, Commander Bacarra, JetPack Trooper and the AT-TE Gunner - the base for all of them is a regular set of Clonetrooper Armor - after that they just get the add-on of the should pauldron or a skirt or in some cases both.

I haven't a clue why this wasn't what Hasbro did. It seems to me the more times they produce the SA Clone body parts the cheaper the initial cost per produced figure comes for the initial design cost that went into developing the SA Clone parts.

The skirt, shoulder pauldrons, visor and communication attenae could all have been snap-ons designed to work around the SA Clonetrooper body.

In fact - I'll have to double-check tonight, but I think the one thing that is consistent among all of the clones is their hands - so if you're going to do that, why stop at just the hands?

Quote from: Pete_Fett on May 31, 2005, 11:12 PM

Has anyone found a set of clones with the markings?

I did yesterday morning(May 31st). The standing clone with the red markings.

Was that the only clone in the set with markings? I thought there was going to be (different) markings on all three clones.

Slower release schedule and having the releases more spread-out is definitely the way to go if figures are going to start costing us $10 a pop.

Let's face it - in the vintage line there wasn't even 100 figures. Between OTC, Post-OTC, ROTS Sneak Preview and ROTS, we've had over 100 figures - all released within a ten month window. That's A LOT of product.

If they want to gear the line more towards collectors, release VOTC level product and produce a wave of four every other month - for a total of 24 figures per year - I would really be happy with that level of production since that's only $480 per year for me.

If however they are going to release regular waves of $5/$6 basic figures at one wave per month, I'm done for.

Quality (as opposed to shear quantity) should be the focus of the line for the forseeable future - only time it should revert back to Saga/ROTS release mentality is if they break-off and have a line of figures dedicated to a TV series.