Another fun thing, there are two versions of this ad.  That's the Star Wars Insider one.  The one on the back of ToyFare #121 says (no joke) "The Mandalorians R In Ur Base... Trainin' Ur Doodz."

The name's funny and I guess Jayson beat me to the joke I had all worked up for this thread...  Good to know I wasn't the only one with priest jokes lined up.  But the figure's pretty nifty looking, even if it's basically a repaint of the first figure with maybe a different head.

Some other tooling/accessory changes as well, but well, it's not like I've seen the final final production figures yet-- so there should be some nifty differences between the two.

I think the oddest point of this whole set is the fact that EE states "14 never-before-made action figures" and I see 3 repaints. What is the deal with that? That "never-before-made" says to me that they are all new with no repack/repaint and they have made that figure before.

There's a whole big issue of "what constitutes new?" I bring up every now and again in my column, because it seems to vary depending on who you ask.  I'm going by the definition of new character = new figure, even if existing tooling is used.   If (***IF***) this set had a Jango Fett in it, to be a never-before-made figure, he'd need to use new tooling.  If (again, ***IF***) Jango was in this set and just a repack, that's not necessarily a new figure.   ***IF*** the set has an astromech droid in it, and it has a different name than a previous droid, and is in new colors, then I would count that as a new figure.   (If it had Anakin in it, and it switched heads with another Anakin, no, I don't think we'd call that new.   I would personally consider it new in my collection [like the 2005 Battle Pack head swaps] but I wouldn't market it as such.)

It's not quite like discussing what the definition of "is" is, but for the sake of what *I* consider new, these figures qualify.  New names, new squads, new armor, sure.  New hat, not so much.

Anyone know the average shipping charge to CA? Thanks

Yes!   Canada or California?  Either way, you can find a full list of rates here.  It's based on the price of the order, not weight, so you can pretty much figure it out exactly.

Does EE even mail these out anymore?  I haven't received a catalog in quite a while.  Do they only arrive with orders?

We certainly do.   We send out about 4 a year-- our last one was delivered to our client list on or about June 6.   If you haven't ordered from us in a while, it's entirely possible you may not be on our list.  If you have ordered from us in like the last year or two and didn't get one (and want them), do let us know-- that's the sort of thing we really want to hear about so we can fix it assuming, of course, you want it to be fixed.

At the same time I have my limits as well...  If the set turned out to be nothing but made up clone repaints the rest of the way through, like an orange #33 Commander repaint, etc., etc.

Well, it's not going to be all any one kind of figure from here on out-- so it's not going to be all Clones, and it's not going to be any Clone Commanders.

Who, exactly, is writing the back story to this set and the characters (names, jobs, etc.) involved in it?  I'm curious about that...  Is it Hasbro?  Is Lucasfilm feeding the "story"?  I'm a little perplexed on all that jazz.

To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure.  Lucasfilm always has final say on the names and packaging copy, and they aren't shy about making sure things align with their vision of the characters or events.  They even renamed a few astromechs here and there.   While I don't know specifically who wrote the bio information, I can tell you it wasn't me.

I think not super-articulating the clone commadoes has been the worst idea since the "no-neck" Maguilicutty rebel fleet trooper.

Adam, how finished are these sets?  Is there any chance for some last minute retooling?

It's my understanding to meet the ship date, they're pretty much finished-- but the images you're seeing (and that I've seen) aren't final product, which means minor things like necks, holsters, paint, eyebrows, all that stuff could end up looking slightly different on the final product.   Given the costs needed to make a new tool for new legs, that's something that isn't really doable at this stage.  (I'd prefer to have knees too, but such is life.)

Could some of these Mando's be coming from the Clone Wars cartoon coming out?  We've seen very little, and it being more then a 5 minute cartoon there's probably a lot of ground to cover for the cartoon to delve into.  Somebody after all has to keep training the newbies on Kamino.  Alpha on the poster has the "eye" markings on his helmet much like the #41 clones that are coming with the set.  I plan on buying the set regardless, just hoping Hasbro/EE aren't pulling these characters out of there  

If any of these figures appear on the TV show, well, I'm not privy to that-- I've seen and know as much about the show as anybody else.

You'll recognize a few of the figures from existing projects you may have seen.  If you read the novels, you might recognize Omega Squad (well, from the text, I guess.)    If you read the Star Wars Insider, you may recognize Rav Bralor's armor as looking a lot like [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mandalorians:_People_and_Culture]a picture from one of their Mandalorian articles[/url], and there are going to be a couple of things in the set like that.  And a couple, like Llats Ward and the white Clones, that are more or less new.

There's a pretty big gap between Galactic Marines and Airborne Troopers and dyed black or logo-stamped repaints of things that were never in movies.

*shrugs* There's also a pretty big gap between Galactic Marines and the Kashyyyk Trooper and what appeared in the movies, too.  I still wish I could've got a few more of the bugger, though.

Also, black repaints are kinda popular with collectors-- at least in Japanese toys-- and these ones have the benefit from having appeared in a few EU sources so far.   But if you're not a fan of the EU, I don't blame you for not thinking much of a black repaint.

Odd that for a Mandalorian 14 pack, we only know of two Mandalorians.

Actually, it isn't a Mandalorian 14-pack.  It's a Mystery Figure pack.  The final, official name has yet to be revealed, but I can assure you it isn't "Star Wars Mandalorian Pack."  (Although that is a fine nickname for it, if not entirely accurate as far as what it represents.)

I hope that this is the last clone.

Nope.   But I like Clones a lot, and there are more figures left to reveal.  I'm more or less done building armies larger than 3-6 of any given type, but I'd love to see more Clones.  Scuba Clones, Glow-in-the-dark Clones, etc.

I like it though.  Omega Squad is awesome.

I thought someone, somewhere confirmed that the shadows were not indicative of all the figures.  Maybe I'm just making this crap up though.

Nope, you're right.  My intent is to pick out shadows that if you read enough into it, you'll realize that they can't possibly be the real figures in the set because some are actually older 12-inch action figures.   There are deliberate red herrings in there.   I mean, in the middle row, on the far left?  That's the single packaged version of GI Joe Valor vs. Venom Scarlett.   So if people want to speculate, great, but the shadows aren't really going to reveal much more about what's in these sets.

<snip>

 Funny how they say there's not enough demand for playsets, considering I think they said the same thing about the 12" line, now look how successful Sideshow has been with it.  Ha!

This depends on your definition of "success."  For Hasbro, selling under 10,000 units of a 12-inch figure (including variants) isn't usually a step in the right direction.

So is EE not going to reveal the identities of the other figures? I'm not purchasing something that I have no clue to what it's going to contain.

We/Hasbro will reveal all 14 at Comic-Con 2007.   The set is currently up for pre-order, and you can cancel at any time-- that way if for some reason it gets close to selling out and you think you might be interested, at least you're in line for it.   But hey, July's just a few weeks away, and at least one more figure will probably be revealed before the show.  I think people will be very happy with these.

I have a feeling that the Mandalorian that we've seen is the only new tool in the set.

Thankfully you would be wrong there.   Llats Ward is a partially new tool, but there is new tooling involved.   There will also be at least one (maybe more, I ain't gonna say) completely new tool in the set.   I'm very happy to say that this set is not a big box of repaints with just one new figure.

I'm not too worried about holding off on pre-ordering these. EE never sells out right away (knock on wood.)

The first two shipments (or the first one and like 95% of #2 if memory serves) of our Clone Trooper packs did pre-sell out in 2005, they weren't "in stock" for quite some time.   Kids love the Clones.