I feel genuinely bad for some who missed out on the Death Star exclusives.  Reiterating some comments I made elsewhere:

I suspect a great deal of the collector animosity is because this years exclusives are being offered in more limited quantities than they had been in recent years. Over the past couple of years there had been an expectation that if a collector could not make it to a summer convention that there would be PLENTY more to go around at HTS afterward. Hasbro seems to have responded to what they may have regarded as an overstock of past summer convention exclusives by limiting their production numbers this year.  In the case of last year's SDCC & C5 exclusives, those were readily available for months following the summer convention season.

Here's where I'm going to get in trouble.  With some of you guys, and not anyone else:  This kind of thing in the long run is GOOD FOR THE LINE.  Lots of people get upset, yes.  Lots of people wind up disappointed, yes.  But this kind of "buzz" serves to stir up interest in Hasbro's Star Wars line. This limited number of exclusives may be an effort do just that.  So in effect this may be something of a marketing ploy on Hasbro's part to make the line hot again in the eyes of collectors.  Will the ammount of interest it stirs up outweigh the damage it can do?  That is very much a calculated risk.

Now, on the matter of the mechanics of the HTS site?  I have seen legitimate concerns and complaints about that site here, at JD.  And I applaud a number of you for your restraint, patience and level-headedness on the subject.  It's frustrating.  But elsewhere, I see histrionics and hysteria that are so over the top that you would think that Hasbro was asking these people for a pound of flesh and a pint of blood.  I understand that a lot of people have invested a lot of their time, effort and money into their collections.  But each one of us has a choice about just how much we are willing to give of ourselves and our hard earned dollars to Hasbro.  And in this case with the Death Star?  I passed and I am not disappointed.

AH!  Step 3.  This should only be what, another half hour? 

HTS is The Suck.

I've managed to log in but can't get past step 2 of checkout.

I think I may just pass on the Death Star pack.  The mouse droid and salacious crumb on the mini cards look cool.  But I made a point of ending the whole MIMP collecting scheme.  That is all this pack seems geared towards.

I'm not missing Sebulba in this set.  I think he's one character that could stand to be revisited, especially with the current state of figure articulation and how it could be applied to a Dug.  And a new pod race Anakin with modern articulation & sculpting would be a fairly welcome, too.

I'm kind of glad this set is all reissues.  I can skip this set since I got all of these as basic figures.  And considering that there are only a few more pod racers that have yet to be made into figures, I'd rather see a set like this which is ALL reissues and not a mixture of old & new.  That kind of lineup leaves the collector feeling used when you have to buy a multi-pack in order to get 1 or 2 new figures.

And on the general subject of pod racers, there are only another three or four that have yet to be made.  I think that those can get spaced out over time.  As for the pod race vehicles, I agree that it's generally a losing proposition.  MAYBE Anakin and Sebulba's pods could get reissued/retooled, but I don't know that there is an overwhelming desire to get them back into rotation in the vehicle line.

This is definitely some positive news.  With the content of the battle packs getting scaled back, along with the economic pressures that are facing consumers in general, the lower price point is certainly welcome.

Caught an interview on Sirius XM's Comic Con radio with Dee Bradley Baker (Clones) & Cat Taber (Padme, night sister) today.  They were pretty tight-lipped about season 4.  But they did let SOME details slip.

Dee mentioned that General Krell (same species as Dexter Jettster) has a 4 part story arc with the Clones, and how his story with these Clone Troopers shapes their perceptions of their place in the war/galaxy. 

The Mon Calamari arc with Ackbar will be a 3 episode story arc.  Ackbar appears, as mentioned in the panel.  Both actors said they were really impressed with the way the water effects looked in the episodes.

Cat Taber confirmed that the Night sisters return, and she plays one of them.

Definitely hoping for a closer look at Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul. 

Qui-Gon looks very much like the Evolutions figure, but there were some things about the face sculpt with that figure that might bear revisiting.  And overall that figure looked slightly out of proportion.

Then, there's Obi-Wan.  While Hasbro may have taken another shot at Obi-Wan in the TLC RED line, there was something that seemed a little off about that one, too.  I hope this version gets tweaked to the point that it's really impressive.

Darth Maul really seems to need the most attention.  And unfortunately we couldn't get a good look at the figure in that slide.  Hopefully we'll see something a little more high res in the near future.

As for the rest of this wave?  Generally, I'm pretty happy with what I see.  Queen Amidala, Anakin and Daultay Dofine all look pretty cool.  And the Anakin body would definitely make for some good Jedi younglings in the future.  Quinlan Vos is a nice addition, considering he is sourced to one of the scenes in Mos Espa.  The pic of the Battle Droid was a little sketchy, and I'd like to see more. 

Sidious looks a little big and bloomy, unfortunately.  A Sidious/Senator Palpatine would be very cool though.  And I'm wondering, is that a molded hood next to the figure?