It said there with still be waist-ups along with the full figures. My impression is that the ones that will be full figures will be 'short' characters they wouldn't make otherwise, like the Ewoks they mentioned.

You would be correct.  The environment elements that are part of the Bust Ups line are pretty small.  The figures in those scenes are roughly the same size as the Bust Ups, and are NOT in scale with them.  A comparable piece to give you an idea of the size of these Gentle Giant Bust Ups "scenes" are the Tomy mini-dioramas.

At first I thought that this auction was ludicrous, and just another example of collector greed gone mad.  But then I got pleasantly surprised when I saw that 95% of the proceeds of the sale will be going to CHARITY.  I know that some of us may snicker and giggle at members of the 501st in some situations, but I know that a lot of what they do revolves around charity work.  And seeing them auction this figure off for charity is just tremendous.  Especially considering what someone was willing to pay.  Hope the check doesn't bounce, Phil. 

I kind of like this.  I felt like there were far too few Sith in our Gentle Giant collections to begin with.  Well, at least since Gentle Giant kind of hit a wall there since they've already made all of the movie based Sith in mini-bust form.  I think this is better than them revisiting Darth Vader again, or making a decrepit ROTJ Emporer.

Plus I think that the character choices are starting to get somewhat limited for Gentle Giant.  They've made a mini-bust of pretty much every major character in the Saga so far, barring Jabba the Hutt and some others.  Do we want them to revisit ANH farmboy Luke?  Or try TESB Han Solo?  Personally I find choices like that boring.  I think the only revision type piece that I might find interesting would be a force spirit of Obi-Wan, and I just don't know that Gentle Giant can make the materials work for a bust like that.

I also think that GG might have gone with a character like this so that people wouldn't be upset about missing out on a major character by virtue of it being an exclusive.  You've got to want this piece if you're going to want to get it.  So making a video game character might not be a bad idea in the grand scheme of things.

Hmmm.  I've met so many of the Star Wars actors that I hardly think most of them are worth mentioning at this point.  But I'll list the major ones.

James Earl Jones
Carrie Fisher
Billy Dee Williams
Miss America - 1983 - Debra Maffett
Mitch Kupchak - 1983/84 L.A. Lakers
Don Maloney - NY Rangers
Dave Maloney - NY Rangers
Sparky Lyle - NY Yankees
William S. Kuntsler - Attorney
Les Paul - Legendary guitarist/inventor of multitrack recording, solid body electric guitar
Omar Epps
Johnnie Cochran
PJ Harvey (okay, well I just stood in line behind her in a record shop)
Lawrence Taylor (2 times, but I was apprehensive about approaching him)

I also wound up on the same flight to Comic Con as Deepak Chopra, Joe Quesada from Marvel Comics and the artist who created the Joker.  Kind of cool, I guess.

**** Peyton Manning and the Colts.  I'm rooting for the Bears.  Will they win?  Probably not, but I'm hoping.

I guess getting knocked out in the AFC championship game smarts more than the Bears totally embarassing the Pats in 1985, huh?


Congrats to the Colts. It was a tight game in the first half, and after that the Colts came out firing and Rex Grossman showed his true nature.  He wasn't even an effective "game manager" like the illustrious Trent Dilfer of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.  And surprisingly the Colts D was really pumped up tonight and was stopping the run.  And then factor in just how much losing Cedric Benson hurt the Bears gameplan.

At almost all of the stores I've gone to where there are cases out on the floor I've had success.  And if you ask an employee if it's alright they're usually fine with that.  It's less for them to have to put out on the pegs later on.  Make sure you through in things like "excuse me", "please", "miss", "sir" or "thanks" and you're almost guaranteed to make out alright.

As a matter of fact, my score of about 20 figures a couple of days ago came from just that.  There were a couple of cases there and the employee was fine with me taking the figures since it lessened what she had to put out later that night.

Finally saw this set yesterday.  I like all of the figure choices for this general release battle pack.  Well, all of them except for one.  WHY IN THE SAM HILL DID HASBRO PUT AAYLA SECURA IN THIS BATTLE PACK WHEN SHE'S ALREADY IN THE FELUCIA ONE?!?! Stupid Hasbro.  You've got umpteen different Jedi in the arena battle, many of who have been produced before.  Why issue the same Aayla Secura in two different battle packs that are on the shelves at the same time?

I finally took the Kubricks plunge today and bought the 2005 TRU Japan 5-pack.  It was just too cool to resist.