Saga Line: The End

[Brian]

Although some of us may not have all of the figures from this line that we want, and are still searching (General Lando, where are you? )...with the last waves of Saga making their way through stores, and some OTC being found at various parts of the country now....we can begin to start to talk about the Saga line as a whole.  Did you find everything you wanted (or are you still looking)?  How would you grade the line overall?  What were the strong or weak points?  Finally, what are your favorite figures, ships, beasts, etc. from the line (1, 5, 10, however many you'd like to list)?

[Scott]

It was really hit and miss, can't complain about 2004 at all really.  Endor Han was a disappointment and so was some of the wonky articulation they chose to do, and Hoth Rebel Soldier...well.  The other downside is the crap plastic used in the weapons and some atrocious paint apps.  But an awesome group of new figures topped off with some much requested vintage remakes.

2003 had some good apology figures but was again hit and miss with a lot of rehashes and focusing mainly on the prequels.  The action features were still there which wrecked some potentially cool figures like Throne Room Luke and Darth.  Oh...and lest we forget they started recarding old figures in 2004.

2002...not sure what to say.  Some of them are top shelf sort of stuff, I look at a lot of those April 23 figures and laugh at how bad they were and hope Hasbro really is delivering on the promise of giving us some super awesome Episode III figures

They did not transition well from 2001 to 2002 and we all here hope they learn from their mistakes and don't repeat them (action features, preposed, no articulation, overproduced

[Darth Kenobi]

I still looking for a few waves which came out during the latter part of 2003 and early 2004.  I think I have found most but not all of the figures I still need.  (Have to check my list to see what went out and if I have it).  I not sure on what my favorite figures I figure Ephant Mon was one of them.  THe line in a whole I liked except for the Action Feature of the April 23 figures.

[Morgbug]

I'm not sure where to go with this.  

I loved the early 2002 stuff, simply because it showed up at stores.  Sadly, some of it is still there and not just Jar-Jar, which they have finally and mercifully marked down to $1.99.  There were some ok figures, but had I known that so many of them would be repacked into the 4 packs, I could have easily passed on many.  

2003 was a blur, spent begging and borrowing from the good folks in the US.  Thank goodness for McFarlane for trading stuff.  Honestly, I can't remember much of 2003.  How sad.

2004 has been interesting, but so many recards and wonky distribution yet again.  Even the new Tie pilot is a bit of a disappointment to me.  It's nice enough, but I just don't feel it's a huge improvement, which is precisely what remakes should be - a substantial step up.  The action figures didn't die soon enough.  One of my most anticipated figures was the throne room Luke that Scott mentioned.  But the face sculpt sucks and the action figure doesn't work, aside from being generally annoying.  

Favorites?  Not many, my last year has been dominated by vintage even though I've obtained every modern figure released in that time.  The Hoth droid from the four pack is nice.  The 12" biker scout is a very nice piece.  Gold leader is actually really nifty too, becomes a dramatically different figure with the helmet on.  The Super Articulated Clone trooper is very nice.  

Overall though my favorite line out of the Saga era is actually the non-animated clone wars figures.  I know, different section dweeb-boy.  Still, the ARC troopers are neat, even Mexican Yoda doesn't suck that badly once released from the plastic.  Now if only they'd released the clone trooper armor version of Obi...

[Brian]

I have been working on re-arranging my collection, to make room for both OTC/VOTC stuff, as well as some new Spidey stuff I've gotten lately, and have been getting closer looks at a few things from the Saga line.  One thing in particular is the Trash Compactor sets.  To be honest, I was really excited about picking these up when they came out...and they were tough to find around here...but now, when I look at it, I'm not all that impressed.  The Han figure isn't too bad (if it had better/different articulation, it would be ok)...but pretty much the rest of them aren't that great.  Chewie is a one-pose wonder, Luke has his eyes closed, and Leia's face sculpt (at least on mine) is especially crap-tastic.  Plus, since I took the whole thing apart to pack away for our moving, I still haven't been able to get it all back together quite right (although I haven't taken a lot of time to I guess).  It is a pain to move, since everything basically falls out/apart whenever it is moved at all.  Anyways, I'm not usually one to complain much...but just something I was thinking about...venting.  The set is not as good as I initially had hoped.  I'd still be up for a resculpt of both the Han and Luke Stormtrooper figures because of this set.

[Morgbug]

that's part of the reason I don't open stuff like that.  Tiny little hands (or machines) went to a lot of effort to put items into particular places/poses.  Multipacks I seldom open up, including two packs, the old cinema scenes and even these trash compactor sets.  Still not sure what I will do with the Jedi council.  As a circle, it will need more space to display, so I'm less keen on that.  I'm thinking of stacking vertically, like I probably will with the Target sets.  

You call it schizophrenic, I call it eclectic.  

[Brian]

That's a good idea, and makes sense Brent.  I should have just left them in the boxes they came in.  Like you said, with things like that it is just easier.  I have my council opened up, because I wanted to put them together...but you are right, the whole "circle" is going to take up a mess of room.  But, at least they aren't quite as much of a pain to get in the right places, or to stand right.  That is a good idea though, leaving things such as that packaged.

[Jesse James]

My Saga opinion...

Overall, it was a 50/50 line at best I'd say...  Improvements made were marred by many mistakes made.  Quality was all over the board.  Availability was, pretty much, the only 100% plus because I have pretty well found everything except that last wave, which Paul Mundheim shared his extras with me so other than doubles for customs I'm cool on them.

I even saw the dreaded Ephant Mon twice...  That's twice more than some did though.

I feel Clone Wars was tougher to find, as there were figures in that series I saw not once, some I only saw one time and one of (SA Clone) and some which I saw twice or so but flew off the shelves quickly (2nd wave).  THAT is a line that could do with a 4th series or more I think.

Saga though had lots of goodness, especially in the latter end here...  Jedi Luke, Dengar, Antilles, Dodonna, TIE Pilot, "Dutch", etc...  I mean, who'd have thought we'd get all 3 Rebel Generals in one figure line, and actually within 6 months of each other or so?  WOw!

There WERE some other figures I never saw...  I never saw Palp's figure, and the McTrooper.  I blame that one on Retail 100% as they did their usual moronic ooverordering at the build-up to X-Mas and that wave just got screwed...

But while Saga had the hits I mentioned above, they also leaked out crap like the Hoth Rebel Soldier, and pretty much 50% (and that's being lenient) of the figures from April 23rd '02 on there till the Hoth Han and TRD Luke/Vader supposedly marked the end of Action Features...

If you're talking percentages then, I'd say POTJ was superior to Saga.  They were a much shorter line though, and much more comparable to just the tail-end of Saga.

OTC cards should've started last year...  That's really what I'm thinking right now.    We could forget Saga and have had these dreamy new card figures then for all those kick-ass figures from Saga's demise.

[Force Guy]

The Saga line was great.  We saw some of the greatest figures ever made in the Star Wars line, including Ephant Mon, Bespin Luke, Coleman Trebor, Poggle the Lesser, Hoth Luke, and Skiff Lando.  We got lots of cool 'upgrade' figs (IE Hoth Han, Snowtrooper, Dengar, Jabba) with the right amount of focus placed on background characters (IE Djas Puhr, Orn Free Taa, J'Quille, Rappertunie).  On a sidenote, damn those action features to hell.        

A big bonus with Saga figures (which is rarely mentioned) is the fact that Hasbro didn't skimp in regards to pack-in accessories.  With the Saga line, we got cool accessories, bases, and stands with our figures.  It was nice to see cinema scenes make a comeback in the form of screen scenes.  Unfortunately, they seemed to warm toy shelves everywhere.  

Saga vehicles seemed to sell very well, especially the Landspeeder, Dagobah X-Wing, and initially, the Republic Gunship.  It was a real shame that Hasbro released Zam Wesell's speeder and Anakin's speeder without making figures that could fit in the cockpit properly.  As always, the 12" line pretty much sucked.  Unleashed statues, however, seem to be a huge success, which was spawned during the Saga years.                

[CHEWIE]

I'd say that SAGA was the best thing since the late POTF2 days.  We got so much variety, with all new articulation/sculpting standards that I don't think we got with POTJ.  The thing that was a let-down though would be the lack of prequel figures later on, as well as a total lack of playsets.  

Did we even see any prequel stuff after the CW stuff?

 

[Jeff]

Did we even see any prequel stuff after the CW stuff?

Hmmm...

Just the HoF Figures (Maul, Anakin, Yoda, Obi-Wan) are the only Saga figures I can remember that came near or after the CW stuff, and those were re-packs and not new figures.

Jeff