Doin' the happy dance, doin' the happy dance, woohoo!
I'm stoked about both figures. 03' Luke should be a great companion to the new Vader, and if we end up getting that rumored Death Star II playset, its going to be a dream come true. Knowing there is another coming makes the hurt of the action feature much, much easier to take. The plans for '04 Luke look even better.
I'm even more happy and excited that Hasbro has so bluntly and finally acknowledged that the action features are a huge issue with collectors, and look to be making a much bigger effort at draw a line between Collection 1 and Collection 2. I interpret from that post that the Clone Wars line is the first stage of what Collection 1 is more openly going to be known as the "Junior Line", made for kids, openly and plainly. They mention that Collection 2 will continue as the "Saga" line, so it sounds like in '04 we get our POTJ mode of thought back in full action with the addition of what worked in '02-03 -- accessories and articulation. Sounds like a great plan to me!
What I don't quite believe is that they will do away with action features from the Junior line. My take was that they were saying, "Don't worry, the figures you collectors want aren't going to be hosed up after the ROTj Luke wave, so please be patient with us." I bet that there will be action features continuing or reappearing once they restablish the two lines, which is fine by me, now that there is comfort in knowing good things are to come.
This goes a long way towards making ammends for the sacrificed figures this year, just knowing that they understand the importance of collectors, and took the extra effort with this announcment to make sure we heard loud and clear that they value our business. Smartest move I've ever seen from them. Thumbs up.
What a great SW day!
-J
