Author Topic: Best and Worst of 2004  (Read 11854 times)

Offline Darth Broem

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Best and Worst of 2004
« on: December 9, 2004, 04:45 PM »
Just wondering what we think the best and worst figures and vehicles of 2004 were. 

Best VOTC:  Boba Fett or Chewbacca or Stormtrooper
Best OTC:  Cloud Car Pilot or Gen Madine or Yoda
Best Saga:  J'Quille or R1-G4 or even Dutch or Bubo 

Worst VOTC:  C-3PO of course
Worst OTC:  Bib Fortuna
Worst Saga: I liked most of them but I'll say Holo Luke since everyone whined about the blue paint or whatever.

Best Vehicle:  OTC Slave I (painted it nice and great packaging)
Worst Vehicle:  OTC Tie Fighter (time to update this one from 77 a bit more IMO)

Best 12 inch:  Boba Fett VOTC
Worst 12 inch: Luke VOTC

Offline Jeff

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #1 on: December 9, 2004, 05:05 PM »
Here are my votes:

Best VOTC:  Chewbacca - the Stormie was nice, but Chewie is the best!
Best OTC:    Dagobah Luke - Handstanding was a GREAT pose for him
Best Saga:   General Madine - Great articulation, very nice pose.  J'Quille is second...

Worst VOTC:  C-3PO - R2 is a close second though
Worst OTC:    TRU Jedi Circle of Suck - all 4 of these sets were pretty sad attempts (yet I bought them all  :()
Worst Saga:   Hoth Rebel Trooper - Should have been much nicer, he had a bad stance and sucky articulation

Best Vehicle:  OTC Falcon - I really liked the small improvements they made to this ship
Worst Vehicle:  OTC X-Wing - what a waste to re-release this version, especially with the other still out at TRU
« Last Edit: December 9, 2004, 05:06 PM by Nataku »
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Offline Scott

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #2 on: December 9, 2004, 05:17 PM »
Gotta agree with Jeff on some...

Best VOTC:  Chewbacca - Amazing figure, the ultimate Chewie
Best OTC:    Dagobah Luke - GReat accessories, neat use of head swaps and arms swaps
Best Saga:   Jedi Luke - The only down side was the one hand, but otherwise, its a great figure

Worst VOTC:  C-3PO - No contest
Worst OTC:    Every single repack...ick
Worst Saga:   Hoth Rebel Trooper - First, dissapointed this wasn't an Echo Base Trooper, then as a resculpt it was horrible.  Bad all around

Best Vehicle:  ?
Worst Vehicle: TIE and X-Wing rerelease crap

Offline Jim

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #3 on: December 9, 2004, 06:28 PM »
Best VOTC = Chewie
Best OTC = Bespin Leia
Best SAGA = Tanus Spijek

Worst VOTC = C-3PO
Worst OTC = Han Solo (not the fig itself, but being released so many times)
Worst SAGA = Hoth Soldier

Best Vehicle = Y-Wing

Offline Angry Ewok

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #4 on: December 9, 2004, 07:27 PM »
Great thread...

Best VOTC
I only own the Stormtrooper, but I'll go ahead and name the it the best of VOTC - because I feel an SA stormtrooper was needed more than any of the others.

Best OTC
This is a tough one for me... I think I'll go with Madine (unfortunately I haven't found Madine yet).

Best Saga
Captain Antilles!

*

Worst VOTC
C3PO...

Worst OTC
Bib Fortuna, easily.

Worst Saga
Hoth trooper

Offline Darby

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #5 on: December 9, 2004, 08:40 PM »
I always love these lists.

Best VOTC: Chewie / Stormie tie.

Best OTC: Cloud Car Pilot  (but 3-PO may have had the best overall package.  I loved it)

Best Saga: Jedi Luke

Best Post OTC: Celebration Padme

Worst VOTC: 3-PO takes the cake.

Worst OTC: Bib Fortuna

Worst Saga: Hoth Trooper by a mile

Worst Post OTC: Rabe, only because of that mug

Offline Diddly

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #6 on: December 9, 2004, 09:02 PM »
Best

VOTC: Tie between Fett/Stormie/Chewie

OTC: (Hard one...) Going with Dagobah Luke

Saga: Dengar

Post OTC: Padme

Vehicle: Tie between Falcon/Slave 1/Y-Wing


Worst

VOTC: C-3PO

OTC: (Excluding Commtech Han) Bib Fortuna

Saga: Hoth Trooper

Post OTC: Rabe

Vehicle: Tie between Rehashed X-wing/Rehashed TIE
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Offline Ben

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2004, 03:24 AM »
Best VOTC- Stormtrooper
Best OTC- Dagobah Luke
Best Saga- Luke Hoth with Luke Jedi a close second
Best Post-OTC- Celebration Padme. Been waiting for this figure since 1999.

Worst VOTC- 3PO, with a close second being the price on said figures
Worst OTC- Hoth Vader. Just a really lame idea
Worst Saga- Han AT-ST driver. They were better off just making a AT-ST Driver and not trying to pass it off as Han, IMO.
Worst Post-OTC- Tough to judge, but I'd have to go with Rabe. It's a fig we've wanted for a while, but the face makes it a kinda-stinker.

I didn't buy any OTC vehicles, so I'm leaving them out.
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Offline DoctorPadawan

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2004, 08:47 AM »
Best VOTC:  Stormtrooper, although Boba Fett comes in a close second.  I didn't think an army builder could get any better than the SA Clone Trooper, but I was wrong.

Best OTC:  Yoda/Dagobah Luke.  I know that they are two figures, but the fact that they actually work together well (as opposed to the horrid way that these figures worked together in POTF2), makes me want to give it to both of them.  In my mind, when together, they are the best figure of the year.

Best Saga:  Skiff Lando.  The entire Jabba's Palace wave (plus Jedi Luke) was probably the best overall wave of the year in terms of characters, sculpting, and variety, but Lando stood out as the best to me.  And if you want to really love him, just pull out the POTF2 Skiff Lando and compare the two.  It's like night and day.

Best Vehicle: Boba Fett's Slave I, and this is only because there were not any "new" vehicles released this year.  I hesitate to call it the best, since the wing stabilizers are so unsturdy, but since I have always been a Fett fan, I'll give it the nod.

WORST:

Worst VOTC:  Threepio, hands down.  This one just stinks of someone saying "we really need to do a Threepio for this line but we're out of development money."  Horrible articulation, horrible stance, and the fact that it's on an ESB card without the removable limbs feature irritates me.  The only real stinker in what was an otherwise great subline.

Worst OTC:  All the repacks.  Five is okay, ten is pushing it, but when nearly 30 of your 38 figures are rereleases for a particular line, it's obnoxious and it reeks of laziness.  The excuse was used that the DVD announcement caught them by surprise, but if that is the case, how did they have all that lead time to prepare the VOTC for release?

Worst Saga:  AT-ST Han, hands down.  One of the worst ideas for an action figure in recent memory.  Considering all we ever saw of Han this way was wearing the helmet on a static-filled viewscreen, it once again reeks of Hasbro cheaping out, as all they had to sculpt was an arm below the elbow and a head.  In my mind, they could have either done a real Endor Han figure, with cloth coat and in his regular outfit, and included the helmet and articulation so he could hold his arm in from of his face, or they could have just released a Richard Marquand AT-ST driver.  But then, those would have been things that the people would like, and we can't have that happen.

Worst Vehicle:  repackorama in OTC of the seriously outdated X-Wing and TIE molds.  "Hey folks, just ignore the fact that if you go to TRU you can get an X-Wing that is properly scaled and is immensely superior for about $19.99 (which is what it is going for on Amazon at the time of its release); here's a version of it that is hideously underscaled and outdated for the same price, and you don't even get a figure!"

Offline CorranHorn

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2004, 01:51 AM »
Best VOTC: Stormtrooper. The ultimate army builder, an insane amounts of articulation lead to a great number of poses and a top notch sculpt. Runner-Up: Han Solo - could have been better if the vest was a seperate piece

Best Standard Figure (Saga/OTC): Jedi Luke Skywalker. Though the arm articulation was a bit silly, the overall sculpt and detailing on this figure was great and it is definitely a fun figure to play with. Runner-Up: R2-D2 (Jabba's Skiff) - best R2 unit yet, just need to fill in the hole in the top of his head.

Worst VOTC: Ben Kenobi. Would have said C-3PO but I still don't have it. Ben has a nice looking sculpt to it, but the size of the cloth robe caused the body and arms to be oddly sculpted proportion wise and takes away from an all around good idea. Runner-Up: Luke Skywalker - short neck and ugly tunic

Worst Standard Figure (Saga/OTC): Hoth Rebel Soldier. What a crappy army builder, he's so short and ugly looking, he's almost POTF2 like in design. And what crappy articulation. Just a bad execution of what might have been a good idea. Runner-Up: R2-D2 (Dagobah) - overall this year hasn't been too bad for the standard figure, but re-using the F/X R2 sculpt/idea for the 3rd time now is not a great thing. Poor sculpt for an R2 coming off the great BaR2-D2 and bad paint apps.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2004, 03:08 AM »
OTC Basic:

-Best: Cloud Car Pilot...  Simply a nicely articulated army builder, removable helmet, working holster, neat accessories, easily found, and fleshing out the vintage figures on top of it all.  In the end you can't ask for much more.

-Worst:  Not counting the rehashed stuff, I'm gonna actually slap Dagobah Luke with this title...  The lack of poseable arms killed this figure for me.  Not to say it's a nice figure for what it is, as Leia Bespin, Dagobah R2, Spirit Ben, etc. are all good for what they are, but Dagobah Luke's arms should've had ONE set poseable and one pre-posed.  That was a major detractor.  Still a nice sculpt and a nice looking figure in general, especially with Yoda on his back.

VOTC Deluxe:

-Best:  Tie between Chewbacca and Stormtrooper (With Han, and Fett in close 2nd)...  Simply the PERFECT figures we've all wanted and finally got, even if at an unfairly inflated price.  The figure's are incredible.  Chewbacca edges out the Stormtrooper in overall quality I think, but the Stormtrooper gains on Chewie because of the fact he's the army builder to end all army builders.  Even at $10 a pop this is a figure people have numbering in the 20's and 30's in their collection.  That says something GOOD about that figure. 

Hats off to Hasbro...  Now do all that figure goodness for $5 or $6 and available readily, and I'll not have a gripe in the world at that.

-Worst:  Tie between Luke and Obi-Wan...  While I'd vote R2 and 3PO as a close 2nd here, I vote Luke and Obi-Wan just because they're more important (to me) for NEEDING perfect versions of them in these outfits.  Obi's puffy cloak, lack of detail on his skirt piece (one layer, and no robe ties or anything?  sheesh!), and his HORRIBLE lack of articulation, all gain him a spot on this crap list.  Luke's inaccurately tiny height, his sort of goofy face, and his softgoods shirt (completely unnecessary and perplexing) earn him his spot.  Both figures still need that definitive version IMO.

Saga Basic:

-Best:  Captain Antilles...  My favorite for the year in the Saga range was the "apology for the RFT" figure, Antilles.  The helmet, the holster, the swappable parts with Dodonna (not intended I don't believe, but nice), the reversable arms (again not intended I don't think, but nice), the decent articulation...  I think Antilles is a nice figure, and while not hard to get, in my neck of the woods he's sold steadily since his release and what was a potential pegwarmer is becoming increasingly tough to find.  That all equates figure goodness to me...  Not to mention he makes a nice army builder/customizing fodder.  Nice!

I will say there were quite a few figures in the late part of Saga that were equally good to Antilles though...  Or close anyway.

-Worst:  Hoth Rebel Soldier...  He's an '03/'04 figure since he started shipping right around X-mas last year, but he's horrid nonetheless and he's a plague upon the pegs.  He's entirely too short, he's lacking any articulation beyond the 6 basic POTF2 points, his sculpt is still pushing the "buffness" (even if it is more crisp, it's still a tiny waist, wide stance, skinnier legs, and broad shoulders/chest...  Terrible), he's got a holster that doesn't work (at this point, a feature that should be standard), and I'm just gonna reiterate it, but he lacks articulation...  He should be sporting super articulation or darn close to it.

To top it off, he's one of the biggest pegwarmers of the past year, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Blah! :(

Saga Deluxe:

-Best:  Ewok w/Glider...  I think getting a nice glider, with creative use of translucent plastic, lots of parts, and including a pretty kick ass generic ewok figure with it, all makes for a pretty good figure worthy of $10.

-Worst:  Jabba the Hutt...  Again, another '03/'04 figure, but I just never was as happy with him being slapped on a $10 card using an old sculpt.  This should've been a $20 figure that gave you something more at least.  It felt "empty" and for a figure like Jabba, who the collecting community as a whole was asking for a new ROTJ one, I think Hasbro shafted them some...  No Dais, etc.  Just not up to snuff.
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Offline Brian

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #11 on: December 13, 2004, 09:32 AM »
Nice thread idea, I always enjoy reading everyone's opinions.

BEST OTC Basic - Dagobah Luke/Yoda.  I'll put these together as well, because I think they are both nice.  The interchangeable arms were a nice touch, and the Yoda I think is the best we've seen so far (better than the VOTC version to me at least).  The go together well.  I agree though, a pair of "poseable" arms on Luke would have been nice, but I still like the figure overall.

BEST VOTC - Chewbacca.  Pretty much perfect.  Favorite character and the best figure of him ever (and overall of the year).  Good line overall though, the Stormtrooper, Han Solo, and Boba Fett are all close runners-up.  I think Han has lost some luster with some just because he became a bit of a pegwarmer, but that figure is still amazing.

BEST SAGA - Many choices, a pretty good line overall.  I'll go with Jedi Luke, or Luke Skywalker (Jabba's Palace) if you prefer :).  The Hoth Luke and Lando Skiff are close runners-up with me though.  The Jedi Luke was always one of my favorite vintage figures as a kid, and it is nice to see him get a well-done modern version.

WORST OTC BASIC - Pretty much most of the repacks.  Although I bought him, I guess I'd go with Bib Fortuna, just because the figure is kind of poor.  I didn't have a modern version, and wanted one, so I picked it up...but not a very good figure really.  To be honest, I know some people are happy to see (and have) the Scanning Trooper, but I think the figure, as a figure itself, stinks too.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since many people wanted to see it re-released.

WORST VOTC - C-3PO.  No contest to me.  I can find things I like about each of the other VOTC figures, but the 3PO just plain stinks.  I tried to like this figure, I really did, but basically bought it to "complete the set".  The paintjob part of it isn't too bad, but the face sculpt is really what gets me.  We dreamed of so much more with our favorite protocol droid, and Hasbro came up short on this one.  I bought the repacked OTC 3PO shortly before this one, and I am much happier with that version.

WORST SAGA - Hoth Rebel Trooper.  This is no contest as well, I saw this guy several times (and still do actually), and still haven't bought one.  I don't have any hoth troopers, but I just can't bring myself to buy the wee man.  Hopefully this will be revisited in the future sometime, and done much better.

BEST OTC VEHICLE - Slave 1.  I know, its basically a repaint of Jango's ship, but I think that sculpt is very nice, and I personally didn't have a version of Boba's ship yet.  I was really happy with this repaint/re-release actually.  The Falcon looks great as well, but I wasn't quite able to talk the Mrs. into having 2 in the house :).  I don't have the room anyways, but it does look like a nice update.

WORST OTC VEHICLE - X-Wing rehash.  Using the old, small version especially made this stink.  If they used the "scale" version, and offered it for $15 or $20, that wouldn't have been so bad I guess, to have an X-Wing on the shelves for the DVD release.  This one just looks so inferior in comparison though.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2004, 05:29 PM »
I didn't do vehicles on my list, but that'd be such a tough choice since I really didn't care for ANY vehicle they dumped on us this year...

The X-Wing's probably the lesser of the evils to me, and while underscaled, and tough to fit a figure into it, and it comes with a horrible pack-in, I'd say it's just simply not as bad as others...

On the other hand...

The Y-Wing's proportions are just silly at this point, especially parked next to the X-Wing or a TIE Fighter, and it's a ship I wish Hasbro would take the time to redo, and hopefully redo it to-scale. 

The tie for suckiest vehicle would be the Sandcrawler though.  I'll never get why everyone wanted this.  It's not nearly as cool as the vintage one, it makes the Y-Wings proportions look impressive by comparison, and it wasn't even made of quality material...  Top if off that they put a "new" figure in it with what seems like an effort to piss off the completists or those of us who wanted the Tatooine RA-7 droid.

Short of using one for miniatures gaming, I really couldn't bring myself to buy that (was lucky enough to find someone who helped me get the figures from it since he WAS using his for gaming only), and to top it ALL off it's OUTRAGEOUSLY priced for the people who did want the thing.

Sandcrawler would have to take the cake then...  At least the Y-Wing was semi-fairly priced, especially in comparison.
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Offline Ben

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2004, 12:14 AM »
I do want to buy the Sandcrawler, but it is too small, plus at the price, it should have had some type of electronics or radio control.

Maybe after Christmas when I get my bonus I'll pick it up.
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Offline Darth Broem

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Re: Best and Worst of 2004
« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2004, 11:55 AM »
I almost put the Sandcrawler as the best but I put Slave 1 in there for also giving everyone a nice pack-in Boba Fett.  The 300th no less. 

The Sandcrawler needed some more droids IMO.  At least 2 droids and 2 Jawas.  It would have been the perfect time to add in a nice resculpt of R5-D4. I do like the repain of the vintage mold.  Although yes, I know, it's woefully underscaled.  For me it's better than no Sandcrawler at all. 

My opinion anyway.