Wal-Mart Separation of the Twins Figures

[CloneF13Y35]

at least these aren't going to be jacked up price-wise like targets' exclusives
 
But I may get them if I see them and get that "I gotta get it" feeeling, otherwise, I'll hope for clearance.

[CHEWIE]

I think people are complaining way too much and are borderline whining about it.

I'm getting these figures.  They are fine.

 

[Nathan]

^ Chewie, I genuinely appreciate your "glass-half-full" outlook on SW collecting (it's a welcome counterpoint to some of the nitpicking and griping I've seen), and more often than not I agree with your assesments, but in this case I think people have darn good reason to complain.

Neither figure is remotely accurate to the scenes they're supposed to represent. Would it have killed Hasbro to give Obi-Wan a hood? And like Broem, I would have loved to see Queen Breha instead of Bail, but I recognize that's way out of the realm of possibility for Hasbro these days. But would it have been so hard to tweak Bail's outfit so it matched the scene in question? Heck, they probably could have used Dooku's or the POTJ Imperial Officer's torso and then simply crafted the additional "skirt" part of the coat.

An exclusive is supposed to have some special or distinguishing feature (anyone remember the Wal-Mart Exclusive Max Rebo band 2-packs?). These do not--well, besides the babies.

It depresses me that these two extremely pivotal scenes of the saga--and the "first" figures of Luke and Leia--are represented so poorly in the toy arena. After the Mustafar duel, these are arguably the most important scenes in all the prequels (not to mention something people have wanted to see for 20+ years) so the toy versions deserved much better treatment.

(If it had been me, I would have done old-school Cinema Scenes with Obi-Wan/Beru/Owen, and Bail/Breha/and ... maybe Antilles or the midwife droid. But I recognize that that is neither here nor there.)

Now that these have been made, it's quite unlikely that better versions will be released in the future.

[CHEWIE]

Oh, I agree they could be a LOT better.  Totally.  I would have rather of gotten something like this -


Cinema Scene One -

Medical Table Padme, Medical hover droid, Obi Wan, both twins


Cinema Scene Two -

Owen and Beru Lars w/ baby Luke and Obi Wan


Cinema Scene Three -

Bail Organa, Queen Breha w/ baby Luke and Organa's hot female aid


Totally.  But for whatever the price is aound $7 or so, I don't see these as a bad deal.

 

[TheBlackDog65]

I deeply respect you Chewie but for me these figures just don't move me. Part of being a non-completist is the fact that I can choose which figures I like and want, and which ones I don't want. I don't see why I would want to waste the $ on them. Guess I feel I could buy the two figures, find a baby figure or two, and make my own custom I would like better IF I want figures from these scenes.

I will agree that for $7 they are what they are and we don't need to complain overly about them. Just for me, I don't want/need/crave them so I'll do without em.

[Darth Broem]

Well the packaging alone is going to get me.  Yeah, it could be worse.  Are we actually sure the price is not going above $7 for these?  I guess if they threw in a case like Target does that would be a "reason" to jack it up.

[Reid]

Lol... On the official site article the cardback says "Infant Luke with Obi-Wan" and the same for Bail. Sort of the same deal with the Massif with Geonosian Warrior.

[CHEWIE]

To me, I'm just glad we're getting figures of the baby Skywalker kids.  As a customizer who buys way too many figures for customs, I don't mind getting another Obi Wan and Bail.  So it's the customizer in me that is going to use those figures for custom fodder that is coming out.  I'd pay $7 each just for the baby figures... I've looked at hobby stores for baby figures before for these, and didn't find anything that would work.  So CHEWIE is a happy collector.

 

[Scott]

I'm with the movie accuracy crowd (of which I am a big supporter of)

Why not give Obi-Wan the cloak they packed in to Anakin Evolution?

Its all a cost thing, I know, but these sets blow chunks.  While I'll still probably bite so I can two Baby figures, the Obi-Wan and Bail suck eggs

[Jesse James]

I like Obi-Wan, hate the cloak.   Just to clarify...  But yeah, a softgoods Anakin cloak would've worked AOK...  And honestly, can softgoods accessories REALLY be that detrimental from a cost standpoint?  Compared to a newly sculpted robe they're not even close, but at this point it seems all exclusives will be half-assed.

Bail...  Meh.

[DoctorPadawan]

I'm with the movie accuracy crowd (of which I am a big supporter of)

Same here.  Although I'm not as disappointed in the figures as the rest of the movie accuracy crowd seems to be, I'm left scratching my head since more time and money seemed to go into the packaging than it did the actual product. 

The Obi-Wan figure is an outstanding figure, probably the best of the year (although the Clone Commander is a close second in my mind) and certainly the best Obi-Wan ever, period.  Even though it's a step up from what I figured they would do (use the #27 Obi-Wan with no cloak, since it looks as if his left arm is sculpted to hold a baby), the unhooded cloak is kind of silly, especially with the photo of him wearing the hood up features rather prominently on the card front, and probably the back as well.  If they wanted to cut costs and offer an accurate product at the same time, why not sculpt a new "middle" section of the robe, slap the Agen Kolar sleeves on it, and there you go?  Or use the soft goods robe from Evolutions Anakin or (forgive me) the VOTC Obi-Wan?

Bail is the one I have the problem with, personally.  I love the Bail Organa figure (I seem to be one of only a few who does; I just think people don't appreciate it since we see it everywhere we go these days) and I always will.  The problem is that it's not film accurate and that's the sticking point.  He never wears that outfit when he's in the presence of Leia on screen (unless you count the birth and he does not touch Leia there), and with the pegwarming situation for the basic figure at retail, a repack of it, Leia or not, is not going to be enough to get people to look twice.

Will I buy them?  Sure I will, because I'm a dumbass and want the "first" Luke and Leia figures in the overall six film cycle.  The thing that I'm going back and forth on is whether I'm going to keep them carded (which look great to me) or open them up and have my fourth loose Obi-Wan 55 and another Bail, just to get those two PVCs of the babies.

[Jeff]

So, according to all the rumors that I've seen so far, these will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.88 each.

I am still on the fence.  I agree witht eh movie-accurate folks - this is probably our one chance at these figures and they kinda suck.  I wasn't expecting too much for the babies (how can you really do a nice 3.75" scale newborn), but the fact that they are straight re-packs blows.  Like others have said, why not throw in a sg cloak for Ben or a better Bail?   

As it stands, I'll still most likely pick up a set for the carded collection, but I think I will pass on grabbing an opener set for now.  I sure would be grabbing an opener set if they had done up the Queen or Beru as part of these sets... it makes me want that rumored Lars family screen scene more than ever. 

[DoctorPadawan]

I think one of the most telling things about these sets (as far as design and effort goes, at least) is that Beru and the Queen are featured prominently on the Obi-Wan and Bail figure card photos, respectively, and we have yet to get a figure of either.    

One of my bigger gripes with the SW line is that figures are often advertised or pictured with characters or vehicles that are not even available in stores.  The "Clone Attack on Coruscant" Battle Pack is the biggest offender (especially considering it is the actual toy of the Republic Gunship they are posing in) in this area, but as boring as they may be, we now see the adopted mothers taking the twins from their wards, and we don't even have the figures to recreate those scenes. 

Once again, it's a typical Hasbro exclusive: great idea, poor execution.

[CHEWIE]

I would have gone bonkers if they had included Beru and the Queen... would be happy for a $9.99 pricepoint too if they had gone that direction.

This was just a cheap copout for them to get the babies to retail and charge a few extra bucks.  Still though, I want them and will be happy to purchase these.

 

[ruiner]

Well if anything, the release of these sets demonstrate that indeed Hasbro is listening to collectors.  We asked for infant Luke and Leia and they delivered.

And yes, the execution is mediocre, but in the end, we got what we wanted. 

I, too, would've loved to see Obi Wan with his hood up and a screen accurate Bail, but what are you going to do? 

It's obvious that Hasbro is on a tight budget in regards to SW tooling....