This presentation wasn't a waste of time even though I was late to the show, I came online right when they showed
ARC Trooper Jessie. He was announced to come so I don't understand the disappointment of some fans out there. The cardback sure does look nice, but another image of Jessie without his helmet would've been nice as well to see his face tattoo. I'm a big fan of this new ARC Trooper mold. I think they should go back and make the Clone Troopers smaller again like the ROTS #41 Clone (my very first Clone). To me the Clones based on VC41 feel way too tall and too skinny at the same time.
Jessie is still the most expensive one at TungHori's for $32.99. So I hope that price will fall soon. If not, I'll just open one of my Special Action Figure Sets and keep the box forever. Such a cool set with so awesome new tooling!
It will be nice to see a set of the
Modal Nodes and since there are 7 members of the legendary
Cantina Band, it makes total sense that Figrin Dan comes with 3 different instruments, so that collectors can buy 3 carded and the other four maybe on one of those 4-Packs. Maybe that also indicates that we FINALLY and EVENTUALLY get a
Mos Eisley Cantina Playset or HasLab...
The two
Clone Wars Mandos are so cool! How long have we waited for the return of those! The TCW versions go for 50€ loose here. I've seen a sealed
Battle Pack of Mandalorian Warriors go for $400 before! Maybe the people who have those pricey figures are the ones complaining now because I think the VC versions look much better! They really nailed the new sculpt for them and did them justice on the transfer to realistic style.
Definitely trying to get some of those and I hope they ship in solid cases as well.
Didn't know about that
Battlefront Lando before - I think he's a fun gimmick, but I had definitely preferred to see another figure of the BF2 game before him or at least more than one Gaming Greats figure during this event. If I can find him below 13€, I'll buy him. It's a fun design for some fun pictures.
Seeing
Shae Vizla not only returning, but also getting her with an all-new headsculpt is really great! The 2012 release always bugged me because she looked nothing alike the character on the card. Still, that figure goes for 60-120€ loose in the bay and for 140-400€ on card! So the updated re-issue is a BIG WELCOME!! Got her loose for 26€ some years ago, but without the helmet. So I'll definitely pre-order one or two of the repack to display her with and without her helmet and also to make a custom Mara Jade hehe. So hope they'll do the same favor for
Bastila Shan and Jyn Erso.
That
Death Trooper 4-Pack is just lazy in my opinion. There are so many better options, but it makes sense to reveal it now because the Navarro Cantina Playset just shipped and people want to army-build some more Death Commandos I guess. I might get one as well to replace my 4 other DTs with 5POA. Some extra DLT rifles would've been nice to include to add to the small pistols.
I can understand Hasbro going cheap at the moment at these crazy times and maybe this "lazy" choice for this army-builder pack generates enough extra revenue for future surprises like an Endor Rebel Commando Pack or such.
The pipeline reveals were the confetti to me at the end. Did Jing of the brand team really say the
Dark Trooper comes with a world-building set? Would be nice to see something like this:
I hope the brand team do a better job on
Luke's face than the designers for Mandalorian Season 2's final...
The
Imperial Mortar Trooper will be nice on a VC card! Glad, Hasbro makes him now.
The
Klatooinian Raider seems to be different from the pack-in figure of the AT-ST Raider. I take it as occasion to finally ask Hasbro why Amazon have still listed this vehicle on their site as "currently unavailable". Is the AT-ST raider going to get a second production run and global distribution for Mando Season 3? Would be really awesome!
That
Prototype Chewbacca is nice for all fans of this gimmick, but I think it's enough now. I got Prototype Vader and Boba Fett - ONE of each and that's enough for me. Sure, it's a nice way to pay for tooling AND milk the cow for those RETRO line - easy money for Hasbro that hopefully opens the door for more future releases of actual good stuff. To me everything that supports the 3.75" line is welcome.
I'm not a fan of The Black Series, still got some 6" figures, which I'm going to sell off, again. They just take too much space even though TVC figures are almost as expensive as TBS figures here in Germany. Sometimes TBS is even cheaper than TVC! I almost felt bad for TBS fans yesterday. Almost. TBS got enough attention since 2013.
It's time for The Vintage Collection to receive more love again. It was a good show yesterday even though the presentation could be better. Ewan of the brand team looked so nervous as if someone behind the camera was pointing a gun at him or something. They were acting so nervously as if they were in some kind of interrogation. That's how I experienced it. Maybe they understand our nervous frustration when we try to pre-order those figures a day later to be delivered 2-3 YEARS afterwards - IF we get lucky.
I'm off to play the lottery now. Bye!
