Topic: McFarlane Toys "Avatar" lines.

[Tamer]

I look forward to seeing it on the pegs. It is kind of a shame both scales are not in line with any other AF Line. It will be interesting to see if any of it will work for regular AF Customs.

I know the dio pieces can sub in for Felucia like right now.

[Darth More]

Well, the AVATAR toys are put on clearance here in Germany. It's unfortunate that demand apparently didn't meet expectations. I got three Crab-Suits for 20€ each instead of 70€.
But it has a weak spot. The hinge of the hatch on top came broken. The box was probably dropped in store before. So I fixed it with tweezers and super glue.
The box was so crushed it wasn't even worth to take a picture of it.







This acrylic material is rather brittle, no surprise the cockpit glass breaks easily.

The actual seat is too high for a 3.75" figure to sit. The handles on the other hand hang too low.


Some additional space is provided behind the pilot's seat.





The torso of this SCUBA Trooper is yellowed. I had been planning on turning him into a custom. Today I finally did.

[Darth More]

The Way of Water


To me it's sad to see that the interest in McFarlane's toy line went down like a waterfall. Few things sold at retail price, but prices went down rather quickly. By now SmythsToys put them all on clearance and didn't order more. I think they received two waves of items. And as far as I know only three waves were made. So as long as they're still available for great deals, I thought I'd share my finds with you. I was busy the past couple days playing around with ideas and going back to different stores to get more...






It's a pity to see great products like this being crushed like that. Fortunately it was only the box.
But I didn't get an extra discount on it. But I brought home two of three AMP suits and all three Crab-suits, yesterday.








The AMP suit is secured extra well against theft. That's kinda sad, but good to see. I mean 69,99€ is a lot of money for the MRSP. I'm glad those suits are more affordable at 30€ now. And no, I didn't buy them all.


You can check my latest store reports here.

[Darth More]

Summer with no Sun


This summer goes the way of water here in Germany. No day has passed without rain over the last three weeks. While it was really hot in the East in May and June, July has been...perfect for working inside, staying home, going to the movies and...customizing! I'm not complaining, in fact I'm thankful for every drop of sweet water. I'm just wondering where all this water comes from and where it's missing now.

So let's fuse these two franchises!

I want to apologize to all of you because I annoyed you with store reports and shopping over the past half year or so. Last night I went back to the workbench. I was fully in my element and kept painting 'til 3 am. As a side note I shouldn't mess with my biorhythm like that anymore.
But I got 6 vehicles and 3 figures on the workbench now! All have been worked on last night and 6 of them were on my list for quite a while.
Here are two of them which got me motivated to start painting, again. I want to share them as quickly as possible with you as long as they're still available at retail in case you might do similar projects.





You might know that I've a weak spot for CIS vehicles and droids. And since there's no second vehicle with the scheme of the Droid Gunship, I thought it might be a good occasion to change that.
It makes sense to me that the Separatists need a lot of resources. So they might search oceans on various planets like Kashyyyk with those droids.

If you haven't heard the tale of diving Grievous, well here it is. I thought that General Grievous cannot dive himself, he might share the same passion for submarines with James Cameron.


The crab suit would be a perfect vehicle for him and maybe he even had one on Utapau similar to the three Wheel Bikes as seen in Revenge of the Sith. The Wheel Bike and the Crabsuit are ready to explore the surface of Utapau above and under water.

And since Season 3 of the Mandalorian, those Crab droids have a safe entry in Star Wars canon.


Source: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Umbaran_Spider_Tank





The shade of brown came out better than expected. Now, I only need to redo the fine details and add some decals with CIS emblems. I'm so happy with the brown Crabsuit that I'm tempted to make a second, armored version.


Source: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/LM-432_crab_droid

Even though I started with the blue version, I finished the brown version first because I was way too crazy about it!

[Tamer]

Nice. I really like how the Battle Droid Version looks.

Off to share the update.

[RC-1136]

Fantastic work!!! I live the crab droid concept.

If you don't mind me asking, I know you painted the crab walker black first, what color brown did you use? And it only makes sense for the separatists to use that. Because a lot of their vehicles came being used for a non combat role at first. The Lucrehulk-class Battleship for example was originally designed as a trade ship to haul cargo.

[Darth More]

Tamer: Thank you, Shawn! It's good to see you back!


RC-1136: Thanks, RC! That's very interesting to know! And of course you can!
In the second step I gave it a wet-brush with Citadel's Doombull Brown:




I was going to share all details later. A dry-brush would have a great effect, too, but I was happy with the test and a dry-brush would take much more paint.

[Darth More]

SmythsToys had all LEGO sets for AVATAR for 50% off before Chritmas 2023 and other retailers still have a hard time selling them. It's puzzling. Once they sell out, people will pay premium prices for those on ebay, again.