I got online to give you our answers! I am so behind.
1) Not every collector cares or wants "more articulation," some of us want good sculpts. And with this Vintage wave coming out that is mostly focused on the packaging and not the sculpts, or any new characters and giving us stuff we already have, any chance we can see the definitive versions of the characters? I think you got it with the new Bespin Luke, he actually looks like Mark Hamill, but the new Hoth Leia and Hoth Han in trenchcoat look funny(hopefully those are just prototypes we saw at toyfare). To me it seems like updating characters you are saying, "we didn't do very good last time, so buy this new one where we think we made some improvements." How about finishing the list of never before made charecters before starting on updating stuff?
We take umbrage at the comment that Vintage is about the packaging and not the sculpts. The intention is to produce the best figures we can balancing scultping and articulation, just as we have for every other collector-targeted line in the past 5 years. We will continue with our strategy of anchoring our Vintage line with both core heroes as well as collector-targeted figures, as it has proven to be the best strategy for keeping productivity high and in turn, allowing us to take more chances on new figures. The core heroes will be drawn both from existing figures that we feel do not need to be improved, figures that we feel can can improve in the quest to get a near-perfect figure, and new versions of characters that we have yet to do (i.e. long-coat Han). There will eventually be many more new never-before-produced characters but the waving strategy will not change. As for articulation, we do agree with you that not every figure needs to be super-articulated. To balance aesthetics and cost, not every figure will be.
2) I noticed recently that the paint on the saga legends shock and 501st troopers' shoulders seems to scrape of if you extend their arms fully (ie at shoulder height). Would it be possible for you to do something about this problem for example take 2mm of the shoulder to prevent the friction?
Thanks for the heads-up. We will certainly take a look at this, as the paint should not be wearing off if the shoulders are raised. We don't think it is a problem with the sculpt/tightness of joints, but if it is we will look at that as well.
Don't forget our next round is due in by Friday ten A.M. and if I know me I will probably get em sent sometime tomorrow so get any new ones in!