MisterPL

Nothing at my LCS today. Maybe next week? (Is this a west coast vs. east coast thang?)

I read somewhere that the new Iron Man suit isn't Mark VIII. It's more like Mark 47. That kinda jibes with another piece of concept art I saw that appears to depict a chasm of armors in various stages of development. Not sure whether this idea will make it into the film or not because that seems like a hell of a leap between suits. War Machine is definitely getting an upgrade. (And a patriotic paint job!)

So much for the sexless man-child stereotype but does marketing research really indicate that toy collectors require Viagra? I thought guys like us pole-vaulted from play date to play date.

Do you have the first set? I'm wondering what you think of it. They'll probably be selling that set at NYCC as well, given the stacks of leftovers I saw from SDCC.

Speaking of repaints of existing figures, I saw this image recently of 13 armor designs from the film. Only two of them – Iron Man and Iron Patriot (repainted War Machine) – have been seen in set photos so far. The rest, honestly, look like Hasbro designs for action figures.

Loving that and wishing DST could offer such 'mates for all to enjoy. Nice work!

Walking Dead Series 1 is bumped to October 10th. Marvel Series 47 is moved to October 17th. Mummy and Hunchback sets are both hitting Halloween now. http://www.artasylum.com/blog/2012/09/ship-date-updates-8/#more-7391

The event is probably the 10th anniversary of Minimates. The returning line is obviously "Desperately Seeking Susan." Couldn't be clearer about that.

There was a time when I liked Ben Kenobi but that changed when I learned that he lied to Luke. I'm not a huge fan of Yoda for the same reason. Here are two remaining Jedi, the ones who know exactly what needs to be done, and they're getting a kid to do their dirty work. They don't even train him fully, just load him up with a lie about how this armored dude killed his dad – who was even cooler than his "uncle" told him – and send him on his way. The true hero of Star Wars is Artoo-Detoo. He may have a potty mouth but he's reliable and kicks both Ewok and battle droid ass. The evolution of the TIE fighter is pretty cool and I can't imagine the design getting any better than the Interceptor.

I had a bad feeling about this. Sorry things didn't work out for you. It sucks especially that the guy who created one of your favorite collectibles ruined the hobby for you.

I remember the first time I saw an image of the Death Star from ROTJ. At first I thought it was a battle-damaged Death Star under repairs. I remember thinking, "They're rebuilding it?!" It awed me but only because it was like revisiting the original movie and it while it was the Special Editions that cemented the notion for me that MORE Star Wars is not always GOOD Star Wars, elements of ROTJ paved the way. I'm a huge fan of the Scout Trooper look but it's a terrible helmet design for riding a bike that goes 200 MPH. It's nothing but an air brake. Troops must have strong necks! Still my favorite armor, though. I don't mind suspending my disbelief for that suit 'cuz it's friggin' cool. However, Fett is another reason ROTJ disappointed. Less is apparently more when it comes to this guy. I really wanted Boba to bring it but he ended up getting one of the worst deaths ever filmed. He deserved better but he ended up getting Kirk'd. I wish Lucas could have gone with Wookiees instead of Ewoks but I understand that little people are easier to cast than tall people. Maybe someone will splice ROTS with ROTJ for a furry finale! Love the Flynn Rider/Han Solo comparison. That movie's kinda the OT in a nutshell when it comes to Han's story arc. As for Leia as Jabba's slave... Yeah... such a gratuitous... That's just...

I have to give credit to Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan (and probably Irvin Kershner) for giving Lucas and ROTJ the launch pad that was The Empire Strikes Back. If it hadn't been for the way they set it up, there wouldn't have been as many butts in the seats in '83. The prequels, however, were launched backwards (in so many ways) from Lucas' first shot-from-the-hip effort. It's no coincidence that the closer the prequels got to the OT, the better they were received. Same here but I'm still baffled as to why the Clone WarS is plural.

I know this will come off as condescending and I really don't mean it that way but how old were you when you saw ROTJ? For what it's worth, I was 16. I had first seen TESB three years prior and ANH three years before that. Imagine the Harry Potter films NOT growing up. Actually, imagine Harry and company getting older in the first couple films and then suddenly being recast with 10-year-old kids. That's how disappointed I was when I got to "the payoff" of ROTJ. MY Han Solo was a rogue anti-hero who didn't hesitate to blast an enemy from under the table before swaggering out of a bar. This was a guy who had grown from disreputable smuggler to hero in the first film alone. Then in TESB, we fell in love with the arrogant lady's man with a shady past and even shadier acquaintances, the guy who managed to sweep a tough princess off her feet. He was tortured as bait and still managed to deck his "old friend" on the chin. I almost didn't recognize the guy in ROTJ. He seemed like a generic character from a sit-com, a parody of the guy from the first two films who was played exclusively for laughs. Williams music even underscored it during one of the Endor scenes. I agree with Harrison Ford; Solo should have died on Tatooine. That would have furthered the story in ways Lucas probably didn't imagine. Then there's the Dark Lord. Vader was a pale shadow of his former bad-ass self. Though he was little more than Tarkin's lackey in the first film, he showed promise toward the end by being the only bad guy to sense the Force in Luke. Vader went relatively apeshit in TESB, killing his own officers as punishment and plotting to overthrow his master by seeking out Luke and attempting to recruit him. But somewhere between TESB and ROTJ, Vader had his balls chopped off. He went from trying to rule the galaxy with his son to handing him over on a silver platter like a tired old man with zero ambition. Lucas is pretty good at deliberately retarding characters. Just ask Jar Jar. Even though ten years pass between TPM and AOTC, Jar Jar remains unchanged. The VFX guys presented Lucas with some tests of Senator Binks as a more mature, experienced being, less the clumsy buffoon we were introduced to (and many loathed) in Episode I and a bit more regal, befitting his new position. Lucas rejected it wholesale insisting that Jar Jar stay Jar Jar. Then again, aliens are largely set dressing for Lucas so it shouldn't come as a surprise. And just so I'm not knocking the Saga entirely, there was one redeeming quality to Episode I. The best characterizations in the whole film took place during the pause in the final lightsaber battle. The combatants are forced to stop after being separated by timed force fields. While they wait, each one reveals their individual personality. Obi-Wan stays on his feet, eager to rejoin the fight. His master turns off his weapon and meditates, saving energy and gathering strength while Maul paces like a wild animal, never taking his eyes off his prey. Not a word of dialogue, just decent acting. If only the pod race could have been as enlightening.

Yup. Lucas ruined the big reveal in TESB even after creating a saber-wielding, cyborg character – General Grievous – who could have been the perfect red herring.

I guess if anime is your thing, this fan video is the Star Wars for you. It's impressive but not my cup of tea. Add some John Williams and Ben Burtt and you've got something even better. As for The Clone Wars, I became enamored with the notion of an animated series with Cartoon Network's first micro series. Genndy Tartakovsky's character design threw me at first and I couldn't figure out how he was going to tell a decent story in under three minutes but I was quickly hooked. It became the best part of the prequel era. When I heard of a half-hour ongoing series, it seemed like a no-brainer given the popularity of its predecessor. After the announcement that it would be CG, I expected them to leverage the existing models built for the prequels. Dave Filoni, recently from Avatar: The Last Airbender seemed like a good choice as showrunner. But when I saw the character designs, something seemed off but somehow familiar. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me about a year to realize that the look of the show was an homage to Ralph McQuarrie. Every frame looked like one of his gouache paintings, from the intentional brushstrokes to the exaggerated style of his character designs. I took my daughters to see the theatrical release and honestly wasn't that impressed though my girls loved it and couldn't wait for the TV show. We've been watching it ever since and it continues to surprise me. Anyone saying "Humans can't die, it has to be robots" simply isn't watching the show. People die surprisingly frequently via a variety of means, from murder to suicide and everything in between. There are things happening in this series that other networks wouldn't allow on Saturday mornings. I will say that the show is inconsistent and, at times, downright tedious. There are some perfectly forgettable episodes that don't seem to serve to further the overall story but they do offer a bit of distraction and maybe even some character development. Speaking of which, I didn't expect to care so much about clones. They've gone through an awful lot of trouble to develop clone characters and then kill them off. Despite knowing these are all essentially the Red Shirts of the Star Wars Universe, you can get attached to key clones and miss them when they're killed. The bottom line is that Star Wars seems to be better off in the hands of fans-- no, not fans, STUDENTS than in the hands of its creator. I stopped being a fan of the Star Wars movies after walking out of the theatre in 1983. Return of the Jedi was a big letdown for me. It seemed like a remake, with a bigger Cantina scene up front and a bigger Death Star scene in the end opposite another pivotal lightsabre battle. Unlike The Empire Strikes Back, which felt like a more mature continuation of the story with a love triangle, a murderous Vader and almost no aliens, Episode VI felt retarded, as if the saga had jumped off the kiddie train tracks with Episode V and Lucas was correcting it. Then there were the prequels, which I'd be happy to ignore completely if not for the fact that they've managed to undermine the original trilogy. Fans would argue, "So what if you hate the PT? Stick with your OT!" I wish I could but it seems some of the worst parts of the prequels have managed to work their way into the OT. As much as I didn't like ROTJ, having Vader shout "NOOOO!" and replacing Sebastian Shaw's ghostly visage with Hayden Christensen's didn't make it any better. You want to tie the prequels to the sequels? Have Luke and Leia born on Dagobah so it makes sense in TESB when Luke says the place seems familiar. And have Leia born first, not Luke, so that it makes sense when she says she remembers her sad mother. Making the OT worse is not the way to make the PT better, Uncle George. [/rant]

Tigra looks kinda familiar.

I didn't get around to buying a set either so we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Still nothing at my LCS. Now I'm wondering if any of the shops that didn't receive them last week also missed out this week for some reason.

I'm waiting patiently for LEGO to offer one in their Marvel Super Heroes line. I'm also tempted to customize one myself.

I've been saying for years that Minimates are the modern-day Mego when it comes to the variety of licensed properties all in one format. We've gotten Marvel, DC, and Star Trek but Planet of the Apes would round out my favorites nicely.

I always expected Clark Kent to be homosexual but Superman to be Heterosexual, hence Lois' mixed signals.

With a title like "Female Trouble" I expected one of the characters to be named "Aunt Flo."

That's a distressed font, Lurch. Chunks have been taken out of other characters, too, but it's most noticable on the capital M's. It's really meant to be a larger display font. I picked up Frank & Anck at TRU today. Looking forward to adding others soon.

It didn't show up at my shop either but mine said it was due in today. Maybe next week?

Don't forget about: 10/24 – MUNSTERS KOACH At the moment, October is going to be an expensive month. Time to start selling plasma.