Southpaw Samurai

Pretty much the only way to avoid a death sentence as a Rebel pilot was to be named Luke or Wedge And even then, I remember someone saying that Lucas almost forgot Wedge when writing ESB because he thought he killed him off. Janson (Wedge's tailgunner) and Hobbie are the only other two named (in the movies - not counting EU or side material) fighter pilots to possibly survive (Hobbie kamikaze's Veer's AT-AT in some of the script versions and related material). Non-hero Rebels in general are true cannon fodder... even Stormtroopers can accurately hit them!

David, you're killing me here. I have at least one more wave I'd want... probably two.... A. Night-Viper - one of the few figures I HAD to pick up even though I was getting too old for Joes as a kid. B. Cover-girl - cheating a bit (since she's a ROC figure), but I'd really go for a leather jacket, tanker CG, whether you give her short brown figure hair, long blonde cartoon hair, or anywhere in between... manly featured, camo'd arm candy ROC CG just fails on so many levels.

I may have to get this figure for my work desk. For the longest time I used a Senator Jar Jar as a Jedi Jar Jar figure myself before I eventually got rid of my Jedi shelf. I'm a decade old fan of Jar Jar from the TPM days myself. Always felt that he was unfortunately the focus of all the childish jokes of the first movie. Jar Jar himself would've made a fine, if over the top, 'everyman' character had the movie not been flowered with poop jokes and Jar Jar unfortunately being involved in just about all of them. Sure his voice would've annoyed some, but he could've had such a nice arch. I do sort of dig his role in the overall story still, but wish Lucas hadn't been frightened by the fan feedback and relegated him to such a tiny role. Back in the TPM days, I lead a fan fic on the Force.net that had Jar Jar become a Jedi and there were a number of others. If you look at what he accomplishes despite his carelessness and uncoordination, you have to start wondering if there's some kind of mystic energy field helping him out....

I don't know if I'm willing to pay $10-12 for another Viper, especially when most of that cost seems to have gone into additional redundant packaging. The chrome is nice, but might make him stand out too much against the rest of my Viper hordes and I'm not about to get enough over-priced repaints to hide the olders ones. The Hall of Heroes might wind up being a bust except for those who are speculating and maybe a few of the harder to find figures for those who missed them. Speaking of busts, I finally picked up the Ultimate Battle Pack at Target.... mainly because it was just under $15 on multiple markdowns (previous sticker was $38). Sadly, I already paid $15 for Short-Fuze (even though he's a semi-disappointment... I just need my Original 13!) and have my original 25 year old MOBAT (but now I have a shiny one like Steeler, Clutch, and Breaker sweated to produce for the parade in an early issue ), but couldn't pass it, as it has a HISS of a different color, even if that red looks very plastic-like and the extra Cobra drivers are nice. This set must have been a major mistake for Hasbro. Pretty much the only 'new' things were the re-issued MOBAT and a Short-Fuze made from old parts, so its no wonder no one bought it. Strangely enough, one of my favorite parts of this set is the I.G. Destro done up in classic colors... at first I thought, "Meh. Another Destro." but he's grown on me unexpectedly. I think we still need an officer-quality Steeler. The black visor on his desert-color helmet in the UBP does help (lost the mold to the old binocular-visor of the original?), but Steeler had some spiffy paint apps out of many of the Orig.13. I'd also like to see a Short-Fuze done up in cartoon style with a blue-grey helmet, visor, and no glasses with correct webbing. I might go ahead and put the Doc/glasses head on him anyway because I liked the nerdy comic look, but that would be an excuse to re-release him.

Hey David, don't be cruel to my Yarna. She's the holy grail of my Jabba Palace diorama shelf; my dream girl in that I always figured the ONLY way I'd ever see one made is in my dreams or if I decided to customize one (probably would've had to mod the Rancor Keeper ). She's just about the only really identifiable character left.... heck, my one friend who enjoys gawking at my toys even realized Yarna was new and knew exactly who she was and she's not all that into Star Wars. That's more that can be said for a number of the obscure background aliens. But, yes, it really does shock me that Yarna was made as a standard assortment figure. I didn't think I'd even see her as a mail in or exclusive figure for the very reasons you mention above. The only people who would have bought her were completists (either for a collection or, like me, for a scene)... maybe somewhere someone is troop building a Yarna army....

For me, the one saving grace of Home right now is that it is still a BETA, so the lack of options is to be expected. I didn't go in with much in the way of expectations. I'm not even sure what they were hyping it up to be, given I didn't read much on it once I found out it was a basically just a social network. At one point there was talk of having trophies be in-Home objects. That might be neat, particularly if they're different looking items (for example, a 'Defeated the Big Bad Monster' trophy in a game resulted in a trophy looking like the monster's head mounted. There would be some incentive to vist homes just to see some of the stuff, particularly the trophies you may never have a chance of obtaining and it would have some advantage over just looking at someone's profile. The microtransaction-based environment (granted, which is how many free MMOs run) irks me a bit. I wonder how many people are going to spend $100+ just to make their avatars and avatar homes look pretty. I'm willing to give it some time to develop, but agree that it's basically just a console-based graphically rendered social network... and we've had those on the computer going all the way back to Club Caribe on Q-Link for the Commodore 64.....

The original figure of Short-fuze was one of the three or so generic heads (the same as Hawk's if I recall) with a visored helmet, but in the comics (and I believe the cartoon) had him with glasses and I, for one, am happy he's got them (I was going to convert my extra Doc to a Shortfuse). I do sort of wish he had the correct webbing that he and Zap had and not the typical Hawk/Grunt/Snake-eyes/etc one.... Speaking of comics/cartoons/figures, I am disappointed with the Steeler that comes with the Armadillo and Serpentor... and not for his 'Duke arms'. Very lackluster. It may just be nostalgia (Steeler and the MOBAT were favorites as a kid and he's my one MIA as he was lost in sandbox), but I liked the way the original Steeler looked and the new one just doesn't cut it. His webbing is a single shoulder holster (which is like the old design), but doesn't fit right and unfortunately leaves a lot of his shirt bare... and the shirts on the 'original 13' 25th anniversary figures look like really tight, form-fitting shirts. I'm thinking of getting an extra Vamp and giving him the same vest as Clutch, which will keep the holster, but give him a somewhat bulkier look. And while I like the head sculpture and it sort of works for a Polish-descended steel town native, it looks a little old for the brash, young lieutenant Steeler was. Part of me almost wishes for the semi-wild, definitely non-regulation mop of blonde hair he had in the cartoons, even if I usually prefer the comic look for the Joes... it was distinctive if nothing else. And speaking of the MOBAT, I REALLY hope they do some remodeling of its figure compartment. The old MOBAT was always small in terms of scale, but old figures can stand up to their waists in it. 25th figures, though, barely get mid-thigh deep if you're lucky and it makes it look ridiculous having someone exposing 3/4ths of their body in an armored vehicle. At least Steeler will keep his kneecaps safe, I suppose.... This line's killing me. I'm in the process of trying to move away from toy collecting... running out of room and it often hinders certain pursuits (I've been lucky to mostly date women who don't obviously freak out about shelves of toys) and yet the 25th line still pushes out figures I want....

I sort of like the purple/golden Scarlett (although not necessarily in perference over the darkgrey/beige... just sometimes I lean more towards one than the other) and were he a little darker or with more grey/black blended into the blue, the Silent Interlude Snake-eyes would almost be more true 'night ops' than his black outfits. The Silent Interlude Storm Shadow is nowhere near his normal color self, but passable. I think it's basically the day-glow Duke/CC pack and Destro that are really the bad ones. But, yes, I totally agree that the 'classic' nature of those old comics were more the story than the colors and painting the figures in the limit, often over-bright colors of an 80's comic really doesn't work. You might as well have painted them with the printing dots of the original comic art and heavily lined all their details in black. Actually, the latter might have worked (sort of like the new 'original TMNT' figures based on their comic appearances).

This might be better off in the Halo 3 thread, but that's gotten some dust and while Halo 3 is 'so last year', it might be interesting to folks here. Awhile back, happy with my Halo 3 Master Chief, I preordered the wave 2 Spartans and Arbiter. As time wore on and my excitement about Halo waned, I almost canceled. I'm glad I didn't as they're actually pretty cool, whether you like Halo or just like armored future soldiers. The Spartans. Thankfully they're starting to come with different weapons (Rifle, Carbine, Spartan Laser, Shotgun, etc), but I do wish each would come with a second firearm and not just a grenade. Since they utilize a peg system which allows each to carry weapons/grenades on their back, thigh, and rear waist, it'd be cool to see each decked out without having to buy duplicates and then strip them of their weapons. I'm somewhat surprised and very satisfied that the ODST grunts are actually scaled to the Spartans instead of just using the same base body (they're maybe a scaled foot or so shorter than the genetically enhanced, armored Spartans). If I told you these were done by McFarlane Toys, you might not believe me. These guys have a lot of articulation and a good range for armored-up figures. They can't really kneel well, unfortunately, but they have a number of ball joints that allow for good positioning of the hips and ankles. They're also surprisingly study. When did McFarlane Toys start making figures that aren't statues and don't fall apart if you breath on them? "...and this one is juuuuust right." The Halo 3 Chief versus his larger, but less limber and detailed earlier incarnations. The wave 1 Cortana glowing in the dark. It's not perfect (I think there's a statue coming out that might be doing a better job using some fiber to actual have her illuminated instead of just running some LEDs on the figure, but I'm not really willing to pay 10x+ the money for such). You can swap around the helmets, shoulder and chest plates, but since right now there's only one of each color, you can't really mix'n'match like you would in the game without it coming out looking like some kind of harlequin mash of colors. I wish there was a greater range of gun holding positions, but the bulky arms and chest get in the way of any cross-body stances (as one would expect with armor). What does everyone think of the upcoming dashboard interface? It sort of moves away from the uniqueness of the Xbox blades and goes for what some might consider better parts of the Wii (the avatars) and Playstation interface. I'm actually sort of ambivalent about it. While I liked the blades, I can live with the reverse Playstation-style navigation (vertical for categories, horizontal for options). The Wii-like avatars are a mixed bag. They don't insult me like some feel and they might coax the same crowd that fell in love with the Wii (as long as the 360 still keeps its share of good games and doesn't become inundated with crappy casual fare like the Wii). The potential interaction with other avatars (a la the upcoming PS Home) might be nice to see... but I wonder how unique avatars will look and (on the flip side) how much it'll run us to buy clothes/accessories to get the unique look we want.... I'm a big time, long term fan of Fallout (going back to the old Interplay Wasteland, which is the inspirational ancestor of the series) and am looking forward to see what Bethesda does. I am nervous, though. Oblivion was fun, but there was a bit of 'soullessness' to it and I hope they don't also suck the life, choices, and feeling of freedom out of Fallout. We really need some more 'true' RPGs this generation... even on the PC. And by 'true' I mean ones that give some even half-hearted attempts to allow you to roleplay as opposed to just taking you down set paths and utilizing roleplaying statistical game elements. Fallout was a series that gave you enough options, freedom, and long term consequences to come as close as technologically possible to playing a paper and pencil RPG. And I just realized that I never posted in any of the 360 threads before and therefore aren't on Apollo Leader's list. I haven't been playing much competitive online games of late, but I am known to occasionally hop on and play some FPSs from time to time and certainly wouldn't mind hooking up with Macrossworlders... appropriately enough, my Live ID is SouthpawSamurai (only difference between here and there is the lack of a space in the Live name).

Well, my experience isn't the best example because they both went in before the actual start of shipping, but my original Doc order from at the end of January shipped at the end of April (among the first batch) and my second (done as a backup) was put in at the beginning of April and arrived mid-June. If nothing else, it gives you an idea of the backlog they had from before the first shipping date.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work nearly as well with the figures. It's not just a darker blue, but an almost midnight blue... it's leaning towards having purple in it to match well, while the corrected buckle body is a purer blue. Depending on the lighting, it can look okay, but in most cases, it stands out as much more than 'well, maybe different materials'. Still, there definitely is something for the two color look... If I had a second CC, I'd might consider a paint job just to see what it would look like it a more cartoon accurate dark blue.

Duke Nukem 3-D was definitely paying homage to They Live, particularly in the 'kick ass and chewe bubblegum' line. It is REALLY cheesy... from music to camera work to acting (Piper should get an award for successfully stifling his usual charisma), but it while it's not a great film by anyone's standards, it's a fun enough flick to watch if you haven't seen it and you have a book/computer/hand held game/some other distraction during the slow points where they just pan across the poor person park and play the theme over and over... It is hysterical on television on a station that does regular commerical breaks because it might just be the one movie where a fist fight in an alley (the one I alluded to above) actually can span over two breaks. Just put the damn glasses on, will ya!!!! Does the Piper figure have a black Serpentor mask? Why? I don't remember the Iron Grenadiers using snake motifs at all. That's sort of a disappointment.

Why does Piper's card painting make him look like Roman, your cousin in Grand Theft Auto IV? He should come with a pair of sun glasses so he can fight Roadblock for twenty minutes in an alley to get him to put on the shades and see the aliens walking among them.

If it means waves having some characters in their classic looks (or something close), I'm in, even if the packging was all pink and was just the generic Canadian explosion. But if we're talking all the remaining characters done up in Joe movie, Crysis-inspired, all-black super-suits, I'll happily start saving that much money again.

Agreed. I thought I was bad/weird for having maybe dozen combined Cobra/Cobra Officers with a few extra CGs and Vipers. I can see a score or so for a diorama or some such... but that many I can't really see unless one is converting a room into a full sized battleground scene. The only jealousy that might stir in me is the amount of disposable income one must have to splurge on 160 BATS... My wallet would welcome Hasbro ceasing the homage line in order to do just movie-style ones, but I'm still holding out for a few more figures that haven't been annouced. I thought the last thing Shin brought over from Hisstank was that they'd stop calling it the '25th Anniversary' line (which they have already), but they'd still run with it. I wonder what the profits were like on the line... hard to tell how skewed they were by retailers not reordering until shelves were clear, etc (despite my efforts to help by picking up a few, it's STILL just a Buzzer and two Hawk/Scarletts at my nearest Target).

I decided to toss up a better picture of an early Stormshadow (the Silent Interlude one... which is the same as the original, except for blue for black... I didn't want to risk ruining my original's slung backpack forcing it over his neck) with the new comic pack's harness, per Shin's request. With the shirt on, he does look pretty bad-ass... sort of a 'Powered Up Stormshadow". One major downside is that the original Stormshadow mold doesn't have a backpack hole (as his pack was slung across his torso) nor does the 'Dragon' and 'Joe-sided, Grey-Digital-Camo' one, so you can't put the new backpack on them . The Maroon-cape Comic Pack SS has a hole, so that would be the one to go for if one wanted a 'shirts' as opposed to 'skins' Stormie in the new harness with the new backpack. For fun, here's some quick addition pics... I haven't opened everything up yet (which is why CC is an old comic collection one).... I'm beginning to think Snake-eyes is the perfect Southpark Kenny-type character....

I hate my phone's camera. But I had a few minutes at work and couldn't let the unfortunate side-effect of part swapping of Stormshadows I did earlier go without documenting it.... And while I was swapping parts of monitor top figures, Snake-eyes pretends to be a certain archaeologist.... (should've swapped the Uzi for the whip too...) Now, all I need is a pink Cadillac and a Kwinn figure... (although I think it was a cowboy hat in the comic, not a fedora...)

Just got the new Stormie today at work via BBTS and have the old comic pack Stormie (which I know is one of your favorite ones anyway) as a monitor topper, so here you go. Pardon the bad cell phone camera. I did one with the cape and older head, and one with the new head... which gives you an idea of what a V1 SS would look like if you removed the cobra symbol on his forehead and bleached his bands. If you want better pictures, I can take them tonight at home. The harness is somewhat bulky... made even moreso sitting around the sash on the older Stormshadow. Still, I much prefer a shirt-wearing Stormshadow over one that's 'Body by Sgt. LaFitte'. I'm not entirely sure how easy it is to draw the swords they way they are on the backback, but it does look cool. Not pictured is the new comic pack SS with the older, maroon-cowled one & cape... which makes him look like some hokey pro-wrestler

Thanks Shin! That's exactly what I was looking for. I thought I looked at HissTank, but I didn't see this. I hope I can manage to produce something decent as she'll get a kick out of it, I'm sure. Even though I've taken the easy route and gotten almost all my Joes via BBTS (their prices for the most part aren't too bad if one factor's in taxes and the fuel/time spent looking for figures and I've been lucky to get good paint jobs with the exception of a sloppy Wild Bill and an imperfect Spirit... but then again, I don't think I'd be happy with him even if the paintjob was hand done by an master), I can feel the shelf hunter's pain. If I were collecting solely locally, I'd have less than ten figures, I think. I took two Buzzers and two Scarlett/Hawk packs from my local Target almost a month ago for both customizing and just to try to do the world a favor. What's there now? The ONE remaining Buzzer still and a few Scarlett/Hawks. And, yes, I'll concur that the people who have to buy three or more of everything because they want one open, one in mint condition for display, one as a backup, one to sell, one to.... etc, are every bit as bad as the scalpers. I've bought a few extra Cobra troopers and CG's as troop builders, but I try hard not to pick the only remaining ones of the shelf (although its rare to see any anyway). Selfishness in any form, however, is the rule and not the exception with people, unfortunately. Looks like outside of Blowtorch and some of the 2packs (most of which only one character is new), I think I can finally calm down on my own purchases with the upcoming releases.

My first Doc arrived on April 25th (had to go back and check the post I made about it) and that one was ordered back in January (they only started shipping in April). I had sent in a second order early in April (partially as a backup in case the first got lost) and that one hasn't had it's check cashed yet, so it may be slow going ransoming back the good Dr.Greer for those who put in their orders in April/May. I still have to find a decent looking Wild Bill and Spirit... I'm assuming some have a good paint job. Still, even with a great paint job, Spirit's head will irk me. WB's pin head is one thing, but Spirit almost looks like some grandfather who's not wearing his dentures. I think they went a little too overboard on making his face ethnically correct. Anyone know a good site that gives some tips or instructions on customizing the 25th anniversary Joes? I've come across some good generic action figure tutorials and have some experience from ages go with older toys, but I haven't seen anything specific on the best way of taking apart the 25th anniversary ones. The reason I ask is that I have a woman at my place of work who's an Army reservist and recognized and got a kick out of a sticker I placed on one of our equipment carts that features my co-workers as Joes, so I figured I'd try to do up a custom Scarlett (she even has a similar facial structure to the 25th ann. version) as a fun little thing (I wound up with a couple of Scarletts trying to help clean out my local Target and because Hawk can make a good generic body). I'd prefer going through a few ruining them in customizing than in learning how to get them apart and back together.

I saw an early picture with what looked like blond eyebrows (then again, the head looked like Duke's), but more recent pictures (like this one ) have brunette eyebrows, so I'm thinking the hair will match (and match the original figure). I might use the comic book pack head... I'm more an old school comic book Hawk fan, although I have always liked the bomber jacket/camo pants outfit).

Part of the problem with the cover system is that if your stick is just about anything but center when you hit the cover button to 'uncover', it assumes you want to jump to a new cover spot. It makes for a very dynamic cover-to-cover system, but it's frustrating when you don't want to make that move (which can sometimes throw you into a line of fire you didn't expect) and can be counter-intuitive if you're thinking you're moving away from the wall. Make sure the stick is dead center when you try to move away from cover and you should be in good shape. Personally, I wouldn't worry about cover at all once the police show up. Make sure you picked up the health pack and the armor (the assault rifle in the far room is debatable depending on how much ammo you have) and just prep for a run down the long hallway.... you can almost line yourself up for a straight run back down into the first big room so you don't get hung up on the door frames. You'll have to deal with one officer at the start, but you can tag him without cover and then just run the hell out of the building taking only a few hits. From there, I jumped in a car and made my way to a subway entrance... as soon as I got to Algonquin, the subway became my best friend when it came to the 3-4 star pursuits.... even used it for the Three Leaf Clover mission. Snowstorm took me about three tries and the first two were mainly a lesson in realizing I couldn't fight my way out.

Yep, the big wing TIE does finally have a fully realized, more movie accurate rear. It's really a great rendition. Now, if I can only convince Hasbro to do up all the TIEs in the movie-like white/light grey job, without excessive wear'n'tear paint apps (or special squadron markings), and the accurate back on the fighter and interceptor, they'd easily milk $100+ out of me again.

For grins, here's an FX X-Wing sitting on a 1:18 scale Falcon. T-65s are 12.5 meters long 'in reality'. F-16s run about 14.9 meters. I'd almost hate to see true 1:18 scale Star Wars fighters... particularly a Y-Wing (16 meters.. almost 3 feet in 1/18th). Bad enough the Falcon completely scared me off getting a Hornet or, worse, a Phantom.....