Down to the next to last stretch. For tomorrow I'm changing the order up. At the top of tomorrow's review will be my top 2 choices, preceded by my rundown from 25 to 3. Then, I'll break down all the votes for the ranked figures, followed by the list rundown from 25 to 3, and then adding the final 2 figures. Only 1 vote separated the 2nd place figure from 1st place. One vote.  MY 3rd RANKED FIGURE:  VC 241 DARTH VADER (DARK TIMES) Photo from BanthaSkull  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: The old Darth Vader VC sculpts weren't great. VC 93 had been the best one, as he was the only Vader who could hold his lightsaber in his right hand. This figure knocked it out of the park! And it led me to discover that Jason from the BanthaSkull comments section had a YouTube channel: MAKMCSWF! I subscribed to his channel then, and you should too, if you haven't already. When I got him, I played with it for a good hour or so after taking photos of the card. I had fun playing around with the ...

 MY 4TH RANKED FIGURE:  VC 335 THE MANDALORIAN (ARVALA 7) Photo from Hasbro Pulse  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE:  If you got the Blurrg, this is the figure that came with it. The Blurrg is a long requested creature, and well worth the wait for collectors. This version of The Mandalorian is from S1, and with his new shoulder armor. Mando comes with his blaster pistol, which fits in the holster, and his long disintegrator rifle. Unlike previous Mando figures, he comes with a cloth cape. And to fit on the Blurrg, he has barbell hips. Which makes a huge difference in posing for action. The cloth cape can be easily removed if you want to do so. This is a definite Mandalorian for when he rescues Grogu from marauder custody. Plus if you have the Razor Crest he can easily fit in that too, if I had the RC I'd try it out anyway. It also doesn't look like the lower body was altered too much, so it may be possible to add barbell hips to figures that had ball socket hips, in a way that...

 The Top 5 begins today!  MY 5TH RANKED FIGURE:  VC 206 IG-11 Photo from Galactic Figures  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE:  If anyone remembers the 2002 Clone Wars Microseries, there were IG droids that Obi-Wan fought, and they could do all these near acrobatic poses in battle. When IG-88 came out years later....he couldn't. When this figure was announced my biggest fear was he'd be a repack of IG-88. Nope! He not only was an all new sculpt, he's got all the moves! He can moonwalk, he can do the mashed potato and the twist! My sample luckily hasn't had any breakage, but if opening I recommend putting him in just boiled water in case he has tight joints. He also holds both of his weapons with ease, and the only complaint I have is the wires on his legs get unplugged by moving them around.  WHY HE'S RANKED 5th:  He's a solid figure head to toe. As soon as I got him I literally played with him for an hour or two. Next to another figure it's the most fun I had wit...

 Back to a normal pace until Sunday.  MY 6TH RANKED FIGURE:  VC   KANAN JARRUS  Photo from BanthaSkull  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE:  To be honest, when I ordered The Ghost HasLab I had intended to open the included figures. But once Hasbro announced this version of Kanan would be coming into the line, I reconsidered doing that. Kanan was my best figure of 2024, and with good reason. The sculpt, articulation, he's a great figure! Besides, I wanted a pre-blinded version of this figure anyway. I still believe the HasLab versions of the Ghost crew will inevitably get standard Rebels cards, so doing a head swap with blind Kanan could still be a possibility.  INTERESTING FACT: I almost considered adding HasLab Kanan votes to Kanan's totals in the Collector's Choice, but that would have meant some of my choices would be invalid, so I opted not to do that. Had I done this, Kanan would have been tied for 2nd place in the Collector's Choice.  WHY HE'S...

 The Collector's Choice has 2 figures tied at the 8th spot. I'll explain why that is when I get there. And if you read this next line in Casey Kasem's voice it will sound a lot better: now on with the Countdown!  MY 8th RANKED FIGURE:  VC 344 LUKE SKYWALKER  Photo from Hasbro WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: Luke is my favorite character, and this is the best one, despite some lack of paint apps. His articulation is excellent, as is the sculpt from head to toe. His unlit hilt fits on his belt, as does his droid controller. I have been able to get this figure to sit down, but the deluxe version of this Luke that comes with a cloth skirt will be able to fit in the Landspeeder, which is the only way to get that figure. He's also screen accurate on his outfit colors, and that's a bonus. Older accessories like the floppy hat, poncho and blast shield helmet fit too, with latter being almost too tight.  INTERESTING FACT: I'm looking for another version to do a head swap. If onl...

 May 19, 2005 Photo credits unknown, pulled from online image search. Images belong to Lucasfilm for the above photo, and the 20th anniversary poster. The other photo is from a fan edit poster. THE MOVIE EXPERIENCE  I remember that day very well. Finals had wrapped up, and I had failed a class so I had a semester of summer school ahead of me. I ended up getting a B in that class I failed so hooray for me! I hated accounting as much as I hated statistics. My next to youngest brother had finished finals the day before, so he was free to go and had the day off from work, as did I. I had a good friend at the time, for the sake of anonymity I'll call him Darren, aka Big D. He had seen the midnight showing but wanted to see it with me, since I was a huge fan of Star Wars, and I had a positive view of the Prequels, which Big D didn't have at the time. We had tickets for the 1:00 showing, so before I picked up my brother from my Mom's house we watched the 2002 Clone Wars Microserie...