May 25th Happy Birthday Star Wars! On May 25th, 1977 Star Wars opened in a handful of theaters in the US. Over time, more theaters got it, and by the summer it was a monster hit. People would see the movie and go back in line to get tickets to see it again, or a day or two later. While May 4th gets all the attention, May 25th is the real Star Wars Day! From May 16-May 25 the George Lucas Era films debuted. Today is also the day Return of the Jedi debuted, and that film is special to me because that was the first one I saw in theaters, and was the 1st Star Wars film I saw. Plus the toys from that movie were the best!

I was watching You Tube the other day and caught Retroblasting's latest video about the Final Faction toyline that is available at Dollar Tree. Now, while I could care less about drama amongst the You Tube crowd, it was a damn good video. So, spending about $18, I have the entire set, plus extra bad guys. They are all 3.75-4 inches tall, have 5 POA (what do you expect for a toyline that costs $1?!) & also come with accessory packs to give the good guys and invading aliens more weapons and features. As far as the toys go, the sculpting and paint apps are decent, the accessories may be out of scale but they can hold the weapons. Plus, these toys can take some abuse and removing the snap on accessories won't break them or the toys! I saw kids lingering hard looking at them in the toy aisle at Dollar Tree, a couple even sounded excited seeing them. There is an online cartoon that so far has 1 episode, at least on their You Tube channel anyway. Hopefully more episodes and figur...

Is the Black Series really as dominant in collecting now? Or is the trend going to the Vintage Collection? The 6 inch Black Series does outsell the 3.75 inch Vintage Collection figures. That can easily be seen. But the trend COULD be changing. Not saying it is, but could be. I frequent several collecting sites, one of them is Yakface.com which has a lot of accurate collecting news, including a list of UPC's & SKU's that fans can look up to find out if their local stores have them in stock. The other day, they posted new articles with codes for both the Black Series and Vintage Collection. The VC article had at the time of this writing almost 50 comments. The Black Series article had only 10. Now this is maybe a one time thing, but it shows something that Hasbro knows, but in my opinion will not acknowledge: the passion of Vintage Collection fans is stronger than the passion of Black Series fans. The VC fans are also much louder. Go to sites like BanthaSkull.com or Jedi...

Bad Batch I was able to recently catch the premiere episode of The Bad Batch. While I won't give any (heavy) spoilers I will say I enjoyed it. I don't love it, but I enjoyed it. It was 70 minutes of fun. However, it has a few problems, something I've noticed on fan comments across social media and YouTube. The bad: Caleb Dume (Kanan Jarrus from Rebels) has a completely different origin now. His comic series, Kanan: The Last Padawan covered the events of Order 66, and how he escaped. Here, he encounters the Bad Batch team in his ordeal. It is a big change from what had been established as Canon. Not good. Also, while I don't mind cameos, I would prefer some time before they showed up. It was neat to see Saw, and Tarkin had a reason for showing up. But if Vader checks in, well it's a stretch. We already know Rex & Fennec Shand show up this season. Also, will an A-Team show play well in outer space?! Star Wars is best IMO when it goes its own way. Not sayin...

It is finished. Well, for me anyway. The High Republic is. It's boring. There are too many characters, too many directions and the entire saga they have created GNDN (goes nowhere, does nothing). I had high (pun intended) hopes for this story, a new age that had not been covered, even in Legends. But, we get a bunch of what appear to be hastily put together stories and lack of focus on the main character, Avar Kriss. We have one shots of random Jedi, but not her. Why the Hell don't we?! She is supposed to be THE badass Jedi of this era, and aside from the debut novel, is just supporting character, especially in the main Marvel series. I really wanted to like this, but I just can't support it anymore. I'm giving up on the comic book after issue 6, which wraps up the 1st story arc, unless it has a great end and some connection to Avar. I also would like a story on how Avar and Elzar Mann met, as that would be intriguing. Also, an old Star Wars Legends novel, Heart o...

What is coming down the pipeline: I am going to finish off my VC Top 10, I will be a little more descriptive on those than I was on Social Media. I will try to post those once or twice a week, depending on how busy I am with work and life events. I will cover the 3.75 inch Black Series figures as well, but instead of a Top 10, I'll be doing a Top 4, as well as the Bottom 4. While there were some good figures, a few were just not up to standards. Finally my fan fiction. The one about how Rey could travel back and undo the events of the Sequel Trilogy. I am in way over my head on this one. I planned on 3 parts, but it would likely be closer to 9 parts, which is massive. Plus, I had been waiting on the Vader on Exegol storyline to wrap up. Plus, with new info regarding Snoke, and a possibility Rey could be related to Luke changes things too much, and throws a wrench into my plans. So, I'm going to a new direction. I have thought about reimagining the Jedi Academy Trilogy, o...

Hasbro made product reveals today, and surprisingly, the Vintage Collection beat out the Black Series on the total number of product reveals. The VC didn't get any Bad Batch characters, but ARC Trooper Echo is getting released in his Clone Wars gear. Black Series: Vice Admiral Rampart Shocktrooper Both are Wal Mart exclusives. Revealed in the pipeline for Spring of 2022 is Omega from Bad Batch. Gaming Greats get a Flametrooper from Jedi Fallen Order, as well as the Nightbrother from Fallen Order. These will be Gamestop Exclusives. The Black Series will also have a full size replica Mandalorian Death Watch helmet. The Vintage Collection Coming to Wal Mart are more figures to finish the Kenner 96: Endor Luke, Tusken Raider & Death Star Droid. General public VC releases are ARC Trooper Echo from the Clone Wars, Teebo from ROTJ, and the Offworld Jawa from The Mandalorian. The Retro Collection will have a Target exclusive prototype Boba Fett, which will be similar...

Happy Star Wars Day! I'll post my thoughts on all the reveals later today!

Heir to the Empire at 30 It's hard to believe that it has been 30 years since Heir to the Empire was released, and Star Wars, a franchise that had been dormant for 5 years was back! This started a snowball, that became an avalanche. More books would come, and a comic book mini series, plus other adventures, leading up to Kenner bringing back Star Wars toys in 1995! If you remember 1986-1991 as a Star Wars fan, you call it the Dark Times. No more toys, save at clearance aisles. Marvel ended the comic book series and both Ewoks and Droids animated series were cancelled. The 2 live action Ewok movies came and went. Star Wars was dead. Except for the release of all 3 movies on VHS, that was it. West End Games had the only new Star Wars stories for role playing games, and corrected the Zuckuss/4-LOM issue once and for all, and gave names to Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Squid Face and the other various aliens in the OT. But that would all change in May of 1991. Bantam published Heir to...

Cara Dune At 11th on my VC Top 25, it's Cara Dune! And before you ask, this is where I would have placed her even before the incident when Gina Carano was (wrongly)  let go from The Mandalorian. Cara has 17 POA, and comes with a blaster pistol, and heavy blaster rifle which was prominently featured in the awesome finale of The Mandalorian's 2nd season. The face sculpt captures Cara well, even her small facial tatoo of the Rebel Alliance logo. Plus, the paint apps are all clean, no streaks or messes. Her pistol stays in the holster and she can hold her heavy blaster rifle in both hands, use the top grip however to best show off the 2 handed weapon grip (THWG). Sadly, the knife is not removable, guess they were saving it for Retro GI Joe Cobra Commander. Her 6 inch Black Series figure has a removable knife. Data's physique is also well done here, as Gina Carano is a former MMA fighter, and could definitely kick your @$$. Plus Cara could beat up any other figure yo...

Black Series  vs  Vintage Collection I finally opened all of my Black Series figures, and while I have a few more coming in, I am able to make some observations about the 6 inch Black Series line. While there are some great things about it (sculpting, ease of articulation, blasters fitting in holsters) there are some major negatives. The good: the sculpts and articulation. They look good, move fairly easy although I have a few figures with tight joints, it's all good. Getting 2 handed weapon grip is fairly easy on most figures. I like how Han's blaster fits perfectly in the holster and doesn't fall out. The Deathtroopers can do a 2 handed weapon grip (THWG).  It takes a while but the lightsaber blade can be removed from the holds. Plus, they are new figures, while some recent releases are updating some older figures, these figures are all brand new. The bad: this is going to be a long one. The lightsabers for Jedi, Sith, and Kylo Ren all droop, or ar...