The year has come to an end, with Christmas next week, I'll not be posting as family time is more important. So as 2021 comes to an end, I want to talk about the good,  not the bad. Plus some previews of what I'll do in 2022. 2021 The Good: 1. Star Wars Visions. These stories were interesting, some were not great but it was good to see different types of stories "from a certain point of view". Hopefully more things like this get made. 2. Book of Boba Fett. I know it hasn't premiered yet, but Boba had been a fan obsession since the Holiday Special in 1978, and ESB. Seeing Boba rise up in a Don Corleone fashion will be fun to watch-especially if the rumors are true and Han Solo does indeed show up! 3. Comic books. Disney has done well with the comics. They are better than the movies (except Rogue One), and the storylines have been well done. Some art has taken a backstep, but the writing has been largely solid. 4. Black Series/Vintage Collection/Mission Fl...

Hard to believe the year is at an end. Well. Almost. But I won't be posting anything next week so it's time to pick the top 5 VC figures of 2021, and a couple honorable mentions for repacks. Now, the rule I follow is new figures, using parts from old figures is okay, but 1st time in the VC. If they are all new sculpts, I'll detail it in the description. Also, if I acquired the figure in 2021 even though it came out in 2020, that might be on the list as well. For the repacks, I base it off personal demand as a collector. So, I'll do the top 4, followed by the repacks and the top figure at the end of the post.  5. Bespin Escape Leia. Somehow I got this before last Christmas, and it's a good, not great figure. Good as in it is a long requested figure and interacts with the Carbon Chamber playset. Not great in the fact that it is a redress of the 2010 Hoth Leia. But the new head sculpt is dead on perfect, and she can hold her Stormtrooper blaster. Not a bad figure on or...

Let's go back to Fall of 2012. The big news was George Lucas was selling Lucasfilm to Disney and that the long awaited Sequel Trilogy was happening for a winter 2015 release, and would be shot back to back to back. Remember how excited/optimistic fans were at the time? While Episode 7 disappointed many with the death of fan favorite character Han Solo, the end where Rey hands Luke the lightsaber that once belonged to him and his father was an incredible moment on film, and my only highlight of the sequel trilogy (the other is "Chewie, we're home!"). Then RJ happened, and we got a mess of Episode 8, which resulted in a mess with Episode 9 (which I felt was a better follow up to 7 than 8 was), and the franchise came crashing down. Now not all Disney has been bad. Rebels is enjoyable, although many wished it pushed more boundaries like Clone Wars did. Putting it on kid friendly DisneyXD wasn't a smart move, and they didn't even rerun it on Disney Channel (they ...

I've done favorite characters lists before, popular characters anyway. For those keeping score my top 2 are Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. However, some characters in Star Wars get bad raps. So, some species and some characters you may not know much about are ones I also like. And they aren't all popular, but each contribute something to the overall stories they appeared in. I won't be placing them in any particular order, from high to low or low to high. Just randomly selected as I'm free styling here.   1. Porgs. I dislike Episode 8 as much as anyone, but I found Porgs to be quite the distraction from that crap show. They were adorable, made funny sounds yet sadly deprived Chewbacca from eating a roasted one. Maybe Rey takes some with her to her new Jedi temple? If they ever do a follow up to Episode 9, and have them, along with Finn being a Jedi, I'd watch.   2. Kaz Xiono. The lead in Star Wars Resistance, Kaz is sort of like Clark Kent and Superman. Outside a f...

Hasbro, hey! How's it going? While I know the Rancor HasLab didn't meet your expectations, I have an idea for your next project. No, it's not for the Black Series but the Vintage Collection. For a couple characters, you already have good enough molds to make these figures. For some, yes, new sculpts would need to be made. But the time to move is now, as this show turns 10 in a little over 3 years (Dec 2021 is when this is written). Hasbro, we need the Ghost crew in the Vintage Collection! And not just the crew, but the villains as well! Now, this will cover the characters as they appear in all 4 seasons of the show. Zeb and Hera, as well as Chopper do not change their looks very much, so they would only get one figure, as would Kanan who will come with 4 different heads. Ezra gets 2 figures, Sabine would get 4. Here's how it should break down: 1. Hera Syndulla: with blaster 2. Chopper-use the Droid Depot version 3. Zeb-would have to be a brand new sculpt 4. Sabine W...

So, take fan demand for the original 96, partner with Wal-Mart to get them on shelves, and save some money using a nearly 15 year old body sculpt, and you have the new Vintage Collection Princess Leia Organa in her battle poncho. Originally released in 2007 in the Vintage Orginal Trilogy Collection, the 2021 gets a couple upgrades. None in articulation as she still has the same 12 POA. However, this Leia sports an all new head sculpt which eliminates the "giraffe neck" effect of the 2007 version. Simply put, it looks much nicer, and the detail on the new head sculpt is great. This is a tremendous improvement over the 2007 version. Another touch is added paint on her belt line which gives the illusion of a belt, similar to her appearance in the Home One briefing scene. It's a nice touch, as is the better paint job on her vest and other garments. All well done. She comes with the same helmet accessory as before, but with an all new cloth poncho, which looks much better ...

The Sixers, aka Black Series fans will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi the same way they did for ANH & ESB: getting the figures with some updated head sculpts on Kenner style cards. For the VC fans does it stink to high Heaven? Yes! But, let the Sixers have their cake, but save some pieces for the Vintage Collection! Since it's 2021, and lines take anywhere from a year to 18 months to plan out, why not start now?! Now, here's the best part: no need to sculpt any new figures! Hasbro should like this, no new costs! While I would love a new Tessek, aka Squid Head, that ain't happening anytime soon. Before I get to the figures, we need some deluxe items first:  1. Jabba the Hutt. We got a good one in 2010 that now goes for a small fortune. This also came with Oola and Salacious Crumb. While Disney shies away on scantily clad female figures like Oola and Leia in her slave outfit, they can either be left out OR made an exclusive to online stores. B...

As of now, it looks like the HasLab Black Series Rancor will not get funded, barring a miracle or an extension. So. What does this mean for the Star Wars collecting world? Is it bad news? What about the Black Series line itself? Well, the news is actually good. Remember as Yoda told Luke in Episode 8 "The greatest teacher failure is!". I went into spoiled collectors a couple weeks ago, and stand by that. But let's compare this to another active HasLab, the GI Joe Skystriker plane for the 3.75 inch GI Joe line. When this was announced, all the tiers were shown on day 1. So if you backed it, you knew what you were going to get. So far, it looks like those tiers will be met. Now, had Hasbro come out and said here's the Rancor, and here is what the stretch goals aka tiers are, I think it would have helped. Sure, some of the tiers were not what fans wanted, but the numbers of backers probably wouldn't be continually going down. They'd just stay flat. So, the ne...