This week, I wanted to go back to some news for the blog to keep it interesting but also to get some more views. Another film project suffers a major change, not cancelled but someone working on it is off the project. Streaming numbers for Mandalorian Season 3 are said to be down. Bad Batch is said to be limping along as well. So what has happened?! Is there burn out? Has the Fandom Menace taken down Din Djarin?! Have the Geeks and Gamers (I do love Geeks & Gamers YouTube channel BTW) Kid spread shade to the Star Wars Universe?! Is Dr Doomc*ck right about all the behind the scenes stuff at Lucasfilm?! Will Mike Zero ever get something right?! Okay, I'm exaggerating on YouTube channels for the most part that I enjoy, but there is trouble brewing at Lucasfilm, and it's easy for anyone to see. So here is what Disney has done film wise since Oct 2012: Episode 7 Rogue One Episode 8 Solo Episode 9 TV and streaming shows: Star Wars Rebels Star Wars Resistance The Mandal...

  Andor has completed its first season, with Season 2 coming soon, as it may already be filming but is definitely in pre-production either way. While Hasbro did get some figures out quickly for the Black Series and a VC scaled Disney Droid Depot figure out in parks and their own stores, the first 2 VC figures for Andor came out after the season finale, Cassian Andor and Vel Sartha. Today, I am reviewing Vel Sartha's VC figure, not her character. I haven't seen much of Andor. All I know of Vel is she's Mon Mothma's cousin, and fan theories abound about her girlfriend (I think she's Cassian's sister but I have yet to see the show so I'm not sure). What stands out to me is Vel's height, she's tiny! Due to that, she has small wrists so hinges couldn't be added to them. Which makes her holding her blaster rifle, or modified AK-47 if you want to be technical, difficult. The picture I posted was the best I could manage. Her articulation elsewhere is exc...

 On a hunch, I made a Target run for some dish soap and some tub cleaner. Then I dropped by the toy aisle and found something I didn't expect to see. Now later on I plan on doing a full review (and get another one, hopefully) but there was only 1 left:  This will not be an in depth review but just some initial thoughts as I opened this just under an hour ago. The figure is in the closed deluxe packaging and is a deluxe figure (thankfully I had a $10 coupon for my total purchase so what better way to use it then on needed house supplies and this!). I didn't care for keeping the box so I ripped it open and found the figure was securely packed, as were the accessories in a taped paper bag, and not the thin wax paper as with the Throne Room Boba Fett and the other deluxe figures I've reviewed.  The figure's joints aren't too tight, so movement is quite easy. His blaster fits on a hole on his right leg, something not seen on VC figure since the First Order Stormtrooper w...

  So with a new, and so far definitive ROTJ/Mandalorian Luke Skywalker Vintage Collection figure added to my collection, it caused me to put aside another figure that I had come to love, a custom Mara Jade figure with a swapped out head that belonged to a GI Joe Rise of Cobra Scarlett head that was paired well with my own custom Luke Skywalker figure. However, my custom Mara was taller than the new Luke figure (not by much, if I could have found some feet to swap out it might have worked, but I hadn't). So what was I to do but make another custom Mara Jade. I had found 2 3.75 Black Series Mara Jade figures, one I got for MSRP, and another I bought on the cheap because the card was heavily damaged. The 2nd figure and accessories were near pristine, although the lightsaber had a bent blade. On a hunch, I swapped the lower legs of the 2007 comic pack Mara on my spare Black Series Mara and it was a perfect fit! And then I left it in my spare parts container, never to see the light of d...

  Since my Kenner reviews are my lowest viewed blog posts, I will be condensing the reviews. That way I can get through all the figures quicker, and if necessary can spend a little more time going over some details. I had thought about adding the Max Rebo Band into this review, as well as maybe Ree Yees and the ultra rare Yakface but those will come as I round out Jabba's Palace participants (which will include 8D8 and EV-9) and Skiff Guard figures, which will come in the next few weeks. All the Ewoks will be in one post as well. So if I'm adding to things, I may as well go into detail. You see, if you have the Kenner Jabba the Hutt playset, you have to have a Gamorrean Guard! Jabba needs protection, right?! And he ain't exactly one to handle things himself! So that's my justification for this double sided review! First off is the Gamorrean Guard. He would be a big figure, big as in chubby. He has a bigger beer belly than the Rancor Keeper but he knows how to use his bu...

  Back in 2019, Cal Kestis made his figure debut in Hasbro's Black Series to coincide with Force Friday as the last episodic Star Wars film hit movie theaters. However, that was based on the Jedi: Fallen Order video game. Vintage Collection fans and collectors begged Hasbro to make Cal in the one true scale of 3.75 inches, and Hasbro ignored them. While giving Black Series collectors not 1, but 2 Black Series figures. VC fans complained LOUDLY! Especially when background JFO figures got made. But fast forward to the present. Hasbro finally made Cal Kestis! But it's based on his new look from Jedi: Survivor, the new video game coming soon. Cal sports 17 POA, and a first for me in VC figures. I had to place him in just boiled water because his leg joints were extremely tight! This was a problem on a couple 3.75 Black Series Deathtroopers, but not on a Vintage Collection figure I had owned. I repeated the process a day or two later and now the legs move easily, and I am not fearin...

  The 3rd season of The Mandalorian began last Wednesday and for those thinking this is a spoiler review, or any review, it isn't. I haven't seen it yet, although I hope to in the near future. Navigating through social media to avoid spoilers can be tricky, someone spoiled who died in Avengers Endgame a while back and I was ticked at that. But at least Hasbro rolled out some new products for the upcoming season, right? Right?! No. They didn't. Hasbro very quietly rolled out VC 181 for preorder on Hasbro Pulse. The VC Rescue set that has cloth capes for Gideon and Mando, plus Grogu and a battle damaged Darktrooper is still up on Pulse. Now, nothing against VC 181. It's a great figure. And yes, a new N1 Starfighter is coming to the VC later this year (at $131.99) and that will possibly (maybe) come with a figure (probably Din Djarin). But so far, that's it. No word if the Black Series will repack Din Djarin, or Moff Gideon or even if there will be any Season 3 charact...

  Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi is without a doubt one of the coolest parts of that movie! More aliens than the Mos Eisley Cantina from A New Hope, and all of them looking better thanks to a bigger budget and advances in technology, I promise I won't talk Special Edition upgrades (although some are quite good)! But besides Gamorrean Guards, the first character we saw was Bib Fortuna as he was the one to meet C-3PO and R2-D2. And everyone who saw him asked: What are those worms on his head for?! Well, they are called lekku and serve as a way to non-verbally communicate among many things. But what about his Kenner figure?! Bib has the same standard 5 POA as all figures in this era have. But the level of sculpting and detail was definitely seen here. The bright colors used by Kenner in 1978 for the Cantina aliens is not seen here. Onscreen accuracy was something that Kenner began striving for at the tail end of The Empire Strikes Back line, and it pays off big time here! Th...