I know it's late September of 2024, but it's not too early to look ahead to 2025. While suggesting things may be too late, it's still a year to celebrate some big anniversaries, including both entertainment and collecting. I'll throw in what I'd like to see about the latter. And yes, this is a filler blog post so I can use the time to shoot some photos. So let's go! 1. Revenge of the Sith turns 20! My nearly weekly reminder that I'm getting older. But this is not only my favorite Prequel movie, it's the best Star Wars film directed by George Lucas. His best directed film overall is still American Graffiti. What I'd like to see collecting wise I'll share at the end. 2. The Droids & Ewoks animated shows turn 40! The Ewoks animated series wasn't a favorite, sure there were a couple episodes worth watching again, but as a youngster in the 1980's I was obsessed with Droids. The toys, well, not so much. The main Star Wars line was pretty...

  Sometimes, it's worth the wait. One of these figures is a serious contender for the best VC figure of 2024. The other one isn't bad, but compared to the other figure it's a let down. If you've seen Star Wars Rebels, you know that Kanan Jarrus was a survivor of Order 66, but he never completed his training. He would meet Ezra Bridger on the streets of Lothal after Ezra stole a cargo container Kanan and friends were attempting to steal. In the process of rescuing Wookiee slaves, Kanan outed himself as a Jedi as he ignited his lightsaber to save his friends and rescue the Wookiees. Ezra was able to play Kanan's holocron which had Obi-Wan Kenobi's warning to Jedi survivors to avoid Coruscant. The first 3.75 action figures were 5 POA versions, as you will see in the photos below:  When compared to the VC versions you can see how much better the VC versions are. Only the 5 POA Ezra is from the first 2 seasons of Rebels, the VC Ezra, while from the Ahsoka series is E...

 The headline says it all: helped my family with storm prep and they're safe which was more important than anything else. None of their homes were damaged, and that is the absolute best news. But there are people who did get major damage, and if you would like to help, I suggest donating to Red Cross, here's a link: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/hurricane-relief.html The big news of the week was the passing of James Earl Jones. If you watched the Empire of Dreams documentary you find out how he became Vader's voice, and something I didn't know about him was he had a stuttering problem when he was younger. Not only being the voice of Vader, he was in 2 of my favorite baseball movies: Field of Dreams & The Sandlot. He was Harrison Ford's boss in Patriot Games (and was in Hunt For Red October when Jack Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin). Besides Vader, he voiced Mustafa in both the original animated movie and live action version. His gues...

  Before I get into my review of the figure, I want to focus on the card. If I have a favorite Kenner card, it's this one. It's such a nice card, that I had as a saved search on eBay for VC 93, which was the previous Vader on this card. Thankfully, with this release, you and I don't need to sink a fortune into getting that version. So, bask in the nostalgia and admire the image. Seeing this, I can't wait to get the Star Wars Mains in the next year or two. For carded collectors, this figure, and the ones to come are worth the effort to get, and need to be in a case and proudly displayed on your wall.  Since the return of Star Wars figures in 1995, Darth Vader has been a figure I always buy. The only Vader figure I don't have is VC 115 Darth Vader Emperor's Wrath. I never found it in a store, and the secondary market prices would require me to donate plasma and get a second job to fund it. This Vader is a minor retool of the Dark Times Darth Vader, who was recentl...