We're finally at the end. For 3 weeks I've done daily blog posts, finding images, and posting the results. But today I'll show you how I came up with everything for the Countdown. But before I begin, I want to thank everyone who voted, plus Chris and Nomad at BanthaSkull for allowing me to post my blog posts in the comments section. It's been a big help. I used Bossk's Bounty's VC checklist as a guide, and getting images from Hasbro, BanthaSkull, actionfigure411.com, eBay and other sites, and I want to thank them as well, a very huge 'thank you'!  I'll be doing my Top 2 figures first, then I'll save the Collector's Choice for the very end. But more importantly I'd like to thank everyone for reading along this journey with me.  MY VC TOP 25 SO FAR: 25. Ponda Baba ✔️ 24. Dr Evazan ✔️ 23. Gamorrean Guard ✔️ 22. Bom Vimdin ✔️ 21. BOBF Luke Skywalker ✔️ 20. Rebel Endor Commando ✔️ 19. Dagobah Landing Luke ✔️ 18. Cara Dune ✔️ 17. Reva ...

 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...

 A change-up for the next few days. I'm doing 2 figures for today and for Tuesday. Monday marks the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith and I have a special post for that day. Next Sunday the top 2 figures will be revealed!  MY 10th RANKED FIGURE:  DELUXE BOBA FETT (TATTOINE) Photo from popcultcha WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: For starters, he feels like a deluxe figure. The extras almost feel like it's worth the extra price. The rocket firing jetpack, the flame effects, Stormtrooper helmets that can actually fit on Stormtrooper figures...plus his normal blaster and pistol (which actually stays in the holster). While he has a removable helmet, it actually looks better than other figures that had removable helmets. Looking at you both Axe Woves and Sabine Wren. The head sculpt is near perfect, and the figure's articulation is smooth and flawless. It's a figure I enjoy playing around with, and is my absolute favorite Boba Fett figure. Like Darth Vader, any chance to get a B...

 MY 11th RANKED FIGURE:  VC 231 STORMTROOPER  Photo from BanthaSkull  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: Admittedly, with price increases, I hadn't planned on getting any of these figures. However, a Wally World gift card changed that, and I found my basic 5: 4 grunts and one to give an officer's pauldron to. He's basically the same as the great Rogue One Stormtrooper, but has the added holster that can do what the Saga Collection Stormtroopers couldn't do: store the blaster. With the RO Stormtroopers, I have to store the blasters in a small ziploc bag. Not now! Plus, thanks to Wally World clearance sales, I found 4 more of these guys for $6 each. And then I realized I would need a 5th to make another officer, and the card really grew on me, so I ordered 2 more at standard retail price to get my officer and carded version. Once I get the ANH Ben Kenobi, Han, and Chewbacca, and the rumored ANH C-3PO my days as a carded collector are done. But because I love this version, I now h...

MY 12th RANKED FIGURE:  DELUXE GARAZEB ORELIOS  Photo from Hasbro Pulse WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: The only Disney shows I like are the 1st 2 seasons of The Mandalorian, Andor S1 (I haven't seen S2 yet but I read some spoilers and I want to see it one day), and the entire Rebels series. Garazeb, aka Zeb showed up, he reminded me of the early Chewbacca sketches by Ralph McQuarrie. Of course there is a McQuarrie Chewbacca action figure but that's a topic for a later discussion. Zeb has a bunch of articulation, and can do just about any pose you can imagine. He comes with 2 versions of his staff: 1 in the staff mode, and another in a blaster rifle mode. Both can fit onto his back to serve as a "holster". Great paint apps, great sculpt. He's got it all. I might have missed some other things but I'll rant on below. WHY HE'S RANKED 12th: He shouldn't have been a deluxe figure, in my opinion. He could have fit on a normal card, getting the Zeb in the HasLab made...

 Going with two figures today so I can get things a little simpler, and give me time for a 20th Anniversary of Revenge of the Sith post, and make sure the final 2 figures can be done on the same day. Before I Countdown to the final 2, I'll share all the numbers, including votes and how I broke ties.  MY 14th RANKED FIGURE:  VC 162 SITH TROOPER Photo from Hotspot collectibles  WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: While I despise the Sequel Trilogy with every fiber of my being, there are some figures from it I would like to see. Once I saw the first images of the Sith Trooper, I knew he would instantly be a troop builder for me. Sadly, he can only hold his blaster rifle, which is all you need him to do. He can't hold rhe extra weapon, nor can 162A version hold any of the other extra weapons he came with. As a bonus, the blaster rifle can fit on a notch on his thigh instead of using a holster, much like the First Order Stormtroopers could. But this figure is much better than that fi...

 We're at the Patrick Mahomes jersey number on the Countdown!  MY 15th RANKED FIGURE:  VC 316 PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA  Photo from time to collect dot com WHY I LIKE THIS FIGURE: It was a near 20 year wait for Hasbro to update Leia as seen in Star Wars, aka A New Hope (ANH). And it was well worth waiting. An excellent face sculpt, modern articulation, and options to display her with her hood both up and down. Plus she some with her targeting pistol and you get a bonus Stormtrooper blaster rifle. If you have the Tantive IV Playset, she can easily be displayed there or getting ready to swing across the Death Star Bridge with Luke, or the scene when Alderaan is destroyed. Plus the card is the same as her 1978 version, and another Original 96 comes off the checklist.  WHY SHE'S RANKED 15th:  2 words: plastic skirt. More words: the plastic skirt limits her leg articulation. There is a cloth skirted version coming soon for displaying her in the detention block or in ...

 MY 16th RANKED FIGURES:  VC 309 PHASE I CLONETROOPER & VC 269 PHASE II CLONETROOPER  Photo for P1 Clonetrooper (AOTC card) from Entertainment Earth, unknown photo source for the P2 Clonetrooper (Andor card). WHY I LIKE THESE FIGURES:  I couldn't do one without doing the other. At least on my end. But they have barbell hips, can do THWG, and are a huge improvement over the 2007 Saga Collection figures I had been using for many years. I can nitpick over the P2 Clonetrooper being on an Andor card, but eventually he might end up on a Clone Wars or Revenge of the Sith card. The P1 has a perfect card image. But, I'm more on opening, playing and or displaying than I am keeping these  carded. So this figure fits the bill. And these are among the last troop builders I can currently afford, so I'm glad to have such incredible figures to work with!  INTERESTING FACT: This won't be the only tie. But it is the only tie I have in my Top 25.  WHY THEY'RE RANKED ...