The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

It's not.

It's the 2006 Saga Collection R5-D4 that reused the VOTC Artoo body from '04. It still has the front panel that's been glued down so it can no longer be opened.

On the bright side, the Death Star Droid is the BAD mold and the Power/Gonk Droid is completely new from the feet up! There's speculation that this new mold will be reused and repainted blue later this year for a Vintage Collection Power Droid based on the original 1978 action figure. I hope so! People have been asking for a Vintage-carded Power Droid for a while now and it'd be great to see one in classic old school colors before the line goes on hiatus!

 

[Shazam!]

Weird that they wouldn't use the Vintage Collection R5. Put me down for a Vintage-carded Power Droid though!

 

[cooleddie74]

Here's a bigger and clearer photo of the new three-pack so you can get a better look at each figure.

R5: repack of the 2006 figure.
DSD: repaint of the popular BAD mold.
Gonk: all-new!

Unlike a lot of other Hasbro SW product, the Target-exclusive sets seem to be ordered and shipped in decent numbers so finding this one shouldn't be too terribly difficult for most collectors so long as they have a Target nearby. Due to the presence of the BAD Death Star Droid and the brand new Gonk I do expect it to sell better than most of the previous Target sets, though.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Does it come with the R2 unit?

No, unfortunately the Fighter doesn't come with an Astromech droid. At least the original 1999 ship had a molded R2 droid dome that served as a button or something.

Funny thing with the Naboo fighter is that the only way Artoo can really fit in that tiny plug is if his head is removed from the rest of him.

Doesn't seem like including a figure with a vehicle is Hasbro's strong suit anymore...

It might be a case of Hasbro wanting to keep the vehicles at a certain price point (and to get people to buy more figures separately anyway). But in some ways, it's kind of mirroring what they did originally with both the initial Kenner X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, Landspeeder, etc, where all figures were sold separately.

Speaking of which, last year I finally got my hands on the Armored Rebel Snowspeeder (only took me about 30 years after first seeing it as a kid!). My local Target store was selling it at $17.99, but the real surprise was that they also had the Luke and Dack figures in their snowspeeder outfits on the pegs, so I was able to score the the hat trick there.

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Nice! I never saw nor was able to get the Target Snowspeeder and the prices for the thing on eBay are just ridiculous. As per Astromechs fitting in the Naboo Fighter, while I can't speak for the old 1999 one because I don't have one handy (it didn't have a slot anyways) the review video I posted above shows that you load the R2 unit sideways into the brand new Fighter. There's even a little space or slot in the floor to accommodate the modern Astromechs' third leg.

ETA: Here are the sixteen original "Special Action Figure Sets" from more than thirty years ago that the new Target-exclusive sets are based on. The new ones even replicate the same figures for the most part, just using modern ones in place of the originals.

Getting all of these in good-to-mint condition would be very, very expensive to say the least. A lot of collectors didn't even know these ever existed until the 1990's due to their having been inadequately advertised department store exclusives at a time when most STAR WARS action figures were bought in individual packages and could be found anywhere and everywhere.

 

[C.E. Evans]

^^^
That's essentially the bulk of my Star Wars figure collection right there (not counting a slew of Expanded Universe ones). I think there's only three that I don't have. My Snaggletooth figure is different, though--he's much taller and is in a blue suit with silver boots.

As per Astromechs fitting in the Naboo Fighter, while I can't speak for the old 1999 one because I don't have one handy (it didn't have a slot anyways) the review video I posted above shows that you load the R2 unit sideways into the brand new Fighter. There's even a little space or slot in the floor to accommodate the modern Astromechs' third leg.

Yeah, I was talking about the '99 fighter. Looking at it on my shelf now, Artoo never did look comfortable sitting in there.

 

[cooleddie74]

That's the famous "Blue Snaggletooth" from the Sears Cantina Playset of 1978 or '79. Hasbro did an homage to him in 2004 with a Kmart-exclusive multipack of Cantina figures along with part of the bar itself and some glasses.

Not a bad multipack. There were actually two, one with a Blue Snaggletooth, Ponda Baba and Obi-Wan and one featuring Wuher the bartender, a repaint of the old, mediocre 1997 Dr. Evazan and the praying mantis-like Kitik Keed'kak in her debut as an action figure.

 

[C.E. Evans]

That's the famous "Blue Snaggletooth" from the Sears Cantina Playset of 1978 or '79.

Yup. I remember my mom ordering it from a Sears catalog in '79. Didn't ask for it, but it was just something she did for me.

The previous Christmas, she got me the Death Star playset including the trash compactor with the "hidden" green eyeball monster figure (still got that around somewhere).

 

[cooleddie74]

The original Dianoga? Yep! I never owned the original 1978 Death Star Playset myself but I always hoped that Kenner and later Hasbro would go back and make updated versions of their most iconic SW playsets for the modern era. A new Death Star Playset with much more film-accurate detailing and features would probably sell like hotcakes because there's a sizeable chunk of the collector community who'd snap it up in a heartbeat, myself included.

Given, however, Hasbro's current cost cutting and corner trimming which has led to reams and reams of uninspired if not downright lazy and bad product I just don't see the company investing in big playsets right now. If someone like Sideshow Collectibles produced one or several they'd be of excellent quality even if the pricepoint would be much higher than ones made by Hasbro.

Hasbro redid the Dianoga trash serpent/creature in 2002 with the Walmart-exclusive Trash Compactor 2-packs. Each screen/cinema scene came with two figures(Han and Luke in dirty, smudged Stormtrooper armor and another with Leia and Chewbacca holding the big, long metal pole the princess uses to try to keep the walls from closing in) as well as one-half of the Dianoga. You could piece the entire creature together to make one long, unarticulated figure if you had both sets(and bothered to open them, which many didn't---myself included---because each Walmart ordered only a handful of each set and made both very hard to find). To date I think it's the only figure made of the entire Dianoga.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Picked up the New 52 version of Batman from DC Collectibles. The articulation is a little wanting (as is usually the case with DC Collectibles) but the sculpt is pretty stellar. This is about as good a representation of Jim Lee's Batman as we'll get:

Here he is punching Hush:

 

[Gepard]

Sorry for the triple post in my own thread, but since several people here expressed a lot of interest in the brand-new 2012 Naboo Starfighter from Hasbro here's a brief but pretty good video review of the vehicle from online SW collecting luminary Adam Pawlus.

Enjoy! This fighter looks like it's gonna be amazing!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcU1d4Yfen8&feature=player_embedded[/yt]

Pretty sweet. It looks like this thing is a bit more collector-oriented: bigger, more accurate sculpt, separate astromech driod, and working landing gear. I'm a little disappointed that there's no lights or sounds, but that fits the collector's aesthetic, since most "serious" types don't seem to like those features. (At least in the Transformers community. Maybe Star Wars is different?)

 

[Gepard]

This guy got his hands on one at a TRU in I'm guessing Australia (based on his accent). It basically shows off all the stuff the official one does, but he spends a bit more time on each feature:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-nHqtl8jf8&feature=related[/yt]

 

[cooleddie74]

Depends. Opinion is divided. When it comes to much larger vehicles like the Millennium Falcon, X-Wing, AT-AT Walker or the upcoming MTT Droid Carrier then yes, most want at least a couple of lights and sounds, especially if they're shelling out premium-level dollars. But smaller ships and vehicles not so much. They cost less(in some cases far, far less)so collectors don't really expect lots of flashing lights and sounds on the smaller ones. Besides, adding lots of electronic f/x to a ship as relatively small as the Naboo Fighter would just make it more cost prohibitive. It's already expected to retail for at least $30 before tax if not higher and enough people are already grumbling about that as is.

 

[Roshi]

 

[Shazam!]

Are there any comparison shots with the old knocking about? I'd like to see the scale.

 

[cooleddie74]

Jedi Temple Archives has the scoop on the very first image of the Clone Wars Clone Commander Fox figure, the next basic carded figure in the sorely mishandled 2012 CW line. We're halfway through the year and this is only the eighteenth carded figure in the line with only 19 having been officially announced for the entire year. I guess Comic-Con in San Diego will reveal if Hasbro has surprise plans for any more.

 

[Kemaiku]

The smaller Sonic figures in there as well and part of the a modern 5" figure to the side.

I found my diecast Buffy season 3 figure as well but I'll wait and see if I can get a group shot of all the figures later.

 

[cooleddie74]

Toy Pony is best pony.™

 

[Unicron]

Out of curiosity, did anyone else collect the Custom Motors line from Hot Wheels? I collected the full set, and I think they're pretty cool personally. The basic principle is that each vehicle has a set of parts that can be removed and modified, and most parts are interchangeable between all of them. With one exception (the Tumbler version of the Batmobile), they're all original vehicles.

I believe they're no longer being produced, as I haven't seen any for some time, but I think one can still find them through sources like Amazon and other online dealerships.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

The Club Infinite Earths figure for June has hit my doorstep. It's Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lantern Corps.

Along with him is the club exclusive figure (only available to those that bought the subscription, and will never be for sale any other way beyond ebay) Metron with his Moebius Chair: