The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

Just breaking this evening on Sandtroopers.com... the very first carded images of the upcoming Vintage Collection Shock Trooper, Sandtrooper(orange pauldron variant with hovering patrol droid) and "Emperor's Wrath" Darth Vader on the regular Vintage cardbacks we've become familiar with. These will also be available on limited-edition chase cards with a different design(refer back to one of my previous posts).

These are supposed to be in the next wave after Grand Moff Tarkin. Supposedly.

 

[cooleddie74]

Hi-res photos of the entire "Lost Line" chase variant wave of Vintage. Compare to the pictures I just posted above for the differences in packaging.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I always thought the POTJ Emperor's Wrath Vader was a pretty neat figure. It'd be cool to get an updated version.

On the Hot Toys front, here's Thor.
Tada!

To be honest, I think the headsculpt needs some work before the final product is released.

 

[cooleddie74]

That is impressive! It's hard to swallow sometimes that these are considered toys...they look more like Madame Tussaud's waxwork dummies. I think it looks pretty much like Chris Hemsworth even without any tweaks made to the head sculpt. I wish the more mainstream toy companies could achieve accuracy like this on their larger figures and dolls.

ETA: Am I the only one who thinks the new Bespin Leia looks more like Hilary Swank than Carrie Fisher?

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

The thing is, at $200 a pop "pretty much like Chris Hemsworth" is not good enough. You saw what they're capable of. The Tony Stark that is freaking spot on Robert Downey Jr. The Terminator that looks like someone shrunk Arnold Schwarzenegger and stuck him on my shelf. We've come to expect perfection from them.

Also, now that you mention it, yeah I kinda see Hilary Swank in there.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, you make a great point. For $200 I pretty much want Hemsworth's face surgically transplanted to my toy. That's a lot of scratch to drop on one item. After seeing your Tony Stark that's a mighty big standard to maintain. Were the Bruce Lee figures from Hot Toys as well, because those are beyond spellbinding. They are the most life-like Bruce replicas I've ever seen, and that includes some wax statues and dummies I've seen pictures of.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Yeah, the Bruce Lees are from Hot Toys, too. Can you believe that there's some collectors that are criticizing the hell out of those sculpts? I've seen ones saying the the Chris Evan likeness on the upcoming Captain America is dreadful. Granted, some of the complaining is just completely unrealistic, but it demonstrates the level of perfection that Hot Toys fans have come to expect.

Oh, and you may find this of interest:
The reason I will soon be broke

That's right. Hot Toys is now making Star Wars. And their first offering is actually two whole figures with a huge display piece, and the same poseable eyes as Bruce Lee and the Joker. Wow.....

Just Luke has been shown so far, but they've confirmed that Han and Anakin are on the way. No word on what outfits, though.

 

[cooleddie74]

Must...have...

But...am...already...close to broke.

ARRRGH!!!

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

You can always do the payment plan.

Thank god Sideshow put that option in place. No way could I afford half as much stuff without it.

 

[cooleddie74]

If I'm not mistaken, I think I've heard about these Luke, Han and Anakin figures from Hot Toys. Something posted on the collector sites recently. I think the Han will probably be his most classic look from A NEW HOPE, but I have no idea about the Anakin...but I think it's safe to say it won't be of a nine-year-old Jake Lloyd. You can't get dynamic action poses from a kid in a Podracing helmet or holding slave tools.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I think the safe bet for Anakin is an Episode III version.

Speaking of which, I don't think I've shown this off yet:

This is possibly the most badass looking thing I have. Yeah it's a statue, but what an awesome statue. I stuck a Hasbro stormtrooper in there so you can get a sense of size.

Here's a closer pic:

The best part? This is a $350 statue that I got absolutely free. Sideshow actually gave one away in a quick draw trivia contest in one of their chat events. That was one of the happiest moments of my life, no joke.

 

[cooleddie74]

I've seen stock photos of the Yoda/501st Clone before, but I don't think I've ever seen your pictures of it. Wow. That's some badass shit there. Hasbro would never have the cojones to recreate this scene...at least not since the Unleashed line of movie-accurate, stand-mounted figures ended a few years ago. Yoda brutally impaling a Clone Trooper through the heart wouldn't fly with some of the more family friendly, politically correct folks at Hasbro.

That's so awesome that you got a $350 set like this for free! I've won some 3-3/4" action figures in online contests, but never anything this cool. Kudos!

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I miss the Unleashed line. I have a few of them. For $15 plastic statues, there were some pretty good ones. The ROTJ Luke is probably my favorite.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine with the maniacal, huge Sith lightning bolts and flapping robe is my all-time favorite from the line. The OT Stormtrooper would come second. I never bought more than eight or ten of them because I just didn't get as into the line as some did, but I made sure I got some of the best ones. I have the Boba Fett with the Sarlaac tentacle...at one point that set was going for over $100. The Episode IV Han Solo running up the Falcon ramp and firing his blaster is also incredible...it has one of the greatest recreations of Harrison Ford's face and chin scar I've ever seen Hasbro make. That thing is almost Hot Toys quality!

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I missed out on Han, and kick myself for it to this day.

 

[cooleddie74]

Oh, you had to be Johnny-on-the-Spot with a lot of those Unleashed figures or else you'd never see them. I managed to find the red striped variant of the Episode II Clone Trooper(the one where one of his dead and pockmarked comrades forms the base on which he stands) once and never, ever saw it again. Boba and Han were the same. Blink and you missed 'em. I was just lucky enough to be shopping at Walmart the day they were restocking the Unleashed figures and got them fresh from the shipping case. There were only a small handful in that line that pegwarmed...Unleashed did very, very well. Better than the 3-3/4" line did at times.

 

[cooleddie74]

Hey, OdoWan...are you familiar with this upcoming Sideshow Collectibles version of Obi-Wan Kenobi?

It's a special release that bridges the 20-year gap between REVENGE OF THE SITH and A NEW HOPE by showing Obi-Wan gradually aging from Ewan McGregor to Alec Guinness. I think it will have two different heads that are interchangeable, one with an older-looking McGregor face where he's starting to wrinkle and get gray hairs(see above) and a second with a younger-looking Guinness face to represent Obi-Wan's slow morph from one actor into the other during his long exile on Tatooine. It's the only collectible that's ever tried to bridge the visual gap between Ewan and Alec by depicting at least part of the character's aging and transition. Whaddya think, man? Pretty cool!

 

[Stephen!]

Can anyone identify these? A hoth figure, which is either Luke or Han Solo, I'm not sure. A Black R2-D2-esque droid and the other two, I'm definitely not sure about.

 

[cooleddie74]

Can anyone identify these? A hoth figure, which is either Luke or Han Solo, I'm not sure. A Black R2-D2-esque droid and the other two, I'm definitely not sure about.

1. 4-LOM the droid bounty hunter(2007).
2. Power of the Force 2 Han Solo(Hoth Gear, 1995).
3. Lott Dod, the Trade Federation representative in the Senate(2002).
4. R5-J2, an Imperial astromech droid aboard the second Death Star(2006).

 

[Shazam!]

The astromech and 4-LOM still hold up.

Got Bespin Han today. Probably the best Han Solo they've made (though shout-out to the VOTC Han).