Announcing A New Mini-Series:  The Last 17

You may have noticed some spottiness in our content recently. The truth is that providing daily content on such a narrow subject matter is difficult. Depressingly difficult at times. Some days, I'd feel like I didn't have a minute to myself. I'd work until 6PM (give or take). Chores, errands, and life would take me to 7:30. From 7:30 until 10 or later I'd be working on Bantha Skull content, and then I'd go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat the next day. As this exact schedule was about to unfold on Monday night, I messaged Bret to let him know that I can't do "this" anymore, only I didn't really know what the "this" was. The next day, I had an epiphany.

Basically, the "this" is forcing articles for the sake of content when I'm not feeling inspired to write. It's part of the reason it was taking me so long in the evening to scratch out my thoughts. In that two and half to three hours, there would be long stretches of staring at the blank page. This is my hobby. It shouldn't feel like work, and it shouldn't have a schedule. It felt like work because it was forced. When I'm inspired, it's fun, and something I want to do. It's not work, it's a pastime. There's a huge difference between the two. Moreover, I wouldn't always have time to provide the quality I wanted. That weighed on me.

Inspiration can't be scheduled nor can it adhere to a schedule. For that reason, we may see some gaps in content on Bantha Skull going forward. When the articles are ready, they will be published. Could that mean we'll have weeks where we still have five days worth of content? Maybe. But there will also be weeks with three and four days worth of content going forward. Perhaps we will put in stub articles on the gap days just so there's a fresh Disqus thread for people to use. Maybe we'll even throw out a some non-binding ideas for discussion points. Hopefully quality will make up for the lack of quantity.

With that in mind, one thing that massively inspires me and captures my imagination is the fabled "Last 17" from the Kenner era. The name refers to the rarer figures at the tail end of the Kenner line, but the phrase has wrongfully been conflated with the Power of the Force line. That is inaccurate. There were fifteen figures that debuted in the Power of the Force line look (also known as 92-backs). Two figures from the Last 17 debuted at the tail end of 1984 on Return of the Jedi branded 79-back cards. Those were the Ewoks Lumat and Paploo (but they were both carried forward on to 92-back POTF cards in 1985).

I've been wanting to do an overview of the Last 17 in the Vintage Collection. Which ones have been done in TVC. Which ones haven't. Which ones were done earlier. Which ones could be re-released and which ones need updates. Which one has never been done in the modern line, and the most fun part: which ones are "complicated". I was planning to do this a few weeks ago, but then my good buddy Tim from Bossk's Bounty SCREWED ME! He coincidentally published this Finish the 96 video, which obviously covers the Last 17, so there would have been too much overlap. Hopefully the two weeks breather is enough space.

I was originally planning to do this all in one article, but it would have been a tome on the scale of Nomadscout's famous running back dissertation. It makes much more sense to cover each of the Last 17 one at a time. I'm going to go strictly in product number order which you can see HERE. First up will be Lumat. When will it be published? When it's ready.

One last bit of sad community news, Shabby Geek's brother Si passed away. If you've ever watched one of their livestreams, you know how devastating this is. The bond between the two was massively apparent. Shabby's friend Scuba Pete set up a Go Fund Me to help pay for Shabby's travel back to England and funeral expenses. If you'd like to donate, you can do so HERE.

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