My Reaction To The Yesterday’s Fanstream Reveals

I shouldn't be writing this article right now. As you can imagine, we usually write these articles the day before they are published (or sooner). As such, I'm currently writing this article while the 02/01 Fanstream is only a few hours old, so the emotions from that are still raw. My analytical side says that the good that we saw far outweighs the negatives, but there are things in the margins that are exceeding my frustration tolerance. I'm sick of having to make compromises on OT core characters. I'm sick of there being two scales. I'm sick of seeing things I would kill for in TVC getting revealed as "all new wonderful new all new new new new" for Black Series when we are having to make the aforementioned compromises. I'm sick of there being two product lines for 3.75" especially since I know stores will be glutting with that Book of Boba Fett Retro wave. As I said to someone privately yesterday, I'm turning into Henry Hill's father in Goodfellas.

Here's the thing. This is a me problem. As I said, my analytical side knows we saw a ton of good TVC items yesterday. These livestreams should be bringing me joy and excitement (and usually do). These frustrations and feelings of jealousy are on me, but I also can't help being who I am at this point in my life. Meaning, if I can't find some balance, it might be time to exit stage right. Okay, enough of that. So, without further dudes, as Peter Griffin would say, lets jump into the specifics.

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I have a stinking Hondo Ohnaka with rocker ankles, but I can't get a stinking Han Solo figure with rockers. I feel like the community has been loud and clear on this: Stop cutting corners with OT main characters. Yet, that's what keeps happening time and time again. Is it because the last all new OT main character, Lando, peg warmed? If so, the source shouldn't be held responsible for the case ratio decision making. If this is the approach when we finally get an update to Episode IV Han Solo, I'm going to be inconsolable. If you look at the pose on the card for this figure, it can't be truly achieved without rocker ankles.

Aside from reusing legs from five years ago, I think the head sculpt is god awful. This may be the internet's new "The Dress" phenomenon though, as some seem to like it. Finally, the upper body was said to be all new, but when was it sculpted? 2010? That garish torso cut reminds me of the old "barrel chested" Han figures which is what demanded this update in the first place. I'm gutted.

Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well. Yes, CJ, I know that's a misquote.

I got what was bothering me the most about Han Solo out of the way first, and now I can talk about what thrills me the most. We finally have an Episode V/VI Darth Vader that can hold the saber in its right hand! This is a hallelujah moment for me. The head might be a little off, likely to accommodate the removable helmet, but I will be primarily using this figure for dueling poses. The swappable right forearm provides outstanding versatility, which is a big plus. I will be buying lots.

The only negative I can come up with is that the removable hat is definitely too big. I don't know why this was done. One interesting thing to note is that Piett didn't have the code cylinder in his right pocket. The loose figure shown has the cylinder, but if you look at the figure in the carded sample, it does not:


I hope the carded sample is closest to the actual production release. It likely is. This also might indicate that Hasbro has the capability to change the code cylinder configuration for future officers because they vary. Some have two and two. Some have one. Some have none.

What's not to like? Well, one thing: I don't have a huge use for all white Phase II clones. I'm not going to be setting up an Andor display, and despite what people say, it was never the intent for all white Phase II clones to appear in Revenge of the Sith (according to the fact I made up in my head). I will definitely get a couple and very much look forward to movie accurate releases.

Zzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This might have made sense when Bad Batch Season 1 was still fresh in memory and before a much better clone buck was revealed. But since neither of those statements are true, and the price of the original 4-pack will probably be down to $15 by the time this releases, retailers might as well put this one on presale clearance.

SMART

PACK

REFRESH

This is how you do pack refreshes. Weequay was released in the online only final wave of TVC 1.0. The prices for all of the new figures from that wave are largely inaccessible to many collectors who need them. This gets Weequay in their hands, and the corrected mismatched joints gives me reason to buy a couple of these.

When this was announced, I did a literal fist pump. The 212th Clones take part in the biggest clone-centric action piece in Revenge of the Sith and have never been properly upgraded to the VC45 buck (see my commentary about the wrists in the TLC2 review). Now they get upgraded to the new awesome clone buck, but...I was a lot happier before Jason Attewell pointed out that these are painted to match the animation and not Revenge of the Sith. They are missing the black band above the visor. I went from worrying how I'm going to get enough of these with Pulse's two per customer limit to only wanting one. Call me when the paint apps are movie accurate.

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Okay, this is already getting too long, so we'll go into a speed round for Pipelines. The in-depth commentary will come with the actual reveals.

The Obi-Wan series on the whole is awful, but the climatic Vader and Obi-Wan battle was an emotional tour de force. I said I wanted the Dark Times Vader to be modified with the partial portrait reveal, and now we'll get it along with the final battle Obi-Wan. Huge win. Also, I'm curious to see if this 2-pack format is a new expression going forward. If so, that's a good thing.

My worry is that this is coming too late. We were begging for this during season 1. Season 3 is about to drop, which looks like will it be far removed from the Imperial Remnant. But I'm definitely down for two. I can't wait to put IG-11 on one.

Are we happy? Fans have been begging for this, and were getting ready to rebel if it were a HasLab. It's here now and it's not a HasLab. We better support this as a community if we still want vehicles.

I'm a Luke-ophile, and Chapter 6 of the Book of Boba Fett.
Count me in for this figure.

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