Vintage Collection March Madness Kicks Off Tomorrow

There is an American tradition called March Madness for NCAA (i.e. college) Men's basketball. Every year, the top 64 teams in the nation square off in a single elimination tournament. It's quite the spectacle. For many fans, this is the second biggest event on the sports calendar following the Super Bowl. Our friends at the @SWTVC Instagram page have created a fun event for the Vintage Collection that mirrors that basketball tournament. The top 64 Vintage Collection candidates, based on your votes, square off in a single elimination tournament until only one remains.

The emphasis is that this is supposed to be a fun exercise. As far as a data point, especially in the early rounds, bracket style is imperfect. You're forced into a series of Sophie's Choices due to the bracketing. For example, I was forced to advance either Ezra Bridger or the Grand Inquisitor into the second round. I wouldn't care if either of those figures were ever made, in fact, I would pay Hasbro to not make them. Meanwhile, I was forced to eliminate the following figures in the first round:

• Taym Dren-Garen


• Shasa Tiel


• Biker Scout


• Snowtrooper


• Saw Gerrera


• Grand Admiral Thrawn


• Q9-0


• Fozec


• EV-9D9

I want all of those figures 1000 times more than I want the Grand Inquisitor, but if you look at my bracket (see below) it appears to present the opposite picture. To get a true picture, it would be best if we weren't restricted to head to head match ups. Ideally, we would rank our top 32 in the first round, regardless of seeding, and then the top 16 in the second round, and so on and so forth util we arrived at a winner, but there are two problems with that. First, NO ONE would go through that exercise. We'd have 5 fans voting by the time you got to the end. Second, it would defeat the purpose of mimicking the NCAA March Madness. This is supposed to be fun, and bracket style is more fun. By the time you get to my Elite Eight, however, I feel the data is pretty well dialed in.

Finally, I can't disassociate my personal wants from choices that I feel are good for the overall health of the Vintage Collection. For that reason, you will see EP IV Han Solo going much further in my bracket than EP IV Leia. That Leia would pretty much be one and done tooling (unless separate hood up and hood down versions were released). A good OT Han Solo buck has a lot more tooling reuse, which is why I advanced that figure so far in my bracket.

Please CLICK HERE to learn more information about @SWTVC's March Madness bracket.

Please CLICK HERE for the March Madness bracket image.

Please CLICK HERE for a printable version of the same bracket.

You can fill out the bracket offline for fun, but the actual voting starts tomorrow. Follow @SWTVC for the details. In the meantime, here's my personal bracket:

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