With Emperor Palpatine Confirmed, A New Crusade Must Begin

As some of you may recall, I grew truly frustrated (not shtick) that an Episode VI Emperor Palpatine was missing from the Vintage Collection. This frustration dated back to TVC 1. I couldn't believe the line was being put to rest without one of the Original 96 core characters being represented. Being from the northeast, I deal with frustration by utilizing anger's ugly cousin, sarcasm. In the review of the VC115 - Darth Vader figure, I wrote this:

By virtue of this assortment also being used for the San Diego Comic Con exclusive carbon freeze chamber set, each film is represented. The absolute most logical figure to represent Return of the Jedi in such a commemorative set AND one of the last two Vintage Collection waves is an Episode VI Emperor Palpatine. Naturally Hasbro selected a highly scene specific version of Darth Vader that exactly no one requested. And people wonder why the last wave of Vintage Collection was forced to online only distribution due to the glacial sale rate at brick and mortar retail.

When the return of TVC was announced, I immediately got back on the Palps campaign trail. When writing about my Personal Top 5 Wishlist, I wrote this now marginally infamous statement:

My time at Bantha Skull is on a clock. If a new super articulated Episode VI Emperor Palpatine is not announced by December 2019, I will be leaving the site. This is not a stunt.

So rattled by my ultimatum was Hasbro, that they announced a TVC Emperor Palpatine only a short one and a half years after my drop dead date! VICTORY! Obviously, my campaigning didn't have anything to do with Hasbro's decision. I'm just being playful, but it has been a bit of an inside joke during the Q&A sessions. Patrick even mentioned it on the last Q&A, and I said that I was switching my ultimatum to Velken Tezeri, but upon further reflection, that's not the right candidate.

I need to stress the word “frustration” over the situation with Emperor Palpatine. We shouldn't have to beg and plead for "money in the bank" core characters. These are the figures that appeal to the entire gamut of collectors from causal to hard core. Hasbro should agree to them as easily as I agree to getting pizza instead of cooking dinner.

With that said, my new line in the sand is Episode IV Luke Skywalker. It's ridiculous that we've gone this long without a definitive version of not just a core character, but THE core character. The character without whom literally none of this cultural phenomenon would have happened. I would personally get more than a solid case if a definitive Episode IV "Farmboy" Luke were made.

Now, I'm not going to to do something silly like make a threat about quitting the hobby this time. But Hasbro, if you don't announce an all new and definitive Episode IV "Farmboy" Luke Skywalker soon:

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