Week of: Aug. 13th, 2001

Sunday, Aug. 19th:

Wizard World Report

I went down to Chicago yesterday for the Wizard World convention. This is more of a comic book convention from what I could tell.

Hasbro had a small area set up showing off the latest POTJ wares. This was their 3rd and last stop on their summer tour. At each stop they handed out collectible pins. This time the pins had Anamanaman on them while previous pins had Bobba Fett and Duros. Hasbro didn't leave too much behind when they came here. About the only figure not in attendance was the deluxe Darth Maul.

The 3 3/4" line was well represented having several figures that were not at GenCon. The new Rebel Fleet Trooper (front left) is great. It is detailed well and has tons of well-done articulation. The knee joints are very well done and you hardly notice them. The Imperial Officer (front 2nd from left) is also very well done having tons of articulation in the arms. This is how army builder figures should be done. Snaggletooth (front 3rd from left) isn't too bad having a great head sculpt a working holster, and knee joints. I don't like the small feet on him. Eath Koth (2nd row left) looks pretty nice and sports a new Lightsaber design. The blade is now molded to look more realistic. He also has a good amount of arm articulation, but I really wish his legs were in a more neutral pose. The Black Travel Gown Queen (2nd row 2nd from left) will not be named "Queen" at all. This is a nicely done figure with a great paint job, but not a whole lot a options as far as posability goes. It was designed using the likeness of the actress who played the Queen's decoy. FX-7 is great! How this thing can be a regular figure is beyond me. There is more articulation here than you can believe because many (if not most) of the arms have multiple points of articulation. This figure will interact with the deluxe Bacta Tank Luke. All in all, the Rebel Fleet Trooper, Imperial Officer, and FX-7 were the best figures at the show and they may be the best figures ever produced.

Three of the four deluxe figures were on hand. The Leia with Sail Barge Cannon is pretty nice, but not the huge improvement that I thought it was going to be. Anamanaman is pretty nice, but he is smaller than I thought. He didn't appear to be much larger than FX-7, but his hands are really huge. I'm guessing his hands are what made him become a deluxe figure. Bacta Luke is great looking. It is much larger than the other deluxe figures. Luke has added articulation to his arms and the set will come with the control stand. FX-7 fits on the circular base. These two figures were well thought out so that they work together.

On display were the six Palm Talkers. These are pretty cute and will play to that crowd. Many of the dealers had them and they were not moving. Most dealers had already marked them down once during the day.

The three new 12" figures were on display. The Death Star Droid is the best of the group. Han has a very thin face while the Death Star Trooper has a generic looking head sculpt.

The Tie Interceptor was on hand both loose and boxed. The box is quite small looking compared to the toy. I tried to get a good look at the Pilot, but the only thing that I could see different from the first one is that his legs are at a more normal stance.

The Tie Bomber was on hand in both boxed and prototype form. It was difficult to see the boxed version since they had it behind the loose Tie Interceptor. The ship looks very good, but a little small compared to the Interceptor. I couldn't see if there was a pilot that went with it.

The crashed Snowspeeder (Hoth Peril) looked very prototype-ish. Most of the parts were crudely glued together and the Luke figure was just made of parts from other figures. I would guess that this will get refined quite a bit more than what was shown. The packaging looked great, very dynamic. Dak is in the Snowspeeder, but all I could see was the back of his head.

The Wal-Mart exclusive 12" Luke with Yoda sports a newer body with added articulation. Luke looks OK, but Yoda looks better. The backpack is molded plastic, I was hoping for cloth.

Also on display was the 12" Luke Speederbike. It was almost impossible to see because of the glare on the plastic window of the box.

Steve Sansweet was showing the Connections presentation here as well. This was not set up very well and it doesn't appear that the convention expected the large number of people. After standing in line for over an hour, maybe 1 in 10 people were able to get in. Needless to say there were some angry words flying then.

There were plenty of Star Wars people on hand to get autographs from. David Prowse (left) is Darth Vader and he is feeling better after his illness. Phil Brown (4th from left), who played Uncle Owen, didn't look too good and was in a wheel chair and using oxygen. He would sign his autograph and his wife (3rd from left) would personalize it. I hope that his condition is only temporary.

Kenny Baker (R2-D2) is a nice guy who is much smaller than I thought he would be. In this picture his fingers are almost fully straight out.

Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) is the exact opposite of Kenny Baker in size. He is much larger than you would think and the pen looks like it is almost too small for him to write with.

Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing) was on hand as well. She is a very nice person and you should take the time to meet her if you get the chance.

Lastly, Paul Blake (Greedo) and Richard Le Parentier (Admiral Motti) were signing autographs as well. Paul Blake played Greedo most of the time, only on a re-shoot for close-ups did the other woman play the part. These guys were set up at the same table as Michonne Bourriague. What a group, I would never have thought of them as being so cool. For instance, they had a picture of Aurra Sing that they would use to make sure their pens were working. She was covered in tattoos and little phrases.

Near the end of the day Hasbro held a question and answer session. Pictured, from left to right, are a designer, Audry, and Paul Palmer. They were pretty nice, but you can tell that they get asked the same questions over and over. Not a whole lot of new information, but there is a little. It sounds like there will be Action Fleet next year although they wouldn't come right out and say it. The AT-ST with speederbike and Ewok will not be released and is now on the back burner. The on-line Fan Club store is working on a plan to get the figures at the same time as the other major retailers. Wal-Mart has not discontinued carrying Star Wars toys.

B-Wings

Matt G. reports that Target east in Madison had six B-Wings out last night at 8:30pm. There were still three of them on the shelf at 6:00pm tonight. I doubt that they will stick around too much longer. Joe Y. also reports finding a B-Wing at one of the Madison area Targets on Thursday.

Monday, Aug. 13th:

Character Poll

Don & Jen's Custom Star Wars Toys is taking a poll as to which character you would most like to see in the New Jedi Order series. As you may know, this is a very large book series that has already pulled characters from many of the previously released Expanded Universe.