Week of: Feb. 24th, 2003

Wednesday, Feb. 26th

Action Fleet Wave 4

The local retailers haven't been getting in any new 3.75" figures, but Wal-Mart east in Madison did get in the latest wave of Action Fleet ships this morning. Included in this wave are the Republic Gunship, Jango's Slave I, and the Republic Assault Ship. These are the best of the Saga releases so far. The ships are well painted and the Gunship looks to be patterned after the 3.75" version, but including gun pods. The Slave I is likely a repaint of the original and the Assault Ship is nice, but lacks the spark of the other two. They are packaged in a nice new hard plastic shell that looks like it will hold up better than the other boxes. Definitely a wave worth picking up.

12" Leia Boushh & Han Carbonite

TRU east in Madison had a case of these on the shelf this afternoon. Leia is OK, but could have been done a lot better. The carbonite block is lame. It is basically flat having few sculpted features. It looks a lot better in the pictures than in real life. It does have a light up effect, but without being sculpted, it looks bad. This TRU exclusive will set you back $39.99 which will be hard for many to stomach. It is a lot of money for a rehashed figure and a light in a box.

Troop Builder Sets

These were originally supposed to be Fan Club exclusives, but were dropped by them and picked up by on-line retailers. The first set the Fan Club had was a 4-pack of Stormtroopers. The next set was a 4-pack of Endor Rebel Soldiers. I am not sure when they came out, but they have been hard to track down at a decent price. I would suggest getting them off eBay since that seems to be the cheapest way to go. And, you will want to go cheap since you are buying the same figure as was available on the Freeze Frame card for $2 on clearance. The third set is a 4-pack of Sandtroopers. I bought these from Entertainment Earth and they are much better than the Endor Rebels are. You get the POTJ version with four different shoulder pauldron colors (orange, white, gray, and black). Each figure has a backpack, clear stand, and the standard Stormtrooper blaster. The stand is a nice addition. The only things I would have wanted in addition to this would be some long rifles and painted on dirt.