Tycho
06-20-2005, 12:59 PM
Let's just jump into it, wave by wave. Let me know if I forget any. I'm probably not going to write about the whole line from '96 up to now all in one post though, so please stop where I stop.
The first question should be:
Should the line issue limited-time-only available figures, or keep Han, Luke, Leia, etc. on the shelves in one form or another, so that NEWBIES can also collect the line thereby increasing its lifespan as older enthusiasts drop out due to everything from loss of income to loss of interest, or dislike of the 12" quality?
LIMITED AVAILABILITY or CONTINUOUS MAIN CHARACTER WAVES? - What do you say? Think about it if you were selling the figures, not collecting them, and you wanted to always have customers.
THE PRICE POINT? $20 was not too much. It was high enough to typically make me buy only 1 of each figure and not army-build or do more scenes, but I'd be scared of what they offer us for figures if they charged less. I'd have paid $30 or $40 for very top-quality figures - at maybe 6-9 per year. You?
Next, the figures:
! DARTH VADER sucked! There was no way to get excited about a shrunken, rubber head, and just slapped on an undersized body (they used the standard body-type the 12" started with). I never bought Vader because it was so aweful, and with that in mind, I knew I'd never have a cool complete collection at that time. When later additions to the line made me reconsider, I was able to get the old figures I'd turned down before - but repeatedly avoided Darth Vader.
LUKE SKYWALKER - the outfit was cool and nostalgic of the vintage 12" Luke for me - so I liked this. Too bad there was no grappling hook like the vintage, but that was always supposed to be with a stormtrooper outfit, not Luke's farm tool belt anyway. His bright yellow hair was a turn-off and they didn't capture Mark Hamill with the sculpt. I reconciled my disappointment with that by telling myself I was buying an artistic piece representative of Luke, not made to look exactly like him. Selling myself that, I began to collect the line. Also disappointing was that early lightsabers did not have their blades come out of their hilts to be worn on their belts.
HAN SOLO - the outfit was a bit stiff. The jean material they seemed to use for his pants was not as flexable as the vintage era days - whose extra soft material might not have taken as well to sewing on the bloodstripes. The holsters were always open backed. They couldn't mold these things completely closed like a real holster? Han was pretty good. I love his character so I liked having the 12". His face and head sculpt was so-so. It was better than Luke's but left you wondering how they were getting closer with the 3 3/4" scale and they were so far away with the 12"? The hands did not grip the blaster that well either, btw. It seemed the gun was just under the size required by a figure that scale. The limited poseability on these figures were also frustrating.
^ OBI-WAN KENOBI - this figure was nearly perfect! Limited articulation, maybe. But the look like Alec Guiness and the accessory clothing left you appreciating this figure even years later when more good figures had been produced. The ONLY problem for me was the blade not being removeable from the lightsaber hilt. This figure either sold well, or was shortpacked since it was always the hardest to find. I went for 2 of these myself (one to make "Jedi Spirits" with.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
^ TUSKEN RAIDER - this figure is also a gem in the line. They did a very good job on the head sculpt and the accessory clothing and the gaffi (gaderffi) stick. I really like my Tusken. More arm articulation for gaderffi poses would've improved it. I never cared for a stormtrooper blaster version and didn't buy that. (I did buy 2 gaderffi stick ones). If they wanted to include another weapon, they should have sculpted the long "farmer's rifle" for this figure early on. I may pose one of mine with it since I got several of those rifles with other figures.
LANDO CALRISSIAN - this figure's costume was great and his accessories appropriate, but later on we found out for sure that they could sculpt a better Billy Dee Williams resemblance. Lando sat about for not looking that much like Lando I think. There may be the 'black factor' which is ashame in our day and age, but there was also the fact that Lando, especially in his Bespin outfit, was not exactly a hero, but more of a betrayer until the end of the movie. Still, does a character's role (for a main character like Lando) actually make that much difference in an action figure's sale? Some VOTC Lando's pegwarming still at my TRU makes me ask the politically incorrect because I don't hide behind false-politeness. I bought an extra when they went on clearance, because I wanted other figures to pose with new ones I'd hope they'd make (like Leia Bespin) so I kept some stuff I thought I'd need.
LUKE BESPIN - this figure's outfit was very stiff. The fact that he had the muscle shirt on underneathe (I think he did - mine's put away at the moment, am I remembering correctly?) was pretty nice attention to detail. What next? The super-blonde hair and the non-detachable blade were bummers. So was the open-backed holster. A darker haired Luke Bespin was corrected later, but the sculpt they were using still did not look like Luke. The outfit was very cool however, with all the pockets, etc. The more durable material was probably just that - more durable. But I think a softer material on the clothes would have looked more authentic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
^ PRINCESS LEIA - this figure is ok. I think she stood ok on her own, too. Not the high-heeled posed feet on their worse Barbie-style bodies for female figures. You had to watch her hair buns though. Most looked terrible. I turned down a figure that was hard to find on several occasions until I got one with the hair that looked right. The sculpt did look like Carrie - which wasn't too hard on them. She had a baby-face in ANH. Her gun is cool - the sport blaster from the Blockade Runner which was nice they bothered to sculpt it since that gun saw limited use for Leia.
! BOBA FETT - ugggh. Revenge of the undersized head! I bought this Boba because it was Boba and who'd know they'd do 2 sculpts for a b-character? The costume was almost perfect though - the shoulder-armor and neck piece didn't fit him right, and I don't see how they could possibly help defend him when Hasbro sculpted it in that condition. Plus his sleeves were too short and that could look silly when his arms were bent to put him in cool poses. I don't think the rocket fired either.
^ LUKE X-WING - I liked this one a lot. His hair was colored much better and the flightsuit is still one of the best costumes for 12" to this day. He could have had a holster and gun belt and I wish he did. Other than that, with his cool helmet, this figure lacked only better articulation.
STORMTROOPER - I'm indifferent here. I never bought this one though I had the chance. I was army-building with the 3 3/4" up to 70 or more, and I thought I'd keep my 12" displays simple by not even allowing myself to be tempted to buy stormtroopers. Having Sandtroopers though, I'm guessing the sculpting was good and these were cool. I don't know if their holsters worked, but that would have been cool. I'm ill equipped to rate these. They looked nice though.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAL-MART CANTINA BAND MEMBERS - I was glad they did these. They made their money selling the figure 6 times over with 6 different instruments. I don't know how others coped because of what they case assortments on them were, but I only bought Nalan because I liked his instrument and didn't want to forfeit space to setting up the whole band like I did with the 3 3/4". Hopefully I didn't ruin anyone's complete set out there (that wanted one). The clothes were simple and could have been nicer for how much Hasbro was making selling 6 of these though. The poseability improved a lot though - so the Bith aliens could hold their instruments.
^TARGET LUKE HOTH vs. WAMPA - this was originally so hard to get for many collectors (I read. I got mine pretty easily). But Luke had amazing detail to his clothing and his hair was a normal color. His Hoth accessory binoculars were very cool. The figure gets a good mark. The Wampa was different, but for a furry creature it was certainly stuffed better than another I can think of. It was too small of course. Size would have been an improvement. I don't think that would have cost them more considering how they made this. Mine stands fine and the wire frame supports it great - probably due to the nice amount of stuffing. The yellow "life stains" on the wampa were both cool that they though to add that, and disturbing that it looked more like pee than yellowed-blood & sweat, and that it was painted on him so geometrically instead of looking like random animal stains. I like stuffed animals I suppose, so I liked my Wampa and am still excited to have this piece in the collection.
^^TOYRS R US HAN HOTH ON TAUNTAUN - I started collecting because of this huge masterpiece! I saw it on ToyFare Magazine's cover about half a year before it came out, and I decided I'd better go out and get all the 12" I mentioned above because this thing was getting me into that line. Han's outfit is perfect and his poseability is improved. The TaunTaun is a great sculpt and is huge and impressive. I wished it wouldn't tip over with him riding it (or even without him riding it). I had to tie luggage locks to its tail by fishing wire and hang them out of view to keep my TaunTaun displayed standing. Boxed, it could have had Han holding his gear instead of blister-packing it to the floor in the box, but I open my stuff anyway. Still, what a great piece.
^FAO SCHWARTZ LUKE JEDI & BIB FORTUNA - this is another nice set. Great alien headsculpts are always nice because they have to make more effort on them. Bib's head is spot-on and I love his outfit. Luke's head is one of the best sculpts they've done for him. His outfit and his green lightsaber are great. This is the only Luke Jedi to come with his dark Jedi cloak which feels wonderful to have.
FAO SCHWARTZ GRAND MOFF TARKIN & DEATH STAR GUNNER - the gunner was too skinny if I recall correctly. It looked like anorexia was a problem in the service of the Empire. I traded this set before I opened it however - got the KB 2-pack for it in a great trade! Tarkin was pretty good. I was glad to get him later as a single piece, and I'll bring that up then and there. This was not the highlight of the collection, but it did come with the interrogator droid I think.
^ KB TOYS HAN & LUKE IN STORMTROOPER DISGUISE - this came with a 12" scale Mouse Droid? How cool is that? It didn't smell like anything though. But the Han and Luke Trooper costumes were very cool. I like having them with their helmets on because as I noted, I didn't buy regular stormtroopers the first time around. It was also nice that this set came with the long blaster rifle that Chewie uses later.
Overall, we covered the start of the 12" line to its rise to one of its peak years in 1997. There's more to discuss, but if you were collecting THEN, why did you or did you not want (or like) these? If you didn't like them, why did you collect them? If you were enjoying yourself, did you think it was going to totally continue to get better and better?
Were the exclusives a bad idea? Wouldn't these choices have sold in all the stores if they shipped them there? Or would some like Luke & Bib actually have started to become the shelf-warming, damaged window boxes we saw way too many of in later years? Was limiting production a better idea?
I'd have to say that the exclusives were good and fun hunting. Making a little bit more of them would have helped most people find them - but they could have still kept them limited and exclusive. I don't think we would have gotten as much variety up to this point though if the exclusives they did were in-wave assortments and they started to pile up on the shelves.
The nice thing about the collection at this time was that if you wanted to jump in late - like I did, you could still go to the store and find some of the earlier releases and complete your sets like I got Han, Luke, Lando, Luke Bespin, and the Tusken much later than their initial release.
The first question should be:
Should the line issue limited-time-only available figures, or keep Han, Luke, Leia, etc. on the shelves in one form or another, so that NEWBIES can also collect the line thereby increasing its lifespan as older enthusiasts drop out due to everything from loss of income to loss of interest, or dislike of the 12" quality?
LIMITED AVAILABILITY or CONTINUOUS MAIN CHARACTER WAVES? - What do you say? Think about it if you were selling the figures, not collecting them, and you wanted to always have customers.
THE PRICE POINT? $20 was not too much. It was high enough to typically make me buy only 1 of each figure and not army-build or do more scenes, but I'd be scared of what they offer us for figures if they charged less. I'd have paid $30 or $40 for very top-quality figures - at maybe 6-9 per year. You?
Next, the figures:
! DARTH VADER sucked! There was no way to get excited about a shrunken, rubber head, and just slapped on an undersized body (they used the standard body-type the 12" started with). I never bought Vader because it was so aweful, and with that in mind, I knew I'd never have a cool complete collection at that time. When later additions to the line made me reconsider, I was able to get the old figures I'd turned down before - but repeatedly avoided Darth Vader.
LUKE SKYWALKER - the outfit was cool and nostalgic of the vintage 12" Luke for me - so I liked this. Too bad there was no grappling hook like the vintage, but that was always supposed to be with a stormtrooper outfit, not Luke's farm tool belt anyway. His bright yellow hair was a turn-off and they didn't capture Mark Hamill with the sculpt. I reconciled my disappointment with that by telling myself I was buying an artistic piece representative of Luke, not made to look exactly like him. Selling myself that, I began to collect the line. Also disappointing was that early lightsabers did not have their blades come out of their hilts to be worn on their belts.
HAN SOLO - the outfit was a bit stiff. The jean material they seemed to use for his pants was not as flexable as the vintage era days - whose extra soft material might not have taken as well to sewing on the bloodstripes. The holsters were always open backed. They couldn't mold these things completely closed like a real holster? Han was pretty good. I love his character so I liked having the 12". His face and head sculpt was so-so. It was better than Luke's but left you wondering how they were getting closer with the 3 3/4" scale and they were so far away with the 12"? The hands did not grip the blaster that well either, btw. It seemed the gun was just under the size required by a figure that scale. The limited poseability on these figures were also frustrating.
^ OBI-WAN KENOBI - this figure was nearly perfect! Limited articulation, maybe. But the look like Alec Guiness and the accessory clothing left you appreciating this figure even years later when more good figures had been produced. The ONLY problem for me was the blade not being removeable from the lightsaber hilt. This figure either sold well, or was shortpacked since it was always the hardest to find. I went for 2 of these myself (one to make "Jedi Spirits" with.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
^ TUSKEN RAIDER - this figure is also a gem in the line. They did a very good job on the head sculpt and the accessory clothing and the gaffi (gaderffi) stick. I really like my Tusken. More arm articulation for gaderffi poses would've improved it. I never cared for a stormtrooper blaster version and didn't buy that. (I did buy 2 gaderffi stick ones). If they wanted to include another weapon, they should have sculpted the long "farmer's rifle" for this figure early on. I may pose one of mine with it since I got several of those rifles with other figures.
LANDO CALRISSIAN - this figure's costume was great and his accessories appropriate, but later on we found out for sure that they could sculpt a better Billy Dee Williams resemblance. Lando sat about for not looking that much like Lando I think. There may be the 'black factor' which is ashame in our day and age, but there was also the fact that Lando, especially in his Bespin outfit, was not exactly a hero, but more of a betrayer until the end of the movie. Still, does a character's role (for a main character like Lando) actually make that much difference in an action figure's sale? Some VOTC Lando's pegwarming still at my TRU makes me ask the politically incorrect because I don't hide behind false-politeness. I bought an extra when they went on clearance, because I wanted other figures to pose with new ones I'd hope they'd make (like Leia Bespin) so I kept some stuff I thought I'd need.
LUKE BESPIN - this figure's outfit was very stiff. The fact that he had the muscle shirt on underneathe (I think he did - mine's put away at the moment, am I remembering correctly?) was pretty nice attention to detail. What next? The super-blonde hair and the non-detachable blade were bummers. So was the open-backed holster. A darker haired Luke Bespin was corrected later, but the sculpt they were using still did not look like Luke. The outfit was very cool however, with all the pockets, etc. The more durable material was probably just that - more durable. But I think a softer material on the clothes would have looked more authentic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
^ PRINCESS LEIA - this figure is ok. I think she stood ok on her own, too. Not the high-heeled posed feet on their worse Barbie-style bodies for female figures. You had to watch her hair buns though. Most looked terrible. I turned down a figure that was hard to find on several occasions until I got one with the hair that looked right. The sculpt did look like Carrie - which wasn't too hard on them. She had a baby-face in ANH. Her gun is cool - the sport blaster from the Blockade Runner which was nice they bothered to sculpt it since that gun saw limited use for Leia.
! BOBA FETT - ugggh. Revenge of the undersized head! I bought this Boba because it was Boba and who'd know they'd do 2 sculpts for a b-character? The costume was almost perfect though - the shoulder-armor and neck piece didn't fit him right, and I don't see how they could possibly help defend him when Hasbro sculpted it in that condition. Plus his sleeves were too short and that could look silly when his arms were bent to put him in cool poses. I don't think the rocket fired either.
^ LUKE X-WING - I liked this one a lot. His hair was colored much better and the flightsuit is still one of the best costumes for 12" to this day. He could have had a holster and gun belt and I wish he did. Other than that, with his cool helmet, this figure lacked only better articulation.
STORMTROOPER - I'm indifferent here. I never bought this one though I had the chance. I was army-building with the 3 3/4" up to 70 or more, and I thought I'd keep my 12" displays simple by not even allowing myself to be tempted to buy stormtroopers. Having Sandtroopers though, I'm guessing the sculpting was good and these were cool. I don't know if their holsters worked, but that would have been cool. I'm ill equipped to rate these. They looked nice though.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAL-MART CANTINA BAND MEMBERS - I was glad they did these. They made their money selling the figure 6 times over with 6 different instruments. I don't know how others coped because of what they case assortments on them were, but I only bought Nalan because I liked his instrument and didn't want to forfeit space to setting up the whole band like I did with the 3 3/4". Hopefully I didn't ruin anyone's complete set out there (that wanted one). The clothes were simple and could have been nicer for how much Hasbro was making selling 6 of these though. The poseability improved a lot though - so the Bith aliens could hold their instruments.
^TARGET LUKE HOTH vs. WAMPA - this was originally so hard to get for many collectors (I read. I got mine pretty easily). But Luke had amazing detail to his clothing and his hair was a normal color. His Hoth accessory binoculars were very cool. The figure gets a good mark. The Wampa was different, but for a furry creature it was certainly stuffed better than another I can think of. It was too small of course. Size would have been an improvement. I don't think that would have cost them more considering how they made this. Mine stands fine and the wire frame supports it great - probably due to the nice amount of stuffing. The yellow "life stains" on the wampa were both cool that they though to add that, and disturbing that it looked more like pee than yellowed-blood & sweat, and that it was painted on him so geometrically instead of looking like random animal stains. I like stuffed animals I suppose, so I liked my Wampa and am still excited to have this piece in the collection.
^^TOYRS R US HAN HOTH ON TAUNTAUN - I started collecting because of this huge masterpiece! I saw it on ToyFare Magazine's cover about half a year before it came out, and I decided I'd better go out and get all the 12" I mentioned above because this thing was getting me into that line. Han's outfit is perfect and his poseability is improved. The TaunTaun is a great sculpt and is huge and impressive. I wished it wouldn't tip over with him riding it (or even without him riding it). I had to tie luggage locks to its tail by fishing wire and hang them out of view to keep my TaunTaun displayed standing. Boxed, it could have had Han holding his gear instead of blister-packing it to the floor in the box, but I open my stuff anyway. Still, what a great piece.
^FAO SCHWARTZ LUKE JEDI & BIB FORTUNA - this is another nice set. Great alien headsculpts are always nice because they have to make more effort on them. Bib's head is spot-on and I love his outfit. Luke's head is one of the best sculpts they've done for him. His outfit and his green lightsaber are great. This is the only Luke Jedi to come with his dark Jedi cloak which feels wonderful to have.
FAO SCHWARTZ GRAND MOFF TARKIN & DEATH STAR GUNNER - the gunner was too skinny if I recall correctly. It looked like anorexia was a problem in the service of the Empire. I traded this set before I opened it however - got the KB 2-pack for it in a great trade! Tarkin was pretty good. I was glad to get him later as a single piece, and I'll bring that up then and there. This was not the highlight of the collection, but it did come with the interrogator droid I think.
^ KB TOYS HAN & LUKE IN STORMTROOPER DISGUISE - this came with a 12" scale Mouse Droid? How cool is that? It didn't smell like anything though. But the Han and Luke Trooper costumes were very cool. I like having them with their helmets on because as I noted, I didn't buy regular stormtroopers the first time around. It was also nice that this set came with the long blaster rifle that Chewie uses later.
Overall, we covered the start of the 12" line to its rise to one of its peak years in 1997. There's more to discuss, but if you were collecting THEN, why did you or did you not want (or like) these? If you didn't like them, why did you collect them? If you were enjoying yourself, did you think it was going to totally continue to get better and better?
Were the exclusives a bad idea? Wouldn't these choices have sold in all the stores if they shipped them there? Or would some like Luke & Bib actually have started to become the shelf-warming, damaged window boxes we saw way too many of in later years? Was limiting production a better idea?
I'd have to say that the exclusives were good and fun hunting. Making a little bit more of them would have helped most people find them - but they could have still kept them limited and exclusive. I don't think we would have gotten as much variety up to this point though if the exclusives they did were in-wave assortments and they started to pile up on the shelves.
The nice thing about the collection at this time was that if you wanted to jump in late - like I did, you could still go to the store and find some of the earlier releases and complete your sets like I got Han, Luke, Lando, Luke Bespin, and the Tusken much later than their initial release.