I’m throwing years of journalism schooling out the window, which is clearly the result of several years of social networking. Yes, believe it or not, I wanted to be a reporter "when I grow up". I still haven’t grown up, and "I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys’R'Us kid" wasn’t just a jingle, it was a very solemn oath. I live in a house that is so filled with toys that a friend said, ‘It looks like a toy store threw up in your house’. Chaos reigns. There’s a Star Wars bathroom. So welcome to my world of toys.

2009 was a year of fiscal crisis, and it painfully hit a lot of collectors. As interest rates skyrocketed and mortgages became nooses, a lot of collectors had to make hard choices. During a year that really tested Kids vs. Collectors (that translates to The Clone Wars pitted against The Legacy Collection) we lost in a TKO after a lengthy spar. One marketing call-out sums it up:

Note that the "toy sales" call-out is only referencing the first quarter of 2009, and that period was strongly dedicated to The Clone Wars toys. Undoubtedly collectors bought these toys, too, but the bulk of that figure is kids (parents).

The Legacy Collection picked up with the "Bath Robe" series,including the budget-conscious Luke Skywalker (Medical Frigate); Princess Leia Organa (Medical Frigate); "Monkey Eyes" Emperor Palpatine; Captain Needa (the first to use the new "generic" Imperial buck-body; the first (and most widely distributed) Ugnaught (with a second planned as a "carry over" rather than as a twofer — some collectors even suggested a purple smocked version as an homage to the vintage line; and, rounding  out the mix was the Rebel Hoth Trooper (bearded version) who was intended to be paired with a "carry over" version of the figure that was clean-shaven, scarfed, and who was supposed to be the more "common" version of this figure. In a comical twist, a handful of the Rebel Hoth Trooper shipped without the "skirt" part of his costume.

Carrying onward the "Bath Robe" series was "Old Ben" Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Master) with Princess Leia Hologram/Table We Weren’t Supposed To Get; (Young) Owen Lars; (Young) Beru Whitesun; Captain Typho; Jedi Tarados Gon (Geonosis Arena Attack); and Anakin Skywalker (Alexander Jun Concept Art). "Collect Them All!" to build HK-47 from the Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) video game series.

There was a brief pause as collectors began yapping for sustenance in the form of The Phantom Menace Wave. A new, but never-without-faults, Obi-Wan Kenobi was brought up to the modern aesthetic; Queen Amidala (Travel Gown); Gungan Warrior with a "Victory Horn" and a "Boomer" Lob; ill-fated Pod-Racer Rum Sleg; Darth Sidious (Holograph with Mechno Chair); and (subbing for Ratts Tyerell) fellow Pod-Racer Clegg Holdfast was slotteg in (with the hint that we may get Ratts Tyerell and some of his rat-like offspring down the road). L8-L9 from the (first) Clone Wars animated series was the Build-A Droid, which added a unique flavor to this wave.

As manna from heaven, the Return of the Jedi wave appeared feauring the exquisitely designed "Slave" Princess Leia as Jabba The Hutt’s Prisoner (as merely suggested in this 9/2006 GalacticBlogger post); a somewhat clunky (no complaints here) Death Star II Luke Skywalker; Paploo & NoaAhpakk (simply released as Ewoks); Nien Nunb (as B-Wing Pilot); the real Dressellian Rebel, Major Panno; Rancor minders Malikilli and Giran (a/k/a "Weeba Weeba"); and a Nikto Gunner/Nikto Skiff Guard with a gun that should reasonably attach to Khetanna, Jabba The Hutt’s Sail Barge. The odds of that happening? (I say this as a Jabbaholic.) Don’t hold your breath, and I welcome the chance for Hasbro to prove me wrong.

Some collectors (i.e. "Pull-The-Stick-Out" Collectors) took issue with Death Star II Luke Skywalker because he was slightly bulky and utilized a snap-on feature that made the figure cohesive with his Endor-moon capture and the grand finalé throw-down with Emperor Palptatine and his Sith disciple Darth Vader. To sadly quote The Rolling Stones, ""You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you might find you get the things that you need." Has this figure been nailed down? Maybe not, but insults and pejoratives will NOT create a better interpretation of a figure (see: the "FrankenTIE" TIE Fighter that a friend and I used constructively and created to point out glaring flaws which were altered for the "New Chassis" model).


Princess Leia as Jabba The Hutt’s Prisoner was glaringly obvious as the centerpiece and focal point for this wave. While not as (femininely) pretty and dainty as the 2001-era Ultra Asst. figure, this version of Princess Leia as Jabba The Hutt’s Prisoner reached beyond accuracy and art to offer collectors a figure grounded in reality (instead of fantasy, which many of my counterparts are quite happy to idealize). As my contemporaries at YakFace.com, actually illustrated, the figure itself can be contorted in the seated-and-leaning position, but keep softgoods – and fertile imaginations – in mind – the "lower half" is probably left best in the hands of Hasbro designers. (I have wax-to-completion images that might vaporize collectors’ obsequious belief that "our" sculptors live monkish lives far removed from the man-child antics that collectors employ to entertain the masses, but I think, I hope, that we all have the best interests of our hobby at heart.)

R3-M3 (formerly R3-O1) from the first Death Star Battlestation, and R5-C7 (a droid that may have appeared in Attack of the Clones on Tatooine) were the buildable droids from this wave and its future permutations. This, however, seems the most obvious point that the Build-A-Droid concept has been shot to hell. ("Gray" Ugnaughts at the year’s end shipped with R3-M3 pieces, and others seemed to be cast to the wind.)

Disaster struck soon after, as collectors were waiting with baited breath for the "second" Rebel Hoth  Trooper figure, only to learn that a mix-up at the factory had shot down our 25%-to-75% or even 50/50 ratio to nil. We were also later told that the second Imperial Scanning Crew Technician was also nixed with hope that he would pop up until maybe 2011. Maybe.

*Yes, I know he removes it in some comic, but it translated strangely for an action figure.

Surprisingly, I had intended this piece to be chock-full-of-humor, but the original draft read like a eulogy. Note that this only covers basic figures. Next up is The Clone Wars, Comic Book 2 Packs, and exclusives/vehicles which should a real "hoot" as we say down South. I also have a "best of" that will pick and choose the best from pretty much everything. Stay tuned!

OK Collectors… It’s time that someone knock some sense into a bunch of you. First I want to lay things out from my perspective. I’ve been collecting since the "Peek-A-Boo" testing-the-waters soft launch of the line in 1995. Well, that or senility has set in early. As a struggling student, I lived on bread and jam for a few weeks, and, of course, the mall food court crew were generous.

(Hasbro! If you’re reading this, pull that Trophy Assortment Swamp Obi-Wan Kenobi out of cold storage, add a STAP attacking him, and I think that would be the formula for some sort of Battle Pack. There it is… public domain. Go for it! Also, if you need someone to root through cold storage, I can be on the first thing that zooms from ATL to RI, just drop a dime, an e-mail, a text, a tweet…) [As always, thanks to Bill from Yakface.com for use of his Swamp Obi-Wan Kenobi Figure.]
 
The rapid free-fall of the global economy has made a profound impact on the collector-based segments. Kids can nag Mom and Dad. Collectors are used to being able to snap up a lot of whatever we want, and we’re having to cut back on our spending a lot. (Yes, even Bloggers — the media elite  — have had to cut back. I have yet to see the Wal-Mart 2-Packs for The Clone Wars or the AT-ST.) Hasbro has to respond to the economic crash until things turn around. Remember that it was us (the collectors) who pulled the line back out of the mud with the Power of the Jedi line. When the economy steers back — and it will — we’ll be back out there buying Legacy stuff up as quickly as Hasbro can make it. Legacy (or whatever they’ll call it) is the foundation that all of the other lines are built on. It’s not going away.

The richness of this whole line is something everyone should consider. The ill-fated Princess Leia Collection still puts some of the modern versions to shame. The comical Spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi which required eating potato chips  and Stormtrooper Han Solo, which required eating treacly cereal  — definitely not something most of us should be doing. The paperboard pop-up playsets — they meant well, but in real plastic those two environments would cost a lot. They did their best with those sets. (I still pine for the canned Echo Base pop-up playset, which Hasbro could stuff inside a Hoth Rebel Transport to make sure it sells.) The Cinema Scenes and later Screen Scenes were so rich with all the stuff collectors love, but they were very niche market, and retailers seemed to hate them.

Getting back to the richness of the line, I can point out the countless amazing aliens — Wol Cabasshite  (a/k/a "The Thing That Licks C-3PO), Bubo the frog-dog, and Ephant Mon  come quickly to mind. In all honesty, the wealth of amazing creatures is something I dreamed of as a child, and I would have never thought that I’d see them in my lifetime. I bet many of you more mature collectors would agree about the wealth of amazing creatures and characters. Think of ALL the Rebel Pilots (and I’m officially lobbying for "Original / ‘Fake’ Wedge").

OK, to try to avoid making this TLDR, I’ll wrap this up. Rumors of Legacy‘s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Hasbro had a lot of faith in us with the new Millennium Falcon, so have a little faith in them. Wait until February, and we will bust our humps to show you the goods. (If there are no goods to be shown, then I’ll loot the Littlest Pet Shop display because it costs more than a couple thousand to go there, stay in a decent hotel, and eat overpriced food.)

OK…  some technological issues caused a slight delay in getting this out there, but congratulations to Joe Jr Lusignolo, who is the winner in the Galactic Blogger Show Us Your BMF Contest.

I had planned on rolling this contest around just a little bit until (hopefully) a Turbo Tank Holiday Value Set was unveiled for the warehouse clubs, but, as we found out in the last Q&A, there won’t be one. (Oh no!) So I’m going to put together a Turbo Tank with a Turbo Tank Gunner Crew Deluxe Set and some other cool stuff to make a DIY set. Here’s Joe’s winning submission: