Celebration Europe and Star Wars.

Wow... what a start to celebration!

starwars.com has a few blogs, one confirming John Williams as the composer for episode 7, possibly the worst kept secret! The other cool piece of information related to Star Wars Rebels, Dave Filoni provided some screen grabs from the upcoming season, the man never disappoints.  

Here is some of the artwork from this upcoming series..

These images can be found at starwars.com

Looking at these pics it can be clearly seen that McQuarrie has definitely inspired this series.  I cannot wait till we see some more.

On a local note there has been a recent influx of Star Wars products with the Lego 2013 line being:

• 75015 Corporate Alliance Tank Droid.
• 75016 Homing Spider Droid.
• 75017 Duel on Geonosis.
• 75018 Jek-14's Stealth Starfighter.
• 75019 AT-TE
• 75020 Jabba's Sail Barge.
• 75021 Republic Gunship.

These can be found on the Lego store here

Another product that has shown up without much fanfare has been The Vintage Collection X-Wing (specifically Biggs red X-Wing), I purchased this item my self yesterday at Toys R Us in Melbourne.

(Image from rebelscum.com forums)

 

The State of the Vintage collection going forward...

Currently there is a murmur of discontent amongst collectors with regards to Hasbro's handling of the Vintage Collection Line (TVC - as it is more affectionately referred too).

In Australia we have been plagued by poor distribution and numerous carry over figures from what now shapes as the ill fated Episode 1 'Phantom Menace Wave'

The problem is that TVC has been what collectors have been after in a collection (apart from its size well over 100 figures in the collection now), it has Prequel Trilogy figures, Expanded Universe figures and Original Trilogy figures, it should be a hit and for the most part it is...

Only recently on another forum which I am a member of Mousedroid one of the main retail chains (Big W) have told a member that TVC will not be carried anymore, is this the beginning of the end with etrade becomming the norm for collectors?

I must confess that I am an OS collector, it suits my lifestyle, however I acknowledge that while there are considerable numbers of OS collectors the bulk are still 'hunters' (no disrespect - store based collectors who only pick up from stores).  With less locations to collect from and more people filtering into those stores must at least mean statistically less chance of obtaining full collections?

It seems a shame that since the Episode 1 wave there have been few sightings of future waves, this is not restricted to Australia wholly, it is a trend that is occurring globally.

Perhaps it is time for Hasbro to downsize the collections I mean the way that the CW line has been treated this year is appalling.   The latest wave features one new character (Clone Commander fox x 2) and a number of peg warming carry overs from previous waves see link.

If variety is the spice of life, Hasbro are ever so slowly choking the life out of their various collections...

With the San Diego Comic Con next week I hope SW and the Vintage line get a reboot heading towards the end of the year.