He's worth a lot to me

I received my Gentle Giant Boba Fett Statue #1514 of 6500 from Razor's Edge Collectibles for $142 shipped, on Jan 23, 2007. I forgot to take a scale comparison shot with a Hasbro Boba Fett figure, so I'd best explain that this figure is in 1/6th scale, and is about 14" tall (base included). I expected it to be cool, but not this cool. The pose is cool, the detail and paint is amazing. He has soft goods wookiee braids - I'm not sure how I feel about these. On one hand, it's neat that they're not sculpted, on the other hand, they look like shiny, nylon, doll's hair. Still, definitely points for the effort. The cape is sculpted, a tear in the side, and the bottom frayed and torn looking, and is really the only thing that doesn't look natural. The armor is scorched, dinged, scraped, dented, rubbed, worn, and just incredibly worn looking. The effect is truly a work of art. The entire piece is a work of art. My wife was incredibly impressed with this, I think unlike anything I have received. The folds and seams of the clothes look real, the shadowing of the paint is incredibly realistic. The pockets on his thighs look like there's something in them. The small pockets on his shins have stuff in them. As cool a character as Darth Maul is, as cool as the GG statue is - this Boba statue is much cooler. It probably helps that there are more colors on Boba, and more to his outfit than layers of black robes. He's got a flightsuit with pockets, boots, kneepads, gauntlets, gloves, a cape, the braids, sholder bells, rocketpack, armor, and a helmet. There's so much to him that I could stare at it for hours before I'd see everything. Granted, I haven't examined Maul this closely, but there seems to be a much higher level of detail on Boba, because there is so much more to show. In every way, this statue looks real. Where Darth Maul looks like a statue of something real -- like someone took a picture of Maul with his cloak blowing in the wind, used that as a reference to create the statue, freezing him in one moment in time, it looks like Jeremy Bullock was in the suit and shrunk down and is standing on my desk posing. It looks like he could up and walk away at any time. I think my mind is sub-consciously realizing there is something unnatural about Maul cloak, that it couldn't stay in that position so it must be fake, there is nothing to suggest that Boba isn't just holding still. Finally, here are the pictures. Some are kinda the same with slightly different lighting: lighter so detail can be seen slightly better, and darker so the realism can be seen slightly better in more realistic light. That and I was really happy with all of the pictures I took, and I could stand throwing a bunch of them away. It really helps to have the camera at the proper distance from the subject. :D Even more so than my recommendation for the Republic Commando maquette is my emphatic encouragement to get this statue if you can afford it. It can be had online for $140-$175, and it is worth every penny of those prices, and more. As I said above, it is truely a work of art, and amazing rendition of Boba Fett. If the character appeals to you at all, you WILL love this item. Personally, Boba Fett is not my favorite character, but after getting this he has rising highly in my estimation. It's probably the piece with the highest value/price ratio in all of my collection. I would go so far as to say that this is the favorite thing in my collection, and if for whatever reason, I could only keep one item, THIS would be it. Without question.

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Hasbro Clone Troopers

When I began collecting seriously, it was to collect clone troopers. I've since expanded into Sith and Imperials, but have a sizable collection of clones. Someone on the SW Action News Forums asked if there was a list of all the 3 3/4 inch clones that Hasbro has produced. Not knowing if there was, I decided to put one together. Much of the knowledge comes from my own collection, but the rest comes Rebelscum.com's photo archive. The list isn't finished, but be viewed on my website (CloneList.html) List updated with The Saga Collection (2006) figures List updated with announced figures from The Anniversary Collection (2007)

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Revenge of the Clones?

My love of Clones comes back to haunt me, or rather, to haunt my credit card, in the form of the StarWarsShop.com exclusive Republic Commando Maquette.

Republic Commando Maquette #491 of 513 has arrived!

And I even bothered to take pictures of it. I blame the purchase on having finally gotten around to playing the game a couple of months ago. Had I not played the game I'd have been MUCH less likely to buy this. In short - this thing is AWESOME. While it is overall the size I expected, the figures themselves are larger than I anticipated, make it appear bigger than I expected. As always, click the image for the larger version. First, a color study. Boss compared to the box image. The one on the right definitely looks pink to me. You can also see the box was scrunched a little on the bottom corner. Compared to Sev he's an orange color, but not compared to the box art. Boss, from the front, just to see what he looks like. And from the back, so you can see the number on his backpack. Boss and Scorch, since they are the two loose figures. You can almost see the number on Scorch's pack. A scale comparison. Saga Scorch vs Maquette Scorch (and Boss). Sev and Fixer came attached to the base, as seen below. Boss was then added to the group. Finally, Scorch was placed with the rest of his squad. Unfortunately, for some reason most of these ended up a little blurry. :( And a final size comparison. This picture started out as as the Maquette vs the Saga Scorch, but then I thought I'd throw in a Gentle Giant Maquette to compare the sizes, and from there it got out of hand. So this pic includes a few of my previously un-photographed Gentle Giant items. Anyone know where I could get an acrylic dust cover for this (at least, until Ikea opens)? And the moral of the story is, that my camera is decent, and if I hold it steady (using a tripod or resting it on a box - though even then too many of them were blurry) I can take decent pictures with it, I need a good backdrop. That, and if you can afford it, or if you can almost afford it, you should grab this while you can at StarWarsShop.com.

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Coming Soon...

For my own organization, this is a list of things I currently have on order. Hopefully, seeing the massive amount of stuff I'm waiting on will help me stop spending money. Riddell Darth Vader Mini Helmet Gentle Giant Boba Fett Statue – #1514 of 6500 Gentle Giant Biker Scout Statue – #192 of 5000 Gentle Giant Royal Guard Statue – #293 of 3500 Gentle Giant Coruscant Clone Trooper Mini Bust x2 - #'s 479 & 480 of 2500 Gentle Giant Jango Fett Mini Bust x2 - #'s 7537 & 7538 of 9000 Gentle Giant Darth Maul Mini Bust - #5768 of 10000 Gentle Giant General Grievous Mini Bust - #6466 of 7000 Gentle Giant Stormtrooper Animated Maquette - #439 of 4000 Gentle Giant Ringwraith Mini Bust - #632 of 2000 Gentle Giant Balrog Mini Bust - # of 3000 - Coming Soon Gentle Giant Saruman Animated Maquette - #1019 of 1500 Gentle Giant Saruman Mini Bust - # of 3000 Gentle Giant Clone Wars Bust-ups - Red ARC Trooper x2 Gentle Giant Clone Wars Clones Bust-ups Box Set x2 Gentle Giant AOTC Clones Bust-ups Box Set Gentle Giant ROTS Clones Bust-ups Box Set Gentle Giant Stormtrooper Mini Bust – #3897 of 10,000 Master Replicas Anakin LE – #680 of 4500 Lot of 10 Master Replicas mini sabers Master Replicas .45 Scale Ep IV Luke Saber Master Replicas .45 Scale Ep IV Vader Saber Master Replicas .45 Scale Gold Ep III Vader Saber Master Replicas .45 Scale Exclusive Dark Chrome Sidious Saber Master Replicas .45 Scale Exclusive Dark Chrome Anakin Saber Master Replicas Trio Display Case for .45 Scale Sabers x3 Master Replicas .33 Scale Stormtrooper Blaster Custom Display Case for Master Replicas .45 Scale CS Darth Maul Saber Sideshow Asajj Ventress 12inch Figure - Coming Soon Hasbro Unleashed General Grievous Hasbro Republic Commandos Scene Box Set x2 SDCC Exclusive Gold Darth Vader's TIE Fighter Titanium Yes, I definitely spend far too much money on this collecting habit of mine. At least it's spread out over the next six months.

Update:

Began crossing out items as they arrive.

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Ooo, Fancy! With Unrelated Pics!

I started this post exactly one month ago, wasn't able to finish it in one sitting, and never came back to it. Since I'm working on a new post I thought I'd quick finish this one and put it up in the mean time.

Gentle Giant

My need to not spend money aside, I've recently taken the plunge and purchased my first real high end collectibles, a few odds and ends from Gentle Giant Ltd. I first became acquainted with Gentle Giant through Star Wars Action News (at some point I'm going to do a short blog on the podcasts I listen to) - a weekly podcast dedicated to Star Wars collecting, they have introduced me to many exciting lines of Star Wars collectibles. The following are the Gentle Giant items I have on hand. Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of anything yet, as the arrival of these has set off a round of rearranging the collection, since I don't have the space to display all of this right now. You can see images of all of this on Gentle Giant's site. General Grievous Animated Maquette - 1530 / 3500 Boba Fett Animated Maquette - 1307 / 7000 Deluxe Sandtrooper Sergeant Mini Bust 1977 / 15,000 Emperor Palpatine Mini Bust 2056 / 4500 Deluxe White ROTS Clone Trooper Mini Bust 11,030 / 15,000 (7500 White) Deluxe Blue 501st ROTS Clone Trooper Mini Bust 9437 / 15,000 (5000 Blue) Deluxe Shocktrooper Mini Bust 1576 / 3500 ROTS Darth Vader Mini Bust 4122 / 20,000 Darth Maul Statue 1263 / 3000 I also have on order: Darth Maul Mini Bust ? / 10,000 General Grievous Mini Bust ? / 7000 Jango Fett Mini Bust ? / 9000 Deluxe Coruscant Clone Trooper Mini Bust ? / 3500 -- which is still available for purchase at Action Figure Express Royal Guard Statue ? / 3500 Darth Vader Animated Maquette ? / 7000 Stormtrooper Animated Maquette ? / 4000 LOTR Saruman Animated Maquette ? / ? LOTR Ringwraith Mini Bust ? / 2000 LOTR Balrog Mini Bust ? / 3000 Other numbered, limited edition items I have include the Character keys from Acme Archives. ARC Trooper Character Key 639 / 750 Asajj Ventress Character Key 1177 / 1250 Darth Tyranus Character Key 1230 / 1250

Kubricks

Another line I've decided to get in to in the last two or three months are Star Wars Kubricks, by the Japanese company Medicom. I also was made aware of these collectible figures through SWAN. Arnie and Marjorie received their first Kubrick (Boba Fett) back in April, and immediately fell in love with it, as did many members of the forums. I resisted the temptation to buy them for about 6 or 7 months until the current series finally defeated my willpower with the release of a Royal Guard, which happens to be one of my absolute favorite character designs. At AndrewsToyz.com you can see the figures in Series 6 and Series 7, although both sets are out of stock there. They can be had on eBay. Unfortunately, this line is riddled with chase figures. Series 7, the current series, has, I believe, 4 chase figures - Yakface and the Senate Guard are the only two I remember. These chase figures are packed in low numbers and some fetch quite high prices on ebay. In keeping with my collecting rules (actually, they're more like guidelines in many cases) I'm only collecting certain figures, which include the following (these are the ones I own). Biker Scout Trooper (2x) Boba Fett Darth Vader Death Star Gunner (2x) Death Star Trooper (2x) Emperor Palpatine Imperial Royal Guard (4x) Senate Guard (2x) Stormtrooper Sandtrooper TIE Fighter Pilot (3x) I don't have pictures of any yet, except the Biker Scout and Royal Guard. In closing, if anyone has an AT-AT Driver Kubrick or two they'd like to get rid of, please email me, it's rare to find that guy on ebay.

Misc Pics of my Collection

The following are simply pictures I took of my collection in the last few months that I haven't yet gotten around to posting online, and I finally pushed myself to do so.

Utapau Clones Theme

Biker Scouts

Close up of the Kotobukiya Biker Scout Model The above image also has the Morgul Lord's War Mask, from the Sideshow/Weta Lord of the Rings Collection - it's a very cool piece.

Misc

Hasbro Unleashed Shocktrooper Imperial Ships Republic Ships Anakin and the 501st The Hunt for General Grievous My initial mini Sith Saber display. Second variation - Maul's saber was removed to become part of the new Maul display I'm working on. As soon as the Gentle Giant Mini Bust arrives it will be complete and I'll post pics of it.

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