Copious Backstory

I wrote a lengthy and mostly uninteresting background of Master Replicas and the scaled helmets for my review of the Scaled Stormtrooper helmet. After several paragraphs I realized it really didn't have anything to do with the helmet I was reviewing, so I decided to remove it from the review. But it was kind of a lot of writing, so for those that really want to read it, here it is.

Background

For those who don't know Master Replicas is a company that has been making prop replicas for several years. They have had the Star Wars license for five years (from 2002 to 2007). Unfortunately, they elected not to renew the license in 2008, and the world has lost an excellent (and the only) source of Star Wars props.

Master Replicas has made many, many Star Wars props, the bulk of which are full scale, movie accurate, high quality Limited Edition Lightsaber hilt replicas. I owned one for a few months a while back, it was quite nice, and I got it for under a third of the retail price, but it was too early in my high end collecting career for me to accept spending $100 for a shiny paperwieght. Someday when I'm rolling in money, and heating my house by burning the excess cash I'll go back and pick up all the LE hilts, but for now I'll stick with my favorite line they did, the Scaled Replicas.

Most of the full scale hilts released by Master Replicas was also released in a scaled version. These props are of similar accuracy and high quality, but much smaller (.45 scale) and of less expensive materials. They are much more affordable, and are easier to display.

But this review isn't about the lightsabers, but the helmets, as that is the other main category of item Master Replicas released during their time as a SW licensee. They released several helmets in a wearable full scale size, and from what I've heard they're absolutely gorgeous. But I can't afford that, so I was quite happy when they finally announced late in 2006 that they would be introducing a line of helmets in a smaller scale and a more affordable price point.

In 2006 I learned that 5 mini Star Wars helmets were released in 1997 by Riddell. They had done C-3PO, Luke's X-Wing Helmet, Vader's, Boba's and a Stormtrooper helmet. The story I heard was that they were two days away from producing a TIE Fighter Pilot helmet when the line was canceled. I was saddened to learn this, as the TIE Pilot helmet is one of my favorite designs. I was intrigued by the items, and ended up purchasing the Vader helmet on eBay for around $35. I was quite pleased with it, and wrote a review of it on the SW Action News forums (come join us) which I should someday reproduce here. Anyway, when the news came out some months later that MR would be re-releasing the 5 Riddell helmets, and then moving on to new ones I was quite happy. I was even happier when the price was announced at $50 per helmet, as the Riddell ones retailed at $70–$90, and while Vader was inexpensive on eBay and Boba wasn't bad, the Stormtrooper helmet tended to run $130 at that time.

Well, 2007 came and has now gone, and it saw the release of only 2 mini helmets, both exclusively sold at San Diego Comic Con and SW Celebration 4 - Biggs' X-Wing helmet, a re-deco of the Luke X-Wing helmet, and a Shadow Stormtrooper helmet, a redeco of the standard Stormtrooper base on some comics. Master Replicas was nice enough to make both helmets available through their online store and I ordered the Shadow Stormy helmet back in Jun, but due to some confusion with the manufacturer, the helmets ordered online were not made, and still have not yet been delivered, though they're coming someday. Also, as Master Replicas did not renew the Star Wars license they canceled the TIE Fighter Pilot yet again, which I was greatly anticipating, as well as dashing my hopes for a repaint of that as an AT-AT Driver helmet.

The last two weeks of Dec 07 they finally started shipping the Luke X-wing, Boba, and Stormtrooper helmets. In the works are several Revenge of the Sith clone helmets - plain white, Shocktrooper (red), 501st trooper (blue), Commander Gree (green), and Utapau Shadow Trooper (black, which will be released exclusively through Razor's Edge Collectibles). I hope to acquire all the clone helmets, as Episode III clones are my primary collecting focus.

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Coming Soon

Yes, I'm actually going to get around to making a real post soon. For now though, just a teaser.

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Episode II - Attack of the Collection

Hellboy

NECA's Nazi Kroenen figure Sideshow's 12" Kroenen figure - I prefer his Nazi outfit, but the Sideshow version was available exclusively at SDCC (2003?) and I can't afford the eBay prices.

Highlander

I had the swords, so I thought I'd better get a couple of figures. These, again, are Sideshow's 12" figures - Connor MacLeod and Duncan MacLeod.

Lord of the Rings

The Gentle Giant Ringwraith mini bust. Gentle Giant's Animated Saruman Maquette The Sideshow/Weta Mouth of Sauron bust, Sideshow/Weta Scaled Morgul Lord's War Mask, Gentle Giant's Gandalf mini bust, and the miniature Ringwraith sword.- And since it's been over two months since I took the pictures for this post, I've received a few more LOTR items, so I set them all up and snapped a few pictures. The new additions are a couple more Gentle Giant mini busts: Saruman (with light-up Palantír), and the Balrog (with light-up mouth and fiery mane), as well as the Sideshow Weta Balrog Flame of Udun statue (which I got from a great friend of mine that lives in New Zealand and works for Weta Workshop). And in an effort to show off the light-up features of Gandalf, Saruman, and the Balrog I took a picture in the dark. Unfortunately, the camera decided it was too dark to focus properly, so the nifty feature that compensates for my complete inability to press the shutter button without jerking the camera didn't work very well.

The Matrix

The first movie was really good; the second had lots of talking, but some cool action sequences (and the Twins were freaky-awesome); the third had even more talking (and it was even more boring talking than the second film, most the time), but again the action sequences were pretty cool. So I have a few Matrix collectibles. Let's start with the bad ones first: the action figures by N2Toys (which I think is no longer in business). Honestly these figures aren't great, little articulation the sculpts are also not very close at all. Thankfully I got them for really cheap. I'll do a more in-depth review of these someday. Next we have the good stuff: the Gentle Giant mini busts. The company's recent business decisions have been horrendous (from a consumer's point of view) but their product is still top-notch - at least, in the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings lines, I've heard the Harry Potter line is slipping, they'd better do a good job with the Halo mini busts. Anyway. I set these up so that generally you only see three of them, either Neo, Smith and Twin 1 (though I seem to not have taken a picture of that) or thw Twins and Smith. But if you move around a little, it's not too hard to see all four, but they start looking crowded that way.

Star Trek

Since I've always been interested in Star Trek I started actually watching it a few months ago and decided I should have some toys from it - particularly the various incarnations of the Enterprise. I found a Japanese company called Furuta that makes small plastic 'model kits' of Trek vehicles and proceeded to buy all the Enterprise variations they offered, which at the time was everything except any shown in the series Enterprise - Classic Enterprise, Movie Refit, Enterprise A, B, C, D, E and a future variant of the D. They're about 3 to 4 inches long, and are the ships in the middle of the following picture. I also purchased a few of the Halmark ornaments, I have the Enterprise D, E, Romulan Warbird (not pictured) and the Classic Enterprise on the base, also in the middle of the above pic next to the Furuta ships. Additionally, this year Corgi began making Die-cast Enterprise vehicle. At this time only three have been released (to my knowledge) - the Klingon Warbird (as seen in Star Trek IV) the Classic Enterprise, and the Enterprise D, of which I have the two Enterprises. The Classic Enterprise is actually the best, because it is all metal and has a good heft to it. They're quite well detailed, and a nice 6 inch size, not scaled to each other, unfortunately. The disc section of the Enterprise D is plastic however, but it still looks pretty cool. They can be seen in the picture above on the left, the D partly hidden behind the Gentle Giant Animated Shadow Stormtrooper maquette. Planned for next year are a Romulan Warbird (which I'll definitely get - it's one of my favorite vehicles designs ever), the Reliant (from Star Trek II) and I think the Defiant. I hope they eventually release all the Enterprise variants as I'd love to have them all in a bigger size - particularly the E and A.

Venom

And finally, I was initially very impressed with Spiderman 3, having always been a fan of Venom (without actually reading any comics, or knowing much about him) and really liking how he was done in the movie I picked up a couple Venom items - the Walmart exclusive Venom figure that was actually black instead of purple, the Gentle Giant Venom mini bust (the one on the right) and the even more cooler-er Sideshow Venom mini bust. Well, that's all for this Episode. I'd like to try to post at least twice a month, which could get Episode 3 up before the end of this month, and Episodes 4 and 5 before Christmas. However, I'm going to start a little series posting pictures of the figures/items I display at work, since I tend to rotate the figures ever 2 or 3 weeks, and I try to have some vague theme to the display, so I may start interspersing those posts with these, which will delay the end of this 6 part journey - not that it matters, since few people (if anyone) reads this. But it's mostly for my benefit, so I have pictures of my collection, so in an effort to please myself and have pictures to show to people when they ask about my collection, I'm going to try to be more regular about posting here. I may even have to take drastic measures and not buy new things unless I've posted twice in the previous month.

To be continued...

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Episode I - The Phantom Collection

So, I've had in my mind the idea to post pictures of my entire collection as it is displayed, a sort of quick virtual-tour so I could show people everything at a glance, as though they were visiting my lair - not having to view each item individually on the reviews, and I've wanted to sort of do a parody on the Star Wars Saga titles. So I've finally gotten around to doing so, so without further ado I present:

Episode I: The Phantom Collection

Turmoil has engulfed my Collecting Republic. The taxation and shipping charges of getting toys to outlaying collecting towns has limited the funds available for spending. Hoping to resolve the matter by paying off my credit card I've stopped buying toys and other collectibles and the Post Office has stopped shipping toys to my home in the small town in Utah. While my wife and I endlessly debate this alarming spending habit of mine I've decided to take pictures of my collection and post them on this blog in order to curb my desire for more toys and awaite the settling of the conflict.... (click images for a much larger version)

Batman

In a half-hearted attempt to somehow correlate the title of the post with the photos I'll start with Batman, because he's kinda like a phantom, or at least a scary shadow, right? A couple of these figures are actually some of the first action figures I ever bought myself, and some are much more recent. On the top, left to right, some holographic card of Batman from the Batman Forever era, some Batman Beyond figure, some Batman Begins figure, Flightpak Batman, some Batman figure with techno-bat wings and claws and Azreal from a very recent toyline Select Scultps. The vehicles on the top row are the Hotwheels (I think) die cast Batmobile (from the first Michael Keaton film), a plastic Batmobile (from the Batman and Robin Adventures animated series) - it hides a toothbrush inside, the Batman Forever Batwing from some Micro Machines mini playset, then some misc Star Wars micro machines. Batman items on the bottom shelf are some version of Azreal as Batman, and a newer, unopened version of Azreal as Batman, or AzBats. Obviously, I need to do some research so I actually know what figures they are.

Swords

As a transition from Batman items to my swords, I've got a Batman styled knife. It uses the Batman & Robin style logos.

The only swords I have that are worth taking pictures of are the Official Highlander Swords. These swords are decorative only, they have stainless steel blades, with a negligible edge to the blade. They are rather pricey from the official store, so I acquired two via eBay, and two on the Replica Prop Forum (which is a forum filled with intelligent, creative, talented and skilled people with too much time on their hands - because they do things like build, from scratch, prop replicas and costumes from various movies/tv shows (mostly sci-fi type), often spending weeks and months researching everything, trying to find the exact part used for the original props, or sculpting/molding props themselves. Well, that was fairly tangential to the actual subject at hand, wasn't it?) So, the first sword pictured is Duncan MacLeod's Duende Rapier, 20th Anniversary edition - which means that it is a limited edition (only 3500 were made), and it has engraved upon the blade a quote from the episode wherein the blade was featured. This type of sword is commonly called a swept hilt rapier. Strangely, the official prop replica doesn't actually match the prop used in the series (or so I'm told). The one used in filming is an actual sword, carbon steel blade and everything. In fact, I'm also told that this is the one used for the show. As in, they used an off-the-shelf product in filming. The prop replica has a gold hilt, and yellow cream grip, as opposed to the silver and off-white cream of the actual sword. Considering the Official Prop Replica retails for $300 and the actual prop used is only $200 (and was actually on sale for $150 when I originally ran across it) I should have purchased the real sword. Seeing the price now, I do, in fact, rather regret that, but I did get the Official Replica for only $140-ish. The other three swords pictured are, from top to bottom, The "Original" Duncan's Katana, The Sword of Connor MacLeod, and The Sword of Duncan MacLeod. You may notice that two of the swords are listed as belonging to Duncan. The story goes (again, this is all hearsay) that when the series began they were using the "Original" Duncan sword which was nothing more than an off-the-shelf katana with a faux-ivory handle (made by the Spanish company Marto) with a dragon head attached to it. This is the same method (and the same sword) used in Highlander the Movie. Sometime during production of the series someone was asked to produce a sword for Duncan, and the design of the third sword came about. However, Adrian Paul (Duncan MacLeod) didn't like how the sword felt in his hands, so he never used it in the series. I like the feel of it the best of the three, but I'm no swordsman either, so I'm not going to argue with Adrian.

Unopened

Attempting to return to the theme of Phantom collection (it wasn't really a great idea to follow the title themes, was it? I'll skip that on subsiquent episodes) this is stuff that feels like it's not actually part of my collection, because it's all stuffed into a box waiting for me to have time to open it, and find a place to put it - strangely, it felt like more stuff before I got it all out. On a previous entry here, Gillian asked how the cabinet from Ikea is working out - well, it's really great at sitting unopened in a corner because there's too much junk on the floor that I need to go through before I'll have room to set it up. But once I get it set up I'll have room to shuffle stuff around and put this stuff on display. I'd tell you what all that is, but I bet most of you don't really care and are only reading this because you are family and you have to be nice to me.

To Be Continued...

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Orange you glad you looked at this?

Okay, that was a really lame attempt at a clever title. :(

Anyway, this is just a quick post to compare Gentle Giant's poor first attempt at painting something orange—the 2006 Utapau Clone Trooper mini bust—and their second attempt—the 2007 exclusive Commander Cody mini bust.

Also, to show off the very cool light-up effect of the Cody mini bust.

Not entirely the most impressive color matching display, is it?

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I am in the 501st Legion!

On Aug 29th my membership in the 501st Legion was approved, I am now TR-5283, Royal Guard to the Emperor. I've been out trooping twice, and will be going again on Saturday, for an awareness walk for kids with Down Syndrome.

Some pics from last Saturday's event - a carnival for kids with Autism. Photos taken by my lovely wife, who came along to see what all the fuss is about.

My daughter, Katie, sitting there being cute, playing with the dog somebody brought. Unfortunately, by the time we started taking pictures, she was already tired, so she wasn't smiling a whole lot - she's even cuter when she smiles. :D

Me.

For the first hour or so it was just me and the Officer.

Then Chewie showed up with his wife - a TIE Pilot, his two sons - a Rebel and Boush, and his daughter - a jawa.

The kid in the green shirt hugging Chewie eventually got that friendly with everyone else and WOULD NOT STOP HUGGING US. It got a little weird - he was a little too friendly, in my opinion, but I think he was a fairly severe case of autism. But, he was happy, which is why we do this.

Finally, for the last 45 minutes or so a couple other guys arrived (they'd been at a parade in another city).

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Keep off the Grass!

What do you know? A non- Star Wars, non- Collecting related post, wow!

My back lawn finally got to the point that I needed to mow it. Once it starts eating cats and small dogs for nourishment you know it's time to cut it. Not that I mind if it eats a few dogs or cats - I just don't want it to get my 15 month old daughter.

Since it's been, oh I don't know, 3 months or so since I last mowed it, I decided it was time to take time out of my busy schedule - the one where I stay up late playing Tiberian Sun, and Neverwinter Nights - and ran over the back yard with a mower. Now, instead of looking like the jungle fauna from Jumangi, it looks like it was mowed by a deranged, blind, one-armed barber. Apologies to the blind, the one-armed, barbers, and the deranged.

Once my mower returns from visiting my parents house (whose mower is in a coma) I'll run over it again and make it look nice. I may even cut the front grass too, though it's only been 3 weeks since I did it last.

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