The Force Awakens Merchandise (Leaks)

I suppose that's always been the case really, to a degree.
I can remember the first wave of ROTJ figures coming out back in the day, and - as the target audience - I thought it was great to see all these weird new characters... it's only in hindsight that you think to yourself: there was no Han, no Emperor, two Ewoks - neither of whom were Wicket - but plenty of random aliens from Jabba's palace you may have missed if you blinked during the movie.

 

Looks like I'm not the only one who bought a Black Series TIE Fighter with bent/twisted wings.

Here's a simple, and permanent fix for this common problem. All you need is a small phillip's head screwdriver, and some thin CA Glue (Superglue).

Remove the two screws on the bottom of the ship, and pull away the bottom half of the fuselage-



Slowly, and carefully bend and/or twist the crooked wing(s), checking frequently for straightness, until it everything looks straight and square. Then carefully apply one drop of thin superglue to the joint I've highlighted with the red arrow for each wing. Capillary action will pull the glue down into the joint, filling up the small gaps and making them solid once cured. Give the glue at least two hours to fully set-



Reassemble, and you'll have a straight and solid TIE that will never need adjustment again-



ETA-

Here are some size comparison pics I took of the Hot Wheels, Black Series, and Micro Machines TIE Fighters, and a couple closeups of the Black Series F.O. Star Destroyer I thought folks would be interested in seeing-









I had a little fun with Windows/Picasa photo editor. Cruising by Jakku...

 

Cool.

You should do a review!

 

Were these posted before?

 

They're new to me. Great stuff!

 

Can't tell you guys how much I'm drooling over that new Black Series Tie Fighter for the 6 inch figures

 

Man o man the ebay prices r absurd. SERIOUS AHOLE PRICES right there

 

Maybe this should be its own thread, but I was just thinking about Kylo Ren, the Vanity Fair photo of Driver in costume, and - stay with me here - Chris Pratt as Starlord.

If you take a look at GotG merchandise, you tend to see Starlord wearing his helmet/mask thing. I would guess that is for a few reasons: it's cool, it's easier to stylize/cartoonize for toys, drawings, merch, and maybe it cuts down on money that has to go to Chris Pratt.

My 4 year old nephew has a lot of Star Wars shirts and toys, and they almost all feature Vader, droids, and ships. The closest you get to a face is occasionally Yoda.

Stringing all of this together: could it be that Kylo Ren spends way less time masked in the film than we are assuming at this point. Some theories floating around suggest that he does take off his mask in certain scenes, while some people believe that the VF photo shouldn't be taken to imply that this will happen at all.

But what if Kylo Ren spends a fairly equal amount of time in and out of the mask? What if the marketability of the mask design and the fact that merch rollout is our only source of spoiler info* is skewing our perception of the character?



*Notice that MSW's previously regular spoiler dumps have all but stopped in the leadup/aftermath of Force Friday

 

While Luke, Leia and Han (and Chewbacca, C3PO and R2D2) will be part of the new trilogy, the trilogy will focus on the new characters (Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, Phasma and Hux). Disney and Lucasfilm want the audience to become familiar with these new characters. By releasing many toys with the original characters, people might have gotten the wrong expectations about the movie. The original characters will have important roles, but their parts in the movie will be smaller than the parts of the new main characters.

 

The article is a few days old but I haven't seen these in the Cantina before. Customize your Adidas.







http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/09/07/star-wars-the-force-awakens-adidas-mizxflux/#slide-3

 

Except for Han (and Chewie) who seems to have just as much, if not more, screen time as Poe Dameron, General Hux, Kylo ren, Captain Phasma, Supreme Leader Snoke, Maz Kanata, or MVS/The Vicar.

 

It is difficult to predict how much screen time each character will receive, but I believe that the focus in TFA will be firmly on the new characters. I think that the toys reflect this emphasis. While there may be some marketing issues (children might relate less to older characters, such as Luke, Leia and Han), it appears that Disney and Lucasfilm do not want the audience to have false expectations about the role of older characters in the new story.

Judging from the promotion, toys and rumors, Han's part in the movie seems to be similar to the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi in ANH, which was a supporting but pivotal role. I expect that Luke will be more prominent in Episode 8 and that the screen time of Maz Kanata, Snoke and Max von Sydow's character will be relatively short. However, I am just speculating and I could be mistaken.

 

I think we can all assume that Maz, Snoke, and MvS will have more screen time than characters like Constable Zuvio and "Unkar's Thug". My assumption at this point is to look at it all like this: remember for Episode I Hasbro gave us the Battle Droid/Stap vehicle set and Mace Windu action figure as preview sets? In some ways, the merchandise that is out now could be thought of as that approach, but on steroids. Instead of just one or two figures to get people excited for the new movie, they're introducing the entire line of merchandise. That way, folks like us who are obsessed can look for each figure and item for clues, and casual fans or even people not familiar with Star Wars can see the stuff at their local Target or Walmart and say 'hmm, I wonder what this is'. With the exception of Hasbro's major mess up with not sending enough stock for Force Friday, I think overall the early marketing push is pretty clever.

I'll say this though. Because we don't have a Maz toy, a Snoke toy, Han, Leia, any of the characters from Maz's castle (as we've seen from the VF spread), or MvS, I get a good feeling that Lucasfilm know exactly how much they want us to know right now, and with the exception of the trailer which will come at some point I don't think there are any other opportunities for any more major reveals until opening night (WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW I WOULD LIKE IT).

 

I wonder if Lucas thought there was any future in dead Darth Vader toys or dead Yoda toys. I thought killing off Han in ROTJ would almost make the first 30 minutes of the movie irrelevant. I mean, they go through all this effort to save Han from a fate equal or worse than death only to kill him off at the end of movie?

 

I agree with you, it's really neat, but it's enormous. I would have to buy it a special piece of furniture for it. And if I did that I'm pretty sure I would have to go back to living alone.

It's an interesting merchandising strategy. Releasing so much stuff three months before the movie is unprecedented. And you know they've given specific limitations to the toy companies about what can be released before the film. The action figure makers have got to be dying to offer Luke, Han, Leia, Snoke, whatever Knights of Ren might be in the movie, Finn with a lightsaber, Rey in another outfit, etc.

I stopped by Target this evening on the way home from work, and wandered by the toy section just to have a look. It was completely picked over. I can't get over how high demand is for the merchandise - especially after so many people felt let down by the Prequels. Crazy.

 

I treated myself for my birthday and bought my first LEGOS since I was a kid. Needless to say LEGOS were the ONLY toys I had time for, and Star Wars ones were at the top of the list. Of what I bought, I got the Special Forces TIE, Pies X Wing and Kylos shuttle. I cannot believe the quality of engineering and detail that went into the TIE and the X wing. I haven't built the shuttle yet. If you're on the fence about the LEGOS, get them! Absolutely phenomenal sets.

 

By the time Star Wars Lego came around (in 1999), my parents felt I was too old for Lego... I was 12 years old, and I have been deprived ever since.

And people, the plural of LEGO is LEGO. Lego is the brand name... the product are bricks, pieces, minifigs, and sets.
Always bugs me when I heard them referred to as "legos."

 

I'm not perfect, but..........getting into grammar here is pointless, and off topic. I'm not even going to correct your numerous grammatical errors in this post alone.
On topic: A buddy I haven't heard from in a while called me just to tell me about the air hogs MF. He was so excited. What a nerd. I love him.