little squat people - new Star Wars toys from Hasbro

So Comic-Con was this past weekend, and of course, Hasbro had a huge presentation about the new Star Wars toys coming out for the rest of the year as well as previews for next year.

Here's an article with a link to the full slideshow, from which the pictures below have been taken.

There are some interesting things coming out, but they're mostly in lines that I don't collect.

In the "little squat people" line, formally known as Galactic Heroes, there aren't too many things coming out that I want. The characters in the paired sets don't really interest me, but a few of the bigger scenes look interesting.








I like the Endor celebration set because it has an Ewok and the ghost figures.








The Slave 1 with Boba Fett is pretty cool, but I really like the Endor attack set. More Ewoks! (Or do I already own some Ewoks? I can never remember.)

Death Star Lego (ok, and lots of other "Star Wars" toys too)

Well, this seems an appropriate time to blog about this particular subject.

First, background on last night. I knew that new "Star Wars" toys were being released today (July 26), but I wasn't sure exactly what was being released. I had a note to myself about 2 new Galactic Heroes (aka little squat people) sets that were coming out that I wanted, but I didn't know yesterday that their release date has been changed to September. As I was browsing the Toys R Us site, the husband noticed the banner proclaiming midnight openings of stores to sell the new toys. Uh oh. We browsed through the list, and since we have no huge Toys R Us stores near us, none of the stores that were doing the midnight opening were near us. I wasn't exactly sure what was being released, but since at the time I had thought the 2 Galactic Heroes sets might be, we decided to go anyway and picked the Glendale/Los Feliz store since it wasn't terribly far away.

We got to the store at about 11:30pm, and there was already a line of maybe 20 to 30 people, some of whom looked like they'd been there for a while since they were in fold-up chairs. We were joined shortly thereafter by a friend to whom I had mentioned that we were going. He didn't end up buying anything last night - I think he just came to laugh and stare at us! ;) But he's a huge Star Wars fan too, and it was nice to be able to hang out with him a bit there.

By the time the store opened at 12:01, there was quite a line behind us as well, and as we got into the store, people were jamming to get close to the huge display of toys. It was pretty much a feeding frenzy. Everyone else seemed interested in the new action figures that I didn't even know about, but since the Galactic Heroes were right in the middle of all that, we had to brave through them to get to what we wanted. We picked up three of the new sets.







When the husband had seen the picture of the first set online, he had let out this gasp. I kind of looked at him and said, yeah, Leia's cute in that outfit as a little squat people, but I didn't think it was that big a deal. He quickly corrected me by saying that he loved R2 as a drink cart, and that was the one he really wanted. And yes, if you really want the Destroyer Droid (which I do - I love them - they've joined my favorite Star Wars things list, which the rancor has been on for some time), then you have to buy Jar Jar too.

I should have done some more research last night because today, I found this Hasbro release schedule. I've noted future release dates for things I want, but it doesn't include everything I've heard about.

Speaking of which, I'd heard about the Galactic Heroes landspeeder, which looked really cool.



I haven't been able to find out where/when it's being released. Well, after doing another search, it looks like it was already released at some point, and now, you have to pay large amounts of money for it. Hasbro lists the product at about $13. But if you really want it, this site is selling it for a modest $70. REALLY? Seriously. Amazon offers it for less than that, only $35. I really like it, but not enough to pay 3 or more times the retail price.

One of the reasons I had thought about going to Star Wars Day at Comic Con yesterday was that Hasbro was going to have a presentation. Well, the presentation has been posted here. Here's a direct link to the slideshow.

These are four of the sets I've been waiting for.






But looky here - I hadn't heard about these. They look awesome.




These are the sets we had thought might be out last night/this morning.




Here are two new sets due out in February 2009.




As I mentioned, the rancor is about my most favorite Star Wars thing, and they've got this release coming in February.



It's ok, but I've already got an amazing rancor, so they're going to have to do something spectacular for me to buy another one. (But I am looking forward to seeing the rancors' planet in "The Force Unleashed".)




OK, so yeah, that was all background. Here's the real subject of today's blog. ;)


I was browsing someone else's blog and found out about this new Death Star Lego set.



It does look pretty awesome with all the different rooms/scenes, but putting together mega-piece Lego sets is not my forte. I wish they're release a Death Star in the Galactic Heroes series.

Here's the official site on the piece. Lego had previously released a partially constructed Death Star II, but that one didn't appeal to me as much. One of the complaints I'd read about the new upcoming Death Star was that it wasn't proportional to the awesome Millenium Falcon Lego set, and wasn't the Falcon supposed to be able to fit inside the Death Star? I didn't really think much of the complaint until I happened to mention it to the husband and the friend who we had met up with at Toys R Us last night, both of whom said that it was a stupid comment because given how big the Falcon set was, the Death Star would have to be ginormous (ok, they didn't use that word, but you get the idea) to be proportional, and most people couldn't afford how much that would cost nor have the space to put it. Hmmm, good point.

"Luke Banana-walker battled with his inner shellfish when he began training to become a Jedi Steak."

OK, no, this isn't some weird new offshoot of the Star Wars universe. Well, in a sense it is, but it's not anything you'll see on the big screen or on TV. It was recently announced that ever-popular Mad Libs is going to be released in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes.

I remember playing with Mad Libs some when I was a kid, and I thought it was ok, but I never thought it was the barn-burner that some people did, so I won't be picking these up, but there will be plenty of other things to hold my interest.

My Star Wars obsession is going to be having quite a bit of competition in the next several months. OK, so I'm really looking forward to the novelization of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that's being released on August 19. The husband is excitedly waiting for the arrival of the game itself, but I'm really just interested in the story, which sounds terrific, so the novelization is what I want.

And there's apparently a whole slew of new things being released in the Galactic Heroes (aka "little squat people") collection. Here's a run-down with pictures of a ton of stuff. Slave Leia and bartender R2 are funny. Destroyer droid!!!!!! We just got the Battle of Mustafar set from Target that includes pregnant Padme. The rancor is a bit funky, but I'll probably have to get him anyway - come on, it's the rancor! The couple sets after that all look pretty awesome. And here's a landspeeder that's not mentioned on that blog. Guess I'll have to regularly haunt Target, Walmart and Toys R Us for these new releases.

But it's not just little squat Star Wars folks. Hasbro is also going to be releasing little squat Indiana Jones folks! Here's a run-down of the first wave, with pictures galore. The snakes are a little more realistic than I like, so the husband may have to open those packages. I love Indy with the idol as well as Belloq with the Ark. There are a few other sets not mentioned in that article but which are on Hasbro's website. This is one set we're NOT getting. This one's pretty cool. This one's just funny, though I don't think his likeness is very good, and I have no idea why he's carrying an Indy doll.

And then, of course, Mr. Potato Head in the Indy collection is being released this weekend.




And obviously, the new film is being released later this month, so we're going to have to figure out whether we're going to a screening on the morning of opening day or the night/next morning of opening day.


But it's not just about Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Wall-E is gearing up as well. Recent merchandise news has been released - check out this blog entry for more info.


It looks like we'll be spending all that economic stimulus money that we're not getting.