Cover art of LotF4 : Exile

The official site has just released the cover art of the fourth book in the Legacy series. This book by Aaron Allston will only be released after book 3 ... haha ... is scheduled for release in March 2007. Quick comment; well, I don't like the art, looks like it's been done before. After going through my list, here's the carbon copy. To me, they have the same layout. Han in the background with the circular design motive and Leia in the foreground. Secondly, Leia looks so old, yes,yes ... she has grown in years but it's Princess Leia! Thirdly, the saber's glowing light is too eye-catching. I mean everytime I look at the cover art, I tend to focus on the lightsaber.

Simple Maths

Putting 2 & 2 together, I've concluded 1 thing. That is, all retails shops that are bringing in the 5-pack have got it cheap from their distributors. I was trawling through the net when I found brief news that retailers in the US are seling these 5-packs at reduced prices. So, jumping on the bandwagon, Singapore retailers has brought them in, in truckloads me thinks, and hope to sell them to us SW fans here for a huge profit. After a few visits, it seems my predictions are coming through, that these darn 5-packs are not moving sales at all. Each and everytime, I don't seem to see the pile reducing, even the ones at Seiyu. Well, looks like I'll be waiting for another long drought again for titaniums if these 5-packs continue to sit on the shelves like the other pegwarmers.

At last ,Titaniums ...

As I was doing an impromptu recce at OG today, I realised that the SW toy section were arranged differently, which could only mean 1 thing ... new toys in the house. Yup, I was right. OG has brought in the new figures wave and also the Unleashed of Boba and Grievous. Immediately, the salesgirl came to me and offered what figures collectors were looking for, the Shocktrooper, Commd Cody and the Death Star Gunner. She looked happy at first for being so helpful but when I declined to buy them, her face first changed to shock and then puzzlement ... hahaha ... talking to a different type of collector here. Then I saw the titaniums and they were an UTTER LETDOWN. Can you believe it, they brought these sets in? By the Force, these were sold previously as individual packs. Well, at least for most of them. And OG has these pegwarmers still hanging UNSOLD for the past 2 months! By Jabba, who did they hire as the store manager? Greedo? And what that I'm worried is that if they are unable to push these to the consumers, I would say it will be another long wait for the new titaniums which is terribly wanted by collectors...

More, more Titaniums announced

Wave 13 of the titanium series was announced a few days ago. As the previous wave ie 12, this set is also a repaint set. And as the previous wave, only 1 vehicle of the set of 4 is a must get for me. The rest are just dull repaints. The 1st repaint is of the star destroyer. You see all the black ringed boxes ... they're supposed to be running lights ...Duhhh! The Xwing was repainted to be Wedge's fighter, the blue canopy is really out of place. Then we have a weathered? Jango's Slave 1. A few splotches of black ink, and Hasbro called it weathered ... sheezzz. The best of the lot, a CW paint scheme on the Arc-170. Nice! I'm getting the deranged goose aka arc-170 clone war paint job. It is a great looking vehicle, doesn't it?

Review : Clone Wars vol 9

Endgame. What a title. And it befits the stories told in the paperback. The end of the jedi era. I extremely recommend Endgame for all SW fans to read. Well for one, it fills the gap of the battle for Kashyyk. It incorporates EU characters with the movie characters very well. Next, you will understand better why the separatist were invading the wookie planet. In another story of the tpb; Anakin's (Vader's) preoccupation/vengeance with finding Obi-wan who he deems to be the catalyst the killed Padme was highlighted. With this obsession, a Jedi-trap was set to assassinate Vader. Now you can see how badly, Order 66 has turned the Jedi to forsake their principles And of course you know the outcome of the trap, remember Vader comes back in EP4. Well, to shorten the story, Vader eliminated all of the Jedis in wait and thus his persona as a Jedi hunter/killer was personified.

More Titaniums announced

I've lost count of what wave number this set will be. What's frustrating is that with the snail-like progress the retail sector is pushing the new titanium sets, I think I will only find these at the end of 2007! But the silver lining is ... there's always a silver lining in everything, I might eventually get the elusive tie-bomber in retail, albeit it's the battle damaged tie-bomber. Who cares! It's still a tie-bomber ... wooohooo!!! And that Blue Naboo looks blue-tiful. I know that's a really bad pun. The battle-damaged snowspeeder looks awful. Lastly, a new paint scheme for the gunship. This one I'm still undecided whether to get it or bin it. We'll see later. PS : I've found out which wave this is. It's wave 12.

SW collecting gone crazy!

Leave it to Hasbro to manipulate (or try to manipulate) us SW fans into buying stuff we don't really want. Here they have repackaged the ultra-expensive and consumer-rejected millennium falcon transformers with FREE gold versions of a titanium tie-fighter and the falcon. Duhh!! Here's a close up of the fugly transformers. But the gold tie fighter would look really "handsome" beside my gold Vader's tie advance! Would I go and buy it just for the titanium vehicles? ... NOPE! Maybe the toy shops could get the titaniums as loose ones ... here's me hoping.

Republic cruiser docking in the bay

Just got back from JB and found myself a republic cruiser. Yes, I've already have one but ... this one's BRIGHT red. Yeah!, yeah ... I know it's a lame excuse. It was the only new wave hanging on the peg, so I just grabbed it. So now I'm contemplating on keeping it or try to trade it with the ones I don't have.

Spiralling Collections

Spiralling conflict of interest. Am I going the dark side of collecting? With the drought of SW titanium at retail, I've indulge myself a wee bit and got myself the wave 2 of Battlestar Galactica titaniums. Yes, yes ... I've dented my principles a notch, but hey ... isn't it still Titaniums. .... Yes, yes ... I'm kidding myself. I didn't really want to get the colonial raptor, the frog-like ship, but the shop insisted on selling them as a set. Now, to find the wave 1.

eNovella : A Practical Man

The official site had announced recently that the new ebook A Practical Man will be published online this month. This book has background info on Boba Fett's and the Mandalorians goings on before the book Bloodlines and what they were doing during the Vong invasion. I've purchased and read 2 SW ebook previously, from the NJO saga. All that I can say is that they are great reads but are just too short to enjoy ... what a conundrum! And since this is about Boba/Mandalorians, I think I'll sit back and read the reviews first before jumping headlong into purchasing it online. And if I'm really patient, and if Del Rey follows it's printing sequence, I would most probably be able to read it on a paperback of the reprint of Betrayal.

B-wing coming home ...

With the flurry of titanium appearances in some toy shops (but none at retail yet), I acquired myself the Titanium B-wing. Nope. not to worry ... I bought this at retail price. Something to do with being the first customer of the day discount. It's a bit difficult to track which waves I have completed and which ones I've not because the titaniums are not coming out in their proper sequence. On a side note; I went and bought a few more of the display cases recently. Though as an afterthought, I don't think I have room in my display cabinet to put them in now, I'll cross that bridge later.