Now we know

The reason behind the dearth of Titanium vehicles in the recent Celebration IV has been answered. SSG hit the gold mine by getting an exclusive interview on the exhibition floor. Here's some of their notable conversation with Hasbro's people. SirStevesGuide.com: At your panel yesterday, there was nothing on Titanium Series 3-inch die cast vehicles, what happened here? Is there some sort of trouble with the line? Derryl DePriest: I honestly just ran out of time to prepare. If you notice, we don't even have the tent cards (the cardboard brand cards at the tops of each display case). But the 3-inch vehicles are going strong and will continue well into... forever, hopefully. We have lots of new models coming out. I just recently got Titanium under my group, previously it was done by a different group. But the line will be continuing on with 3-inch vehicles, with a mix of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, and we're looking to get more Battlestar out there. To the fans at home: definitely, the line will keep going. We're even doing a survey about it here at our booth. SSG: Back to Titaniums, any thoughts about doing Titanium Series vehicle multipacks with diorama playset backgrounds a la Galactic Heroes battle packs? DD: The Titanium multipacks we had out before didn't seem to do well, I don't know if it was because they weren't all unique, only some unique, and we put patina ones in there - patina ones were not popular, they want the real thing. Maybe we'll relook at the concept, we'll think about that, the Galactic Heroes packs are pretty popular.

Unleash the beginning

I know this is a bit late, but with the news coming in from Celebration IV, I've pushed it back and back and back. Now here it is; something on the Force Unleashed game. Watch the vid. How can you not get excited over this game. As Haden put it simply, the core gameplay is; Kicking someone's ass with the force!

New vehicle designs

Great news from Celebration IV. JediDefender has brought in news that Hasbro has noted fans reaction on repaints, and they will produce more new vehicles from the films and expanded universe. Their words, exactly .... Hey folks, more word from the convention floor keeps trickling in. Our guys in the field have reported back that the "concerns" over the number of repaints in the Titanium Series 3" Vehicles Line have been noted by Hasbro! The Hasbro gang said you can expect more NEW vehicles from the films as well as a trip into the Expanded Universe to get new designs mixed in the line. Good news for fans of one of Hasbro's hottest sub-lines! That is superb news after the scant pics of new waves at the exhibition.

Amazing Animation

Once the disappointment has subsided, I'm ready to be uplifted again. Now, by the real thing. The Clone Wars 3D animation. A teaser trailer is now ready for viewing at the official site, and the wow! factor is stamped all over it. Head on over there and you can see why. Here's something from Youtube; if you do want want to wait for the streaming, but not as sharp as the official one.

Noooo!!

Oooh man! what a letdown. After trawling the net, I have to admit that there is NO new animated Tales of the New Republic. Drats!!! It is part of Gentle Giant promo vids for its maquette series. Damned! Just look at these still ads. Look familiar?

What the F***!

I .. I .. I .. don't know what to say. It's just awesome. I'm still in amazement, ... awestruck. It's Star Wars on film/TV/screen ... whatever. What I can say is Star Wars did not die with EP3, it's just the beginning. What am I blabbering about? A few entries down, I talked about a purported fan-made drawings from the website Tales of the New Republic. The site now includes a movie clip that is out of this world in cartoon making series. Head over there NOW before LucasFilm start to take it down. Here's more pics from the clip. It's a drool fest.

Transformers madness

Carrefour had at bargain bin sale for titaniums. I was alerted to it by another collector. So during lunchtime, I made my way there. And horror of horrors, it was not just the 3" titaniums that was on sale but the 6" figures too. And there were stacked up to my chin like a small hill. To think some collectors were hunting them high and low and Carrefour somehow hogged a sizable sum of it. And they couldn't make a sale ... hence this bargain bin bonanza. I had a field day rummaging through the deep bin looking for stuff. Well, I had most of the SW vehicles, what I was looking for was to build up my collection of the Transformers die-cast collection ... they were on sale at $3.90 each, from a price of $14.90. That's a drop of $11, who would have known? Before, I bought those great looking ones, now I chose the average looking ones ... it's $3.90 okayyyy! It was too dirt cheap to let go. So I got these to complement what I already have.

Pics from Celebration 4

Images are coming hard and fast from Celebrations IV in LA. But what is shown were not show stoppers. 4 pics of new titaniums and all repaints. Duh! Of the 4, one grows dear in my heart. What else a jedi starfighter with hyperspace ring in GREEN. All pictures are thanks to the Rebelscum.com website

Another Star Wars cartoon?

I can't believe it. But the evidence is in front of me. Pictures of a Star Wars based cartoon? is popping up on this website Tales of the New Republic. And they are just eye-popping good, nay great. The site itself doesn't lend greatly to LucasFilms high quality web design. My best guess is that this guy, somehow, got his hands on a few cells of the new cartoon series and published it on this website. Here's hoping that all of this is true and not just some fan drawn enthusiast.

At last, the Complete Dictionary ...

With Kino giving a 20% discounts on all books, I've bought the Star Wars Complete Visual Dictionary. This book has been on my radar for so long. Only the 20% catalyst was needed due to the book "expensive" nature. And since I was there, I hunted for the Legacy Vol 1 tpb. But it had not arrived. However, the force still prevails because I found the second part of the Kotor TPB series. So that's another book at 20% off. My wallet suddenly feels very light.

Wave 4 in Pics

Pictures of Wave 4 of the titanium series is starting to pop up. And from what I see, the AT-PT looks really good. We now have a green A-Wing, waiting for the inevitable orange coloured repaint ... duh!!! Another repaint is the light blue blockade runner from EP3. But what caught my eye was from the Battlestar Galactica titanium series of this wave. Just look at the sleek black viper! Mannn ... I'm salivating already.

Parody Time!

I saw a trailer of Robot Chicken Wars recently. A parody based on the Star Wars movie trilogy using toy figures. It's just too funny not to show it here. An update of the fan boy Star Wars movie aptly called Fanboys. It has been pushed back to a 2008 release. In Fanboys, director Kyle Newman has fashioned an uproarious comedy that follows a group of young friends on a cross-country quest to break into Skywalker Ranch and see Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace before it is released. “Fanboys has truly been a labor of love for everyone involved, so to know that some of the world’s biggest Star Wars fans will be among the first to see highlights from the movie is very exciting.”

Clone Wars Poster!!!

WooHoo!!! A new poster of the Clone Wars animated series. And it looks mighty fine!!

What Vader is thinking ...

When I first saw this entry in Amazon, I was deeply in wonder why R.L.Stine, writer of children's horror books would be allowed to write on one of the most intriguing story in Star Wars. See below; Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker Novel (Star Wars) (Hardcover) by R. L. Stine (Author), Ryder Windham (Author) Then a few days later, the official site gives more light on this novel; Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader. Written by author (and all-around Star Wars expert) Ryder Windham. Okay, no Mr Stine. Fooohhh! ... what a relieve. This is getting better now. This hardcover recaps all six episodes from Anakin's perspective. Now that would be awesome. To know why he does what he did. It is due out in October 2007. However, my only misgivings is that this book is listed under the Young Readers Book. Hmmm...

Hasbro's 30th Q&A session

Bits here and there from Hasbro's Q&A session; ActionFigs:The Titanium Series line has shared its space with Battlestar Galactica license for some time now with much success. Can you give us a hint as to your plans for the future of this license? You were recently quoted as saying the Cylon Basestar and the classic Cylon Base ship were not likely to happen due to "complexity of production", what does that mean and how would they be different from something like the recently-released classic Cylon Raider? Also, what happened to the plans for the Titanium Forged Figure of the Cylon Centurion, is there a future release here? Hasbro:The Battlestar license has done very well and we plan to continue releasing a new/repaint one every few waves. Some vehicles, depending on the complexity of the vehicle, require so many tools or so much labor to complete that we simply can’t afford to pursue them for our basic line and these two fall into this camp. As for the Cylon figure, that line is discontinued at mass retail and we are looking for ways to bring the figures out as an exclusive mix. We know that there is demand there from a smaller number of devoted fans, but we are looking for a retail partner for the right opportunity. JI: This one is in regards to Titaniums and a little off topic, its about Battlestar Galactica Titanium ships. We have had a alot of people as if there will be a release of the Classic Battlestar Galactica ship released for the Titanium line. Hasbro: It's in the works, but won't make it out this year. Basically, Hasbro's keeping a tight lid on most things with the Celebration IV coming up in 2 weeks time. So I would make a good guess that pics of the titanium wave 4 series and the rumoured pieces, especially the Rouge Shadow Fighter, would probably show at the event.

More Star Wars TV

News are leaking out that Lucas is planning 2 new live series TV movies or TV specials based on Star Wars. And as always, cryptic as ever, he exclaimed that he doesn't know of the direction these shows will take but one thing for sure, they are not on about the Skywalkers. See, when you have already the technology developed, it becomes easy to make more movies ... you just need good stories to flesh them out.

Wav3 3 out ... in US

Well, US is abuzzed again with various news of collectors getting their hands on the new V-Wing wave. Haizzz ... and us, Singapore collectors, will just have to wait for Hasbro Sg to get off their sorry ass and slowly bring them in.

Star Wars Art

This is one book on Star Wars that I won't be buying. It's an ART BOOK.

More on Titanium Transformers

Whilst trawling round the net and Hasbro's newly published website for transformers toys. This coincides with the impending Transformers movie in June. I noticed 3 Titanium die-cast that would fit perfectly into my small titanium Transformers collection. And they looked really good. There are also 2 more figures from the old cartoon series that looked good to get too.

Tantive IV docking in

This news is 1 week late but I'm still logging it in. Thanks to a fellow forummer, Tyderium, I've got my hands on the Rebel Blockade Runner aka Tantive IV.