Star Wars Action Figures..

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2004-10-18 07:24pm

I have little to no complaint about the vehicles, but seriously.. does anyone know what the deal is with the new Star Wars action figures? Why they are so butt ugly. Why do they make 'em pumped out on steroids, in strange poses, and googly eyes?

Is it trying to keep production cost down or something to maximize profit?

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-10-18 07:34pm

Who knows. I thought we were sort of past the "bulked out muscle-rocker" stage of action figures now that Ahnold is pushing 50 and all the heroine chic stuff etc.

Mark Hamill's avatar on the Star Wars poster has these manly pecks, but not quite football player material like some of the figures. Whatever artists are in charge must just really like that look. (reminded of Joel Schumacher's "nipplerific" Batman designs)

Crazy Goji · Post by **Crazy Goji** » 2004-10-18 07:41pm

Are you talking about the new ones or the ones released back in 1995?

These are the latest figures to be released.

These are pretty damn good figures. Now, back in the mid-90's when they restarted the Star Wars line, they used the buff-figures, because I believe there was a big wrestling toy business at the time, and all figures were just buff. And of course, because of this, we get such figures as "He-Man Luke" and "Monkey Leia." Of course, as time progressed, newer, more accurate sculpts have come out and the figures look better than ever.[/url]

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-10-18 07:59pm

Goji is right. While I didn't buy the infamous ripped-looking Tatooine Luke back in 1995, I did get the X-Wing Luke figure... and he looks like freaking He-Man under the flight suit. Honestly, I have no idea what Kenner / Hasbro bosses were smoking when they ordered their sculptors to create the molds at that time.

Nowadays the figures look much better.

For comparison:

What the hell?!?

Wow! Much better, ainnit?

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-10-18 08:04pm

Old Plympto wrote: What the hell?!?

What the heck type of blaster is that?!

I think the newer ones are pretty good. I haven't seen too many new vehicles though. Only the Falcon.

Crazy Goji · Post by **Crazy Goji** » 2004-10-18 08:08pm

Techno_Union wrote:
Old Plympto wrote: What the hell?!?
What the heck type of blaster is that?!

I think the newer ones are pretty good. I haven't seen too many new vehicles though. Only the Falcon.

It's not a blaster, it's a grappling hook!

In reality, most of the vehicles are just re-released, re-painted, and reworked vintage vehicles. For example, the TIE Fighter that has been hitting the shelves as of recently is still basically the same TIE Fighter that was released back in '77 or '78, minus the electronics. The "new" Millenium Falcon is really still based on the original mold from the late 70's. Hasbro just put new electronics and added missiles.

Techno_Union · Post by **Techno_Union** » 2004-10-18 08:26pm

Crazy Goji wrote:
Techno_Union wrote:
Old Plympto wrote: What the hell?!?
What the heck type of blaster is that?!

I think the newer ones are pretty good. I haven't seen too many new vehicles though. Only the Falcon.
It's not a blaster, it's a grappling hook!

Aw, that makes A LOT more sense.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2004-10-18 08:39pm

Crazy Goji wrote: In reality, most of the vehicles are just re-released, re-painted, and reworked vintage vehicles. For example, the TIE Fighter that has been hitting the shelves as of recently is still basically the same TIE Fighter that was released back in '77 or '78, minus the electronics. The "new" Millenium Falcon is really still based on the original mold from the late 70's. Hasbro just put new electronics and added missiles.

Y'know, you could probably get some crazy shit done if you had some scale ships to match the figures... if i've got my reckoning right, the X-wings wouldn't be too unreasonably big ("some assembly required" and the packaging's no prob), at about... what... two feet long? Certainly much better than the shitty 10" version they've got, and sweeter lookin'. The MF would be extremely cool ("Light-up Holochess Table! Chewbacca with Deluxe Ripping-Arms-Off Action! R2-D2 with ACTUAL Tools and Input Jacks!" etcetera...). The Star Destroyer might be a tad unwieldy, though...

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-10-18 08:51pm

It was mainly POTF that had everyone hopped up on steroids. The more recent stuff from Saga looked like they were cutting costs and everyone looked smaller. Compare them to GI Joes, which are the same 3 3/4" scale and you'll see what I mean.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-10-18 08:53pm

Whoah! How big would be a Star Destroyer vehicle if it were done to scale?

It's not a blaster, it's a grappling hook!

Actually it seems to have the WTF-able name of "The Grappling Hook Blaster"!!!!!1111 How they attach the cable to the blaster bolt I guess we'll never know.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2004-10-18 09:23pm

Old Plympto wrote:Whoah! How big would be a Star Destroyer vehicle if it were done to scale?

About 250 feet long, give or take. I've seen a custom built SD tower playset that was huge, but not nearly in that size range.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-10-18 09:46pm

Now, what about a scale Death Star.

With working super laser.

Crazy Goji · Post by **Crazy Goji** » 2004-10-18 09:51pm

Elheru Aran wrote:
Crazy Goji wrote: In reality, most of the vehicles are just re-released, re-painted, and reworked vintage vehicles. For example, the TIE Fighter that has been hitting the shelves as of recently is still basically the same TIE Fighter that was released back in '77 or '78, minus the electronics. The "new" Millenium Falcon is really still based on the original mold from the late 70's. Hasbro just put new electronics and added missiles.
Y'know, you could probably get some crazy shit done if you had some scale ships to match the figures... if i've got my reckoning right, the X-wings wouldn't be too unreasonably big ("some assembly required" and the packaging's no prob), at about... what... two feet long? Certainly much better than the shitty 10" version they've got, and sweeter lookin'. The MF would be extremely cool ("Light-up Holochess Table! Chewbacca with Deluxe Ripping-Arms-Off Action! R2-D2 with ACTUAL Tools and Input Jacks!" etcetera...). The Star Destroyer might be a tad unwieldy, though...

There was also this version of the X-wing. While still not to scale, it's a better representation than the OTC/PoTF/Vintage X-wing.

In reality, some vehicles are just too big to do in scale (Millenium Falcon, AT-AT), but there are ones that they could easily redo in scale but haven't. I think they could make a killer new AT-ST, and all the TIE fighter needs to be in scale is larger wings. That's it. Add ten bucks to the regular TIE and bam, inscale TIE.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-10-18 10:16pm

neoolong wrote:Now, what about a scale Death Star.

With working super laser.

By my rough estimates, a scaled Death Star I for 3.75" figures would be 8.33km in diameter.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-10-18 11:28pm

"Chunk of Exploded Death Star-in-a-bag" toys:

Collect all 3,434,564,212,544 fragments!

Tech^salvager · Post by **Tech^salvager** » 2004-10-19 12:08am

/me misses when SW action figures only costed 3.99 and you got a weapon and something else.
hehe I have some action figures and a snow speeder, a wing, Lord Vader's TIE

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-10-19 08:17am

The steroid inflated looking ones,are possibly recycled unsold Masters of the Universe figures.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-19 09:54am

Star Wars figures have always fucking sucked. Why they don't just use the GI Joe style of action figures (i.e. so many moveable limbs = near infinite stances) is beyond me.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-10-19 10:02am

Old Plympto wrote:Wow! Much better, ainnit?

"Happy elf! Skip and SING!" (look at the first picture in the bottom row)

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-10-19 12:29pm

Vympel wrote:Star Wars figures have always fucking sucked. Why they don't just use the GI Joe style of action figures (i.e. so many moveable limbs = near infinite stances) is beyond me.

Can't sell as many figures.