Redid some aspects of my Geonosian Droid Factory display to add some more color and atmosphere

They actually remembered to limit purchases to two per customer this time so maybe it will take more than a few minutes to sell out. R4-6D0 Droid Factory Figure – Build-A-Droid Series – Star Wars www.disneystore.com/r4-6d0-droid...

I’m pretty happy with this display but have been considering using some of the specialty water effect stuff I purchased for another project to try some puddles and rain effects on the ground. If I do, consider this the “before” picture.

I’ve said it before but I’m not a “5POA is not OK” guy- I have several 5POA figures on display including these ForceLink Stormtroopers and Boba Fett, which is (at the moment at least) the best iteration of Boba Fett’s appearance from The Empire Strikes Back.

The Inquisitorius (minus about a dozen of them who aren’t in TVC yet).

Never watched the show “Undercover Boss” but there had to be people who knew it was obviously their boss in disguise but felt compelled to humor them because they were the boss. I imagine that how the Queen Amidala dressed as a Handmaiden thing probably was.

Soft goods have gotten better and allow for more articulation, yet often still don’t scale as well to 3.75” as molded figures. Call them salt shakers, traffic cones, shampoo bottles, pepper pots, etc, but the ForceLink Emperor and guards are the arguably the best iterations of those characters.

The re-issue of Clone Wars season 7 Maul on a Maul cardback for the new show is otherwise indistinguishable from the original release. Some have said he should have come with a cloak, so I put a cloak on him. Looks pretty good! Maybe there will be another release of him like this eventually.

Trying out the Carousel feature. So far at least it’s less fatal than the one in Logan’s Run.

I’ve displayed the TIE Bomber on the shelf just below Vader’s TIE Advanced. The new 2025 TVC vehicle maybe makes the older 2001 Bomber look a bit rinky dink in comparison, but I’m still fond of having the two hex wings share a space.

I much prefer the 2006 Saga Collection Imperial Gunner to the TVC version, but they look decent enough to work as part of a flight crew.

The TIE Bomber was an exciting surprise in 2001- something Kenner had skipped in the 80’s and seemed would never happen then did. Then it got released again in 2002, 2007, and 2010. At this point it would be a new, larger mold if they revisit it again, but still cool that it was ever done at all.

The animated aesthetic of the 2008 Clone Wars line was off putting to some at the time and a lot of collectors slept on it. It’s a shame, because there’s a definite charm to them and some great design work in those figures. It also has some of the best vehicles of any Star Wars line.

The Clone Wars did so much to enhance and prompt reassessment of the Prequels and become a beloved part of the franchise in its own right that it’s easy to forget that it too was judged harshly when it debuted in theaters in 2008. Amazing that its legacy is still ongoing almost two decades later.

A wider view of the assault on the Jedi Temple display

Swapped out an older figure for the new TVC ROTS Darth Vader in my assault on the Jedi Temple display. Soft goods can be great, and Hasbro has gotten much much better at them, but posing a 3.75” figure with a soft goods hood up in a way that doesn’t look weird or stupid is a real challenge.

2010’s TVC 1.0 Zam Wessel commands and healthy secondary market price but so far she hasn’t been reissued in TVC 2.0. These days though people would complain about her swivel hips and she’s not really important enough a character for new tooling, so this is probably all there will ever be of her.

The moment in AOTC where Obi-Wan snatches Anakin’s errant lightsaber midair was made in post production. They stitched together two different takes into one shot and gave Obi-Wan a CGI hand to complete the action. This shown as an example of the nonlinear production process at Celebration.

This 2001 Sneak Preview Zam Wessel figure holds up pretty well nearly 25 years later, at least in a still photo. Her face is covered, so no archaic looking face deco, and she’s basically a statue, so no archaic looking joints. Just one very specific pose well rendered.

The middle section of my Mustafar display, now with the new 2026 TVC iterations of the characters in the foreground. My display approach for things like this is sort of montage, placing little vignettes throughout. Right now those other vignettes are made up of 2005, 2008, and 2014 versions.

Attack on Utapau, now with the new Obi-Wan.

The new Obi-Wan from the TVC 2-Pack replacing an older 2008 Legacy Collection figure in my Mustafar display. Darth Vader hovering menacingly over there also recently got an update. Same old 2005 Mustafar Playset though. I don’t imagine that’s getting a redo anytime soon.

The new TVC Imperial Remnant Stormtroopers from the Mandalorian and Grogu movie (not to be confused with the TVC Imperial Remnant Stormtroopers from the Mandalorian TV show) Nice aesthetic to these guys- normally you’d have to wait for years of UV damage to get this yellowed Stormtrooper look.

A wider shot of my Mustafar display of the moments before the duel. I wanted to create contrast between this one vs the other depicting end of the duel by placing Vader on an somewhat elevated plane and Obi-Wan a bit lower. On the other side of things of course Obi-Wan has the high ground.

The new Disney Parks Droid Factory Build A Droid DD-BD (Dad Bod?) This little guy was an eBay exclusive for me after he instantly sold out on Disney’s site. Hopefully May’s release of R4-6D0 goes more smoothly.

The new TVC ROTS Darth Vader (technically Jedi Spirt Anakin from the Ahsoka show putting on his angry eyes, but come on, it’s Vader) takes the place of the previous 2010 TVC 1.0 version of the character in my Mustafar display. Same old 2005 Padmé and Mustafar playset though.

The new Imperial Remnant Snowtroopers and AT-RT. They’re missing the flap over their masks, presumably over time that part wears out or is easily lost. But anyone who had the original 1980 Kenner figure knows if any part is going to go missing or get damaged it’s the skirt, not the mask.

The new TVC Poggle the Lesser, though in many ways Poggle the Greater compared to its Saga Collection predecessor. It’s nice of course- almost any TVC figure anymore is excellent- but with only so many releases per year it’s difficult to justify why this one and not any number of other choices.

Got my latest shipment from Hasbro Pulse today and I’m not sure what FedEx did along the way but the box was crushed, burst open and sloppily resealed with packing tape, and I think maybe it even got wet along the way. Every carded figure inside came bent, crushed, torn, or a bit of all three.

Happy Maul: Shadow Lord Release Day to all that celebrate! (Still hard to believe sometimes how good the portraits have gotten on the figures- this is convincingly Ray Park’s face from 1999 rendered on a surface smaller than a fingernail)

Hoppy Easter from R2-BNE! You might think BNE is supposed to be “BUNNY” but it’s “Breaking N’ Entering.” This little dude loves home invasion.

The new TVC ROTS Obi-Wan replacing an older figure from 2007/2008 era in my Mustafar display. This is the bit right before he takes off his robe. A Jedi taking off their robe is like a girl taking out her earrings- you know they’re about to throw down.

The latest Disney Droid Factory Build-A-Droid release sold out instantly. For something where a big part of the appeal is to collect ‘em all they sure don’t make it easy to collect ‘em all.

The new TVC 212th Airborne Trooper atop the 2005 Crab Droid poised to blow his poor little clanker brains out. I don’t know that this figure is really much of an upgrade over the previous version- more like a lateral move in some ways- but it can at least hit this pose more easily.

The new 2026 Obi-Wan atop the Boga from 2005. I like the creature but was never overly fond of the molded figure it came with so it’s nice that this new version of ROTS Obi-Wan is poseable enough to comfortably take its place.

Ackmena shows her mother and two roommates the cantina where she used to work as a bartender.

Another mysterious Inquisitor vanquished by Ahsoka- the Eleventh Brother, aka The Crow. Pretty good that with one wave the number of Inquisitors released in TVC has doubled. So four down and twelve (I think?) to go.

Marrok! The silent but deadly warrior from the first season of Ahsoka. (Get it? Cuz he died as a green fart cloud?)

Black Series got a neat little sparky lightsaber clash blast effect for their Cloud City duel set and I wish there was a 3.75” version- especially for this scene. But in general more blast effect stuff all around.

Excited for the new TVC Deluxe release of Baze Malbus, but aside from the fact that he can’t properly hold his rifle the 2016 original is still pretty good in my book. Or at least the sculpting was good.

What’s the difference between the new Deluxe Mandalorian and the last release? About ten dollars. (And also a new head, new torso, new Grogu, new rifle, a sword, new hand, new jetpack, and probably more stuff I haven’t noticed yet)

New Deluxe The Mandalorian and Grogu from The Mandalorian and Grogu. After eight releases of the Beskar armor version (with minor variations) I’m honestly surprised how much is new here. Credit to Hasbro I guess for spending movie money on new tooling instead of doing the same old figure again.

Do call them Cold Weather Assault Stormtroopers or Snowtroopers? Wow- that’s what I call them too!

As much as I despise Wal*Mart, I did preorder the new ROTS Obi-Wan and Airborne Trooper set. Should have been Cody though. Clone Commanders and Jedi Generals would be a good two pack series- Jedi plus a troop builder less so. Nonetheless excited to see it in person and have it in hand.

Grievous’ Wheelbike is a perfectly goofy Star Warsy thing. Putting legs, a chair, and a gun on a giant wheel is the perfect combination of kinda stupid and really cool.

A lot of the creatures Hasbro made for Episode One were entirely unarticulated plastic statues, but I’m fine with that. In fact I kind of wish Hasbro had done a whole line of a 1:18 unarticulated creatures, sort of a space monster equivalent of Breyer Horses.

Battle Droids enforce a blockade of trade routes to outlying territories. It’s the latest episode in trade disputes that were manufactured by a tyrannical villain to justify senseless war and part of his larger plot to consolidate power and subvert the Republic into fascism.

I didn’t need another Emperor’s Wrath Vader (but did want another of that new Anakin in the 3 pack he came in) so I took this one and did some custom paint on the helmet to hide the x-ray skull and make an Empire Strikes Back version. It turned out pretty well I think.

Luke’s Snowspeeder was released with TVC packaging as an exclusive variant concurrent to its Legacy Collection release (as was the AT-AT), but I’ve been surprised the mold was never reused. I fully expected to get Zev or Wedge’s speeders in this mold at some point but 16 years on and so far no.

Han Solo’s Tauntaun is another entry from a different line that would be at home in TVC. Luke’s Tauntaun with the broken horn was repacked in Vintage Collection packaging as a Target exclusive, but Han’s oddly never was.