Monday, January 16, 2006

Cherry-Picking


There was once a time when I would buy every Star Wars figure that came out. I have every vintage Star Wars figure except Han In Carbonite

I just can't bring myself to shell out for this boring figure.
When new Star Wars figures started coming out in 1995 I was right there. Sure they all looked like they were on steroids, but they were new Star Wars figures for crying out loud! There hadn't been any new figures since the superb Power of the Force line (1985-1986).

Check out this luke. I guess Aunt Beru's blue milk had more vitamins in it than we ever thought.
The quality of Star Wars figures has been slowly eroding since the Attack of the Clones lines. Hasbro is now using cheaper plastic and the figures are just plain cheap looking. These are tough times for the Star Wars action figure collector. Nowadays collecting is all about "cherry-picking" (an expression Summerisle hates but he never goes to this Blog). Cherry-picking simply refers to looking at a new line of toys and only purchasing the best pieces (if there are any). Rather than being a Star Wars completest, which would be too costly given all the variants and repacks, I'm now content to pick up the rare cool figure. For example, In the first photo of the new Coursant line, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for Foul Moudama (Muftak Jedi in giant boots).

4 comments:

Octopunk said...

I LOVE cherry-picking! Unlike JPX, when the new figs appeared I opted to avoid nearly all the boring human characters who weren't wearing interesting uniforms or masks. This came from the fact that it was those same characters from the original line who wound up living in my decaying SW fig carrying case (Han, Luke, Ben) while my R2's or Stormtroopers might get some play on a shelf somewhere.

I applaud your completist efforts, when you can do it. Someday I hope you fill in all the gaps in your Playmates Star Trek collection, which will be more fun now that they're not making anymore.

JPX said...

This coming from the guy who had to have "Black Bespin Guard"!

Octopunk said...

What can I say, it was a different time. These days they pull the "Black Bespin Guard" gag about 6 times out of 10.

And by the way, Mr. Sassy Pants, raise your hand if you dropped 12 bucks a pop at a convention for SW figures that you could find in general availability if you could've waited two more weeks.

Octopunk said...

I don't know about Muftak in Boots, there, but that Nemoidian looks like the kind of fig I'll consider buying, then decide not to once I see it. So I have that to look forward to.