Star Wars: The Last Jedi…. so what do we know so far?

 

Today I was greeted by the news that both Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill (that’s the Episode 8 director and the obvious dude who played the titular farm-boy character in the original Trilogy for the uninitiated) want the fans to completely avoid any marketing activities and merchandises for the TLJ movie if they wanna keep clear off subtle spoilers and such.

 

Oh come on. Is that even possible? Whatever happened to the joy of grabbing every single Star Wars merch off the shelves before the movie opens at the big screen? Me avoiding Star Wars merchandises is like a cat deliberately avoiding a bag full of catnips. Anyway, the fans can’t possibly be blamed if subtle spoilers are indeed being leaked through these merchandises and marketing materials. That’s a tell-tale sign that some people (or a whole department for that matter!) over at Disney should get the boot… innit?

 

I haven’t picked up the new Entertainment Weekly Star Wars; The Last Jedi Special Edition Double Sized Issue either but thanks to the power of social media, we can now safely say that most of the contents in that issue can be found splattered all over the internet. There are a number of images off EW that seemed to have rocked everyone’s world right now but that’s not what really intriguing me for the moment.

 

Sure, some new faces/characters were introduced. That supposedly cute Porg creature is now being feared by many fans to be a repeat of Jar Jar Binks but to be fair let us watch the film first and judge later (although I also suspect that this could be a clever ploy by Disney to sell plushies of the characters to the kids). Honestly Jar Jar didn’t bother me that much. He was a comic relief and that’s that. I loved how the Ewoks turned out too in ROTJ. Haters please reserve your comments…..hahahah.

 

My favorite thus far has got to be those Praetorian Guards. I’m pretty sure many would be very impressed with their armor design and not to forget that these guys are probably the kick-ass successors to the Imperial Red Royal Guards that Palpatine once had flanking him. Unlike the Royal Guards who looked more like ceremonial figures, these Praetorian dudes actually look like they're ready to pounce if Snoke ever gets threatened. I bet Luke and Rey's gonna have some fun going through these Praetorians to get to Snoke!

 

 

So what really intrigued me?

 

The endless previews of TLJ merchandises have inadvertently/intentionally revealed so many hints/spoiler bits off the movie itself. A printed advertisement (can’t recall if it was a brochure or otherwise) shows Snoke having a ‘Death Star’ base?  While many weeks ago we were also treated to the leaked images of the 3.75” action figure line which also revealed lack of new characters in TLJ. Let’s not forget that long before the official blue-eyed image of Supreme Leader Snoke was revealed, LEGO had the pleasure of being the first to show Snoke in a Jedi-like robe with the confirmation that the dude was almost certainly a human/humanoid rather than an alien that resembles a human being.

 

My money is on the fact that Disney had intentionally asked their marketing team to fire all cylinders and kick off every single promotional merchandises and whatnots to fully capitalize on the franchise’s popularity to recover the huge sums of moolah they paid to bring TLJ into fruition as fast as possible. It’s all about Return on Investment (ROI)….whay can’t the fans simply understand that…sheesh (*sarcasm at its best*. It’s funny how both Johnson and Hamill are now playing the role of the good guys and basically telling everyone that they aren’t able to stop Disney’s barrage of marketing attacks. So if you wanna keep the info safely intact till you see the movie in December ’17, you gotta lock yourselves in a cave with no internet connection whatsoever and please stop buying the gosh-darn magazines too!

 

Anyway, the real question now is whether Rian Johnson can pull off something cooler than JJ’s film or are we gonna see another rehash ala A New Hope/The Force Awakens? I hope not. I sure ain’t gonna avoid any TLJ merchandises till the movie premiers in December too. Personally I think that it’s absolutely great to get bits of information and leaks prior to the movie itself. Apart from fueling endless fan theories those could also be a source of great relief if they are proven to be otherwise (red herring!) when we finally get to see the movie 4-months from now.

SDCC 2017's Star Wars The Black Series Grand Admiral Thrawn

Getting my hands on SDCC exclusives were mere dreams for me in the past as I ogled through endless pictures on social media posted by those lucky enough to attend the geek event held in San Diego. I've been quite the lucky one for the past few years as I had the chance to be inducted into a 'secret' collector society on FB where members will get the chance to get our grubby mitts on SDCC stuff as soon as the event wrapped up.

I'm especially happy this year to get the Grand Admiral Thrawn deluxe set despite the ridiculous price point. Factor in the shipping cost (which was low by the way as my regular toy-pusher buddy bough these in bulk) and ya get yourself a premium price point. One can't really complain since this was only available via SDCC or was it also available temporarily on Hasbro's online website in the States? Whatever. It's here now in my hands.

Love the huge packaging!

There is also a bio of Thrawn at the back of the packaging but I rather not show that here as I actually prefer his backstory from Timothy Zahn's Thrawn's Trilogy books.

Thrawn comes with an array of museum worthy collectibles. I was told that this was how he was portrayed in the Star Wars Rebels TV show, a collector of stuff. He even has Commander Gree's helmet (hopefully not with the severed head/skull inside!) and Indiana Jones' chalice (?!) in his collection. Not sure what Hasbro is trying to achieve here. Indiana Jones and Star Wars exist in the same universe? Well, there was that Darkhorse comic where Han and Chewie went to earth due to some unexpected event and found themselves during Indiana Jones' timeline in the 1930s. Anything's possible these days I guess. Disney better have some good explanation for this.

I'm not really sure if Thrawn is goin to be re-released in normal format i.e. The Black Series normal wave release but I was never going to take the risk. He is coming home with me to be displayed on my Star Wars display shelf in my man cave. That's that!

Will we see a Noghri to go with our favorite blue Admiral? I doubt that's gonna happen anytime soon because Disney has plans to not follow any more details from Zahn's books. That's no Noghri figure in the picture above. Maybe someone can correctly guess what the figure is/which line does he belong to?

Reality check…

Last time I was here, I was already questioning the relevancy of still having a blog when there are countless other social media platforms that are deemed more active. I am however, guilty of neglecting my blog which I have religiously cared for since its inception in 2008. My last posting here at The Rebel Page was sometime in February ’17. A good 6 months ago.

So what’s up with The Rebel you may ask?

A lot of things had happened since obviously. Since this blog was set up to talk mainly about geeky stuff I’ll try to talk about the subject matter (or things related to it) and not veer off from it (that much!).

Ok. Here’s what I can say about myself after a long hiatus from this ol’ blog of mine:

 

1)      I no longer have the time to do long reviews and extensive photo shoots for my action figures/toys – The collecting/toy review days of yore is behind me now as I usually prefer one or two or a few ‘definitive’ action figure shots rather than a whole bunch of pictures from every known photographic angle known to mankind. I’ve decided to stop doing ‘product shots’ and go for the killer shots that’ll define the toy and bring it to life through dynamic poses and stuff. Gone are also the long-winded talky reviews that I used to do for each action figure that enters my collection. Not because I lost interest to do so but because I can’t seem to find the time to do so these days. These days I usually give a one-paragraph review if any at all.

2)      I’m more active on Instagram than on the blog-o-sphere – Really. If you’ve been living in a cave for the past 5 years or so then I believe you’ve heard of this platform called Instagram or IG as the popular masses call it. I find that I’ve amassed more followers there much faster than I ever did on my blog within a few short months of signing up. Not ain’t that a no brainer since my intention was always to reach out to as many other geeks out there in the cyber world in the shortest time possible? If any of you still check out my blog then I‘d like to invite you to head over to IG and search for rebel_toys_and_stuff to follow my account over there.

 

3)      I’ve really really tried to steer clear from those darn one sixth action figures – Seriously, with the prices of 1/6^th scale action figures on the rise, one cannot possibly fathom the possibility of maintaining to purchase one (let alone many/several) of these highly detailed collectibles for one’s collection. But old habit dies hard or so they say. That is why the Mr Optimistic in me said that it’s probably safe to say that I’ll only get ONE 1/6^th scale action figure per year because just like a bad flu, the urge is never gonna go away. So far I’ve only snagged the Hot Toys Batman figure from BVS but you never know as the year is still half way through and the evil geek in me is constantly screaming for me to get more! *must….resist!*

4)      I geek out whenever I see anything that has the word ‘Star Wars’ imprinted on them – It used to be strictly ‘action figures’ only. I even chucked a whole bunch of random Star Wars related items into a storage container because they had no place on my display shelves. But these days I seemed to have found a newfound interest in them. Cereal freebies, notebooks, small knick knackery, keychains, whatever….as long as they have that wordings with that iconic font on them, they’ll go on my display shelves whenever space permits.

5)      I made more geeky friends over the cyber world – Naturally when you’re active over social media you tend to attract the same kind of crowd, more so often through IG and FB. I love hearing the different opinion and views on action figures and collectibles from all walks of collectors. Some may have a totally different take altogether and can give you that angle which you may have missed. It’s fun to be talking to collector folks from all over the world and to think that a common interest unites us all regardless of ethnicity and physical appearances.

6)      I may be embarking on a new career in life – Ok. I did say that I’ll be talking mainly about geeky stuff but hear me out here. My new found ‘career’ may allow me to be very very flexible and spend a huge chunk of my day at home on my laptop/tablet rather than at a desk in office. I am of course a full time corporate slave for the moment so definitely this prospect of spending time working at home (in my man cave perhaps?) is both exhilarating and exciting to this pop culture geek. Do pray for me as I inch closer and closer to my dream of earning my living from inside my own man cave!

 

7)       The Rebel Page may be my channel to rant about….anything – I have been giving this a serious thought while I was away overseas for work last month. Something reminded me of my semi-defunct blog while I was in that foreign land. It reminded me about the very basic reason why The Rebel Page was set up in the first place. You see, when I first sign up for this blog page I made a pledge to talk and review the toys that I’ve bought but naturally that intention did not really stay on track due to so many factors i.e. laziness, lack of free time, ok….mostly laziness! I would love to still be able to pour out my views on stuff although it may not be solely on toys or collectibles exclusively. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. For now my immediate focus would be to get this page up and running again with constant writings every now and then.

Hmm, what do you think? Not bad for a comeback post after half-a-year huh? Haha…

 

I’ll probably get some posts out in the next couple of days, ya  know…..just to kick start things again. Till then fellow Rebels!

My son's pretty fired up for The LEGO Batman movie!

*Cough....cough*....excuse me while I dust off the cobwebs from this old blog of mine. It has been quite some time since I had some decent postings....errr...any postings whatsoever over here at The Rebel Page. I'm really tempted to give you readers some cliche reasons for my hiatus but let's just not do that. Just wanna say that I'm still alive and well. I am still interested to keep this blog moving although not at the rate I had going for the past several years or so.

Right then.

Just to kick start things again, I'd like to say that the upcoming LEGO Batman Movie had really built up quite some anticipation among us Bat-fans and LEGO-fans alike. Technically one can already watch the movie in several selected cinemas here in Malaysia despite the official release date being set on 9 February '17. Not for me and my family though. We're gonna behave and wait for the official screening date to catch the movie. Well, mainly because the early screenings fall during school/work days and we just don't wanna rush things and stuff. Thursday is also a national public holiday here in Malaysia so go figure. Ain't a better time to catch the movie with the fam!

I'd just like to say that my son is pretty fired up for the LEGO Batman Movie and he's been accumulating quite some merchandise to whet his appetite for the upcoming flick. Mind you, some of the following items were given to him as presents (before you start to ask me if my wallet had been burnt after all of these purchases?)...

He's been dedicating a small section of his room building a shrine-like display for these:

These DK books are perfect companions for you to digest all information pertaining to the movie before you watch it.....

McDonald's Happy meal will come with several LEGO Batman toys for the next several weeks. So far we've gotten week 1's Batman & Batgirl's spectacle cowls....

Ask and ye' shall receive! My son prayed hard for these and he got them! (and he's still praying hard still for the Arkham Asylum set when it finally gets released some months from now!)...

The Joker's Lowrider is one sweet pimped up ride!

Admit it, most people will buy this set for that googly-eyed Robin alone! That Catwoman is pretty sweet too me thinks!

I can see why this set is among the most popular ones. Them balloons!!!! I personally dig that hazardous factory-like contraption that comes with the set......and yeah, Batman comes with a separate belt piece....first time ever!

As them minifigures were priced at USD5 each, they were at a staggering RM19.90 each here in Malaysia. Crazy! As such, we only got what we really wanted and opted not to get the whole set. 

So far my son is rather excited to already have 3 different versions of The Joker.....
.
.
.
.

Bring on the LEGO Batman Movie!!!!

Marvel Legends Giant Man wave 2016

Truth be told. I was put off many a times already when it comes to the price of these darn Marvel Legends here in Malaysia. At RM139.90 (that’s about US dollars 35 each folks!) this is an ‘out of this world’ crazy price for ONE figure of Marvel Legends here in these part of the world. Toy companies keep blaming the surge in the price of plastic due to the instability of oil prices but that’s not logically/necessarily true because I have never seen a downward pricing of the action figures even when prices of oil drops like nobody’s business. Yay capitalism!

I’ve only since bought several random ML figures since the great price hike and in the process inadvertently skipped many of the BAFs altogether due to non-completion of waves. Yes folks, I have come to terms that I may never complete another BAF again because I simply couldn’t stomach the price tags of my beloved Marvel Legends anymore. I was already happy to add the figures that I really want for my display ML shelves without a care of completing the BAFs, although I came very close to completing my Ultron BAF wave myself.

So the other day I bought myself the movie Black Panther figure at retail (in fact I found 4 of him that day sitting pretty on the retail peg in a row) and resigned to the fact that I’d never get that sweet-lookin’ Giant Man BAF for my collection simply because I wasn’t ready to pay heaps of money just to get the rest of the figures in the wave, especially for some random/obscure dude called “Nuke”(a B-list character who seldom gets panel time in the comics).

A couple of months down the road later, something happened. I was able to procure the rest of the characters off the Giant Man wave or the “Marvel Legends Civil War” wave at only RM60 (or US dollars 15) each! Seemed that a bunch of un-sold stocks were conveniently secretly kept somewhere when Hasbro Malaysia decided to clear them off to make way for more new stuff coming their way. So, with Hasbro selling below retail price and the chance to finally complete that Giant Man BAF? Nope, not complaining a bit. Sold!

Now let us look into each of the action figures before we assemble Gigantor….err Giant Man at the very end of this review post:

Nick Fury

I missed out on the Toybiz ML Nick Fury many years ago during my student days, not because I couldn’t find him but because I was so confident at the time that nobody would eventually pick him up from the TRU shelf I was visiting, so I made a decision to come back in a couple of days to get him. Big mistake. I missed out both Nick and Silver Surfer (really wanted that Howard the Duck!) because of that amateur deduction of mine so getting this updated Hasbro ML Nick Fury was something I really look forward to from the wave.

The inclusion of two extra headsculpts i.e. one belongs to the satirical/parody character Dirk Anger (Fury/Anger….get it?) and the other is a generic SHIELD agent helmeted head. Both are excellent alternate heads but I can’t see myself or many collectors buying more of the figure just to army build. Just not here in Malaysia at least, because of the ludicrous price point. Anyway, it’s finally great to see a classic Nick Fury being reproduced for the ML line after being content with the Samuel L Jackson versions for quite some time.

Civil War Captain America

It’s funny how the same mould was carried over from one of the previous wave (I think it was from the Age of Ultron wave with that BAF Thanos) but Hasbro didn’t include the alternate Steve Rogers head this time around. Not much of a problem for me as I already have the Chris Evans alternate head from the Winter Soldier wave many years ago. But for those who want an unmasked Cap head, the only way to do so right now is to get the Walmart 3-pack action figure set (you’d also get a Tony Stark un-helmeted head and that new Tom Holland Spiderman action figure).

Personally, getting yet ‘another’ Captain America was just ‘meh’ to me because I have multiple versions of him already on my display shelf next to my army of Iron Men and Wolverines. For the record, I still prefer Cap in his blue SHIELD uniform from the Captain America: Winter Soldier movie the best.

While I am glad that I finally have an updated movie Captain America figure for my display shelf, I still prefer to get new un-produced characters that still haven’t been made in ML form. This figure is necessary though if you want to assemble the movie line-up.

Civil War Iron Man (Mark 46)

Biggest disappointment for me here is that I didn’t get the unmasked Tony Stark head with the figure. Seriously I could go without another Iron Man but I was actually looking forward to get the Tony Stark head for some simple custom ‘Tony in suit’ figure. I prayed hard that the rumors that Mark 46 was not to come with an alternate head weren’t true. But I needed the BAF part to complete Giant Man. So hey…

The Mark 46 armor reminds me a bit of the Bleeding Edge armor created by Matt Fraction not long ago. I think as long as an Iron Man suit has both red and gold elements to it, it’ll sit well with fans. What I do like about this Iron Man figure it its bulkiness. I always try to think that an actual human being needs to fit inside that suit so technically it has to be a bit bulkier to accommodate him/her.

Just like Captain America, this is yet another entry into my long list of Iron Men that I have on my display shelf. Great addition to your diorama of the hall of armor though.

Civil War Black Panther

T’challa finally gets a headsculpt and this fact alone makes him a must get for me. This is my 3^rd ML Black Panther in my collection but I safely say that he is the best so far. Toybiz gave us the classic version while Hasbro earlier gave us an updated Black Panther somewhere in 2012/13. Black Panther was the fan-favorite character from the Civil War movie so it wasn’t actually a surprise to him disappearing from retail shelves the moment they were stacked by your local TRU/retail store assistant.

I love the design on his suit. One would think that Marvel Studios could only go so far with the simplistic black design but they went and decorated it with the silver-ish deco and stuff, which was translated well by Hasbro onto this figure.

Some collectors were heavily criticizing the unmasked head sculpt but I’m just glad we finally got one for T’challa with his 3^rd six inch scale figure. This is definitely one of my favorite figure off the wave.

Marvel’s Nuke

Ok I have a confession here. I know nuts about this character except for the fact that he was part of the ‘Weapon Plus’ program which included the likes of Wolverine and some other good guys. Somehow or rather he went to the dark side and became one of Wolverine/Captain America’s baddie. It’s always good however to get lesser known characters in your ML line-up especially if he or she comes with tonnes of accessories.

First of all, this Arnie look-alike dude is a large action figure and I’m not talking about your standard Spidey buck type of body. He can rival the sheer size of Cable from the previous X-Men 2016 wave. I love bulky action figures. That much of plastic makes you feel that you’re getting your full money’s worth.

Nuke comes with a red-blue-white rifle gun which coincides with the colors of the American flag on his face. He also gets a giant Rambo-like serrated knife which can be placed in a sheath at the back of his vest. I’m not done yet…..he also comes with a cool alternate ‘damaged’ head which shows his cybernetic parts inside…..*cough* Terminator rip-off? *cough*. Oh wait, did I tell you that you need this figure to get the most important part for your Giant Man BAF aka his torso? Now how about that? A figure that no one really cares about due to his lack of appearance in the comics…..but has so many cool factors that comes with it?

This is to be the most under-rated figure off the wave.

Red Guardian

Now this is to me, simply a response by the Russians to Captain America. Not long ago, when I used to collect Marvel Universe action figures, I took a liking to the Red 3.75” scale Guardian action figure and displayed him next to my Captain America and Captain Britain.

The figure has a very nice paint job and he is not simply painted red as he has some nice shading of red and darker red on his chest and torso. He also comes with his trademark Soviet shield and can be placed on the character’s back just like Cap’s. Surprisingly, despite his simplicity in design, I read somewhere that from the wave, this is one of the best-selling figures through on-line stores in the States and even the likes of Amazon listed him as one of the fast-moving Marvel Legends in recent times.

This guy adds color to my display shelf and I suddenly regret not picking up the new Captain Britain from the Abomination wave a couple of months ago at a retail outlet to go with him.

And finally….the Giant Man BAF

I really really wanted the Toybiz Giant Man BAF so much that I tried to purchase the individual action figures to get the pieces that I need to build him to no success. When I heard that we’re getting a new Giant Man (although the movie version) I was ecstatic!

And here he is!

I love Paul Rudd’s take on Scott Lang and he did a wonderful job of portraying Ant-Man/Giant-Man in the Civil War movie.

My only qualm is that I would have loved to see an alternate head for Giant-Man or perhaps a feature that allows us to alternately display him with his helmet half-open.

While still smaller than the BAFs of yore aka Toybiz era, he is still technically ‘one of the’ or even THE biggest/tallest BAF we’ve seen thus far from Hasbro’s modern ML line-up. They can only get bigger from now onwards, right? A bit of wishful thinking from yours truly.

The Rebel’s verdict?

This is one of the must-have ML wave for me simply because I get to realize a long time dream of getting Nick Fury and Giant Man into my display shelf. You should get this wave too if you’re keen on assembling a movie Civil War line up. Now the challenge for me is to find a movie Scarlet Witch since I seem to have almost everybody else…..and perhaps a Tom Holland Spidey too when he’s available on his own in one of the future ML waves.

Nuff said.