 “Good to be back in the Loop - we have checked out many Wal-Mart and Targets from St. Louis to Pryor, OK (no kidding). We managed to pick up #41 and 42 in Pittsburgh, KS (only ones they had of 41-44) and we found #43 in Miami, OK. Still lacking 44, but we have faith we'll find it soon. Saw ROTS at midnight in Pittsburgh, KS, and even there all 3 screens were sold out (a town with a pop. of about 20,000 plus surrounding rural areas) - awesome. We wanted to see it again on vacation, but with only 2 local theatres, everything was sold out. I have a question about the Anakin with Dooku Saber: Has it ever been determined which figure (hand with red saber or Dooku saber) is the variant? We have one of each, but we find the hand figures everywhere and have only seen the Dooku saber version once (when we bought it). Sorry if this is old news, we just didn't remember seeing it anywhere. We are also still in need of a blue saber Palpatine if anyone has one to trade.
Also found all 4 of the wave 2 deluxe figures - we passed on the Vulture Droid, but picked up Yoda on the bug, Vader on the table, and the Clone Trooper. Got them all at a Wal-Mart in Joplin, MO. We saw Yoda at 2 stores we visited, the Trooper and Vulture Droid in several stores, and the only Vader was the one we bought. Also picked up another Target Clone in Joplin, MO (they had about 9-10). I like the Galactic Heroes line and it seems Wal-Mart stores all over have stumbled across some old cases - we picked up 2 packs of 4-LOM/Bossk and Jawa/Tusken Raider (St. James, MO), and Han/Leia and Luke/R2D2 (Joplin, MO). We also found the new releases of Kit Fisto/Mace Windu, Chewbacca/Clone Trooper, and Super Battle Droid/R2D2 at the Lebanon, MO store. In Pryor, OK we found the Playskool X-wing on clearance for $12.50 (instead of $20). We also found a second Playskool Swamp-Stompin' Yoda in Lebanon, MO and an extra Darth Tater in Pryor, OK. Miami, OK was good for a couple of older figs too - Cantina Encounter Dannik Jerriko and OTC Leia (we passed on a couple of other Cantina Encounter figs), as well as an extra AT-TE Gunner and Red Royal Guard. My favorite find of the trip though was in St. James, MO, where we picked up an Obi-Wan Unleashed figure from 2004 (same wave as Slave Leia and Jedi Luke). Thanks for bearing with our long update - it’s been a great vacation, but its good to be back!”
ajh88@sbcglobal.net |
The long holiday weekend added $70 million to the outstanding total of over $271 million in just a few days shy of 2 weeks since it's debut. The runners up were "Madigascar", and "The Longest Yard" with a respectable $60 million each. Overall, ticket sales have actually dropped for ROTS by 42%, but a 20th Century Fox executive says "It's a relatively small decline considering that blockbuster debuts often are followed by audience erosion of 50% to 60%. When you get that many people in on the first weekend, you almost have to fall that much." I can say that I have seen this movie 3 times and plan another viewing in the near future. It's great to actually look for all of the easter eggs. Check out the many areas at USAtoday.com from all of the ROTS coverage, to a Lucasfilm Q+A, to a write up from Celebration III. Now is the best time to be a fan of Star Wars. It's great seeing this movie come full circle with the original trilogy.
Great news Troopers! I have finished making 193 new avatar images that are in relation to "Revenge of the Sith," and these are to be used in our forums. In order to view them you'll need to go into your Profile, and then browse through them by going to the Personalized Picture section. You'll see a choice that says [ROTS]. Click on that and then you'll see all of the new avatars that I just made. With 193 new ones to choose from, it might take you a while to decide on which one you want to use. Feel free to share your comments and/or questions about this 
"Greetings Troops! Located the Tarkin wave at Wal-Mart, and some scalper scum folded the tops of the cards over. This was obviously intentional. Hey scalper scum! If you can't buy it, leave it alone! We deserve to be able to buy toys that aren't damaged intentionally! Anyway, managed to get a Tarkin and an Ask Aak that were hiding on the bottom shelf. ALSO- I need a Lava Vader. Can anyone help me? I have an Ephant Mon to trade, or I'd pay a fair price. Let me know! I wasn't able to get one. Our Targets sold out the first 30 seconds!"
Hey Troops! Wanted to let you know that we received a transmission from one of our secret agents, and it looks like Hasbro is bringing back Star Wars Refills for their LITE-BRITE toys. To read more and to see a larger image of this click 
The Team at Sandtroopers.com would like to wish all of the real Troopers and Veterans out there a Happy Memorial Day. We’d like to send a very special Thank You for those who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting the war on terror. We express our sorrow and condolences for the families who have lost loved ones in the battle to preserve our freedom. God Bless the Troops, United We Stand. United We Find.
"I'm not too sure what catagory this falls under. People are making illegal copies of Episode III with the work print time coded version. In Toronto they are selling one with the Russian text scroll DVD quality for $7 without the time codes. Somebody out there is gonna get in big Bantha poo-doo!!"
"Hi guys! Big Mike Hodge here with a report from Cincinnati. Nothing new at 
Hey troops. This morning I was out and made a stop into Wal-Mart (Greenwood, IN.) As I looked over the many brown Wookiees, Destroyer Droids, Clone Troopers, Neimodian Warriors, and more I found hidden among them #45 Tarkin, #46 AskAak, and #47 Meena Tills. I picked up one of each. It looked as Wal-Mart only stocked two cases with the new figures since there were two of each. Also, the Hasbro Rep was there and I talked to her as usual. If you want a Darth Tater you better pick it up real soon. He is going to be replaced with Spud Trooper this fall.
If you have been using our forums for a while we'd like to thank you for your participation in them. Since we upgraded our forum software several months ago (from YabbSE to SMF) it was time to change the URL of the forums. So, instead of logging into the forums with the following... 
From Master Replicas: "Size matters not... unless we’re talking about edition size that is. That’s right on May 26, exactly one week after the release of Star Wars: Episode III, we will stop taking orders on Yoda’s Revenge of the Sith Limited Edition Lightsaber. Then in approximately two weeks we will be announcing the final edition size for the LE. On that date, the edition size will be frozen in carbonite, locked away forever. And if you thought the diminutive Jedi Master’s saber saw some action in Attack of the Clones, well, after Revenge of the Sith, you’ll definitely want to add his weapon to your collection. So before Master Yoda disappears into the misty world of Dagobah, be sure to get YOUR Yoda Limited Edition Lightsaber NOW. Once it’s gone, it will be lost forever to the murky swamps of the secondary market at prices so high, you could almost buy your own ship for them."
Fellow staff member Sandtrooper Dan made the news up in Wausau, Wisconsin, and was labeled as being a proud Star Wars geek by the 
In a single day Revenge of the Sith made history toppling the mark previously set by Spiderman 2 for the most ticket sales in a day. It was no surprise people were more interested in how Darth Vader came to be vs. the bare-chested potbellied Doc Ock! I’m sure Revenge of the Sith will continue to set many records, to check out the entire story 
Staff member Boba Binks has updated his visual guide of Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Starfigther, where the original review was just the yellow version of his ship, but this new addition includes the Toys 'R Us exclusive 
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times has written a review of Revenge of the Sith, and he gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. His review was blunt by saying, "His reaction is that of a nice kid in a teenage comedy [about Padme's pregnancy], trying to seem pleased while wondering how this will affect the other neat stuff he gets to do. To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion." He does say a lot of good things about the movie though, so read his full review 
"Boston, MA: I went on a mini toy run today. Both Target and Toys R' Us had many sales including basic figures marked down to $4.99. The Toys R' Us in Somerville had the Holographic Yoda figures out, the VOTC figures marked down to $7.99, plenty of the exclusive Anakin Fighters, but no new basic figures. The Target in Somerville had figures #41-44, the Vader with operating table, no exclusive Target Clone Trooper, and one rude employee who was not friendly when I asked about the Target Clones while he was re-stocking the Star Wars figures. The Target in Everett had three empty pegs where the Target exclusive Clone Troopers should be and nothing else good. I was trying to be good and not blow money, but I broke down to get the Toys R' Us Yoda and some Clone Troopers. The kids were going nuts at Target. It's funny how they find toys appealing for different reasons than the adults do. I pointed out to one young man that figures #41-44 where out, but he was totally uninterested. He stated that the Neimodian Warrior was "freaky" looking, nor was he interested in the Super Articulated Clone Trooper stating that he already had a Clone Trooper. I'm getting totally psyched for the movie now. Ebert and Roeper gave it two thumbs up too and didn't have much bad to day about it either."
A big Happy Birthday wish goes out to the man that created it all. George Lucas turns 61 years old today. From all of the staff and all of the members of this site, we hope you have a great one.