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The Sad State Of Star Wars

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I've been noticing things a lot of things in the last 6 months to a year that have led me to believe that SW is in a crappy state of affairs. Here's what I've observed.....

The Movies
The changes to the OT continue with the 2004 releases with rumors circulating on more changes for some future release, possibly 2007. The prequels are now even rumored to be receiving the special edition treatment, adding to the fact the very strong opinions as to the quality of the films when they were released.

The Toys
I've always paid attention to the SW toy situation. I used to regularly visit rebelscum.com to see what was getting released. Over the last year, there have been a lot of complaints about repacks of various figures while other seemingly important characters are going unnoticed. Hard to believe that as of the ROTS release, we still haven't had a carded release of Wedge Antilles, but we got scores of repacked Cantina Han Solos. I don't even collect this stuff and I know that. Comes from listening to constant complaints about who's running Hasbro these days. A recent visit to creaturecantina.com resulted in reading a list of the best and worse SW toys of 2005. Seems to be a bit of dissatisfaction with quality. Many toys are being made pretty crappy, it seems.

The Games
This is something I pay attention to as I like the SW games. First there's the KOTOR 2 poochscrew. They released the game last xmas when the game wasn't even completely finished and it was royally obvious that the game was finished either. Then there's the Galaxies situation playing itself out now. The game recently went through a total overhaul that negated much of the time and effort many players went through to build up their characters since the game's release 2 years ago. Then there's the Jedi Knight 2/Jedi Academy issue. Jedi Academy is basically a glorified mod for Jedi Knight 2. Jedi Academy was what Jedi Knight 2 should have been. JK2 was released in April 2002 and JA was released in August 2003 and featured scores of things that weren't in JK2. The funny thing is when you play JA, the saber moves are flawed majorly when the JK2 saber moves are pretty damn good.

The Books, etc.
I don't read them much anymore, but since the prequels came out and the EU shifted toward that time era, I noticed a lot of opinions that the quality of the EU has dropped sharply. From some of the stuff I've skimmed, I would agree. Why do you have to buy a book series to explain unanswered questions from the movies when the movies should have done that in the first place? Is it possibly to sell more books, I don't know.

Celebration 3
I was there and I can honestly say that it was not that great. Aside from Lucas being there, it wasn't noteworthy at all. They had a lot of guests signing autographs, but there weren't any of the BIG, BIG names. The dealers weren't that impressive with their wares. The exhibits were too crowded and you couldn't get in to see half the shows that were offered. The place was oversold and was WAY TOO crowded. You could barely move through it at all. Fan Club membership meant nothing. They were selling memberships at the event which meant that EVERYONE was in the fan club...all 36,000 people who showed up. So much for special fan club only stuff. The C3 store was a complete disaster. No one could get in at all. The line for it was 7 to 8 hours long and they closed it up when they realized they didn't have enough stuff. And the party held on Saturday night was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. If it wasn't for alcohol.....

This is all I an think of right now, but it seems that SW is on a general decline in terms of quality. The only field I can speak with authority is the games cuz I've played those and know of what I speak. The rest is just what I've heard from people who have experience in whatever part of SW they like (toys, books, etc). It just seems to me that the whole franchise has shifted to a cash cow kind of mentality....as in let's make the most amount of money we can.

What do any of you think? Are SW products and the franchise as a whole on a decline?

Sorry to post so long.....can't get to sleep.
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And if you haven't visited SW.com tonight, I will have to break some more saddening news about the SW toys. Lucasfilm has just created a special line of action figures devoted to the characters that Lucas and his kids played in the prequels. I shit you not, go check it out. They've gladly put it on the front page as usual.
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OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell is up with that shit?!?!?!!?

I thought the Lucas as an X-Wing pilot was kinda neat cuz it hadn't been done before and it was sort of a novelty, but this is just too much.

Lucas is insane....it is now official.
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And the motto for their action figure line is "The force is strong in this family."
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That's it...I can't take anymore. I'm going to bed.
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"immortalized now for the first time as Hasbro action figures" - so this is the unrevealed secret of immortality in starwars

P.S.: I'd like to see a fan-film were they replace the flurry ghosts with hasbro action figures to stress the immortality thang.
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Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
And if you haven't visited SW.com tonight, I will have to break some more saddening news about the SW toys.


I typed in "SW.com" and this came up:
http://sw.com/public/page.cfm?Home

No wonder you guys are pissed, THEY LOOK NOTHING LIKE STAR WARS CHARACTERS!!!
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I guess I should have been more clear. It's "starwars.com," not "SW.com."
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Hey Cable, how do you feel about those Playskool (or whatever company) Star Wars toys? The kiddie ones with the big hands and feet?

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

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I have all the OT Playskool sets. Bought two of each a couple years back--one for my nephew, one for me. I think they're pretty awesome.
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MTFBWY…A

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The things I have been noticing, is how they are mixing the pt and OT together now like they have always been together all these years. All the books about star wars mix the pt and OT together, on the back of the OT DVDS they describe the OT in relation to the new pt. It just makes me sick.
"Drink the Kool-Aid. Wear blinders. Cover your ears. Because that's the only way you can totally enjoy Revenge of the Sith -- the final and most futile attempt from skilled producer, clumsy director and tin-eared writer George Lucas to create a prequel trilogy to match the myth-making spirit of the original Star Wars saga he unleashed twenty-eight years ago. Fan boys, of course, have convinced themselves otherwise. So have several critics, if you go by early reviews."
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His megalomania is disturbing.
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your right there are alot of books coming out in the PT era, but the stat of the books isnt that bad, in the last 6 months the dark nest trilogy just came out that those books are great, last year the NJO series just finished and you know i define that series as SW more then the PT and some of the OT, its the reasin i am a fan and post on this site. also there are alot of PT books that are good, rogue planet is great, and the outward bound project is going to be awesome aswell. ep 3 was exillent as well, when you look at it in terms as a Star Wars film it was the second best of the series, and was truely the last peice of the true star wars trilogy, EP 3 EP 4 EP 5. so in the last 6 mouths i dont think the state of SW is that bad.
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i'm sure the books are better written than the prequels, pretty hard not to be. i definitely feel less a fan than i did a few years ago when i did care for the books. now if im interested its mostly just out of nostalgia
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Originally posted by: fans own the trilogy
The things I have been noticing, is how they are mixing the pt and OT together now like they have always been together all these years. All the books about star wars mix the pt and OT together, on the back of the OT DVDS they describe the OT in relation to the new pt. It just makes me sick.

Now that I like. That is a step in a better direction, IMHO. And besides, they are all in the same universe anyway, what's the problem?

Originally posted by: Mr Bungle
Star Wars to me is in one of the worst states ever if not worst, the films are of a lower quality IMO, only Sith i felt raised above the average, I dont know the state the video games, the books and toys are in because i have no interest,


You need to read: Labyrinth of Evil, the ROTS novelization, and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. They are EXCELLENT novels.
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Star Wars has been going down hill for me since the PT.

I remember me and my best friend looking for Star Wars toys at the mall a few years ago. We go into KB Toys and find a whole section of Star Wars toys. We see the words "Star Wars Toys" and we rushed over like two little chipmunks excited as excited could be. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Star Wars stuff!" When we got there we just went "Oh..." and left. It was nothing but Episode I and II crap. It didn't even register on our RADAR that Episode I and II was "Star Wars." That's NOT Star Wars. Star Wars is ANH, ESB and ROTJ. And we didn't see any of that and left.

Her dad: "You guys find any good toys?"
Us: "No, they didn't have anything. *sad sigh*"
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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Originally posted by: Nanner Split
Hey Cable, how do you feel about those Playskool (or whatever company) Star Wars toys? The kiddie ones with the big hands and feet?


You know....I actually like them....they're unusual. I haven't bought any and don't plan to, but I do think they are one of the stand-outs.

Not EVERYTHING is bad......just most of it.

The one thing I forgot to mention is the Unleashed line of figures from Hasbro. I used to collect those and then got rid of them. For anyone who isn't familiar with these, you didn't play with these figures....you simply put them on the shelf and admired how much they looked and they looked NICE!!! They were very detailed and were downright beautiful. It was like having a mini-statue of the character and only cost a fraction of the price. The line was a really, really, really great thing. And then late last year or early this year, Hasbro said they were overhauling the line......and making it a 2 inch figure line. A 2 INCH FIGURE?!?!?!?!?! They were originally about 7 inches and now they were going to be 2?!?!?!?!?! I had one word for that.....BULLSHIT!!!

So, I am still a little burned about that cuz those figures were nice. It seems anything that is targeted at the older audience is getting thrown out the door. Those figures were clearly designed for older collectors.

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Originally posted by: battlewars
star trek is starting to seem less gay


I never thought I would actually prefer Trek over Star Wars, but I'm actually just about there.
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Originally posted by: Cable-X1
Originally posted by: battlewars
star trek is starting to seem less gay


I never thought I would actually prefer Trek over Star Wars, but I'm actually just about there.


Is Star Trek really that bad?
I'd like a qui-gon jinn please with an Obi-Wan to go.

Red heads ROCK. Blondes do not rock. Nuff said.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/greencapt/hansolovsindy.jpg
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Maybe this isn't the group I should admit it to, but I've always gone Star Trek over Star Wars. Star Wars is just three movies. Star Trek is a whole universe. There's some 700+ hours of Star Trek when you figure in all six series and the ten films.