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jwenig

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About jwenig

  • Birthday 03/30/1973

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    Chicago, IL
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    80's Toys

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  1. Your not alone on these new prequels. I think Gary Kurtz said it best when he described them as a mistake to paraphrase. Gary said that the reason prequels should never be done is that they limit your creativitiy by painting you into a corner where the current story is tied to the previous story so you really are limited to what you can do. I think this formula works well for George Lucas because he has clearly lost his creative talents and really is a better executive now than a creative story teller. The fact that he can't move beyond the Clone Wars even after the Clone Wars were covered in Episode 3 I think makes it clear that George has nothing left in the tank. Indiana Jones 4 is another testiment that George Lucas should not continue in any way to make another Star Wars or Indiana Jones Movie ever again. He should look towards someone like Christopher Nolan to reboot both series who in my opinion is one the the best creative directors out there now... who is more talented than George Lucas in 2010. I have actually been purging my Star Wars collection now for the past couple of years to remove all of the Episode 1-3 stuff. I bought all of the items thinking the movies would get better and justify having them in my collection but one by one, each movie was worse than the other. To me, the reason they fail is that the story for all three is just terrible. The movies looked good but that is not how a good movie endures over time. Anyhow, here are a list of my grievences regarding the first 3 Movies that drive me crazy. 1. Old Count Dooku replaces the only cool new character to come out of the new movies... Darth Maul who is cut in half in the first movie. 2. Yoda in Episode I - Do I really have to explain why? 3. The dialog of the actors, almost condescending to the audience. 4. What really was Palpatine's Overall Plan... or can you even explain why Naboo was important to him. For being a master tactitian, his goals were not very clear or masterful. 5. The look and feel of the films... are more polished and technologically advanced than the movies in the future. Seems as you regress in time, the look and feel should not be progressive. 6. Not Dark Enough. Vader is bitter and angry person. He is going to hunt down and kill all of the Jedi he can in the purge and I don't think the movie makes a compelling case for why Vader would do something like that. 7. How Anakin gives into the dark side. Biggest #$$# award goes to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith for giving in to Palpatine after only a few suggestions to join the dark side. Palpatine is the most convincing man in the Universe it seems with words. 8. If you really think about it, Obi-wan seems more of the focus in these movies and more interesting than Anakin. The story was supposed to be about the birth of Vader and I felt the story was more about the successful career of Obi-wan Kenobi. Maybe Palpatine recruited the wrong person... seems Obi-wan is the strongest Jedi or the one. Even the Old Kenobi if you think about it in A New Hope only lost to Vader when he gave up. 9. Not enough focus on Palpatine. I would have enjoyed a more split story about the Sith and what there plans were and how Palpatine was going to carry out those plans. If Palpatine realized he needed Anakin with him instead of Dooku, for what reason? Why wasn't Palpatine behind all of the unfortunate events that would slowly push Anakin to the Dark Side.... turning him against the Jedi... like being somehow envolved with his mother being murdered and for Padme's health for starters... Ultimately, give Anakin a reason to join the Dark side and the hatred one would truly need to have to want to kill your old Master, and murder a whole bunch of people. Losing your mother, wife, and children are a good start and if Palpaine orchestrated these... that would have been delicious. 10. Clone Trooper Variation Galore. Proving my theory about Lucas being more of a CEO than a creative mind... The numerous different types of Armor for the Clone Troopers on every planet seems to be more of a Marketing Decision than a creative one. You can't sell enough white clone troopers but if you alter the armor just a little bit, you can sell 10, 20 times as many. This in my opinion is one of the best strategic decisions Lucas made in regards to these films. Clone troopers sell well and each new deco is greeted warmly by fans who just can't get enough of these guys.... suckers. J
  2. I am a huge fan of the first three movies. When I heard that Lucas was going to do three new star wars movies... I was very excited. Then I heard it was going to be a prequel and I was hesitant about a prequel versus just moving on to something new. Then I went to the Midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie and left the show thinking that the movie did not live up to the hype and I did not have the same feeling leaving the theatre for the first time after A New Hope. There was no wow factor and then I began to look at all of the products I had bought from the movie anticipating I had essential characters from memorable moments of the film and I wondered why I had all of those figures. I tried to justify in any way I could that the next two movies could not be worse and the movies would get better... So the next two movies came and went and in the end, I became more disappointed over time with poor acting, week story telling, and very few characters that were memorable or interesting. Darth Maul was the best new character and they gave us very little screen time or character development... and of course cut him in half... I have sold most of the unessential characters from my action figure collection and now only focus on Jedi Masters and Clone Troopers... or the clone troopers that actually appeared on screen. I feel at this point that Star Wars can't continue to be successful until George Lucas dies or passes the torch on to someone else to run with the Saga.... and I'm serious about this. In Chicago, to give you an example... The owner of the Chicago Blackhawks or Bill Wirtz ran his baby or the organization pretty much into the ground because it was his baby and he did not care about the fans or what his cronies were telling him about how to make the organization successful. The Blackhawks were so bad, that the games were only half sold out and no radio or tv station would broadcast the games. Bill Wirtz died, his son Rocky Wirtz took over and changed things... and spent a lot of time talking to the fans and ticket holders. After one year of the change, the team almost went to the Stanley Cup Finals... and tickets for this season pretty much sold out... and the games including home games which were never on TV before have returned to popular tv stations... All because Bill Wirtz died. I have had it with George Lucas. GL can take his sad old story called clone wars and shove it. GL is a saving me a lot of money as I ignore everything stamped with Clone Wars on it or anything from the first three movies. I don't own any of the Prequel ships.... NOT ONE. I also dumped the DVDs of the prequels as I have no desire to ever watch them... ever. I wish I had a time machine and could go back and council GL on what he should do. I would tell him straight up that he has lost it. Stay away from Star Wars and Indiana Jones and get someone new to work on the series... Maybe someone like Peter Jackson who trully now has more vision than George Lucas. Is it possible that the reason George Lucas went back to a prequel is because he has lost the ability to create something unique? Pretty easy to fill in the holes from missing information from the first three films... or so it would seem... he couldn't even do that right. As you can tell, I could go on and on about GL and how much I really dispise the prequels now... But I have the first Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones Trilogy to keep me entertained any time.
  3. All links to the graded San Diego Comic Con Gold and Silver Destro have been removed. Also the category for Graded collectibles has been removed as well. I wonder why. J
  4. Congratulations on winning such a prestigious licensee deal with the WB. I understand from a business point of view why Warner Brothers wants to partner with the largest toy company worldwide, but from an action figure stand-point and from many readers of this forum who follow the action figure genre... Mattel has one of the weakest action figure offerings in that segment of toys. Let me explain. Mattel had the rights to the Harry Potter Universe for a time and was not able to turn a billion dollar franchise into a meaningful toy property like Hasbro has done with Star Wars. Mattel also was responsible for the highly successful Masters of the Universe figures that was resurrected alongside a new television show and was cancelled. You currently have a popular Justice League and DC Superheroes line of action figures that are extremely popular but the line has issues with distribution or lack of product availability, character ratio or the fact that every new case has many previous old characters, and quality control issues where for example Aquaman who is famous for his Triton either does not come with one or if he does, his hands are molded in a way to no hold the triton. Many figures have paint issues of overspray or missing paint applications. Is Mattel aware that in the action figure segment that they are a joke to the action figure community and will the company ever address this issue going forward? I feel that with all of the other toy segments that this particular toy segment at Mattel is ignored while your main competitor Hasbro kicks your butt with several leading action figure lines included Star Wars, G.I.Joe, Transformers, and now Marvel Legends. I can't even pencil you in for any action figure line currently as a clear hit on any level with companies like Hasbro, Neca, and McFarlane. They only credit I can give to you is hiring the four horsemen to sculpt figures in the DC Superheroes line because no one at Mattel has the talent to do so. Jason
  5. Hello, I want to preface what I say by telling you I was one of the customers at the focus groups held at Celebration III where you showed the group the Metal Action Fleet Ships and Metal Action Figures. We gave you our input on them and you totally ignored our suggestions pretty much on all our points. Will you start to release new large ships that were never made for the premium ships... including highly demanded ships like the Death Star, Star Destroyer, Super Star Destroyer, and Medical Frigate (Ackbar ship). We stressed our disdain for starting a series by reissuing older ships that most people have... a comprimise would be one new ship, one old ship in each series released. Also, the Metal line is terrible. We stressed at the group that figures that made sense to be transformed into metal would be desirable. Droids... or Clones who have shiny armor make sense because they can not be duplicated in plastic. We also asked about interchangable parts making the figure into many figures for the price point since the original idea was a build a figure. The end result were figures with a mix of metal and fabric for vader, figures that are sculpted on a scale close to the 1995 POTF2 figures, Paint jobs that look like a 3rd grader painted them with water colors in art class... and the idea that it would be neat to have the metal show through the colored figures... and figures that are unpainted. All of these realities are terrible. I bought a few figures intially and then I returned them because the money and quality of the items were not for me... and since I see many just sitting on the shelf collecting dust at every store I visit... I believe many feel the same way. Can Hasbro kill the original metal concept and retool the line so that it can be successful. A high quality Metal figure I think is a good idea, provided the sculpt is of high quality, the paint job is accurate and high quality, and the packaging is not so awkward for retailers. I think the durability of metal is unquestionable compared to plastic... and could fit in with the plastic figure line by complimenting it. I just do not see how this line can continue under its current strategy. Jason
  6. I have a unique lot of Authentic Autographs from Star Wars that are ALL PERSONALIZED TO JASON. So, if you name is Jason and you need these Autographs, check them out here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7563076001
  7. Hello, If you are not familiar with my custom maquettes or http://www.banned/custom/Galleries/C...h/cjoefish1.htm, and would like to see them in person, I will be at the San Diego 2005 Comic-con in the Artist Alley at booth GG-01. I am sharing a booth with the great Scott Beaderstadt who is officially the person listed as being at GG-01. Scott is a good friend of mine and the man behind the Troll Lords books. Please stop by and say hi if you have a chance, I will have maquettes with me on display... and for those who have not seen some of them in person... you will be impressed. Hope to see you in San Diego! Cory http://www.corysmithart.com/
  8. Hello, If you are not familiar with my custom maquettes or http://www.banned/custom/Galleries/C...h/cjoefish1.htm, and would like to see them in person, I will be at the San Diego 2005 Comic-con in the Artist Alley at booth GG-01. I am sharing a booth with the great Scott Beaderstadt who is officially the person listed as being at GG-01. Scott is a good friend of mine and the man behind the Troll Lords books. Please stop by and say hi if you have a chance, I will have maquettes with me on display... and for those who have not seen some of them in person... you will be impressed. Hope to see you in San Diego! Cory http://www.corysmithart.com/
  9. ahhh LAME LAME LAME.... This is THE WORST EXCLUSIVE EVER. So, it appears the stategy going forward is to make money kicking out current sculpts and providing them on cards, or slightly changing the deco in order to sell more of the same to collectors. I can tell that it is clear the direction Hasbro will be going from now on, and it is not good for collectors. If they want to kill the Star Wars License, go right ahead. I'm not buying this crap anymore with so many other licenses to buy from... Hasbro can choke on this and any other exclusives that suck... J
  10. OK, I guess people where not able to take pictures of all of the Gentle Giants Star Wars items coming out in 2005, so where are the details at least? What, did they make people swear an oath to not release the details... how lame is that... and why is Gentle Giants not allowing their ROTS items to be photographed... but Hasbro is allowing photo's of everything coming out on April 2nd... makes no sense to me. J
  11. OK, I guess people where not able to take pictures of all of the Gentle Giants Star Wars items coming out in 2005, so where are the details at least? What, did they make people swear an oath to not release the details... how lame is that... and why is Gentle Giants not allowing their ROTS items to be photographed... but Hasbro is allowing photo's of everything coming out on April 2nd... makes no sense to me. J
  12. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am pretty disappointed regarding the 2005 assortment of GIJoe's for the Comic 3-packs. I would scrap all of them in favor of one 3-pack. What I want more in the whole wide world are: More Cartoon/Comic version of Lady Jaye... Worst Classic GIJoe figure EVER! Tomax/Xamot in there Extensive Enterprises Business suits. That is the 3 - pack I really want. All the others are actually not original like the past 9 3-packs... most look like re-issues. Thanks hasbro for killing this original concept fairly quickly. J
  13. Can you image, if the same person that came up with the idea of the Masterpiece Optimus Prime could actually convince Takara/Hasbro of working on something new for the Fans of G1 Transformers? Maybe more than one new concept in 20 + years fans would go crazy for. Why not make this the year of the Remakes, 2005? First off, lets remedy the 20+ year mistake of Jetfire and finally give collectors the Skyfire we so desire and deserve? Secondly, where are the Jets? Ok, if because they were re-issued before in collectors sets, why not take the very sleak and more cartoon accurate Robotmasters Starscream and re-do all of the jets in that fashion? Ironhide and Ratchet have been without heads for 20+ Years for gods sake... and are probably the worst G1 transfomers ever conceived. Lets give them a new mold and a new identity. What would you recommend if Takara/Hasbro actually could use an original idea to give back to the fans 20 years later? J
  14. Hi, I am collecting most of the Takara Re-issues, but the few I don't want, I would like to get the cards that come with them. Currently, I am missing #15 Steppers Fact Files and other inserts, and Predakings... but I'm not sure if Predaking comes with the inserts? Does anyone out there buy two of each and have extras to sell, or is there a place where you can buy them other than these boards. Any help or information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jason
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