Star Wars Rebels (All Star Wars Spoilers)

[red snow]

next season looks good and even though I've never read anything about that EU universe character based on the reverence people have it can only be a good thing for the show.

[Howdyphillip]

That looks absolutely amazing. I think at this point, I may be looking more forwards to seeing Rebels season 3 than I am to seeing Rogue One, and i'm pretty pumped up obout the later. 

[Rhom]

11 minutes ago, Howdyphillip said:

That looks absolutely amazing. I think at this point, I may be looking more forwards to seeing Rebels season 3 than I am to seeing Rogue One, and i'm pretty pumped up obout the later. 

I might be right there with you.

Concerning the major reveal...

Spoiler

The problem I see with Thrawn here is the same problem that runs throughout Rebels.  "Where is he during the OT?"

I think we can probably hand wave that one by saying that Palpatine's racism sent him to the outer rim just like in the original EU.  But where is he in TFA?  The First Order should by rights have relied heavily on a genius like Thrawn.  

Of course... He never would have resorted to a bigger Death Star.

 

[Kalbear]

Oh HELL yes.

[Corvinus85]

21 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I might be right there with you.

Concerning the major reveal...

  Reveal hidden contents

The problem I see with Thrawn here is the same problem that runs throughout Rebels.  "Where is he during the OT?"

I think we can probably hand wave that one by saying that Palpatine's racism sent him to the outer rim just like in the original EU.  But where is he in TFA?  The First Order should by rights have relied heavily on a genius like Thrawn.  

Of course... He never would have resorted to a bigger Death Star.

 

Maybe our gang of scruffy looking nerf herders will kill him this season. 

 

[Corvinus85]

And the previews continue. IGN posted a another clip this time involving Maul.

When is season 3 supposed to start?

[red snow]

9 hours ago, Howdyphillip said:

That looks absolutely amazing. I think at this point, I may be looking more forwards to seeing Rebels season 3 than I am to seeing Rogue One, and i'm pretty pumped up obout the later. 

Rebels is definitely winning on the "including fan favourites" front. I sometimes feel the execution is lacking a little but that's to be expected in a series format and one which has to try and appeal to a huge age range. I do feel as if the mythology in rebels is more interesting than what we've got in VII and the previews of Rogue one so far though. The ultimate fate of Ezra seems to ger increasingly compelling for me - like we're seeing the story of the real one to bring balance to the force (he certainly seems to be getting equal training with dark and light side mentors). That might still be Vader and Luke's role but Ezra and Kanan may turn out to be as important.

[karaddin]

The mid season 2 trailer and this have both been amazing, so excited and impatient for it.  I see speculation about 

Spoiler

the darksaber 

making an appearance were spot on and great to see it turn up there. I'm going to go crazy waiting to see more of Ahsoka, her potential/likely absence from this season is about the only thing likely to frustrate me other than the wait!

[Slurktan]

3 hours ago, karaddin said:

The mid season 2 trailer and this have both been amazing, so excited and impatient for it.  I see speculation about 

  Hide contents

the darksaber 

making an appearance were spot on and great to see it turn up there. I'm going to go crazy waiting to see more of Ahsoka, her potential/likely absence from this season is about the only thing likely to frustrate me other than the wait!

What is

the Darksaber?  The only thing I know of that is the absolutely terrible Kevin J Anderson book in which it is a ship I believe.  If people are honestly wanting that then I question their sanity.

[karaddin]

29 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

What is

  Hide contents

the Darksaber?  The only thing I know of that is the absolutely terrible Kevin J Anderson book in which it is a ship I believe.  If people are honestly wanting that then I question their sanity.

 

Spoiler

Its an ancient short lightsaber that is black and has a more distinctive shape. It was taken by a Mandalorian house in the ancient Mandolorian/Jedi war and has been held by the house of Vizla until the clone wars.  The head of Death Watch - Pre Vizla wielded it at that time and fought Maul with it, and lost. Was last seen in Maul's possession. We see Sabine with it in the trailer.

 

[polishgenius]

I haven't watched any Rebels at all, but seeing that trailer I might have to go back and start.

Not just because wooo Thrawn, although that comes into it - I always wanted him to be played by Mads Mikkelsen but Lars is fine too- but the whole dark/light and neutral force character harks back to ideas Matt Stover introduced to the old EU with Vergere before later writers totally slapped it down and ruined her character. I'd mark out if she was introduced - in her original form- at a later stage but even if she's not it's a good slant to take.

[Rhom]

My only concern about that trailer is that most of it will be from the last episode of the season, that was kinda what happened with that great mid-season trailer last year.

[Corvinus85]

16 minutes ago, Rhom said:

My only concern about that trailer is that most of it will be from the last episode of the season, that was kinda what happened with that great mid-season trailer last year.

I think you're not recalling that correctly. Most of the really good stuff in the trailer was from the last episode, but there were quite a few scenes from the first episodes.

Considering that the trailer showed Thrawn, Maul, Mandalorians, more adventures with Hondo, I think the trailer showed stuff from the whole season, but maybe, again, the best parts were from the final episodes.

[karaddin]

Some of it is from the first two episodes which were shown at the celebration (and will probably come out in a month or two like siege of lothal did).

[Maia]

Season 3 trailers and clips combined here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy8PmYZZ-N0

The trailer above ends at about 3.20 and some of the following footage was new to me at least and quite exciting.

I have to say that I am kinda bummed that Ahsoka wasn't the one to introduce and elucidate the "middle" path. It seems that she was  only been introduced for that final confrontation with her former master and no real thought had been given to how her approach to the Force and life is different enough from Jedi for her not counting as one, while also not leading her to the Dark Side. Oh, well. I liked her appearances while they lasted, but in retrospective they feel somewhat tacked on. They should have been bold enough to charter new territory and made _her_ Ezra's teacher to begin with, IMHO. Much as I like Kanan and all, his background roughly mirrors her trajectory at the end of the Clone Wars and it is high time we saw a female mentoring a male  in Star wars.

I also ran into a wholly (and naively?) unexpected snag re: trying to acquire action figures for the series. I  introduced my 5-year-old niece to the cartoon this winter and she loves it, so, I decided to gift her some figures, to help while away the hiatus. Given how I have been hearing that both Lucas Arts and Disney are merchandise kings since forever and vaguely noticing lots of figures in stores -  thinking that I would have been all over them as a kid,  the frustration and difficulties of trying to get the Rebels crew were a rude awakening. First of all, it looks like the era of small 3.75 figures with bending knees and elbows - the most fun to play with, particularly outside the narrow franchise limits, quietly ended while I haven't been paying attention.

Also, it seems that even for an on-going series, there aren't any packs with the whole protagonist crew available - 6 figures aren't the end of the world, surely? - or maybe 2 3-er packs to get a kid started. With the pack containing less attractive characters according to corporate thinking (girl cooties!) being rarer. Instead, it seems that one has to pay attention to something called "waves" - when certain figures and only them get (re)released. And there is basically zero information concerning when/if these waves are going to hit  continental Europe. To add to the confusion, even the retail shops don't know in advance what figures they are going to get, but receive "mystery boxes" with random assorted stuff instead. WTF?! Naturally, the female figures were only contained in the very first wave that appeared when/before the series first started airing and I had no idea about it's existence, only as 2-packs with stormtroopers and in very low numbers. To add insult to injury, Sabine had a non-removable face-concealing helmet, so a complete no-go for us.

Whereas the 2 human guys were endlessly re-released as single figures, parts of 2-er, 3-er, 6-er packs (with villains), pack-in figures for vehicles, etc. I can't imagine anybody wanting them not having them at this point and it makes vehicles less attractive, because how many slight variations of a character do you need, if you are buying to play and not as a collector? Zeb and Chopper were re-released once at least... but as a 2-pack with each other, so if you already have one from a previous release, you'll be saddled with an identical figure that you don't need. Etc. I grabbed Luminara and Padme, which were on clearance to provide some female figures, but the little girl is understandably less excited about the characters she doesn't know.  

Now, there is supposedly a new wave coming on 30th September "Force Friday" with figures we want - a proper Sabine with a face, Hera pack-in with an A-Wing (and why couldn't they have provided just a single figure of her after all this time, or maybe a dual pack with Sabine and/or Chopper?), etc. But is Force Friday even a thing in Europe? When should I start looking? Does anybody here have  experience with this? Retail personnel doesn't seem to have a clue and apparently not everything even appears on amazon.de? Because I am kinda afraid of this stuff being underproduced (again!) and suspect that I'd need to grab it ASAP or miss it. 

Also, why, oh why does the vast majority of vehicles seat just one figure, when cartoon clearly shows 2 or more characters fitting in? From what I have heard, even Phantom model only seats 2, 1 in cockpit and 1 in cargo hold, though maybe you can somehow wrangle Chopper in too. The whole fun is loading a group of characters in and going somewhere, surely? I have bought my niece the Inquisitor's TIE Fighter (which comfortably sits 2 in cartoon, but not in a model, alas), but for that very reason she mostly uses a shoe box and it's lid as her "starships". I'd have gotten her the Phantom as the best of the bad lot, but I'd only be able to obtain Hera together with the A-Wing... sigh.  .    

 

[PetyrPunkinhead]

8 hours ago, Maia said:

I also ran into a wholly (and naively?) unexpected snag re: trying to acquire action figures for the series. I  introduced my 5-year-old niece to the cartoon this winter and she loves it, so, I decided to gift her some figures, to help while away the hiatus. Given how I have been hearing that both Lucas Arts and Disney are merchandise kings since forever and vaguely noticing lots of figures in stores -  thinking that I would have been all over them as a kid,  the frustration and difficulties of trying to get the Rebels crew were a rude awakening. First of all, it looks like the era of small 3.75 figures with bending knees and elbows - the most fun to play with, particularly outside the narrow franchise limits, quietly ended while I haven't been paying attention. . .

Yeah, the new 3.75" figures are a step back in sculpt and articulation while increasing in price from the figures in the 2000s. They do have a 3.75" Black Series with the kind of sculpt and articulation they gave in The Force Awakens line for years. Your best bet to find the whole Rebels crew in figure 3.75" form is Amazon or Ebay. The whole crew is out there, but they were packaged in two-packs, which can gouge the wallet. The two-packs I've seen are Zeb/Chopper; Kannan/Ezra, Sabine/Stormtrooper; Hera/Sandtrooper; Ahsoka/Vader; and Zeb/Stormtrooper. You can find Ezra, Kannan, Agent Kallus, & the Inquisitor all on single cards, too. There's also a Disney Parks exclusive six pack for about $20 online with the whole crew of the Ghost in a smaller 3" scale, but these are figurines with zero articulation. Speaking of no articulation, you can almost get the entire Ghost crew with Disney Infinity. They managed to put out everyone on the crew except for Hera. This is the route I went with my kid as he loves Rebels and video games. Unfortunately I spent all the money on these figs and he pretty much only plays Minecraft or Sonic. Kids.

Another way to go to get the whole Rebels crew would be Lego. You'll spend slightly more than getting the 3.75" figures, or just as much depending on what deals you find online,plus you get all the ships. But if they're for your 5-yr-old niece, you'll have to make a judgement call on that. And of course you'll have to build the ships for her.

[felice]

9 hours ago, Maia said:

Naturally, the female figures were only contained in the very first wave that appeared when/before the series first started airing and I had no idea about it's existence, only as 2-packs with stormtroopers and in very low numbers. To add insult to injury, Sabine had a non-removable face-concealing helmet, so a complete no-go for us.

That sucks 8(

9 hours ago, Maia said:

Also, why, oh why does the vast majority of vehicles seat just one figure, when cartoon clearly shows 2 or more characters fitting in? From what I have heard, even Phantom model only seats 2, 1 in cockpit and 1 in cargo hold

That's a matter of practicality. A Phantom toy scaled accurately to 3.75" figures would be nearly two feet long, which would be a bit awkward for a little kid to fly around, as well as very expensive.

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, PetyrPunkinhead said:

Yeah, the new 3.75" figures are a step back in sculpt and articulation while increasing in price from the figures in the 2000s. They do have a 3.75" Black Series with the kind of sculpt and articulation they gave in The Force Awakens line for years. Your best bet to find the whole Rebels crew in figure 3.75" form is Amazon or Ebay. The whole crew is out there, but they were packaged in two-packs, which can gouge the wallet. The two-packs I've seen are Zeb/Chopper; Kannan/Ezra, Sabine/Stormtrooper; Hera/Sandtrooper; Ahsoka/Vader; and Zeb/Stormtrooper. You can find Ezra, Kannan, Agent Kallus, & the Inquisitor all on single cards, too. There's also a Disney Parks exclusive six pack for about $20 online with the whole crew of the Ghost in a smaller 3" scale, but these are figurines with zero articulation. Speaking of no articulation, you can almost get the entire Ghost crew with Disney Infinity. They managed to put out everyone on the crew except for Hera. This is the route I went with my kid as he loves Rebels and video games. Unfortunately I spent all the money on these figs and he pretty much only plays Minecraft or Sonic. Kids.

Another way to go to get the whole Rebels crew would be Lego. You'll spend slightly more than getting the 3.75" figures, or just as much depending on what deals you find online,plus you get all the ships. But if they're for your 5-yr-old niece, you'll have to make a judgement call on that. And of course you'll have to build the ships for her.

The Phantom and the Ghost have been discontinued in Lego as of earlier this year... The prices are not appealing online.

[red snow]

12 hours ago, felice said:

That sucks 8(

That's a matter of practicality. A Phantom toy scaled accurately to 3.75" figures would be nearly two feet long, which would be a bit awkward for a little kid to fly around, as well as very expensive.

Imagine how big the death star/destroyers would need to be.

It does seem a shame that it isn't easy to get the whole crew easily. I could see Hera being unpopular after being a background character in S1 but she received a lot of development in s2 and I imagine most kids would want a Hera figure piloting the ship.

[Maia]

I should probably mention that this was mostly an ex post facto rant. I have already gifted my niece with some 3.75 action figures, which she loved, so I am looking to get the missing characters in this format.  In particular I gave her:

Kanan,  Zeb in dual pack with a stormtrooper (Rebels wave), Ezra (TFA wave), Chewie (TFA, was on sale), PM Padme in a duster (ditto and because I wanted her to have _some_ female figures if I couldn't get Hera and Sabine), Black Series Jedi Master Luminara (ditto and because these figures can bend knees and elbows which makes them more fun);

and on the evil side Darth Vader with a cloth cape, the Grand Inquisitor (both Rebels wave), his TIE fighter (used), an elite black biker scout with his bike from TFA (sale), a Black Series biker scout sans vehicle (ditto).

Missing "must have" figures are Hera, Sabine (both supposedly coming this autumn) and Chopper. And yes, I am aware of Ahsoka/ plastic-cape largely unmoving Vader  and Chopper/Zeb dual packs, but she already has a (much superior) Vader and (the same) Zeb figures and she really wasn't that taken with Ahsoka, compared to the regular crew women.  I am waiting for a sale on that. Oh, and agent Kallus figure is available in quite a few toyshops, but it is rather basic even compared with other Rebels figures - non-removable helmet, barely recognizable face, generic rifle, no other accessories, so I dunno.

I should also admit that I am not looking to pay an arm and a leg for this stuff.  The figures themselves are way too expensive for what they offer, IMHO - 14 - 16 euros  regular price for a single figure, 29 - 39 for vehicles. I could see how it might be justified for the Black Series figures, because of all the details, but the Rebels ones are quite basic and overpriced, IMHO. So, much as I want to get my niece everything essential, I am not going to pay anything above the regular for it either.  And amazon.de is pretty much an expensive  wasteland re: Star Wars merch compared to the US amazon.

Anyway, just wanted to express my frustration because acquisition of this stuff turned into such an unexpected chore and stupid toy-store hunt, when I expected to just go to amazon.de and leasurely order a crew pack and an evildoer or 2.

And I am also hoping that somebody from Europe reads this and can advise me on if/when Force Fridays and waves reach our shores, whether we actually get all the vehicles - since as far as I can tell Ezra's speeder bike with a more detailed and up-to-date figure was never glimpsed hereabouts, etc.

 

15 hours ago, felice said:

That's a matter of practicality. A Phantom toy scaled accurately to 3.75" figures would be nearly two feet long, which would be a bit awkward for a little kid to fly around, as well as very expensive.

Well, I am new to this, but as far as I could see, many vehicles are quite (too?) large, but have tiny seating compartments that only fit  one figure, which is a bummer for playing purposes. They really should re-think this, IMHO.

As concerns the Phantom specifically, you wouldn't need to make it huge to seat 3-4 human-sized 3.75 figures into the hold with legs oriented thus: /\\//\\/. The inner cargo hold would need to have a width of 10 cms or so and be no longer than it currently is, which is totally doable.

 

2 hours ago, red snow said:

It does seem a shame that it isn't easy to get the whole crew easily. I could see Hera being unpopular after being a background character in S1 but she received a lot of development in s2 and I imagine most kids would want a Hera figure piloting the ship.

I don't think that it was a question of any empirical popularity or lack thereof - as I have learned during this whole episode, female characters are routinely under-produced even when they get sold out very quickly (and grabbed by scalpers who know to capitalize on this), because action figures used to be strictly in "boy's toys" domain, ergo cooties. But you'd think that  for a "party-based" on-going series, which clearly attempts to go for general appeal, they'd make sure that the whole heroic crew is available to buy as toys throughout! Apparently, it took them that long to figure that out and they are only getting somewhat better - missing figures are finally coming, supposedly, but still no convenient crew starter packs for somebody looking to jump in all at once after getting hooked on the show, etc.