Hoo, boy... I just marathoned that whole thread in a couple weeks. I honestly hadn't realized Bandai had the license now. I had been worried when I didn't see anything new coming from FineMolds and HLJ stocks running low -- or out. A question for folks who might know... The scale differences between Bandai and FM -- are they perhaps using a different metric? I'm one who subscribes to the "measured from the eyeline" method rather than to the top of the head, given how hats, helmets, and crests can make the latter a bit fuzzy. If one used one and one used the other, could that account for the "Y-Wing in the dryer" syndrome? Or I could be completely wrong and the two companies just went with different reference points from each other -- a la the whole
Falcon debate (I'm a 5-footer man, myself, although I do like the additional gearwells for ESB). I'm fine with the size of their A-Wing, given the discussion about the differences in the models built for production. Now, on to prefs...
There are three scales I'm remotely interested in here. 1:72 for all my starfighters and such, to go with my aircraft, Star Trek shuttles, etc. I like the visual comparison that allows; 1:48 for ground-effect vehicles and a few setpiece ships (TIEs of more than the Fighter variety would be nice -- even just offering Interceptor wings as a conversion kit) to go with the Imperial Assault game figures (the AT-ST that comes with the core game is visibly underscaled, no matter what metric one uses -- I'm working on converting mine into an AT-DP); and 1:24/1:25 to go with the typical automobile scale (speeder bikes, the Rogue One cargo hauler, the Rebels Imperial troop transport...), again to have a good visual comparison to familiar object like a Firebird or a DeLorean. So those of you who love the 1:144 stuff? Sorry, no support from me, there.
While I don't want
all the ships and vehicles in 1:48, enough to make good objectives and obstacles for a spirited skirmish game would be nice.
As far as specifics...
Count me in the "please for the luvvagawd give us a 1:72 5-footer-proportioned
Falcon, with many, many optional parts to make a 5-footer version of the ship from all the movies" camp. And just as FM gave us
a 1:72
Falcon, they also gave us a 1:72
Slave I, so we know both are do-able. And I would knock down cripples to get a more-accurate 1:72
Slave I.
Moving on from "the stuff we had before so we should have it again dammit" category to the "stuff we're still waiting for dammit" one...
• All five Naboo ships (the
Marie Celeste, the flying wing, Padmé's two personal ships, and an N-1 fighter)
• Maul's Sith Infiltrator
• Jedi Starfighter hyperspace ring (with parts to make it mountable to any of the specific fighters) -- this way you don't have to pay for a hyperspace ring you're not intending to use
• All three versions of Jedi Starfighter -- AOTC with offset astromech head, Clone Wars with centerline astromech and optional parts for things like Anakin's hot rod, and the ROTS one
• All the GAR craft -- V-19 Torrent, Y-Wing, Z-95, ARC-170, Republic Attack Shuttle, LAAT/i and LAAT/c gunships
• Many Rebels ships -- the
Ghost and
Phantom, early A-Wings, Mandalorian fighters
• B-Wing, with optional parts to make the prototype from Rebels
• V-Wing fighter with correctly rotating wings
• Supersize those TIEs! Bomber (with parts to build it as the Shuttle or Boarding Craft), Defender, Reaper...
•
Lambda shuttle
• Kylo's shuttle
• U-WIng
I'd also love some old EU ships in that scale, but that ain't gonna happen from a licensed vendor. The bigger scales, I'd be fine with just about anything. Not too picky. The smaller scales I'm likely not going to bother with, except maybe a 1:350
Falcon to display next to my 1:350
Enterprise to show the size difference.
I give not one damn about the figure kits, but I am quite annoyed at the kits' figures (if you see what I did there). I'd rather have high-detailed multipart pilot/crew/droid/bonus figures than one-piece or silhouette fillers. I love options. I'll convert and modify and alter as needed. I'll scrounge from various outside sources and use all my accumulated skill with tools and Green Stuff to get exactly the figure(s) I want, but I wish I didn't have to work so hard at it. Like, my ideal Y-Wing kit would come with a 2-legged and 3-legged astromech body, heads for each variant we've had so far, and let us play around. An R5 head on the molded-in astromech in the ship, an R2 head on the 3-legged body, an R0 head on the 2-legged one... Or for the X-Wing, give us pieces to make different pilots, so we can have Luke in the cockpit and Biggs standing on the ground, or Porkins or Wedge. Or the straight jumpsuit versus the cold-weather jacket version. As others have pointed out, getting a likeness at that scale is far from impossible. I really am not understanding the whole thing about "no figures that aren't part of the model" in the US -- especially if Bandai were to do them as mini-models themselves. That would easily get them out of Hasbro's Micro Machines sandbox, I would think.
--Jonah
