Celebration V was AMAZING. It was kind of like Comic-Con with multiple tracks of programming and tons of “celebrities”, but the difference was I wanted to see and do it ALL. My biggest disappointment was that I couldn’t. However, I did do most of the things that were tops on my list. Got to see Mark Hamill and even better, the creator, the big GL . Of course we hit the Hasbro panel with its smattering of new info/confirmations. The Clone Wars panels were great. Dave Filoni really knows how to walk that line between Lucas employee/protégé and fan. Probably one of my most favorite panels was Gary Kurtz , the producer of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. I find people removed from the fandom usually have the best viewpoint on the saga as they don’t see everything through rose colored glasses.

While all of that may sound exciting, the best part of Celebration was the people. From attendees to exhibitors everyone was pretty much friendly. You always run into a few bad apples, but that’s cons for you. However, the people I’m talking about are the people we spent the entire show with. Our homie from Botcon , G, was back with a vengeance being our Orlando insider once again. Rob of Fetts and Hot Chicks with Stormtroopers fame kept us busy meeting new people inquiring about his shirts. Of course, sick of Star Wars music, but still had a great time wife and best friend, Mrs. McFavorite. Finally, somebody we wish we would’ve got to see a lot more, but still really enjoyed the time we had together, Vern from Baltimore. In the end, panels, celebrity sightings, the toys and elaborate booths come and go, but the times you share with friends are what you will remember the most!

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Forgive me for the title of the post. I couldn’t help myself…Slick

Sorry, just had to vent. Par for the course it’s about a month after San Diego Comic-Con . We’ve have finally posted photos , videos of the booths and my favorite part, videos of the panels . While I’m sure if you wanted to see them by now you have, but you have you heard them with my drunken “Yeah”s and ”Alright”s? The wrap ups, that’s right wrap ups, 2 of them (there was supposed to be a third, but we have been way too damn busy) are co-hosted by our homies from the big SD. One is a long time attendee. One tried to come to as much of SDCC as he could take, but turns out that wasn’t that much. I know right, how could he take for granted, this nerd nirvana? That’s why we love him.

Well our plane is about to land in Orlando (this gives you reference as to when this was written and was supposed to be posted). Star Wars Celebration V here we come! First off though Universal to satiate Mrs. McFavorite’s Harry Potter fetish and then Disney Hollywood Studios to ride the now old school Star Tours for the first and last time all at once. My favorite part, we’re meeting up with Fetts (Rob Paine) and Botcon homie G for for the parks. Then we’ll be kicking with Vern for the whole show. YAY!

Note (after the fact): We kicked it with G and Fetts the whole show! Got to see Vern here and there, but wish we had more time together. Just wait for the Celebration recap.

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Part 1

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Part 2

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The Vth will be with us, always (or last week at least)…Slick

General

• New exclusives for ESB
• Same stuff for SDCC

Clone Wars

• Mace’s Jango helmet has a thermo detonator
• Ki-Adi Mundi
• Shaak Ti, Young Boba (with jet pack and guns), R4-P17 and Mando Trooper and Embo coming
• Zombie Geonosian (YAY!) and Clone Draa

CW Vehicles

• Droid Gunship and Droid-Tri Fighter coming
• Jedi Turbo Speeder Vehicle

Vintage

• Running change to Anakin to name him Darth Vader (Vintage line)
• Skiff Guard Woof
• New Rebel Commando with soft goods trench coat
• New R2-D2 with serving tray and pop-up lightsaber (periscope with replace lightsaber)
• Talking about stuff already covered during SDCC

Vintage Vehicles

• Same shit from SDCC

Exclusives (new stuff follow)

• TRU: Nikto Skiff Guard (same from SDCC)
• Kohl’s: GH AT-ST (ultra cute, flip up hatches) with Vader, Driver and two Snowtroopers
• Target: DVD Battle Packs with Greatest Hits of CW Hostage Crisis and Hidden Enemy
• TRU: Rise of Boba Fett Ultimate Battle Pack confirmed (new Slave 1). Fits a Han in Carbonite. Showing up now, but not due out till October.
• Walmart: New Jabba with new Oohla (very detailed, wink wink)
• Back to the same SDCC crap
• Target: Geonosis Sets (eyes painted on Battle Droid, new Anakin head, R2-D2
• Walmart: Tie Bomber confirmed
• Target: Vintage 3 new 3-packs in one pack, but removable to make individual 3 different 3-packs.

2011

• Preview the AOTC wave. Kit Fitso, Zam Wesell (with 2 heads), Obi-Wan, New Anakin (peasant with soft goods cape), Padme (with 2 headresses), Senate Security (soft goods), BLUE Jango and Super Battle Droid.
• TRU Exclusive ROTJ Pilots, 2 battle packs
• Battle on Yavin re-issue/repaint

So they did the slides in reverse. Sucks that I had connection issues. Now going over Role Play and Galactic Heroes and other crap we could care less about.

DCUC

• Retro action Green Lantern figures (Sinestro and Guy Gardner)
• DC Universe Darkseid and Kalibak 2-pack
• 12-pack of DCUC Proty accessory

Ghostbusters

• Ghostbuster characters coming from both 1 and 2 AND the video game
• Ghostbuster and MOTUC subscriptions will ship together
• TRU: Ghostbusters 4-pack with Santa Hats (50% on, 50% off)
• Swappable heads coming
• Egon with PKE meter and stack of books (unslimed)
• Peter with stream and GB logo stand (glow in the dark)
• November - Winston with Slime Blower and tri-pod trap
• January - Courtroom Peter with Nunzio (suit with pack)
• May -Lewis Tully with swappable head with dog header
• Marshmealow mess Ray (Ecto-1 club figure)
• Prop replica PKE meter

MOTUC

• 2-packs will come with at least one repaint
• Hawkman vs. Stratos
• Aquaman vs. Merman (mini-comic blue version)
• Wea
• King Grayskull
• 2011 Club Eternia - Available  for 2 weeks, 12 monthlies, 4 quarterlies (3 $30 and 1 $40) and new map and figure, subscription figure is from mini-comic (no re-issues, stands or weapons paks)
• New stands
• Orko available on August 2nd
• Gygor is September
• October - Roboto (with working gears) and Weapons pak
• $40 2-pack Troop builder guards with four swappable heads, four chest plates, other weapons
• King Grayskull redeco
• December - Buzz-off
• January - Princess of Power Bow (swappable head and harp)
• January - Shadowbeast!
• Vikor, He-Man of the North
• February - Battle Armor Skeletor
• March - King Hiss (swappable upper torso) bendable snakes
• Preternia Disguise He-Man with COSMIC KEY
• Reissues almost every month
• First vehicle in Q4 of 2011
• Teased a weapons rack from CASTLE GRAYSKULL

Q&A

• If the line ever went to retail there would be less accessories to preserve the MattyCollector specialness
• Kid with a great questions 2-pack with Grodd and Gygor
• 2 heads on Fitso
• No 200x He-Man head ever. Snake Armor He-Man would still have a Filmation head
• Vehicle not in subscription

• Galactic Battle Game will be in every single carded except Vintage
• Each game card has 6 powers and and five ratings
• Will continue through 2011
• Animate Mace with come Jango helmet
• Flamethrower Trooper will flame accessory that can wrap around battle droid
• Battle with Sergent Bric will have the ability to store all game pieces and cards
• Arc Troopers battle pack with EIII version troopers
• Mandolorian Battle Pack
• Vintage will run for at least two years
• Will include prequels as well
• 37 figs in 2010 (4 waves, one every 6 weeks)
• 27 new or newly tooled figures
• 10 repacks
• EPIII wave will both and Sandtrooper and standard Storm trooper
• 12 foil chase versions (greatest hits of wave 1 and 2)
• Gamorean Guard, Ackbar and new Jedi Luke
• Skif Guard - Woof, R2-D2 with pop up lightsaber and drink tray
• Wicket to come accessories to make a ROTJ and Ewoks version (wrist and ankle articulation)
• Wedge is included, but delayed a couple months
• Bunch of stuff we already now about mail-away Boba and new Snowspeeder and Cloud Car
• BAT-AT has push button retractor to pull Luke up a la ESB
• New removable blade Force FX lightsaber make a short circuit sound if blade is not attached
• 4 new Galactic Heroes 2-packs coming (shirtless Maul!)
• Sounds on new role play Fett will be different depending if the range finder is down or up
• Short demo video of the new RC Millennium Falcon
• EXCLUSIVES!
• TRU: Kul Teska from Republic Heroes video game is huge a la Darktrooper
• Kmart: Joda Kast (belt is backwards)
• TRU: CW Nikto Skiff guards
• Walmart: DVD 2-packs with CW episodes
• TRU: Legacy of the Side 2-packs (Grievous Pre-cyborg and general, Young and OTC Boba, AOTC Anaking and OTC Darth Vader)
• Target: Hostage Crisis Battle Pack
• Target: Senate Commando and Captain 2-pack and Cad and IG-86 2-pack
• Kmart: 4 of the most popular troops (Cold-weather, ARF, pilot and jet-pack)
• Walmart: Kit Fisto star fighter
• Target: 6 new Geonosis Arena 2-packs (Nicanas Tassu, Greedo-style Jedi)
• TRU: Vintage box AT-AT (simulated corrugated cardboard look)
• Target: Vintage box Snowspeeder and Tie Fight (new cockpit with small wings)
• Target: 3 New Mighty Muggs 3-packs (mini version 3")
• Attack on Hoth with new AT-ST and cannon
• Defense of Hoth with New gun turret with beardless Hoth trooper
• New comic packs that we’ve seen
• SDCC and C5 comic packs we’ve seen (4LOM and Zuckuss deco with vintage)

Q&A

• No new protector cases
• No 3 3/4" Twilight
• No confirmation on Ultimate Battle Pack
• No new full size Muggs
• EU wave is done
• No new minatures

• Takes place on Earth. Essentially same G1 story initially
• Look and feel is based G1, but going for a more cienamatic feel
• Stretching the limit with what can be done with
• Arcee to appear, but blue instead of pink
• Cliffjumper 60s style Mustang. Has a pair of steer horns on the hood.
• Ratchet in G1 deco
• Humans: Jack Darby, Miko Tezuka and Rafeal ‘Raf’ Esquivel
• Deceopticon Troopers: like stormtroopers (fuck, just overwrote a video file!)
• Peter Cullen just arrived
• Showing a behind the scenes with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker (audio problems)
• Peter got misty eyed over hearing Frank’s voice in the studio again
• Just showed a 30 second clip (not impressive, very Beast Wars-esque). I will have video of it posted soon.
• Please stopping fucking asking personal questions people!
• Line up for show - Soundwave, Starscream, Bulkhead and brand new characters (start with core and grow)
• Soundwave most likely will not his modulation, some character will have their voices
• Peter Cullen is the consummate professional. Bravo Peter!
• Sue Blue initially handled the voice direction, now another director has stepped in
• Say "Righteously Huge" at the Hub experience and get a free t-shirt today

War for Cybertron

• Same boring shit from Botcon
• Still more content coming from WFC. DLC pack coming on the 7.27.10
• More characters (5, exclusives and Scattershot and Onslaught)
• 2 maps about coop and 2 about escalation
• No new toys for WFC right now
• Alex Irvine

Hunt for the Decepticons

• HFTD is all about becoming an Autobot Elite Guard
• Finally showing slides. Same boring stuff we have all seen.
• Battle Blade BB is an all new mold and transformation
• Still the same shit Botcon

Power Core Combiners

• Confirmed that Backwind is Back(re)wind, not wind
• Again, same shit from Botcon. Check out our old posts from it

2010 Exclusives

• G1 color Legends Devastator (piss poor paint apps
• Walmart exclusive 2-packs (missed the first one), Brawl vs. Jolt, Sideswipe vs. Barricade (Barricade based on Chinese police car)
• Target exclusive Ice Cream Truck (Skids and Mudflap) vs. Sideswipe (most accurate ice cream truck deco yet)

Q&A

• Somebody brought all three bike sisters with them and request the team show him how to combine them. They declined at the panel but, said to come by the booth and they will show him.
• How do come with your ideas? Vehicle is always the start.

Just realized while Wordpress auto saves my blogging, it doesn’t publish the changes. I have to literally hit save for them to show up. Live and learn I guess.

G.I. Joe: Renegades

• Scarlet starts with taking troops on a mission to "Corbra" labs
• The Joes are accused of crime they don’t commit and go on the run
• Focused on a core group of Joes and Cobra
• Just showed a video with looks at all the main characters. Will uploaded after
• Design didn’t really thrill, people only got excited about a few
• Cobra Commander looked horrible IMHO
• Trying to stick the old school design, but add a little fantasy
• Pretty much an origins story of the characters
• Bringing back some of the old voice actors
• Just showed one minute of clips from the show (ENI guy got shut down, but I got it all. Stay tuned)
• It is a kid’s show. Appropriate for children, but storytelling will be more adult
• Essentially a G.I. Joe year one
• Breaker will be main character
• BTW, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE TOYS! ISN’T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A TOY PANEL?
• "Real life" Baroness just asked why her glasses keep getting replaced with sunglasses. Answer there will lotsa glasses in the show
• Tomax and Xamot will appear in the show. Both meeting them and getting recruited by Cobra
• Here comes the classic Joe/Transformer crossover question… Standard answer, it may happen, nothing right now
• Finally a toy question, will toys accompany the show? No confirmation, but "The show is owned by Hasrbo." Best quote yet
• Roadblock and Heavy Duty to be featured heavily
• Almost every fan favorite character is planned on premiering at some point.
• One thing you have to do is go check out the HUB Experience

Unfortunately all the money I spent wasn’t just on toys. Yeah, I lost Mrs. McFavorite’s camera the second day. Luckily I didn’t lose many pictures, but it meant I had to use my cell’s camera (Saber’s too) the whole time. You can check the semi-good quality pics over on Flickr . If you haven’t seen them yet, check 2009’s and 2008’s too. If moving pictures are more your thing, check out all the awesome display cases Hasbro had at this year’s show. Again, you can check out 2009’s and 2008’s videos too. Saber also has some underground vids on Facebook. Friend him and ask nice to see some of the stuff Hasbro didn’t want you to see. If you prefer audio, of course listen to this cast with the one and only Saber from SabertronToys.com , but you can check out 2009’s wrap up as well.

Thanks to Jamie AND Mrs. McFavorite (Saber too, for the wireless), I finally "live" blogged during the Hasbro panels. It actually went pretty well. I didn’t like not being able to pay more attention, but I do it for you! I think I’m going to try and figure out a way to live broadcast the panels from SDCC. I’ve got a couple ideas, just got to test them. Would you watch? Let me know.

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Can’t believe Comic-Con is less than two weeks away…Slick

Generations (almost all have rub symbols!)

• New G1 Legends Prime, Starscream, Prowl, and Megatron (can be held by Masterpiece Starscream) G1 Scout Windcharger.
• G1 Deluxe Skrillgrin and Scourge.
• Generations WFC Cliffjumper confirmed.
• G1 Deluxe Tracks with wing flying mode.
• G1 Deluxe Jazz with pop out speakers.
• G1 Deluxe Perceptor with Truck with tank treads on the back. Alternate head for possible Reflector.
• Deluxe Thunderwing.
• G1 Voyager Grapple based on Universe Inferno.
• More realistic Voyager Lugnut with my FAVORITE shark style deco on the front.

Power Core Combiners

• Power Core Combiners originally began with robot modes for all limbs/drones.
• PCC Heavytread with Groundspike. Army camo tank.
• Skyhammer with Airlift. Jet with helmet that pops over regular for combined version.
• Constructicons (Steamhead?) confirmed.
• DINOBOTS (Grimstone)! G1-esque color.

Once upon a time on Cybertron… (new definitive combination of Transformers continuity)

The Original 13

1. Alpha Trion (The Chronicler) very G1.
2. Liege Maximo
3. Vector Prime (gold color, time and space)
4. Prima (Silver with Matrix in sword)
5. Megatronus (legendary dark warrior, head is very similar to G1 Decepticon logo)
6. The Fallen (transformed from Megatronus)

Q&A

• Working on a new Megatron
• Aaron Archer would like to revisit Beast Wars.
• Lots of the same damn questions that they won’t answer.