Because the Disney Store is awesome...

[ericadawn16]

Sometimes lately, the Disney Store has been a little lame, we're still disappointed that we can never find Vinylmation anymore outside the outlet mall or actual Disney property...

However, today was pretty awesome. They had some Frozen bath toys that were incredibly Tempting. I'm still not YAY FROZEN but these things were seriously adorable...my mom likened them to Precious Moments...and it included Marshmallow! I just really want a Marshmallow in some form. Then, there was this:



I hope this does this justice because in person, my mom and I were both amazed that it looked JUST LIKE REY! They really had her eyebrows, cheekbones, everything about as perfect as you can get without it being a Hot Toy. Plus, it comes with BB-8. Also, it's INCREDIBLY HEAVY! It's die cast metal but that also means it should be durable and strong. $25 really isn't too bad...

Finn was pretty well done and Poe...well, it's the best Poe likeness I've seen but it still seemed...off.

http://www.disneystore.com/action-figures-toys-rey-and-bb-8-elite-series-die-cast-action-figures-6-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1390994/1000255/

I'm not sure which if any of you guys know about this, but before blind bags were so popular all over, Disney had blind bags sets of teeney tiny little figures from various Disney brands. It started off as parks only, then Star Wars as seen in Star Tours, then Holiday, then...well, I have a tiny little Norrington somewhere...

and by tiny, I mean that they resemble the Micro Machine figures. Still, this is totally cool and I hope next time we hit up Disney Springs, they have it:



I didn't buy Rey. She's awesome but $25 even for awesomeness...however, I will pay $25 for the multipack with ALMOST everyone:


It's Hasbro so elsewhere might have it a little cheaper than the Toys'r'us the screen capture is from so we'll see.

However, the Disney Store only had one Queen Amidala Tsum Tsum left and she came home with me:


I also got a new Lotso. He's the same sculpt as another one I have but the packaging is the pretty, new 20th anniversary of Toy Story!

I've never done the Marvel Collectors Corp before but look at June!

Squee!!!

Comments

[celeste9]

I have yet to actually see a Poe action figure in person, but everything I've heard suggests none of them actually look like him. Why do they not want to take the time and effort to lovingly reproduce Oscar Isaac's face? *g* I would be sorely tempted by that Rey and BB-8. And the mini figures! I am definitely swayed by cute things that take up minimal space. Because I have way too much stuff accumulating.

I'm still waiting to stumble on Funko Pop Finn and Rey. I bought a Poe on a whim when I saw it in a store but he is very lonely!!

In general though, I have been spending WAY too much money on various Star Wars merchandise. Oh, Disney, you have clearly won this round.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

(http://s69.photobucket.com/user/Ericadawn16/media/Part%20Two/Poe%20figure_zpsrmqsniax.jpg.html)

Sometimes, I'm a little sad that I never bought the Game Stop Finn where he's in his stormtrooper outfit with the helmet off. BB-8 is my only actual Episode 7 Funko. Finn and Rey used to be all over the place...before the film came out.

January and February were very bad months. I bought 3 or 4 books, lol. I haven't decided about Bloodlines but I probably will.

[celeste9]

Is that the one you mentioned? Yeah, it's not bad, but not quite right either. :(

Ah, I'd forgotten there's a BB-8 Funko too, obviously I can't have a Poe without a BB-8, so will have to look for that one too. *g* I just bought a Black Widow because Natasha, couldn't help myself. \o/

Oh God, I've bought so many books. And magazines, and comics, and I don't even want to own up to it all because it's just sad. *g* I'm probably going to get Bloodlines, I read the author's Star Wars YA novel without expecting much and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. (The world-building is AMAZING.) So a book by her with a premise I'm keen on seems like it'll be a sure win!

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I looked for a Hot Toys Poe and there isn't one currently. :(
Hot Toys is usually the only company to get the facial features right...most of the time.

I bought BB-8 way back on Force Friday last September when we didn't know anything yet but I thought the droid was adorable and it was the last BB-8 Funko that Barnes & Noble had...at like 11 AM.

I'd been wanting a Black Widow for a while and then, GameStop had THE perfect one. Have you seen it?
I still want a Hawkeye at some point to join her and Coulson but at this point...I might hold out for Kate. ;)

I can't decide about buying Bloodlines but I think we'll be out and about the day it comes out so I just might...
I definitely want more with Korr Sella and Leia but then, some of the stuff people have been saying about the advanced copies make me unsure.
However, if you're praising her previous work, that makes me more interested...
although I also want to know whether her personal shipping affects her writing. She ships StormPilot AND Reylo BUT she does add the caveat that Reylo should only happen after Ren redeems himself which I could kind of get on board with...not quite sure when I would feel he had redeemed himself...but then, also...if they're cousins, I don't want that either. This isn't 1800s England.

[celeste9]

Ooh, the Black Widow with the shield?? I only just found out about that one, it's amazing!! Sadly mine is just the Civil War Black Widow. I mean, still awesome, because it's Nat, but not as awesome as Nat with shield. The only Marvel ones I have are her and Cap, I got the Cap for free, he was my very first Funko.

Have people not liked the book? I haven't read anything yet, I'm always afraid of spoilers. Hmmm, Reylo... Mostly I think "yuck", but at least she's for it only post-redemption, one of the biggest things I hate about Reylo are the shippers who use Rey as Kylo Ren's redemption vehicle. Yeah, I'm sort of iffy on whether it's even possible for him to be redeemed now, especially within the context of Star Wars, where you've got Kylo killing his dad paired with the ultimate act of goodness being Luke NOT killing his dad. (Though I'm intrigued by the theory I've seen that Han actually turned the lightsaber on himself so that his son wouldn't have to... Not sure if I buy it but it's an interesting idea.)

And lol at the cousins thing!! Yeah, it's one thing if it's a historical setting but otherwise...

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Yes, Black Widow with the shield!
Even my mom was like, you need it.

I also have Loki and Rocket Raccoon with Groot but my first Funko ever was Lotso.

Last week, it was like NOOO! which made me that much more curious and all I could figure out was that Han and Leia seemed to be normal and Ben didn't have a messed up childhood of abandonment...which Jossed a lot of head canon?
Today, there was a complaint about political definitions not being the same as they are on Earth.
But it has a 4.29 on Good Reads?

where you've got Kylo killing his dad paired with the ultimate act of goodness being Luke NOT killing his dad.

Such a good point!

Whenever people claim that Ren has a secret plan to overthrow Snoke and Han was in on it...it reminds me of when, especially pre-HBP, they would write Severus Snape as Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride & prejudice. Now instead of Snape written as Darcy, Kylo Ren is being written as Snape complete with Han being Dumbledore setting up his own death.

No, no, no

If I'm proven wrong later, awesome. I just don't buy it now.

Yes, no cousin incest, eww.

[celeste9]

It's definitely the sort of thing that makes me think I need TWO Black Widow Funkos!!

Ah, that doesn't seem like anything that will bother me about the book. Personally I've never gone for the idea that Ben had such a bad messed up childhood so that's why he went bad, that doesn't fit with the Han and Leia in my head. They wouldn't have been perfect parents but I will fight anyone who suggests they didn't love Ben with all their souls.

OMG, seriously, people are saying Kylo Ren has a PLAN?! Just, ugh. I can't with all the woobie white male bad guys. Sometimes they're just assholes, guys.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

But if they're a straight up asshole, they can't write cute redemption fanfic!

Even though they're perfectly cool with having Kylo in a coffee shop, Leia being a college professor, Poe being a WW II pilot, Rey being a Sith Chosen One and Finn being a dog-walker for BB-8 who's suddenly a Corgi...

But I am hoping that people are reading the book wrong and they're not honestly trying to say that Ben wasn't turned before age 23 because...that makes no sense...with anything.

But we'll be hitting up Target that Tuesday anyway so I'll take a pass through it, see if it's worth it when I have Free Comic Book Day that weekend and...I still want to get that Marvel Funko box so I don't know if I can justify spending 20 bucks on a book I might end up hating or just meh about.

Plus, the library is good at getting all the Star Wars books.

[celeste9]

Ha! True! I don't mind redemption fic in theory but it's so hard to find ones that are actually GOOD and not just 'he needed more hugs and now he found love so he is better' type fics. Plus I'm not sure I'm actually that interested in seeing Kylo redeemed after everything he's done.

I've been a bit startled by the glut of Star Wars fluff AUs since TFA, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be? But IDK, I like AUs normally but come on, when you can write people having lightsabers and space battles, why would you want to write them in coffee shops and high school?? They can obviously still be adorable in space, and if you think they can't be you clearly watched a different movie from me. *g*

I know they've been tight with info but 23 doesn't seem right?? I'll be sad if the canon is wonky.

My library's good about getting the books too, I've read several that way, and the ones they don't get are easy to request shipped from other libraries. I read A LOT of comics via my library, lol!

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

As I was watching Harry Potter, I realized that I had repressed part of my memories...

You see, writing Kylo Ren as a redeemable figure can actually put into TWO categories:

1. as Severus Snape as I mentioned before
2. Cassandra Claire's Draco Malfoy

Why am I so specific?
Because I blame her for every woobie Draco story and just about every male asshole is just a woobie who needs love! story since.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, I worked at a restaurant. Another young woman about my age also worked there and she couldn't believe how "anti-Draco" I was. I wanted to know why she was so adamant that he was simply a lost soul. Where was her canon evidence?

She had no canon evidence. Instead, she bought in her laptop for me to read Cassandra Claire, then was horribly disappointed as I tried to hide how unimpressed I was.

On one hand, the original trilogy was all about redemption but on the other hand...as you pointed out before, it's pretty hard for them to validate redeeming someone who killed their own father and...
if they do go the route of...Anakin killed Obi-Wan who in the prequels he admits is "like a father" to him but later, kills the guy who got him to do that and betray everything he knew...
well, then, that really is a complete retread when we could have had better.

YES to your entire paragraph of AUs that take place on Earth. This is "long, long ago" in "a galaxy far, far away"! Literally anything is possible! You want canon alpha/omega? Go for it. You want soul bonds? That seems reasonable. You want aliens that excrete sex pollen? Sure, it could happen.

My only explanation is that a lot of writers sound very young, either with their age and/or their writing experience so they just don't want to tax themselves too much on something so different.

I have to admit giving up my Episode 1 fic pretty early to spend more time on Buffy/Angel and The X-Files fanfics.

23 makes absolutely no sense at all!
Because Han says in both novelizations that he's never seen Ben as an adult and that makes sense with why he asked him to take the helmet off.
If he's 23 or older, why wouldn't Han have seen him?

Also, it would mean that Rey was abandoned for some other reason which would make all of that much more curious, too.

I do wish my library would have Overdrive but I think it must be very expensive. Only the rich counties around here have it. My library is good about having the older graphic novels or the most popular, like they did get the color hardbacks for Scott Pilgrim which were amazing and they got all of Fraction's Hawkeye run...although I own all those myself.

[celeste9]

OMG, yes, I never read any of her fic but isn't she solely responsible for the "Draco in leather pants" trope? And I think Draco was really the first widespread example of the woobification of white male bad guys because they're hot and people want to ship them. I will admit to having read Draco fic but I am very picky. He was an asshole, let's face it.

Yeah, if they do go for a "Kylo Ren redeems himself through killing Snoke" thing... I mean, I'm all for nostalgia, but I don't need to see Kylo literally become Anakin, except without the slavery.

This is "long, long ago" in "a galaxy far, far away"! Literally anything is possible!

YES!!! Star Wars has the advantage of being in a sci-fi setting, where you've got the space travel and aliens and everything, but the story has always had more of a fairy tale/fantasy feel to it, so you can DO ANYTHING. Why don't more people want to take advantage of that? I think there is some truth to younger/more inexperience writers being afraid to write outside what they know. IDK, though, I have no illusions about my own writing, and I get nervous about certain things, but for me half the fun of writing in Star Wars is getting to play in that amazing, amazing world.

I also thought we did know roughly how long ago the padawans had been killed, so the 23 thing wouldn't fit with that, either. Unless that was only a guess based on Rey.

I am tremendously grateful that my library is so amazing, I love it.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

but isn't she solely responsible for the "Draco in leather pants" trope?

Yes, exactly! Because there was a little bit of that beforehand with Spike and Kycek but yes, Draco was the first wide-spread case of head-canon turned into fanon where people will practically fight you for disagreeing.

Having Ben follow in his grandfather's footsteps takes away from the hopeful nature of the Skywalkers' ending in ROTJ. It comes off like every Skywalker is doomed/cursed and that includes everyone they come into contact with...what kind of positive message is that?

We don't when the Padawans were killed, that was always an assumption based on Rey being left on Jakku at age 5.

I'm also seeing a lot of people saying Ben is 29 and I've never seen that definitively given anywhere either...

[celeste9]

I can't remember if Ben's age was given in the Visual Dictionary or not. I got it from the library so I can't check. TBH I have no idea if I ever actually saw it anywhere official or if I just took it for granted from people repeating it everywhere. I think either way though he would be roughly that age no matter what, as I think he's meant to be born not long after ROTJ.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Ah, The Visual Dictionary...if I ever find it for 12 or less, I might splurge. I was tempted last time I spotted it at Home Goods.

I know the Visual Dictionary is where Rey's age was given as 19, almost 20.

Wookiepedia is claiming Bloodline is responsible for Kylo Ren being 29 so I'll want to see how exactly that's given. Is it math from his age now or what?
Because otherwise, all I saw was Leia thinking about how early on in her relationship with Han, she went on a shipping trip with him and...nine months later...

Previously, we assumed that Ben's school destruction had to do with Rey being left on Jakku 14 years previously which meant Ben would have to be 25-29 to believably take part in a massacre or whatever happened.

Bloodlines is more messed up than we thought, I'm doing a post later.

[celeste9]

I am a big fan of the Visual Dictionary! Lots of lovely pictures and I love the sort of tongue-in-cheek descriptions. It's on my list of things I would like to own. Poe's entire section will never stop being hilarious. *g*

If Bloodline is responsible for his age I wonder how it got to be so widespread months before the book even came out? I guess unless that info was purposely leaked.

I'm going to look at that post now...