Hasbro has hardly disappointed with the various versions of Queen Amidala and her ornate dresses. We're glad they ditched the salt shaker bodies and went with sound design. While not super-articulated because it doesn't make much sense unless they can engineer appropriate soft goods, they do include swivel elbows and sculpted legs. The likeness is decent and the sculpt and paint app for the Foreign Residence Dress is superb. 

We like our Jedis dark, brooding, conflicted, and dreadlocked with warpaint. Easily one of my favorite figures of this wave, the new Quinlan Vos is finely detailed and articulated to include ball jointed hips to be battle posed in many ways. Vos was a blink and you'll miss him Easter Egg in Episode I, but Hasbro made every effort to make sure this figure stands out as one of the better ones to kick off 2012.

Images of the upcoming Return of the Jedi Deleted Scenes wave including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, General Cracken, Lando Calrissian, and the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot have been posted at Sandtroopers.com. Due to a lack of good source photos, Hasbro had to rely on composite art and these turned out fantastically in our opinion.

The Hasbro Darth Maul Giveaway site is now live. The grand prize is a life sized Darth Maul signed by George Lucas himself. 100 Force FX Lightsabers will be given away as a first prize. Entry forms can be found inside 2012 Vintage assortment figures and vehicles.

Walmart continues to be the destination for Star Wars 2012. Along with new Movie Heroes, Clone Wars, Vehicles and Battle Packs, the retailer is now receiving and putting out the new The Vintage Collection The Phantom Menace wave. These were found at a Scottsdale, AZ store and retailed for $8.96 each. Note that these cards do not have the Maul promotion sticker and entry form. Happy Hunting!

Hasbro does a great job with an all new, nicely articulated Logray and even better having him in his original Kenner card. While the figure included in the POTF2 Ewok 2 pack wasn't bad for its time,  this will be the definite version of the furry shaman for awhile.

A head swap for Rebel troop builders is always welcome.  Hasbro essentially took the head from the TSC 2006 Rebel Trooper and popped it into the new TVC body and voila! "New figure". Both head variants are readily available on store pegs in both the "Return" and "Revenge" cardbacks.

A slightly repainted figure from the 2008 Rebel Pilots Evolutions set (which one can still find lingering around a few ToysRUs shelves by the way), Keyan Farlander's timely  release nicely converges with that of the K-Mart B-Wing. While the figure is redubbed after a character from the 1993 X-Wing PC game, he's still one of the original Kenner 93 and neat to see in a Vintage style card.

As we first reported in New York Comic-Con, Hasbro will be releasing 3 non-OT vehicles in Vintage style packaging for the January 30th launch. These include the AT-AP, V-19 Torrent Starfighter, and Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter. The Hasbro site has these listed at $29.99 each.

It appears white is in vogue these days, especially when it comes to iPhones, ninjas, and bounty hunters. The mailaway figure for 2011 gives tribute to another sidestory in Star Wars production lore; that of the first "prototype" white Boba Fett. While the figure itself is a repaint of the most excellent 2005 VOTC Fett and holster from the TAC Animated Fett, it's not as accurate to the prototype design as we'd like it to be. However, the overall presentation is superb. For $6.99 and 5 UPC codes, you can own one and don't forget you only have until March 31st!

When Hasbro released this Slave Leia figure in 2009, she came with interchangeable legs to be alternately posed sitting down in Jabba's throne. From a purely aesthetic point of view, we thought the POTJ Deluxe Slave Leia was one of the better versions of our bikini clad Princess, but the '09 figure was truly  creative. Slave Leia never was released in the Vintage line making VC64 a pick for carded collectors.

Hasbro updates their site with new product info and photos for their 2012 line. Of particular note are the new prices for The Vintage Collection ($9.99) and Clone Wars ($8.99) as well as their new Movie Heroes line ($8.99) which technically replaces Saga Legends in the hierarchy. What are your thoughts on Star Wars figures going up a buck? Post your feedback in our comment box! 

This Han Solo features a redeco of the 2006 figure from the Shield Generator Assault Battle Pack . Overall, it's a good package since it offers a decent figure carded in the classic Kenner cardback and character photo. The paint job on this Han is improved from the Battle Pack version, giving him a much better likeness.

The first figure in an Expanded Universe Vintage card is quite possibly the best of 2011. Hasbro does pretty much everything you could possibly want for ARC-77, based on the more popular episodes of the Tartakovsky micro-series. He's got interchangeable Phase I and II armor, a unique headsculpt (with a faux hawk and soul patch nonetheless!), and even comes with an instruction insert to show you how to attach both holsters.

This TIE Pilot figure was first released in the Evolutions set from 2008 and has been re-issued several times since. For carded collectors, this means collecting both the Revenge and Return variants and you gotta appreciate the retro Kenner beauty of both.