Graded Style Oscars Cases
Another collector and I went in on some new cases for our Star Wars figures and I really like them. I was previously using these cases which worked well, but it wasn’t until after I bought quite a few that I found out about these cases. There are two things that I really like about the new cases. The first being that the depth is about half of the original cases, so they don’t take up as much space in that way. This does make them so they do not fit the larger figures, but they can be custom ordered to fit. In my case all my carded figures are Luke Jedi Knight figures, so they fit just fine. The 2nd think I like is the cases are wider which sets the figure out more that the previous ones. I think it helps make each figure look that more special. 
The cases mimic those of the AFA Grading Company but where I don’t feel the need to have my figures graded and just want the nice cases, they work great.
Here are some pictures of two of my Lukes with a few different shots of the cases.
Star Wars: Trench Run
Looks like the iPhone might finally get a decent Star Wars game. I just found out about Star Wars: Trench Run from THQ. Here are some of the features reported from iphonealley
When it’s released, Trench Run will be available in the App Store for $4.99. Some of the features are listed below:
Force Power: Slow down time and increase agility using the Force to bring TIE fighters into shooting range, and to dodge obstacles while flying down the trench. Breathtaking 3D Experience: Incredible 3-D graphics based on the original Star Wars movie. Amazing Special Effects: Vivid lighting, advanced shaders, explosions and incredible lifelike models. Authentic Star Wars Music and Sound Effects: Combined with real movie footage for complete immersion into the Star Wars universe. True-Life Flight: Accelerometer controls with life-like physics. Addictive Game Play: Ever increasing challenges, and tons of replay value. Multiple Points of View: Featuring both chase cam and cockpit modes. Mission Mode: With storyboards, music and dialogue from the original Star Wars movie. Arcade Modes: For increased re-playability, includes both Trench Run and Dog Fighting modes. Multiple Difficulty Levels: From Easy to Jedi. Optimized Gaming Experience: To work on the 3G, with special graphical features for the 3GS, iPod Touch 2nd Gen and future devices. Leader Boards: Players compete against others across the world for the top spot. Find out who are the true Jedi.
Microsoft Store
Today was the official Launch of Windows 7 and it also marked the launch of the first Microsoft Store in Scottsdale Arizona. I honestly can’t believe how much of a blatant rip off their store is of the Apple Stores in which they are competing against. For anyone that has been to an Apple Store, they know they have the same wood floors, table displays for their products, and large glass windows. I think this is Microsoft’s big problem right now. They are trying to catch up instead of coming up with things to actually differentiate themselves from the competitors. They should have come up with their own unique store design that would make customers want to go there instead of the Apple Store.
Windows 7 on the other hand is getting great reviews and appears to be an excellent product compared to the Vista mess up. Hopefully they did it right and it is enough to make us users still clutching on to XP finally switch from an almost decade old OS.
I’m all for competition and even though I am mainly an Apple user now, I still help users with Windows. I can understand that when cost is an issue, that a Windows machine can do a lot of the same tasks. All be it maybe not quite so eloquently. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with their new Phone OS. Will it just simply be a copy of the iPhone? or will they actually do something that makes an iPhone user say “I wish my phone could do that?”
Here is a video of the opening of the Microsoft Store.
Star Wars in Concert
Friday night Sarah and I attended Star Wars in Concert in Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun and excellent to hear all the music performed live. I’ll upload some pictures in a day or two, but I do have a video snippet that I just uploaded to youtube. Enjoy!
Amazing Star Wars Find
I have a Star Wars collecting friend who lives in Romania, that I have been talking with back and forth for almost two years now. A couple weeks ago I found a figure I knew he was looking for. We both started looking around at what the seller had, and he had some very nice foreign Star Wars figures at very affordable prices. Our first thought of course was that it was too good to be true, but we decided to take a chance and order a few to test it out. The first batch of figures arrived a couple weeks ago and they were even better than we thought. The seller still had a few others, so we ordered some more. Those arrived on Monday and again were very nice. Our plan is to resell these and make a decent profit on them, but use the money to get some great items that we want for our own collections. I’ve sold one of the figures already and made 3 times more than what I paid on it to give an example of how undervalued the prices were. I’m obviously not going to reveal the source though as we have plans to pick up a few more, but these were the best of what they had. It still amazes me that this one seller had figures from all over including: U.S., Mexico, England, Spain, and Belgium. This batch really shows how big of an impact Star Wars has had on the world. Below is a picture of the lot and then each figures front and back.
