In case you missed all the hubbub, a big chunk of Manhattan spent this morning reeking of natural gas. I actually didn't smell anything until I got inside my office building, so I of course attributed the smell to my building alone. It was intense enough to where I considered reporting it, but there was no line for the little coffee shop downstairs, and I really, really wanted coffee, so I did that instead.

I stopped thinking about it once I took the elevator up to our department's floor, but was reminded a moment later when a company-wide e-mail confirmed that we weren't the only building in town currently smelling like the genesis of a major explosion. It's only 10:30 as I write this, so chances are, they'll have figured out the true source by the time this is posted. Me? I know we're not going to explode, but I hope there's enough of a frenzy to get the kings and queens of this company to send its subjects home for the day. I had a long night. Too many good Fresh Prince reruns on. I could use the extra sleep.

On the "Pick My Wii Game" front from a few nights back: After reading your suggestions, I am most definitely ditching Red Steel. If I make it to the store before WarioWare comes out, I'll snatch Elebits. Otherwise, it's all Wario. Thanks for yer help!

During the Toys 'R' Us trip that brought Red Steel into my life, I picked up a couple of other things using the various cards full of store credit we had leftover. Whenever there's no chance for a cash refund and it's "spend or sit," I prefer to buy stuff that isn't at all practical - stuff I'd never part with actual green for. That doesn't sound like a tremendous testimonial for the item I'm about to feature, but make no mistake: I love it dearly, and it's worth just as many real pennies as gift certificate pennies.

It's from the Star Wars "Galactic Heroes" collection - a really nice $20 set of figures based on the bounty hunter scene from The Empire Strikes Back. The first sight of those wacky bounty hunters is among my favorite visuals from anything Star Wars, and as such, I've always had a soft spot for any correlating toys. This set, titled "Vader's Bounty Hunters," contains ten unique figures, which breaks it all down to $2 per figure - not exactly a "steal" considering the figures' diminutive stature, but not such a bad deal, either.

If you're unfamiliar with the Galactic Heroes line, it's pretty sweet. It's Star Wars meets Playskool, where everyone and everything looks shorter, stockier and more cartoony - but somehow, all in a cool way. While intended mostly to be Star Wars action figures for the three-and-under crowd, the fine detailing, great paint work and passionate sculpts have made the toys just as sought by us geeky old dudes.

I'm no longer the type to keep something in its original packaging just to maintain its collectability, but I will do that if the packaging is too fucking cool to ruin. In this case, it is. The box is beautiful, and more or less based on the Super Star Destroyer bridge where Vader gave everyone the big money scoop. It's not really the kind of box you can open and shut and open again - once you tear, you tear for good. Besides, if God wanted us to open every package in the world, he would never have invented window boxes.

The set includes all of the bounty hunters - Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Zuckuss, 4-LOM and Dengar. It also includes a nice helping of Imperials, including a comparatively gigantic Darth Vader, two Stormtroopers (with different degrees of war wear), and another figure that I first took to be a TIE Fighter Pilot. But he isn't a TIE Fighter Pilot. He's something else...

A Shadow Trooper, eh? Interesting choice - and kind of odd. I don't know a heck of a lot about Shadow Troopers, but I know this much: They're "Expanded Universe" characters, not from the movies, and they essentially amount to Stormtroopers with Dark Side powers. (The idea of such a thing dates back to the earliest days of Star Wars; lightsaber-wielding Stormtroopers were not uncommon to spot in production sketches.) Shadow Troopers ultimately turned up in Star Wars video games, and even though Expanded Universe toys are nothing new, it's a bit weird to see a random Shadow Trooper inserted into the bounty hunter scene from ESB. I'm not complaining - upon closer inspection, Shadow Troopers look much cooler than TIE Fighter Pilots.

Posted by Matt on 01/08/2007. E-mail me!