The Hunt Is On - Disney Return of the Jedi Figurine Playset

Disney's buyout of Lucasfilm has seen a plethora of new Star Wars collectibles added to Disney stores. While I was in London last December I picked up two of their new figure playsets. I absolutely loved the detailing and dynamic poses of these figures, and couldn't wait to get them displayed in a proper diorama setting. Unfortunately the third set in the series (containing characters from Return of the Jedi) was nowhere to be found.

(Image courtesy of mightyjabba.com)

Next week, I'm hoping to fill this gap in my collection when I head to the US for a conference. I'll be spending a few days in both St. Louis and Houston, and the latter has a great Disney store in the local Galleria Mall. Best of all, these sets retail for only $12.99US ($17.57NZ) in the US, significantly less than their £12.50 ($25.90) price tag in England!

Book Depository Star Wars Novel Haul

Admittedly, I'm something of a latecomer to most online purchasing options. It took me a long time to discover the wonders of Amazon, Mighty Ape, and TradeMe (New Zealand's equivalent to eBay). The same is true of Book Depository. I'd heard a lot of great things about this site, and in the second half of last year I found myself needing a rather large (and expensive) bundle of books for my studies. Book Depository's prices beat out all of the competitors - and with free shipping, it almost seemed too good to be true.

Of course, I couldn't put an order in without also including a few items of leisurely reading. It was only a few weeks earlier that the reboot of the Star Wars canon had been announced. As a result, all future prints of earlier Star Wars novels would be emblazoned with a "Legends" banner denoting their non-canon status. While I didn't have any problems with the new Legends status, the pedantic side of me wasn't too happy about some of my Legends novels having the banner, while others did not. The timing seemed perfect, then, to fill a number of gaps in my EU novel collection before reprints began.

My order arrived roughly a week later, and included a smattering of novels from throughout the EU timeline. The paperbacks were excellently packaged, and in pristine condition. Best of all, each of them only cost me somewhere between $5-$10 NZD - less than half of their retail price at other stores.

I was blown away by the service that Book Depository provided, and I'll definitely be sourcing all of my future Star Wars novel purchases from this great site. If you haven't already, I absolutely recommend giving them a try!