Star Wars Series 2 Explained
Release Date: Celebration VI: August 23, WDW August 24, DLR: August 25, 2012
Price: $14.95
Details: Blind Box 12 figure series
Update: 08/17/12 Series 2 accidentally released at Emporium at the Magic Kingdom today. Rumored price is $14.95 per blind box!!!!!
Update: 08/14/12 Picture of Chaser added. HQ pics of all the characters now available.
Update: 08/13/12 The Disney Parks blog released some new photos today and some words from SW2 artists Thomas Scott and Casey Jones
“The first series was created at a different time in Vinylmation history,” explained Thomas. “When we began developing series two, we considered several factors for future growth. We again worked closely with Lucasfilm when selecting the characters for the new series. We also thought about how those characters could appear in future series.” – Thomas Scott
“I like using the ears as a way to further enhance the story,” explained Casey. “When designing these figures, I looked for something iconic to add to the ears, such as the ‘binary sunset’ on the Tusken Raider or Obi-Wan Kenobi figures. Adding design elements from the film help set the stage for each character.” – Casey Jones
The article says that Casey Jones created concept sketches of each figure, while Maria Clapsis turned those sketches into full-color images.
Update: 08/07/12 Artist Casey Jones tweeted us to let us know the release date for Star Wars 2 in Orlando will actually be Friday, August 24 (Disney’s Events page said 8/25). Casey Jones will be at D-Street from 11am-1pm EST to sign Star Wars 2 figures.
Update: 08/06/12 Release date of Saturday, August 25 announced for D-Street Orlando. Casey Jones will be at D-Street from 11am-1pm EST to sign Star Wars 2 figures. Also, the LE 2500 Princess Leia Hologram figure will be on sale at Star Wars Celebration VI from August 23-26. Celebration is a ticketed convention held at the Orange County Convention Center.
Update: 07/29/12 Release date of Saturday, August 25 announced for D-Street Anaheim. Casey Jones will be at D-Street from 3p-6p PST to sign Star Wars 2 figures. No release info for Orlando yet. But the weekend of August 23-26 is Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, so a release is expected.
Update: 07/18/12 Pictures of 11 of 12 figures now up. Here is a look at them in their entirety from Vinylmation World.
Update: 07/08/12 Pictures of Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Muftak added in pin form.
Update: 11/17/11 The facebook page for Star Tours had a first look at the Obi-Wan vinyl from Star Wars 2.
Star Wars Series 2 is based on characters from a New Hope Episode IV, the first Star Wars movie to hit theaters. This series was a Casey Jones, Maria Clapsis and Thomas Scott collaboration, each contributing to different parts of the design process they could best handle. As more figures are released, we will see the composition of the set. Do they have to repeat the big stars of the movie franchise? (Luke, Leia, Han Solo) Or can supporting characters carry this second series?
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Darth Vader
Window in one ear, stars in the other. A bit more realistic looking that the series 1 version. It has a helmet shaped feature coming off the head! |
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Princess Leia
The walls of the ship in her ears look great. Can’t wait to see the details in her clothing in person. The hair buns are the perfect touch after the braided hair ring for series 1. |
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Luke Skywalker
His return for series 2 puts him on Tatooine with the duel suns ablaze and the colorful skyline in the ears. |
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Muftak
He is found in the Mos Eisley Cantina. He is paired up with Kabe in the movie |
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Ponda Baba Nice coloring and that’s a great looking, although ugly, face. |
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Han Solo He looks a lot better in this series. I didn’t like the bland Han look from Series 1. He looks more rugged here with more defined hair and clothing features. |
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X-Wing Pilot Great visor look just like X-Wing Mickey. |
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Grand Moff Tarkin
Tarkin is the commander of the first Death Star. In Episode IV he is portrayed by actor Peter Cushing. This set is doing a great job so far at use of ears. Instead of blank, the artist is using them to represent where we might see the character. |
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Obi Wan Kenobi
Luke’s first mentor as a Jedi. Also the chaser in Star Wars 1 with a “ghost” variant. |
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Greedo
The bounty hunter that comes after Han on Tatooine. He never shot first! |
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Tusken Raider
Roaming Tatooine, these guys ride single file to hide their numbers. Amazing use of ears. The desert scene looks great. |
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Mystery Chaser
Click on image to see the chaser and our thoughts on it. |
Obi wan looks better than the series 1 figure. The regular chaser’s going to go waaaaay down in price on the secondary market.
I think what we need to keep in mind regarding main characters is that we are going to see the same characters in different outfits by different artists. Obi-wan is the exception. In fact, regular Obi-Wan shouldn’t have even been in a series marketed as an “Empire Strikes Back” series. I’m actually kind of disappointed they didn’t use Han in Hoth gear in series 1, and saved his signature look for series 2. But I don’t think anyone is ho-hum about seeing Princess Leia with the famous bun hairdo in this new series. I for one am really looking forward to it.
These designs are so much better than the series 1 figures. I hope they redo some of the main characters, I’d love a New Vader, Luke, Han, and Chewie.
Hooray for creative use of the ears!
GRAND. MOFF. TARKIN…….!!!
Wow, this is a Casey Jones designed set? How come it looks so much better than most of his other stuff?
1. We were told it was a Scott/Jones/Clapsis collaboration. Not sure who did what yet.
2. You know I love your customs but how are you surprised? Casey is one of the best artists on the DDG team!
Eh, I’m not a big fan of his usually. I feel like most of his designs are just stretched out characters with little detail and bland facial expressions.
But like I said, I think this set is great, so who knows? Plus there’s great use of the ears on most of these, and that’s my secret weakness. I told myself I wouldn’t get any non-Disney Vinylmation, but these are tempting. Maybe just Vader…you know, for the villains collection…
I wonder who will be the chaser… Is it weird that I’d love to see a C3PO 3″ & R2 Jr combo chaser?
Chaser is revealed on the vinylmation vault. It is Garandin, the spy from Mos Eisley
Thanks for letting us know – I didn’t think they would put the chaser on the vault so didn’t check there.
Actually, there are only 11 vinyls in the vault for SW series 2. Disney might have made a mistake and made him the chaser even though he is not. We should be expecting 1 more vinyl for SW2
The one missing from the vault is Greedo, the link is there, just not working. Garandin is the chaser, he’s the figure we haven’t seen and is the blacked out figure in the vault.
Not a Star Wars fan, so no idea who the chaser is :lol: He looks like a gas mask Gonzo.
I love vader! But I feel like I am the only one not enjoying the “cartoon” kind of style that this new set has. I really enjoy vinylmation sets that have some sort of unique and different aspect to them. These to me look like something that could be from a cartoon version of star wars. I love series one more I think with the exception of the series 2 vader.
No Jawa’s?!!!
I can’t get exited about this set, it’s basically as if they took the character that they screwed up the most in the first series (except for Chewy, I think he’s one of the worst vinyls ever), and just did them over again. The might as well say “Yep, we know we screwed up with series one, so here’s our do-over”. Terrible, I’m not wasting my money this time.
14.95? Why?! Because it’s Star Wars? To heck with this set!
Wasn’t Star Wars 1 $11.95? It’s a Disney Design Team set, which all go for $13 these days, plus probably an extra $2 to pay for the Lucasfilm licensing, just like the first series had.
$14.95? Yeah that’s not gonna happen. I am a huge Star Wars fan but I’m not supporting that… Especially for a blind box. I’ll stick with series 1, half of the characters are the same anyway.
Of course Lucas tax (hah) is added to the regular Disney tax too, but still. $15 for a blind box? Ridiculous.
If it was a Lucasfilm licensing fee then every type of Star Wars merchandise would be notably higher priced than other merchandise, and that’s just not the case. Lego Star Wars costs $60 just like every other video game.
And I’m not saying you’re wrong, Rust. Its very possible they have to give Lucasfilm a cut. But it seems like other outfits figure out a way to do that without screwing the customers. Disney did this with Muppets 2 as well; they saw major fan interest and then jacked up the price. Its the same reason the Park series cost more than Urban now; people like Park better.
It may not be a licensing thing, I don’t know that for certain. I do know that the reason that Park cost $13 is that it’s designed by the Disney Design Team aka the parks team. From Park 5 on, every series that they design is $13: Parks, Alice, Robots 2, Animation 2, Pirates. Only the Disney Store artist designed sets are still $10. Urban is $10 probably because both teams work on it.
I hear ya. But they did the same price jacking when Muppets 2 came out. It was purely because of the interest the series generated. The urbans (series 6 I think?) once cost $13, but no one bought them, so they went back down to $10. I just think we’re being naive if we think there’s a legitimate reason for these price increases, other than just boosting Disney’s profit margin. Are we really to believe the production cost has increased by 50% over the last two years? As for the difference between the DDG vinylmations and the DS ones, you have to remember that when people are at the parks they’re more likely to drop a few bucks more on a VM than people who are just walking through their local mall. After all, they’re under the influence of Disney Magic! :)
I can’t believe all the hoopla over the price.can you really blame Disney for raising the price.especially when you see the characters already selling for $35 on Ebay and the chaser selling for $75.they probably see it as hey if people will pay that much for it why not charge a couple extra bucks.the only thing to do is not buy it and send the message that you won’t pay that price, but I still think this series will sell enough even at the price.
If you’re happy with Disney and eBayers playing pricing leap-frog… I don’t have a response for that. As for me, I do plan to send that message with my wallet. And yes, the series will sell enough, but what would you rather have less people spending more money? or more people spending less money? When you have the latter, that means more general interest, more people buying Vinylmations, more people at the Parks and in Disney Stores, and more profit in the end.
Ill pass. Im NOT going to pay that much. Maybe ill just try to get as many as i can by doing the black trading boxes.
Doubt it. No one would risk a $15 SW2 for $4 outlet figure.
Good point. And you’re really shelling out $16 per vinyl if you count sales tax. I wouldn’t throw $16 in a trade box just to end up with a Sea Creature. Haha.
lol… Give it time. They’ll be there.