Monday, Sept. 21, 2015 Recap – Smuggler’s Den Darth Vader, Smuggler’s Den Ahsoka Tano, Gold Classic Art Bib Fortuna, Galactic Moments, Monochrome Chewbacca, Journey of Qui-Gon part 6, Pictogram Icons, Hem Dazon at Mos Eisley

Two new Smuggler’s Den Exclusive variants came in today. Darth Vader (Sith Lord) in the early morning (6am PT) and Ahsoka Tano in the afternoon (5pm PT). Darth Vader’s variant was apparently changed from Red to Gray because of possible confusion with the Red variant. Smart move. Also it only lasted 4 hours, whereas the Tano variant will be open for six hours, I’m guessing for the benefit of players in varying time zones. Also, you need to turn in 2 Gold Ahsoka Tano cards to qualify for the variant, not the usual one. I wonder if this is because the Smuggler’s Den variants have essentially replaced the Green and Orange variants for now but the cart counts on them have been quite high, almost as much as recent Green card counts. I have a feeling these were meant to be much more exclusive than that.

The Gold variant of Bib Fortuna Classic Art 2 card was released this morning. I think it’s cool when there’s some relationship between different card drops like the Jabba Smuggler’s variant came out the same day as the Jabba Classic Art card then we saw a Bib Fortuna right after the Jabba card. IRL, new hit that Leia’s bikini will be sold at auction at the end of the month. Maybe we’ll see a Skiff vehicle as a follow up to this card? If it’s nice enough it could make up for how bad the base card looks. :p

The next GM we return to the Empire Strikes Back with a comic book adaptation cover. I wonder if they’ll preempt another marathon this week—FC and Vintage and perhaps—to catch up GM. I think that would catch it up completely.

Today’s monochrome is Chewbacca. This is the sixth card in the series; only 2 more to go. Hopefully, no more surprises, I want to finish this one. Based on the other TFA sets, we should see Captain Phasma and Kylo Ren. I wonder what the Award card will be?

The sixth Journey of Qui-Gon came out today. The discounted odds seem to be working properly again today. Today’s is called Death at the Hands of Darth Maul. It’s a good looking action oriented card. Four more to go in this set.

A new Pictogram today AND the Gold Pictogram variants were also given out today. Whoo hoo! I saw that ThinkGeek started selling t-shirts with Pictogram designs on them and today’s is perfect for a t-shirt. It sort of like the famous Beatles cover for Let it Be, though I’m sure they’re not the only ones to use this motif.

Mos Eisley features Hem Dazon. I totally remember this character from the movie though I certainly didn’t ever know his name. Here’s what the Wookiepedia entry has to say:

“Hem Dazon was a salt-addicted male Arcona. As a result, his eyes became yellow, he was ill-tempered, and his addiction caused him to develop tremors in his hands. He was stuck on Tatooine due to wasting all of his credits on salt and juri juice. He was present at Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina when Luke Skywalker first met Han Solo, and he was sitting with Bom Vimdin, Pons Limbic, Arleil Schous, and a member of the Stennes species, Braconner Bakiska.”

Perhaps that list of characters might give us some clue as who we might encounter next? That Pons fellow seems particularly gruesome.