February 7, 2004 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer BigBadToyStore.com has several new items of interest to collectors:

MASTER REPLICA - STAR WARS: Master Replica has just announced 8 new prop replicas and we've listed pre-orders for all of them at the lowest pricing M.R. allows. Four new Limited Edition 'LE' items have been listed including the Episode III Yoda Lightsaber, Obi-Wan Kenobi Lightsaber, Anakin Skywalker Lightsaber for $351.99 each and Episode V Han Solo Blaster for $474.99. More new Force FX edition Lightsabers are also available - both Anakin and Darth Vader models for $94.99 each. Two new .45 Scaled sabers are $33.99 each - Obi-Wan and Anakin. Master Replica will be releasing a bunch of great new items later this year and BBTS will carry all of them - including: Darth Sidious Saber, Darth Vader Saber, and Stormtrooper Blaster LE items, and 4 exciting new helmet replicas: Darth Vader, Clone Trooper, Shock Troop, and Special Ops Troop helmets.

DC DIRECT PRE-ORDERS: We've listed 8 new pre-order sets for the main spring and summer releases from DC. Now available for pre-order are: Batman Hush - Series 3 Set of 5, Batman Rogue's Gallery Set of 5, DC First Appearances 3 Set of 4, Contemporary Teen Titans 2 Set of 4, Green Lantern 1 Set of 5, Supman/Batman Public Enemies Set of 5, Alex Ross Justice League 1 Set of 5, and Crisis on Infinite Earth 1 Set of 5.

ENERGON & ALTERNATORS: Hasbro has just delivered more figures to us this afternoon - We've restocked the Alternator Grimlock and Swindle figures and the rest of the Energon basic combiners have arrived. We have nearly all of the basic figures in stock now including brand new: D1 Stormcloud, D2 Blight, D3 Blackout, D4 Kickback, C3 Wideload and C4 Bonecrusher.

GI JOE: New 12" Joes have arrived including several ethnic versions of these three figures: Army Armaments Specialist, Desert Grenadier, Air Force Ground Ops Training. A variety of other 12" figures from Hasbro and Dreams & Visions are in stock, and Valor Versus Venom Wave 7 figures are in transit to us and will arrive next week - pre-orders still available.

STAR WARS: Gentle Giant's Bust Ups Series 2 has arrived, we have boxes of 24 mini-busts available for $99.99 each. Each case contains 24 'closed/random' boxes that will contain one of these 6 figures: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Stormtrooper, Darth Sidious, Count Dooku, and Emporer's Royal Guard.

BLUE BOX: The latest release from the Elite Force line has arrived - French Airborne - 11th Airborne Brigade figure called 'Bruno'. The figure features the G3.5 version body and comes with a slew of cool accessories. Many other Elite Force items are in stock.

RE ISSUE #18 SOUNDBLASTER: We've learned that Soundblaster will come with not one, but two cassettes! Ravage and Buzzsaw will be included with Soundblaster so you'll get 3 very desirable transformers in just one box! We also have the repainted 'Cobalt Sentry' cassettes available for pre-order. #18 Soundblaster should arrive in about 4 weeks!