For me it will depend on how well they are already painted. If I can't do better, they'll stay as is. However, if, when the Interceptors come out, I may not be able to help myself from painting some 181st stripes on them!

Budgernaut said: I just noticed that the pile of numbers that were 10s and 11s in the X-wing preview are 12s, 13s, 14s, and 15s in the TIE Fighter pack. What could they be? I saw that too. Maybe it's a speed marker? Ties are faster than X-wings, so it would kind of make sense if it tracks.

I don't know if I'm concerned about the markers being two-sided. Eventually you need more fighters to field more pilots, so you'd get more markers with the extra fighters you'd need to buy. I have two starters and a single x-wing expansion coming, so I still don't have enough fighters to field all the expansion pilots. You could always just make a color copy of the marker on cardstock so you could use both sides at the same time until you get more ships.

I have orders placed at both Miniature Market and my local game shop. Does anyone know who tends to get product faster? Do games like this have street dates, or are they sellable as soon as they arrive in inventory? I'm wondering if I'll get my online order before or after my LGS calls (whenever that finally happens).

That's where I got mine. You get free shipping with orders over $100. My shipping was around $8 for a starter and 5 expansion ships.

I wrote to the customer service link the other day and heard back yesterday. I was told that it's now scheduled for release until second quarter 2012. That was as specific as they got.