Ok, so sometime around three years ago I gave up collecting Star Wars figures and toys and sold off most of my collection. It was a decision that was partly motivated by me needing space (I wanted to convert my spare room into a library) and partly because I needed the money. But it was still a conscious effort to cut off Star Wars rather than the other toy lines I collected. I guess my main reasoning was that it had just gotten so out of hand. I had bookcases upon bookcases lined with loose figures, and more and more of those figures were based on characters I barely knew. Some of the EU figures I didn’t know at all and a growing number were coming from the Prequel movies that I really didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for.
I was poking around Ross’ Toy Graveyard today, you know the horribly kept area in the back where dead toy lines go to rot. From time to time I’ve found some good stuff back there for good deals and today I was following up on a lead that they were starting to get in some of those GI JOE Assault on Cobra Island sets. I didn’t find any of those, but I did find this Joker Squad set for $14.99 and I decided, “what the hell… why not.” It does go with the Imperials that make up the remains of my collection and I did actually read the Legacy comic that these figures are taken from (it was only Issue #4 and thus early enough in the series that I hadn’t quit on it yet). And considering this thing sold for more than twice that over at Entertainment Earth, I just couldn’t resist picking it up.
The packaging is nothing special, but it does a nice job of displaying the figures, and best of all it is 100 percent collector friendly. You just open the side flap and slide out the tray. The only thing holding the figures down are those clear rubber bands, so a quick snip snip and you can get your figures out and return them to the tray with no worries. It also has a sticker denoting that it is a Limited Edition Entertainment Earth online exclusive. Now, if only Ross hadn’t cemented that friggin price label right to the window of the box. Grrrr.
If you haven’t read Legacy #4, I can’t really recommend it, unless you’re a crazy serious Star Wars junkie, and if that’s the case, you probably already did. Its ok. Its interesting in that it covers another Civil War within the Empire, this time dealing with renegade Stormtroopers defecting to support another Emperor pretender. The characters are all cliche war movie schlock. You’ve got Anson Trask, the “noob” that joins the squad right before the suicide mission; Harkas the hard-ass sargeant; Hondo, the silent type; Vax the scrounger; and Jes Gistang, the Squad’s token female, who for some non-sensical reason is in charge of the heavy gun, despite being the smallest of the bunch. There’s also Lord Maleval, a Sith Lord sent to go with the Squad and make sure they take out the 908th Division’s base.
The set consists of the five members of the 407th Division’s Joker Squad along with Maleval. Now keep in mind, as five of these figures are Stormtroopers, the set reuses the same body four times. The fifth is the now infamous first female Stormtrooper figure, Jes, for which Hasbro was generous enough to provide a unique, body sculpt and a new belt. She also comes with the “big gun” she used in the comic. The other troopers all come with their standard blasters and Hondo comes with his vibro knife. The only other difference among the Stormtroopers bodies is Sgt. Harkass has yellow stripes on the arms of his armor, which I didn’t remember him having in the comic, but when I dug out my copy to check… yep, there they are. These figures use the same rubbery removable helmets as the Legacy Collection Stormtrooper with Jango Fett’s face.
The head sculpts are all new and unique. Naturally, each member has a really unique look about them to distinguish them as separate characters, at least with their helmets off. Which begs the question, how the hell do they keep from shooting each other when fighting other Stormtroopers? In the comic, both factions of Stormtroopers look exactly alike. Either way, the head sculpts are all good, although Hondo looks exactly like Luke Skywalker.
Lord Maleval is a really cool figure, even if he looks like the product of Darth Maul raping a Quarran. The coolest thing about this figure are his robes. Besides having a skirt around his legs, he has a massive flowing cape and hood, and the bottom of the cape is lined with a bendy plastic wire that not only weights it down but lets you pose it a bit. Its one of the cooler things I’ve seen in a Star Wars figure in a while. Maleval also comes with his lightsaber and his electrified whip.
All in all, this is a nice set and it brings something rather unique to my collection of Imperials. The question of it being a “Limited Edition” is pretty dubious, as it was released quite a while ago and Entertainment Earth still seems to have plenty left. All in all, I think the biggest problem with this set was the initial price. Sure $39.99 doesn’t sound like a lot for six exclusive Star Wars figures, as its actually less than these would have sold for on individual cards. But when you consider this sets heavy reuse of parts, it just seems way overpriced. They could have at least thrown in a copy of the comic for people who didn’t read it.
FigureFan Zero 