It’s the middle of December and you know what that means? Cold and snowy scenes! Well, not where I am in Florida, but all the more reason to turn to snow to evoke the Christmas Spirit! And I’ll be going with that theme a few times as we march toward Christmas! And today’s review is actually even more Christmas related, because the original Kenner AT-AT Walker was probably one of the most memorable toys I can remember opening on a Christmas morning and I have fond memories of dragging it out into the snowy backyard and playing with it until my face nearly froze off. Granted, today’s offering is a lot smaller than that one, but nonetheless still pretty cool!

I really dig the packaging Jazwares uses for this line. It consists of a huge window showing the toy against an illustrated battle scene. The included mini-figures and Speeder Bike are also displayed front and center, and you get some snappy foil on the box too! And it’s a sizeable box for a toy released as part of a MICRO Squadron. The box also calls out some of the toys features, including the electronics. Sadly, there is no Try Me feature, and you’ll have to supply your own batteries. Everything is collector friendly and the Walker comes out fully assembled. I will likely display this little beast in the packaging because it looks so damn good in it. Let’s have a look at the little figures first.

There are five figures included with this set: General Veers, Luke Skywalker, an AT-AT Driver, and two Snowtroopers. It’s a good assortment, but I really wish Jazwares could have squeezed one more figure in there to give us two Drivers. And if not, I’d rather have had another Driver than Luke, since we got a similar version of him with the Snowspeeder. Either way, bigger vehicles like this make a strong case for Jazwares to release figure packs, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Anyway, the detail on these little guys is really good considering their size. You even get some dirty wash on the Snowtroopers, and little details like Veer’s rank insignia. Even the Imperial emblems printed on the Driver’s helmet are better than the ones on my 6-inch Black Series figure, and that’s pretty impressive. As usual, you get four points of articulation on each figure, allowing them to sit and move their arms at the shoulders.

The AT-AT looks spectacular, and this toy really gives me a sense of being a shrunken down version of the big AT-AT Hasbro did a short while back. The Micro Galaxy line continues to deliver on some very detailed sculpts even on the smaller ships, so they were able to really go nuts on this one given the bigger canvas they had to work with. The armor is covered with panel lines, vents, and other bits and bobs with only some exposed screws on the interior of the legs to muddy the realism. Much of the toy is left in pale gray plastic, which looks great with a bit of understated weathering. I can’t emphasize that enough, because the heavy handed dirt and weathering on the Endor release made that one an easy skip for me.

If you’ve handled Kenner or Hasbro’s AT-AT toys, the articulation here should be readily familiar. You get strong rotating joints where the legs meet the body and again at the knees and ankles. The leg joints hold fast and make this a fun toy to pose and play with. You also get jointing in the neck tube, which is covered with a soft rubbery plastic. The cheek guns can rotate just like on the older toys. There are buttons on the front side and top which will activate the electronics. This includes lights in the cockpit, voice clips from The Empire Strikes Back, laser blasts, and the stomping and whirring of the leg motors. The sampling is all very loud and clear and I think it really adds a lot of value to the toy.

Both the head and body can be opened to reveal interior play areas. The interior of the head really reminds me of Hasbro’s big boy, as it has room for two Drivers and a place behind the seats for Veers to stand, along with a clip to hold him in place. It’s a great use of space with some nice detail to the controls. It’s just a shame that one of those Driver seats will always be vacant.

The body section opens up completely by lifting off part of the roof and side. I really wish Hasbro’s did this with theirs, as it gives better access to the interior, which in this case includes three areas: An upper seating area for the assault troops, a garage for up to four Speeder Bikes, and a deploying area with light up computer stations.

There are no less than ten seats in the upper area, plus room for officers to stand and brief the troops. Again, it’s sad that I’ll never have enough figures to fill this, but if this Walker ever drops in price like the Falcon did, I’d be down for at least one more. But that won’t even fill one side of these chairs!

Like the big Hasbro toy, this one also has a winch that can be lowered and in this case it makes for a good way to deploy the Speeder Bikes to the ground or raise cargo up to the interior. The speeder looks like it’s the same one that was available in the small mystery boxes. Again, lots of nice detail for such a tiny toy and it seats a figure really well. It also comes with a tiny stand. I should note that you also get a grapple hook for Luke to climb up and plant his detonator, but I didn’t bother much with it because the string is too long and he just winds up dragging on the ground.

I have to admit, at $60 I had my doubts about this thing, but once I had it in hand I was completely sold on it. Indeed, I think it’s safe to say that Jazwares has produced one of the best AT-AT Walker toys ever made. Sure, it’s hard to compete with the appeal of the ones that can hold 3 3/4-inch figures, but the amount of detail and play value that Jazwares packed into this toy really makes it stand out as an absolute gem. The detail and finish on it makes it a perfect display model for your desk or shelf, while still having all the interactivity of a truly fun playset. And considering what the big ones go for these days, $60 for this beauty ain’t so bad.