Tag Archives: jazwares

Jan 4 2023

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron Millennium Falcon by Jazwares

Perhaps one of the biggest toy surprises of 2022 was a company other than Hasbro or Mattel getting the license to produce Star Wars ships. And yet Jazwares came out of the gates swinging with their Micro Galaxy Squadron series. It was a line I did not want to get into, because I already have so many Star Wars toys, but in the end, I had to give it a try with the X-Wing and TIE Fighter, and after that all bets were off. Today I’m checking out what I believe is the biggest release in the line so far. It’s the fastest hunk of junk in the Galaxy… The Millennium Falcon!

The packaging for this line continues to be rather gorgeous with lots of snazzy foil and a huge window to show off the toy. You also get a good look at the four micro figures that are included and the package announces that there are motion activated lights and sounds. Alas, there’s no Try Me button, because there are no batteries included, so you’ll need some AAA’s and a screwdriver to enjoy the electronics. The packaging is collector friendly, although you do have to pop on the top gun and radar dish and pop them off again to return the ship to the box.

As outstanding as this ship looked in the box, I have to say that it’s even better in hand, and it’s the perfect size for whooshing around the room. Let’s face it, it can be a little difficult to do that with Hasbro’s Legacy Falcon or even the old Kenner release for that matter. I am extremely impressed by the amount of detail in the sculpt and there is indeed a lot of it to take in. There are panel lines, vents, wires, hoses, and even exposed patches of the ship’s inner workings. Jazwares clearly does not use the smaller scale of this line as an excuse to skimp on the details, and that’s a big part of what makes these ships so special. In addition to the detailed sculpt, you also get some wonderful weathering, as well as some orange trim here and there, and the iconic scorch marks trailing behind the top vents. The only possible call out I have regarding the ship’s design is that it shares the oversized cockpit that most toy versions of the Falcon have had, and for the same reason: To allow it to fit figures.

The top side of the Falcon has an articulated radar dish and the main cannon, which can swivel. The cannon mount is transparent plastic, as is the canopy for the cockpit. There are two buttons concealed under two of the circular vents, which activate the electronics. One makes the sounds of the cannon firing, while the other makes engine noises and lights up the engine strip on the back of the ship. Once this is activated, whooshing the Falcon around will make different flying noises, all of which sound great. The undercarriage of the ship has five folding landing gear for the ship to rest on and a sculpted cannon that does not turn. The boarding ramp can also be lowered. Before getting inside the ship, let’s take a quick look at the figures!

The Falcon comes with Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan, and Princess Leia. It’s a good assortment, but obvious exclusions are farmboy Luke and C-3PO. I’m hoping Jazwares will include them in a future release of the Landspeeder. The sculpts on these 1-inch figures continue to impress me, and while the paint is overall really good for figures of this tiny size, my Leia has some brown splatter on her forehead. Still, the detail is exceptional, with the only surprising thing being that they didn’t paint Chewie’s bandoleer strap.

What really blows me away is that you can fit all four figures into the cockpit area. It’s worth noting that even the 3 3/4-inch Kenner Falcon only seated two. There’s also a crazy amount of detail inside the cockpit and even some nice linework sculpted on the inside of the hatch. I would have liked some darker gray paint on the interior of the cockpit, which is a similar nitpick that I had with the X-Wing and Slave-1, but what we got still looks great.

The top of the ship opens up to reveal a pretty good amount of space inside. Points of interest include the circular seating around the Dejarik table, a cargo area, and the removable deck plate that reveals the smuggling compartment. Here again, the detail is really off the charts. All the grating in the deck plating has been recreated, as well as the various cargo containers.

Like the original Kenner Falcon, the top cannon gunning station is in the middle of the ship. Here you can remove the gunning station and place a figure inside!

As mentioned earlier, the boarding ramp can be lowered, but the figures are a bit too big to enter through there. Even with such tiny figures, some accommodations had to be made, and that’s understandable.

Boy, do I love this ship! While the Falcon is scaled for 1-inch figures just like the previous releases, that doesn’t really make the ships scale all that well together. In fact, I’d say the relative scale is probably about the same as we got in the 3 3/4-inch lines. The Hot Wheels fighters would work a little better with this Falcon, but they’d still be a bit large. But, with that being said, the Falcon is another great release for Jazwares’ fleet. At the original MSRP of about $45, it does seem like this line is getting rather pricey, but the good news is that this Corellian freighter has already been deeply discounted and you should be able to find it for closer to $25, which is a real steal for what you’re getting! It looks outstanding, has some well designed play areas, and the electronics are a nice bonus. Now, if only Jazwares would release the Ebon Hawk, I could die a happy collector!

Nov 16 2022

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron: Jango Fett’s Slave-1 by Jazwares

While I’ve only gotten around to checking out the Micro Galaxy Squadron X-Wing and TIE Fighter here on FFZ so far, I have been picking up Jazware’s tiny Star Wars ships here and there, and now I’m trying to find the time to open some of them. This Attack of the Clones version of Slave-1 came in most recently, so I decided to bump it to the head of the line! As a rule, I don’t really buy any Prequel stuff, because I’m not into the movies at all, but I was having a tough time finding the Empire Strikes Back version of Slave-1, so I settled for this one for now. And that’s fine, because if there’s one thing I do like about Attack of the Clones, it was Jango Fett.

The package calls this Jango Fett’s Starship, because Disney is still enforcing the absolutely f*cking ridiculous practice of no longer referring to this ship by name. Please note in the title that I am, because “Prisoners-With-Jobs-1” is too long to type. Seriously, Disney made a joke out of how stupid it was to be afraid to say the word SLAVE in one of their Marvel movies, and now they are literally afraid to do that very thing. Welcome to Clown World… You can’t make this shit up. Anyway, the box is really nice with some snappy foil in the deco and a space scene printed on the tray backing. The window shows off the toy beautifully and everything is collector friendly. I especially love how the tiny figures are enclosed in their own separate tray and bubble, as it’s nice to have a place to keep them even if you don’t want to keep the entire package. Let’s free this Slave-1 and check him out!

These ships continue to impress me with the intricacies of each sculpt, as Slave-1 features all the panel lines, vents, cables, and other bits and bobs that I would expect to find in the larger 3 3/4-inch scaled vehicle. The plastic used here is pretty light, but it still holds the details of the sculpt very well. A good part of the ship is just bare gray plastic with a light wash, but you do get some instances of paintwork, including the dark blue, green, and yellow trim in all the right places. There isn’t as much convincing weathering on this ship as there was on the X-Wing, but Slave-1 looked a lot less battered in Attack of the Clones than it did later on under Boba Fett’s stewardship, so I’m thinking what’s here is appropriate.

Jazwares went absolutely nuts detailing the ship’s undercarriage! Here you get the thrusters painted in a sort of mustard color and lots more panels, compartments, and whatnot sculpted into the plastic. For a part of the ship you aren’t going to see most of the time, I’m really impressed with what they did here.

They also made an opening hatch to show where the seismic charges are deployed. I like that they thought to include this feature, but the execution is pretty piss-poor. There’s no paint on the charge at all, so it kind of just looks like another part of the ship’s machinery. I really think the charge should have been painted, or better yet, actually have one that could be removed from the compartment. And while we’re on the subject of paint, it feels like the whole bottom of the ship should have been painted darker gray. I’ll come back to that idea again in a bit.

The gyro scoping gimmick found in the original Kenner Slave-1 is recaptured here, so as you maneuver the ship from its horizontal landing posture to its vertical flight mode, the “wings” will remain parallel to the ground. The two laser cannon at the end of the ship’s tail can be rotated 360-degrees independently of one another. Let’s take a quick look at the figures and how they can interact with the ship!

The set includes Jango Fett in his armor and young Boba, and I am sincerely blown away by how much attention to detail Jazwares has been able to pack into some of these tiny figures, and I think this pair is especially nice. Even when you punch in this close, most of the paint and details hold up, which is beyond impressive. You could randomly hand me that young Boba Fett figure and I’d know exactly who its supposed to be, and that’s quite an accomplishment when dealing with figures so tiny that the Macro mode on my shitty camera can barely lock on to them. As usual, these figures only have articulation in their hips and shoulders, to allow them to either stand or sit in their vehicle. You’ll notice that Jango’s jetpack is slightly askew. I’m pretty sure it’s meant to come off, but I can’t budge it without applying more force than I’m willing to give it.

Like previous 3 3/4-inch Slave-1 toys, the cockpit opens and the pilot seat orients itself with the “wings” as the ship is moved. Amazingly, there are three seats in this tiny ship, with the pilot riding in the front and two passengers in the back. The seat designs are genius, as the arm rests act as clips to hold the figures in place and they do that very well! The interior of the cockpit has a lot of detail, including the segmented deck plating and even the contours of the seats. Like the bottom of the ship, I would have loved to see the interior cabin painted a darker gray, or at least the platform and seats.

The cargo compartment also opens up and there’s a loading ramp and a hatch that opens and tucks into the top area to hold it open. This whole design is better implemented than some of the 3 3/4-inch versions we’ve had in the past. The cargo compartment contains a hinged weapons rack with sculpted grenades and guns. There’s a peg hole in the center and I can’t help but think that if I could get Jango’s jetpack off, it might be meant to peg in there, or perhaps that’s for a feature used in the ESB release. And once again, some darker gray paint on these areas would have gone a long way! I should note that there are no electronic features on this ship, and I’m fine with that.

There’s no doubt about it that Jazwares is pouring some wonderful design elements into these tiny ships. I absolutely love everything they did with this version of Slave-1, and with the exception of the rather cheap looking seismic charge hatch, the features here go above and beyond what I was expecting. Indeed, the only nitpicks I have are how much more could have been done with some added paint to the interior and undercarriage. My customizing skills aren’t the greatest, but even I would be tempted to pick up another one of these if it goes on sale, and add a little matte gray finish to the interior. In the meantime, I’m still on the hunt for the ESB version of Slave-1!

Aug 26 2022

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron: TIE Fighter and X-Wing by Jazwares

It’s not often that you see a new mainstream toy line launch with the Star Wars brand name and not see Hasbro on the box! And yet that’s exactly what we’ve got here, as Jazwares has secured the license to make little Star Wars ships, and even littler figures to pilot those ships. These are sort of like a reimagining of the old Micro Machines or Action Fleet ships, and they seem to be drawing from every corner of the Star Wars franchise! I swore up and down that I wasn’t going to collect these, because I’m trying to tighten up the shit I spend money on, but in the end I thought I’d give it a go with a couple and see what they’re all about!

I decided to go with the TIE Fighter and X-Wing, and these sure do look nice in the packages. At a time when Hasbro is weening their action figure packaging off of plastic, these two have big, bold windows to show off the goods. These are really playing up the collector aspect, with the Series number and the ship number on the cards. These also state Launch Edition in gold foil, which I imagine will pertain to the deco, as it seems like Jazwares will be releasing these ships in multiple colors and finishes. The tiny 1-inch figures are packaged beside their ships in their own self-contained tray and bubble, which is just adorable. Let’s rip these open and start with the X-Wing!

Measuring at about 5-inches long, this is billed as Luke Skywalker’s own X-Wing Fighter, and looking great! With the wings closed, it can rest on it’s three retractable landing gear, ready to launch and take on the Empire! I’m always cautious about discussing accuracy in these sculpts, because no matter how many toys and models of the X-Wing I’ve owned over the last 40 years, there are plenty of people who are much better versed in how well these toys match up to the on-screen models. So let’s just say this looks pretty damn close to me! Despite it’s small size, Jazwares packed a ton of detail into this little bit of plastic. There are panel lines, exposed panels, and all sorts of little bits of attention to take in as I turn this thing about in my hands. Even the undercarriage is fully detailed, with only a couple of screws and licensing information there to distract from it all.

And as fantastic as the sculpt is, the paint work on this little fighter really does its part to elevate the entire toy. Everything about the ship looks dirty, grimy, and well used, hammering home the concept of a lived-in universe that Star Wars practically pioneered. This tiny ship has seen some shit in its day, and the weathering tells the story of a fighter craft that is being barely held together by an undermanned and underfunded rag-tag band of Rebels. I particularly love the scorched black thrusters on the back, and the little chips taken out of the red wing paint. We have certainly seen many larger and more expensive toys of this ship with a lot less attention to sculpt, paint, and overall detail.

The figures are pretty nice considering how small they are. The sculpts are definitely better than the paint, but there’s enough here to get the idea across. Luke even has four points of articulation (hips and shoulders), which are there to help him sit in his cockpit. And that’s obviously what these figures were designed to do, but it’s nice to have the option to display them standing beside it if you so choose. Luke fits in the seat perfectly, and R2 secures into his droid slot with a peg. If you press the panel under the slot, he will rise up to make it easier to pluck him out.

In addition to the landing gear, the wings can also be moved into attack position, simply by pulling them apart. And again, it just looks amazing and begs the handler to whoosh it around the room looking for TIE’s to blast and trenches to run. If I was trying to convince myself not to collect this line, this little X-Wing probably wasn’t the best one to open first, because even after handling it for a short while, I want a couple more. Let’s move on to the TIE Fighter.

I actually don’t have as much to say about this little 3-inch TIE Fighter. That’s not because it’s any less impressive, but rather it’s just a much simpler toy. The sculpt here is every bit as phenomenal as the X-Wing, with all sorts of little details in the body, and some absolutely beautiful texture work on the wing-panels. This literally looks like Jazwares took one of Hasbro’s toys and shrunk it down. There’s no complex paint work or weathering on here, nor should there be. The Empire flies state-of-the-art fighters in tip-top condition. These things are well serviced and scrubbed clean after each mission, and that’s certainly reflected here. You do get a transparent front windshield, and red paint hits for the laser emitters.

The TIE Pilot is the most impressive of these three tiny figures, probably because he didn’t require any precision paint to make him work. I could complain about the one droopy emblem on his helmet, but one of my 6-inch Hasbro Black Series AT-AT Drivers had the same problem, so I think I can let it slide here on a 1-inch bundled figure. The top of the TIE opens and the pilot seat can be raised or lowered to make it easier to pop him in and take him out.

The only other feature here is the ability to pull off the wings to simulate it exploding. It’s a great nod back to the original Kenner toy, and it really makes me want to get one of these in white. And I’ve already picked up a second TIE Fighter for the fleet, so that alone should tell you how much I love this little ship.

These little Starfighters cost $16.99 each, and in this day and age, that ain’t bad. The sculpt on both ships is downright impressive, showing that these were not stamped out on the cheap. The designers clearly put some serious work into them, and succeeded in delivering what have got to be some of the most detailed examples of these ships in such a small scale. I’d argue you could blow these up a lot bigger and the sculpts would still stand up just fine. But it’s the paint work on the X-Wing that really delivers the Wow-factor and makes me want to press on and see what else the Micro Galaxy Squadron has to offer. My guess is that Jazwares will be repainting the hell out of this X-Wing and I’ll probably be here for all of them.

Aug 25 2021

Halo: 12-inch Master Chief by Jazwares

I’ve had a bit of an unintentional video game theme going these last couple weeks. First it was Pac-Man, then The Witcher, and now Halo. Well, I wouldn’t read too much into it. I stumbled upon this figure for a crazy low price and decided to make it an impulse buy. Ages ago, I had that Joyride Master Chief figure, which was excellent, but did not survive a shelf-dive. Sadly, his leg exploded against the shock of the carpet, and he was beyond fixing. Sobbing, I turned to The Ebays to replace him, saw how much it was going for now, and gave that shit a big HECK, NO! But hey, now I’ve got The Chief back in the collection. Let’s see if this cheap sum’bitch is any good.

Straightaway, this release reminds me of those cheap 12-inch figures that Hasbro has done for Star Wars and Marvel. They’re sometimes referred to as Shampoo Bottle Figures, I guess because they’re hollow and cheap, and feel like the novelty themed recepticals that you might find containing kids shampoo. Most of those are terrible, some are OK, but this one looked a little better. But make no mistake, cheap this figure is! I got him off Amazon for $11, although I think the MSRP is around $20. And yes, that is about twice as much as Hasbro’s Shampoo Bottle Figures, so maybe it’s not fair comparison. The packaging is consists of a very long and narrow window box, that’s barely big enough to contain his Spartan might, but is otherwise serviceable. There’s a J-hook so he can hang from a peg, but I’ve never seen this guy in the Toy Aisles around here.

Out of the box, this figure actually impresses me. Now, let’s qualify that a bit, because my expectations were pretty low. The sculpt is excellent. Sure he’s got some unsightly seams, but they’re not any worse than any number of other figures on the market these days. And all the detail in the armor is certainly there. The plates have panel lines, and all the little bits and bobs that I remember seeing from the last time I played a Halo game, albeit that was probably five years ago. The green looks a bit bright under the studio lights, but in hand under normal lighting it looks fine. The undersuit is black with some texturing, and you actually get some silver dry brushing on the armor to signify wear and tear. It actually looks about on par with the stuff Hasbro was doing on their Transformers Siege figures. Take that how you want, but I think it looks fine. If I’m going to nitpick anything here, I don’t remember Master Chief having such small feet, but I’m really reaching for something to complain about.

The helmet also looks pretty good, with more of those silver abraisions on the green finish. The gold paint used for his visor looks excellent. I should also note that while the figure is hollow and not all that hefty, it doesn’t feel like junk either. And there ya go, Jazwares! Feel free to use that as a pull quote for the box!

What surprised me the most about this guy was his articulation. I was expecting retro five points of articulation, like Hasbro’s big bois, but this guy actually has rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, and swivels in the wrists, and in the neck. He’s fun to play with, although give me a little articulation and I just want more. He would have been amazing if they sprang for a waist swivel and some ankle tilts. Still, what’s here is great, and he has a pretty decent balance.

Master Chief comes with one accessory and that’s his trusty assault rifle. Sadly, the weapon is not as impressive as the figure. The big fail for me was having it silver. Jazwares may have been trying to add a little more color to the package, but I would have much rather they left it black, and it would have saved them some money too. It’s fairly well detailed, even if the sculpt is very soft. It fits perfectly into his right hand, and it even has a peg that allows Master Chief to carry it on his back.

There have been plenty of good Master Chief figures on the market over the years, so if you’re looking for a nice collectible you can sure do a lot better than this guy. But, if you’re looking for a big, rugged Master Chief toy to knock around and have some fun with, I think you could do a lot worse than this guy. Hell, if Hasbro’s 12-inchers were more like this in terms of quality and articulation, I’d probably actually own some of those. Jazwares has a few other Halo figures in this line, but Master Chief is enough for me. He was definitely worth the $11 I paid for him, and hell, I’d even go so far as to recommend him at $20.