Tag Archives: star wars

Nov 13 2024

Star Wars Vintage Collection (Rogue One): Antoc Merrick’s X-Wing Fighter by Hasbro

What’s this? Star Wars content? Yeah, the Star Wars reviews are getting few and far between, with this being only the fourth this year. Indeed, the only reason I’m sneaking this one in is because I’ve been packing away parts of my collection to move next year and I wanted to put this one in the spotlight before it gets sealed away for a few months. And I make it no secret that Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars film, just nudging out Empire Strikes Back by a bit, and I’m always down to showcase some Rogue One toys. So let’s pour one out for the late Antoc Merrick, Hero of Scarif and his brave little droid, which I’ll take a look at here too.

No doubt about it, The Vintage Collection does a nice job with its presentation with a not so subtle nod to the vintage Kenner packaging. Heck, you even get the Kenner logo! Both front and back panels show the toy and some figures in what they like to call a fantasy setting and boy do these always make me want to buy the toys and play with them. Why didn’t R2-SHW make it onto the box photo? Was he not out yet? Not sure, but Antoc is the only figure in the box and I picked up his R2 unit separately, but at the same time I bought the X-Wing. The noble starfighter does require some assembly, but it seems like it’s able to be taken apart again and stored in the box. That’s always a big plus for me!

And here are the carded figures. I was happy to see that Antoc came carded in the box. No, these are not collector friendly, but I opened both figures a while ago and was still able to get them back into the bubbles for this shot, so it is possible to have your cake and eat it too if you are careful. I love the card art for both figures, but Antoc’s is especially great, with his heroic pose, helmet in hand, and the X-Wing in the background, waiting for him to climb on board and fly his final mission. By God the battle over Scarif is so damn great! I think it rivals the Death Star II battle in Return of the Jedi, and that’s saying something! Let’s take a look at the figures first…

I’m guessing Antoc’s body is largely a repaint of an X-Wing Luke or another pilot figure, but the fact that I don’t know for sure shows how few Vintage Collection figures I buy. The blue-green suit is certainly distinctive, along with the tan gauntlets. The white vest, grey flight harness, and boots are all pretty standard. I’m not a fan of the weird jointing in the hips, but they get the job done. Otherwise the articulation consists of a lot of rotating hinges and he’s pretty fun to play with. The head sculpt is excellent, especially for this scale, while the printing on the helmet is absolutely superb, as is the yellow tinted visor. Alas, it does feel a tad too big for his head. Antoc also comes wtih a DH-17 Rebel blaster, which is a nice bonus, although I do wish these flight suits had holsters. Either way, I love this weapon design and it even has some silver paint hits.

R2-SHW is your standard R2 Unit with a red body and black paneling to the dome. You also get some silver paint work on some of his panels, which is OK, but maybe a tad sloppy in a few areas. He’s obviously another repurposed figure, and while I like the sculpt a lot, I think this is a case where the extras almost spoil the figure for me, namely the sensor scope and articulator arm. The sensor scope raises when you push the third leg in, but in order to do it you have to have the dome centered. You can pull it out but then there’s a missing panel up there. The articulator arm is ambitious for a figure this size, but the panel does not stay closed, so I’m not a fan. He also has hole in the top of his dome, which I’m going to guess was for the drink-serving arms on a previous Jabba Palace R2-D2 release. Not a terrible figure, but I think this is a case where less would have been more.

And since we’re on the subject of repurposing, yes the X-Wing is a repaint of the Luke Skywalker X-Wing, which I have, but have never gotten around to opening. It’s also already been packed away, so I can’t do a comparison. Reusing the toy is a no-brainer, and I sure don’t fault Hasbro for doing it, but it does result in some quibbles that are carried over from that first release. But there’s plenty of great stuff here too! Most notable is the size, as this is actually the first 3 3/4-inch scale X-Wing that I’ve held that wasn’t based on the original Kenner release. How crazy is that? And as wonderful a toy as that and the Power of the Force 2 releases were, it’s really cool to finally hold an X-Wing toy that approaches the correct size for this scale. It’s so satisfyingly big, and yet not too big to stop me from having fun whooshing it around the room and making attack runs on my Imperial Coffee Table.

The detail here is very nice, both in the sculpt and in the paint. The body is an off-white with lots of grime and carbon scoring to give it that wonderful used-future look. I particularly love the weathering applied to the blue squadron colors and the darkened scorched around the engines. Weathering can be tricky and can often come across as heavy handed, but I think they did a great job with it here. This ship looks like it’s been through some stuff, which makes it all the more sad that it didn’t survive the Battle of Scarif.

The X-Wing can rest on its three retractable landing gear. The front one is concealed behind a flip down hatch, while the two rear simply fold down from open compartments. Alas, the rear skids have a habit of folding back up at the drop of a hat, so stability is a big issue, at least it is on mine. You can sort of feel them trying to lock into place, but it’s very soft and just doesn’t work. Still, if you rest it on a surface carefully and don’t jostle it, it should be fine.

You also get a concealed proton torpedo launcher under the boom. The launcher is painted metallic grey and includes a white missile. I’ll also mention here how much I appreciate that all the screw holes are located on the fighter’s undercarriage. It would have been better if they were plugged, but at least they aren’t conspicuous.

The cockpit is very detailed and the console can be removed to make it easier to fit the figure in place. It even has an articulated targeting computer! I really dig the smoked clear plastic on the canopy, which lets you still catch a glimpse of the figure inside and looks better than if it were just transparent. Meanwhile, the droid slot fits the R2 unit perfectly. They really should have ejection units on these things, so at least the Astromech can escape before the fighter blows up. That would have actually made for a pretty fun play feature. Oh, and I do wish that Hasbro could have tossed in the boarding ladder. I know they released one in a previous set and it’s not like it would have broken the bank to bundle it in here.

Of course, the wings do articulate, and there’s a lever on the back of the X-Wing to lock the S-Foils into attack position. You push it down to open the wings and slide it to the right to lock them in place. And here’s where another flaw from the original release carries over, as the mechanism that holds them apart isn’t the strongest and they can be a little floppy. I’ve found that holding the ship by the main fuselage gives them the widest spread and it looks decent, but I would have liked to see them separate just a little farther. But it’s still a beautiful sight for the last thing a TIE Pilot will ever see!

I want to say the retail on Antoc and his X-Wing was around $100 back when it was released. I picked it up off of Amazon with a coupon and I think that brought it down to around $80. It’s a big, satisfying toy that looks absolutely fantastic and is a lot of fun to play with. Of course, Hasbro could have been a pal and threw in R2-SHW as well, but he cost me another $16. Normally, I would have had no intention on double-dipping on a toy like this, what with already owning Luke’s X-Wing, but I adore this movie and I adore the battle at the end, so this was pretty much a must-have for my collection. Plus, it gives my TIE Striker a Rebel ship to chase around. And I’ll admit, it’s cool to actually get excited and enthusiastic over a Star Wars toy again.

Jul 22 2024

Star Wars Black Series (Return of the Jedi): Rebel Commando by Hasbro

What’s this? A Star Wars figure review on FFZ? Will wonders never cease! I’ve been pretty vocal about how I’ve all but stopped collecting Star Wars figures. I have no interest in the current stream of content Disney is producing, and instead of giving us the figures we’re missing from the Original Trilogy, they seem all-in on the new stuff peppered by Prequel stuff here and there. It seems like a bad business move to me, but then again it may all be baked into the licensing agreement. I haven’t looked at any Hasbro Star Wars figures this year, and only two last year, and that’s literally all I’ve been buying. The Endor Rebel Commando looked really good, but Hasbro released him at a ludicrous $35 and I wasn’t willing to bite at that price. Luckily he went on sale as part of Amazon’s Prime Days and I finally picked up a couple.

This figure was part of Hasbro’s woefully disappointing 40th Anniversary offerings for Return of the Jedi, which featured just a few new figures and a whole bunch of repacks on vintage style cards. And much to my amazement, not a single one of Jabba’s Skiff Guards among them. I think the figures look great on the oversized vintage-style cards, but Amazon mangled both of mine pretty badly. Not a problem, since I always planned on opening them anyway. I’d say it’s about a 50-50 chance as to whether or not I get a carded figure from Amazon in good shape or not, and I always take that into account when buying from them. Anyway, the card has the familiar photo of the Rebel Commando crouched and ready for action beside the Imperial Bunker and the back of the card has the usual cross-sell promotion showing other figures in the assortment.

The Rebel’s commando strike team had some variations in their gear, with many wearing camo ponchos or jackets. Based on the outfit here, this figure seems to be referencing Nik Sant as he lacks the extra layer of camo. The figure sports a sculpted gray long sleeve shirt with a soft plastic vest worn over it and very short sleeves sculpted as part of the arms and matching up quite well. The legs are sculpted with cargo-style trousers featuring a camo finish and the high boots have sculpted laces. The belt is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure. It includes a number of sculpted pouches and a tube, maybe for a scope? There’s also a bandoleer hanging off the right shoulder with some sculpted bits of gear on it, all of which is painted in a very nice silver metal finish. This figure looks amazing, especially for a troop builder, and I love how layered all the gear looks. The DNA here feels more akin to the GI JOE Classified line than Star Wars Black, and I mean that as the highest of compliments.

The backpack is worn by the figure with actual shoulder straps, and it’s something that’s pretty unusual for any of Hasbro’s 6-inch lines. The straps fit the figure well with the pack hanging low on the back. It’s cast in brown plastic and has lots of sculpted rumples and wrinkles, as well as stitching and fasteners for the flaps. There’s a crinkled hose running up the one side and some painted fixtures as well. It would have been cool to also get the hard pack that some of the Commandos wore, especially considering the price point on this figure. The figure’s articulation is overall pretty good with the downside being rotating hinges in the elbows and knees, instead of double hinges. Also, the ankle hinge doesn’t allow for the foot to bend up very far. I also wish they had painted that camo further up the knee joint.

Like the Hoth Trooper, the Commando comes with two interchangeable face plates, but the Endor faces are not compatible with the Hoth figure, as the design is slightly different. The faces pull out and plug in similar to what we tend to see on a Figma or Figuart. The sculpt of the helmet and chin strap does a beautiful job of concealing the feature and if I didn’t know, I probably couldn’t tell that the face was designed to come off at all. They are, however, extremely difficult to get off and I had to resort to getting a jeweler’s screwdriver into the gap and popping it out. But since I have one figure for each face, I doubt I’ll ever swap them again. Unlike the Hoth figure, there is no storage in the backpack for the extra face.

The sculpting on these heads is superb, and I think these portraits are among some of the best we’ve had tout of the Black Series. The facial features are crisp and well defined, the paint for Sant’s beard is sharp and even, and the printing on the younger portrait’s blue eyes is beautiful. There’s also some wonderful, and very subtle shading for the hair growth on his chin. The helmets look great and include silver brushing for weathering. This is better work than Hasbro has done on portraits for some of the main characters.

The trooper comes with two weapons: A DH-17 Blaster and what I believe was the A280C rifle. The DH-17 is an extremely detailed sculpt and cast all in black plastic. It fits perfectly in the right trigger hand, and while it can still be held easily in the left, there’s no trigger finger on that hand. Sadly, there’s no holster for the weapon, which may have been by design to remain screen accurate, but it’s still a shame, because I like my soldiers to be able to carry all their weapons and gear.

The A280C rifle is also a fantastic sculpt that’s just packed with detail, including a rather complex scope. The barrel is quite thin and probably susceptible to bending if not stored right. Nonetheless, both arrived in the tray as straight as an arrow. It’s a shame that Hasbro didn’t give this rifle a carry strap, as it would have at least allowed these guys to sling the rifles and carry their blasters. I mean, even the vintage Kenner figure’s rifle had a shoulder strap!

The Rebel Commando is an absolutely fantastic figure, but this is exactly the kind of figure we should be getting from Black Series at the regular $25 price point, and not as an inflated special releases. And the fact that he’s a troop builder makes the higher price tag all the more vexing. Between a lot of sub-par figures, the focus on the releases from the newer series, and my general malaise about Star Wars these days, I was compelled to send a message and take a pass. But, when Prime had him at $15, I was happy to get two for less than the price of one. At the time I’m writing this, he’s gone up to $20, but I think that’s still a pretty good price for the figure, and it’s even tempting me to pick up one more.

May 13 2024

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron U-Wing Starfighter by Jazwares

Folks, I have officially stopped collecting Star Wars figures. Between the dismal state of the franchise and the emphasis on releasing figures from the new content rather than The Original Trilogy I just have zero interest in any of it anymore. I only reviewed two Black Series figures since the beginning of LAST year, and that pretty much reflects how little I’ve been buying. I still hope to review some of the Hot Toys I picked up last year, but right now the only Star Wars I’m still actively collecting is Jazware’s wonderful Galaxy Squadron line. And even there I’m being pretty selective. I haven’t been picking up any of the Prequel stuff, and passing on a lot of the ground vehicles. Of course, anything from my beloved Rogue One is still on the table, and today I’m checking out the U-Wing Starfighter! Although, frankly I don’t know why they call this thing a starfighter as it’s more of a gunship and troop transport, but whatever!

The ship comes in the same style window-box as the larger ships we’ve seen in the past. As always I dig the use of the snappy foil on the packaging. The included figures come in a tiny little self-contained tray and the toy itself is displayed against an illustrated backdrop. There’s a bit of assembly required here as you have to clip the wings onto the ship. The packaging is collector friendly and the wings are probably removable again, but I didn’t want to try it for fear of stressing the clips. Let’s start with a quick look at the figures!

The ship comes with three figures, which seems to be the standard for this price point. Included are Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and K-2SO, so no surprises there. Let’s face it, the figures aren’t the main attraction here, but with that having been said, I’ve been really impressed with the sculpt and paint on the tiny fellas in this line and this trio is no exception. The facial features are solid, and you get some great detail on the costumes like their gun belts and pockets. K2 looks a bit thicker than he should, but that’s fine. There was no way they could have done his spindly limbs in this tiny scale without adding a little bulk. As usual, these figures have four points of articulation, found in the hips and shoulders. I also love the subtle differences in size with Jyn a little shorter than Cassian and K2 towering over both of them.

And here’s the U-Wing with the wings retracted, and let me start by saying that I really love this ship design. It reminds me a bit of the Buck Rogers Thunderfighter only a lot bigger, while the cockpit and rear grill is evocative of the Snowspeeder, and the quad engine mounts recall the X-Wing. And yet, it avoids the trap of looking too kit-bashy as some of these designs can turn out when borrowing from other ships. As always, Jazwares has invested a lot of detail in the sculpt with some deep cut panel lines and tiny grills and access compartments. The bottom of the ship has a transparent panel under the cockpit, reminiscent of those found on Huey Gunships to allow the pilot to see the terrain and landing zone below. You also get two blaster cannons jutting out on the front.

The paintwork includes some blue and yellow trim, which I presume are squadron markings. The rear engines are scorched and blackened from heavy use and there’s dark silver around the engine rings and also behind the cockpit. I think Jazwares is really good at the weathering aspect on these ships too, giving the hull a little bit of that “used future” look that made Star Wars aesthetics so distinctive. It’s definitely not overdone on this ship. If anything maybe it could have used a bit more on the undercarriage, which looks a little too clean.

Each wing folds back manually giving this ship a really impressive presence with a massive wingspan. I’ll confess I don’t fully understand the purpose of the wing articulation on this ship. It makes sense that they would be held in tight when going to hyperspace, so why extend them? I’ve poked around a bit in the lore and the key takeaways were that it uses them extended for atmospheric flight, while having them extended provides better shield coverage. That makes sense, but when the gunship was taking off from Jedha and later deploying troops on Scarif, it still had the wings tucked in, so I don’t know. I’ll just settle for it looks cool with them extended and leave it at that.

The ship opens up in four ways. First, the canopy hinges forward to give access to the cockpit, second the back panel lifts off to expose the passenger cabin, and finally the two side doors slide back to allow troops to deploy as well as allow the mounted laser cannon to be manned and fired. I like how removing the top panel also reveals some inner workings on the top rear of the ship (possibly the reactor?) and that it’s even been painted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy for me to get shots of the figures in the interior, because everything is so tiny, but there’s room for two figures in the cockpit, one figure clipped behind the laser cannon, and six more seated in the benches. The cockpit is a little crowded, especially with K2 in there, but it’s mostly an issue with elbow room, as the canopy can still close with plenty of room. The attention to detail inside the ship is very impressive, with textures on the seats, tiny control yokes in the cockpit, and even details on the bulk plates and deck plates.

Finally, you do get four flip-down landing gear to, well… support the ship on landing. One set folds down from under the cockpit area and there’s one located below each of the engine clusters.

I was exceedingly pleased to see this ship get released in this line, because the Hasbro 3 3/4-inch scaled release was a pretty piss-poor effort. Yes, even taking into account it had to be scaled down into what was essentially a one-person fighter, the detail and paintwork on it were just too lazy for me to justify buying it. Here we get to see the ship fleshed out pretty well, thanks to the tiny figures and some great work by Jazwares. The U-Wing was released at the same $29.99 price point as the Imperial Shuttle, and the two do indeed seem quite comparable in value and complexity. It’s a great addition to my fleet, and I’m happy to finally have this ship represented in my collection!

Mar 22 2024

Star Wars “Return of the Jedi” 40th Anniversary C-3PO Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

I do have more than a few Hot Toys figures waiting to get their time in the spotlight here, but with Mr. Goldenrod arriving at my door last week, I just had to bump him up to the head of the line. I’ve had the Sideshow 3PO as the default version on display in my collection for around three years now, and while I came close to sticking with him, in the end I buckled and pre-ordered this new Hot Toys release of the prissy protocol droid. At the end, I’ll do some comparisons, but for now I’ll just say that this Hot Toys figure is excellent, and an improvement over Sideshow’s on many fronts, but it falls short of being a clean sweep.

The box features a vintage-style window box with a sleeve over it. It’s a cool fake out, because the sleeve makes it look like the usual boring style that Hot Toys uses for its Star Wars figures, but the heavy duty box under it just looks fantastic and very similar to the 40th Anniversary Boba Fett they did from The Empire Strikes Back. What’s not so fantastic is that they plastered a huge warning sticker on top of the outer sleeve. I’m guessing this directive came from the legal department, but it seems so destructive for a company like Sideshow that sells high end collectibles to discriminating collectors. And before we free 3PO from his packaging, here’s a word of warning! This is a heavy figure with lots of diecast. The upper torso connects to the lower body with a simple ball-and-socket joint. The lower half of the figure has most of the diecast (legs and pelvis, while the upper half has diecast in the back and upper arms), so if you lift the figure out by the top half, there’s a good chance the bottom will drop out and that could be disastrous. This almost happened to me, and again later when I was holding it from the waist, the top half almost fell off. The situation was remedied by pushing the connection in tighter and it’s been fine ever since. I’m all for building a figure with joints that detach rather than break, but boy did this give me a couple of scares. Maybe they should have plastered that warning label on the sleeve!

3PO comes out of the box all ready to go, and once again so delightfully heavy! Considering how pleased I have been with Sideshow’s I was curious what my reaction to this fella would be, and boy was I immediately smitten. The proportions are excellent and based on some comparisons I’ve been doing the sculpt seems to be extremely accurate to the costume used in RotJ. I’m particularly impressed with the gold finish, which is very rich and sumptuous and has just the right amount of shine. And of course, you get the lower right leg done in silver. I think the biggest controversy over this figure was the weathering, which is achieved with a spray. I think it looks perfectly fine when viewed by the naked eye, but as you punch in close it can look a bit heavy handed. I tend to associate weathered 3PO mostly from A New Hope and looking rather clean in comparison in Jedi. But, considering he gets completely buried in the sands of Tatooine and later traipses through a filthy jungle moon, I guess it makes sense that he got dirty. Granted, I am not someone who sifts through every minute detail for accuracy, but everything about this one looks great to me.

One thing I’m not as much a fan of here is the way the wires in his midriff all run straight, rather than overlap. Granted, it’s not a flaw in the figure design, but rather how the suit looked in RotJ, as opposed to the earlier films. I like the messier look for the wires, but that having been said, Hot Toys did a nice job with each individual sculpted wire and cable here. Like the Sideshow version, each of 3PO’s arms have the working pistons on the inside and outside of the elbows, and they allow for smooth movement in the joint.

The head sculpt looks fantastic, although I think they slimmed down the neck a bit to help with articulation. The light up feature requires three button batteries, which are inserted by removing the front face plate. This is also how you access the On/Off switch. The face plate secures with a pair of pegs and it is fairly easy to get on and off. But, placing the switch inside the head is a HUGE stepdown from the elegant Sideshow engineering where all you needed to do was lightly tap the back of the head to turn the eye lights on and off. It may seem like a little thing, but 3PO is one of those figures that you want to display with the lit eyes whenever you’re admiring him on the shelf and it’s a pain to take the face off every time you want to do it. I’ve included a few pictures with the eyes off to show the difference.

As for articulation, 3PO sort of feels like one of those Power Pose figures Hot Toys used to do, in that he’s rather limited from the waist down. There’s virtually no articulation in the hips, I can only get each hip joint to bump forward or back the tiniest amount. His knees will kick back a bit, but with no hip articulation, what’s the point? All I was able to get out of his ankles was a slight angle to his feet so they aren’t both pointing straight ahead. The torso has the aforementioned ball joint, which allows for a bit of swivel and a bit of forward and back movement. Thankfully the arms give me everything I expect, as they rotate at the shoulders and bend a bit at the elbows. The lack of leg articulation isn’t a huge problem with getting him to stand without a base, especially since I plan on having him rest one hand on R2’s dome.

The hands are secured on hinged pegs and you get three sets of hands to choose from. And thankfully, no more pinky thumbs like the Sideshow figure had. Yes, having articulated fingers on that figure was cool, but I think I’m happier with these sculpted hands. You get the regular flat hands, pointy finger hands, and the odd inclusion of accessory holding hands for the non-existent accessories he has to hold.

3PO does come with three more extras: Salacious B. Crumb, a pillow for him to sit on, and an alternate faceplate with his right eye pecked out. I suppose you could call Crumb a figure, as he does have articulation at his hips, shoulders, and neck. It’s a nice sculpt with some excellent paintwork. I think people who were excited to have him as a pack-in will be happy with the way he turned out, but getting him wasn’t a huge big deal to me.

The face plate with the damaged eye attaches just like the regular one, and since the light source for the eyes is in the head, it lights up the one good eye on this face as well. And because Crumb has some articulation, you can get him to sit on 3PO’s shoulder like he just plucked the eye out. I can’t deny that this is a cool bonus, but like the damaged arm on the Sideshow 3PO, I can’t see myself ever really displaying the figure like this. At best, I may just display Crumb on his pillow holding the face plate.

And of course, we can’t wrap things up without looking at the base and boy do I have mixed feelings about this one. You get a raised platform with a cover that looks like the grating in Jabba’s Palace, or perhaps the deck plating for his Sail Barge. There’s a post with a crotch cradle, and you really have to squeeze the wires in tight to get it between the droid’s legs because there’s no give in the hips at all. The base definitely gives the figure display some gravitas and it’s cool that Hot Toys put some extra effort into it, but it feels weird having 3PO raised up above all the other Hot Toys on my shelf. Also, it makes it impossible to display him beside R2 with his hand on his head, and that’s always how I’m going to want to display my droids. So, yeah… this base is going back in the box.

And, as promised, here are a few shots of 3PO with his Sideshow predecessor. Hot Toys wins out on the overall proportions and accuracy of sculpt. Plus, the diecast gives the figure such a satisfying heft and everything about him feels more premium. But it’s not the total slam dunk I thought it would be. Sideshow’s droid is still a lot more fun to pose and play around with and I still think he looks damn good. We’ll just let R2 decide!

At $320, 3PO comes in with a steep price tag. I doubt Luke and Uncle Owen paid the Jawas that much for him. But, It’s also worth noting that this is the same figure as the recent Attack of the Clones release, just with the traditional gold finish. Hot Toys definitely did a beautiful job on this droid and let’s face it, all that diecast doesn’t come cheap. He’s a very impressive figure, but I think I was surprised at the fact that it didn’t totally blow away my Sideshow release. Granted, they are very different figures based on two variants of the character. If I could take two things away from the Sideshow figure and give it to this guy it would be the touch-activated eye lights and swivels in the hips. With all that having been said, Hot Toys 3PO will replace my Sideshow in my R2 and 3PO display, but I have no intentions to unload the Sideshow figure any time soon. As this review posts, he’s still available at Sideshow.

Dec 11 2023

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron AT-AT Walker (Hoth) by Jazwares

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.

Oct 16 2023

Star Wars: Kenner-Style Rebel Fleet Trooper by Stan Solo

It’s probably a pretty good indicator of my feelings about current Star Wars that I’ve regressed to working on filling out my vintage Kenner collection. And while that mostly involves hunting down the last Kenner figures I need, it also has me looking into some of the wonderful customs out there. And you can’t talk about wonderful Kenner Star Wars customs without mention of Stan Solo. I own a handful of his figures so far, but the only toy of his I’ve looked at here on FFZ so far was his Ubrikkian 9000 Speeder Pod. But he’s got a couple of new releases out, including a more screen accurate Greedo, and the focus of today’s review, the Rebel Fleet Trooper!

I’ve got no packaged shot, unless you want to see bubblewrap and a mailer box. This figure is offered as a spiffy carded release, but I went for the loose 4-pack. And now that these are in hand, they are so polished and refined, I have to say it’s hard to believe these are customs. The detail really walks that narrow line between something that is totally convincing as an unproduced vintage Kenner figure and something that’s just almost too good to be an unproduced vintage Kenner figure. And I mean that as the highest of compliments. The feel of the figure from the plastic to the joints is all dead on. There are some lovely touches in the sculpt here, like the rumples in the clothing and the way the vest hangs open. The matte blue and gray finish for the uniform feels perfect, and the boots and vest have a high gloss polish that looks super snappy.

The head is particularly well done, as the printing for the eyes and eyebrows look exactly like the Kenner style. The rest of the facial details are appropriately soft, and I love that he’s got that little kid friendly smirk, despite the fact that he’s about to be gunned down by Stormtroopers and all his friends will be dead. The chin strap on the helmet is painted very well and you even get the black strap painted underneath the white chin cup as it runs through.

And if all that weren’t’ cool enough, you even get a brand new sculpted gun, which is a Kennerized version of the DH-17. And oh man, is this fantastic! Sure, maybe if Kenner released this figure early in the line he would have just been packed with the Stormtrooper’s E-11, but we got a fair bit of new gun sculpts as the line progressed and I think this looks like a pretty credible example of what a Kenner Rebel blaster would have looked like.

It’s hard to articulate just how happy I am with these new additions to my Kenner Star Wars case. I know some collectors out there like to keep their displays 100% pure and vintage, but I just love the whole “what could have been” charm of releases like this. Especially when they’re executed so professionally. Of course, as customs they don’t come cheap and you’re looking at $37 for a loose single figure or $124 for a squad of four. I had a coupon which pushed me into the 4-pack for $114. You also have the custom carded option at $50, which looks absolutely amazing, but I talked myself out of because my Kenner Star Wars collection is strictly loose figures. All these options are still available at Stan Solo’s ETSY shop at the time I’m publishing this review.

Oct 9 2023

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron Imperial Shuttle by Jazwares

I was kind of surprised when I looked back and saw that I hadn’t spotlighted any of Jazware’s Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles here since the Millennium Falcon back in January. I was even more surprised to find that I’ve only actually reviewed four of these little buggers. I actually like this line quite a bit and I’ve been buying it when I find it, but I feel like a lot of them are getting past me because they’re exclusives or just tough to find. At this point in my life, hunting down toys isn’t an appealing aspect of collecting and I’ve got enough to spend money on without having to do that. Anyway, I hope to catch up on my backlog of these vehicles a bit in the months ahead, but I’m bumping today’s fairly new release to the head of the line, because it’s one of my favorite ships in the Star Wars Universe.

The shuttle comes in a window box with some snappy foil deco and while the box is collector friendly, the toy does indeed require some assembly. Both the top fin and the side wings have to be plugged in and it’s a one-time assembly deal meaning this is one of those toys that isn’t going back into the box once it’s put together. That’s a little disappointing to me as I like to display these in the boxes, but maybe this will be what makes me decide to just pitch all the MGS boxes and save me some space. The figures included are The Emperor and two of his Royal Guards, and I wonder if Jazwares will do a re-release of this ship with the Endor assault team as a store exclusive. I’d love to have Endor Han, Luke, Leia, 3PO and R2 in the cockpit and a bunch of Endor Commandos in the back. OK… Let’s take a quick look at the figure first!

I continue to be pretty impressed with how decent these have been for such tiny 1-inch figures, and that holds true here with The Emperor and his posse. I mean, they aren’t mindblowing, but they’re damn good for the size. They can bend at the hips to sit down and their arms swivel, making them arm chair friendly. The paint is basic, but certainly competent and the guards have their batons sculpted into their right hands. I would have liked to get a couple of pilots too, not only to occupy the seats, but also so I can find out once and for all what the Imperial Shuttle pilots looked like. As a kid, I used to alternate between having TIE Pilots and AT-AT Drivers fly my old Kenner shuttle.

The ship is designed for two display modes: Landed and Flight. When it’s landed the wings fold up and landing gear fold down. Actually, one of the landing gear is really the boarding ramp which drops down from under the cockpit to hold the nose up. Like the Micro Galaxy Falcon, there isn’t enough clearance there to get a figure in and out, so they made it double as a landing support, which is pretty clever. The two rear landing struts simply fold into the ship, while the ramp has a button that needs to be pressed to retract it.

I have to say the detail on this ship is absolutely fantastic, from the sculpted panel lines to the weathering, this is such a great looking toy and definitely one of the better representations of this ship that I’ve seen. The scale really works wonderfully, as it’s a decent sized toy and it allowed Jazwares to do a lot more with it than some of the smaller versions I’ve owned over the years. It’s also a lot easier to inspect the detail in hand than my big Hasbro version. I think the paint wash on this toy is near perfect. It’s just enough to give it a grungy well-used patina, but not too heavy handed.

There are two interior compartments to access, the cockpit hinges open similar to the old Kenner toy, while the back area compartment lifts off entirely. And holy crap, there is a lot of room for figures in this thing. The cockpit alone has room for six figures, and there’s a peg in there which might be intended for an Astromech Droid? I’m not sure. Each of the seats have arm rests that double as clips to hold the figures in place. There’s some excellent sculpted detail in here, although I wish they had left an open hatch leading to the back compartment.

And if you thought the cockpit was roomy, the rear compartment not only houses a throne for The Emperor, but eight additional seats. The throne is patterned after the one on Death Star II and there’s even a detailed engine compartment behind the chamber that is revealed when you remove the cover and another strip exposing the inner workings of the ship that’s painted as well sculpted

Getting the Shuttle ready for take off means folding up the landing struts and ramp and folding down the wings. The wings are geared and synched so that they will both fold down together at the same time just like the old Kenner toy. The only downside of this is that the gears are visible on the ship and really that’s the only thing I can complain about when it comes to the aesthetics. It also really doesn’t bother me, but my guess it will irk the hell out of some people.

The guns are all represented, including the aft cannon, which I remember becoming intimately familiar with when playing the old X-Wing PC game, as the Lambda Shuttles would love to take pot shots at you when you were trying to run them down. All of the gun barrels are a bit soft, so this is one to be careful with when storing it so they don’t get bent out of shape. The paint on the rear thrusters looks good, but I do kind of wish they had included electronics in this one to light these up and maybe provide some engine sounds.

And I couldn’t resist taking a shot of it parked next to my 3 3/4-inch scale Shuttle. It looks pretty damn good in comparison despite it’s much smaller size. Yeah, I still like the big boi better, but this little one is a lot easier to whoosh around the room.

This is an absolutely beautiful ship and it definitely has loads of shelf presence. The biggest strike against it for me is that there’s no flight stand in there, as it really could have used one. I’d always rather display this ship in flight than resting on a landing bay. I imagine some intrepid sellers on Etsy will make a few bucks selling stands for this ship and maybe I’ll hunt one down. At $29.99 I think this one is a pretty fair value. It feels at least as substantial as the Falcon and every bit as fun to play around with.

Aug 9 2023

Star Wars Black Series (Knights of the Old Republic) Bastila Shan by Hasbro

Somewhere along the way, Hasbro’s Black Series has lost me. Sure, some of it has to do with Disney curb-stomping the brand into the gutter these last few years, but I’m kind of tired of so many repacks and repaints when there are still so many of the old Kenner figures that still need to be done. The 40th Anniversary of Return of the Jedi should have given us so many figures, and instead we got a couple new ones and a bunch of old stuff repacked on vintage style cards. Case in point, I haven’t looked at a SWB figure here in eight months! Sure, in some cases I get backlogged, but in this case, I just haven’t been buying any of the figures. But, I did pre-order Bastila Shan and she showed up, so let’s do some Black Series today!

I’ve expressed my undying love for Knights of the Old Republic several times here on FFZ, and even the mere act of checking out this figure has me thinking about it being time for yet another replay. And I will forever be bitter that Hasbro didn’t get to do a big marketing push alongside the game. I mean, here we are twenty years later and we still have only seen a few characters released as figures. It’s a crime, so the least I could do was support this release of Bastila Shan like I did back when Darth Revan was released. Anyway, Shan comes in the fully enclosed plastic-free packaging with the GAMING GREATS logo on the front. You get some character art on the side, and everything here is collector friendly.

Straightaway, this release is such a huge improvement over the 3 3/4-inch Bastila we got way back when. It’s not so much just the new opportunities that come with the jump up in scale, but just the coloring and accuracy of her costume as well. There’s a great sense of layering here with the tan bodysuit being the figure base and the burgundy tunic being cast in soft plastic and worn over the body. Even the top edges of the boots convey a very nice sense of depth, like the figure is actually wearing them. The flaps that drop from her waist on the front and sides are made of pretty pliable plastic and I’m pleased to say that they tend to work pretty well with the articulation. A lot of the coloring here looks like it’s done through the plastic, but the paint lines are nice and sharp too. AND YES, THAT’S A GODDAMN CAT HAIR ON HER BOOT IN THE SECOND PICTURE WHICH I DIDN’T NOTICE UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE!!!

The head sculpt is solid, but maybe not exceptional. The facial details are printed on and look fine in hand, while breaking down a bit as you punch in with the camera. The hair sculpting is excellent, but I just don’t see a whole lot of likeness there for the character in the game. I gather that Shan has been in a lot of other media since the game, so maybe this portrait is based more on one of those? Either way, it’s certainly not bad. Maybe a little less shadowing under the eyes would have helped.

The articulation here is mostly great, with the one throwback being the arms. We get the usual rotating hinges in the elbows instead of double-hinges and bicep swivels. Yup, Hasbro loves doing this with the ladies and I have no idea why. Normally, I’ve come to except it, but it hurts a bit more here when trying to get her to wield her lightsaber with both hands. Other than that, you get some great range of motion in the hips, there are double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. The ball joint in the waist has some decent range, and you get a ball joint in the neck. She’s fun to play with, but I’ll be happy if the rotating hinges in the elbows get retired.

Her lightsaber is her only accessory and it comes with two yellow blades that can be pegged in and removed. The hilt is pretty big as far as lightsabers go, and you get some nice silver paint on the ends and black for the grip in the middle. I really hate how gimmicky and ridiculous the lightsaber designs have become, from the spinning blades to whatever the hell grimdark Rey had in whatever movie that was. Still, I kind of have a soft spot for this one, since it reminds me of how badly I wanted a Double Brand in Phantasy Star Online.

I like this figure a lot. No one thing about it is particularly amazing, but it all comes together into what is a very solid Bastila Shan figure, and that’s what I’m here for. And maybe that sums up a lot of my feelings for the Black Series lately. It’s almost always totally competent, with the occasional flourish here and there, and that’s fine when it’s turning out characters I want. But as Hasbro continues to milk previously released figures with Carbonized and Christmas repaints, I’m left waiting for characters we should have had ages ago. Where were my Skiff Guards for the RotJ 40th Anniversary? Where are the rest of my Ewoks? Where’s my Crix Madine? That’s fine… my wallet is happy for the reprieve.

May 17 2023

Star Wars: TIE Fighter (#75300) by LEGO

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me doing a lot of LEGO Rebuilds the past couple of weeks. One of those was the X-Wing (#9493) from around 2013 or so. I was so impressed with this set, even building it the second time, that I hopped online and ordered the TIE Fighter that’s on the shelves now to go with it.

I’ve seen this set in the LEGO aisle countless times and I’ve always passed it up. I think I just had the mindset that it was going to be a boring and largely redundant build. Turns out I was mostly wrong. The set has a total of 432 pieces, which builds the TIE Fighter and three Minifigs. Guess what? We’re going to start with the Minifigs! You probably guessed.

LEGO could have just slapped a TIE Pilot in here and called it a day, but you also get a Stormtrooper and an Imperial Droid called NI-L8. The Stormtrooper is excellent and I dig the TIE Pilot a lot too. My only complaint about him is that the back of the helmet doesn’t cover his entire head, which is really kind of weird. NI-L8 looks like a black version of what I knew as a Death Star Droid when I was growing up.

The Stormtrooper and TIE Pilot each come with blasters and they have printed faces under their removable helmets. The TIE Pilot looks very mean and nasty while the Stormtrooper only looks slightly cross.

Here’s the TIE Fighter all complete and I have to say that this was a pretty interesting build. The first bag of bricks builds the body, which was a lot of fun. The remaining bags build the wing panels, and the design here is cool enough that I did not mind building them twice. The result is a TIE Fighter that resembles the old Kenner toy with the shorter wings. And that’s fine, because growing up playing with that toy it still feels more familiar to me than the taller panel on screen models. I should also note that this set uses ZERO stickers, which really floored me, as even the $150 Raiders of the Lost Ark set used stickers over printed pieces. You not only get printed detail on the top dome and front window, but also the central caps on the wing panels… not bad for a lower price range set.

The wing panel builds are really clever. You build the top and bottom and then mesh them together before adding all the bits for detail and the support struts. The edges are pretty neat too. You build them as hinged strips, clip them in the top and the angle down and clip again at the bottom. The inner panels are largely unfinished, but the outer surface is a nice mixture of studs and smooth panels. I initially thought the panels would be too thick, but they actually look fine as well as being nice and sturdy.

The cockpit opens up at the top and front to give you a great access to the interior. Nah, there’s not a lot going on in there, but plenty of place to sit the figure. I dig how the two red console pieces fold down too. I think my only real gripe about this model is that the top and front hatches don’t actually clip together in any way. They do stay put pretty well, but I would have liked some type of fastener. The wing panels are attached with Technic clips, so if you want to reproduce the ejected wing panels from the old Kenner toy it’s pretty easy to pull them off and stick them back on again.

Finally, you get two translucent green flick-fire missiles that shoot out where the laser cannons should be. They actually look like laser cannons when inserted and if you pull them out a bit they kind of look like lasers being fired, which makes for a cool effect.

I got this set on sale for $35, and I think that was a pretty good deal. It’s a fairly quick build and I was able to do it in about an hour or so. The limited colors in the bricks make it a bit more of a hunt for pieces, especially if you like to open all your bags at once. But I built it bag by bag, so it was no big deal. The ship looks great and Droid and Stormtrooper Minifigs feel like nice bonuses. If LEGO released this set in white, I would probably buy it again. Hell, I’m pretty sure I have all the pieces needed to build it in white, but I don’t like mixing up my sets! There’s a TIE Bomber set floating out there, and I’ll probably pick that up next!

Mar 17 2023

Star Wars “The Mandalorian:” Slave-1 (#75312) by LEGO

Yeah, that’s right, the box may say Boba Fett’s Starship, but it’ll always be Slave-1 to me. Fight the power!!! Since I’ve been on a LEGO kick this year, I thought I’d take a break from the LEGO City Space stuff and switch over to The Mandalorian. These have been the only Star Wars sets I’ve been buying, not because the others don’t look good, but I have to try to set limitations where LEGO is concerned or I’ll be broke. I saw this set the last time I was at Target and the price seemed right, so let’s see what we got!

The set is a tad bigger than any I’ve built in a while, weighing in at 593 pieces, which come in four numbered bags. BUT… For some reason it only comes with one big instruction manual, whereas the last bunch I assembled had a booklet for each bag. Now, I’m not saying that has anything to do with anything, but I did find this build to be a little more challenging than any other recent LEGO experiences. So, I gotta call foul on that 9+ rating. I’m more than five times that age, and I had to backtrack a few times to see what went wrong. Needless to say, this was a pretty dense build with some neat stuff going on, and there were a few times where I honestly didn’t know why I was building something. I love that, because it creates a real gee-whiz moment when you place it on the model and see what’s going on. Anyway, in addition to Slave-1, the set builds two Minifigs, a Carbonite Prisoner, and a Transport Sled. As always, let’s start with the Minifigs!

The figs are Boba Fett and Mando, and these are pretty straightforward. Boba has his jetpack and Mando has a cape. Both have articulated range finders on their helmets, Boba comes with a blaster carbine, Mando has his spear, and there’s an extra blaster pistol if you want to give it to Mando. Only Boba comes with a jetpack, but Mando comes with a cape. Boba has a printed face, so you can display him with his helmet off if you want, whereas Mando just has a blank head under there, which feels kind of cheap. I know he rarely takes that bucket off his head, but he has in the show, so I think we should have had a printed face on there. But, it’s no biggie. I am particularly happy to have the Beskar Armor Mando, since the one I have that came with the AT-ST set is in his original armor. I also have to give props to the beautiful printing that makes up Boba Fett’s armor. It’s crisp and colorful and looks fantastic.

The Carbonite Prisoner is just a slab with a vent piece on the bottom and a sticker of a Gamorrean Guard. It’s OK, but the slab is really thin, which seems doubly out of place for a portly Gamorrean.

Here’s “Prisoners-With-Jobs-1” all assembled and looking pretty cool. So straightaway, if the size and cost of this set didn’t tip you off, don’t come into this one expecting a full scale model of Slave-1. It’s a substantial build, but as you can see, it’s scaled down a bit when compared to the Minifigs. The build is completely solid, which means the back doesn’t open up or anything beyond there being a sliding ramp with a slot to stow the Carbonite slab. And that’s fine, given it’s size. The fact that it is a solid build means the ship is pretty hefty and takes to being handled well. I ran into some difficulties assembling the side pieces, but I’m going to chalk that up to the way it was illustrated in the booklet and the few drinkys I had while building. As for aesthetics, I think it’s a good looking model, but I have two nitpicks. The canopy is a little flimsy the way it closes up and obviously doesn’t seal shut, and the guns on the tail boom are rather oversized. Neither are deal-breakers for me, especially given the size of the set.

There’s only room for one Minifig in the cockpit, and as you may have guessed, there’s no gyroscope articulation to the pilot seat. As a result, the Minifig is designed to sit in it as if it’s always in flight. There is, however, articulation in the wing stabilizers, and these will remain horizontal to the ground as the ship is maneuvered, just like the old Kenner toy, and that’s pretty cool. There are two cannon that fire red studs, and there’s a flip out handle hidden in the undercarriage to hold while you’re whooshing it around the room.

The Transport Sled is designed to move Slave-1 along the ground, but it can also be used to transport the Carbonite Prisoner, and it even doubles as a stand for displaying the ship at an angle, which is a really nice bonus.

Considering I recently paid a little extra for a pair of discontinued LEGO sets, this one actually felt like a decent deal at $40. Well, at least it felt like a decent deal by LEGO standards. Despite a few frustrations, I found the build to be very satisfying and while the ship is definitely scaled down, I think I’ll be content with it as my sole LEGO representation of Slave-1 in my collection. Especially since the bigger Slave-1 runs for hundreds of dollars. If you’re hankering to build something while you’re watching the next episode of Mando, and you want another cool little Star Wars ship for your LEGO shelves, you could do a lot worse than this one!