Tag Archives: star wars

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!

Mar 15 2023

Star Wars “The Mandalorian:” Life-Size Grogu Figure by Sideshow

Sideshow ran a whole lot of good deals back around Christmas time, which is pretty dangerous for me. It’s a bad time of the year, and it doesn’t take much to make me dive into retail therapy to stave off holiday depression. One of those deals was Sideshow’s own life-size version of Grogu, which is probably one of the most expensive impulse buys I’ve ever made. Was it worth it? Well, let’s find out…

Baby Yoda comes in an enormous fully enclosed box with some nice wrap-around artwork from the show. I’m guessing this was released before the big name reveal, so the box refers to him merely as The Child, which Disney seemed to like better than Baby Yoda. The figure comes out of the box pretty much ready for display. You just have to peg him onto his base and pop his favorite shifter-knob into his right hand. While Grogu is pretty tiny on the show, a life-size version still puts him at just under 17-inches, which means he’s considerably bigger than Sideshow’s Sixth-Scale figures, which are about as big as my photo staging area can go. So give me a couple of minute to improvise something bigger and we’ll check him out!

Well, isn’t he just adorable! This little bugger comes clad in his fabric frock with a wooly-type material used for the collar and sleeve cuffs. It’s got that rough and shoddy tailoring like it does on the show, which makes me wonder why Mando hasn’t invested a little of that Beskar in a proper onesie. While Grogu is advertised as a figure, it would be more accurate to call him a statue, as the only articulation here is in the neck, and even that only allows for a little bit of tweaking. Hot Toys did put out a proper life-size Grogu figure with more articulation, and while I don’t own that figure, I will make a few comparison comments based on pictures that I’ve seen. The pose is about as simple as things get, with his arms more or less down at as his sides and his head looking upward. It’s perfectly in tune with what Grogu is usually doing in the show, so no complaints there. It is worth mentioning, that this is a piece that is best displayed below eye level, so he can be looking up at you.

Because Grogu’s frock covers most of him, the only real sculpt and paint are invested in the portrait and hands. In terms of sculpt, I think the head is spot on. The wide-eyed expression is designed to tug at heart strings and sell toys, and it definitely succeeds at both. The eyes are simply stunning, with a lot of complexity behind those lenses if you get up and personal. The downturned mouth suggests he was just chastised for eating lizard people’s babies. There’s a nice compromise between smooth skin and rumples and light creases, and the top of the head is graced with a field of white peach-fuzz hair, which is strangely satisfying to pet. The Hot Toys version had a little part in the lips to show some teeth, which is definitely a more complex sculpt, but I think I prefer the closed lips on this one for being a little less creepy.

A lot has been made about the rosy cheeks, and I can confirm that it looks a lot more obvious under studio lights than it does on display under normal lighting. Even the official Sideshow shots don’t really show you what you’re getting and that’s to the figure’s discredit. I’ve even seen people do comparisons between the actual prop and this portrait to show that the paint here is pretty much spot on to the physical prop, but a bit at variance as to how it looks on screen. Personally, I’m happy with the way the paint came out on this one, but I think the Hot Toys version comes a little closer, at least in the pictures. Whether that’s the case in hand, I can’t really say since I’ll never be able to make that direct comparison. I do think the ears on the Sideshow figure are painted better, as the Hot Toys’ version looks a little too glossy and fake to me.

The only accessory here is the shifter knob, which attaches to the right hand via a pretty strong magnet. This is a simple silver painted sphere with a blue stripe across the middle. It’s a nice touch, but it kind of gets lost in all the fabric when on display. It’s almost looks like Grogu is trying to hide that he has it.

If you’re wondering how much sculpt and paint is going on under that frock, it’s just the hands and feet. The fully realized feet are a nice feature, since you really can’t see them at all under the cloak when the figure is on display.

The base looks like it’s intended to be the deck of a ship, possibly the Razor Crest, and it looks good, but the cloak does cover most of the surface. Unlike most Sideshow statues, which use a metal rod to attach the figure, this has a simple foot peg, which is pretty charming, as it looks just like the kind of foot pegs used on playsets for the old Kenner Star Wars figures. I also like that the peg is on the base and not on the figure, so you can stand Grogu wherever you want without using the base. Either way, it does a good job of securing the figure, while making it easy to pick him up and put him back on it again.

The bottom of the base is fully illustrated with some colorful, stylized artwork. it always impresses me when Sideshow does this, as it will almost never be seen, but it adds a bit of value to the piece. The base does state that the figure is a Limited Edition, but it’s not hand numbered like the Premium Formats, and there’s no statement of limitation anywhere on the box or base, nor could I find one on the website.

Sideshow’s Grogu retails for $375 and at the time I’m publishing this review it’s still available to buy. I got him at $100 off and threw in $60 worth of reward points to knock it down to $215. That still makes it a pretty expensive impulse buy, but I was surprised at how delighted I was when he showed up and I got him out of the box. The Hot Toys version is probably the more desirable as it does have articulation and some might argue the better paint, but it’s also a lot more expensive, so I’m pretty satisfied with this guy on my shelf. One of my biggest pipe dreams has been to one day own a life-size Star Wars character, preferably R2 or 3PO, but I just haven’t been drunk enough to pull the trigger yet. At least now I can say I have one. As of now, Grogu is standing right by the light switch in my TV room, and I get to give him a pat on the head each night as I shut out the lights to go to bed.

Jan 6 2023

Star Wars Black Series: Figrin D’an by Hasbro

I know, I just checked out Jazwares Millennium Falcon a couple days ago, but I guess I’m in a Star Wars mood this week, so let’s return to A Galaxy Far, Far Away one more time before heading into the weekend. As someone who has been frequently complaining that we still don’t have Black Series Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, or a number of other Cantina Aliens yet, I was a little bitter to see Figrin D’an jump to the head of the line and make an appearance. But then I reasoned it out that Hasbro knew they could make collectors buy the same figure six or seven times and it all made perfect sense.

I was actually thinking about skipping this figure, because it’s not terribly exciting for a $20+ purchase, and I knew I wasn’t going to buy the whole band. But then Figgy started turning up at a few online retailers for $9.99 and I decided to go for it. Luckily, the retailer I bought it from had a three-figure limit, so they stepped in where my better sense would have failed me. So, yes the figure in the package is billed as the lead performer of the Modal Nodes, Figrin D’an, but he comes with three different instruments, and apparently all Bith look alike, so you can use him as several different members if you buy more than one.

Here’s Fiery Figgy out of the box, and while he look pretty good, he’s still a pretty bland figure with just a black tunic, black boots, and gray trousers to make up his costume. The only thing really distinctive here are his big Bith hands and his bulbous Bith head. But, hey, that’s not the figure’s fault as it’s still a pretty good representation of the character. A lot of the Cantina aliens were just about giving people monster heads and monster hands. It was pretty casual. Hell, even Greedo was wearing high heels most of the time. You get some sculpted rumples and wrinkles in the tunic and pants and some seams, but not a lot else noteworthy… heh, see what I did there?

The head sculpt is decent enough, albeit maybe a little soft. When we were kids, my brother and I used to call these guys Hiney Heads and that made us giggle because their heads looked like butts. It kinda still makes me giggle. Keep in mind, it was quite a bit later until any of us knew that these guys had names and that their race had a name. We sure as hell didn’t know their music was called Jizz, which is a shame because that would have made us giggle too. I do think the paint job for the portrait could have been better. Maybe a little bit of a wash or some shading? I mean, the costume was simple enough, they could have done something special with the head, but like the rest of the figure, it’s perfectly passable. It even has a little hole in its maw to stick the various instruments into.

The articulation is solid enough. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, with hinged pegs in the hands. The legs have ball joints in the hips, rotating hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint under the chest and the neck is ball jointed as well. All they did was stand there and sway in the movie, so this level of articulation has them more than well covered. Except for the elbows, which definitely could have used better than a 90-degree bend to work better with their instruments.

As mentioned earlier, you get three different instruments, the first of which is the kloo horn, which I believe is what Figrin D’ar played…

Next up is the fanfar…

And finally, the fizzz. Each of these instruments vary in detail with the fanfar and kloo horn having the most and the fizzz having the least, but they all seem to be good representations of the on screen versions. Each has its own challenge when it comes to getting the Bith to hold it so that the mouth piece is actually sticking into the tiny mouth hole, which should be evident in some of the pictures. Double hinged elbows would have sure helped in this department, as well as maybe getting a set of hands specifically made for each instrument. Considering the simplicity of the figure, I don’t think one of those two improvements would be asking too much.

I’m happy to have some Bith musicians, but the cynical side of me says that these are just more evidence of Hasbro trying to stretch figure molds to the max. Yes, it’s a new sculpt, but it’s basically a musical troop builder, which is just one step better than the endless carbonized and credit series repaints that Hasbro has been pouring into this line. Now, if you want to get the remaining instruments to complete your band, you have to buy the Deluxe Nalan Cheel figure, which is a Hasbro Pulse exclusive and comes with the three larger instruments but runs close to $40. You will then need to buy at least two more Figrins in order to display one band member with each instrument, BUT… I believe there were two kloo horn players, and a little research tells me that there was an eighth member that wasn’t playing, but I think he was dressed different so I won’t count him. So, by my reckoning that would be a total of six Figins and one Nalan to complete the band. I haven’t decided to take that plunge yet, especially since Figgy is back up to $20 at most retailers. Maybe, if he drops to ten again, I’d consider it, but until then my Cantina band will remain a trio.

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!

Dec 7 2022

Star Wars Black Series: Cassian Andor and B2EMO by Hasbro

A friend of mine once argued that beyond The Original Trilogy, Star Wars was incapable of any real depth and new ideas. I proffered that Rogue One shattered his argument, but he insisted that even Rogue One was just propped up by familiar imagery that we’ve seen over and over again. We had to agree to disagree on that one, but I understood his underlying point. And then came Andor, a series that even he had to agree expanded the Star Wars franchise beyond the same old, same old. Andor is so well-written that it’s almost unbelievable that it came from the same production company that gave us Obi-Wan and Book of Boba Fett. It introduces us to characters that are motivated and relatable, showers us with finely crafted and memorable dialogue, and does more to expand the Star Wars Universe than well, almost anything I can think of. Of course, all this comes at the cost of a lot of action. The show is slow and plodding. It’s deliberate and measured. So did I actually want action figures from this kind of show? You bet I did!

And Hasbro answered the call with this initial offering: A two-pack featuring the titular Cassian Andor and his droid B2EMO. This set started life as a Pulse Exclusive, but just this week it was offered up as a wide release by other online retailers. As far as I can tell, the retail release is identical to the exclusive, but if you went with Pulse, you got the figures in hand at about the same time it was going up for pre-order elsewhere. So, I guess that’s something!

The packaging here is very nice! You get what looks like an enclosed box, but it’s actually a slipcase holding two windowless boxes that slide out of opposite ends. Each of the figures is secured with twisty string, and they look quite striking against the red trays. And yeah, B2 looks a little awkward levitating in the middle of his human-sized tray. Let’s get them out of there and start with Cassian himself!

Well, I actually didn’t expect as much color as we got on this figure. Not that it’s all that flashy, but the blue shirt looks nice, as does the gold buckle and fixtures on his smuggler-style belt. The overcoat is a reddish-brown and the tunic is two-tone green. All in all, for a show that is pretty drab on screen, I think the deco on this figure pops pretty well. The sculpt work that went into the costume is very impressive. We get all sorts of stitching, rumples, and layers. It perfectly characterizes Andor as the common rabble that he is, with maybe just a hint of swashbuckling flare.

I’ve gone back and forth on this portrait. It’s definitely a huge improvement from the Rogue One versions, and I think the likeness is good from certain angles, but maybe not from dead on. The hair sculpt is especially well done, and the facial hair is pretty good too. The printing makes the details look rather blurry up close, but it looks fine as long as you don’t punch in too close.

The articulation here is a bit better than I was expecting, and by that I mean the bulky plastic costume doesn’t really inhibit anything. Alas, there are no double hinges in the elbows or knees, but instead rotating hinges. You do still get thigh swivels, but no bicep swivels. It’s not ideal to me, but it works OK, although the elbows can only manage 90-degree bends. The ankles are hinged with lateral rockers, there’s a ball joint at the waist, and the neck rotates at the base and has a ball joint further up in the head. Andor features two trigger-finger hands, which is kind of strange since he only comes with one gun.

The gun is a simple pistol, which was showcased a few times in the series. I like this boxy no-nonsense design. It’s not as flashy as some of the weapons of the Star Wars Universe, but it fits the pragmatic nature of the series to a tee. All in all, I’m very pleased with the way Cassian came out. There’s definitely some room for improvement, but overall not bad. I wish I could say the same about B2EMO…

Yeah, this guy is just a huge disappointment. Granted, the design doesn’t offer quite as much to work with as an Astromech, but this little salvage droid deserved better than what we got here. My biggest complaint are the feet, which are rubbery and not really straight. Hasbro couldn’t even throw this poor droid some actual wheels so he could roll. Instead he just has sculpted treads under the feet. All this makes him feel really cheap. I do like the rusted finish on his body, as well as the sculpted pitting, but he could have used something to bring out those panel lines. I may have to bust out a Sharpie and do it myself. You get one orange foot, suggesting that it was replaced at some point and Cassian couldn’t be bothered to paint it. It’s also really hard to make out any of the detail around the inside of his head, although I’m happy they gave his lens a little red to help make it out better.

In terms of articulation, B2 can close up into a box and then open up in three stages. He can turn his head and he can extend his feet out, which is something I didn’t even notice him doing in the series. The big disappointment here is that his head isn’t on some kind of ball joint so it could angle upward. If this were a 3 3/4-inch figure, I would have been OK with all these nitpicks, but… I don’t know, I was just expecting something a lot more impressive than what we got for a 6-inch scale figure. Maybe if we got his charging station, that would have helped him feel a little more substantial.

I got this set for 25% off when Hasbro was running their Pulse sale, and that certainly helps me accept B2 for what he is. Needless to say, I’m a lot more impressed and satisfied with the Cassian figure. I certainly don’t have any buyer’s remorse, but now that the set is available at multiple retailers, the chances of it turning up at deeper discounts or clearance is a lot better. Personally, I want to support the figures Hasbro releases for the Andor series so we will get more, otherwise, it probably would have been prudent to wait for a better price on this set.

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!

Nov 9 2022

Star Wars Black Series (The Mandalorian): New Republic Security Droid by Hasbro

Today is sort of Friday for me, as I have the next three days off. I plan on sleeping, boozing, and playing some video games, but for now I’m stopping in to check out a new Star Wars Black Series figure from The Mandalorian! It’s the New Republic Security Droid! And the title already told you that! So, let’s go!!!

These fellas were first seen in the season one episode, The Prisoner… Have we seen them since? I honestly can’t remember, but I do hope we see these Droids again in some sort of prominent capacity. Indeed, the entire episode’s character roster has been woefully underserved by the Black Series, or even the Vintage Collection for that matter. All we got so far is Zero, and I still have to get around to reviewing him. Anyway, I don’t have a lot to say about the packaging, except to note how much space there is for stuff I would have liked to see included. But let’s put a pin in that for a moment.

I really dig this design a lot! It’s distinctive, and yet has a flavor that certainly fits the Star Wars Universe. The design is trim enough to look like they would be fairly agile in combat, and yet the design still looks sturdy enough to endure a fight. The reinforced chest armor perhaps shields his CPU and important bits, while he also has a fairly beefy groinular region, perhaps to protect his other important bits. The limbs are thin, but not quite spindly, and the joints are slightly evocative of the familiar Imperial Security Droid design, with the same type of jointing and fairly similar feet and hands. The sculpting here is pretty sharp and a nice mix of angular and rounded features. Most of the Droid’s chassis is left as bare matte plastic, while you get some nice silver-gray paint in the compartment around the neck. He has two New Republic insignia, one on left side of his chest, and the other toward the bottom of his recessed backpack, and some additional matching orange panels. There’s a stray spot of silver dry brush on his chest, which I assume is a flub, but it actually looks like a bit of weathering and I would have liked to see more of that.

The head is a no-nonsense, functional design. You get a slab of gray with a yellow visual sensor across the top. These guys clearly aren’t designed with personality in mind, but simply to substitute for organics in battle. I find it interesting that the Imperial Security Droid’s portrait has a lot more expressive personality over this New Republic fighter, but that’s probably because we were first introduced to the K2 Droid in Rogue One as a character we were supposed to like and relate to, whereas these fellas were technically the bad guys of the episode. He has one stubby antenna protruding from the top of his head.

The articulation here is excellent, with all the usual points you would expect to see in a human character. There isn’t quite as much lateral movement in the shoulders as I would like and his elbows can only do about a 90-degrees bend, but all in all I’m very pleased with what we got. The joints are strong and not at all gummy, and he’s surprisingly fun to pose!

You get one accessory here, and that’s the DH-17 style Blaster. The weapon is cast in black plastic and has a silver painted muzzle. The sculpt is a little soft, but there’s still plenty of detail to be seen. The right hand is designed to hold the gun, and includes a trigger finger, while the left hand is designed to cradle or steady the weapon. And herein comes my main complaint with this figure… I think there should have been more in the box, namely a battle damaged head and chest plate.

I was very happy to see this figure released, but at about $25, the price seemed really steep. A little patience turned them up at $15 a pop at an online retailer, and that made me grab three. It’s very cool to finally get some army-builder soldiers for the good guys, and the fact that they’re Droids sweetens the pot! These guys are surprisingly fun to play around with and pose, and they are sturdy and well balanced. With some battle damaged parts, I would have jumped at the retail price, but thankfully the deal allowed me to build a little squad of these New Republic Clankers. If they turn up again at that price, I may grab a couple more, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a Vintage Collection release to add to my carded 3 3/4-inch Mandalorian collection.

Sep 21 2022

Star Wars Black Series (The Mandalorian): Dark Trooper by Hasbro

So far, The Mandalorian has been the only Disney+ series that I think has been worthy of my time. Book of Boba Fett went nowhere fast, Obi-Wan was ludicrous and boring, and while I desperately want it to be good, I’m not holding out hope for Andor. So, it sure is nice to look back on that amazing ending to Mando Season 2 and know that if they try really hard, Disney is capable of producing some cool shit. Oh yeah… and we got to see some Dark Troopers!

Now, it’s only fair to say that I was not all that smitten with these guys on the screen. They looked a bit too much like rip-offs of the mechanical Cylons from the Battlestar Galactica reboot and the way they took to flight reminded me a little too much of either Iron Man or the Cybermen in Doctor Who‘s Series 8 finale. They just looked kind of cheesy flying around, and while that works for Doctor Who, it doesn’t so much in Star Wars. For some reason, I also LOL’d when they started punching the bulkhead repeatedly. Now, with all that having been said, these guys have grown on me a bit, and I suspected from the beginning that they were going to succeed for me a lot more as action figures, so let’s see if that’s true!

Well, I don’t know where to begin. First of all, the glossy black finish on this figure is absolutely gorgeous. It’s like a beautiful new car sheen, which probably doesn’t come across as well as it should in my pictures on account of how prone to fingerprints these are. And it’s good that the black finish is so impressive, because there isn’t a lot else here in terms of coloring. You get some silver paint on the joints and servos, and a subtle amount of dry-brushing on the feet to denote wear, but clearly these guys are meant to look fresh out of the factory and spoiling for a fight!

The next thing that I really love about this guy is the way the upper body armor is layered onto the figure. It makes for a more complex feel and appearance than if it were all just sculpted as one piece. The articulation here is every bit as good as your average Stormtrooper, so don’t let that bulky armor and those Protocol Droid-style disk-joints fool you into thinking this guy isn’t agile. It’s kind of a shame that the hydraulics in his abdomen don’t actually articulate with the figure, but they are in fact static, and the torso articulation is confined to a ball joint below the chest. Still, they look great! You get two sets of hands with this fella, one pair of fists, and a pair to interact with his gun. Oddly enough, his fists look really small and puny.

The helmet sculpt is great. It’s a nice homage to the original Dark Trooper design, but updated to work with the modern series. The red eye lenses are surprisingly vibrant amidst that sea of black, but man, it would have been cool if we could have had some light piping up in there!

The blaster design is OK, but the trusty old E-11 Blaster doesn’t have to worry about this design becoming my favorite. I like my Star Wars guns to have a firm and obvious design nod to real world vintage weapons, and this one just doesn’t do it. But it sure ain’t bad. There’s nowhere for the Trooper to store the weapon that I can see, but his gun-hands work well to carry it, with the left hand sculpted to cradle the weapon’s foregrip. It might have been interesting to see these Troopers designed with an integral blaster, like the Super Battle Droids, but maybe they can save that for an upgraded design.

In addition to the Blaster, you get a couple of jet effect parts to stick into his feet. These look fine, but I think I would have rather these guys had jetpacks, than just jet boots. Again, it’s a little too Iron Man-y on the screen, but it looks a lot more credible and fun as an action figure.

“Hey… you notice that the new guy doesn’t say much?”

At $32, The Dark Trooper is priced a bit higher than your average Black Series figure, but he is a bit more complex than what we usually get. I will say that I expected him to be a bit bigger, as he isn’t really any bigger than the Death Troopers, which I included in a comparison shot. Still, I’m not complaining, because he’s a damn fine addition to my Imperial forces. I originally pre-ordered a pair of them, but I may wind up hunting down one more.

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.