Tag Archives: star wars

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!

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!