Tag Archives: vintage collection

Feb 25 2022

Star Wars Vintage Collection (The Mandalorian): Beskar Armor Mandalorian and The Child by Hasbro

Well, I said I’d be back on Friday and here I am! I’m really pressed for time and I’m still trying to sort out a new photo studio, so I’m shooting guerilla style and not terribly happy with the results. After getting used to the same setup for a decade, it’s been tough adjusting, but I’m working on it. And the show must go on, so here we go! I’ve been strictly a carded collector of the Vintage Collection Mandalorian figures, but I bought doubles of Mando and The Child to open for my Razor Crest, because I didn’t want to open the ones that came with it. I don’t think I realized at the time that the Razor Crest Mando figure wasn’t carded, but let’s tear these open anyway and have a look! And YES! I do hope to get around to that look at the Razor Crest eventually!

I do love me some Vintage Collection cards, which is why I don’t buy all the TVC releases. I just can’t bring myself to open these unless I have doubles. Right now I’m only collecting The Mandalorian and Rogue One releases, so that helps a bit. These cards look great, and The Mandalorian title surrounded by the Star Wars silver border just looks perfect! Let’s start with Mando himself!

This is Mando after he got all blinged out with the mostly new Beskar armor and I have to say the detail in this little guy is pretty damn impressive. You get sculpted wrinkles in the jumpsuit and the armor pieces have a convincing depth to them that looks like they are actually being worn on top, even though they are all just part of the body sculpt. The silver paint here looks nice, and I dig the worn orange splatter and dull gray used for the old right thigh piece. He’s got weapon cartridges around his leg and on his shoulder strap, and a working holster for his pistol!

The cape is cast in plastic, but it still works well with the peg that attaches the rifle to his back. The rifle should be angled more across his back, but I found it works better almost straight up and down. The Razor Crest version has an actual soft goods cape, and we’ll see how that turned out when I check out that figure with the ship. Admittedly, the articulation on this smaller figure is a lot less satisfying than handling a Black Series version. The hips don’t have a lot of range of motion, and there’s a terrible pull on the left thigh swivel leaving an unsightly gap. Still, all in all I dig him.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the helmet. It looks good and the paint is sharp as long as you don’t get in too close. Again, the quality of the silver they used here looks great and has just enough sheen to it. I also love the detail on the shoulder sigil.

The rifle is a solid sculpt, and the paint is pretty impressive for such a small accessory. Hasbro doesn’t always invest this level of paint operations on the 6-inch accessories, so this sure ain’t bad! Mando’s gun hand is mainly intended for the pistol, but with a little work, I was able to get it to work with the rifle.

The pistol fits snugly in the holster as well as in Mando’s right gun hand. There isn’t a lot to say about this accessory, other than it’s painted silver and has a pretty soft sculpt, but is certainly passable.

Finally, you get the jetpack, which is designed to peg into the back in a slot that is off-set to accommodate the cape. It stays on well, but I feel it works best without the cape. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to combine a jetpack and a cape anyway. You’re just asking to set yourself on fire! Let’s move on to Grogu!

OK, so this little guy doesn’t look like much when you punch in close like this, but it’s such an unbelievably tiny figure, that I have to give Hasbro props for doing such a nice job on him. He certainly looks a lot better in hand with the naked eye. And he actually has three points of articulation, with the arms ball jointed at the shoulders and the neck ball jointed as well. The arms do, however, pull out fairly easily and if they happen to hit the floor, they are so tiny it could be difficult to find them again. My only real complaint here is that they painted whites in his eyes, when they should really be all black.

The hover pram is also a nice little piece of kit. It has a clear plastic stand to create the hovering effect, and the blanket inside is sculpted with tiny rumples and even some sharp texturing. You also get a removable cover if you want to close it all the way up. Grogu fits in it quite well and looks great in there.

I don’t review a whole lot of 4-inch figures these days, so it’s fun to go back to them every now and again. To be honest, the only reason I collect any of these is either to keep them carded or to stock a specific vehicle or playset. I find that I just get a lot more enjoyment out of the 6-inch versions these days. They’re easier to handle, more fun to pose, and they tend to allow for more detail and better paint apps. With all that having been said, these two are pretty cool little figures, and I’ll work them into one of my displays somewhere.

Oct 9 2020

Star Wars: The Mandalorian “Vintage Collection” Imperial Troop Transport by Hasbro

Feels like it’s been a while since I checked out a Star Wars vehicle, and I’ve got quite a stack of them from the Vintage Collection, piling up in the corner and waiting to be opened. One of the ones that had me the most excited was the Imperial Troop Transport from The Mandalorian. Of all the fan service that Disney could have packed into that series, who would have guessed that one of the biggest would be a nod back to an old Kenner toy? And this is after the Troop Transport got a previous nod (and toy) in the Rebels 3 3/4-inch line. The ITT has become one popular little vehicle. I never owned the original toy when I was a kid, but my best friend did and I loved playing with it, despite it’s boxy and impractical design it somehow quickly became iconic to me.

And boy does this thing look great in the vintage packaging! Mine arrived a little rough around the corners, but hey… IT’S VINTAGE!!! Getting beaten up in shipping gives it character! You get shots of the toy in action on the front and back panels as well as some close up shots on the side panels. The ITT comes nearly fully assembled, so you can get a pretty good idea of the vehicle’s size before you even open the box. And yes, that means it can go back into the box for storage, which is always a HUGE plus for me with these Vintage Collection releases. It’s also worth noting that there are no electronic features, so if you like pretty lights and sounds, you’re out of luck. On the other hand it also means you don’t have to have any batteries handy, either. I really think they missed an opportunity at packing in a Remnant Stormtrooper with this vehicle, but I’ll have more to say on that later. For now, let’s open this baby up and check her out!

Based on its appearance toward the end of The Mandalorian Season One, the Imperial Troop Transport takes the old Kenner design and peppers it with realism. And rather than beat around the bush, let me just toss out the best and worst things about the ITT right away: It’s got some amazing detail and it’s too small. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is quite as nice a piece as the Rogue One Hover Tank, but that vehicle is damn hard to beat when it comes to its weathered paint scheme and its great attention to even the tiniest details. The Transport comes pretty damn close, though. For starters, the sculpt is packed with all sorts of little hatches, panel lines, vents, piping, and everything the design needed to make it look like a real vehicle. Coupled with the greasy and grimy paint weathering, this cool deco goes a long way to convince me that this is a relic of the old Empire that’s been dragged back into service by the locals to try to maintain a scrap of power and bully the population. Much like the grubby Stormtrooper armor worn by the Remnant, this thing has seen better days, and it seems like the days of Imperial disciplined maintenance are a thing of the past.

There aren’t a ton of features on the outside. There are a pair of blaster cannon protruding from slits in the cheeks of the cab, and there’s a turret on the top that can rotate. That’s pretty much it. The vehicle does have some concealed wheels on the bottom, so it will roll, even though it’s intended to hover. It’s a shame they couldn’t have done something similar to the old Kenner Landspeeder and made them a little springy to improve the hover effect, as the simple engineering on that toy still impresses me and I think that would have been a cool feature here. If you flip the vehicle over you can check out all the amazing detail packed into an area you that you are likely never going to actually see, and that’s pretty cool! There are a series of vents, which I presume are repulse engines of some kind and a bunch of other bits and bobs.

The back of the vehicle opens up to reveal the interior and allow the Stromtroopers to burst out with E-11’s blazing. It seems like it would have made more sense to have the back drop down like a tailgate, giving the troops a ramp to descend, but I guess this design affords the disembarking troops some protection from strafing fighters.

The interior is also accessible from the top, which lifts off to reveal more amazing detail. The deck plates are fully sculpted and there’s a section over the cab that reveals some of the inner machinations of the vehicle. I suppose this could serve as a service hatch. There are some other features inside that we’ll check out in a bit. As a stand alone model of the Troop Transport seen in the series, I have no complaints at all, as this thing is absolutely gorgeous. But at this point, I’m going to grab a bunch of Stormies and we’re going to see how things go down hill once we start playing with it.

The cockpit opens up via the two side doors and… Wow is it cramped in here! It took some doing just to get the Stormtroopers seated in a reasonably convincing manner. There’s a ton of great detail in the cabin, but it’s tough to appreciate it because of the crazy tight quarters. I really wish the top piece that came off included the top of the cab as well. That way I could position the drivers better and maybe even get their hands on the steering yokes. I could also get to see all the work that went into sculpting this area. Such a simple change would have made a huge difference. I do like how there’s a window between the cab and the back compartment, and they did a great job detailing the interior of the doors.

The ITT is most known for the human pockets on the sides, which betrayed the true purpose of the toy being to hold figures. As a kid, I couldn’t imagine anyone owning SIX Stormtroopers to fill it up! I mean, holy smokes were some parents made of money??? But now I’m all grown up and I can buy as many Stormtroopers as I want. Who thought it was a good idea to have troops exposed in these side-pockets, rather than ride inside the armored transport is beyond me. I imagine this thing pulling up to deploy with six corpses slumped in the compartments. But I do like how they incorporated it into the show and had the troops pouring out of it. I think I actually said out loud, “Cool! So that’s how that works!” My cats were confused and unimpressed. Only two of these compartments open up, which is INCREDIBLY cheap for a toy that costs this much. How does seventy dollars buy me only two opening hatches? The doorways leading inside from each side pocket are also very small, which would be forgivable if you climbed up some stairs to get out through it, but the way it is you really have to use your imagination to make it work. And I’ll tell ya… imagination is made for $20 Troop Transports. Not ones that cost this much, Dammit!

There’s a hatch on the top that opens so you can have a Stormtrooper poke his head out, maybe as a spotter or something.  Unfortunately, doing so really shows off the limitations of that turret. The opened hatch blocks its line of fire, and while we’re on the subject notice how if they started firing that thing it would head-shot all the Stormtroopers on the sides of the vehicle! It all harkens back to the running theme of this review… the ITT is too damn small.

As we saw, the back opens up to allow troops to disembark, but the hatch is so low they can’t even stand up under it. It’s hard to believe stumbling out of this thing at a low crouch is an ideal way to enter the heat of battle. And what you’re seeing is also the same clearance as exists inside the vehicle with the top closed. That means the Stormies can’t even stand up in this thing when it’s buttoned up. So let’s go inside and have a better look.

There are some cool ideas going on in here. Firstly, there’s a weapons rack for your Stormy’s guns. I wasn’t really able to make it work very well. Also, the toy is $70, could you not fill the rack with some guns to pad out the value??? There are folding seats inside, which is a neat, but it’s so tight inside that there’s barely room for two occupants to sit opposite each other. It works better if you stagger. The seats are also so low that they have to sit awkwardly or with their legs all the way out. Needless to say, a Stormtrooper can’t stand in here with the top on and so the whole thing just feels very limiting and not a lot of fun. Now, I understand that Hasbro frequently down scales ships to make them work, but the ITT isn’t an example where that should have been necessary. I feel like if this thing were 10% bigger it would have made all the difference in the world. And considering that it has no electronics, no pack in figures, and not a lot of play features, it seems like they should have been able to make it bigger within the price point.

I suppose the Imperial Troop Transport makes a worthy display piece if you want to throw some troops on it and display it on your shelf. But if you’re hoping to have any fun playing around with it, you may want to keep those hopes in check. It’s clear Hasbro put a lot of love and craftsmanship into the sculpt and paint, but then they stumbled at the finish line by under scaling it so much. And I honestly can’t see where all the money went with this toy. Hell, the Rogue One Tank was overpriced too, but at least it had a lot more complexity to it. Keep in mind, I only paid $50 for my Troop Transport, and it still feels like too much. When I had a hankering to review a Star Wars vehicle today, I probably should have gone for the Black Series 6-inch Scale Snowspeeder. It was a much more impressive toy, and I kind of feel bad that I bumped this one ahead of the line.

Nov 15 2018

Star Wars (Rogue One): Imperial Combat Assault Tank by Hasbro

I make it no secret that Rogue One is my favorite of all the modern Star Wars flicks. Hell, if you take away the nostalgia boost from A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, it may even be my favorite of all time. But that still didn’t get me to shell out $80 for Hasbro’s Assault Tank because, well… it seemed like an awful lot of money. But Amazon had a Deal of the Day on this baby last week, reducing it to $48 and even then I thought good and hard before finally giving in. Was it worth it? Let’s open it up and find out!

Behold the faux vintage packaging! The old style silver border and the Kenner logo really punches me in the nostalgia button and makes for a very handsome bit of presentation. I also really miss the days when they used to just let pictures of the toy and a bunch of figures do the talking. And because it’s a fully enclosed box, it’s also collector friendly, so I won’t feel tempted to throw it out. Also notice that they finally stopped calling this thing a Hover Tank? Apparently, it was originally supposed to hover in the film, but that got nixed for the final production and I guess the toy companies never got the memo. This resulted in “Hover Tank” appearing on the packaging of the LEGO set and the pilot figure. I kind of wish they kept the name on this package, though. It would have been another cool mistake for the ages, along the lines of the whole 4-LOM/Zuckuss mix-up. Anyway… The tank comes out of the box with very little assembly required, and it can indeed go back in the box, which is always a big plus for me when it comes to this vintage packaging. All you have to do to get the tank ready for action is load up the cargo containers on the back and plug in the guns on the sides. There are no stickers to apply either.

Here she is ready to patrol the streets of your neighborhood and haul away all of your Kyber crystals. The TX-225A “Occupier” Tank doubles as both an armed cargo carrier or troop transport. I’m starting out with it set up first as the former, with the three cargo containers loaded up in the back. My first impression out of the box is that this toy has a real nice heft to it, which hasn’t been the case with most of Hasbro’s vehicles these days. Many of them have had a hollow and cheap plastic feel, but this tank feels solid. It’s a decent size, but not impressively large. I’ll talk about scale again when we load some figures onto it. Beyond that, I’m not sure what to talk about first, the sculpt or the paint, because both stand out right away as being exceptional. Let’s go with the paint first…

It’s all about the weathering, folks. Hasbro dry-brushed the hell out of this thing, giving it tons of wear and tear and making it feel right at home in the used-future of the Star Wars Universe. It’s one of the things most missing from a lot of Hasbro’s vehicles these days, they come out of the box with little to no paint apps and looking all bright and shiny. It tends suck a lot of the character out right out of the designs. Nearly every edge on this tank is painted to look like the finish is scraped down to the bare metal. There are blotches of wear and tear scattered around the body, there are abrasions near the hatches to show frequent use, and even the overall paint job looks like it’s been blasted by Jedha’s harsh climate. This is exactly the kind of personality and craftsmanship that we don’t usually see on Hasbro’s Star Wars vehicles, and it really sets this one apart as being a collector’s piece. It looks like a workhorse that’s been patrolling the streets of the Holy City of that desert moon for years. I love it!

As for the sculpt, there’s some wonderful detail work on the hull that reminds me of some of the old WWII tank models I used to build with my father when I was a kid. You get mesh grating, straps, hatches, panel lines, bolts, and compartments on the sides, just to name some of the highlights. There aren’t any play gimmicks here, just some cool practical features. The vehicle rolls along on two real working rubber treads, which I personally dig a lot more than a hover tank any day! There are double-barreled cannon mounted on each side of the driver compartment and these can swivel 180-degrees to lay down destructive fire in front, above, or behind. You also get a double-barreled cannon peeking out the bottom front section, which can swivel left and right.

There’s a hatch on top that can be removed to allow engine access. The side hatch actually looks like it could open too, but that’s just part of the sculpt. Hasbro even coughed up a lick of paint for some of the components in there. The hatches locks in flush with the body of the vehicle and it actually takes a bit of work to get it open.

Two additional hatches are there for personnel. One allows the driver to pop his head out and see, while the one behind it accommodates the tank commander. These are basically cannon-fodder hatches, or if my old war movie knowledge is applicable, perfect for lobbing grenades into.

The entire plate over the driver compartment is also removable to give you access and also to see how much incredible work Hasbro put into it.  There isn’t an inch of this interior that isn’t packed with detail. There’s grating on the floor, wires and controls on the walls, a shifter lever, control yokes at each seat and a little sticker showing some gauges on the dashboard. If you get all the way in there, you can see a hatch behind the driver’s seat that leads into the back. It doesn’t open, but for a moment, I thought it did.

Also, check out how much detail is sculpted into the inside of the removable hatch! There’s a fan and ventilation system and I love how the filter compartments are sculpted underneath where the vents are on the outside of the panel. This kind of stuff is just so damn cool.

The three cargo containers simply lay in the bed of the tank, but they stay put quite well and are easy to lift out. Removing them allows you to slide the flooring to each side, revealing an area with foot pegs, turning the tank into a troop transport. There are eight pegs in there. We’ll load it up with some troops in a little bit. But first…

Here’s where things get really mind-blowing. One of the cargo containers actually opens and you can remove three of the storage cylinders. I didn’t read a lot about this tank before I bought it and I certainly wasn’t expecting that. That goes double for the fact that you can open each of the three canisters…

…and slide out the Kyber crystals. OK, sure the interiors are made of super soft, gummy plastic. And they don’t really look like anything. But come on, I’d still say that’s going above and beyond! These are the kinds of features that I love in toys. Forget about the electronics and the spring loaded gimmicks. Just give me stuff like this! OK, so we’ve seen all the tank has to offer, let’s take her for a spin with some figures.

For this review, I’m using all 5-POA Rogue One figures. I haven’t been buying many of the 3.75-inch Vintage Collection stuff, and besides, 5-POA is the only way many of the Rogue One figures have been released anyway. These figures fit perfectly in the tank’s driver compartment. The driver seat is raised so that his head will poke out the top of the tank, and I had no trouble replacing the hatch with a Stormtrooper in the co-pilot seat. I’ll likely end up picking up a few of the Vintage Collection Tank Driver, because the 5-POA one is only available as part of the Jedha 4-pack, and he’s the only troop builder in that set.

With the cargo containers removed and the floor plates slid back, the tank will comfortably transport six Stormtroopers in the back. Keep in mind that the foot pegs do not work all that well with the 5-POA figures, nor are they positioned all that well to hold the figures this way. Still, I really dig this as a troop transport and if I dig out a couple of my super-articulated Stormies, I could add a few sitting on the tailgate.

As far as scale is concerned, the tank is definitely a bit undersized, but not by too much. Most of the stills from Rogue One that I consulted show the top of the tank at about the same height as the Stormtroopers escorting it on foot. In the case of the figures, they stand a smidge taller. Personally, I think the figures look fine riding on it, but when they’re walking alongside, it’s when I can see that the vehicle needed to be a bit bigger. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, especially when you consider how many Star Wars vehicles have been down-sized to make the toys work. Although I suppose there’s a case to be made that Hasbro could have scaled this thing properly without breaking the bank, and for $80, they probably should have.

In the end, this is a very, VERY nice toy. The quality and attention to detail feels more in line with the work Hasbro put into the heavy hitters like the huge Millennium Falcon and AT-AT Walkers. Hell, when it comes to the paintwork, I’d say it’s better. And yet I’m still torn on the sense of value here. As nice as it is, my gut reaction tells me that the original MSRP of $80 is WAY too high for this. But then I look at the prices of some of Hasbro’s other recent vehicle releases. Both Kylo Ren’s Silencer from The Last Jedi and the TIE Striker from Rogue One retailed for $50, which is a lot, although granted both of those came with pack-in figures. So grading on the scale of Hasbro’s other ship prices, maybe this one isn’t so bad, but I knew I was never forking over $80 for this. At $48 I’m glad I picked it up, but even at that price, I feel like it should have included a pack-in of the Tank Commander figure.

Aug 6 2014

Star Wars: Droid “Special Action Figure” Set by Hasbro

I’ve still been on a bit of a Star Wars kick lately, which mostly amounts to me finally getting around to opening some of the figures in my receivings stack and getting them featured here on FFZ. A couple of years back Hasbro released some neat tributes to the old Kenner three-packs with modern figures in the old style Kenner packaging. Yup, it was pretty much an extension of the Vintage Collection. At one point Amazon was selling these sets for six bucks and I said, “why not? I like droids!” and I tacked it on to one of my orders.

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Despite growing up during the heyday of the Kenner Star Wars Toy Age, I have no recollection of the original three-packs. I’ve seen them on collector sites and from time to time at Toy Shows, but I don’t think I ever saw these as a kid. Maybe I just wasn’t interested in them because I already had the figures. Anyway, the package consists of a vintage style Kenner card that sort of morphs into a window box at the bottom to display the three figures. It’s a great reproduction of the original package and deliciously nostalgic, but at the same time kind of bland because there’s very little artwork on the front. Nonetheless, it’s still plenty cool.

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The back shows all three of these recreated sets that Hasbro produced. I can’t vouch for the “Villain Set” but I’ve seen lots of photos of Kenner’s original “Droid Set” and the “Android Set.” Wait, Android Set? It’s got Chewie, R2, and 3PO, how does that constitute an Android Set??? Oh, never mind. The set we’re looking at today contains R5-D4, Death Star Droid, and Power Droid, and that makes it a nice tight set focused on the Jawa droid sale on Tatooine. Sadly, the packaging is not collector friendly as the bubble is still glued to the backing, so you’re going to have to do some damage to get these droids free.

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I’ll just take these figures in order going from left to right and that starts us off with R5-D4. The body of this mold has been around the block a couple times, starting out life as Vintage Collection R2-D2, and even this R5 is a straight repack of an earlier release, complete with the glued down front access door. Not that I’m complaining because I think this figure happens to be pretty great.

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He features the usual removable third leg, which is how I think the Astromechs should always be done in this scale. Hasbro, I love ya, but cool it with the third leg that’s tied to the head rotation. Oh wait, there’s still a head turning gimmick… D’oh! In this case the head is tied to a second antenna that comes out of his head. It’s a pretty crappy gimmick because you have to have R5 turning his head all the way over his shoulder to get it to stick up. Always with the head turning gimmicks, Hasbro, enough is enough, eh? Actually, I take that back. Give me an R5 figure that actually blows his top. That would be cool.

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The only discernable difference between this R5 and the previous release in my collection (other than the missing antenna) is the paint. This new release is much cleaner, particularly on the head and it doesn’t have the extra silver paint slop around the eyes. I’m not usually a fan of Hasbro’s attempts to dirty things up with paint, but in this case I actually like the weathered one better. Either way, this R5 is still a great figure and I’m glad to get another one.

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Next up, we’ve got Death Star Droid, also known as RA-7. For some crazy reason I was obsessed with the original Kenner Death Star Droid as a kid. I used to pair him up with R5 and they used to be the Imperial versions of R2 and 3PO and show up in all my stupid adventures. Old habits are hard to kick, and since then I’ve always tried to get whatever figures Hasbro made of this guy. After my Great Star Wars Purge, I only have two RA-7’s left, I thought this one would be another repaint of them, but not so! It’s a completely different figure.

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Yeah! Gotta love that funky purple RA-7. He’s from the Marvel Comic Pack with everybody’s favorite comic, The Jawas of Doom! But that’s a feature for another time. The biggest giveaway is this new figure’s enormous head, which I’m not all that keen on. I don’t know if it’s really more screen accurate or not, but it looks kind of ridiculous next to the other two Death Star droids with the more sensibly sized noggins.

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The other big giveaway is all the extra articulation. My other RA-7’s only have the five basic points plus swivels in their waists. This guy has ball jointed elbows, hinged knees, and a ball joint in the torso. Honestly, the added elbow articulation doesn’t really do much to enhance the figure, but at least with the knees he can sit down and take a load off. I’m pretty sure he was sitting down in the Sandcrawler, so that’s a big win to anyone looking to recreate that scene. Oh, and then there’s this…

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Yeah, he just pulls apart, which leads me to believe this figure is just a bunch of repainted Build-A-Droid parts. The new grey paintjob is pretty good and it makes him stand out among his two brothers. While he’s not quite the same without that bitchin’ chrome finish from the original Kenner figure, I still like this figure a whole lot. That’s OK, he’s still cool enough. And now I have a Death Star droid that can get blasted into a million pieces.

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And last up is the Power Droid. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Oh, crap… not another one of these stupid boxes on legs. Yeah, I have a couple of these Gonk Droids, so I wasn’t expecting much either. But it turns out this one is the only completely new figure in the set, or at least I’ve never seen him before. He’s a nice surprise because he looks pretty screen accurate and he doesn’t have any kind of stupid walking gimmick like previous releases. In fact, his legs just have regular hinges at the tops and at the ankles. I really dig the paint wash on him too. And then there’s this little surprise…

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Yeah, I already spoiled it in the earlier pictures, but it sure surprised the heck out of me. You can lift off the top and reveal his smooth and creamy caramel droid center. Actually he’s just full of droid parts. There’s some extra paint hits in there, but that’s a bout it. Ok, so after all the fuss, he really is just a box on feet and there’s not a lot else to say about this guy. But I still love him, dammit!

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I’m pretty sure these sets were originally Target Exclusives. That’s the only store I ever recall seeing them in and boy were they clogging the pegs for a long time. I remember scoffing at the original MSRP that put them at about $25 and they hung around the clearance endcaps for a while too. Yeah, for three figures, twenty-five bucks really isn’t that bad, and I wasn’t buying Star Wars at the time anyway, so it’s not like I was the intended audience for something like this. Somewhere along the way Amazon must have nabbed a ton of these because they still have them on sale. They’re not six bucks anymore, but they’re only ten, and at two-fitty a figure, that’s still a nice deal. Now I just wish I had forked up the money for that Original Trilogy Collection Sandcrawler so I can fill it up with all these nifty droids.

Apr 12 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: AT-ST (K-Mart Exclusive) by Hasbro

How about a little more Star Wars for the week? Today we’re checking out Hasbro’s AT-ST from the Vintage Collection. This vehicle was originally released way back in 2009 as a Walmart Exclusive and then got repacked and re-released last year as a K-Mart Exclusive. Fun fact… There are no K-Marts left in my area, they’ve all closed down! The nearest one is about an hour away and going in there is really depressing. It’s seriously like some kind of sad, soulless retail gulag stuck in the 70’s. I try not to go there. But all that is beside the point because I bought mine from Amazon and it even qualified for free Prime shipping. EAT THAT, K-MART EXCLUSIVE!!!! A WINNER IS ME!!!! I was tempted to pick up the AT-ST Driver two pack as well, but then I figured I’m perfectly fine having it piloted by regular AT-AT drivers. If they’re qualified to operate a full blown AT-AT, seems like driving a chicken walker should be child’s play. I’ve been meaning to grab one of these for a long while now, and I’m pretty excited to get it open and check it out!

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Obviously, I’m a big fan of the Vintage Collection packaging. How can you not dig this? It’s just gorgeous. Although I’m not quite sure what’s going on with the scene. It looks like Vader is prodding Wicket with his lightsaber under the feet of the AT-ST in some kind of sick war atrocity game. “You’re next, Logray!” One side has the huge ugly K-Mart Exclusive medallion, and that sucks, but thankfully the other side is the same image only clean, so the box will still display well from one side.

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Inside, you get a cardboard tray, an instruction sheet, and a bunch of chicken walker parts. Yes, assembly is definitely required, and I was very worried that once assembled, this thing was never going to go back in the box. Indeed, most of the vehicle is designed to not come apart again, but you can still easily separate it into two halves and once that’s done, the AT-ST will fit comfortably back into the box for storage. I don’t have room for this on my shelves right now, so being able to keep it in the box is a huge appeal here. While there are some stickers, they are already applied, so all you need to do is snap this thing together and you’re ready to go stomp some Ewoks into goo.

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It’s been a long time since I owned the original Kenner mold of the AT-ST, but even without an eyeball comparison it’s pretty easy to see that this new version is bigger. It’s still nowhere near to being in proper scale to the 3 ¾” figures, but like the BMF Falcon and AT-AT and the Battlepack Slave-1, I find it to be a happy compromise between toy and scale model. I have, however, hunted down some pictures of the original Kenner toy, and I have to say I’m surprised at how much sculpted detail Hasbro seemed to drop from this newer toy. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? I see a big difference in the detailing on the back of the head and the legs and actually prefer the vintage version’s detailing over this one. My guess is that Hasbro had to take some liberties with the legs on this thing to make them strong enough to hold the increased bulk, but it really messes with the aesthetics. This AT-ST has cankles… CANKLES!!! Why does it feel like everything has to be a compromise? Now, that’s not to say this toy is all bad… let’s see what she’s got, and we’ll start from the top and work our way down…

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The biggest draw about this new version for me was hearing that it could actually seat two figures. The interior of the cockpit is pretty simple and relies mostly on stickers for detail. The cockpit is pretty cramped and I had my doubts it would be roomy enough for two, but even my less than super-articulated Legacy AT-AT Drivers could both fit inside fairly well. Still, I would not want to take this on a long trip across Endor and have to share that cabin.

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Outside, the head now features two opening viewports on the front and an actual guard rail up top. As with the Kenner version, the top has the screen accurate hatch that opens, plus the entire top is hinged to open to get better access to the inside. The side weapons consist of a gun and what looks like a missile pack or grenade launcher, which I vaguely recognize from playing some Star Wars game with an AT-ST in it. Both weapons rotate 360 degrees.

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You have two options as to how you want to outfit the chin gun. You get a regular gun cluster that looks more film accurate and you get a set of firing missile launchers, which will likely appeal more to the kiddies, or at least that’s Hasbro’s intent. It’s a really cool idea to give us the choice. The missile launchers don’t look nearly as bad as I thought they might, but I still prefer the regular gun package.

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The construction of the legs is completely different from the old Kenner toy. Gone is the goofy walking gimmick and in its place is an extra articulation arm that really gives the AT-ST a lot of poseability more akin to what was seen in the films. Remember that scene where the AT-ST was freaking out and trying to keep its balance on top of the logs? This one can pretty much do that. It can also squat all the way down to assume a boarding posture to make it easier for the pilots to get in and out.

Unfortunately, the new legs are poorly designed for the one thing you will need them to do most of the time.. standing. The ankle hinges and the next set of hinges up are pretty strong ratchet joints. The actual knees, on the other hand, aren’t ratchets and they are in no way suited to hold the toy’s bulk. Why Hasbro didn’t make these ratcheting joints as well is beyond me because they seriously compromise the toy. I even tried over tightening the screws and it didn’t make a difference. There are some sweet spots, where I can get this thing to stand, but it will still collapse at the slightest provocation.

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The AT-ST’s deco isn’t all that great either. The paint on the legs look like this thing has been wading through piles of Ewok shit. I was not a big fan of the muddy feet on Hasbro’s Endor AT-AT and I’m not liking it much here either. There are a few other ham handed attempts at weathering and distress, but none of it looks that good and it’s inconsistently placed. It almost looks like they started doing it on the front, decided it didn’t look so good and just stopped.

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I’ve waited a long time to get this thing and in the end I’m rather disappointed. It looks decent enough on the shelf with some figures around it, but getting it to stand is a total bitch, all because Hasbro couldn’t be bothered to outfit it with an extra pair of ratchet joints. I’m not happy with the deco and it looks like its lacking a lot of detail from the original Kenner toy, particularly on the back of the head and the legs. At $25, I’m not completely sorry I bought it, but that’s a good ten bucks less than the MSRP, and quite frankly I was hoping for something a lot better. I was originally planning to get out a whole bunch of figures and have a blast shooting pictures, but I got frustrated pretty quickly and decided to move on to other things.

Mar 20 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Kithaba and Nikto by Hasbro

It’s the final leg of my quest to assemble a crew of Vintage Collection Skiff Guards for my Tatooine Skiff. The last two I needed were Kithaba and Nikto. Yeah, these guys are definitely back-benchers, but hey, they can’t all be Weequay, right? You’ve got to have some less popular dudes to fall into the Sarlaac when the plan to execute the Jedi and his buddies goes tits up, and in my universe it sure ain’t going to be Weequay or Klaatu.

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Normally I shed a tear when I have to rip open Vintage Collection packaging, but this time around it didn’t bother me so much because I’m not particularly fond of either of these cards. The deco is still awesome, but the pictures of the characters are rubbish. Kithaba looks like he’s posing for a vacation photo. “Here I am in front of Jabba’s Sail Barge. I got everyone t-shirts at the gift shop.” Nikto looks like he’s about to push a reporter’s camera out of his face. “Nikto… Nikto… Is it true? You let the Jedi and his friends escape?” “What do you want me to say? We did the best we could. Just leave me alone.” Naturally, both cards are ruined anyway by giant stickers of Darth Maul’s face telling me I could win a life sized statue of him signed by Lucas. Honestly, I’d rather have an Ewok shit on my carpet then have that in my house. But enough preamble, let’s bust these guys open and we’ll start with Kithaba. Wait, wasn’t this guy Barada? Oh sweet Jesus, it’s a different guy??? I’m not going to become embroiled in another Klaatu vs Wooof debate. If you’re interested, you can check out particulars at SKIFFGUARDS.COM, which I might add is probably one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen and quite probably the reason the Internet was created. Where was I? Oh yeah… Kithaba.

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Once again, Hasbro, you are blowing me away with these figures, particularly in your attention to the sculpted detail. Kithaba’s shirt and vest are wonderfully recreated here and the shoulder strap and pouches are actually sculpted as a different piece. Damn, that’s cool! He also has a functional holster for his hold out blaster, and you all know by now how much I love those functional holsters. Kithaba’s portrait is pretty accurate to his on screen appearance. A lot more so than the crappy photo-shopped image used on the card, for example the error in his bandana color is correct on the figure. The face sculpt is pretty spot on for a Klatooinian, as he kind of looks like a cross between a lizard and a very ugly bulldog. The paintwork is excellent, particularly on his little row of bottom teeth.

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Besides the aforementioned hold out blaster, Kithaba also comes with one of those weird, long gun-pole things. It’s a damn ambiguous weapon, and if I was a Skiff Guard and got one of those instead of the much cooler and functional force pike, I would have been mighty pissed off.

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Moving on to Nikto, he too is an amazing little sculpt that really captures all the fine points of the character. Nikto was a well-known fashionista as is evidenced by his fancy puffed out shirt and his metrosexual front-laced turquoise tunic. He’s got quilted pants with a stylish yellow stripe running down each leg. Of course, he also has a piece of armor over his chest, because looking good at the cost of getting stabbed in the throat isn’t a worthwhile trade off. I’m not sure about the hat, though. It looks like he’s wearing a dog bed on his head, which leads me to the other amazing point about this figure… HOLY CRAP, YOU CAN TAKE HIS HAT OFF!

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Yes, you could also take off Wooof’s hat, but for some reason the fact that Nikto’s hat comes off is a lot more impressive to me. I’m not saying that as a kid I used to stare at my vintage Nikto figure and curse Kenner for not making his hat removable, but I literally had to pause and take a breath before finally being able to take a peek at Nikto’s bare noggin. My reaction? Huh, his head’s smaller than I thought it would be. It was a little anti-climactic.

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Nikto comes with the same pole-gun-thingy as Kithaba and a silver painted hold out blaster, which can fit in his functional holster. Yay!

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Both figures feature the same articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. They have swivels in their waists and wrists, and their hip joints are the traditional t-crotch.

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So, there ya have it. Two more excellent Skiff Guards from the Vintage Collection. And while this pair technically completes my Skiff Guard collection, I’m still going to go after the Deleted Sandstorm versions of Lando, Han, and Luke just because they were there too and I need them to round out the display. I should note, that buying these figures has made me take a second look at some of the other Vintage Collection figures out there. I’m trying not to go nuts, because after all I don’t collect Star Wars anymore, right? But I will have another Vintage Collection figure to look at next week.

Mar 9 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay and Wooof by Hasbro

A couple of weeks back I promised I’d be hunting down more Vintage Collection Skiff Guards and I have indeed done just that. If I promise you I’ll take out the garbage or leave the toilet seat down, I’m probably lying, but a promise to buy new toys is a promise I always keep. The next two nefarious sand pirates to join my crew are Weequay and Wooof. Wooof? WOOOF??? This guy is Klaatu. What the hell is this Wooof nonsense all about? Well, in a flurry of Jameson-fueled irritation, I found my way to a wiki article that is telling me that he was called Klaatu but then the original production name for him was Wooof, but then it says they were two different characters, and now I’m just as confused and back to just saying screw it… I’m calling him Klaatu. It helps that I got him loose, so there’s no evidence he was ever named Wooof.

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So, I’ve got no card to show you for Wooof Klaatu, but there’s Weequay’s card. As you can see, this isn’t the imposter, known as “Skiff Master Weequay,” that we looked at last time. No sir, this is the Weequay I grew up with and the one that will always have a special place in my fanboy heart. Look at him standing there proudly on the bow of his skiff. So noble… so magnificent… so Weequay! Since time began, Weequay figures have been sculpted with only one thing in mind… to hold their force pikes across their chests and mimic that… dare I say? Iconic pose. But now we finally have an articulated version that can do so much more. Let’s get him open and check him out…

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Weequay has always had pretty good figures, and the Vintage Collection version just does some fine tuning. He’s not the most intricately sculpted of the Skiff Guards, but that’s more on his character design than anything else. Weequay sports his trademark ribbed brown leather vest with shoulder guards and a simple belt with some sculpted pouches. There’s no functional holster, but in fairness the on screen character didn’t have a holster either.

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The head sculpt is fortified with all that raisin-headed goodness that I expect from my Weequay figures. He looks perpetually pissed off, as if letting us know that even an awesome job where you throw prisoners into giant sand vagina monsters can get to be a chore after a while. As with Skiff Master Weequay, I think Hasbro could have done a better job sculpting his braids, but they’re not bad. Weequay’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch, swivels in the wrists and he can swivel at the waist. He comes with his pike and a hold out blaster. Well done, Hasbro.

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And then there’s Klaatu. I gotta tell you, Hasbro went above and beyond on this guy. The head sculpt is fantastic. It’s as expressive as you can get from a lizard man in this scale. His vest is sculpted over an armor plate and his belt secures a softgoods skirt that looks like it’s some kind of crazy Tatooine goat hair, but I’ll concede that it’s probably not.

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Klaatu features a removable hood, a removable bandolier strap, and a functional holster. Hooray for functional holsters! He comes with the same force pike (but different paint job) as Weequay and a very cool hold out blaster. Klaatu features ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch and he has swivel cuts in the waist and wrists.

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Weequay and Klaatu are a seriously cool pair of figures. If the Vintage Collection’s aim is to produce truly definitive versions of characters, Hasbro certainly succeeded here. Granted, I’m a little biased since I love the Sarlaac sequence in RotJ so much, but it’s just great to see these guys get such amazing figures. I grabbed them for ten bucks each and now my Tatooine Skiff is just that much nearer to being fully crewed. That leaves Kithaba and Nikto and I’ll be checking them out next week.

Feb 21 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay (Skiff Master) by Hasbro

I’ll refer you back to this feature for my confession of love for all things Weequay and my naive childhood notion that Weequay was the dude’s name and not his race. Yes, we’ll chalk that up to ignorance and not an early onset of racism. And while the brown vested Weequay will always be my favorite, the VC version of that figure is still eluding me now on order, so this week we’ll have to settle for the “Skiff Master” version. Hey, it’s all good. I prefer Coke, but offer me a Pepsi on a hot day and I’ll still accept it and thank you kindly. The Weequay figure isn’t officially Throne Room fodder, but more a part of my mission to stock my POTF2 Skiff with a Vintage Collection crew, but he’s also going to be hanging out somewhere in my Throne Room display. Hey, the guy can’t be feeding the Sarlacc all the time.

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The vintage style cards are so awesome. The fact that every figure Hasbro produces isn’t slapped onto one of these cards makes me question the sanity of the persons at Hasbro responsible for that decision. Even at times when I swore off Star Wars completely, seeing these cards on the pegs was always akin to offering a recovering addict a taste of blow. But it’s the ultimate instance of not being able to have your cake and eat it too. I want to buy them, I want to keep them carded, but I don’t have the space to buy doubles and I’m an opener at heart. Plus, opening this guy hurts even more because the card doesn’t have a giant f’ing Darth Maul face sticker on it schilling a mail away for Lucas’ toenail clippings or other such crap. And so I take a belt of Jameson to steady my nerves, and I rip the bastard open.

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The thing I dig so much about the skiff guards in RotJ is that they’re basically mercenary pirates that fly boats around in the desert. How is that not awesome? The Weequays are especially cool because they look like they were born mean and their heads have clearly been left out in the sun too long. Everyone knows those two things are top of the list when recruiting desert pirates. Hasbro did a fantastic job recreating this figure from his portrait. His grungy, segmented tunic looks spot on, his sculpted belt is perfect and his head is a great likeness. Weequay even has a functional holster. Damn, I love functional holsters in my 3 ¾” figures. Hey, Mattel… check this out. It’s a functional holster on a 3 ¾” figure. The gun can come out and the guy can hold it. Thought you might like to see this before you go and design those $15 Voltron pilot figures and… oh, wait that was last year… I’m way too late. Never mind. I also dig the way he wears his gun butt facing front, like he’s f’cking Lee Van Cleef. Welcome to FigureFan, where you get references to Voltron, Star Wars, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly all in the same feature. Enjoy!

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If I’m going to nitpick anything on Skiff Master Weequay, it’s going to be his sculpted hair braid. It’s a bit heavy handed and it sticks out a little too far. If this were a regular release, I’d be cool with it, but I’ve come to treat a lot of these VC figures as definitive. As in, “this is it, Hasbro, this is the last version of this figure I’m ever going to buy so please for the love of god, make it perfect!” The hair braids don’t ruin the figure for me by any stretch, but a little extra care could have been invested to make it look perfect. That’s all I’m saying. If all I can do is bitch about the guy’s braids, I think he’s doing ok.

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Weequay’s articulation features a ball jointed neck and shoulders. The arms have ball joints in the elbows and swivels in the wrists. He’s got ball jointed knees and swivels in his ankles. He’s got a standard T-crotch, which is somewhat restricted by his tunic, and he can also swivel at the waist. The shoulder joints in my figure feel like super tight ratchet joints. It’s kind of odd for a 3 ¾” figure, but it certainly helps him hold his poses.

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Accessories? What self-respecting mercenary desert pirate would be complete without some weapons? Weequay comes with a hold out blaster, which fits nicely in his holster, and a pike. I love the design of these pikes. Next to the Dreadnok chainsaw gun, I think it’s my favorite weapon design of the 80s. While Weequay comes carded holding his blaster in his left hand, it’s actually made to fit perfectly into his right. If you want him to hold it in his off hand, you better save those clear rubber bands!

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Skiff Master may not be my favorite Weequay, but I really love this figure. Everything about it is quality. In fact, I love it so much that after playing around with him for just a little while, I went and ordered the other VC Weequay along with Wooof, and I’m already eyeing VC Kithaba and Nikto. It’s a figure like this that make me weep for most of what Hasbro is turning out in the 3 ¾” scale these days. But let’s not sully Weequay’s feature by dwelling on the bad. Let’s celebrate the triumph of Weequay, for he is truly an excellent figure.

By my reckoning, I still have two more days of this Jabba madness. What’s on tap for tomorrow? I have no idea… I better start rummaging through some totes.

Jan 15 2012

Star Wars: Vintage Collection: Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) by Hasbro

I had every intention of keeping my promise and stopping back today with a look at 6-inch Artemis from Mattel’s Young Justice line, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries and I was too drunk off my ass busy to run out and get fresh ones, so I’m going to go with a quickie that I’ve been holding on to since a little before Christmas. Holy shit, it’s Star Wars!

Yeah, not much Star Wars around here. In fact, every time I buy a new Star Wars figure, I consider it an epic fail of willpower on my part. Usually I can keep it in check until Hasbro decides to release some awesome huge new version of a classic vehicle or a figure that I really want for some reason or another. That having been said, I’ll freely admit that it is difficult to resist just about any of these Vintage Collection carded figures. And by that I mean the ones from the Original Trilogy, not the prequel figures on the crappy ret-conned cards.
So, Princess Leia in Slave Outfit. I really wanted to pick her up when she was released last year to go with my then new Jabba the Hutt figure and dias. Unfortunately, I never did see her in the stores, and I was not willing to pay the highway robbery of the online prices. Amazingly enough, I was in a Target about a week before Christmas and happened to be scooping up some new Marvel Universe figures when I spotted her hanging on the pegs. There were only like four or five Vintage Collection figures there and bafflingly enough she was one of them. I threw her on the pile and went off to check out. The register didn’t recognize her barcode so the cashier needed to come up with a price. I’m thinking, well you just rang up five Marvel Universe figures at $6.99 a piece, so that’s what she’ll call it and I’d be fine. Instead she says, “How’s three bucks sound?” Yeah, it sounded just fine.
Anyway, it wasn’t until I got this figure home that I realized she didn’t include the second set of legs that the last release did. The ones that allowed her to sit in a reclining position. I’m sure I could probably still get her to recline by my Jabba figure, but insteady I just opted to slap her in a Starcase and leave her carded. Yes, that means you just read all of this for nothing, because I’m not really going to review her. It also means for some bizarre reason I had a spare Star Wars Starcase lying around. Weird. Suffice it to say, the sculpt looks fine, the softgoods loin cloth is good, but maybe a little too full, and she comes with a pole arm and a… a drinking glass? Um ok.
I may get around to opening her sooner or later, especially since Hasbro slapped that ugly Boba Fett Mail Away sticker right on top of her photo, but for now, she’s staying carded. I will admit I found it surprising that her first appearance in this outfit wasn’t until the 1995 Power of the Force 2 line. Even more surprising… I actually still own that figure carded. Once again, weird.

By the way, Hasbro, can you please get the friggin Gamorrean Guard back on the pegs, please?
Feb 24 2011

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Zam Wesell by Hasbro

I haven’t looked at a lot of Hasbro’s Vintage Collection Star Wars figures here, mainly because I can’t find any of the ones I want on the pegs and I’m not prepared to buy a whole case of them online. The pegs around my parts are clogged with the Prequel figures and while I was happy to get General Grievous carded this way as a curiosity, I don’t have a lot of interest in many of the other Prequel figures. Nonetheless, a good friend of mine knowing I was fond of the Zam Wesell character (or at least what she looked like), sent me along the loose figure, so I thought I’d check her out here.

It’s true I really liked the design of this character, although I like to forget that she was some kind of shapeshifting lizard. Besides the fact that she was one of the few chick bounty hunters in Star Wars, I liked the way she looked a bit like she was plucked out of a Sergio Leone film. The long duster and the rifle definitely have that Old West vibe going on. I’ve owned two of the previous incarnations (Preview and Saga), both of which were really well sculpted, but both suffered from some annoying pre-posing and poor articulation. I’m happy to say that this Vintage Collection version makes up for all the past sins and offers up what is likely to be the definitive figure of this character, at least as far as I’m concerned. Like I said, I don’t have the packaging, but chances are you won’t have a problem seeing what her card looks like if the Prequel figures are selling as poorly in your area as they are in mine. Just go down to Target or Walmart and check it out!

Zam’s outfit is very nicely detailed, especially whatever the hell those tubes are on the front of her chest. The belt is sculpted from soft plastic and includes a working holster for her pistol. Her duster is soft plastic, and while it doesn’t really get in the way of her articulation, she can’t really sit down with it. The human head sculpt won’t win any awards for its resemblance to the actress in Attack of the Clones, but at least it ain’t a f’ugly sculpt, as Hasbro is known to turn out some bad looking lady figures in this scale. Zam isn’t one of them, that is unless you slap on her lizard head. I guess the sculpting is ok, but it looks really stupid on top of her flesh tone neck. One other cool thing about Zam, both of her hands are sculpted to hold her weapons.

Zam’s articulation includes a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles and regular rotating hip joints. She also has that universal joint in her torso. Yeah, we’ve seen better articulation in this scale, but only by a few points so Zam has nothing to be ashamed of in this department and you can certainly get some great poses out of her.

Zam comes with a nice little selection of weapons and accessories. Her weapons include a blaster pistol that fits into her holster and her sniper rifle. The paintwork on the rifle is particularly impressive for such a thin and fragile accessory. Her helmet is removable and works with the other three accessories. You get the visor thingy, the face mask that goes across her face and another sculpted version of it that just hangs off of one side. All of these pieces just peg right into the holes on either side of her helmet and stay in place pretty well.

I think Zam is a fair enough argument for putting some Prequel figures out in the Vintage Collection. The fake retconned packaging doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, but in this case the figure inside is fantastic, so who am I to argue with the packaging. You can take it or leave it, and at $7.99, it’s not like we’re really paying extra for the packaging anyway. Plus, I don’t feel compelled to buy two of her and keep one carded like I’ve been doing with most of the Original Trilogy figures in this line.