Tag Archives: Legacy Collection

#3808: Wedge Antilles

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

WEDGE ANTILLES

STAR WARS: LEGACY COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Sometimes, your favorite character is one of the big names, sometimes it’s an oddball character.  When it comes to Star Wars, my absolute favorite for a long time is Wedge Antilles, a guy who’s ultimately pretty minor, but also not?  I mean, he’s one of the few characters to appear in all three of the original trilogy films (and he’s one of the even fewer to *also* show up in the sequel trilogy, even if it’s just in a quick cameo), and he’s the only person to fly both Death Star runs.  I don’t know, I guess I just have a soft spot for the guy.  He’s also on the lower end of action figure counts for a Star Wars character, so collecting them all is kind of an approachable thing!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wedge Antilles was released as part of Star Wars: Legacy Collection, specifically as part of a Target-exclusive boxed set that also included his X-Wing Starfighter.  I mean, I guess the X-Wing was really the selling point, but I don’t have that kind of space, so I’m really just in it for Wedge.  This was Wedge’s sixth figure, and continued the trend of him not being released on his own (the only one at this point to have broken that trend was the Original Trilogy Collection figure, and he wasn’t even a regular retail release).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  His construction was a whole mess of pre-exisiting parts.  Most of them are from the comic pack Nrin Vakil, but he’s also got Wes Jansen’s gloves, as well as a new upper torso and head.  The head notably remained unique to this release, which is kind of curious; they’d just done a new Wedge sculpt for the comic pack version, so it’s strange not to re-use it, and also strange that *this* sculpt wasn’t re-used for the Vintage Collection figure a year later.  It’s not a bad one, all things considered.  It’s a little cartoony, but generally decent, and it sits well on the body.  The paint work is decent enough.  Pretty basic, but that’s what you expect.  His eyes are a little bit goofy, but pre-printing, that was a rather common occurrence.  Wedge was packed with his helmet, which fits well on his head, as well as a small blaster pistol that my figure unfortunately doesn’t have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Here’s the thing about Star Wars toys, especially of this era: it’s really hard to keep track of everything that got made.  So, this figure?  I didn’t actually know it existed until I was holding it in my hands a few months ago.  I thought I knew all of the Wedge figures, and then, in a whole pile of rebel pilots that got traded into All Time, there was this Wedge I didn’t know.  Naturally, he came home with me, because it was a Wedge I didn’t have.  Honestly, he’s pretty cool.  I think he may well be the best Wedge at this scale.  He just kind of vibes a bit better than the others, and it’s crazy to me that he was only in the one exclusive set.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#1378: IG97 & Rom Mohc

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

IG97 & ROM MOHC

STAR WARS: LEGACY COLLECTION COMIC PACKS (HASBRO)

“Rom Mohc is an Imperial general involved in the testing of advanced battle droids known as Dark Troopers. One of these droids ends up on Tatooine and becomes activated by scavenging Jawas. The Dark Trooper attacks three friends camping in the desert. But things change when the prototype encounters a clumsy IG97 Battle Droid on Tatooine, and the machines battle each other.”

The Star Wars Expanded Universe may not be as “official” as it once was, but when it was in full swing, it encompassed a whole lot of stuff.  TV, video games, novels, and of course, comic books.  There are many, many unique characters there-in, with many of them remaining exclusive to one medium or the other.  Only a handful of characters have made appearances in multiple forms of media.  The set I’m looking at today includes one of those cross-over characters, as well as a character that only has one appearance to date.  Without further ado, let’s take a look at IG97 and Rom Mohc.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in 2010, during the Star Wars: Legacy Collection line.  They were part of the Comic Packs sub-line, and were offered as a Walmart-exclusive set.  The two are based on the Star Wars Tales #4 story “Sand Blasted,” in theory at least…

IG97

IG97, or IG-97 as he would be if he followed the usual droid naming conventions, is the less frequently appearing of the two figures included in this set.  In fact, his only appearance is in Star Wars Tales #4.  While he’s not the most major player in the story, he’s a fairly sensible choice.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  He’s surprisingly posable for a figure of his scale, and definitely a lot of fun to play with.  IG-97 is built using the body of the 2009 Legacy Collection version of the Battle Droids from the prequels.  It’s a pretty close match for the design of the  droid from the comic, and it was one of the best droid bodies Hasbro had at the time (and even now, it really hasn’t been topped).  He gets a new head, which is based on the art from the book.  This is a point of contention for some, who find him to be too cartoony and goofy to truly fit in with the rest of the figures of this era.  Personally, I rather like him, and enjoy the character and expression present in the head sculpt.  I certainly prefer this look to the basic Battle Droid head.  For a figure that’s largely a pale tan color, the paint on this guy is surprisingly well-done.  He’s molded in the base tan, and then has a darker brown wash, which brings out the details of his sculpt very nicely, and also helps to replicate the line-art from the comic.  IG-97 included a standard Battle Droid blaster, as well as both the standard and commander back-packs from the Battle Droid.

ROM MOHC

Rom Mohc is a character with a decent chunk of appearances, in a number of differing mediums.  He first appeared as the antagonist of the Dark Forces video game.  Subsequent appearances have been related to that, by and large.  Him getting a figure isn’t that odd, but it being part of a set based on “Sand Blasted” is somewhat strange, given that he only appears in about 3 panels of the story at the very beginning, and he’s almost completely divorced from everything else that’s going on.  But, he’s here nonetheless.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 paint of articulation.  Despite technically having more articulation than his pack-mate, he’s much stiffer, and way more limited in posability.  The figure is largely re-used, with his upper torso and arms coming from the Revenge of the Sith Tarkin (which also served as the basis for the previously reviewed Comic Pack Tarkin) and his legs coming from Janek Sunber.  He gets a new head to top it all off.  While the actual quality of the pieces used isn’t bad, they don’t add up to a figure that looks much of anything like any of Mohc’s appearances; certainly not the comic that this guy was actually supposed to be based on.  A lot of it comes from the re-used body, which just doesn’t have the right build for Mohc.  All of the available Imperial officer bodies were on the skinny side, so there’s not much Hasbro could have done, I guess.  The paint on Mohc is decent enough.  It’s not terribly exciting, being mostly drab colors, but it gets the job done.  He’s packed with a SE-14C blaster, which he has a little bit of trouble holding.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t super familiar with either character in this set prior to acquiring it, but I’m always a sucker for a cool robot toy, meaning this sets been in my sights for a little while.  I spotted the two at Yesterday’s Fun, and Super Awesome Girlfriend insisted on getting them for me as an early birthday present.  I can take or leave Mohc, since he’s not super exciting.  Still, he works as a nice generic Imperial Officer, so that’s something.  IG-97 more than makes up for any of Mohc’s shortcomings, and is easily one of my favorite Star Wars figures I’ve gotten in a while.