Tag Archives: Star Wars

#2435: The Child

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

THE CHILD

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

The Mandalorian was a pretty huge hit right out of the gate, but pretty much everything else about the show pales in comparison to the Baby Yoda phenomenon.  Kept a well-guarded secret by those involved in the show, “The Child” (as he was officially dubbed by Disney) was immediately met with pretty much universal approval, and an insane demand for all the merchandise imaginable.  Of course, part of keeping Baby Yoda such a well-guarded secret was not letting any of the licensors even know the character existed until after the first episode had dropped, meaning there was a bit of a gap between his appearance on the show an any merch.  Fortunately, things have turned around pretty darn quickly on that front.  There are a lot of options right out of the gate, but I’m kicking things off with a look at Hasbro’s Black Series offering.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Child is a one-off Black Series release, which started hitting retail right at the beginning of May.  He’s using the packaging style introduced in 2018 with the Porg two-pack, but he’s at a slightly higher price point.  The figure is incredibly small, and indeed a lot smaller than many people expected.  However, at just over an inch tall, he’s pretty much exactly the size he should be to go with the rest of The Black Series line.  He’s better articulated than you might expect, with 7 points of articulation.  That includes ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and ankles (yes, he’s got a fully detailed pair of feet that no one’s ever going to see).  His range is rather limited overall, especially on the shoulders.  I was, however, quite pleased with the mobility on the neck joint, which allows for a good deal of expressiveness to his posing.  The sculpt is rather well detailed for the size, with the head exhibiting the best work.  The likeness to the puppet from the show is pretty spot-on, especially in the face.  The paintwork on this figure is fairly light.  The construction of the figure is such that most of the color work is done via straight molded coloring.  There’s a little bit of work on his face and ears, which is up to par with the current standard for the main line, so no complaints there.  Baby Yoda’s got a fun selection of cool extras, including the frog-like creature it eats after the Mando finds it, the bowl of broth he carries during Mando and Cara’s face-off in Chapter 4, and the knob from Mando’s ship that he gives to Baby Yoda as a toy.  There’s also a clear box to keep all of the extras in, so that you don’t lose them.  I definitely appreciate that, and they’ll be staying in that box pretty much exclusively for my display.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I will fully admit to being drawn in by the Baby Yoda craze, and his inclusion in The Mandalorian was definitely one of my favorite parts of the show.  I definitely wanted him for my Black Series collection, in what ever capacity Hasbro chose to deliver.  It’s hard to say that this guy’s really a full-fledged figure in his own right, but he’s a pretty fantastic companion to the rest of the Mando stuff they’ve put out so far.  He’s a fun little package.

I picked up this little guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  He’s currently sold out, but they’ve still got a bunch of other Black Series, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2426: Snowtrooper

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

SNOWTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The ice planet Hoth was the site of the terrible conflict between Rebel and Imperial forces called the Battle of Hoth. Though the alliance resisted the Imperial assault for a short period, they were eventually forced to abandon the Echo Base headquarters as it became overrun with fearsome snowtroopers, the Empire’s elite frozen-weather corps.”

Since its very first entry, the Star Wars universe has dabbled in environment-specific variants of its various troopers.  When Empire Strikes Back brought our heroes and villains to the icy planet of Hoth, it brought with it a whole set of cold-weather gear variants.  That included today’s figure, the Snowtrooper!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Snowtrooper was added to the Power of the Force line in 1997.  This was the Snowtrooper’s second time as an action figure, following his original vintage release.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The Snowtrooper is a far more restricted figure than others in the line in terms of articulation.  The nature of the design means that he doesn’t have a neck joint, and the skirt piece means that the hip joints have reduced mobility as well.  The sculpt itself is a reasonable effort.  By this point, pre-posing and wonky proportions were mostly worked out of the line, and the Snowtrooper is reflective of that.  That said, the actual detailing on the sculpt is a little more on the soft side, so a lot of the details get a little lost.  The line was a bit up and down with the sharpness, so it’s too bad that the Snowtrooper falls more into the down, especially given the quality of the vintage sculpt.  The paintwork on the Snowtrooper is actually more complex than you might expect at first glance, with a good deal of weathering mixed in, in order to prevent it from just being an all-white design with nothing to break it up.  It honestly looks pretty good.  The Snowtrooper included a standard Stormtrooper blaster rifle and his supply pack, making for a pretty nice, fairly film-accurate package.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Snowtrooper was added to my collection during one of my PotF buying sprees, in the fall of 2018.  He was actually added to my collection by Max, so it’s technically his fault, I suppose.  The Snowtrooper isn’t one of the line’s most technically impressive figures by any means, but he’s respectable enough in his own right, I suppose.

#2419: AT-AT Driver

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

AT-AT DRIVER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Drivers of the dreaded AT-AT walkers, specially trained “ground pilots”, played a vital role during the Empire’s assault on Hoth.”

Didn’t I *just* review an AT-AT Driver?  Oh, wait, that review ran like a month ago, didn’t it?  Well, in my defense, it’s only been like a week and a half from my time, so, there’s that.  Well, with it being the 40th Anniversary of Empire and all, I guess there’s no better time to double down on AT-AT Driver reviews, now is there?  Great, let’s look at another AT-AT driver then, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This AT-AT Driver was actually the second to be released in the Power of the Force line.  The first was included with the AT-AT proper in 1997.  There was, however, only one of them included, despite there being two drivers per AT-AT, and it wasn’t exactly economical to get a second AT-AT just for the driver.  So, this guy got slotted for a standard release…in theory.  In practice, not so much, as the AT-AT Driver became one of the four PotF2 figures who didn’t make it to retail in 1998, and instead had to be offered exclusively through the Star Wars Collector’s Club, which made him a little tricky to get a hold of, until the excess stock was unloaded to Toys R Us, and they were suddenly available for a lot less than retail.  Quite a turbulent release path for a figure that’s not really much new.  Okay, that’s not quite true.  The figure was actually all-new, believe it or not, sharing no pieces with the pack-in figure from the AT-AT.  They had very similar sculpts, of course, but they were just different enough to be different.  The sculpt is pretty typical for this period of the line, being a fair bit bulkier than he should be, and a little lighter on the sculpted details than later figures would be.  All that said, it’s still a pretty nice sculpt, and not anywhere near as ridiculous as the basic Stormtrooper was.  In contrast to the pack-in, this guy has a little bit of pre-posing to him.  It’s rather minor, but there’s a slight shift in his step.  I kinda dig it; it makes him look a little more like a real person.  The paint work on this guy is pretty straight forward.  It’s rather on the basic side, although the head and the console on his chest both get a fair bit of smaller detail work that looks pretty sharp.  The AT-AT Driver included a blaster and a Freeze Frame slide.  Mine just has the blaster, I’m afraid.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In my quest to complete my PotF collection, the Fan Club figures tend to be the ones I don’t run into quite as frequently, for obvious reasons.  I did end up getting this guy loose, however, which worked well enough for me. Obviously, he’s not as impressive as, say, the Black Series figure, but he’s got his own fun little flair to him, and I can definitely dig it.

I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2410: Imperial Probe Droid

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IMPERIAL PROBE DROID

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Tenacious hunters, probe droids are armed with powerful blasters.”

Oh my, could it be?  Could it actually be something new on the site?  Yeah, I’m as surprised as all of you.  I was fully expecting the delving into the back catalog to go on a little bit longer…it actually might still, but at the very least, I’ve two new items for today and tomorrow to keep everyone feeling at least a little bit up to date (or as up to date as a review written a month ago can be…I built up quite a buffer you guys).  So, what’s the new thing?  Well, technically something old.  2020 marks the 40th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and so Hasbro’s kind of re-orienting their various Star Wars lines this year in order to tie in with that a bit.  Some of the vintage-style-cardback figures have slipped out early, but the first real release of the 40th stuff is the next entry in the Black Series deluxe line-up, the Imperial Probe Droid.  As the first thing the audience sees in Empire, I suppose it’s a pretty fitting way of launching things, so let’s get right into it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Imperial Probe Droid is figure D3 in the Black Series line-up, putting him right after the (no longer Best Buy-exclusive) Heavy Infantry Mandalorian.  It marks the Probe Droid’s fourth time in figure form, coming fairly closely to the third, which was released with the Last Jedi stuff in 2017.  On its base, the Droid stands, or floats rather, 8 1/4 inches tall and it has 23 points of articulation.  The smaller Probot was quite well articulated for the line he came from, and this guy does even better, with joints at pretty much all the spots that there are joints on the actual thing.  You’d be surprised how rare an occurrence that is.  In terms of the sculpt, this figure feels very much like an upscaling of the Last Jedi figure, which I suppose makes sense, because it effectively is.  They are adapting the same source material after all.  It’s even more sharply detailed this time, as you would expect for something with this much more canvas to work with.  In general, it’s just a very technically impressive sculpt, and the only way you’re really going to get better is with something on the much more high-end side of things.  And even then, that goes into the question of more details just being more attainable at a larger scale.  While the smaller Probot was light on the paint front, this one is actually pretty involved.  There’s a lot of really nifty little detail work, with all sorts of wear and tear worked in on the body’s main chunk.  It makes him look like a real working robot, and it really sells that signature used styling of the Star Wars universe.  The Probe Droid is a bit hard to accessorize, since it’s not like it uses a lot of stuff.  This guy gets a base to allow for a simulation of its usual hovering.  It’s the one area where I don’t feel this is quite as across the board an improvement on that smaller release, as they’ve opted to go with a more environment based stand, rather than the all clear like the prior figure.  It doesn’t look bad, and the snowy grounds of Hoth are the only time we see the bot in the movie, but it’s a little bit less versatile than I’d like, since I’m not really one for diorama set-ups.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Probe Droid is my first new toy purchase in roughly a month…or at least was when I wrote this review back in April.  I don’t know what antics future Ethan’s gotten up to in the mean time, but I’m sure we’ll all find out together.  While I wasn’t quite as excited as some when the figure was shown off (I was pretty darn happy with that smaller-scale one), I’ve kind of given in on owning most things Black Series these days.  Whatever the case, All Time got them in stock, and I, as previously noted, hadn’t gotten anything new, so, yeah, sign me up for that.  I’m glad I picked him up, because he’s the best Probe Droid out there, and a cool centerpiece to the Empire collection I’m going on only further build during this coming year.

As noted above, the Probe Droid was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Black Series, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2408: Crowd Control Stormtrooper

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

CROWD CONTROL STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Feared throughout the galaxy, Stormtroopers are elite shock troops deployed in support of both ground forces and the Imperial fleet. They are responsible for policing Imperial outposts and territories, accountable for sustaining Imperial control in even the most dangerous sectors. This can be a challenging and often deadly assignment for the most reliable shock troop squadrons. Tough port cities such as Mos Eisley have high populations of outlaws, criminals, smugglers and other anti-Imperial types who create a typically chaotic atmosphere.”

Before making use of the sub-line to get out some larger figures and accessories seen in the film, Kenner’s first approach to the “Deluxe” offshoot of Power of the Force was…well, it was certainly more at home in a ’90s toyline.  The first three offerings (as well as one of the two offerings that followed) in the line were all slight re-workings of previously released heavy hitters, but this time with some big gimmicky gizmo included.  On the positive side, it did give collectors a second chance at a little bit of army building in the form of today’s figure, the Crowd Control Stormtrooper.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Crowd Control Stormtrooper was released in 1996, alongside Han Solo w/ Smuggler Flight Pack and Luke Skywalker w/ Desert Sport Skiff.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  The core figure to this set is effectively the same sculpt as the standard Imperial Stormtrooper figure.  Certainly, that’s hardly Kenner’s finest attempt at a Stormtrooper sculpt, but it was the standard one of the time, being only a year old.  It’s still got all the goofy quirks of that particular release, meaning he’s rather muscle bound and also lacks both a neck and the ability to stand for long periods of time unassisted.  The one change this release makes to the sculpt is adding a port to his back so that he can make use of his big gimmicky gizmo.  The other change is a paint change, rather than a sculpt change.  This guy has the same basic paint elements as the regular release, but with a bunch of flecks of dirt all over the body now.  I guess this guy’s been a little worn-in.  Or maybe he’s a really early preview of a Remnant Trooper!  That’d be something!  Whatever the case, he kind of reminds me of cookies and cream ice cream.  The supposed main selling point of this set is not the figure, of course, but rather the Crowd Control pack he includes.  It’s big, and it plugs into is back, and it has some moving parts.  I’m not entirely sure how this monstrosity is meant to aid in crowd control, but this is the Empire we’re talking about here; they tend to go for the crazier, mad-genius-style solutions to things.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Growing up, these deluxe figures always baffled me a little bit.  I wasn’t really alone on that front, I suppose.  Now that I’m an adult, though, and I’ve really gotten into appreciating PotF2 for what it was, they’re kind of key to that appreciation, because what else sells the true ’90s-ness of the early line better than these guys?  This guy also benefits from really being the only one in the first set that makes any sort of internal sense; a Stormtrooper with an extra gimmick really isn’t that far out there.

This guy came from my friends at All Time Toys. They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2405: Jarek Yeager & Bucket (R1-J5)

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

JAREK YEAGER & BUCKET (R1-J5)

STAR WARS: RESISTANCE (HASBRO)

“Jarek Yeager runs a repair shop on the Colossus refueling station, enjoying the solitude of being so far off the beaten paths of the galaxy. Bucket has been Jarek Yeager’s loyal astromech for years, and despite being a battered, decrepit droid addled by outdated, glitching programming, is also a skilled mechanic.”

I told you there would be one more day of this, and I’m a man of my word.  So, here’s another day of this here Resistance stuff, because what else am I going to review? The other 2,300 figures still left unreviewed in my collection?  Don’t be preposterous.  I couldn’t do that….Today, I round out the Resistance stuff I have with a two-fer–Jarek Yeager and Bucket!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Jarek and Bucket are again part of the launch assortment of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Resistance line, which hit in early 2019.  They were part of the same not-quite-so-basic assortment as Poe & BB-8.

Jarek’s up first, since he’s the standard normal figure of the set.  He stands 4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is not very outwardly impressive, I suppose.  There’s not exactly a lot going on with his design, so at first glance the sculpt seems perhaps a little “meh.”  However, there’s actually a lot going on here, and the detail work on this guy is really sharp.  The head in particular, with its separate hair piece, really has depth to it, and really captures the character’s design from the show.  Like the sculpt, Jarek’s paint is kind of drab and boring at first glance, but it’s got more going on than you might realize.  The face is the sharpest part by far, but the whole figure looks pretty good, with minimal bleed over and slop throughout.  Jarek is packed with a blaster pistol and an extra helmeted head, much like Tora, though unlike Tora, there’s no face in this one.  It’s better when he’s holding it, but has the flipside of looking quite strange when it’s popped onto the body.

Also included is Bucket, Resistance‘s resident whacky droid, and probably the main selling point of this set for most people, I’d say.  The figure’s 2 1/4 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  That’s right, he’s got more articulation than the standard figure’s he’s included with.  Yeah, it’s pretty crazy.  It’s all pretty useful, too, and he’s the most fun of these figures to mess around with.  The sculpt is a very technically impressive one.  There are a lot of layers to it, making for a decent depiction of a deconstructed astromech.  The paint’s also pretty eye-catching, especially that fighter helmet he’s got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Jarek and Bucket here at the same time as Tora and Synara.  I had actually looked at this particular set once or twice before the clearance prices set in, mostly because I really liked the look of Bucket, but I just never got around to picking them up.  When given the chance at a lowered price, it was a very easy sell.  Bucket’s the star here, but Jarek’s honestly no slouch either.  I’d say this set is probably my favorite thing to come out of the Resistance line.  I really wish I’d supported the line in full back when it was first released, because it was really cool.

#2404: Synara San

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

SYNARA SAN

STAR WARS: RESISTANCE (HASBRO)

“A salvager who scours the oceans and islands of Castilon for crashed starships, Synara keeps much to herself.”

Well, I sure hope you liked yesterday’s Star Wars: Resistance-themed review, because there’s two more of these suckers where that one came from.  Yes, let’s jump into the further adventures of Ethan reviewing toys from a show he’s seen like three episodes of!  That’s always fun and exciting, isn’t it?  And this time, I’m even reviewing a character from beyond the episodes I’ve watched!  Yay!  Let’s have a look at *checks packaging* Synara San!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Synara San is another figure from the basic assortment of Star Wars: Resistance figures.  She’s the last of the “heroic” characters from the assortment, with the remaining slots being filled by General Pyre and a Stormtrooper.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  Synara’s another all-new sculpt, and definitely another nice one.  She’s actually a little bit pre-posed, with a sort of shifted weight approach.  It’s a very natural appearance, and sells that she’s got that slightly seedier background than the others.  Sculpturally, she’s also one of the less stylistic figures in the set, and I dare say she wouldn’t look too out of place with the main line figures.  I like the scavanged gear aspect of this figure, and I’m especially a fan of the various Biker Scout stuff she’s got.  That’s a really cool touch.  Synara’s paint scheme is a little more subdued than some of the others in the assortment, but it’s still pretty eye-catching, and I liked how crisp it is, especially on her face.  She doesn’t have any of the major application issues that Tora did, which is a definite plus in my book.  Synara is packed with a removable helmet (which is of a similar design to the one Lando was sporting in Jedi) and a blaster pistol, which is a pretty nice combo.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Synara at the same time as Tora, a little bit after the kind of “meh” Triple Force Friday launch.  I was itching for some more toyetic Star Wars love, and these guys definitely worked to tide me over.  While I mostly just grabbed Synara because I was grabbing everything Target had on clearance from the line, and not so much because her specific design appealed to me, I do have to say I really like the figure a lot after getting to sit down and mess with her a bit.

#2403: Torra Doza

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

TORRA DOZA

STAR WARS: RESISTANCE (HASBRO)

“A daring pilot at the Colossus station with a sense of flair and competitiveness, Torra Doza has the combined energy of a hotshot ace and a fifteen-year old.”

Okay, what else do I have that I can review?  *Looks around desk*  Hey, do you guys want to read about some more Star Wars stuff?  I’ve got a bunch of that.  I mean, it’s kind of new.  Demented and sad, but kinda new.  In 2018, Disney launched a sequel-era Star Wars cartoon, dubbed Star Wars: Resistance, alongside a small assortment of figures based on the characters from the show.  Included in the line were a number of the Resistance pilots featured in the series.  I’ll be looking at one of them, Torra Doza, today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Torra Doza is another basic figure from the first (and only) assortment of Star Wars Resistance figures.  She stands 3 1/2 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  Torra’s sculpt is all-new to her, and like the others I’ve looked at so far, it’s a pretty spot-on recreation of her animation model from the show.  It’s not quite as sharp a sculpt as Kaz’s, but it’s still got some pretty cool little details going into it, especially on the boots and gloves.  The rest of the details are very clean looking, and the figure’s certainly quite slick.  Rather than getting a removable helmet (which would no doubt be quite difficult with her hair), Torra has a second head, with the helmet permanently attached. It’s fairly nice, but the presence of the eyes makes it look really weird if you have her holding it while unmasked.  Torra’s paintwork is quite colorful, as is the case with most of the Resistance figures.  I appreciate the very bright colors, as they aren’t always as common with Star Wars figures.  The application on the head is very sharp, but the body suffers a bit.  In particular, on my figure the paint on her neck is mostly covered by the blue of the jumpsuit, rather than being the appropriate flesh tone.  Though her hand appears to be molded for a blaster of some sort, Torra’s only accessory is the previously mentioned helmeted head.  It feels a little light, and is made worse by the fact that she’s yet another pilot without a ship to fly.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After the lack of any sort of basic line component to the Rise of Skywalker product, I decided I wanted at least a little bit of a 5POA fix, and set about tracking down these guys, seeing as I’d liked the Poe figure so much.  Fortunately for me, that was right around the time that Target was clearancing them out, so I was able to get a handful of the figures that way, Torra included.  The paint’s a bit of a mess, and I wish she had at least one more accessory, but I do really quite like this figure.

#2401: Sandtrooper

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

SANDTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Their remote location makes the spaceports of Tatooine havens for the varied masses from across the galaxy. At the seedy Mos Eisley spaceport, this variety is more than evident at the main hangout, Chalmun’s Cantina. The most loathsome of Mos Eisley’s population can regularly be found there, including imperial sandtroopers, who are deployed by the Empire to quell outbursts with brutal efficiency. In the days before the Galactic Empire, the spaceport of Mos Espa hosted a similar reputation as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.” From the outdoor markets to the junk shops – overseen by the gambling crimelords, the Hutts – Mos Espa was a place where a nine-year old boy could learn the ways of the universe.”

Hey, remember how I’ve got all these Power of the Force figures I can review?  Great, I don’t have to remind you why I’m doing this review, then.  I’ve looked at all manner of Stormtrooper variants, many of them from this very line, but today I’m kind of doubling back and looking at a variant of a variant.  Oh man, how crazy is that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Sandtrooper was released in 1998, accompanying a 3D display diorama of the Mos Eisley Cantina.  He was the actual figure used to sell a bunch of cardboard, wrapped in cardboard.  Neat trick, I suppose.  We had gotten a standard, run of the mill Sandtrooper in the main line, but this one aimed to be different enough to make collector’s buy.  Guess it worked.  According to expanded universe materials, this guy actually has a name.  He’s Davin Felth, the trooper who says “Look sir, droids!” while they’re searching on Tatooine.  And now you know that.  Don’t you feel like your life has meaning now?  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He uses the same head, torso, and pelvis as the single-carded Sandtrooper, but gets a new set of arms and legs.  It’s still the super goofy PotF2 trooper build, but by this time things were starting to be a little bit more toned down.  Those arms and legs are definitely less bulked up compared to prior troopers.  His pose is also a more neutral one, but, in an interesting turn of events, he’s not really able to do anything but hold that one neutral pose.  He looks like he’s standing guard (which makes sense for the playset he came with), meaning he’s designed to hold his weapon in a non-battle stance.  He can’t actually hold it by the handle, due to the relative posing of his arms.  The paint on this guy is also toned down from the prior Sandtrooper.  He’s still got a little bit of weathering, but it’s nowhere near as intense.  His pauldron has changed colors to mark a change in rank, with it being white instead of orange.  For some reason, the black section has also changed to a light grey, which is an odd choice.  Moving further down, the figure has also lost the black detailing at the elbows that prior troopers had, which does look a little weird.  The Sandtrooper was packed with a blaster rifle and a patrol droid (missing from mine) which plugged into his back. [EDIT–I got both the patrol droid, and the whole set that this guy was originally packed with and took a look at them in his Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As part of my goal of getting all the figures from the PotF2 line, I’m having to track down some of the more odd-ball releases as well, which includes this guy.  I ended up getting ahold of one from a loose collection that was traded into All Time, though he was missing the droid piece.  He’s not a bad figure.  I actually like him quite a bit, certainly more than I was expecting to.

As I noted above,  I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2397: AT-RT (w/ ARF Trooper Boil)

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

AT-RT (w/ ARF TROOPER BOIL)

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Clone trooper Boil pilots an AT-RT during the battle to retake Geonosis. An AT-RT (All Terrain Recon Transport) is a one-man walker armed with a repeating laser cannon. With its height, mobility and speed, the walker allows Boil to support the embattled Republic forces as they fight waves of battle droids and Geonosian warriors.”

Since I reviewed Waxer yesterday, it feels kind of wrong to leave this pair incomplete.  It’s okay, because Hasbro was way ahead of me on that one, and saw fit to, you know, actually release a Boil that matched with yesterday’s Waxer…before they had even released that Waxer, in fact.  That sure was nice of them.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Boil and the AT-RT were released in 2010, as part of the Deluxe Figures sub-line of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in.  Each entry in the line was one standard figure paired off with a smaller-scale vehicle.  There were a lot of main character variants included, but it did serve as a way for us to get a handful of new or slightly more unique character, including quite a number of clone variants.  This was the second ARF Trooper and AT-RT pairing released in the line, and wouldn’t end up being the last.  It was, however, the only one with a named clone.  Boil is pretty much the same figure as the Waxer I reviewed yesterday, being the same core body and all.  I love the core body, and it’s supposed to be the same armor, so that’s hardly a bad thing.  He does change up some things on the paint front a bit.  His colors are ever so slightly different from Waxer’s, likely due to them being produced a year apart from each other.  It’s not really that noticeable, unless you do something stupid like photograph both of them together under heavy contrast lighting.  But who would do something stupid like that?  Other than that, Boil also ports over his markings from his standard armor, with again the exception of some Numa-inspired graffiti, this time on the right side of his visor.  Again, it’s probably my favorite touch on these figures, because it clearly denotes who they’re supposed to be.  Boil doesn’t get the heavy gun like Waxer, but he’s still got the standard blaster and a stand.  Oh, right, and the AT-RT, of course.  First appearing in Revenge of the Sith, the AT-RTs were put to good use in The Clone Wars, and the mold was put to good use here in the toyline.  I’ve actually looked at a good chunk of it before, since it got repurposed for the Assault Walker from the Force Awakens line.  I liked that one well enough, and that was honestly a dumbed down version of this mold.  This one is more clearly designed to work with the included figure, and while it’s still not as articulated as the ones from the show, it’s a pretty nifty little vehicle, and certainly brings value to this set beyond just the Boil figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Boil came from the same collection at All Time that got me the matching Waxer, as well as the *other* Boil and Waxer.  I actually held off on this one a little bit, because there were two in the collection, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy the whole walker just to get a Boil to go with my Waxer.  Ultimately, I decided it was probably worth my time, and I’m glad I did, because it’s a fun little set in its own right.  Sure, Boil is only superficially different from the Waxer figure I already had, but I like having the two of them in yet another style, and now I’ve finally got one of the AT-RTs to go with the handful of ARF Troopers I’ve already got in my collection.  That’s pretty nifty!

As I touched on above,  I got this set from my friends at All Time Toys.  While the Clone Wars stuff moved pretty fast, they’ve got other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.