Tag Archives: Star Wars

#1425: Darth Vader & Imperial Probe Droid

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

DARTH VADER & IMPERIAL PROBE DROID

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

“Tenacious hunters and searchers, Probe Droids (or Probots) have a variety of sensors and the ones employed by the Empire are armed with powerful blasters and, in some models, shields.”

Remember when I was mentioning the Empire Strikes Back stuff that hit with The Last Jedi product?  Just yesterday?  Well, hey, here’s some more of that.  This set pairs another variation of one of the franchise’s juggernaut characters with a fan-favorite design that actually hasn’t seen a new figure in almost 15 years, which seems a little crazy.  Onto the review!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Vader and the Probot are one of the two “creature” sets released alongside the Last Jedi product.  Interestingly, the two characters included here never actually share any screen time or even reside in the same general area over the course of Empire, but I guess that Vader’s the Probot’s boss, so that sort of makes a little sense.

DARTH VADER

So, I was discussing yesterday about how the whole Star Wars line would fall into disarray were there not a steady stream of Boba Fett figures offered.  That goes double for this guy.  Despite dying at the end of Return of the Jedi, he’s managed to find his way into every movie line launch since Episode 1 in some way or another.  This figure stands a little over 4 inches tall and has a whole 6 points of articulation (thanks to a cut joint at the waist).  This Vader is based on his appearance from Empire, which was slightly changed from A New Hope (and, by extension, Rogue One, which used the ANH design), but not terribly different from the one seen in Return of the Jedi.  Essentially, this figure’s sculpt is the later film equivalent to the fantastic Rogue One Vader we got last year.  At first glance, I actually thought this figure was mostly re-used from that one, but it’s its own wholly original work.  This means there’s no real compromises made, which is nice to see after lots of years of Vaders based indeterminately on several different movie’s designs.  It’s a very strong sculpt, and were it not for the RO Vader from last year, it would easily be my favorite Vader sculpt to date.  As it stands, it’s a definite top two.  I enjoy this just as much, but for differing reasons.  Interestingly, the helmet is a separate piece from the mask and head, but it’s not removable or anything.  I was sort of expecting this to be a “reveal” figure, showing the back of his head like we see in his chamber, but it wasn’t the case. It’s not really a big deal, though, and I honestly prefer a Vader with all of his pieces connected.  This Vader gets another plastic cape piece, which is a different piece than the one on the RO Vader, but still very nice.  This one drapes over the shoulders a bit more, which is certainly appropriate.  Vader’s paintwork is pretty solid all around.  There’s a lot more going on than might be evident at first, especially with all the differing shades of black.  I like that they’re putting in that sort of effort.  Vader includes his lightsaber, which this time around can be held in either of his hands.  He is also ForceLink compatible, though I still don’t have the wrist thing to try him out, so I don’t know what sounds he makes.

IMPERIAL PROBE DROID

In a movie full of distinctive things, the Probe Droid actually manages to stick out, being one of the very first things the audience sees on the screen.  The Probot’s only had two figures before in this scale; both were actually made from the same mold.  It’s long been a favorite item amongst the fan base, so an update was certainly much appreciated.  The Probot is about 5 inches tall (when placed on his stand, of course) and has an astounding 16 points of articulation.  Those arms really help him out on that front.  The sculpt on this guy is all new, and definitely top-notch.  Like Vader, it’s very accurate to the film prop, and offers a lot of really great little details.  Obviously, it’s a little less detailed than the real scale-model of the thing, but it’s far from “basic.”  The head in particular just perfectly captures the shape and sizing of the in-film design so well, and I love how well his large camera eyes have turned out.  In terms of paint, there’s not a *ton* going on with the Probot.  He’s largely just molded in a very dark grey plastic.  hat being said, it’s a good shade of grey, and there’s still nice paint work on the lenses of the cameras.  He’s also got a number of silver scuffs all over him, befitting the used-future look of the OT films.  It’s subtle, but it definitely adds a lot to the figure.  Since the Probot we see in the film is always hovering and doesn’t really have an easy way of standing, this figure includes a clear stand to help him “hover.”  It’s a fairly basic piece, which just plugs into the base of the figure’s body.  I do quite like the little Imperial insignia that’s molded into it.  It’s a fun touch.  There’s also a missile launching component worked into the figure, but in a less obtrusive way than the prior Probot mold.  It’s just one small panel on the body, and it’s not really noticeable when it’s in place.  Lastly, there’s the ForceLink feature, and this time around, I do actually have an idea of what sounds it makes.  It just makes the transmitting sounds from the movie, which is a feature I really look forward to trying out when I get the chance.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like yesterday’s set, I didn’t pick this pair up on Force Friday.  I didn’t even pick them up the next week when I went back.  In part, this was due to my thinking that the Vader was actually a lot more similar to the RO version than he ultimately was.  But I saw some photos online and I was really digging the Probot, so I decided to try and grab one.  Of course, I forgot that this set’s packed one for every three Rapthar packs, so it wasn’t super easy to track down.  I did eventually manage to find one at Walmart, so yay for that.  This is definitely a strong set.  Sure, a figure other than Vader might have been nice, but at least it’s a good Vader figure.  And at the end of the day, the Probot’s definitely worth buying another Vader figure to get.  And that wraps up the small-scale Force Friday offerings that I’ll be reviewing.  Not a bad assortment at all.

#1424: Boba Fett & Han Solo

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

BOBA FETT & HAN SOLO

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

We’re starting to wind down on the Star Wars: The Last Jedi stuff.  Yesterday’s Finn review marked the last of the actual Last Jedi offerings I’ll be reviewing (at least in this round of stuff), but as with every new Star Wars release, there’s a healthy helping of items based on prior films.  As TLJ is the second film in this new trilogy, they’re putting out more than a few items based on the Original Trilogy’s second part, Empire Strikes Back.  I’ll be taking a look at Hasbro’s latest versions of Han Solo and Boba Fett from that film today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Han and Boba were released in the two-pack assortment of The Last Jedi figures, alongside the previously reviewed Rey and Elite Praetorian Guard pairing.  This is one of the two ESB-themed items in the initial product launch.

BOBA FETT

They just can’t keep the Fett-man down, can they?  If the Star Wars toyline went too long without at least one Fett, it would surely collapse into some sort of null field of pointlessness, right?  Fett’s the glue that holds the fandom together! Gotta keep those Fett-fans happy.  Or something like that.  Anyway, this new figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Now, after years and years of lots of nearly identical Boba Fetts, you might be wondering what sets this guy apart from the pack.  He’s an all-new sculpt, and it may well be the best sculpt we’ve ever seen on a Boba Fett figure.  It’s at least the best small-scale Boba we’ve gotten.  The last 5POA Boba I looked at had a number of issues that prevented him from being the best he could be, but this figure really tackles a lot of the issues I had with that and a lot of the other 5POA figures head on.  One big issue I’ve had with a lot of the basic figures is the rigidity of their poses.  This figure fixes that, giving Boba a slightly offset balancing of his weight.  It’s effectively still a straight standing pose, but it adds just a little more character, and makes him look a touch more human.  It also resembles the pose Boba had in the initial promo shots from Empire, which is a fun bit of nerdy trivia.  The sculpt also gives us a very nice take on Boba’s armor, with all of the details being sharply defined, and nicely recreated.  The head’s definitely my favorite part, as it’s easily one of the best Fett helmet sculpts ever produced.  It’s a spot-on recreation, and I just really love it.  Boba’s sculpt is aided by a pretty awesome paint job, which follows the trend of improvement on Hasbro’s part. The paint is clean and sharp for the most part, and there are a lot of really nice details.  There are a few details missing, but mostly minor stuff, and he looks far better than some of the earlier figures.  Fett is packed with his large blaster, his small blaster, and a big bulky thing that replicates his flamethrower.  Both the figure and the big bulky thing are ForceLink compatible, but as of yet I don’t have anyway to figure out how to test the sounds they make.

HAN SOLO

Han was actually completely absent from the product launch for The Force Awakens, so it’s a little bit amusing that he’s included this time around, despite not being in the movie (well, at least as far as we know).  This guy’s sporting Han’s spiffy jacketed look from Empire, which is my favorite look for the character, and which seems to be less common than you’d hope when it comes to toys (seriously, how do we not have this look in The Black Series yet?).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  No real surprises there.  At first glance, this figure’s sculpt looks to have some parts in common with the Force Awakens figure.  An actual comparison of the two figures reveals that there are no parts actually shared between the two, but they appear to at the very least have started from the same basic source files.  Not gonna lie, this figure’s far from perfect.  One of the things that makes the jacketed look my favorite for Han is how sharp he looks, but this figure ends up looking a little bit schluby.  The real culprit behind this is the waist.  The waist is too low, which in turn makes the jacket too long, which has the illusion of making his arms look too short and gives him the appearance of his gut having out over his belt.  If the waist were a quarter of an inch higher, the figure would look a bit better.  The likeness on the head also isn’t one of Hasbro’s better Harrison Fords.  From some angles it’s manageable, but from others he barely even looks human.  It definitely feels like they took their old Han sculpt from TFA and tried to de-age it, which hasn’t quite worked.  On the plus side of things Han’s jacket’s pretty nicely detailed, and I appreciate the texturing on the stripes on his pants.  The paint on Han is kind of “meh”.  It’s okay in some spots, but there’s more noticeable slop here than on other recent figures, and worst of all, his got weird placement on his eyes, which just throws the whole figure off.  I hate when that happens.  Han’s packed with his blaster, which can be placed in the holster if you so choose.  I was happy to see it was actually the correct version that he carries in Empire, not just re-used from a prior Han.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Finn, I didn’t grab this set on Force Friday.  I had seen it beforehand, and I mostly checked out the Han figure, who left me kind of cold, and mostly ignored the Boba Fett, since the Saga Legends Fett did nothing for me.  So, on Friday I focused on the TLJ stuff and left this behind.  Then I saw some photos online, and realized what an improvement Fett was, and slightly regretted not grabbing them.  When my Target re-stoked the basic figures, they also marked the two-packs down a bit, so I got these two alongside Finn.  Boba’s fantastic.  He’s rivaled only by the 6-inch Black Series figure in terms of coolness.  Han’s okay.  Far from the worst Han Solo figure, but nothing particularly amazing, which is a shame, since I’m always eager to get a new Bespin Han.  Alas, I’ll just have to hang in there for the next version.  This one will do until then.

#1423: Finn – Resistance Fighter

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

FINN – RESISTANCE FIGHTER

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Throughout the last week and a half of The Last Jedi reviews, there’s been one major player absent (well, apart from Leia, who actually wasn’t released): Finn.  He may not have been everyone’s favorite new character from TFA, but I personally really liked Finn.  There was a earnestness to him.  I’m happy (though hardly surprised) to see he’ll be back up and about for The Last Jedi.  Hasbro seems to have learned a bit from their experience last time around, and has put out only one Finn at launch, which I;ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Finn is part of the first basic series of The Last Jedi figures.  With the exception of the First Order Stormtrooper (which I didn’t get) Finn wraps up the Orange Assortment of heavy hitters.  Shots from The Last Jedi have shown Finn in a few different get-ups; the figure opts for what I assume will be his standard look in the film.  Essentially, he’s just wearing the same basic gear that Poe was sporting at the start of TFA.  We already know the jacket’s shared, so maybe Poe’s just loaning Finn more of his wardrobe?  Ultimately, it doesn’t look much different from Finn’s TFA look, but it’s a tiny bit more exciting, I guess.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is unique to him, but like a lot of the figures in this series, there’s some definite similarities to a few earlier items.  He looks not unlike a TFA Finn head placed on an Armor-Up Poe body.  He’s not, of course.  The head is a lot sharper and less cartoony looking than the prior Finns.  He’s even got John Boyega’s slight sly grin, which helps to better sell the likeness.  Definitely Hasbro’s best Finn head sculpt.  The body is decent enough.  I appreciate that he doesn’t just have the exact same build as the Poe figure, and I really dig how sharp all the details are.  This is the best that jacket’s looked on a small-scale figure.  Perhaps my favorite part of the figure is a very, very minor detail; the back of his jacket has a small stitched slash, showing where Finn was wounded by Kylo in TFA.  That’s a definite attention to detail, and also confirms that this is the original jacket and not just some sort of replacement.  Finn’s paint work is pretty basic stuff.  It’s well-handled; the lines are all clean, and the colors look to match pretty well with what we’ve seen of this outfit from the promotional images.  Finn is packed with his blaster he got from Han, which looks to be same piece included with all of the Jakku Finns.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy Finn on Force Friday.  I saw him there (and when I found a set early), but I didn’t get him.  I guess he just looked too similar.  I almost got him when I needed another basic figure to qualify for the Target promotion, but he was sold out by that point, so I figured I’d make due with his TFA figure.  And then I opened up all of my Last Jedi figures, and the set just really didn’t feel right without a Finn.  Fortunately, within a few days, most of the stores around me had re-stocked, and I was able to grab this guy without much trouble.  He’s actually a fair bit different from his predecessors, and makes for a much better overall figure.

Guest Review #0046: Jyn Erso

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

JYN ERSO

FORCES OF DESTINY

Heyo! Welcome to another review by yours truly, Ethan’s Super Awesome Girlfriend! Today I’m going to be reviewing the lovely Jyn Erso from Hasbro’s Forces of Destiny line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

“We have hope! Rebellions are built on hope!” ~Jyn Erso

For those of you who don’t know, Jyn Erso is one of the main leads in the Star Wars film Rogue One. She’s a young woman that’s never really been on the right side of Imperial law, but she always does what she thinks is right.

This figure is about 11 inches tall with 22 points of articulation. One of those points is in the waist which has a slight restriction in movement.  All of the pieces are unique to the figure and her outfit is mostly part of the figure’s sculpt, excluding the vest, scarf, boots, and gun holster.

Her hair tries to emulate the character’s hair style in the movie, and it succeeds for the most part using some sort of gel to keep the bangs together on the sides. I mean really, it’s hard enough getting side bangs like that on a normal person so I can cut the doll some slack. The shirt is all molded onto the torso and arms of the figure and looks to be tucked in at the waist. Her pants are also part of the mold of the legs. Both articles include seams, folds, creases, dips, and various other textures to make them more realistic; the pants even look like they’ve been shoved into her boots and even look asymmetrical in their folding. The material of Jyn’s vest is a lot like Rey’s, except it’s a different color and has different designs on it. Printed on the vest are a couple of pockets, one of them with items poking out, a zipper, and patterned texture to make it look like leather. Jyn’s hooded scarf is made of a gauzy material that isn’t completely seamed and so little bits of string keep coming off. Be careful, the scarf may unravel if you’re not gentle. Her boots and gun holster are made of the same slightly flexible plastic and are about the same color too. On her boots there are various buckles, flaps, seams, and creases as part of the sculpt to give off a leather boot vibe. Most of the noticeable paint is on the torso, arms, and hands and it’s okay. There is some grey from her shirt on both her neck and the bit where the sleeves meet skin. Also there is some brown from her gloves on her fingers.

Her only accessories are her gun and her baton. Apparently, most of Jyn’s action figures either don’t come with her baton or it’s all folded up and she can’t use it, which is a shame because I really like her baton; it’s different from other characters. The baton is fully extended and made of hard plastic; parts of it also have a patterned roughness. The figure’s action feature also includes the baton. If you squeeze her legs together the arm holding the baton moves. Her gun looks like an elongated pistol and it’s two different colors, though I can’t tell if it’s painted that way or not. The grip has patterned roughness and the mold also includes various ridges, indents, and do-dads to give it an authentic look. The gun is pretty cool and fits perfectly in the holster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was the third figure that I bought on Force Friday this year (2017) while I was out with Ethan. Originally I was going to wait to buy this figure and the others, but we wanted to get the gift card from target which meant I had to buy 100$ worth of Star Wars merchandise…woooh. Anyways, I really like having this figure because the character was so amazing in Rogue One and I hope to see more of her in the extended universe, like the YouTube series. If not, well, I’m happy she’ll be on my shelf!

#1422: Resistance A-Wing (w/ Resistance Pilot Tallie)

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

RESISTANCE A-WING FIGHTER (w/ RESISTANCE PILOT TALLIE)

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

“A longtime reliable fighter model used by the Resistance that dates back to the struggle between Empire and Rebellion, the A-Wing is a nimble, wedge-shaped fighter propelled to incredible speeds by large twin engines.”

I’ve looked at one of The Last Jedi’s new vehicle designs, but like its predecessor The Force Awakens, it’s also borrowing from the Original Trilogy’s sizable bank of pre-existing vehicles.  Today, I’ll be looking at another of those returning vehicles, the A-Wing fighter.  The A-Wing’s actually had a fair bit of play recently; not only is it returning in TLJ, but a prototype version of it was also fairly prominently featured in Star Wars: Rebels.  That translates to not one, but two toy versions in the last year.  I’ll be looking at the most recent version today.

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

The A-Wing Fighter is one of two smaller-sized vehicles released on the Force Friday launch of The Last Jedi line (the other was the Canto Bight Police Speeder). Like the Ski Speeder, assembly is rather minor for the A-Wing.  The thrusters need to be popped into place, as do the side cannons, but that’s it.  It should be noted, however, that once you put this sucker together, it’s not coming apart.  At all. Moving on: once assembled, the fighter’s about 11 inches long and 7 inches wide.  The ship features an opening hatch and  a small landing leg, which swings down out of the ship’s front.  The A-Wing is sporting a brand-new sculpt, based on it’s updated design from the new film.  The ship isn’t too terribly different from the A-Wings of the past; same basic design elements and everything.  In general, it’s just a little bit longer and thinner than prior A-Wings.  The sculpt is pretty decent overall.  It’s in keeping stylistically with the other vehicles we’ve gotten in the last few years.  The details aren’t the sharpest ever, but they’re decent for the scale and price.  Speaking of scale, the A-Wing is the least down-scaled vehicle I’ve looked at yet from the new movies.  There’s still a tiny bit of tweaking to keep it at least believably in scale with the rest of the vehicles, but it’s hardly noticeable.  What is rather noticeable is the way the cockpit connects to the rest of the body.  It’s not particularly subtle at all, and it’s rather different from how the hatch looks to work on the actual ship. It doesn’t ruin the ship or anything, but it’s rather annoying all the same.  On the plus side of things, the paint wis fairly decent on the A-Wing.  The blues and reds are vibrant, and the edges show off some nice wear and tear, which gives the ship a nice used feel.  I do feel a nice wash would go a long way towards helping to further sell this used look, but what’s there is definitely solid.  The A-Wing has two main play features.  There are two missile launchers, mounted on each side of the ship, which use the standard spring-loaded schtick, as well as the current-standard ForceLink feature.

RESISTANCE PILOT TALLIE

Included with the A-Wing is one of its pilots, a Resistance fighter named Tallie.  That’s all I’ve got on her.  I have no idea if she’s prominent in the film or if she’s just another Goss Toowers in the making, but I do know she’ll be flying this ship at some point in the film.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and she has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Design-wise, she’s rather similar to Paige, which I suppose makes a degree of sense.  I had initially assumed most of her tooling was shared with Paige, but a comparison of the two in-hand shows that, while they do share certain elements to their sculpts, it doesn’t appear that these two figures actually have any parts in common with each other.  Being that the two sculpts are still very similar, I do rather like this one, same as with Paige.  The details are nice and crisp, and have a nice realistic look to them.  Her helmet is permanently attached to her head, which is a shame, since I really dug the two removable helmets on the basic pilots.  On the plus side, they did at least have the good grace to mold her visor as a separate piece, so it can be translucent and thereby avoid another appearance of the infamous banana visors of TFA.  I appreciate that they went to the effort of putting a whole face under there, and the helmet is at least nicely detailed.  Tallie’s paint work is fairly standard stuff.  Mostly just basic color work.  There’s a bit of slop here and there, but nothing terribly noticeable.  The best work’s on the helmet, which even gets some smaller details to keep it interesting.  Tallie is packed with a standard small Resistance blaster, in a very dark brown.  Yay for variety of colors?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I hadn’t initially planned to grab this one on Force Friday.  I tend to skip vehicles at launch, and I was already breaking that rule by getting the Ski Speeder.  Surely I couldn’t also grab another vehicle, right?  And I didn’t.  Well, not at Toys R Us, anyway.  But then we went to Target, and Super Awesome Girlfriend (who had gotten there before me) wandered up with this set in her hand and said it was the last one they had.  That, plus Target’s “Spend $100 and get a $25 gift card” promotion, helped convince me to get this one.  It’s not the most exciting item I picked up on Force Friday, but it’s a decent ship with a decent pack-in figure, and I can’t ask for much more than that.

#1421: Resistance Gunner Paige

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

RESISTANCE GUNNER PAIGE

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Okay, it’s time for another installment of “Ethan writes an intro for a character of whom he has no prior knowledge!”  In today’s game, I, Ethan, will be discussing Resistance Gunner Paige, from the film The Last Jedi.  Paige, for those of you not in the know, is a gunner…for the Resistance…in the movie The Last Jedi.  Yeah…. Oooh, ooh, wait, I’ve got another thing!  Yes, she’s also the sister of yesterday’s figure Rose.  So there you go.  Feeling better informed?  I’d guess “no,” but there’s not much I can do about that.  You know as much as I do.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Paige was released in the first series of The Last Jedi basic figures.  She’s another from the Teal assortment, and wraps that assortment up (since I didn’t pick up the C-3PO).  There’s already a revision case of this assortment starting to hit stores now, and it appears that Paige is being dropped in favor of Obi-Wan and Yoda, so she may end up being a little more difficult to find down the road.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  She gets an all-new sculpt, and it’s a quite nice one at that.  As with the other figures I’ve reviewed from this assortment, the detail work is nice and crisp, and there’s lots of great little details all throughout the sculpt.  Her likeness is pretty decent, too, so that’s good.  Like Poe, she’s got a removable helmet, which is nice to see return on the basic figures.  There’s a aviator’s cap under the helmet, which matches with what we’ve seen of the character and also gives a neat sort of an Amelia Earhart look to her, which I quite like.  She’s got a small breathing mask attached to her gear, which I initially thought was just another fun little detail of the sculpt, but was pleasantly surprised to discover was in fact a working mask which could be plugged into her helmet.  It’s a lot of fun.  Paige’s paint work is fairly decent overall, though it would appear a number of her sculpted details have gone unpainted, which is a real shame.  Given the overall improvement of most of the figures in this line, as well as the level of detail on some sections of Paige’s paint, I kind of have to wonder if it’s possible that a round of paint apps were just missed on the initial shipments of Paige figures.  It’s not unheard of.  Regardless, what’s there is solid, and the missing details aren’t that noticeable.  Paige includes the previously mentioned removable helmet, which is a lot of fun, as well as a standard Resistance blaster pistol, this time in dark metallic grey.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like her sister Rose, Paige was something of a gamble for me, since I don’t really know much about the character.  But, I quite like her look, so she was definitely pretty high on my Force Friday list.  She was one of the first figures I grabbed, or at least the first of the figures that got tossed at me as the guy next to me searched for Luke.  As with Rose, Paige is a pretty solid figure, and I look forward to seeing her in action!

Guest Review #0045: Princess Leia Organa & R2-D2

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

LEIA & R2D2

FORCES OF DESTINY

Heyo! Welcome to another review by yours truly, Super Awesome Girlfriend. Today, I’ll be reviewing the Leia and R2D2 combo pack from the Hasbro Forces of Destiny line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This Leia figure is based off her Hoth costume in the beginning of Empire Strikes Back. It’s one costume that rarely ever makes it onto an action figure, which is a shame because it’s a cool one. Her more common costumes are her white robes from A New Hope and her slave outfit from Return of the Jedi, those aren’t terrible costumes but I’m really glad the Hoth one is a first for this line. Anyways, I digress.

This figure stands at about 11 inches tall with 22 points of articulation and like all the others in this line, one of those points is in her waist and is slightly restricted in movement. All the pieces that make her up are unique; expect maybe the head which she might share with the other Leia in this line. Most of the figure’s outfit is sculpted into the mold, except her vest and shoes.

The hair is realistic looking and tries to emulate the style from the Hoth scenes from Episode 5. Not gonna a lie, but it looks a little weird to me. I know it’s hard to do that style exactly, especially with all that hair, but it throws it off a little for me. However, I doubt a lot of kids, who are the target audience, are going to care that it’s not quite right. Her arms, torso, and legs are sculpted to look like her snow suit, including wrinkles, divots, and various padding. The detailing on the snow suit is pretty cool; on some of the pads you can see little bits to suggest stitching, the pants wrinkle and puff out like they were shoved into boots, and she even has some wrinkles on her gloved hands. Her vest is made of some thin fabric sewn together is some places. On the vest is a printed on little panel of buttons that did Lord knows what and has a stimulated diamond pattern. Lastly her boots are made of a softer, more flexible plastic and still reminds me of Polly Pockets. The boots aren’t super detailed but you can see the straps and where it folds and wrinkles from the straps.

The figure’s paint is pretty simple and alright, there wasn’t really much to paint. There’s a little bit of white on her neck, but I barely notice it unless I’m staring at it super hard. Her face looks really nice and I’m happy that they kept it simple; they kept true to Carrie Fisher and didn’t try to elongate her lashes through style or make up.

Like all the other figures in this line, Leia comes with a couple of accessories. The first is her gun, which isn’t painted and all the detailing is in the mold. It looks pretty cool and appears to be one of the more detailed guns of the line…weird. It has a scope, ribbing, and various tiny little doodads and thingies to make it look like a legit Star Wars gun. Her other accessory is R2D2, who has three points of articulation. His legs are completely unrestricted movement and his head can spin around. He stands at about 4 ½ inches tall and his detailing is in both the mold and painted. The sculpt is pretty good and it even includes little details that people normally wouldn’t notice, like various little bolts, fans, and thinga-doos. The paint leaves little to be desired. Not all the various areas are painted in, some places the paint went over the line, there’s various blue smudges and areas that don’t have enough paint. Overall, the paint could’ve been a lot better.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this Leia on Force Friday even though she had been out for a while by then and wasn’t one of the main draws that day, but Ethan was getting a lot of stuff and I decided to grab this figure while we were out. I’ve always really liked Leia, she was one of the first princesses I was exposed to as a child. When I was two my parents took me to a rerelease of Empire Strikes Back and even though Yoda was my favorite character then (or so my parents claim; apparently I wouldn’t sit still when he came on and I continuously giggled), Leia was my favorite princess and I think she’s shaped a lot of my preferences for female characters. She was such a cool, charismatic, strong, yet soft individual that I wanted to be like her and not Cinderella, Snow White, or Aurora. I’m excited to have this figure in my collection and I can’t wait to get the other Leia in the line. Even though the R2D22 isn’t the best, he’s still a cool character and will keep BB8 company!

#1420: Resistance Tech Rose

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

RESISTANCE TECH ROSE

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

After a week of reviewing The Last Jedi’s carry-over characters from TFA, I’m finally getting to the new stuff.  Oh yeah!  Now I can talk about…figures I don’t…have anything….to talk about…because these figures don’t have bios…  Yay?

Okay, that’s not entirely true.  I mean, it is true that the new figures don’t have bios, which is a little frustrating, but I do at least have a passing knowledge of the few new characters in this initial assortment.  Today, I’ll be looking at Rose, a Resistance tech (as noted by her name up there) who is paired off with Finn on a mission to infiltrate the First Order.  She looks poised to play a rather prominent role in TLJ, at least if the merchandise is anything to go by.  Let’s check out her first figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rose was released in the first series of The Last Jedi figures.  She’s part of the Teal assortment, where she’s actually the heaviest packed figure.  Clearly Hasbro is doing everything in their power to avoid another “where’s Rey?” situation.  We know that Rose will be getting at least two looks in the film; this figure gives us her resistance Tech jumpsuit, which I think it’s safe to say will be her main look for the film.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  Rose sports an all-new sculpt, and she’s in keeping with the rest of the new figures in terms of style, meaning she’s a slight improvement on the TFA and Rogue One offerings.  The detail work is amazingly sharp, especially on the jumpsuit, and the likeness of Kelly Marie Tran is one of the best we’ve seen in this line.  Things like her hair, hood/collar, and belt are separate pieces glued in place, which offers some nice depth and layering to the figure.  The proportions on this figure are also quite nice, as they managed to fairly accurately capture Tran’s shorter, slightly stockier build, which has the added benefit of supplying a nice bit of variation to the whole set of figures.  That’s always a plus!  Rose’s paint work is rather basic, but also very sharp and clean, which is great to see on any Hasbro offering.  I particularly like the small printed characters on the front of her jumpsuit.  Those are a lot of fun.  Rose is packed with the same blaster rifle that came with the Armor-Up Poe, as well as a small tool of some kind, which can be clipped onto her belt.  Nothing super thrilling, but they’re both solid additions.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, when it came to what I was picking up on Force Friday, the old characters were easy to decide on, but the new characters?  They’re all guess work.  At this point, I’m entirely going by what looks cool.  I did the same for TFA, and while that netted me the likes of Sarco Plank and Goss Toowers, I can’t say I’m upset to own either of those two.  Rose looks cool enough, and she certainly made for a good figure.  Here’s hoping the character lives up to it!

#1419: Poe Dameron – Resistance Pilot

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

POE DAMERON – RESISTANCE PILOT

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Didn’t I *just* review a Poe Dameron figure?  Like, two days ago?  Why yeas, observant reader, I did.  But there’s a second Poe in the initial The Last Jedi offerings, and as an admitted Poe-fanboy, I of course picked up both versions of him.  It’s just what’s done.  So, without further ado, here’s a second Poe!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Poe was released in the first series of The Last Jedi figures, as part of the Orange assortment.  The last figure gave us Poe’s “casual” look, but this one gives us his X-Wing pilot gear.  It looks like his pilot stuff will be largely unchanged, which seems fair enough.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Yes, you read that right; he has 7 points, not 5. That’s because this Poe figure has wrist articulation!  Oh yeah!  Now we’re movin’ on up!  At first glance, this figure looked to be the same sculpt as the Poe included with the TFA X-Wing, but after opening him up, it appears he’s an entirely new sculpt.  It’s very similar to the prior sculpt, but everything is much sharper, there’s much more texture, and there’s some slightly tweaked details.  It’s really a much better looking sculpt.  The head isn’t quite as close to Isaac as the Captain Poe, but it’s a cleaner sculpt than a lot of the prior figures, and isn’t a terrible likeness.  In terms of paint, this guy’s quite nicely handled.  The details are all a lot bolder and more precise than the last pilot Poe, which is much appreciated.  Poe is packed with his helmet and small blaster.  Both pieces appear to be the same ones used on the last pilot Poe, but the helmet is actually black this time and looks to be closer to the actual prop than the last one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, so, despite my whole Poe-fanboy thing, when the images of all these figures first started showing up, I can’t say I was much excited by this figure.  He really just looked like a straight re-release of the TFA figure, and I already have that one.  When I found all the figures early, I took a closer look and noticed he seemed at least a little bit tweaked, but I still wasn’t biting.  So, why did I get him?  Well, Target had this nifty “Spend $100, get a $25 gift card” promotion on the Star Wars toys, and Super Awesome Girlfriend and I were $5 short of $100, so I got Poe.  I’m glad I did, because he has a lot more to offer than I initially realized.

The Blaster In Question #0023: Poe Dameron Blaster

Posted by Tim Marron in Nerf Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

POE DAMERON BLASTER

STAR WARS EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI

While the vast majority of the Force Friday haul was action figures for Ethan, I did manage to pick up something for myself, and, big surprise, it’s a Nerf blaster.  It is the smallest and cheapest of this year’s Star Wars releases.  I am, of course, talking about the Poe Dameron Blaster pistol.  Let’s take a look at it.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Poe Dameron Blaster was released in 2017 as part of the Force Friday lineup of new products promoting the upcoming Star Wars Episode VIII.  The blaster is about as simple as it gets, mechanically.  It is a single shot muzzle loaded pistol with a priming tab in the rear of the blaster.  The tab is a separate piece from the plunger and has its own return spring so it doesn’t stick out the back of the blaster when primed like the Nitefinder or Firestrike.  In addition to priming the action of the blaster, pulling the tab back also activates the Glowstrike feature which is part of every Star Wars branded blaster at this point.  There is a single purple LED with a clear inner barrel that “charges” up the dart so it glows in the dark when fired.  The light turns off following a trigger pull which, in turn, fires the dart and sets off the blaster’s light effect and sound.  I can’t speak for the accuracy of the sound as the film has not yet come out, but I have to say I find the light effect a little disappointing.  I wasn’t expecting the same level of light effects as are on higher end blasters, but the single light on only one side of the blaster feels a bit underwhelming.  This is only accentuated by the fact that the light stays on for almost a full second after the trigger is pulled.  Even with the lackluster setup, I would have much preferred a quick flash of light than the drawn out night light effect the blaster has.  Ultimately, it’s kind of a nit-picky criticism to make, but I know Nerf have the capability to deliver better and I wish they had done it just a little different.  The form factor of Poe’s blaster, thankfully, brings us back to the positives.  Like with most of the prop blasters in Star Wars, Poe’s blaster in the film is built on the frame of a real world firearm, in this case the Sig Sauer P226.  This won’t matter to 98% of people who buy the Nerf replica, but what it means is that the grip is exceptionally comfortable.  It may seem like a small detail, but if a blaster is genuinely pleasant to hold, even if it’s only so-so otherwise, I’m much more likely to pick it up and pew pew around my house than I am with a functionally superior but less comfortable blaster.  The handle also houses the single AA battery that powers the light, sound, and Glowstrike feature.  The little bit of extra weight in the grip also helps with comfort.  The build quality is good and everything feels solid, as you’d expect from a Nerf blaster.  Poe’s blaster has an attachment rail on the top for accessories if you really think it needs them.  Unsurprisingly, Poe’s blaster is a bit underpowered compared to the Elite series.  This is the case with just about all licensed blasters Nerf makes so it’s not surprising.  This is an indoor blaster, plain and simple.  It doesn’t pack nearly the same punch as core Nerf blasters, but that just means you’re less likely to accidentally injure your younger siblings when you burst into their room.  Besides, the glowing darts and sound effects leave enough of an impression to make up for it, especially for nighttime ambushes.  The Poe Dameron Blaster comes packaged with 3 Star Wars branded Glowstrike darts and one AA battery already installed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

To be completely honest, I was pretty disappointed with this years selection of Star Wars Nerf.  I didn’t even buy this blaster just because I wanted it but because Target was giving away freebies if you bought something from Force Friday.  That being said, do I regret buying this blaster?  No.  It has plenty of issues and I wouldn’t put it anywhere near my top 10, but for what it is, I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it.  And besides, it’s just so dang comfortable.