Tantive IV Hallway Playset

 Tantive IV Hallway Playset

Hasbro - The Vintage Collection

I've been sitting on this one for a while...over half a year. There are a couple of reasons why.  Tantive IV (the Rebel Blockade Runner) has been one of my most wanted Star Wars ships since the beginning of my collecting days.  Yes, scale would always be an issue, but Kenner/Hasbro used to be masters of adapting large concepts to maximum playability and affordability.  Even if it only fit three to five figures, like the not-too-long-ago unearthed Kenner mock-up, I wanted it.  I get that Hasbro is a money making company that likes to maximize their profits as much as the rest, but I'm never going to be convinced that the market doesn't exist for a scale between Haslab's crowdfunded behemoths (Sail Barge, Razor Crest) and "bite-sized Vintage" (aka - Mission Series).  Maybe the designers honestly feel it shouldn't be done any other way?  Choosing to go the route of playset form for the size-problematic Death Star, and not the goofy-but-fun Star Destroyer?

Any which way, after all this time, we have to settle for a hallway.  It's a nice looking hallway.  But this is nothing I could not have already had from 3D printers.  It's nothing special, but I suppose it saves one a little money ($50 for a good chunk) and time (no painting, gluing, or sanding) packaging it up this way.  You can buy multiple sets to make more hallways...or longer hallways...but that's about it.  The questionably angled design on the right end pretty much says "link four together for a square."  Wow...the possibilities are endless!

The back side isn't detailed at all, but does have these "metal" sections seen in the parts where Princess Leia gives R2-D2 the Death Star Plans and gets "stunned."  An updated escape pod would have been nice here.  Or maybe sections and seats of the conference room from Revenge of the Sith?  Hasbro: "Nah...good enuff for 'em.  They got opening and closing doors, after all."

Yoda: "In your solitude on Tattooine, 3D printing job I have for you."

The pack-in bonus is a Rebel Trooper.  Army building is great and all, but this is the exact same figure that I think has been released to the vintage series twice now?  They aren't clones...how about a different head or multiple heads?  The only change here is that they are featured in vintage packaging within the boxed set.  Why would anyone be buying this not to take it out of the box?  I suppose there are sad people out their that don't play with their toys...but can they resist opening a box to be able to display the figure inside in it's box?  Maybe that's why Hasbro went with "Rogue One" packaging on the figure....only dopes would believe anything was worth keeping pristine about that turd of a movie.  What a slap in the face to vintage collector's wanting any representation of this ship, thinking that it needs current Star Wars garbage to sell it.  Packaging is trash, just like Rogue One.

Darth Vader would like to add: "No ignited lightsabers necessary, nay, allowed on this playset!"

Even with all this negativity, I did have a good time positioning the 15 or so Rebel Troopers I have (who have been oh-so patiently awaiting their demise aboard the Star Tours speeder for many years) on this "playset".  I am enjoying it for what it is, coming to terms with this being all there is for the Tantive IV.  At least, I'm hoping that a coffee table sized Haslab behemoth isn't coming...but considering the success of the others, I wouldn't be surprised.  And I wouldn't be surprised to see Hasbro pushing that dollar sign even higher...$700?  $800?  Make it an even grand?  

The Last Jedi Figures

Star Wars:  The Last Jedi

basic 3.75" figures - Hasbro

 

Well, it's that time again...another Star Wars movie!  While mostly a beat-for-beat remake of A New Hope, the Force Awakens was okay.  It's final judgment hinges on where they go with the next chapter, The Last Jedi.  No worries though.  It's gonna be great because of Porgs!  PORGS! Penguin-pugs!  Close in cuteness to Ewoks, but slightly less annoying than Gungans! You say you've been waiting 34 years for the next adventure of Luke Skywalker?  Who cares?!  PORGS!

 



These new figures are pretty good in the sculpt department, no matter how much whining toy collectors do about the lack of articulation.  Looks like old Mark Hamill to me...does he really need to be posed in Darth Maul-style combat?  The plastic cape is soft enough not to hinder the arms and legs, and definitely drapes better than the cloth mess on the super-articulated figure.  It is Luke's only accessory.  Sorry, I guess he lost his green lightsaber, too.  "That is a story for another time." Shut up, Maz Kanata.

Weird, middle-aged, non-canon Luke, meet sad, senior citizen, canon Luke.  Oh, what might have been...what could have been.  Nah.  Star Wars in the early 90's would have looked as terribly dated today as the dinosaur establishing shot in Jurassic Park does. 

Chewie's forehead seems a bit tall, but who cares?  He's just an accessory to this Porg! 

Say, what has Luke been eating all those years on the island?

 

They don't make Bowcasters like they used to...

Well the gang is finally all together again, if only on our toy shelves and in our dreams...and in the boxes of Expanded Universe novels and comics locked away and forgotten in my garage.  Rogue One deserves worse.  It sucked...but this new one is gonna be great! 

 

Rogue One Micro Machines

Rogue One Micro Machines

Hasbro

Star Wars Micro Machines might be my favorite line of SW collectibles.  They started with Galoob back around 1994, when SW was in a dark period.  Seriously...there was a time when SW was not popular and nary a product could be found on shelves.  The MM line produced micro figures, vehicles, and playsets from the original trilogy (my favorites being the character busts that transform into locales from the movies - see link below) through the Phanom Menace.  The overhype of TPM and glut of products pretty much killed this line.  There were no MM produced for the other two prequels.  Thankfully, Hasbro brought them back with The Force Awakens, even producing some Episode II and III sets to help with gaps in the collection.  Pictured here is a set from Rogue One, the SW spin-off.  I picked it up on clearance and...uh oh...clearance?  And I don't see any Micro Machines listed for the Force Friday product releases tied to The Last Jedi...dammit!  Here we go again!  Rogue One *&%#@ sucked btw.

Sigh...anyway, check out these links to see some of the great SW Micro Machines of yesteryear:
History of SW MM Part I - Part II
Comprehensive guide with pictures
Transforming Action Sets Commercial from 1994
Transforming Death Star playset Commercial from 1997