Vintage Collection Darth Vader (VC-93)

For me and my collecting, I really just don’t need a ton of any one character. It really depends; certain characters like Luke, Leia and Han wore a bunch of interesting costumes, so that’s different. But characters like Darth Vader who for most of the films looked practically the same, I really only need one good version of.

Naturally, this isn’t the best Darth Vader that will ever be made, nor is it the worst. It’s a good toy that fits my needs as far as Darth Vader goes. His cape is a little on the simple side, and he doesn’t feature an unlit light-saber, but that kind of stuff can easily be overlooked for other reasons. The ball-jointed hips he features adds so much more, and on a figure that needs those dynamic, dueling poses it goes a long way. The sculpt and details are also really good on this one, and that coupled with the articulation is really what made this figure worth getting.

Still though, at the end of the day it’s just another Darth Vader figure among so many. The new Black Series figure looks pretty good from what I’ve seen of it, but with this figure I definitely don’t need it. They’re both good in their own ways, so are some of the older Vaders, but again, one good Darth Vader is all I need. It’s not got anything to do with Darth Vader himself, it’s just that collecting as a hobby gets very dull once you’re in the cycle of buying the same thing over and over again.

Modern Biker Scout

Return of The Jedi really took the Imperial designs in a different direction with ones like the Biker Scouts and more so with the Royal Guards, but this profile is about the former. The Biker Scout’s been a guy who’s gotten his fair share of good toys, but the 2006 sculpt is the one I’m looking at today.

This is a really nice figure for the time he’s from. I think there was a lot of interesting stuff Hasbro was making then, but the quality on a lot of the mid-2000’s figures is a noticeable step down from what we expect nowadays (not to say newer is better, it isn’t always). Frankly, this figure has all of the articulation he needs, he’s plenty accurate, and the paint’s pretty good too. It’s really no wonder Hasbro sold this one for so many years, as this figure really doesn’t need too much updating. Hasbro’s recent/upcoming Black Series version tries to update this one a tad, but from my point of view you really don’t get much more with that one than you do with this older and cheaper one.

I really like the way Star Wars Battlefront uses these guys as snipers too. I think it fits them well, and it fills a hole in the Imperial army. All in all, this is a fun figure and all it really needs to be.

Kenner R5-J2 (custom)

Far from an original idea, but none the less this is a piece I am happy to have created. As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan R5-D4 and the way that the toy lives beyond his appearance in the film. With that said, he just doesn’t work with Imperials, so a simple custom was in need.

My custom take on him might be a little too accurate for a Kenner figure, but we could imagine this redeco came out a little after ROTJ, and that Kenner had access to better source material. Okay… that’s a really bad excuse, but I think he looks cooler than Hoth so there! If anyone wants to make one like mine, here’s the sticker I used below. It can be printed and attached to the droid with a good spray glue.

Fashionable Clones

So I picked up these Stormtroopers on an Ebay auction a while ago listed as “Fashionable Clones”. Given, it’s pretty apparent what these are, but I’ll go with fashionable, since at the end of the day these are very attractive figures.

So in the set, you get a white trooper and a black one, a Shadow Stormtrooper if you will. The package comes with a bubble amusingly shaped like a Stormtrooper helmet, and a card that would feature a lot of random art bits making it seem equal part tasteless and hilarious. I especially like the art snagged from Star Wars Battlefront’s cover in the top corner there.

The figures themselves seem to mock Kenner’s construction on these guys, hard plastic torsos with soft limbs. As you might expect it feels really cheap, the soft parts especially are too pliable which I find nerve-wracking, though they seem to be holding up well so it might just be my own paranoia. The blasters included are made of a nice, hard plastic, and are comparable to at least your average reproduction blaster. Lastly, the paint applications are of good quality on both of my two figures, they’re at least on par with anything Hasbro might make.

The white Stormtrooper looks almost just like the original, but definitely doesn’t feel the same in terms of plastic quality. A big issue is also that his stance is very narrow, which I am afraid to attempt fixing given I don’t want to risk breaking the plastic anywhere. A shame but no big deal given this guy provides great squad fodder without breaking the bank.  Were the Emperor to arrive, I’m sure the old man wouldn’t spot him in a crowd.

Real Kenner Stormtrooper on the right.

The “Shadow Stormtrooper”, is the real gem of this set, and mind you he looks very fashionable. He has the same quality issues as the white one, but the figure is far more interesting and unique. He is cast entirely in black plastic, with silver details painted on his eyes and chin. He makes a very interesting compliment to a collection of Kenner Imperials, given how iconic the Stormtrooper is. I do wish that he might have included a blue blaster to break up some of the black and contrast a bit more, but this is a small problem that can be easily remedied.

All in all, this is both an interesting and cool set. For what these are, they are of quality better than you might expect, and it’s also nice to be able to fill out a squad of Kenner Stormies with these that cost you a fraction of the price. They’re fairly common now, but down the road these might become more sought after once Episode VII comes out and the supply dries up. I recommend it if you're into collecting figures of the... less official kind.

Mailaway Boba Fett

This figure was my first experience with a Kenner style action figure. I wouldn’t have collected these had it not been for this mailaway, but the simple, old-school charm of the figure left me wanting more. I think that alone says a lot about the appeal and iconic nature of this figure.

Unlike many fans, I don’t really like Boba Fett all that much. Don’t get me wrong, he’s cool, especially his design. He just didn’t really do all that much in movies, not that Vader or the Empire couldn’t have done themselves really. For that, I just don’t care for the character that much.

When offered as a mail-in though, it suddenly becomes to where I feel a greater need to own the figure. After all, you never know how many chances you’re going to get at these things before they end up getting pricey, so of course I would get one for myself. My original intent was only to get the other bounty hunters and a few Imperials to accompany this figure, but you know how it goes, a lot here and a cheap figure there and before long I had acquired a large and somewhat meandering collection of Kenner Star Wars figures. I always find it funny how that kind of stuff happens, in this case all because of a novelty mail-in.

Fett himself is a supreme sculpt and perhaps the best from the entire Kenner vintage line. Technically, this figure is actually a new sculpt and isn’t the exact same as the original, but when compared its so close he works fine in place of the true vintage figure. It’s almost impossible to tell them apart unless you see them side by side.

This version of Fett also features a functioning missile launcher like the original was intended to, a story very well known by any collector familiar with vintage Star Wars toys, but I’ll sum it up real quick. For the original figure, Kenner had planned and even advertised him as having a functioning rocket launcher, but the missile for the launcher was too small, and didn’t meet safety regulations as such. The figure was shipped out pretty much the same, but his missile launcher was disabled. This version tries to fix that by including a second missile, long enough to meet safety regulations, so it can be fired. The problem is it just looks like crap; it’s nearly as tall as the figure! It was a nice thought, but ultimately, it just doesn’t add anything to the figure, not for me anyways.

Now that this figure’s a few years old, there’s really no point in choosing this version over a real vintage one, other than the fact that you might get him a little cheaper still. For me, this figure has a lot of meaning that makes him the centerpiece of my vintage collection, even if I really don’t like Boba Fett that much.