Some housekeeping before we begin:
1.  312 photos here might be a record for a Banthaskull gallery.
2.  Malik Nabers is a stud.  Too bad he may have just knocked the Giants into 3 more years of terribleness by winning yesterday.
3.  Additional content may be spotty for the week due to the continued holiday, so sorry in advance.  Last week we were propped up by the return (temporary?) of Chris and a great contribution by CJ who broke down some of the figures we need from the Holiday Special.

The Ghost Haslab campaign funded the base requirement on Day 5, but it wasn’t without its share of drama.  A lot of people complained (because that’s what Star Wars fandom is about) that it should have included better tiers, more tiers, electronics, a cheaper price tag, a floor, and shirtless Kylo Ren.  There was constant questioning about whether or not the figures and/or cardbacks were exclusive to the Haslab, or would be offered again later.  (It was worse than the “punched” or “unpunched” line of questioning that consumed about 45 minutes at one of the Hasbro presentations at a convention about 15 years ago.)  And people were upset that the entire Spectres crew wasn’t included in the campaign, while Hasbro eventually announced that Sabine and Chopper would be released separately on matching card backs to complete the crew and the special mural look.  It wasn’t until the very last day that the final tier (Zeb) was unlocked.  It closed at 21,768, which was well short of the 28K+ achieved by the Razor Crest (a Haslab record, at the time), but showed that TVC was strong and could easily support Haslabs, unlike its weirdly oversized cousin.

Chris has stated some similar sentiments in the past, and I feel he and I are of similar minds on this point.  Neither one of us were particularly excited about this choice for the Haslab. For my part, I thoroughly enjoyed Rebels, and I have lamented the absence (until recently) of any Rebels figures in TVC.  We were stuck with the animated stylings, which I despise.  That was probably the main issue with my lack of general enthusiasm for the Ghost.  I had no meaningful Rebels representation in my collection at the time Haslab launched, and so I really wasn’t looking to start, at the expense of continuing to fill out the rest of my displays.  Also, the dimensions of the Ghost as reported during the campaign were unsettlingly large.  The ship was larger than the Falcon - not just horizontally, but vertically as well.  The Falcon barely fits on my shelf as it is, but it’s obviously a cultural icon.  The Ghost…is the Ghost.

So, the Ghost is finally here.  Or has been here.  Or will be here.  Yeah, there has been a little tension with the timing of the delivery of this monster.  Shipping labels were created in early/mid December for most backers, but in retrospect, we can deduce that these were made by the Hasbro warehouse early in anticipation of several waves of factory deliveries of the nearly 22000 Ghosts that were ordered.  So many of us watched our FedEx apps for days, which turned into weeks, while there was no movement.  Some folks got theirs before Christmas, some (myself included) got it just after, and still many others received notices that they’d have to wait until mid January.  In the end there will be a slight delay in the promised delivery window of Fall 2024, which closed on December 20.  Hopefully nobody has to wait longer than those mid January notices.

I’ll start with the packaging.  I certainly took plenty of photos.  There is an outer shipping carton.  This encloses an inner shipping carton, which is protected by 12 heavy duty cardboard edge protectors and 8 plastic corner protectors.  Then you have the TVC box, the 4 interior cartons, plus the cardboard “egg carton” and other pieces therein.  The TVC box is really nice, although I’ll never see it again until I repack my Ghost at some point in the far future.  For MIB collectors or resellers, I would assume this level of packing was mostly successful in the mission to protect the TVC box, which has been declared by many collectors as part of the collectible itself.  Here’s the rub:  The package that arrived from FedEx is about 50 lbs.  The unpacked and fully assembled Ghost is about 17 lbs.  So that means that the packaging weighs twice as much as the ship itself.  The “Team Lift” disclaimer on the outside of the carton is no joke, while lifting the ship itself isn’t really a big deal.  So the community will debate whether the cost, which must be significant, is worth the risk mitigation.

One other quick note on the TVC packaging:  The ship itself is sourced to Ahsoka, which makes some sense considering the current relevance of that show, while the included figures are sourced to seasons 3/4 of Rebels.  The only other instance I can think of something similar was with the Tantive IV Hallway set being sourced to ANH, with the carded Rebel Fleet Trooper being sourced to Rogue One.  I don’t have a problem with this, just making mention of this quirk.

OK, this is exciting, so far, eh?  Let’s move on to the ship itself.  Most of you have probably seen the unboxing/assembly video done by Hasbro’s Chris Reiff.  If not, have a look here, for as long as it may be up.  Otherwise, I hope the image gallery here can give you a sense of what to do to assemble the thing.  The instructions are pretty simple, as is the assembly itself.  I didn’t really encounter any weirdness.  The large pieces snap together pretty solidly for the most part (the engines are bit wobbly).  The landing gear snaps in and secures well - which brings me to my first possible nitpick.  There are 4 cover pieces for the landing gear wells.  They come off in order to install the landing gear, rather than opening through some mechanism, either swinging open, like on the Razor Crest, or perhaps sliding open.  The struts themselves are similar in that way to the Falcon, except that the Falcon doesn’t have these removable pieces.  My nitpick is that now you have 4 loose pieces you have to maintain.  However, this may be mitigated by the fact that they are less likely to break.  I know there were some issues with the thin nature of the plastic hinges on the Razor Crest.  Mine almost broke, but I noticed the white stress lines before I cavemanned it too far.  I’ve heard there were some folks that broke theirs.  So all that means that perhaps this isn’t really a negative in the long run, I just wish there was a designated place to store these 4 doors. 

Once the main body and the engines are installed, the biggest pieces are the 3 dorsal pieces that snap into place, which are the front canopy, the central crew quarters cover, and the rear living area cover.  Here’s the next notable item I’d like to mention:  the quality/feel of the plastic used to make the Ghost.  Like the landing gear doors, this is a two-way street.  On the negative side, the plastic seems to be the same as a typical Hasbro vehicle, such as the Falcon.  That gives it a distinctly…regular…feel to it, rather than a premium item.  The difference to me is apparent when comparing a Ghost removable panel to a Razor Crest or Khetanna removable panel.  Those vehicles seem to have been molded out of a different type of plastic, which had a feel more comparable to pieces from a Hot Toys item.  So while it feels less luxurious, it definitely feels less brittle.  I honestly fear opening the panels on the previous Haslabs, as I am convinced something is going to break whenever I do so.  I didn’t have that concern when I was repeatedly opening and closing the various panels on the Ghost.  That’s a good thing, I think - but still somehow makes me a little sad.  Nevertheless, I should note that this is my first Haslab that didn’t seem to have any kind of manufacturing defect.  For me, the Barge has a problem with the prison cell door sliding fully open, while the Razor Crest’s sliding side door ramp gets stuck.  Here, I encountered no problems with any feature working as designed.

Before I get into the interior Displayset^™©® qualities, a note about the exterior paint.  Where there is paint, it looks nice.  There are various colored panels around the ship, and those are well worn with chips, scratches, and other weathering.  You may notice, however, that there is definitely a symmetry to these details, as the weathering is nearly the same patterns, in reverse, on their counterparts on the opposite side of the ship.  It’s not easily noticeable unless you look closely, but there’s definitely a bit of a lack of randomness here.  No big deal, really.  There is also some nice deep washes in the nooks and crannies where all the machinery and infrastructure can be seen, like on the “equator”, or the engines.  The engines are particularly done well, with lots of grease and burn marks at every crevice.  There are even some heavy grease lines at the rear of the hull that leads into the engine pieces.  All of this is done nicely.  The issue is that the majority of the hull is unpainted plastic.  It’s certainly not pristine like the much maligned paint job (or not paint job) on the Republic E-Wing.  But I would say it’s done with the same effort as the original TLC BMF Falcon, rather than the more recent Smuggler’s Run Falcon.  If you look at the SRF or the Razor Crest, both ships are covered in grease, stains, and weathering that affects every square inch of surface.  Aside from the aforementioned specific areas, the only other paint apps on the Ghost are a few streaks and splotches of grease, carbon scoring, etc.  Overall, I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just not to the level of the Razor Crest or SRF.  Now, the underside of the ship is utterly devoid of paint, with the exception of a couple of areas with exposed machinery, that are done well.  Unfortunately, that just makes the rest of the underside’s lack of paint more noticeable.  It’s a blank canvas.  Do I plan on hanging the ship from the ceiling?  No.  Will I ever look at the underside of the ship?  Probably not.  The problem is really collector perception.  If we feel there are shortcuts, that reduces the perceived value of the item as a high-end collectible.  I never felt that way with the Sail Barge or the Razor Crest, but it nags at me with the Ghost a bit.

The interior is pretty great, and frankly, that’s probably where the majority of the effort should have gone, as that’s where the figures will go, and if you plan on displaying your Ghost in a way that features the interior, then that’s all well and good.  Starting from the front, you get a great nose gunner station.  The chair swivels, and a figure can easily sit, with feet realistically positioned on the pedals and hands on the controls.  The twin cannon moves around, and there’s even an articulated HUD of sorts that is attached to the interior of the bubble nose canopy cover for the gunner to zero in on the target.  The cockpit has 4 swivel chairs that sit human figures comfortably (sorry Zeb), and the pilot/co-pilot can grip the controls nicely.  There’s some kind of dashboard piece to the pilot’s left that I can’t identify, but it moves around.  It must be something meaningful, but I’m not sure what it is meant to be.  The 4 chairs are different styles, indicating that Hera has sort of kept things together with a few random parts here and there.  Otherwise, the interior is painted nicely with a lot of control panels and readouts.  You can fit the whole crew in this space.  Additionally, there is a ladder leading down an opening to the deck below.  You can sort of fit a figure down there, but just as a hint of the cargo area.  All there really is down there is a small space that leads out the front ramp, which folds open.  On my ship, the ramp didn’t satisfactorily snap shut, it would rather stay ajar, apparently.  The cargo area is negligible, and can’t really fit a standing figure, except for Chopper.  Here is the first significant consolation to scale: the on-screen Ghost had an entire cargo area below deck, which is absent from this version.  Aside from that, when you place the canopy over the front area, everything looks great and stays in place.  It’s clearly inspired from a B17 cockpit, and it works nicely. 

Next is the crew quarters.  You’ve got a hallway that connects the cockpit to the rear living quarters, and on either side is a crew room.  One of the rooms belongs to Captain Syndulla.  Her bunk has a removable cover with some translucent molded plastic curtains, a nice touch that allows you to better position a figure inside.  There are a lot of nice details around the room.  Across the hall is a second room, with a double bunk.  This would be for Ezra (top bunk) and Zeb (bottom bunk).  Similar to Hera’s room, there is a removable cover for better access to the top bunk, minus the curtains.  Both figures can fit in their respective spaces.  And here’s the next concession to scale:  No cabin for either Sabine or Kanan.  Tough luck, Spectres, you’ll just have to take turns lying on the curved couch by the holochess table. 

Moving towards the back of the ship, you have the featured display space, which is large enough to have a big couch, holochess table, a couple of stools, a chair by a workstation, a picnic table, a weird wooden chair, and what I think is a kitchenette nook.  All the characters can fit comfortably here, whether eating, drinking, cooking, sitting, lounging, working, or playing holochess.  The holochess table has a notch to hold it in place while the swivel work chair is not removable, but the rest of the accessories are free to go wherever you want to put them.  The interior is very well done, and there are plenty of opportunities for display and photography. 

When the dorsal cover pieces are assembled, there is a rotating canon that goes in the top-center of the ship.  The pod has a clear canopy, and inside is a chair for a gunner, with controls to move the double guns.  There is an interesting bit of engineering here, in that you can raise and lower the gunner chair via a screw/lever in the back of the pod.  Edit: As pointed out in the comments, the switch can be moved without needing a screwdriver.  It offers resistance that I feared would break, but it worked once I put aside my fear of damaging it.  This allows you to fit different sized figures, like Zeb or one of the human crew.  I’m not sure why it needs to be changed via a screwdriver, but it works. 

And finally we have the Phantom II shuttle.  The little ship attaches by snapping it lightly into the designated space, and is easily removable just by an applying light force and pulling it.  The ship has some nice paint detailing/symbols, but is similar in concept to the larger ship.  It’s got some selected weathering, but also appears to be largely untouched - especially the underside.  There are four landing gear/legs that can be extended or retracted independent of each other.  The canopy opens and there is seating for 1 figure (not Zeb).  If you don’t realize just by the cockpit that this mini-ship is another casualty of scaling, the mini Chopper dome in the side droid socket will clue you in.  It’s like half the size of Chopper’s real dome.  This is completely understandable, but still disappointing.  One of my top wants for a mid-sized ship is this Sheathipede class shuttle, which appears all over the saga, but was most notable as Nute Gunray’s shuttle in all three PT films.  So I’m mostly disappointed that this shuttle can’t be repainted.  It’s fine as a mini Phantom II, but wouldn’t suffice as a regular shuttle.  In the show, the Phantom II has 4 seats in the cockpit, and a cargo area that would fit several more crew/troopers and equipment, and includes a loading ramp.  All of that is impossible with this underscaled version.

For reference, even though it was made clear during the campaign that the Phantom I we have from the 2015 Rebels line isn’t compatible, it does kind of fit in the slot on the top of the Ghost, it just isn’t perfect.  But you can do it in a pinch, if you like.  I suppose it would be possible for Hasbro to offer a compatible / undersized Phantom I separately, but I doubt that would happen.  (Here’s our review of the Rebels Phantom Attack Shuttle.)

As for the figures, they are all similar to previous releases, but there’s definitely some significant differences in accessories, paint, and sculpting.  Starting with Hera, we have what is probably the most different figure when compared to her Ahsoka outfit from VC300 General Hera Syndulla.  With the exception of the head and hands, it looks to be a unique sculpt.  Her Season 3/4 appearance is more of a traditional Rebel Pilot flight suit, while her Ahsoka outfit is more reminiscent of a WWII bomber pilot.  The figure is great, with a lot of nice paint details, and performs/poses similarly to VC300.  She comes with her family Kalikori talisman, which was recovered from Thrawn’s collection, a Meiloorun fruit (which she cannot really interact with), and an ankle holster for her pistol.  It’s a beautiful figure, but my complaint (aside from the inability to hold the Meiloorun) is that she is lacking the removable helmet/visor that she is holding in her right hand in the mural image, which is right on the card.  This would have been the time to include that accessory, while I feel the fruit was an afterthought that serves no real purpose.  That’s a miss.  But otherwise, the figure is outstanding, and one of the best of the year.  10/10 for both Heras.

Ezra is probably the least different from his previous release as VC319 Ezra Bridger (Hero of Lothal).  That was kind of a silly figure, because it was from a difficult to see hologram message.  But essentially it should be almost identical to his season 3/4 look - and it is.  This figure borrows most of the tooling from VC319, with the exception of slightly different torso/chest armor.  The paint is a bit different to add some variation to the trim on the tunic, but otherwise it’s the same figure.  He comes with the same lightsaber, hilt, and blaster.  The blaster doesn’t fit fully all the way into the holster, which was the same thing that happened with my VC319 sample.  This release includes Ezra’s Biker Scout helmet, a souvenir from one of his missions.  It’s been decorated by Sabine, and looks great.  Also included is a repaint of the lothcat, which came with the Sabine/Chopper two-pack.  This one is white, with striped ears.  Ezra is super posable, and looks great, it’s just the least exciting of the bunch because we essentially have it already other than the accessories.  I gave VC319 a 9/10, but I’ll add a point for the addition of the helmet and lothcat.

Kanan Jarrus is at the top of many people’s list for figure of the year.  Aside from the re-used upper legs and belt/holster assembly, the figure is all new.  That might be cause for concern since VC318 Kanan Jarrus was so well-received, but it works once again.  The outfit is from season 3/4, most notably with Kanan ditching the shoulder armor and growing a full beard.  The bigger deal is that this also depicts Kanan after he was blinded by Maul.  The full bearded face with longer ponytail also sports the pale-colored blind-eyes, rather than his natural blue.  He comes with a new accessory, which is the eye shield painted with jaig-eyes.  It fits nicely over his face, and looks great.  Additionally, there is another all new swappable portrait of Kanan after he shaved and cut his hair.  It’s the final look he sports before he sacrifices himself.  All of this is great, for sure.  In reality, Kanan also sported the bearded look before he was blinded, so we don’t have that version, nor of short-haired Kanan’s last moments, when his natural eye color briefly restored as he locked eyes with Hera just before his sacrifice.  Aside from the heads/mask, Kanan comes with the same blaster, lightsaber, and hilt.  Despite all the new parts, it’s once again an amazing figure, possible better than the first.  10/10.

Zeb is very similar to his original figure that came as a boxed deluxe version, but with some significant changes.  The shoulder armor is gone, and the chest armor and belt are new.  The head is all new, this time Zeb is smiling, although it looks a bit more diabolical than friendly.  The paint on the fur is a bit different, with some details mostly noticeable on the inside of the arms and the back of the calves.  And now he has painted toenails.  The figure comes with the same accessories as the deluxe version, that is a folded bo-rifle, and unfolded bo-rifle, and two electric effects.  This Zeb performs and poses in the same way as the first, and once again is an incredible figure, so it gets the same 10/10.

So I had previously reviewed Ezra myself, giving the original a 9, while upgrading the score here due to more accessories. Chris reviewed the original versions of the other 3 characters, giving them each 10/10, which didn’t change here, and you could argue any of the 3 might be even better than their originals.  My only real complaint between all 4 figures is the lack of Hera’s removable pilot helmet, which again, is important because she holds it in the mural.  It’s an amazing set of figures, and I’m sure for many collectors is as much, if not more, of a draw than the Ghost itself.

One last note: I threw in a fun group shot of as many characters as I could think of that spent time aboard the Ghost.  We all remember Hasbro’s comment about us getting nearly all the figures that interact with the Razor Crest.  Well the Crest lasted 14 episodes of The Mandalorian (and we’re still missing some important ones), while the Ghost lasted through 74 episodes of Rebels, as well as appearances in Rogue One, Ahsoka, and The Rise of Skywalker. So there is a lot more footage to go through.  Hasbro better get crackin’ if they’re going to make it worth my while to devote a huge amount of real estate to the Ghost.  So far, I’ve only got the Season 3/4 full crew (finally), 2 crew from season 1/2, and 3 crew from Ahsoka (4 if you include the holo Ezra).  I don’t believe we have any other figures that are meant to go with the Ghost, at least in their proper versions for those particular moments.  I vote we should start with Old Man Rex…

Overall, I think the figures are incredible, and the ship is an impressively huge display piece with a lot of display value that can be the centerpiece of your collection.  It’s got a lot of great features that are executed well.  Despite its enormous size, it had to understandably take some liberties with the scale limitations, so we lose the cargo level, two crew cabins, and get a significantly undersized Phantom II.  The reduced paint apps on the upper hull, and the almost complete lack of paint on the underside of the Ghost are disappointing; not deal breakers, but not great by any stretch.  Along with the reduced paint, the toy-ish feel of the plastic is more akin to the Falcon, rather than the premium feel of the Barge and Razor Crest.  Again, while that may make it feel less premium, it simultaneously reduces the fear I get that I might break those ships just by looking at them sideways.  It’s a lot of give and take, with the biggest take being the paint.  I would also throw in that I wasn’t enamored with this Haslab from the start, although I know many collectors had their dreams come true, so I’m happy for them.  I know a lot of people in our corner of the community feel similarly with regard to good will towards the Ghost, but there are plenty of those out there that would spend a lot of effort trying to sabotage the things they don’t like - like the Cantina.  Screw them with a cactus.  It’s too bad, because that type of behavior seems to have backfired, as a lot of well-intentioned people have already stated they won’t be supportive for the community’s sake the next time there’s a product they’re not personally interested in.

Anyway, with the arrival of this ship to my shelf along with the included awesome figures, I still feel like my display still grossly underrepresents Rebels, and takes up an inordinate amount of real estate.  While the Razor Crest didn’t make me jump over the moon like the Sail Barge either, at least we knew we already had a bunch of figures from that show, with many more in the pipeline.  I wish we had Rebels figures in TVC much earlier in the game, so I feel Hasbro still has quite a bit of work to do to help me justify the shelf space this thing demands.  Otherwise I’ve already mentally moved on to the Cantina.  In the end, while the Ghost might not be as impressively “premium” as the Razor Crest, it does seem more fun, and includes a much better selection of figures (scoring all 4 of them 10/10), so I’m going to give it a 9/10.