Since Hasbro recently announced that a Carbon Freezing Chamber would be coming in 2020 in The Vintage Collection, we decided this would be a good time to go back and revised the 2001 Power of the Jedi version.

Nineteen years ago, the Star Wars Fan Club (that was a thing!) had this exclusive set.  For $25 (plus shipping), you could get this iconic set piece, along with a figure available nowhere else.  As with most playsets back then, they were generally built more for kids, and they had film-inaccurate action features that generally took away from the overall aesthetic.  But the main event was that it included the ability to freeze almost any figure in carbonite.  Neat!

As a diorama piece, it obviously is heavily inspired by the film set.  It has the grated platform and the stairs.  The main platform is raised, and has the freezing pit where the carbonite block goes to do its thing.  But it’s very small.  If you try to get all the necessary figures onto the platform, it won’t really work, unless you just jam them all on there.  Frankly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s simply irresponsible of Darth Vader to cram so many people into such a small space.

The main feature is the carbon freezing block.  The block itself has a hinged back, and is hollow.  The front is a nylon-like stretchy silver fabric (although the box art shows it as black).  The block is lowered into the chamber pit, and a lever attaches to the hinged back in the open position.  Meanwhile, a small elevating platform is raised and locked into the “up” position at the surface of the main grated platform.  Put a figure’s feet into the braces provided on the small figure stand, which slides into the small elevating platform, and you’ve prepped everything you need.

To activate the feature, unlock the small platform elevator, and lower it into the pit.  The attached figure “disappears” just like Han before he said “I know.”  Once the figure is lowered to the bottom of the pit, it is positioned just behind the opened carbon block.  Pushing another lever on the side of the set then closes the block, with the door itself then capturing the figure and sliding it and the attached foot stand off the small elevator and into the block itself, with the door now closing behind it.  Now raise the block to the surface, and the front of the figure pushes the nylon webbing forward, in a way intended to imitate the carbonite form. 

Once you get used to it, the feature works fairly well, even if the result leaves something to be desired.  You just get the block with some bumps in nylon from the face, belly, and toes of the figure inside.  It certainly doesn’t take on any of the details of the figure, so they pretty much all look the same. 

I remember back in the day, there was some collecting website that had a contest where they put a bunch of different figures inside the carbonite block, and challenged you to identify them.  It was nearly impossible, but I did try.  Didn’t win, though.

As for the other features, there’s a swivel cannon with a launching missile (why not?), a “flip” console so you can launch figures away (probably inspired by Chewie going berserk for a moment), a prison cell which holds a figure, a hinged computer console to expand the lower environment area, and…I think that’s it.

Oh, and included is the exclusive Bespin Guard, possibly one of the worst figures Hasbro ever made, even by 2001 standards.  The likeness was often mocked to be similar to that of David Duchovny.  Aside from that oddity, the horrible sculpt, paint job, and lack of any accessory made this figure an absolute dud.  Even stranger, was that Hasbro had released a fairly decent (for the time) carded Bespin Guard right around the same time in the POTJ basic line.  They should have taken that figure and given it a new head sculpt, rather then sculpt this all-new monstrosity.

Overall, it wasn’t bad for the day.  But now that Hasbro is revisiting it in 2020, we’ll have to see if this still has any value to the adult collector once we can compare.  Sure, the new one won’t have any of the play features, but some people may still prefer it for whatever reason.  We’ll find out soon enough.  As far as I’m concerned, beyond the kitsch of the carbon freezing feature, the only thing this is good for is using just the main platform and stairs as a tiny environmental piece, and ditching almost everything else included in the box.