Yesterday was an outstanding day.  The Knicks took a 2-1 lead over Detroit, and the Giants slam dunked the draft.  They did the smart thing and took a great prospect, Abdul Carter, at #3, avoiding the temptation to reach for a QB that wasn’t worth that pick.  They then made a momentous trade back into the 1st Round, and grabbed their QB at #25.  Jaxson Dart is from Ole Miss just like Eli Manning, and so as one clairvoyant Twitter user stated, “2 Super Bowl wins confirmed.”  Chris also let me know that he is a huge Star Wars fan (applying his eye black over his right eye like Anakin’s scar).  I’m sure he likes EU rabbits as well.  Now we absolutely need a Jaxxon figure in TVC, complete with blasters and a Giants helmet accessory.  It shall be my #1 for next year’s March Madness.  The campaign begins forthwith!

(click for the full sized image)

Enough of that.  On to more important matters.  I’ve decided that any day of the week is eligible to be a “Fun Day” review, and this week was full of them, with several nonsense figure galleries being posted.  Today’s is a continuation of that, with the Endor Troop Builder Set from 2002.

4 years earlier, Hasbro released this exact same figure in the POTF2 Freeze Frame line.  For the record, we also just posted this figure as part of our continuing effort towards world domination.  The figure was pretty terrible at the time, and aging 4 years didn’t help its case when it was part of the “Blue” Saga line.

Known as “Endor Rebel Soldier” on its basic POTF2 card, it was essentially renamed Endor Troop[er] for this set.  Going forward, I wish LFL and Hasbro could just name the troops based on their function, and not the planet.  This should be a Rebel Forest Trooper, or something like that.  I’m sure the mob would hate the TVC name pill, but this is really what it should be.  Collectors and fans would still call it “Endor” unofficially, but the name just doesn’t make sense.

He’s got 6POA, while also being in a slight walking pose.  The right hand is sculpted to hold the rifle well (although obviously the arm can only be extended straight outward).  The left hand is sculpted a bit awkwardly, almost as if there was a thought that it could hold the barrel in a two-handed weapon grip, but the lack of helpful articulation renders this useless.  As it is, it can’t really hold the rifle well, so there shall be no lefty troopers for you!

The backpack is removable, for whatever that’s worth.  The helmet is not removable, although this was updated in 2007 during the TAC line.  There was a series of 4-pack sets, 1 for each of the 6 films, in commemorative tins.  For the ROTJ set, Hasbro dusted off the molds for this base figure, retooled the neck, and gave us a unique (but very distinctive) head.  That one also had removable helmet, and received all new paint apps.  But unless you’re a collect them all schmuck (like this guy), you can pass on any and all of them.

This was packaged as an unremarkable mail-away white box.  The four troopers were crammed into the little box.  We can mock it, but if it saved a few bucks, I wouldn’t care if Hasbro offered basic troop builders in this format, even forgoing the current 4-pack troop builder sets if the figures within were all identical.  Give me 4 basic stormtroopers in this format, and I’m happy.  During the Saga run, Hasbro also released a stormtrooper set and a Rebel Fleet Trooper set in this same format.

And that’s all I have to say about that.