Along with the TAC Emperor Palpatine with Shadow Stormtroopers, this makes a pair of 3-packs in support of The Force Unleashed that retailed for $14.99 in 2008.  It was a great deal.  Here you get a Darth Vader which was pretty good at the time, along with a pair of repainted stormtroopers that were also decent for the time.  Like the Palpatine set, this hasn’t aged well at all.  The Vader is more or less obsolete (although it can look decent), while this VOTC based stormtrooper mold has happily been retired. The stormtroopers are a unique type that cannot be found anywhere other than this set, and you get a pair to flank the Dark Lord of the Sith.  It was a good set for a good value, especially if you’re a fan of the game.  If not, this might be something you should overlook.

Darth Vader

This is a repack of the VOTC Darth Vader.  In 2004, that figure was pretty cool.  In 2008 when this set came out, it was still decent, but was starting to show its age.  By 2019, it’s just trash.  The figure has pretty awful swivel elbows, and it lacks ankle articulation of any kind.  The cape material is very flimsy.  Vader’s handsfree sculpted very wide open.  The right hand is just barely able to hold the lightsaber, and only if you very carefully position the hilt in a certain way.  A THWG (two handed weapon grip) is impossible.  The figure does have a ball jointed neck, which is pretty neat, but other than that, there’s really nothing here.  This Darth Vader displays fairly well, but everything else about it will make you angry.  Oh, and don’t think we didn’t notice that this is actually an ESB/ROTJ Vader.  It really should be an Episode IV Vader.  For that, you’d want to use VC93.  Forget this figure, and get TBS #06, at least until Hasbro gives us an ultimate ESB/ROTJ dueling Vader.

Incinerator Trooper [two figures]

This Incinerator Trooper is another stormtrooper variant introduced by The Force Unleashed.  A lot of fans were fearful that TFU was turning the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps into the “skittles” varieties that were once common among Republic Clone Troopers.  This figure has a unique dark red pattern.  They would seem to be more at home alongside Emperor Palpatine than Darth Vader.  These troopers were equipped with flamethrowers, and their main role, according to Wookieepedia, were to set an example on behalf of the Empire when communities get out of line.  They would raze rebellious settlements to the ground, not caring if any innocents were caught up in the flames.  Apparently these were clones, and were raised specifically to have pyromaniacal tendencies.  Nice, huh?

Just like most of the other stormtrooper figures in the TFU lineup, this is based on the VOTC mold.  Like Vader, it was cool at the time, but the release of VC140 has thoroughly rendered this figure mold obsolete.  It’s got all of the problems we’ve documented numerous times (frustrating articulation, limited leg posability, rigid hands that don’t hold the blaster well, and a less than stellar helmet sculpt.  This figure still maintains some value, however, as it is the only example of an Incinerator Trooper in the entire line.  It also appears that these troopers were specific to TFU, and never appeared in any other source material.  A repack of itself was included in this set.  The sculpt isn’t good, but the unique paint job makes this set worth looking at, especially since you get two of them.