This product was sent to Bantha Skull by Hasbro for free.

Happy #TanoTuesday everyone! Have you heard of the tragedy of Darth Helmet the Huge?  There is an elephant in the room with this Vintage Collection Sabine Wren.  Actually, there’s two.  Perhaps they’re the conjoined elephants that Tim Conway talked about on the Carol Burnett show, but we’ll talk about the primary one first.  The helmet is obviously oversized.  Hasbro skipped right over regular size and went directly to “Mwah-ha-ha” size:

The bucket looks especially conspicuous on the diminutive Sabine Wren figure.  So strong has been the community backlash that Hasbro has come out and said that they are forgoing removable helmets going forward in favor of swappable heads.  This technique was executed to perfection with the VC226 - Bo-Katan Kryze release.  “Huzzah,” says this observer.  Fortunately in this case, the underlying figure is so strong that oversized helmet serves merely as a speed bump as opposed to an outright road block.

This Sabine Wren release was a breeze to photograph.  I was able to easily move from pose to pose which always puts a smile on my face.  The only premium point of articulation that’s missing is the hinged wrists.  It has the older swivel wrists.  Since this figure is both a pistoleer and a saber wielder, I can’t lie, and must admit that missing point of premium articulation is certainly conspicuous.  I don’t want to hear any excuses about it not being possible to add that style of articulation due to the figure’s waifish stature because the aforementioned Bo-Katan figure sports hinged wrists.  It feels like another example of the Vintage Collection being eaten away at the margins in the name of cost cutting, which brings me to the second elephant:  the price.

I believe this is the first time in the history of the dual scale Hasbro collector lines that a figure in the Vintage Collection is more expensive than its 6-inch counterpart.  This Sabine Wren retails for $27.99, whereas the Black Series version will only set you back $24.99.  I can only describe this as initially off-putting.  The 3.75” version does come with a trio of accessories that the 6” version does not.  They are the Loth Cat, which sports its own set of multiple paint applications, Sabine’s spray paint device, plus her messenger bag.  I’m particularly happy about the latter because it’s clearly visible on-screen in key moments, such as the mural live-action recreation scene from Episode 2 of Ahsoka.  Do these extra accessories justify charging more than the Black Series version?  Ehhh.  I don’t know.  I will say that I also have that TBS version in-hand courtesy of the Ahsoka media kit that we received (and was declared at the open of this review per FTC requirements).  I feel like the paint applications on this Vintage Collection version are more vibrant and pop more than its TBS counterpart, which is more muted.

The following will be several observations that don’t deserve their own paragraph.  I think the head sculpt is a great likeness.  It perfectly embodies Natasha Liu Bordizzo for me, but I’ve learned to accept that head sculpt likeness is highly subjective.  Some people think THIS head sculpt is good, so I expect some will disagree with me on this point.  The included Loth Cat has a single point of articulation with a swivel neck.  While not much, it does allow you to coax some extra expression out of the accessory that would not be possible if it were a static piece.  Finally, each of the included blasters has unique paint applications.  More so than the accessories, I think it’s obvious that it’s the paint applications that pushed this Sabine into the deluxe expression.  They are myriad between the figure, Loth Cat and accessories.  I can definitely see justifying this being more expensive than the main line $16.99 MSRP for that reason, but I struggle seeing raising the cost another $11. It’s unfortunate that Hasbro doesn’t have general release SKU before getting to the eye-popping $27.99 deluxe.  This figure feels somewhere in between the two.

I struggled mightily on the score for this.  Deducting a full point for the ginormous helmet is easy, but I weighed heavily deducting another full point for the swivel wrists.  Ultimately, I could not bring myself to mark this an 8 out of 10.  It’s too good for that (when it’s not wearing the helmet).  The overall appearance and poseability warrant a 9 out of 10.

This Vintage Collection Sabine Wren is sold out on both Amazon and Hasbro Pulse, so clearly the price point is not deterring collectors at large.  You can still preorder this figure from site sponsor Entertainment Earth HERE (or by clicking the image below).  It’s too good to skip, so I wouldn’t sleep on it: