Lieutenant Callahan isn’t a character that had a ton what could translate into meaningful toy context.  She’s never actually on screen with anyone else.  She pilots her E-Wing and lands it ahead of Sabine on the road out of Lothal’s Capital City.  She’s got a few lines and some solo screen time as she watches Sabine maneuver past her makeshift road block and away from the city.  Nevertheless, she has a vital role in our collections if you already own an E-Wing.  Every ship in TVC should have a proper pilot, and every pilot should have a ship.  That’s how this works. 

Hasbro has recently stated they are more or less doing away with their pipeline program, which is when they announce upcoming items that don’t have a physical prototype toy that is ready to be shown.  This was done in response to fans begging for more reveals.  We fans, of course, have no business sense, so while we got what we asked for, it wasn’t really what we wanted.  Pipeline reveals seem to have had the opposite effect than what we imagined.  Instead of getting us excited for items that were coming down the road, they gave us more time to complain and critique the choices, without even seeing images of the actual product.  So, correctly, Hasbro nixed this nonsense.  However, there are occasions when a pipeline reveal does make sense, and that would be the case with Lieutenant Callahan.  On February 7, 2024, the E-Wing vehicle was revealed and put up for pre-order.  The obvious question from collectors was, “what about a pilot?”  Hasbro didn’t have anything to show us for a pilot, but rather than keep us on edge, and in order to assist with the pre-sales of the E-wing, Hasbro smartly pipelined Callahan so we would all sleep well at night knowing our ships would have their proper pilots. 

Now, that’s the positive take.  An alternative question would have been, “Why isn’t the pilot included with the ship, like General Antoc Merrick (Blue Leader).”  None of us fully understands the why and how that goes into Hasbro’s decisions, but without any knowledge of the situation, on the surface it would seem to make sense to do that.  If nothing else, Callahan is kind of an odd character to assign a precious basic figure slot (Fan Channel slot, to be precise).

So here we are, with a new sculpt for a minor character.  Presumably this can be repainted/retooled into other New Republic pilots, such as Porter (the other pilot in the Sabine roadblock scene) or maybe some from the (gasp) Sequels.  I’m actually not sure why some pilots in the newer media have an updated color scheme with newer equipment from the New Republic, and other pilot seem to still be using Rebellion-era flight equipment, like Carson Teva and Trapper Wolf.  Feel free to comment below if there’s an in-universe answer aside from the equipment just undergoing a transition period while it gets fielded across the entire military.

As for the figure, it’s quite good, but well short of perfect.  Most of what you’d expect in a TVC figure in 2025 is here, but sadly, that’s not necessarily a good thing across the board.  This is a solid re-tool, making smart use of pieces from the new X-Wing pilot buck which debuted as VC158 Luke Skywalker, and was most recently used in the Pilot 4-pack.  A lot has been said about Hasbro re-using tooling for male and female versions of a character (pilot, trooper, etc.). Personally, I’m not upset by this, as the flight equipment worn would tend to mask many of the potential differences.    The sculpt appears to re-use the arms/hands and thighs/upper legs, while getting a new head, torso, lower legs, and feet.  An advantage of the re-use is that Callahan is the rare female figure these days that has ball jointed wrists (as do the 2 female pilots that come with the X-Wing 4 pack).

The palette is obviously completely different from the traditional X-Wing Pilot orange with black accessories.  Here, we get a blue uniform, with white accessories.  The new head is excellent (if not actually a twin of the actress).  The flight gear comes with a new pilot feature, what appears to be a radio attached to a hose.  The device clips to a notch on the belt, and can be held in the figure’s hand for communication purposes.  I actually wasn’t entire sure what this was, until I went back and looked at the official images.  It’s not a separate accessory, but behaves as such.  The removable helmet is beautifully painted in bold colors with great detail.  Callahan comes with what looks to be a BlasTech DL-44 (“Han Solo blaster” for less nerdy types).  Like previous releases of this base sculpt, there is no holster, which is a bit frustrating.  The pilots need a place to store their blasters, and I’m not comfortable with where Hasbro must assume they are stored when not in use.

Aside from the lack of a holster (a recurring frustration in Star Wars figures), there are a few other things that detract from what could easily be a nearly perfect figure.  I feel the plastic used on this figure is a bit too pliable.  That happens sometimes, and when it does, it means it can be more challenging than necessary to pose the figure, because the joints tend to want to return to “home” position, when you’re engaging them.  It just means you have to put in a little extra effort when posing, but it’s not the end of the world.  Notably, the figure lacks any paint wash or weathering.  That is also par for the course these days.  I didn’t feel like Callahan needed to look battle-worn, but her uniform does look like she just got off the parade grounds.  And since the parts were re-used from the original that is now over 5 years old, Callahan doesn’t have the new hip joints, nor do the elbows and knees go past 90 degrees.  While I am noting these shortcomings, I’m willing to overlook the joint issues because, as I wrote earlier, I believe this is a smart re-use of tooling to get us this E-Wing pilot/background character.

Great looking figure, and goes perfectly with the E-Wing and “Kenner” astromech.  Older sculpt/articulation, but I’m willing to forgive in cases like this.  9/10.