Since we ran with a gallery and review of the POTJ Carbon Freeze Chamber yesterday, we’ve decided to follow up with a fresh look at this exclusive set.  Why?  Because, from a certain point of view, it’s the second version of the Bespin carbon freezing chamber released by Hasbro.  In 2012, this was first offered at SDCC, and then small quantities were later available online.  Meanwhile, we await the “third” release, later this year in TVC.

The packaging and the included carded Jar Jar Binks in Carbonite figure can be found nowhere else.  Each of the other six figures were released at brick in mortar in both standard TVC packaging, as well as this alternate homage to the “Lost Line” look.

The carbon chamber packaging is pretty nifty.  The six-sided cardboard canister is windowed, allowing you to see all of the six figures.  Each one represents one of the six films in the saga (to that point).  The top of the box can be flipped open and the six carded figures can be removed.

The top of the box is decorated to represent the platform of the Bespin carbon freezing chamber.  More interestingly, there is a sliding “trap door”, held in place by a bit of black velcro, which opens to reveal the carbon freezing pit.  Opening the door reveals a hidden carded figure of Jar Jar Binks with a carbonite block.  The figure is the same as VC108, although the cardback and the included block are unique to this set.  The block is two pieces, and fairly well sculpted (although lacking any paint details).  One side of the block’s insert shows a frozen Jar Jar, while the back side is hollowed out so you could fit the “thawed” figure.  This fits inside the second piece, which not only hides the back side of the first piece, but also has all the controls and dials on the sides.  Theres even a small hole on the back of the block which allows you to mount it on a wall.  In retrospect, too bad there’s no magnet, as it would go great with the Jabba’s Palace Adventure Set. 

For the record, neither Chris nor I actually removed the Jar Jar figure and block from the cardback.  We’re not insane.  The sample in the images was provided by our friend Greg, and Chris took the photographs in 2012 - hence our old timey black background.

What’s cool about this is that it’s much larger than the POTJ Carbon Freezing Chamber platform.  You struggle to display the proper figures on that tiny circular platform.  But this one holds them all, and looks great doing so.  For the purposes of the last photograph in the first gallery section, I took the smaller plastic platform from the POTJ set and placed it in the middle of the box top of this packaging to add some depth, but the point is that this box top can handle the whole group shot, and still give some semblance of proper social distancing. 

The set is nice.  You got 7 figures (including one exclusive) in a very unique package for $80, at a time when TVC figures were $10 each.  As of this writing, it will probably set you back almost $500 on Ebay, mostly due to the frozen Jar Jar.