Mixing it up a bit here, as we take an unscheduled break from our continuing retrospective on The Vintage Collection.  I had this set unopened since I bought it, but recently had need for some of the figures as I was taking some pictures for a certain TVC figure that is upcoming.  I figured I might as well get this photographed for our galleries.

This set was a Disney Parks exclusive.  I can’t remember actually how I got it myself.  It was either online or by making a phone call.  Or maybe I got it from an independent toy website.  For a while, Disney was collaborating with Hasbro and issuing multi-packs inspired by the Star Tours ride at the park.  There were several multi-packs and several waves of individual carded figures over the years.  Since then, Disney moved on, for the most part, and now does their non-Hasbro build-a-droid bootleg craps.  Yeah, some of them are kinda cool, but in the end, they aren’t technically part of this collection.  I’m a (struggling) completist, and I have almost zero interest in the Disney droid variants.

With TVC, we’ve pointed out some figures that prove how deep the line used to be.  Figures that often nobody really asked for, but which were made because there were slots to spare; while collectors generally ate them up anyway.  This set is another example of the depth and breadth of Star Wars 3.75” figures.  You get 4 unnamed Jedi.  Unnamed!  You have “Jedi Master” and 3 “Jedi Padawans”, one of which seems like about a 10-year old (it uses an Anakin body), and two of which seem to be much younger (they use the Ashla and Jempa bodies).  None of them have any names!  And yet enough collectors were interested in this set that it is nearly impossible to get now.  Good luck finding this set on eBay. 

The padawans have minimal articulation.  The older boy has Anakin’s hinged knees, which are essentially useless.  They have all swivel joints.  The older padawan has a new soft goods robe, which works very well, but is also very thin.  They all have nicely sculpted and painted faces, and come with small lightsabers.  Unlike the padawans that came carded in the blue Saga (AOTC) line, they do not come with training helmets.

The Jedi Master has ball jointed shoulders and knees, but only cut elbows, swivel head, and no ankles.  He comes with a hilt, which includes the peg to fit in the belt hole, and has a separate green blade - a feature which was generally phased out in favor of lit and unlit hilts.  He has a soft goods skirt, but this does nothing to assist with range of motion, as there are no ball jointed hips to take advantage.  He comes with a typical Jedi robe, which is oversized.

Oh yeah, the set also comes with the now craptacular VOTC Darth Vader.  The one that basically can’t hold a lightsaber (I think I shaved a few weeks off the end of my life getting the images with the lightsaber).  Even when this set was available, if you wanted it for the Vader, you were the world’s worst collector.  It’s an afterthought, meant to add nonsense value and appeal.  It sucks.

I love this set.  I love that we have a total of 8 padawan kids in the line.  These are figures that wouldn’t even get a passing thought by the most rebellious Hasbro team member today.  Even at the time it was made, it probably caught the team by surprise, but they made it, and it’s fun.  The set was $35 at the time, which isn’t too bad for 5 figures (even though the Vader is an insult), although you probably would have had to pay some crappy shipping feesand make phone calls (phone calls!) to get it, unless you were within driving distance of a Disney park.  The figures certainly aren’t great by any measure, but their mere existence is pretty neat.

Here’s to the glory days of Star Wars!