Shadows Of The Dark Side

SOTDSMP

The Rise Of
Boba Fett

Info and Stats
Year:  
2010
MSRP:  
$109.99
Availability:  
Toys R Us Exclusive
Review by: Bret
Review date: 09/02/2010

Not great.

I’m really disappointed in the Slave 1 as a “toy”. As a display piece, it’s large and impressive looking. But most of the features are not well done. It comes with a repainted CW Jedi Starfighter, and 5 figures, some exclusive to the set.  I won’t talk much about the figures, because I don’t care about the cartoony look, so use the pics to judge for yourself.  I’ll focus this review on the Slave 1 itself.

The cockpit opens strangely. In the movies, characters enter the ship from the ramp in the back. The ramp, when extended has a slight curve to it, and no peg holes, so it’s not a great surface. The ramp leads to….NOTHING. You can just stand a figure in the space vacated by the ramp. Meh.  There’s a “prison/coffin/cell” thing to keep Boba’s bounties. It’s just a two piece container. Grey bottom, clear top. But there’s no way to “lock” a figure in place, so he just kind of floats in there.  The figure you put in there has to be of “average to small” size.  If Boba wanted to imprison Malakili, he’d have a hard time getting him in there.  You can use this container for storage of guns, missiles, whatever, if you wish.

One side of the ship folds open and can lock in the open position, to access the interior. But there’s nothing going on in the inside. Just a couple of pegs to stand a figure or two. You really can’t access the cockpit this way, which is why the whole front opens.

The cockpit opens with a large piece that includes the entire canopy, as well as the nose of the ship. Looks weird. It will actually lock into place in the open position, which you’ll need to maneuver figures into the the pilot and passenger seats.  The seat are narrow, with waist clips to hold figures in place. I tried to get the Vintage Collection Fett to get in there, and it’s not easy.  In fact, I couldn’t do it. You need to take his accessories off, and have him sit sideways, which is ridiculous.  The clips look like they might be removeable, but I was afraid to try.  In the pprevious Slave 1, there was a place for Fett’s Jetpack to mount, which was a neat detail. In this one, there is no obvious place for it, although there is a strangely placed peg hole which you can sort of use to mount the jetpack, but it’s positioned in such a way that it seems unlikely this was the intent.  There’s a picture above to see what I’m talking about.

When you do hold the large canopy open, the nose reveals a large slot, which might be able to hold a carbonite block, but it would seem dumb that such a thing would go in the front, rather than in the back.  I’m told that in EU art, the carbonite block of Han Solo can be seen behind Boba Fett as he pilots the ship.  That would make sense for this toy, if you could view the block over the pilot’s shoulder through the window, but you can’t.

The really cool rotating missile launcher on the top of the previous release is gone. That sucks.  While not screen accurate, it did a decent job of adding some “aggressiveness” to the toy so you could shoot down pesky Jedi Starfighters. It drops 2 of the mines like seen in AOTC asteroid field, which is 2 fewer than the previous release, and also are just plain gray, so are less interesting.  They are, however, shaped more accurately to the movie mines. The rotating cannons in the tail of the ship each fire a spring loaded missile, but this is weak compared to the firepower the onscreen ship showed, and is a poor subsititute for the rotating cannon on the previous model.

I’m not in love with the effort. As for the predicted ESB Slave 1 repaint, there’d better be some additions besides just a carbonite block.  This set is not worth the $110 pricetag if you are not interested in the other elements.  If it were a standalone ship, I’d expect to see it retail for about $65, like the Y-Wing.  Even that might be a stretch.  This is a decent $50 vehicle.  As far as the “BMF” series, I think it’s the weakest of the bunch.  It’s bigger and more impressive looking to display than it’s predecessor, but it lacks features that would make this pop.  If it had a more open interior that you could easily access from the back ramp, and maybe had more guns, it would be better.  We’ll see what the repaint brings.


5/10 Bantha Skulls

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