We hope to boost your spirits with this fine review on the eve of Halloween.  It’s even got a Halloweenie color scheme to get you in the mood.  Does this X-Wing release make up for the rather disappointing TFA release?

In the immortal words of Jar Jar Binks, “No, not really, no.”  If you’ve bought, or even just seen, the TFA release of POE Dameron’s “Black One” release, then you already can guess what you’re getting here, it’s essentially a repack, with a couple of minor changes. 

First, on a basic level, the vehicle is a disappointment.  It’s a smaller scaled X-Wing, which would normally be okay, if priced properly as a budget vehicle - about $25.  But for $50, you should expect…no, demand... a “big wing” version of this vehicle.  As such you’re already turned off by the price. 

Forgetting that killer for a moment, the vehicle itself isn’t bad.  It has a good sculpt of the sequel-era T-70. The split wings offer a distinct design difference over the older T-65.  There is a single manually-adjusted landing gear at the nose of the ship.  The cockpit works as expected.  The built-in BB-8 is a button that opens the wings, while a switch right behind the droid closes the wings.  That BB-8 has an articulated head, but is otherwise more of an eyesore.  Since the ship has a switch to deactivate the wings, Hasbro should have made the switch do double duty, and then they could have included an actual BB-8 figure.

It has a launching plastic missile underneath, which travels a good distance.  The paint applications are solid.  Overall, it’s a decent looking compact ship (again, if you forget the price).  The nose of the ship is a separate soft rubber piece which may easily warp over time.  It seems that the wingtip canons are slightly sturdier than the previous release, which are warped on mine, even though I just took them out of the package yesterday to do the comparison shot at the end of this gallery. 

The biggest difference from the TFA release is potentially the reason you would want this.  The “booster” engine is nothing more than a separately sculpted, silver/grey hunk of plastic that only attaches to the existing engine plate on the back of the ship.  It appears that plate is probably a new sculpt in order to accommodate and connect with the new booster.  I was unable to remove the booster for a closer look, but basically, it’s big a gray claw holding onto the back of the ship.  The “plumbing” is actually not attached to the body of the ship at all.

Other than that, the only differences are the inclusion of the Force Link chip and new painted weathering details, because the ship is now older, of course.

The figure is essentially identical to the one packed in the TFA release, which is to say, not great.  The 5POA sculpt is average, the paint applications are poor, at best, although the face on this one is painted way better (my TFA Poe had an eye painted almost on his eyebrow).  Poe does have the Force Link chip, though.  It is light years ahead of the carded release from TFA, with the removable helmet.

So this ship is superior to the previous release, with weathered paint, a new engine, stronger plastic, and the Force Link.  But even with that stuff, the price is truly awful, and the undersized wings make this a likely pass for most collectors.  This ship may make you angry.