“Shadows Of The Dark Side” Vehicles That Got Away

First off, we should discuss the line name before delving into the meat of the article. This line look is commonly known as the "Shadows of the Dark Side" line because of the ominous dark clouds swirling around Rex as the onset of the Galactic Empire was nearing, but that is not the line's official name. I believe this was still called the Legacy Collection for movie based vehicles and simply The Clone Wars for the animation based vehicles. You can confirm that for yourself by checking out the instruction sheets for the AT-AT HERE and the Mandalorian Assault Transport HERE. In each case, notice the name under the Star Wars logo.

To the best of my recollection, "shadows of the dark side" was coined by Dan Curto, and it (as well as the acronym SOTDS) kinda gained traction within the community. That's pretty cool. It is also sometimes referred to as the "Blue Skies" line. Hasbro, this is what you do to us when you don't put the line look name on the box. A man likes a guarantee line name on a box. It makes him feel good. Regardless of the second nomenclatural confusion in the modern line (always with the blue packaging for some reason), this was the golden age of the "mid-sized" vehicles. The pace was so fast and furious that I was forced to skip some of the releases. Now that I have more display space, getting the vehicles I want would require a second mortgage. This is why I now advocate to err on the side of "buy" when on the fence. These things are almost always least expensive when they're on the primary market. Let's look at the ones I regret not having in my collection.

---

This release was had to find from day one. Because so many vehicles were released during this time, and because they were often carried forward, the inventory at brick and mortar started backing up. Orders for this "end of line" case assortment were far and few between, and the online game wasn't what it is currently. If you can find one today, be prepared to fork over 300+ greenbacks. If you know of this release, but don't own it, you might know that Hasbro gave it the wrong name. Is really a Mandalorian Shuttle, not Transport. This is important because you may have winced a bit when the “fighter/transport” showed up as Bo-Katan's ride in The Mandalorian. I did. The only thing that soothes not owning this ship is that it's the more bus-like shuttle from The Clone Wars, and not the sleeker fighter seen in live action. Still, it’s possibly the closest we’ll come to Bo-Katan’s ship, unless it features prominently in future media.

Mandalorian Assault Transport on Ebay

---

My reason for skipping this when it was initially released is simple: there was no Vintage Collection (or other realistically styled) 3.75" Cad Bane in existence. Why on Earth should I need his vehicle? Well, now we have a TVC Bane pipelined and I want his damned modified Mangaguard Fighter! We're not going to have a lot of context for that upcoming Cad Bane figure, and vehicles provide instant context. If you want one now, be prepared to shell out 100 simoleons, palooka.

Cad Bane's Xanadu Blood on Ebay

---

WHY DID I SKIP THIS ONE? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? It's in Revenge of the Sith. That should have given me all the motivation I needed for handing over the $30, which seems like a drop in the bucket in 2023. Be prepared to shell out around 200 clams if you want to track one of these down now. Hey, I bet you think I've run out of slang words for "dollar". NOT EVEN REMOTELY! I've got more, Jack!

Separatist Droid Gunship on Ebay

---

This one hurts. It really hurts, because it's not really one that got away. I actually owned the AV-7. I bought it because it was different and intrigued me, not in a Star Wars sense, but in a Star Wars toy sense. This felt more like a G.I. Joe toy. I had it in my collection, but never got around to opening it. So after a few years I sold it to clear up some storage space. After shipping and fees, I didn't even recover my costs. If I want to undo this mistake, it's going to cost me around 100 smackeroonies. That's a lot of lettuce, salad, scratch, ya big galoot.

AV-7 Mobile Cannon on Ebay

---

comments powered by Disqus