World-Building:  The Empire Strikes Back

Here is the next installment in our series that takes a close look at the 3.75" world-building potential of each major source in The Saga.

In case you missed it, the first discussion was a deep dive look at A New Hope. After some reader feedback, we updated the scoring in that article to better reflect the dual nature of the world building potential of a particular scene (rated on an awesomeness scale of 0-10) as well as a score relative to that potential based on current availability of relevant product.

For example, a score of 3/4 would indicate that a display of the scene is nearly complete, but has a relatively low potential for "wow" factor, even if fully completed. A score of 6/10 would indicate that Hasbro has some work to do to fill the gaps, but if completed, the scene could serve as the centerpiece of any collector's display.

Now we'll take a look at The Empire Strikes Back. While often the fan favorite when ranking all the films and sources, ESB is usually not regarded with quite as much fondness when you look specifically at the world-building potential of supporting toys. The lack of interesting aliens is one of the main problems that makes ESB a bit less "toyetic" than other sources. But let's see how our displays fare...



Hoth Wilderness

Like the deserts of Tatooine, there's not a ton of potential for Hasbro to offer much in the way of environments or playsets. We do have some ice formations that provide a bit of the interior of the wampa's cave and give us a place to have Luke suspended upside-down in ice. Definitely cool accessories, but a complete cave would do that particular scene justice. Otherwise, we have some very nice modern figures, beasts, and a Probe Droid to recreate everything you might want - just without any Hasbro-made backgrounds.

World Building Score: 3/4

What we have is pretty top notch, if limited. The scenes are definitely memorable, but don't require much in the way of amazing toys. You're generally not going to be stunned by a couple of figures and Probot, or Luke and a Wampa. Also, these vignettes even work in that other scale, so there is less to consider "unique" or "special" here when it comes to 3.75".

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Echo Base (Interior)

This would be similar to our Yavin Base assessment. For Echo Base, we've got a ton of main characters, droids, rebel officers and soldiers, a couple of environmental accessories, tauntans (and wampas if you want deleted scene stuff) and plenty of vehicles. And don't forget all the snow troopers (with E-Web cannons!) and Vader himself to complete the assault at the end of Act 1. We've got some real backgrounders like Toryn Farr and R-3PO, and when you lay everything out on a table, it seems that with a couple of exceptions, most of the figures missing are of characters that are of the extremely deep cut variety. We could always use more pilots and soldiers, but we have nearly every figure we could want. We've even got an awesome control panel and the Bacta Tank. Any time we have an action figure of someone in a diaper, we have to acknowledge that we're almost done.

World Building Score: 6/8

What don't we have? Any Echo Base playsets. A simple hallway in the vein of the Tantive set would do wonders. Being able to interconnect the hallways with some control panels on the B side would be an outstanding way to drive up the wow factor of an Echo Base display, especially if they could be double dipped for a hangar background. If Hasbro could design such a playset with this type of versatility, collectors would buy them up in multiples. Would it be as awesome as a HasLab-style Echo Base? No, but a $50 double-sided wall playset, if designed well, could do the trick. While I think Yavin has a bit more "wow" appeal with the circular command console and the celebration dais, Echo Base would be nearly as awesome if completed with a viable playset. Oh yeah, we also need a modern Rebel Troop Transport. A zeppelin-shaped starship that has no aggressive action features would be a huge win...

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Echo Base (Exterior)

Once again, the exterior shots of Hoth are pretty desolate, and don't make for good playsets. The exception might be a Rebel trench, similar in concept the old Kenner set, or the POTF2 version. We already have some nice accessories with the small tripod cannon, the rider dish, and the laser cannon bunker, along with a highly varied mix of rebel soldiers. Our AT-AT's, AT-ST's, and snow speeders look great anywhere. A homemade white background is enough to help everything a simple anchor which would be some distance away from the trenches.

World Building Score: 5/6

A trench would provide a nice and dramatic environment to display the Rebel soldiers as they defend Echo Base from the Imperial assault. It could come with a Ledick Firest (and even an interchangeable head for more variety). And to perhaps add another reason for this playset, if designed well, it could be repurposed as a Mimban trench, which could include a mud trooper (which, in turn, could get a new head sculpt for a Han Solo release, which could then get the recently revealed "mud texture paint apps" that Hasbro has been cooking up, and added to a two pack including Chewbacca with the same mud paint apps minus the bandolier....then we're starting to roll with a Mimban theme that could be worth world-building...

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Dagobah

Here we've got some cool stuff. We've got various Luke figures (pilot, jumpsuit, tank-top), muddy R2, ghost Obi-Wan, Yoda, Techno Music Luke-Faced Vader, a swampy X-Wing, a dragonsnake, and a bunch of accessories like Luke's survival kit. Again, we've got just about everything we need except a proper environment. And it's a particularly notable absence due to it having been produced by Kenner back in the day.

World Building Score: 5/7

If there's one thing I can't abide, it's not having a modern counterpart to a Kenner product. And I'm not talking about the flippin' packaging! My previous sarcasm regarding the viability of the Rebel Troop Transport aside, that vehicle, along with Yoda's Dagobah hut, are a couple of egregiously absent items from the modern Hasbro lineup. A proper home for the exiled Jedi Master is badly needed. It could improve on the Kenner model by having a cross section of the hut, so you can recreate Yoda making gruel for Luke inside, or conducting hasty Jedi training outside. Bookend it with a couple of tree trunks with a vine to swing on, and you've got something that would kick up your display significantly.

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Asteroid

The interior of the "asteroid" is a scene that we can pretty faithfully recreate in 3.75" scale with the Falcon and the appropriate hero characters, along with their oxygen masks and the Mynock accessories. The only thing missing is the dark, misty esophagus of the space slug. It's probably something we could safely live without.

World Building Score: 2/2

While the aforementioned toys make for a complete, yet simple, display which is pleasing to the eye, the potential for improvement here is almost 0 on an otherwise relatively bland set-piece.

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Executor Bridge

Here's an easy one. We've already got Vader and several officers, though Captain/Admiral Piett is in DIRE need of an update. I'm not usually the biggest proponent of upgrading existing characters, but Piett's situation is a true travesty. We also have the entire Bounty Hunter lineup. There are few 3.75" displays that cry out for a suitable background playset than this.

World Building Score: 5/7

There are few scenes that are more memorable than Vader assembling the bounty hunter scum on the bridge of the Executor. Hasbro would do collectors a great favor by creating a playset that could double as the bridge mezzanine with windows, as well as the control pit below. If it could be designed in such a way as to also provide a more neutral backdrop option, it could be used for any capital ship hallway, or even as a simple backdrop to the (not so great anymore) Meditation chamber from a million years ago. While relatively simple when compared to a Cantina or Jabba's palace diorama, having a versatile Star Destroyer bridge playset that could be used for setups across various scenes and media would be a huge win for collectors, and would specifically push your iconic bounty hunter lineup to another level.

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Cloud City

Cloud City is a bustling location in ESB, and we have some nice figures to populate it. We're missing a few characters, and even an update or two would be nice. But with the pending arrival of potentially definitive versions of Lando and Lobot, it's time that Hasbro did Cloud City justice. We have all the heroes, along with Fett, Vader, the stormtroopers, several guards, pilots, and even backgrounders like ugnaughts and Willrow Hood. We've got the recently released Carbon Freezing Chamber, as well as the Han Solo Torture rack. We even have a small bit of the gantry and the antennae assembly that Luke clings onto when he's rescued. And for good measure, we've got the Falcon, Red 5, Slave I, and a cloud car.

World Building Score: 4/7

We need an upgraded Bespin Gown Leia, as well as figures for unmade guards like Helder Spinoza and Pedar Solardo (again, Kenner has a leg up on Hasbro here). The "human ugnaught" is a fan favorite, an officer body update could result in a reason to release a Lt. "Jeremy Bullock" Sheckil, while Schmool Flemington is certainly waiting for his chance at 3.75" plastic immortality. While some of the rooms such as Vader's Dining Room, Leia's Apartment, the prison cell, the torture room, and the smelting room would all make for some nice environments for our figures, there is again an opportunity for a double-sided wall playset. If Hasbro could design a set that works as the main hallways/rotunda while the B-side could be the gantry/underbelly, it would do our displays an outstanding service. Maybe include a Bespin Guard with swappable heads, and I would buy several.

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That about wraps it up for the film that many collectors regard as the best in the whole saga. But those same collectors would say that it's also probably the least toyetic film, with very few aliens, and not a lot that translates particularly well into 3.75" displays. We are missing very few notable action figures, and most of our ESB wishlists are pretty short at this point. But Hasbro could really up the ante by getting out those few remaining figures and offering simple playsets for Echo Base, the Executor, and Bespin. A proper Dagobah environment would be pretty awesome as well.

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