World Building: The Phantom Menace

Posted by Bret on 10/04/21 at 07:05 AM Category: Hasbro, Vintage Collection, #FightforTVC, World Building

Next up in our series on 3.75" world-building, is The Phantom Menacei.

For your convenience, heere are links to our previous articles. For scoring of each scene, we judge the currently available 3.75" world-building assets against the potential for future world-building (max of 10) if Hasbro were to fill the gaps - tempered by "awesomeness." 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 indicates that Hasbro has some work to do to fill the gaps, but if completed the scene could serve as a centerpiece of any collector's display.

World Building:
A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

There was perhaps no film in history that was as highly anticipated as The Phantom Menace. At the time of release, there seemed to be a mix of "That was amazing to see Star Wars on the big screen again," along with "it had its moments, but it wasn't as good as the originals." It seems that time has been a bit kinder to the PT films. Perhaps it's because a lot of grumpy fans have simply grown to accept and appreciate the PT for what it is, or it could be a more recent development due the tepid reception given to the Sequel Trilogy. Regardless of how one might feel about the PT, it does seem that George Lucas used his skills and new technologies to present tons of characters, beasts, vehicles, and environments that were potentially more toyetic than anything before. Hasbro certainly capitalized, and consumers and collectors benefitted. The Phantom Menace merchandizing blitz was on a level never before seen in pop culture. The hype got me into collecting, after having cast aside my childhood Kenner toys many years before. So how are we looking from a world-building standpoint? Like the previous OT articles, we'll take a look at all the scenes in TPM. However, due to the much wider array of sets and locations, we'll just group these scenes together by planet/major set piece, rather than breaking them down by individual scenes.

The Phantom Menace (1999)

Trade Federation command ship

The film opens with a Republic cruiser landing on board a Trade Federation control ship. We see the interior of the diplomatic vessel's cockpit, with the two pilots. We then see the Neimodians in their command deck, followed by the Jedi inside a conference room, the ship's interior hallways, and finally the docking bay. There's a lot to digest here, especially given that it's the first scene in a Star Wars film in 16 years. Other than the action that takes place in the hallways and the tension/characters in the command deck, there's not a lot that excites collectors here. We've got most of the necessary figures, even if a few are a dated. We've got Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, TC-14, Nute Gunray, Rune Haako, Daultay Dofine, and hologram versions of Darths Sidious and Maul. We've also got Battle droids, security battle droids, Droidekas (with shields!), and rolling Droidekas. We've also got an odd R2-D2 carry case that doubles as a Trade Federation hallway that includes a door to the bridge, complete with a decal that captures the molten metal cut caused by Qui-gon's lightsaber blade.

World Building Score: 4/5

A few of the figures might use an upgrade (like Nute Gunray), but the really the only missing figure of note here is Tey How, the female Neimoidian pilot of the command ship. A bridge environment would be a neat display piece, especially if it had working doors (and something allowing you to recreate the aforementioned lightsaber damage), along with a conference table that could double as the command room where the Neimoidians communicate with Sidious as well as the room where the Jedi are almost assassinated. Such an item seems like it would be extremely low on the priority list, to the point where it's not even a feasible product at this point. If Hasbro didn't crank one out in the aftermath of TPM's release, it's probably not happening. Nevertheless, it would provide an excellent backdrop for the aforementioned figures, especially if it came with a Tey How and her pilot's chair and console. Even less likely would be a Republic diplomatic cruiser, or a hanger environment, which you might use to recreate either the assembly of the Naboo invasion force (which we have toys for), or even the later scene during the final battle when Little Ani crash lands his starfighter. Not happening. What we have allows you to set up nice vignettes on your shelf, but without proper environments, they don't really pop. Frankly, even with environments, they're not the most visually exciting scenes anyway.

Naboo Swamp / Otoh Gungah

After the Jedi escape the Trade Federation ship by hiding on board ships from the invasion force, we get to see the Trade Federation droid army components. For toys, we have the droids, the MTT, ATT's, and STAPs. We'll never see the giant CT-9979 landing craft, and that's just fine. When the Jedi bump into Jar Jar Binks, we are introduced to a whole new species, as well as one of their underwater cities in Otoh Gungah. We've got Jar Jar, Boss Nass, Captain Tarpals, Rep Been, and several versions of Gungan Warriors. Some of the figures, again, are a bit dated, but they are nice when set up in a display.

World Building Score: 4/6

Other than an eventual longshot in Boss Nass or the STAP, it's unlikely Sixers would get any of these figures or vehicles. These scenes lend themselves to 3.75" world-building, but again, much of this isn't at the top of anyone's list. We certainly wouldn't see a generic Naboo Swamp environment, but what might be more interesting would be the Gungan Sacred Place which is seen later in the film with the Naboo and Gungans decide to team up to fight their common enemy. I personally would love to see that one day, complete with the ruins of the ancient statues. As far as figures go, the most diverse setup would be Boss Nass's council room. Something akin to the Jedi Temple sets could work here, but unless we had more Gungan Councilors like Rep Been (who would need to sit), it seems this wouldn't ever happen. Finally, we don't have the Gungan sub ("Tribubble Bongo"), which is too bad. That's a neat little vehicle, and would be a cool addition to the line. We do have the Opee Sea Killer (which is way out of scale). On the topic of beasts, we certainly don't have an Sando Aqua Monster, which would probably be at least the size of the HasLab Sentinel or something like that. There were also a large number of random wild beasts seen fleeing the invasion army. None of these exist in 3.75" form. One note, we do have a small fish that was included with the "Swimming" Jar Jar figure from Episode I. A nice little touch, but not particularly useful.

Theed streets / Palace / Hangar/ Generator / Celebration

Many locations are seen in Theed. Again, we have lots of figures (some aging), including the Jedi, Amidala in various outfits, Panaka, Sio Bibble, Guards, Soldiers, Security, Pilots, and handmaidens. We've got Battle Droids, Droidekas, and security droids, along with Darth Maul, of course. We do have some environments and vehicles. Hasbro gave us the Flash Speeder, Flash Cannon, Naboo Starfighter, and Queen's Royal Starship. We've got a lot to work with as far as figures and ships. While we didn't get much for playsets for the set pieces mentioned above, Hasbro did give us a few things for Theed City. We have the Theed Hangar, which is kind of terrible as a playset, but still serves as a decent backdrop. It includes some crates and accessories, but more importantly has the blast doors from which Darth Maul emerges at the best moment in the film. We also have a Theed Generator Complex set, which includes the walkways and some control panels to recreate the 2-on-1 fight between good and evil. The sets are pretty flimsy and heavy on (crappy) action features and lacking in realism or scale, but they're not utterly useless. You can even "connect" them to give you more options. As for the ending celebration, we've got many of the key characters seen on the top of the steps, including Naboo, Gungans, Jedi, and R2. If you repurpose the accessories from the BD07 and VC74 Gungan warriors, you can make up a small parade.

World Building Score: 6/7

We don't have anything for the streets of Theed, or anything inside the palace itself. It also would have been neat if there was something resembling the lip of the generator "chute" where Obi-Wan fails to kill Darth Maul. Having some TVC quality environments might be pretty rad, but highly unlikely. Some kind of better Generator environment would help us set up an awesome iconic display of the lightsaber fight, but it's limited in "shelf-ability" because it really would only house 3 figures. It's likely we'll have to make due with what we have, which is actually pretty diverse. A dais for the celebration would also be kind of neat, but I'd much prefer the Yavin celebration dais to this one. However, it would still be cool to help display all the dignitaries from the Theed celebration. It could even come with a Gungan drummer.

Queen's Starship / Mos Espa / Junkyard / Arena / Skywalker apartment

The Tatooine set piece has a bunch of scenes that could translate nicely to 3.75" form. Again, we have tons of figures, beasts, vehicles, ad accessories, but here we are lacking some environments. First, the QRS is a large and pretty cool ship / playset / environment. While not exactly the BMF, it's still pretty good to give some solid context to various scenes aboard the ship. It includes the cockpit, throne room, engine room, and astromech depot, as well as the ramp which has a bit of action as well. We've got just about all the figures you might need for the starship scenes. I'd really like a new Panaka, but I think that's way down Hasbro's list of things to do. We've got all the main players, some backgrounders, and I believe all the astromechs that eventually get blown away. I don't think there's much to add here, so this part scores nicely.

As for the planetary scenes, we've got lots of characters from Mos Espa. The crew from Naboo in their appropriate attire, Shmi, Watto, naked Threepio, and R2 are the main players. We've also got some nice backgrounders that range from Gragra the street vendor, to Rum Sleg, and some droids. We don't actually have Watto's shop, his junkyard, Shmi's apartment, or much of anything for scenery from the pod race arena. But we do have many of the pod racers (I believe 11 of 18, if I remember correctly), two pod racer vehicles, Jabba the Hutt, Fode & Beed, Pax Bonkik, Graxol Kelvyyn, and Shakka. We've also got tons of pit droids, Eopies, and random accessories that help fill out a nicely populated scene.

World Building Score: 5/8

Other than the box seats that come with the Cinema Scene, we don't really have much in the way of any significant envoronments for this portion of the film. While they would help flesh out our displays rather nicely, things like Jabba's box, the private VIP platform for Anakin's friends, and the pod racing pits are probably not too feasible. What I do think would be great are some generic street shops and storefronts, which could easily be made to pass for Mos Espa, Mos Eisley, Jeddha, Navarro, or any number of other small towns across the Star Wars universe. I'd be a big fan of that. The potential for those sets is pretty significant, although admittedly they're not particularly exciting for the general consumer. As it is we have many many options with regard to figures and toys here. As for figures, I'd eventually like to see the rest of the podracers, and there are some nice backgrounders that could be added to the mix. I know Chris really wants to see a Kitster and Wald 2-pack.

Coruscant / Senate / Jedi Council chamber

Again, we have lots and lots of figures and a few accessories, along with one major display environment. We've got all the main characters, along with tons of senators, Jedi, and guards. We've got an undersized senate pod (which I army built). Most significantly, Hasbro gave us the Jedi Council chamber. It's got 12 seats and a small hologram display in the center. I think this was pretty great for when these sets came out almost 20 years ago, but Hasbro would do wonders with this today. A Haslab option might not be off the table at some point. We'd also need more Jedi that can properly sit in their chairs. The set is useful for AOTC, ROTS, and Clone Wars-era displays as well.

World Building Score: 6/8

For the Senate chamber, it would be great if we had the central Chancellor's pod - which of course would be helpful for a proper ROTS Yoda/Sidious duel. I'll take any more senators that Hasbro is willing to throw our way, but times are tough, so obviously those are highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. We don't have Padme's apartment, which would be a nice backdrop for a bunch of figures that we have ready to populate it, but again, not that exciting. As for vehicles, the only thing that comes to mind is the small transport from the cutscene that takes the Naboo crew into the city after meeting with Valorum on the landing platform - and it should come with the driver! The bottom line is that we have tons of alien senators and Jedi that make these scenes great for world-building, but we could use a little help from Hasbro to flesh out our dioramas with some better environments.

Battle of Naboo - Ground / Space

The climactic battle scene on the plains of Naboo is almost perfectly covered with figures, ships, and beasts. We've got just about everything we could ask for to represent the Gungan Grand Army, including the Fambaa, Falumpaset, Kaadu, and catapults. In the film, the shield generator is actually different parts mounted on pairs of Fambaas. The one we got has the big round "expander", while the "generator" that shoots the plasma was offered as a standalone cannon piece. I was too afraid to try, but I thought it might be possible to remove the "expander", and swap it with the generator. So if you are a crazy person with two fambaas, you could have a screen accurate moment to "startem up da shields." Not much more to ask here. As for the droids, we have the MTT, the ATT, STAPS, and tons of battle droids, droidekas, and OOM droids. Again, we've got most of what we need already. Since the battle takes place on a flat grassy plain, there really isn't much for Hasbro to offer in terms of environments. Just get some green poster paper for the shelf, and call it a day. As for the space battle, we also have what we need. We've got Naboo Starfighters and Droid starfighters and...well, that's pretty much all there is.

World Building Score: 7/7

We're pretty much covered here. The space battle is fairly lame from the perspective of being toyetic. Even ANH had X-Wings (with different markings), Y-Wings, TIEs, Vader's TIE, and the Falcon. So other than maybe a couple of the specific Naboo pilots, there isn't much more to do. The ground battle is a pretty nice setup if you've army built what's available. It's no Hoth or Endor, but it can make for a fairly impressive battle scene.

So that wraps up TPM. It's a pretty toyetic film, and we have a large amount of figures, ships, and beasts to lay out. Hasbro did give us some wonky playsets back in 1999 and we do have a decent Jedi Council chamber, but a few updates and some newness could go a long way in improving our displays. I'd be most interested in some Theed exterior facades, some Mos Espa storefronts, and and updated Jedi Council. As for figures, there isn't much notable that we are missing, but a few upgrades down the road might be nice.