Rise Of Darth Vader, The (Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker) - SW [TPM 3D] - Movie Heroes (Exclusive)

Young Anakin Skywalker grows up to become Darth Vader. When the Force-sensitive Anakin is discovered on Tatooine, no one imagines that it marks the beginning of war and tyranny throughout the galaxy. And when Vader has been redeemed from the dark side, the galaxy experiences a new beginning of hope and peace.

What in the world is going on at Hasbro? The TARGET exclusive The Rise Of Darth Vader set has hit retail and we want to know if Hasbro genuinely thinks that collectors are going to be happy with it. It’s an utter abomination that a figure from 2000’s Power Of The Jedi line and another figure from 2006’s The Saga Collection have been ripped from their respective time periods and forced to share the same packaging six to twelve years after the fact. They don’t even look like contemporaries of each other in the packaging. How wrong is that? The saddest thing is that all-new product should have been the way to celebrate a very fun time in the collecting universe, The Phantom Menace 3D in theaters. The Phantom Menace has sustained a lot of criticism over the years. Hasbro could have aided in the bandaging by showing a little more drive in the exclusives. It’s almost as if they’re admitting that this is something they had to do instead of wanting to do. Yes, Hasbro has repainted the figures a bit, but aren’t we totally over swivel shoulders and/or swivel elbows and other inferior articulation now? The irony is that Hasbro is solely responsible for our uppity attitude. We have supported the Star Wars toy line from the beginning, so we take it as an insult when a boring exclusive is meant to be more than it is.

The Movie Heroes line already has collectors chaffed. Opening the line with a dozen repacks isn’t something that a collector of any age wants to see. There are indeed some subtle changes on almost all of the figures, but the line is quite schizophrenic in nature and the focus on characters from Episode I is murky at best. While we wouldn’t want to see a complete rerelease of all of the 1999 figures, it seems that something is lacking tremendously for all things Episode I. What makes things worse is that most of the figures that make up the initial 12 can be had for pennies on the dollar on eBay and other aftermarket sources. With the basic figure MSRP jacked up another dollar, why would anyone pay $8.99 for a figure they can get for only a few dollars in different packaging? These arguments may not entirely hold up for The Rise Of Darth Vader Movie Heroes TARGET exclusive. As we’ve mentioned, Hasbro did make an effort to repaint the figures a bit, but between the inferior sculpts and lack of articulation Hasbro should be more embarrassed that they released them as 2012 product and especially as a store exclusive. There is absolutely nothing new top enjoy here and we find it a metaphorical slap in the face that this is the 2012 TARGET exclusive offering. We hope better exclusives are in the works.

Darth Vader is a slight repaint of 2006’s TSC Darth Vader (SAGA 038) figure. If you were looking at a second chance to grab the cool accessories that came with the 2006 figure, you might as well forget about it. All you get is his lightsaber and a non-removable soft-goods cape. (You can actually remove the cape, but you’ll ruin it in the process, so don’t remove it.) The same right shoulder “lightsaber damage” courtesy of Luke Skywalker is still there and a few of the paint operations have been tightened up, but it’s the same stinking figure. It was an exciting figure in 2006, but so many better versions have been made since that it’s outdated at this point. Anakin Skywalker is even worse. Most recently released in 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Mos Espa Arena Battle Packs set (from Walmart’s Discover The Force line), Anakin Skywalker has been repainted to look clean and comes with the Naboo starfighter helmet. But he originally appeared in 2000’s Power Of The Jedi line. That was over a decade ago. Yet, Hasbro thinks this figure is worthy of a second chance in 2012. (What in the world id going on, Hasbro? Yes, we ask that again, so soon.) Obviously this is meant to be Anakin during the Battle of Naboo scenes in Episode I. Again, this set is boring and should not have been released. This was the perfect time to give us an all-new Anakin Skywalker and a better Darth Vader figure. Why must you do this to us Hasbro?