MODEL: Alliance BTL-S3 Y-Wing Attack Starfighter
FUNCTION: Multipurpose attack vessel with light bomber capability
CREW: 1 Pilot and 1 Astromech Droid
LENGTH: 16 Meters

During the Battle of Yavin, the Y-wing Gold Squadron assisted in the assault on the Imperial Death Star. In a desperate effort to safeguard the Rebel Alliance base and eradicate the Empire's space station, the Y-wings mount a heroic, yet futile, first wave attack to target the thermal exhaust port and start a chain reaction in the Death Star's power generator core.

And so... the daring assault against the imposing Death Star ignites!

Grab hold of the excitement with this authentically styled Y-wing for all the intergalactic action you can handle!

After receiving one accolade after another for a great introductory modern Star Wars line, collectors quickly realized that complaining got them things they really wanted to see. Hasbro released a nice selection of core vehicles to retail between 1995 and 1999, but still, some of the most iconic vehicles had yet to make their debut modern appearance. One of these vehicles was the Y-wing Fighter. Released during the Return Of The Jedi line in 1983, this long-awaited vehicle (long-awaited in both the vintage Kenner era as well as the modern era) finally saw the light of day in 2000 as a TARGET exclusive as The Power Of The Force “2” line was beginning to phase out. Not differing all that much from its 1983 ancestor visually speaking, this time Hasbro updated the tooling a bit to remove the electronics and battery compartment, as well as update the body with an all-new unnamed astromech droid. Some collectors felt that this was a letdown because it was pretty cool in 1983 that we could place R2-D2 and/or R5-D2 in the droid socket, but in 2000 we were limited to the choice Hasbro made. Still, others found it to be an upgrade as we received, albeit just a dome, a new Star Wars droid to help diversify our Star Wars collections a bit more. The most important point here however is the Y-wing Fighter itself, which follows the same color palette as the vintage Kenner release. That alone makes it a very noteworthy release.

The Y-wing Fighter is classically beautiful Star Wars vehicle. Although originally released in the Return Of The Jedi line in 1983, the vehicle made it first appearance in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope during the Battle of Yavin. The 2000 POTF2 [FlashBack/CommTech] release is exciting for sure, but you’ll probably be happy to know that not a lot of new ground is broken here, save for the updates. A dozen separate parts need to be assembled to give the Y-wing Fighter its sleek shape, and it is in all honesty, very easy to build this vehicle. You don’t really even need the included directions to put it together. But in just moments you can build the Y-wing Fighter and begin to display it or play with it. The same lever functionality has been carried forward which brings down the landing gear. It’s always more fun when functionality is required to land your vehicle. The Y-wing Fighter also has an opening canopy. Finally, there is the same button to “drop” the “proton torpedo” to attack any Imperial entanglement that gets in its way. What sets the 2000 release apart from the 1983 release is now Hasbro has the capability to give these vehicles a stunningly accurate paint job. And they’re able to include dirt and grime to show that these vehicles have been in multiple battles. The Y-wing Fighter has never looked better. Aside from wishing this vehicle WASN’T a store exclusive (and perhaps a functioning droid socket), there isn’t much else we would have changed ourselves.

Quite a few of these vehicles were seen during the galaxy-changing Battle of Yavin, but there are only a few Y-wing pilots called out by name in the film. Whether they just didn’t know, or whether they just wanted to remain noncommittal about who is piloting this particular vessel, Hasbro decided to include a generic Rebel Alliance Pilot with the Y-wing Fighter vehicle. That’s fine we suppose, but we also know that Star Wars collectors do want all of the Rebel Pilot made (by name) anyhow, so hopefully Hasbro can consider this next time they do a pack-in figure. Rebel Alliance Pilot is a retool of 1998’a POTF2 [FF/TKC] Biggs Darklighter Freeze Frame figure. This time the figure comes with an all-new head sculpt with a very unique helmet design, a design that we don’t recall seeing before now. But it does appear to borrow detail from multiple other pilots from A New Hope. Obviously this character is from Hasbro’s Expanded Universe, so it is impossible to say this is so and so from Episode IV. Together, you get a retooled vehicle and a retooled figure for $19.99. That’s a deal and for us it is worth every penny. We just feel strongly that these vehicles need to be released to a mainstream market and not be relegated to a single store exclusive. There appears to be a strong market for these vehicles, so we’re not sure of the reasons why they’re becoming store exclusives. This, along with the Tatooine Skiff were exclusive to TARGET. And they weren’t easy to locate.