Disturbance At Lars Homestead - TLC - Exclusives

Moisture farms, like the one owned by Owen and Beru Lars, use moisture vaporators to take precious water vapor from the dry Tatooine air to use or resell. A womp rat lurks on the edge of the farm as stormtroopers arrive, searching for R2-D2 and C-3PO. The troopers question Owen and Beru about the missing droids with typical Imperial harshness. When the troopers are finished, they set fire to the farm, leaving no one alive to reveal what happened.

As consumers, we know what to expect when we order “chicken salad”. Sure, there are varying degrees of quality, some can be seasoned better than others and some can be sold for a lot more or a lot less too. But when chicken salad gets advertised as such and the final product that you are served is anything but that, you will certainly voice your concerns about it. (And because you are not reading a review on FoodNetwork.com we will stop the analogy here.) Disturbance At Lars Homestead, probably one the biggest debacles in Hasbro’s history, fits this analogy perfectly. It is presented and packaged beautifully, but once the contents inside are inspected individually, you will most likely have buyer’s remorse and want to sent it back to the “kitchen”. Don’t get us wrong, if you leave it in the box, you will most likely remain a happy camper. But once you start playing with the parts you will find that you have been surreptitiously sold a bridge. This Toys R Us exclusive is not nearly worth its $49.99 price tag (we dare say it is worth half this price). It is ridiculous to pay that MRSP for three old figures and a hollow playset. The box set includes the 1999 POTF2 Aunt Beru (with less accessories) and Owen Lars figures (both are slightly repainted), a brand new Womp Rat, a Stormtrooper (that's really a Sandtrooper), a repainted Moisture Vaporator from 2007’s TAC Luke Skywalker (30 18) figure, and the Homestead. We would have much preferred fro Hasbro to nix all the figures except for the Womp Rat and create an environment assortment (in the $19.99 - $24.99). This would have been the smartest thing to do and it is shame that this homestead accessory did not get the attention it deserved. It certainly could have been a little more detailed on the inside and be made into a pretty awesome environment.

We do not intend to be so jagged in our opinions of the Lars Homestead, but it is essentially a hollow piece of junk. While nicely decorated on the outside, if you take the “lid” off you will find that is a thin and shoddily assembled piece of plastic. Even worse, it is positioned on an even more inferiorly constructed plastic base (that is also way too shiny) with a horrible blue table (that looks a lot like the same color used on Beru’s original accessories from The Power Of The Force line – oh the horror!). What went wrong here, Hasbro? We don’t understand the choices and decisions for this set. The table is not removable unless you are willing to destroy the lower base (we recommend not trying to remove it). And the figures and accessories that come with it don’t stand up nicely on the base dues to its curvy and textured design. We are perhaps even more upset about Hasbro’s choice to not even attempt an update on the Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen figures. With all the super-articulated parts out there, it seems they could have done some retooling to make these action figures a bit more modern (and action-oriented). They are out of scale (due to their date of origin) with the rest of the line and this is unacceptable in today’s collecting age. We believe that three Sandtrooper action figures would have been a much better choice here. There are very few POTF2 era figures that still look good by today’s standards and we wish Hasbro would use a bit more discretion when including them in multipacks. We do think that this overpriced exclusive has the best presence when left in the box, so we give some credit to the artful design of the packaging. The backdrop with Tatooine scenery does a great deal to make the whole set look better. But be warned, it loses luster and goes downhill very quickly from there.

We don’t understand the Hasbro tooling cost woes we hear so often when it comes to Star Wars toys. The conspiracy theorists in us believe more is on the table (cough, cough, licensing fees, cough) than what we are led to believe. How can they develop an entire line of toys (Indiana Jones, GI Joe for example) with all the figures having all-new sculpts, sell them for the same price (or less) than Star Wars, yet we still get old repackaged figures in our sets (and basic line for that matter)? Something doesn’t add up. We are inclined to say that the Disturbance At Lars Homestead may have been better canceled. That is a strong statement, but something has got to give here. Midsize vehicles are over $60, two packs are approaching $20, Battle Packs have cut out a figure altogether and are closer to $25 now. Your opinions out there may certainly vary, but we feel that we need to let Hasbro know that we need much better value for our dollar. There is a bubble being created that will soon pop. If something isn’t done to ensure the population of the collecting community, this trend will continue until the line dies. And none of us want this to happen. If there is an all-new tool involved, we think it would be much better to sell it separately. We recommend for Hasbro to create a new assortment for environments/playsets. We have been clamoring for playsets for years now. Include a dais for Jabba as part of the assortment and other things that will enhance the action figure line. We are confident that this would be the best direction to take. But we feel just like Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru after buying this set....burned! If you enjoyed the spoof film TROOPS, then you may get a kick out of this set as it seems it was directly inspired by that. But even though these characters did't appear in the same scene together, they all are clearly from Episode IV.