Betrayal On Bespin - TAC - Battle Packs

Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids escape from Darth Vader by hiding the Millennium Falcon among the garbage that's periodically jettisoned by the Imperial fleet. To stay out of Vader's way, Han heads to Bespin, where his old smuggling buddy Lando Calrissian now runs a mining colony. They arrive at Cloud City, where Lando tells them he just made a deal that'll keep the Empire out of Bespin forever. Calrissian opens a door – and there is Darth Vader, with Boba Fett beside him. Han's "friend" has delivered them into the hands of the Empire.

Every now and again Hasbro will create a Battle Packs set that has the potential to be awesome but just falls short in execution usually due to some poor action figure selections. This pretty much describes the Betrayal On Bespin set from the 30 (77-07) line pretty much perfectly. For even the most anal-retentive collector there is something included here, but we wonder if a few better character selections and/or action figure choices would have made this Battle Packs set a slam dunk. Perhaps instead of whipping out the 2001 POTJ Han Solo (Bespin Capture) figure, Hasbro could have included the 2004 VOTC Lando Calrissian figure, a figure that could have stood to see re-release again. And maybe instead of another Darth Vader figure (or even the Boba Fett for that matter) another shot at the 2007 TAC Capture Of Tantive IV Battle Packs Stormtrooper may have benefitted the set (and subsequently collectors) more. SUre, Hasbro was going for a closely knitted theme here and it looks great and makes complete sense, but the same characters over and over might prevent this from being the huge hit is hould be. But despite our own "selfish" wants and desires, there is no denying that this Battle Packs set will interest fans of The Empire Strikes Back and the subtly changed but remarkably improved figures included will pacify even the most stringent and hard to please collectors.

Every figure in this set has seen slight paint job differences. Some are a little more prominent than others. But figures like Chewbacca and Princess Leia seem significantly more noticeable than say a figure like Han Solo. Chewbacca has less “gray” fur and more “brown” fur on his head and the dark brown portions are overall vastly darker than the original release of this figure. He looks markedly different from 2004's VOTC Chewbacca figure. The yellow streaking also appears brighter and more distinguished. This brightened detail adds more texture to his already luxurious fur. And last but not least, Hasbro has brightened up the feet quite a bit and has painted his toenails more richly and they look better than ever. We'd say that this version of Chewbacca is indeed an upgrade. We appreciate the extra attention given to the deco here. Princess Leia also has seen new paint operations. Her maroon dress is darker and the hairline is MUCH cleaner. The patterns on the back of her dress are now painted much more darkly now as well and the metallic edging on the collar of her dress is significantly sharper. Interestingly, we think the brown “doe eyes” on 2004's OTC Princess Leia (OTC #18) version may look a little more authentic to Princess Leia than the revised eyes on this Battle Packs version, but overall, the updates are definitely improvements. The brighter colors alone make this worthy of a purchase.

Han Solo is barely a repaint, but his hair color is a darker brown now. Other than that, you'd could almost consider it a straight repack. His accessories this time are black (instead of gray) however which makes this a unique release. Darth Vader is a slight repaint (again – it’s very slight and barely noticeable) of 2005’s ROTS Darth Vader (Special Edition 500th Figure). He still comes with an interchangeable lightsaber hand and lit lightsaber of course. But Boba Fett is another figure in the set that has significant deco changes. A repaint of 2001's POTJ Boba Fett (300th Figure), the green chest plate is richer, the red portion of his helmet is more muted and not as “brick red” this time around. Also, his boots seem to be completely reinvented and have the dark center stripes in the middle of them (on the top). The new take on this Boba Fett is an upgrade as well, but you have to remember that we’re talking about deco changes here and not the articulation. Many of the figures in this set lack in articulation still, no matter how much better they look. This may affect how collectors feel about repurchasing these action figures. But how cool is it to have two landmark figures in the same multipack?! The Betrayal On Bespin Battle Packs set is cool, but if deco changes don’t affect you at all, you can safely ignore this set altogether. But for us, improvements in deco are just as important so we found great value in this set. Chewbacca, Princess Leia and Boba Fett are all worth the purchase of this set.