Rise Of Darth Vader, The - SW [DV/ROTS] - Exclusives

Anakin Skywalker falls to the dark side and Darth Vader rises to terrorize the galaxy. Near death after his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin is brought to a medical facility by Emperor Palpatine. His life is saved with the help of cybernetic machines that now keep him alive. This cataclysmic event is the final stage in his conversion from the Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker to the dark Lord of the Sith... Darth Vader!

When you look at an exclusive multipack like The Rise Of Darth Vader in the year 2013 and the price is under $30, it pokes more holes in Hasbro’s scripted arguments that we can possibly notate. With action figures being downgraded to five points of articulation (for the sake of cost-cutting measures) and with the volume in the number of action figures that do get released per year diminishing like there is no tomorrow, a multipack exactly like The Rise Of Darth Vader proves that Hasbro isn’t giving us all of the pieces to the puzzle as to why they’ve stopped doing the things collectors want to see. There are so many inconsistencies and borderline hypocrisies found in The Rise Of Darth Vader TARGET exclusive. While that may seem curt, it's plan truth. We’ll go through many of them, but the bottom line is if Hasbro can release something like this, then they certainly can go back to the many ways things were and the ways most collectors would like to see the line go in general. Two collector-quality action figures, a fun kid’s figure with a cool light-up feature and an older yet still a “collector” figure from a while ago are joined by an also older accessory that is very large and complicated to assemble (and uses a lot of materials to produce). When you do the math, each piece comes to $6.00 each (including the two The Vintage Collection quality figures in this package). Mind-boggling, isn't it? And even if you don’t count the extra large accessory as a separate piece, you still can calculate each figure at $7.50 each which is still 25% less than what they cost separately at the time of their original releases, save for the oldest figure represented here. Hasbro tried a similar multipack like this with 2010’s LC Birth Of Darth Vader Battle Packs set. In fact, some of the same items from that one have been used in this set too. But the LC version pales in comparison and this one is done much better.

Let us begin by stating imperatively that Hasbro can indeed sell figures for less than $10 each as evidenced by the basic math above. They've proven this with one simple release. And if that doesn't cause frustration, angst and general aggravation, we don't know what else will. We can’t listen to them claim anything else at this point. There is no doubt the cost to make action figures has skyrocketed. We don't deny that. But we also have always clamored at Hasbro to release products in this way on multiple occasions. So has the buying public. The reuse of good older sculpts whenever possible and the tweaking of the paint jobs when needed should be done to bring us different versions or improved versions of characters. Hasbro has even presented to the collecting community that assembly costs a lot more money today. Well, how can they afford to place two action figures with 14 points of articulation each in a multipack like this which ultimately generates only $6.00 of revenue? Something is indeed rotten in Denmark. Another thing that bothers us is how this item was packaged. Hasbro made it abundantly clear. Kids’ focused product would see simpler sculpts as far as articulation was concerned. If they’ve packaged TVC quality figures in The Rise Of Darth Vader multipack, then who is this set really geared towards? Kids or collectors? Why wouldn’t the cost effective and simple 2013 SW [DV/ROTS] Shock Trooper (SL08) be used in this multipack instead? Wouldn’t that be another opportunity for kids to army build this character? Now they’re going to have two completely different Shock Troopers in the same line look designed for them. Kids don't care about super-articulation, or so Hasbro says. Then why give them three collector-focused figures here? The “all over the place” approach of this line is confusing at best. We aren’t complaining, so please don’t misinterpret that as the tone of this review. We think this is absolutely the way Hasbro should do things for younger collectors. Grab them with fun accessories and action features, while adding enough eye candy for the adults. It’s simple Hasbro. Don’t alienate us anymore. Keep those with money engaged in the line.

You’ve seen all of the contents in this set before, so let’s run them down very quickly. The Operating Table is a repaint of the accessory that came with 2005’s ROTS Darth Vader (Deluxe) figure. It's referred to as a separate part of the content in this box on the packaging details, that mean, not an accessory to Darth Vader. Darth Vader is a straight repack of 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Darth Vader (MH20) figure. He actually fits on the table very nicely. Sadly, this time his lightsaber blade is not removable, so he looks a little silly on the Operating Table with an ignited lightsaber. Just like before, the batteries are non-replaceable, so once the lightsaber dies out, that's it. This is why this exclusive needed to be canceled in Eurpope. Labor unions prevents toys like this from being made. Emperor Palpatine is a slight repaint of 2010’s TVC Darth Sidious (VC12) figure. The only difference we have been able to document is that he has less white paint on his head to represent his hair. Other than that, the two versions are nearly identical. The Shock Trooper is a slight repaint of 2012’s TVC Shock Trooper (VC110) figure. The paint operations have been cleaned up a bit and the red paint used this time is a shade or two darker, but barely noticeable. One other unintentional difference made on the Shock Trooper is the helmet. Whatever molding process it went through this time has affected the contour, and to a lesser degree the size, of it. While still far from perfect, we see subtle improvements this time around, again, nothing consciously changed by Hasbro. The Medical Droid is a repaint of 2005’s ROTS Vader’s Medical Droid (III 37) figure. This version has the nicest paint job to date and we were once again reminded how good its design is. With an amazing 12 points of articulation, this figure still holds up after all of these years. The Rise Of Darth Vader TARGET exclusive is a really fun and generally excellent set. But man Hasbro, we don’t know how you’re going to get out of explaining this one to the collecting community.