Darth Vader/Rebel Officer - LC - Comic Packs (1)

Added: December 11th 2016
Category: Legacy Collection
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: Darth Vader/Rebel Officer
Collection: Legacy Collection
Number: 1
Source: Expanded Universe (Marvel Comics' Star Wars #1)
Availability: August 2009
License: Hasbro

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The plans to the Empire's Death Star battle station have been stolen by the Rebel Alliance, and Darth Vader will stop at nothing to retrieve them. Boarding Princess Leia's consular ship, Vader questions a Rebel officer who learns, to his deep misfortune, that the fearsome Sith Lord has no patience with anyone who gets in the way of his mission.

By way of a very cool Entertainment Earth exclusive Hasbro introduced us all to the Comic Packs line. While many of us had no inkling of who Carnor Jax or Kir Kanos was, we couldn’t deny just how cool they looked as action figures. But when the first wave of non-exclusive Comic Packs began hitting retail in December of 2006, the hair on our backs stood up in irritation of what Hasbro decided to send our way. What happened to the retooled action figures or the all-new sculpts? And where are the first time available characters? It didn’t happen right away and instead Hasbro repainted some inferior sculpts (for the most part) and what’s worse is that Hasbro made them rainbow colorful. Would you believe that Hasbro had the audacity to re-release the Darth Vader/Rebel Officer set from the 30 (77-07) line into the collector-focused Legacy Collection line? What were they thinking? The concept of the Comic Packs line is very cool. You get two figures and a replica comic for about $13. (The line started out at $10.) Even with the increase, the MSRP is very fair, but Hasbro needs to make the included action figures a bit more interesting, otherwise the line won’t sustain itself. And they need to stop utilizing such old sculpts!

It’s simply astounding to us that when Hasbro has big plans for a new line of figures that they open it up with less than stellar ideas. In retrospect we are thankful that so many wonderful Comic Packs sets came out of the 30 (77-07) line, but it was certainly a huge risk to start off the Legacy Collection lineup with a set like the Darth Vader/Rebel Trooper set. But this isn't the only Comic Packs set that is endangering the line. The first wave of Legacy Collection Comic Packs has five straight repacks in it and only three new sets. This is retail suicide. And it will for sure bottleneck the line's distribution for as far as we can see. How come Hasbro cannot see this? What we get is a major repaint of 1999’s POTF2 [FB/CT] Darth Vader (With Imperial Interrogator Droid) Comm Tech figure. Even his IT-O Interrogation Droid has been repainted. We also get a repainted version of 2001’s POTJ Rebel Trooper (Tantive IV Defender). The color palette used for this figures is very extreme and we are not so sure is the shadowing seen in the Comic Books was necessary to ascribe to the action figures. If you don't recall, Hasbro acknowledged the error of their ways and they revised many of Marvel Comics sets so that the paint jobs were more faithful to the images seen in the comics.

The modern line is now more than ever less forgiving about inferior articulation and sculpting for action figures. We have to admit that this set is dated right out of the package. It was in 2006/2007 and it feels eevn more outdated in 2009. While we see the need for Hasbro to pay tribute to some of the earliest Comic Books, we just don't think this was the right choice for re-release. We don’t think that this was the correct route to take. There are many better versions of Darth Vader that could have been utilized instead to make this set a little bit more likable. It goes without saying that the revised version of Darth Vader is a significant improvement to its appearance, but no updates were made to the Rebel Officer and he still looks much too colorful, even though his colors are faithful to the comics. We don’t know, maybe realistic takes of the characters in the comics may have been a better option here. But we do know that the Comic Packs line has to take a sharp turn if Hasbro wants to garner interest in this line. We’ll just have to see what transpires. But we'd be lying if we said we weren't concerned about this lines health. Repacks are inevitable, but don't start off a new line look with them!

Collector Notes

Darth Vader/Rebel Officer

Assortment Number: 87505/87504

UPC: 653569429098

Retail: $12.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.

Darth Vader

Status: Darth Vader is a straight repack of the running change figure from 2006's TAC Darth Vader/Rebel Officer (No. 02) Comic Packs set.

Articulation Count: 8 points (8 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: swivel head (1), swivel left shoulder (1), swivel left bicep (1), swivel right shoulder (1), swivel right bicep (1), swivel waist (1), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1)

Accessory Count: 3

Accessory Details: IT-O Interrogation Droid, "invisible" stand for IT-O, lightsaber (Darth Vader also has a permanent lightsaber hilt attached to his belt.)

Date Stamp: 1998

Rebel Officer

Status: Rebel Officer is a straight repack of the figure from 2006's TAC Darth Vader/Rebel Officer (No. 02) Comic Packs set. While generically labeled as "Rebel Officer" this is actually meant to be Captain Antilles.

Articulation Count: 11 points (11 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: swivel neck (1), swivel left shoulder (1), swivel right shoulder (1), swivel left wrist (1), swivel right wrist (1), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1), swivel left knee (1), swivel right knee (1), swivel left boot(1), swivel right boot (1)

Accessory Count: 2

Accessory Details: blaster pistol, removable vest

Date Stamp: 2001

Legacy Collection Comic Packs Wave 1

Darth Vader/Rebel Officer (1)

Chewbacca/Han Solo (2)

Yuuzhan Vong/Kyle Katarn (3)

Borsk Fey'lya/Wedge Antilles (4)

Luke Skywalker/Deena Shan (5)

Ki-Adi-Mundi/Sharad Hett (6)

Lumiya/Luke Skywalker (7)

Darth Krayt/Sigel Dare (8)

Legacy Collection Comic Packs Wave 2

Clone Trooper/Clone Commander (9)

Clone Trooper Lieutenant/Clone Trooper (10)

Ulic Qel-Droma/Exar Kun (11)

T'ra Saa/Tholme (12)

Stormtrooper/Blackhole Hologram (13)

Legacy Collection Comic Packs Wave 3 (Entertainment Earth Exclusives)

Jarael/Rohlan Dyre (15)

Deliah Blue/Darth Nihl (16)

Baron Soontir Fel/Ysanne Isard (17)

Montross/Jaster Mereel (18)

Legacy Collection Comic Packs (Internet Exclusives)

Plourr Ilo/Dllr Nep

Legacy Collection Comic Packs (Walmart Exclusives)

IG97/Rom Mohc

Storm Commando/General Weir



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