Republic V-19 Torrent Starfighter - TVC - Vehicles

We’re not so sure why we’re so particularly enamored with the repacked The Vintage Collection vehicles that were released for the opening of the 2012 line. Perhaps we’ve been jaded by the new main line products this year since it’s one big train wreck. You see, Hasbro is taking figures dating back as far as 2000’s Power Of The Jedi line through 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith line and packaging them as the “new” basic figures for 2012. As you are very well aware of already, the figures have aged terribly and the perplexity of it all is that Hasbro has much better sculpts with incredible details for most of these rereleases that would have made the ensemble look a lot better than it currently does. But it’s good to talk positively about the awesome things hitting retail at the same time. We know Hasbro goes through periods of assiduously developing incredible products lineups, but they definitely got lazy for the 3D release of The Phantom Menace, especially when it came to the Movie Heroes line. It’s a relative abomination. (There are exceptions of course.) We believe Hasbro knows we feel this way. So in order to help soften the blow (we’re assuming here), they’ve released three mainstream vehicles in The Vintage Collection packaging. We have to say that we’re thoroughly impressed with the results.

They teased us in 2010 with two TARGET exclusive The Vintage Collection vehicles including the Imperial TIE Fighter and the Rebel Armored Snowspeeder. For 2012, now two vehicles have been sourced to Revenge Of The Sith (one not accurately), but the third vehicle, the Republic V-19 Torrent Starfighter gets sourced to The Clone Wars. This is the very first The Vintage Collection item to sport this logo. It looks fantastic. And although we are quite fond of it, these vehicles made their debut in Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series. (Of course they have made numerous appearances in Filoni’s The Clone Wars too!) Most had expected the vehicles in this assortment to be straight repacks, and we suppose for all intents and purposes they are. But we analyzed both 2008’s TCW V-19 Torrent Starfighter against 2012’s TVC Republic V-19 Torrent Starfighter and they are clear variances in the paint jobs between them. Both follow the same paint operations, but the TVC vehicle utilizes darker (and shinier) colors to decorate it. The 2008 vehicle is blatantly lighter and duller in appearance. The Vintage Collection version is brighter and almost glistens by comparison. We do not believe this was intentional but even if Hasbro made a conscious effort to tighten up this vehicles paint job, we believe producing them almost four (4) years apart from each other would make this inevitable anyway.

The Republic V-19 Torrent Starfighter is a very elegant vehicle. It’s reminiscent of the Imperial Shuttle, almost as if it could be a mini-rig version of it. The color scheme is very simple. The body of the vehicle is eggshell (or off-white if you prefer) and then a deep blood red/maroon color accents its edges and adds depth and dimension to its naturally flat design. Not many play features have been added, but it really doesn’t need it. Hasbro worked in two firing projectiles at the edges of the two side airfoils and then of course the canopy opens up to stow away any clone pilot of your choosing. The center airfoil has a very simplistic feature, but it’s an awesome some. That wing can lock in the up or down position to give the vehicle two distinct flying positions. (These vehicles often employ hyperspace rings. How awesome would it have been for Hasbro go the extra mile and tweak Obi-Wan Kenobi’s starfighter’s hyperspace ring and include it here exclusive to The Vintage Collection version? We know. Wishful thinking indeed.) Deciding to buy the Republic V-19 Torrent Starfighter will obviously be determined by how much you adore the packaging. (We adore it very much.) But should you choose to open it up, you will see that it is slightly unique to the 2008 original release.