Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) - TVC - Basic (VC100)

Your are probably exhausted from us constantly offering our unsolicited opinion that we feel that characters from the Expanded Universe shouldn’t be released in The Vintage Collection. We’re still not keen on the Expanded Universe logo or know that much about all of the characters chosen, but that doesn't mean that plenty of fans exist that do like these characters and corresponding action figures. But even staunch advocates of making a classic looking line like The Vintage Collection "movie specific only" can hardly deny that the Expanded Universe focused figures Hasbro did bring forth into it are nothing short of amazing. ARC Trooper Commander (VC54) [Captain Fordo] is one figure we didn’t mind at all sliding its way into The Vintage Collection, but even figures including Darth Malgus (VC96), Bastila Shan (VC69) and now Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) (VC100) – a nice figure to break the two digit "VC" numbering – are just obvious arguments that poke holes in the argument that the EU shouldn’t be part of The Vintage Collection. Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) is another stunningly standout figure in the line and aside from our preference wishing he came with ball-jointed hips, we honestly don’t have one ounce of criticism for it. We’re particularly fond of anything from The Force Unleashed multimedia event anyway because of it’s close ties to the films and especially the Original Trilogy, so it make liking (loving) a figure like Starkiller all the more easy. Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) is easily the best action figure made from The Force Unleashed and it should quickly become one of your most favorite figures in all The Vintage Collection.

We don’t recall a figure coming with as many accessories as Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) does. Based specifically from The Force Unleashed II video game, Starkiller is a gamer’s dream come true should they collect action figures based on the games they play. Starkiller should be appreciated by strict Star Wars toy collectors equally because the effort put into its sculpt, detailing and paint job are flawless. Hasbro once again creates a sterling action figure with incredible precision and exactness. And the quality of this figure makes it all the more easier to accept the current retail price of figure that sometimes now exceeds the $10 mark. We’re not advocating increased prices for our action figures, but we’re trying to make the point that if we do have to spent $10+ dollars on basic figures, this is the standard we want to see brought forth to them. Reduced accessories and articulation would be the equivalent of salt in the wound. Hasbro did completely the opposite here. We should count ourselves blessed. Besides the gorgeous paint job, Starkiller comes with no less than 10 separately sculpted individual accessories so the versatility here is incredible. As an aside, and we’re not whining here, it’s a little bit bittersweet to see an EU character get this much love with accessories, yet so many classic figures are lucky to get a blaster. Again, we’re not really complaining. Hasbro has done great figures like 2011’s TVC Ponda Baba (Walrus Man) (VC70) figure that comes with a ton of interchangeability, so it’s not like they don’t care about lovers of the Original Trilogy.

Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) comes with 14 points of articulation. All of the standard points are included here. Ball-socket head, ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles, and finally swivel waist, wrists and hips complete the figure’s movement. At 3.75” scale it seems that not many collectors share the same opinion about how well Hasbro matches a likeness of a character to an action figure, but we have to saw that they knocked Starkiller’s likeness out of the park. Hasbro developed a great base body here. It seems almost as if it would make a great a great start for an all-new Death Star Gunner figure or other Imperial down the road. While it’s unlikely Hasbro would use this exact mold, we do think they have great tooling in which the can extrapolate more cool Star Wars action figures for us. Oh, and those 10 accessories that come with this figure? Here we go. Starkiller comes with the following: removable chest armor, removable back armor, removable belt with loincloth, removable belt with pilot straps, two removable gauntlets, two lightsaber hilts and two fully lit lightsabers. We’ve only captured a few of the different permutations you can achieve with the various accessory combinations in our photo gallery included in this review. Starkiller (Vader’s Apprentice) is a perfect addition to The Vintage Collection. The Force Unleashed fans are going to be feverishly looking for him, so date delay if you see him for a reasonable price which seems rare given that Hasbro has the worst distribution issues to date. But make it a mission and don’t give up.