Yavin Pilot Pack - SW [TPM 3D] - Exclusives

The Battle of Yavin is a decisive battle in the fight to free the galaxy. The Rebels achieve an important victory when they destroy the Death Star. The pilots of Red Squadron and Gold Squadron, supported by their trusty Astromech Droids, take on the menacing Imperial pilots in a ferocious space dogfight around the battle station.

It seems that there is no end in sight for Hasbro to develop action figures based on pilot from the Battle of Yavin. Obviously that is quite an exaggeration because the list of Rebel pilots is finite. It’s just that Hasbro finds a new one to release. This time, in the Yavin Pilot Pack, Hasbro manages to release three more pilots, one of which is an update to a figure that was released in 2001’s Power Of The Jedi line, and the other two have been long-awaited first time releases in the 3.75” scaled line. The Yavin Pilot Pack also includes one of the pilot’s trusty astromech droid and then the obligatory villain pilot also gets added for balance. In a nutshell, the Yavin Pilot Pack will get overshadowed by the much more impressive Ewok Pack, but you shouldn’t discount its contents because it is still an excellent multipack for you collection. For years collectors have complained about the inaccuracy of the various heights of the X-wing pilots who served in the Battle of Yavin. We have to say that for the most part Hasbro got it right here and thankfully three more X-wing pilot have reached definitive status. Your opinions may or may not vary, but even if they do we bet you’ll somewhat overlook any faults this multipack has for the benefit of getting some more great pilots to add to your Star Wars hoard. A lot of previous tooling has been used to develop this set, but in typical Hasbro magic they add enough sparkle to it to make it feel new again. You won’t be necessarily wowed by this release, but it helps fill some holes to pilots that have been talked about for years yet never produced…. until now.

Tiree (Gold Two) and Davish Krail (Gold Five) both utilize 2006’s TSC Luke Skywalker: X-wing Pilot vintage-styled figure. Yes, the pilots have holes in their bodies to welcome a lightsaber hilt with a plug. This is a shame because Hasbro managed to retool the bodies of some of the Ewoks in the Ewok Pack to fill in holes and remove belts, so why couldn’t the same actions be performed here to better the figures? We’re not exactly sure why not. Despite utilizing the 2006 VTSC figure’s body, there have been enough tweaks made to the figure over the years and its sort of experienced its own evolution throughout the years, especially in the color of the flight suit. Both Tiree (Gold Two) and Davish Krail (Gold Five) have excellent head sculpts. We can’t claim that they are dead ringers for their respective actors, but its enough to make the point that these are the specific characters, especially with their helmets on their heads. The unique designs on their helmets further drive this point home and they fit well in place on the newly sculpted heads. The star of the set however is Jek Porkins (Red Six). He’s mostly all-new, but borrows the arms and lower legs of 2006’s TSC Luke Skywalker: X-wing Pilot vintage-styled figure (as evidenced by the 2005 date stamp). He even comes with an all-new open chin strap helmet. It looks fantastic on him too as it really looks like the character from Episode IV. Hasbro has explained that the 2001 POTJ figure was greatly exaggerated and that the goal this time was to bring a more accurate body type to the character into the line while allowing for him to fit inside the canopy of an X-wing fighter.

The rest of the figures in the set may rank as filler for you and although they fit well into this package, we’re inclined to feel the same way too. Still, it’s great to get another unique astromech droid from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. R5-D8 (Jek Porkins’ Droid) is a long-awaited astromech droid and collectors finally get it. For years many have used R5-D4 as Jek Porkins’ droid but now we have an accurate action figure of this character and it comes right here in this set. What’s more is that Hasbro utilized the Build A Droid R5 unit sculpt to make it so the action figure has some extra play value. Some collectors may be put off by its relative likeness to R5-D4, but many more Star Wars collectors are like hawks when it comes to the slightest variances and nuances of astromech droids and we typically want them all. So bring them on, Hasbro! See our gallery for a side by side comparison of R5-D8 to R5-D4 to see al of their respective differences. The last figure in the set is very boring, but it is what it is. Hasbro throws in a TIE pilot with a name fancier than the figure itself. The coolly named Mauler Mithel (Black Two) is an Expanded Universe character that has been retconned into Episode IV. He is a TIE pilot without ace striped on his helmet. It’s a repaint of 2011’s TVC TIE Fighter Pilot (VC65) figure – the one that’s a slight repaint of the original figure from 2009’s LC TIE Interceptor which was also a Toys R Us exclusive. The right side of the helmet only shows three-quarters of the Imperial emblem on the right side of it which matches the onscreen character perfectly. The Yavin Pilot Pack isn’t as perfect as the Ewok Pack, but it nonethtless welcomes brand new pilots from the Battle of Yavin into your collection.