Ralph McQuarrie Concept Collection (1 of 2) - LC - Exclusives

The vivid imagination of conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie brought to life the worlds and characters envisioned by George Lucas. McQuarrie's paintings and drawings were instrumental in the push to bring Lucas's space saga to the big screen. Creatures, planets, technology, and galaxies were shaped into existence under the visionary craftsmanship of the legendary R. McQuarrie.

2007 was all about Ralph McQuarrie and acknowledging him for basically created what Star Wars was going to look visually for us. Without his vision, Star Wars would have never turned out remotely close to what it is today and he should be revered for his contributions. Hasbro respectfully paid tribute to Ralph McQuarrie in the 30 (77-07) line when the world was celebrating the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars as a whole property by releasing an average of one figure in each new wave assortment that commemorated his accomplishment. Known as “Ralph McQuarrie Signature Series” concept figures, each was based on sketches or art that he presented to Lucas when trying to develop the final looks of the characters in the Star Wars films. Highly sought after, they were the first action figures to disappear from the assortments, likely because of the Expanded Universe relation, as well as their special colored packaging. When the 30 (77-07) line was all said and done, collectors immediately started suggesting that Hasbro should release a commemorative boxed set that would house all of the Signature Series figures. So after a couple years, that’s what Hasbro did. Released as the Ralph McQuarrie Concept Collection in the Legacy Collection line look, all 13 figures were re-released and split between two boxed sets and were give to Toys R Us as their Fall 2009 exclusives. As you can imagine, they weren’t free from controversy. Collectors had hoped that Hasbro would have included a “yet to be attempted/new” figure in each set to make it more sellable. But collectors ended up getting less. We’ll explain.

All of the figures have been slightly repainted in one form or another. Most of the repaints are incidental and not intentional. These figures have been produced almost three years after the originals. Some variances will undoubtedly exist. Some are more significant than others, but we will explain it all in detail. Obi-Wan Kenobi (RMQ001) (a new designation shown on the packaging) now sports a darker purple color on the parts that utilize this color. And in a very interesting move, Hasbro has darkened the color on his neck to better match the color of his head. We suppose that when an opportunity arises to reproduce an already existing figure that the factory incidentally adjusts the masks to get a better match. But we have no proof on that. It’s our speculation. Sadly, Obi-Wan Kenobi is missing the lightsaber hilt that attaches to the clip on his belt. Yoda on the other hand is complete, but the paint operations on his head are different now. Instead of two distinct shades of green (to show texture), it seems that Hasbro has gone for a more muted appearance and a better blend now. Chewbacca frustratingly doesn’t come with the blaster pistol that fits into his holster. And the other weapon, his rifle, has received a distinctly different colored dark black wash/tint. It’s very pronounced. His vest has also been cast in a lighter gray color and the shoelaces in his boots are painted in a more golden color as well. Han Solo comes without his lightsaber hilt and blaster pistol. This may be one of the most disappointing omissions because he was one of the more difficult Signature Series to find out in the wild. On the flip side, he has received darker paint operations in the face and hair this time around which vastly improve his appearance. His inclusion here is bittersweet.

More omissions that are going to stick in your craw surround the Boba Fett figure. Boba Fett comes without the Joe Johnston inspired alternate head. And even worse, Hasbro omitted the flame accessory. Any accessory that gets left behind is a travesty, but in the case of Boba Fett, these omitted items border on egregiousness. Boba Fett also has some paint operations updates as well. The darker gray portions on his outfit are a few shades different than the original release. And some of the bluish/gray details look different as well. Some may find these variances anything but noteworthy, but they do exist in our eyes. In our opinion, C-3PO may have sustained the most dramatic paint operations of all the figures in this set. Thankfully he has no accessories for Hasbro to lose. This newly produced version has a much darker bronze wash than the original carded exclusive figure. We know. Technically all of these C-3PO figures are unique form one another because of the final washes and how they dried on the figure, we can tell you that this release is indeed different. Conversely, R2-D2 may be the most similar to the original release. We looked long and hard to find differences between this figure and the original release, but aside from a few wash differences, they’re basically identical. R2-D2 also has no accessories to lose. For 13 figures (seven (7) in set 1 of 2 and six (6) in set 2 of 2), they average to $6.15 each. (That’s $39.99 times two divided by 13.) Had you purchased them all individually as they were released, they would have averaged to $8.15 each (two dollars more per figure). But with the missing accessories, is the savings really worth it? A great concept (no pun intended) but an ultimately failed attempt, the Ralph McQuarrie Concept Collection sets are controversial at best. Even if you missed these figures completely, we’d suggest picking them up individually so you get all of the parts.