AT-AT Driver - POTF2 [FF/TKC] - Basic (Exclusive)

Drivers of the dreaded AT-AT walkers, specially trained "ground pilots", played a vital role during the Empire's assault on Hoth.

There is something about pack-in figures that makes them rank significantly less than a basic carded figure. If you ask pretty much any collector out there he/she will tell you that all new figures deserve at least one bite at the “basic carded” apple. Such is true for the first modern AT-AT Driver action figure. Because of the release of 1998’s POTF2 [FF/TKC] AT-AT vehicle, Kenner/Hasbro felt it made the most sense to include two pack-in figure relevant to the vehicle. This made sense.. But not offering a single carded AT-AT Driver up to that point was a big bone of contention with collectors. How could they not release this massively popular member of the Galactic Empire as a basic figure? After all, it was one of the original Kenner figures and anything “Imperial” surely possessed the notoriety to perform well at retail, no? After a short while, Kenner/Hasbro listened to our pleas and added AT-AT Driver to the Freeze Frame lineup of basic figures. The problem? The AT-AT Driver along with three others were figures that Hasbro just could not get out in time and they ended up being relegated to Star Wars Fan Club exclusives, much to the chagrin of the collecting community. The “Fan Club Four” as they were unofficially billed were premium-priced and highly sought after action figures that collectors were honestly just relieved to see released.

Much to collectors’ surprise, while very similar in many ways, the AT-AT Driver is an all-new figure compared to the pack-in figure. Even the paint operations are vastly different. This time we get the AT-AT Driver with the red stripe down his helmet (both AT-AT Drivers can be seen in The Empire Strikes Back). As far as an action figure, we suppose AT-AT Drivers accomplishes what he needs to well. But it’s his likeness (and a lot of his coloring) that has us disappointed. The helmet sculpt just isn’t accurate enough for our tastes. It seems that the sculptors at Kenner/Hasbro are having difficulty achieving a screen accurate likeness to this Imperial, which surprises us greatly. The “face” looks much too elongated for us and the natural aesthetics just aren’t in place for us. We do have to credit the deco on this figure. The chest box area looks divine. There are multiple complex paint operations that give this gear its unique appearance. The flight straps look to be the wrong color, but the rest of the figure’s color palette looks pretty darn accurate to us. The AT-AT Driver also feels chunkier that other Imperials which is fantastic in our books. We always felt that their uniform contained a thermal lining which gave the appearance of greater mass.

We don’t however like the pose of the AT-AT Driver. We probably are unable to give you a justifiable answer as to why we feel this way. But the best word we feel that describes it is “annoying”. That’s probably not the greatest adjective to describe an action figure, but it’s the only word we feel best applies here. He can sit in the AT-AT and he can stand, so there isn’t really anything to complain about, but unless you pose him awkwardly, he will have a strong lean that just doesn’t appear right. AT-AT Driver comes with an exaggerated E-11 blaster. We say it’s exaggerated because it’s huge. Hasbro needs to spend some time getting the scale of the weapons right because they are really beginning to look ridiculous. Both hands can accommodate the gun thankfully and he does look alright holding it. Although an expensive Fan Club exclusive at an MSRP of $9.99, all four figures were found at Toys R Us (and other retail outlets) for anywhere between $.99 and $1.99. Sad that they just couldn’t get them out to normal retail from the start. They may have sold through them all at the standard $5.99 each. AT-AT Driver is a decent “hold over” figure, but much better will undoubtedly come down the road.