Poe’s Boosted X-wing Fighter - SW [TLJ] - Vehicles (Exclusive)

To give ace pilot Poe Dameron an edge in combat, Resistance engineers have fitted a boosted accelerator pod onto the tail of his T-70 X-wing. This gives him the extra speed he needs to outrun and outmaneuver the First Order.

After a dreadful first time offering in The Force Awakens toy line, Poe’s X-wing Fighter has been reinvented with Force Link technology and new parts to make it specific to Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. If you’ve seen the movie, you know the opening scene where Poe Dameron takes on the entire First Order with his trusty friend BB-8 in the droid socket of the vehicle. Hasbro has done their best to recreate all of the key components of what this “boosted” version specific to Episode VIII. We think they’ve done an admirable job. The sad thing is that Poe's Boosted X-wing Fighter is still much too small and cramped for any normal 3.75” action figure. Sure, the paint operations and details all seem to be in place, but the smaller scale just wreaks havoc on the collector because approaches made to these “dumbed down” vehicles are disconcerting at best. A Toys R Us exclusive, Poe's Boosted X-wing Fighter is a decent release for what it is. It’s much too expensive. Hasbro decided to set the product at a whopping $49.99. We don’t even think that the Force Link technology included here will make that any more palatable. And the pack-in figure is still a five points of articulation crappy figure that we have about 100 times by now, save for the Force Link technology. But let’s first talk about this release’s updates and strongpoints first.

Do you recall the “wimpy, wimpy, wimpy” cannons that came with the original TFA version of this vehicle? Hasbro supposedly manufactured firmer cannons and replaced them for those who bought the first version, but Poe's X-wing Fighter vehicle comes with the updated stronger cannons. This is a great thing. The vehicle also comes with a booster on the back of it just like in Episode VIII. And aside from some revised paint operations, the rest of the vehicle is the same as its original release. Still, these enhancements may not be able to save this vehicle from nonstop criticism and retail doom. You probably already know the multiple problems with this vehicles. It’s too small. The included Poe Dameron pack-in figure barely can fit into the cockpit, and you have to fight with it to get it deep enough into the tiny space to close the hatch all the way. (It is possible to fit him inside of the cockpit, but he doesn’t look right once inside.) Poe's X-wing Fighter vehicle also comes with a laughable and removable rubber nose that can barely keep its shape on or off of the vehicle. Why does it even have this removable nose? Safety reason? To date, we have never seen a vehicle feature look so ridiculous on a Star Wars Hasbro vehicle. If you press down on the BB-8 figure in the droid socket, the s-foils lock open in attack mode.

There are also no extra compartments or similar features to give the ship some personality, something that is desperately needed in a toy line that is so simply approached. Now that we got the terrible things out of the way let’s focus on some of the positive things. Poe's X-wing Fighter does have a decent sculpt even though it is much too small. There is a great amount of detail throughout the vehicle’s hull that draws out the realism in it. And while the paint operations are also simple in many ways, at least they’re applied neatly without overspray or sloppiness. With all of this vehicle’s issues, at least they can make it look halfway decent when sitting on a shelf. The Poe Dameron pack-in figure now comes with Force Link technology and says a couple of lines that are somewhat relevant. But other than that it’s the same old figure we have multiple times already. Hasbro is already reconsidering how they approach characters in the 5POA line that sport helmets, and this is the way to do it. As you know, the last thing that sticks in our craw about this release is the price. It retails for an astounding $49.99 and for what you get it’s about $20-$25 too much money. If Hasbro and Toys R Us want $50 for a vehicle like this, they’re going to have to do better. Hasbro is making improvement with the simply articulated toy line, but we ‘re still not there yet.