JEDIpartner
07-02-2004, 11:10 PM
You want... you've got it!
Okay... I am really happy (for the most part) with this piece. Hasbro really pulled out the stops in retooling this mould to make it something special. The ship itself is based on the same cast as the vintage and POTF2 model. There are no real surprises there. The paint application isn't as dramatic as the prototype photos would lead you to believe. The top of the cockpit is not a dark grey in comparison to the off white of the rest of the vehicle. The paint looks pretty much as it should, so I just wanted to get that cleared up first since so many people had concerns over it.
There are about 3000 stickers that need to be applied to the hull and the interior. I don't think that any of them are necessarily ones that weren't around the times before. They may just have a little extra detailing.
I never got the POTF2 one so maybe these are just rehashed features. I don't know. Someone will have to tell me.
There are four digitally sampled sounds that are wired into four buttons in one of the side panels. The first features engine start-up noise and then a "white noise" flight sound. The engine lights kick on when the "white noise" sounds.The second actives a pulse cannon sound and the pulse cannon lights towards the front of the craft. The third is a thruster/hyperdrive sound which goes into the "white noise". I'll talk about this a little more in a second. The final sound is the "whine" that you hear as the Falcon is shown coming in before landing (think Yavin IV and Cloud City). Most of the sounds activate the forward floodlights, which are a VERY bright whitish-purple.
The engines are amazing. Where there used to be a recess where the stickers went is now a clear "corrugated" looking piece of plastic. It is surrounded by a grey light compartment that blend in nicely with the rest of the design. The engines feature two colours of lights. The main one is a vivid blue and the second, which is triggered with the thruster/hyperdrive sound, is white. Once the thrusters have stopped the white light shuts off and leaves the blue. Both are on during the thruster fire. It is just unreal.
There is now a missile where the front cargo dock is located. The missile isn't anything special. It's about three inches long and clear red plastic. The firing mechanism is located on the middle strip of plastic above it (between the cockpit and the radar dish). It triggers a proton torpedo sound when it fires the projectile. It still makes the noise even when there is nothing in the launch tube.
I cannot recall the colour of plastic used for the landing struts, quad cannon chair or the dejarik table on the POTF2 release. They were all dark blue on the vintage model. They are a brown colour here. The plastic seems a bit more fragile than the more pliable plastic used in the vintage so there are no cut out areas between the landing struts. They are now solid pieces of plastic.
The landing struts are still the same light grey they have always been. No change there.
Okay... here's where the big disappointment lies. It's that pesky cockpit. The cockpit no longer flips open to the side as it once did. It now raises like the canopy of the X-Wing. While that isn't terrible... it doesn't really lock in place. The canopy is made of a clear plastic and painted off-white to match the rest of the ship. The control panel (also dark brown like the other accessories) is now inserted into the canopy, which allows for better access to the cockpit.
UNFORTUNATELY the cockpit area is now like a scooped out toboggan. This causes the figures to move around in there quite a bit. They move around quite a bit unless they are Han and Chewie, both of whom need to be crammed into the cockpit, barely fitting and mostly unable to close the canopy. I used "flight to Alderaan" Han and "Bespin escape" Chewie. This is SO not good. I think Hasbro did the best they could with what the original mould would allow but it still isn't going to accomodate your figures. Well, not these two at any rate.
The packaging is the black starfield, double bar, Star Wars logo packaging that calls to mind the vintage line. The front panel shows a mock-up of the toy being chased by two TIEs in front of the Death Star. The TIEs and Death Star are movie shots. The top panel shows the toy "entering hyperspace". The bottom panel shows the toy leaving Cloud City (another movie still). The side panels show the toy with two Star Destroyers, a Super Star Destroyer and hoth in the background. There is an energy beam coming from Hoth... the ion cannon? The back of the box has a movie still of the ROTJ Death Star battle as wqell as several views of the toy and a selection of other toys that will be available from the line.
Overall the toy isn't bad. I will have to try another Han/Chewie combo to see if the cockpit is just crap or not. The rest of the toy is pretty stellar, though. I'd give it a solid B.
The packaging is sharp. I'd give that an A.
Okay... I am really happy (for the most part) with this piece. Hasbro really pulled out the stops in retooling this mould to make it something special. The ship itself is based on the same cast as the vintage and POTF2 model. There are no real surprises there. The paint application isn't as dramatic as the prototype photos would lead you to believe. The top of the cockpit is not a dark grey in comparison to the off white of the rest of the vehicle. The paint looks pretty much as it should, so I just wanted to get that cleared up first since so many people had concerns over it.
There are about 3000 stickers that need to be applied to the hull and the interior. I don't think that any of them are necessarily ones that weren't around the times before. They may just have a little extra detailing.
I never got the POTF2 one so maybe these are just rehashed features. I don't know. Someone will have to tell me.
There are four digitally sampled sounds that are wired into four buttons in one of the side panels. The first features engine start-up noise and then a "white noise" flight sound. The engine lights kick on when the "white noise" sounds.The second actives a pulse cannon sound and the pulse cannon lights towards the front of the craft. The third is a thruster/hyperdrive sound which goes into the "white noise". I'll talk about this a little more in a second. The final sound is the "whine" that you hear as the Falcon is shown coming in before landing (think Yavin IV and Cloud City). Most of the sounds activate the forward floodlights, which are a VERY bright whitish-purple.
The engines are amazing. Where there used to be a recess where the stickers went is now a clear "corrugated" looking piece of plastic. It is surrounded by a grey light compartment that blend in nicely with the rest of the design. The engines feature two colours of lights. The main one is a vivid blue and the second, which is triggered with the thruster/hyperdrive sound, is white. Once the thrusters have stopped the white light shuts off and leaves the blue. Both are on during the thruster fire. It is just unreal.
There is now a missile where the front cargo dock is located. The missile isn't anything special. It's about three inches long and clear red plastic. The firing mechanism is located on the middle strip of plastic above it (between the cockpit and the radar dish). It triggers a proton torpedo sound when it fires the projectile. It still makes the noise even when there is nothing in the launch tube.
I cannot recall the colour of plastic used for the landing struts, quad cannon chair or the dejarik table on the POTF2 release. They were all dark blue on the vintage model. They are a brown colour here. The plastic seems a bit more fragile than the more pliable plastic used in the vintage so there are no cut out areas between the landing struts. They are now solid pieces of plastic.
The landing struts are still the same light grey they have always been. No change there.
Okay... here's where the big disappointment lies. It's that pesky cockpit. The cockpit no longer flips open to the side as it once did. It now raises like the canopy of the X-Wing. While that isn't terrible... it doesn't really lock in place. The canopy is made of a clear plastic and painted off-white to match the rest of the ship. The control panel (also dark brown like the other accessories) is now inserted into the canopy, which allows for better access to the cockpit.
UNFORTUNATELY the cockpit area is now like a scooped out toboggan. This causes the figures to move around in there quite a bit. They move around quite a bit unless they are Han and Chewie, both of whom need to be crammed into the cockpit, barely fitting and mostly unable to close the canopy. I used "flight to Alderaan" Han and "Bespin escape" Chewie. This is SO not good. I think Hasbro did the best they could with what the original mould would allow but it still isn't going to accomodate your figures. Well, not these two at any rate.
The packaging is the black starfield, double bar, Star Wars logo packaging that calls to mind the vintage line. The front panel shows a mock-up of the toy being chased by two TIEs in front of the Death Star. The TIEs and Death Star are movie shots. The top panel shows the toy "entering hyperspace". The bottom panel shows the toy leaving Cloud City (another movie still). The side panels show the toy with two Star Destroyers, a Super Star Destroyer and hoth in the background. There is an energy beam coming from Hoth... the ion cannon? The back of the box has a movie still of the ROTJ Death Star battle as wqell as several views of the toy and a selection of other toys that will be available from the line.
Overall the toy isn't bad. I will have to try another Han/Chewie combo to see if the cockpit is just crap or not. The rest of the toy is pretty stellar, though. I'd give it a solid B.
The packaging is sharp. I'd give that an A.