-edit- ok, a couple of corrections now that I've had some time to fully explore this toy. First, the legs DO click into place when telescoped out. They just need to really be yanked. Second, he can hold his light saber. The trick is to slide it into the top of his fist with the black knob on the saber's handles facing out so that it slided between the thumb and the fingers. It's still a tight fit and it might scrape the paint of in the long run, but it does work without excessive force. -edit-


Well, I haven't seen any reveiws on this guy anywhere, so here's my two hundred and fifteen cents (adjusted for inflation).

Capsule: A good toy that could have been fantastic but...


Shuttle mode:

It looks great, it really does. Just, um, don't touch it too much. It's kinda floppy and the wings tend to fall off. Why? I'll get to that when I discuss the transformation. But if you can get past the floppiness, it's a great likeness of the Imperial shuttle. The wings fold just like in the movie (careful! They might fall off). It has a pair folding landing gear struts on which it balances nicely (which I wasn't expecting) and the way the paint aps on the robot mode legs become the shuttles engines is pretty slick (although they should have been blue instead of grey). All of the guns are present (including a molded but unarticulated tail gunner) and the ones on the wings rotate. Apart from the floppy, the only problem I have is that the light saber doesn't go into the missle chamber all the way and ends up looking like someone stabbed the shuttle and got the sword stuck. But overall, very good shuttle mode. It looks good from every angle except maybe the bottom (as with most TFs).


Transformation:

According to the directions, he's a lego former. If you ignore the directions, he's not so much a lego former, and he looks (IMO) better. And here-in lies the problem. You see, according to the directions, you're supposed to remove the side wings from what become the arms and reclip them to the robot's waist. But they a) look kinda dumb on the waist and b) look kinda cool on the arms. This sucks because, since a cheaper feeling plastic was used on this toy, pieces that clip on tend not to clip on very well; resulting in wings that fall off easily.

There's another bit of lego forming on this toy that is, sadly unavoidable. As you can seen on the pics of this toy, the shuttle's tailfin pops off to become a shield. You don't need to take it off, and it doesn't look too wierd in robot mode sticking out his back. However, the top peice that the fin attaches to, the peice that houses the missle mechanism needs to be removed in order to rotate the hips around for bot mode. This is silly; had the designer moved the peg on this missle launcher peice up higher, you'd be able to rotate it without needing to remove it. But for reasons I can't fathom they put the peg so low that if you try to just rotate the peice out of the way, it won't clear the hips when you try to turn them around for bot mode.

What else... As I said, the plastic is cheaper than your main line TFs. This means that joints are either too stiff or too loose. The basic transformation is actually pretty clever (apart from the dumb lego-forming parts), but the cleverness is diluted by having to wrestle with the basic joints. It's bit frustrating. It increases to very frustrating after popping the legs off for the umpteenth time.


Robot mode:

He looks good; including the head sculpt (although the green face is pretty yucky). He has all the right joints (knees, elbows, lateral arm and leg rotators, head, waist [if you remove the missle piece], and ball-jointed wrists). The problem is that all of these joints except the wrists are ratcheted to only a couple of positions. Also, there is no click position for the telescoping legs. They rely on friction to keep extended and can't take the weight of the toy; he slowly lists to one side and then topples over. In other words, the toy doesn't stand. Big problem, Hasbro.

What else.. oh yes, he won't hold his light saber. It's not that he can't; he probably could if you forced it. It's just that the only decent plastic that was used was on his fists, which is a shame because this plastic has no give and makes it imposible to get the saber handle past the thumbs without (I assume) incredible force. Or The Force. Also, the directions say that the missle launcher can be held like a gun, but the peg is too small and short for his hands.


Overall: I know it sounds like I hate this toy, but I don't. It's actually fairly good; waay better than Boba Fett. The basic design is sound. The way the arms and legs tuck in and form the shuttle body is neat. If the following things had been done differently, this would have been a home run:

1) If this toy have been made using the quality of plastic that Cybertron uses

2) If the wings weren't designed to unclip

3) If the telescoping pegs clicked into place (!!!!one!!)

4) If they had moved the missle peg up a bit and just had the piece rotate and not unclip OR had the peg actually work as a gun handle

5) If he could hold his light saber in either mode without resorting to force or looking silly.


Compared to other SW TFs in terms of execution (not looks): Better than Boba, tied with Obi (it's got more problems, but its also more ambitious).


-LB is torn on this one...

 

Good review. See, this is my whole problem with SW TFs so far--they don't have the same heft or quality as normal TFs, and they aren't very well designed so far. I guess I'm going to continue to avoid the line for now.

Sad thing is, they still sell faster than normal TFs. Then again, there's a lot more SW fans around here than TF fans.

 

I've just removed the wings and tail from mine altogether, and it makes a pretty convincing "skiff" or some sort of "tender" for a larger ship.

 

Dang, I was hoping these were actually going to start getting better at some point. Given that the legs do click into place, does that allow the figure to stand reliably without tipping over?

Great review!

 

My figure stands just fine thanks to the flip out heels and long feet. Oh, and bonus: he has a smiley face on his crotch! Yeah ladies, come give Mr. Smiley a kiss.  

 

Yep, he'll stand. If you keep the shield/fin on his back, he's a bit backheavy but he will stand. However, due to the ratchet joints in his knees, rotators and hips, he is difficult to balance in dynamic poses. I'm tempted to round off the ratching surfaces with a file.


-LB

 

Any good photo galleries of this bad boy around?

 

I've always wanted an Imperial Shuttle of a decent size, so I like this fig for that reason. However, that top tail/gun attachment is kinda dumb. In trying to get the "gun" into the hands, I think I fatigued the plastic peg and now it won't fit back on the top of the shuttle without falling out anymore. I'm not sure if this is a returnable issue for me, or one I can repair with clear nail polish or something. And the wings do look better on the arms than the hips in robot mode.

Also, since I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else in this thread yet, did anyone else notice that there are no "tech specs" on the packaging? Not that anyone really cared (SWTFs were all overpowered anyway), but it's still kinda strange.

 

I just found him, and he absolutely sucks. All that crap that comes off really ruins him for me.

The outer wings should be permanently attached where they are and maybe slide forward (they fold up on his shoulders just fine, they just hang back a bit), and the top wing needs to be able to fold up onto his back. Also, his waist should be able to spin without having to remove the top wing connector/assinine gun he can't even hold right. Such simple design changes could have improved this figure twentyfold.

IMO, he's the worst of the line so far. If it weren't for the stupid design errors, he could have been the best.

Nice vehicle mode, though.

Edit: After a bit more fiddling, I don't think he's the worst anymore, I still reserve that for Vader and/or the wheelbike guy.

All those parts that come off still bug me to no end, though.

 

Broke down and bought this and Maul this afternoon. Overall I was actually surprised at how solid it feels. As with all SWTFs the robot mode is absolute shit, however it does feel more stable than the others I have (Luke, Grevious and Obi Wan) The vehicle mode looks nice though.

C-

 

Here's my review in 5 words and one equals sign:

Giant Smile Crotch = must buy





Here's my review in more words:

90% of this toy's problems come from the detatchable wings. You don't need to detach them to transform. They look stupid on the hips. They look great on the arms. Why Hasbro suggests taking them off and putting them on the hips, I don't know. Just don't take the wings off ever and he loses the cheating parts-former feel. I can deal with removing the back fin. Beasts remove one part all the time, and I love beasts.

Anyway, the ship is spot-on as always with SWTFs. And the shuttle is a great design to begin with. Articulation is fantastic in 'bot mode. Proportions are OK. General 'bot asthetics are surprisingly good (with wings on arms).

File under stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid that his gun doesn't fit in his hand.

But then the emporer is a Sith. What kind of self-respecting Sith uses a gun anyway? Give the man his light-saber instead.

A worthy purchase marred by a brainless official transformation and parts falling off due to that brainless official transformation. Use the unnoficial wings on arm method and be careful not to knock them off for a much better figure.

Oh yeah... and Giant Smile Crotch FTW!  

 

Don't know if this is old news. But I didn't like the way his light saber stuck out in ship mode, so I was looking for somewhere else to put it, turns out on the bottom there is a slot that looks like it was designed to hold the light saber. Check it out, makes this figure way cooler in my opinion.