The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[Praetor_Shinzon]

that Naboo Starfighter is tempting. and i haven't bought any SW toys since 2008.

[cooleddie74]

There are precious few photos of the 2012 Naboo Starfighter outside of its box, but here's what's probably the best of them from, I believe, the 2011 New York City Comic Con. The fighter has been delayed, I think, twice for whatever reasons and should have come out in January or February to coincide with Episode I 3-D being in theaters, but in its infinite marketing wisdom Hasbro decided to put off the shelf date for this and the two repackaged and repainted vehicles above until sometime this summer.

This picture clearly shows the all-new sliding cockpit canopy as well as the improved surface detailing on the craft, which includes screen-accurate Naboo Futhork writing.

[Gep Malakai]

Jesus, that thing looks great. I had the original back when TMP came out in '99, but I sold it years ago. I might have to reconsider on this one. Does it come with the R2 unit?

Apparently, it's out in the Philippines already, so hopefully it'll be hitting stateside soon. This guy has a couple photos showing how the top opens to fit the astromech in.

[OdoWanKenobi]

Sigh. I'm looking through my collection and I know that before I move I'm gonna have to sell some stuff. I really, really don't want to, though. My toys and statues are my babies. Some of this stuff has appreciated in value ridiculously, though. Such a though decision. My Hot Toys, DC Universe, Marvel Legends, and all of my statues are staying for damn sure.

[cooleddie74]

Gep Malakai wrote:

---

Does it come with the R2 unit?

No, unfortunately the Fighter doesn't come with an Astromech droid. At least the original 1999 ship had a molded R2 droid dome that served as a button or something. Doesn't seem like including a figure with a vehicle is Hasbro's strong suit anymore unless we're talking about the upcoming MTT Troop Transport(which comes with a whopping 21 figures...although to be frank sixteen of them are little more than pre-posed little statues that can hold blaster rifles and one other is pretty ancient and nothing more than a cheap and gratuitous throw-in, so really there are only four that are modern and of any great quality).

All that said, the new Fighter looks incredible and I hope the recent horrible distribution issues on Hasbro's part don't affect Class II Vehicles like this. I'd like to get at least one, maybe two of them. It's been over a decade since a 3-3/4" scale Naboo Fighter has even been on the market.

[Gep Malakai]

cooleddie74 wrote:

---

No, unfortunately the Fighter doesn't come with an Astromech droid. At least the original 1999 ship had a molded R2 droid dome that served as a button or something.

Oh. Well that sucks.

[cooleddie74]

Gep Malakai wrote:

---

Oh. Well that sucks.

Yeah. It does, but we're talking Hasbro in 2012 here. Those guys would blatantly cost-cut on the new Fighter itself if they thought no one would notice and they could get away with it.

[cooleddie74]

JUST ANNOUNCED!

The Toys 'R' Us STAR WARS Exclusives for this coming Fall!

TRU tends to get their exclusives in decent to excellent numbers, so finding these should be little or no trouble for most U.S. customers.

Oh, and here's the newly-released first packaged photo of the next in the continuing line of Target-exclusive Vintage multipacks based on the "Special Action Figure Sets" carried by some department stores in the early eighties. This is the tenth multipack in the series and the seventh one sold individually(the first three sets were bundled together in a big three-pack).

[cooleddie74]

Sorry for the triple post in my own thread, but since several people here expressed a lot of interest in the brand-new 2012 Naboo Starfighter from Hasbro here's a brief but pretty good video review of the vehicle from online SW collecting luminary Adam Pawlus.

Enjoy! This fighter looks like it's gonna be amazing!

[Shazam!]

That R5-D4 doesn't look like BAD mold.

[cooleddie74]

It's not.

It's the 2006 Saga Collection R5-D4 that reused the VOTC Artoo body from '04. It still has the front panel that's been glued down so it can no longer be opened.

On the bright side, the Death Star Droid is the BAD mold and the Power/Gonk Droid is completely new from the feet up! There's speculation that this new mold will be reused and repainted blue later this year for a Vintage Collection Power Droid based on the original 1978 action figure. I hope so! People have been asking for a Vintage-carded Power Droid for a while now and it'd be great to see one in classic old school colors before the line goes on hiatus!

[Shazam!]

Weird that they wouldn't use the Vintage Collection R5. Put me down for a Vintage-carded Power Droid though!

[cooleddie74]

Here's a bigger and clearer photo of the new three-pack so you can get a better look at each figure.

R5: repack of the 2006 figure.
DSD: repaint of the popular BAD mold.
Gonk: all-new!



Unlike a lot of other Hasbro SW product, the Target-exclusive sets seem to be ordered and shipped in decent numbers so finding this one shouldn't be too terribly difficult for most collectors so long as they have a Target nearby. Due to the presence of the BAD Death Star Droid and the brand new Gonk I do expect it to sell better than most of the previous Target sets, though.

[C.E. Evans]

cooleddie74 wrote:

---

No, unfortunately the Fighter doesn't come with an Astromech droid. At least the original 1999 ship had a molded R2 droid dome that served as a button or something.

Funny thing with the Naboo fighter is that the only way Artoo can really fit in that tiny plug is if his head is removed from the rest of him.

Doesn't seem like including a figure with a vehicle is Hasbro's strong suit anymore...

It might be a case of Hasbro wanting to keep the vehicles at a certain price point (and to get people to buy more figures separately anyway). But in some ways, it's kind of mirroring what they did originally with both the initial Kenner X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, Landspeeder, etc, where all figures were sold separately.

Speaking of which, last year I finally got my hands on the Armored Rebel Snowspeeder (only took me about 30 years after first seeing it as a kid!). My local Target store was selling it at $17.99, but the real surprise was that they also had the Luke and Dack figures in their snowspeeder outfits on the pegs, so I was able to score the the hat trick there.

[cooleddie74]

^
Nice! I never saw nor was able to get the Target Snowspeeder and the prices for the thing on eBay are just ridiculous. As per Astromechs fitting in the Naboo Fighter, while I can't speak for the old 1999 one because I don't have one handy (it didn't have a slot anyways) the review video I posted above shows that you load the R2 unit sideways into the brand new Fighter. There's even a little space or slot in the floor to accommodate the modern Astromechs' third leg.

ETA: Here are the sixteen original "Special Action Figure Sets" from more than thirty years ago that the new Target-exclusive sets are based on. The new ones even replicate the same figures for the most part, just using modern ones in place of the originals.



Getting all of these in good-to-mint condition would be very, very expensive to say the least. A lot of collectors didn't even know these ever existed until the 1990's due to their having been inadequately advertised department store exclusives at a time when most STAR WARS action figures were bought in individual packages and could be found anywhere and everywhere.