Developed to Darth Vader's specifications, this highly advanced starfighter features.......

Developed to Darth Vader's specifications, this highly advanced starfighter features a reinforced spaceframe designed to stand up under the most strenuous battle conditions, as well as a hyperdrive and deflector shields. Lord Vader piloted this deadly ship in the Battle of Yavin, destroying several enemy fighters, nearly bringing down Luke Skywalker, had it not been for a lucky shot by the Millennium Falcon.

I know that this toy has had many variations and releases of Darth Vader's Tie Advanced X1 Starfighter over the years but, today I'll be reviewing Hasbro's 2006 Star Wars The Saga Collection release of this toy.

It seems as if all toy companies nowadays are window boxing or clam shelling every toy. I like the old school look and feel of this box. It reminds me of the original Kenner packaging. Note the the illustration, yes that is the Millennium Falcon blasting Darth Vader's Tie fighter. I think its a nice touch that Hasbro chose this particular scene for this toy's box.

Here you can clearly see the lever that operates the retractable guns.

Check out the great paint detail in the cockpit. How do they do that? You gotta have steady hand.

In the picture below you can get a good view on the retractable cannons and the firing missiles.

The close up of the pilot cockpit shows the painted window bracing. I feel doing this really sets this version apart from the original

All said, I really like this toy and feel its a good representation of Darth Vader's famous ship. I am proud to add this Tie Fighter to my collection.

This set is a gamble on the part of Lego: that kids & collectors would buy a set based on the obscure, hard-to-see, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo it makes in the Special-Edition version of Episode IV.

Video review included!

The Sentinel is an FTL-capable heavy landing craft built by Sienar Fleet Systems and Cygnus Spaceworks for the navies of the Galactic Empire. Incorporating similar features to its smaller cousin, the Lambda-class light personnel shuttle, it has an expanded cargo capacity that allows it to hold a number of single-seat All-Terrain Personal Transports (AT-PT), or several military-grade speeder bikes. But it also has use as a troop transport- carrying six squadrons of Stormtroopers directly to the front lines. Unlike the Lambda-class shuttle, however, the Sentinel has thicker armor, more powerful shields, and spots a wide array of weapons for both ground and air-assaults- eight forward laser cannons, two retractable heavy rapid-fire blaster cannon turrets under the nose, two concussion missile launchers (with four rounds each), and a dorsally-mounted ion cannon turret! With a command crew of two, and three gunnery officers, this allows it to also be use for military actions other than hauling cargo & troops to the front lines, and between Imperial starships.

The Sentinel was first seen in the off-screen “Shadows of the Empire” multimedia series (books, graphic novels, video games, models, toys, etc.) during the late ‘90s which bridged the gap between the Star Wars films “...The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “...Return of the Jedi” (1983). But when the Special Edition version of “...A New Hope” was re-released back into theaters twenty years later in 1997, the Sentinel made its first and only on-screen cameo- taking off from a Tatooine desert after dispatching a squadron of Imperial Sandtroopers looking for a pair of Rebel Alliance droids which escaped the capture of the Corellian CR90 corvette, Tantive-IV.

Landing Mode

This set is a gamble on the part of Lego: that kids & collectors would buy a set based on the obscure, hard-to-see, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo it makes in the Special-Edition version of Episode IV. It’s a bit squatter, but it fits the general shapes, functions, and appearance of the Sentinel-class assault shuttle. The cockpit section is tilted downwards like the Lambda-class shuttle [aka Imperial Shuttle (Set #7166)], but the hinge it’s attached to in back is different, so it unintentionally tilts up and down. A single all-black Imperial Pilot can beseated in front of the tilting controls inside by removing the transparent canopy piece. Oddly, though the Sentinel does have windscreens, they are very narrow, but here the cockpit is fully exposed with no printed hull designs like the Imperial Shuttle set’s canopy did. The paired retractable Blast Cannon Turrets are located under the nose, but they do not move. Continuing back, on the front of the cargo mid-section are four of the eight retractable Laser Cannons located behind the cockpit by small transparent-neon yellow cones. On the inner side of these are the Missile Launchers (which I’ll get into detail later). Along the bottom of the cargo section are two blocky footpads that hold the set off of the ground; these do not move, but you can remove them easily enough if you wish. Above the cargo section is the tall vertical stabilizer. Also obviously inspired by the one on the Lambda-class shuttle, this one is shaped differently- with a large chunk taken out of the back-lower half. Along the back corners of the cargo section are two small red levers) that activate another feature [that I’ll be getting into later]. The back engineering section contains the gear system to move the wings up-and-down, and has an assembly in back to represent the wide sub-light ion engine array. Like the Imperial Shuttle set, the Imperial Landing Craft has three small non-functional orange anti-collision lights along the front tips of the tail and wings.

To gain quick access to the bomb and missile launchers, the top roof panels (x3 per side) of the cargo section can be lifted upwards on both sides to reveal the interior!

From underneath, you can see two red Technic levers on both the front and back of the cargo section. When you pull both of these away, you can then lift the cockpit, tail, & engineering sections away to reveal the cargo section! Very cool idea, and it allows you to replace things inside easier without bumping into everything else along the way! (The cockpit/tail/engineering half doesn’t balance very easily on its own upright, so you’ll have to just tilt the nose up, and fold the red levers in, and then carefully set it down.) Though the larger cargo loading ramps are not available on the Imperial Landing Craft set, they are still implied by the indents on the outside walls of the cargo section. The interior of the cargo section is taken up mostly by space for the two missile launchers & their trigger assemblies, and just enough room for the two Stormtrooper gunners (they just sit wedged in on the floor between the bomb & missile launchers), two commanding Sandtroopers (they sit on two blue minifig seats), and the minifigs’ four hand-held weapons. The bomb launcher(s) takes up the back wall. The minifig blasters sit upside-down in holes to save space, and so that they won’t go anywhere. The four transparent-orange/-neon yellow bombs simply sit in open troughs along that back wall. The retractable ion cannon is not represented in this set.

Transition to Flight Mode

Unlike the earlier Imperial Shuttle set which had wings which ratcheted down/up manually by hand, the wings on the Imperial Landing Craft are tied into a gear system triggered by a small knob beneath the engineering section. Twisting counter-clockwise lowers the wings, while twisting clockwise retracts them. It takes about eight turns to make the wings reach their respective position(s), so be patient.

Unlike most Lego Star Wars sets with large movable sections, however, this set does not have a stop point or a bumper to prevent the wings from unfolding farther than they are supposed to, so you have to just guess where they stop, and then leave the knob alone. (I set the wings at about 135°.) This means that, even though it doesn’t do this in the Special Edition version of Episode IV or “Shadows of the Empire”, the wings on the Imperial Landing Craft can be twisted around 180° if you wish.

Flight Mode

Again, because the Sentinel-class assault shuttle is more stretched out on all axis, the Imperial Landing Craft set seems a bit on the chubby side. The wings are not totally flat; instead being layered in order for Lego to keep them both thin and long. The engineering section is completely exposed from both the top and bottom, so you can easily see the mechanism in there in either mode. Something to keep in mind as you’re flying the Imperial Landing Craft around- don’t turn it upside-down, or else the bombs inside will fall out of their troughs! I will also say that the set cannot support itself on any of the flight surfaces- tail and wings- or they will break off. But while a lot of the surface detail is also missing, it makes up for it in features- mostly in the form of its weapons...

I’m gonna say this right off: do not touch the forward laser cannons unless ya wanna shoot something! That’s just a habit you’re gonna have to get into. Pushing inwards on either of the longer laser cannons will fire the associated spring-powered missile launcher. These things have a pretty good range (5’ on a flat surface) and an even better kick. The warheads of each of the two missiles provided are soft hollow rubber, so they cushion the impact a bit... but that doesn’t then give you the excuse to then go shoot someone or something with them! The bomb launcher system is quite simple to use, and pain-free- simply press upwards on the two small red levers on the back of the cargo section, and then the bombs will fall out of little chutes on the back. You can also drop just from one side if you wish, but since each trough inside the cargo section is designed to hold only two bombs, each side will only drop that many.

There is one new part in here that I’ve never seen before, and two of them are provided with the set. They’re half visible on the back of the cargo section, just behind the red levers. They’re flat 1x2 Technic plates, but they’re composed entirely of black rubber! These act as little springs which reset the troughs inside the bomb wall inside the cargo section- when pressed down, the bombs fall out, and then when you let go, the rubber parts reset automatically so the bombs can be repositioned inside without immediately falling out again. Interesting idea!

Minifigs

Lego Set #7659 comes with five minifigs- a black Imperial Pilot, two standard Stormtroopers, and two Sandtroopers. The four ‘troopers have printed details on their helmets, and on the front & back of their torso parts. What separates the standard Stormtroopers from the Sandtroopers is the small soft fabric covers they have over their right shoulders; these orange & black items match those seen in “...A New Hope”, though they lack the associated cooling backpack units. The two orange shoulder pads come in a small cardboard box, and are printed flat- to get them to curve, you place the two holes over the neck of each minifig. All of the ‘Troopers’ inner minifig heads are straight black with no detailing. The black helmet of the Imperial Pilot minifig is just a different-colored version of a Stormtrooper helmet; only the circular Imperial Navy’s logos are added for detail. The pilot’s front torso detail is also different from the other 'Troopers', but he has no printing on the back of his torso piece. Two minifig blast rifles, and two smaller blasters are provided for the ‘Troopers. (I think the smaller ones are actually designed to be used as Han Solo’s blaster!)

As an update to the Imperial Shuttle set from the late ‘90s (it came out before Episode-I did), this one absolutely rocks! The biggest thing for me was that it had the mechanism which allowed you to turn the wings around by turning a knob rather than having to ratchet each one manually up-&-down. The only bad part to this, however, is that they don’t stop the wings for you; you have to make a judgment call each time, and so that was a bit of a let-down. But dropping bombs, and firing- not one, but two- hidden spring-powered missiles was fantastic! (Do you know how often Lego incorporates two spring-powered launchers into their sets-? Not very often, I can tell ya that! So this was a real treat.) I also thought it great that, not only could you access the cargo section through risible doors on top, but you could actually separate the cargo section altogether! While it would have been nice to have four Sandtroopers, I thought that it was a nice balance to mix it up with two regular Stormtroopers. And then you got a separate all-black Imperial Pilot. Yeah- they seriously down-scaled this set from what it would have been (the assault shuttle is supposed to carry 54 Stormtroopers at once), but what we got was pretty cool too. Things to change: add bumpers for the wings so they don’t drop down farther than they’re supposed to, maybe beef-up the neck a little bit to give it more substance, and add some painted detail to the canopy so it’s more opaque that clear. The Imperial Landing Craft is an awesome Lego set, so I highly recommend getting it!

The Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon is every Star Wars collector’s wet dream. It’s almost perfect – so close to perfect that it makes you wonder why they didn’t go the extra mile.

I really shouldn’t complain though, the thing is all sorts of awesome.

Includes 20 minute Hi-Def video!

I told myself that there would be no toys on vacation. It would be a nice relaxing week at the shore in our beach house, sipping margaritas.

We invited good friends Shogundan and his wife, Shogunnadia, down for the night. Dan says, “I’ve got a surprise for you”

Dan goes out to his car and comes back holding the new Star Wars 3.75" Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon.

Damn you.

But I suppose, while the wives are out shopping, why not shoot a quick review?

We took a 20 minute video showing you all of the features in High Definition - check it out

Thus ended my toy-free vacation, just hours after I arrived.

The Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon is every Star Wars collector’s wet dream. It’s almost perfect – so close to perfect that it makes you wonder why they didn’t go the extra mile.

I shouldn’t complain though, the thing is awesome.

The first thing you notice about the new Falcon is the size – its 2 ½ feet long! This toy was designed to be more in-scale with the 3 3/4” action figures.

The Outside

From the outside, it is immediately clear how much effort went into this ship. All of the details are crisp and clean, and the paint and decals add more realism to the ship.

The gun turret on the top of the Falcon is activated by a lever on the side. Slide the lever up and down and the turret moves left and right, also moving the gunner’s seat inside. The turret fires the bottom two missiles when either the left or right side hits the posts on either side of the turret. Motion and missile firing is accompanied by sound effects.

Moving a bit forward, you have the Radar Dish. The dish is controlled by a knob on the side. Rotate the knob, and the dish moves. What’s more, the knob controls the arm for the training droid inside the falcon.

Take a step backwards and open the flap on the side. The falcon makes a mechanical whirring noise as you lift up the door to reveal a small ship. This mini-fighter is a new addition for the toy and not seen in the movie. The falcon makes another sound effect when the ship is removed. The ship features an opening cockpit, slide out guns, and a firing missile. It’s not bad, but a lot of effort and resources went into this that I think could have been used elsewhere (see the section about the landing gear).

From the front you have a set of three missiles set between the two “mandibles”. There are three buttons to launch the missiles, but only the center one has sound effects. Just below at the bottom is a pull-down missile launcher that can rotate. Very awesome.

The front of the mandibles feature small, light up headlights that activate when you fire up the engines.

We’ll skip the cockpit to talk about it all at once. Be patient.

The right side has the feature that sold me on this toy – the boarding ramp. Hit a small button on the side and the ramp activates automatically, including lights and sounds! It’s a thing of beauty to see in action.

Around the back of the falcon are the engines. The panel on the back where the black vents are is removable and reveals where the batteries are stored. The engines light up and they light differently depending on what sound effects are being played. There is the regular running sound, the not-starting sound, and the hyperdrive sound. All are activated by pressing buttons on the side.

The underside of the falcon is similarly well detailed, and features a moveable gun turret as well. Unfortunately, there is only one gunner chair inside.

The landing gear is the source of the most disappointment here. It is true that this version of the falcon has more accurate landing gear than the classic version, but this landing gear does NOT retract. Instead, it is removable. The thing is, they are TOO removable, and often fall off if you handle it wrong, or push it along the floor. I’m not sure what the rationale here was, because the design of this toy appears to have the room for the landing gear. Instead of spending all that time and resources on the mini-fighter, why not figure out how to make landing gear retract? It’s like having a bat mobile that does all the cool stuff, but then the wheels don’t turn. It just seems like a basic function that was ignored. If you decide to hang the falcon, or fly it around, you can just pop off the gear but then you are left with ugly holes. Another compromise would have been to supply panels to cover up the unsightly gaps left behind.

The Cockpit

The cockpit is our gateway to the interior from the falcon. The lid lifts up just like the classic one does, and actually comes off quite easily. The interior of the lid is detailed and has stickers.

The cockpit is spacious and now features room for four figures. The two pilots’ seats can swivel and slide forward and backward, while the rear seats just swivel. The instrument panels are detailed and the figures can grab on to the controls. The cockpit is also illuminated by two lights behind the passengers. The cockpit area looks great, but when taken in context of the rest of the falcon, is much too large. This is a toy after all, and we are aiming for fun-factor here, not movie accuracy. There is no passage from the cockpit to the interior of the ship, another major oversight.

The Inside

To access the interior of the Falcon, you need to remove the panel nearest the cockpit first, then the panel near the radar dish. The interior is broken down into two compartments.

The first compartment, the area with the boarding ramp, has a few cool gimmicks. There is of course the aforementioned ramp, a smuggling compartment in the floor, the gunners’ station, a large storage area and the medical bed. The medical bed has an area that looks like something plugs in there – maybe the cuff for Luke’s severed hand as seen in ESB? I can’t help but think we will see a different version of the falcon for each movie. The area features tons of sticker detail and pegs on the floor for various figures.

Remember those buttons on the outside that activated the engines? Well, when the cover is removed, those buttons activate dialog from the movie. These sounds are largely, Han, Chewie and Luke when fighting the tie-fighters. I should also mention that the sound fidelity is AWESOME. The back of the compartment features dual doors that are a pain to open if you have fat fingers and no fingernails like me. Inside is just another storage space.

The other compartment also has a smugglers compartment, pegs on the floor, and sound effects. In addition, the holographic chess table lights up and has small holographic characters. Luke’s training ball is also represented here, and moves when the knob on the outside is turned. The focus of the sound effects on this side is the Chess match between Chewbacca and R2-D2, as well as Luke’s training with Obi-Wan.

Two figures are included – Chewbacca and Han Solo. I don’t know if these are re-releases or not, but they are well-suited to the ship, with Han having the communications gear on, and Chewie with the super-articulation.

The biggest problem with the Falcon is where to put it. This is a no-brainer – If you love Star Wars you NEED this. You just do. Just be careful when hanging this from the ceiling – Dan tried twice and both times it came crashing down on the floor. Fortunately, and this is saying something about its construction, it survived both falls unharmed.

I think this falcon will be under many Christmas trees this year. At around $160 USD it’s not cheap, but we Japanese toy fans have paid a lot more for a lot less toy.

Get one, you won’t regret it.

Video:

R5-D4 is the unsung hero of the Star Wars universe. If it wasn't for this droid's bad motivator, Uncle Owen would have bought him instead of R2-D2, and the secrets to the Death Star would have been lost in the sand.

R5-D4 is the unsung hero of the Star Wars universe. If it wasn't for this droid's bad motivator, Uncle Owen would have bought him instead of R2-D2, and the secrets to the Death Star would have been lost in the sand.

I have always loved this little droid. I had the small one as a kid, with the clicky head and the stickers for details. So when it came time to introduce my son to star wars, I made a point to show him R5-D4 in every movie, and in every book. R5-D4 is now his favorite droid, so I hopped on eBay and picked up this guy for him.

This R5-D4 is part of the Action Collection, a series of 1:6 scale figures from the original trilogy. R5-D4 was a Wal-Mart exclusive.

The droid stands around 6' tall and features a rotating head, moveable legs and feet, and an extending third leg. The antenna goes in a hole in the head, but that is the only assembly. The feet have tiny wheels on the bottom so R5-D4 can roll around.

Unfortunately, R5-D4 doesn't really do anything. There are no action features, no clicky head, and no electronic sounds. I suppose you can't expect much at the low price point, but still, it would have been nice to get a little more.

My son doesn't care though, he got his R5, and that's all that matters.

The toy was really exellent, but I would love to see what they could do with this toy today. Perhaps if it was wireless, and a little quieter...

I got this Remote Control Micro Machines AT-AT from a former roommate for Christmas one year. At the time, I was really into Star Wars, so I absolutely loved this toy.

I kept it in storage for many years. When I recently brought it out for display, I noticed that I forgot to take the batteries out before storing it. A rusty liquid was oozing out of the battery compartment. I quickly removed the junky batteries, cleaned the compartment, and replaced them.

The AT-AT only has 2 movements - forward and reverse. The forward motion still worked, but reverse was dead. It was at that point that I knew that this toy and I had to part ways, and off to ebay it went.

At one time, years ago, this toy was considered quite rare, being a store excusive for KayBee Toys. Unfortunately, that time had past, and I got next to nothing for it on ebay.

The Remote Control AT-AT came with 2 figures: AT-AT Driver and Snowtrooper. One figure could fit in the cockpit while another could fit into the body. The head of the AT-AT is articulated, and the side guns move.

A white plastic base was included that could hold the AT-AT, both figures, and the remote control.

The toy came packaged in 2 variations, one with a window showing the AT-AT, and one just showing the controller (shown here).

The toy was really exellent, but I would love to see what they could do with this toy today. Perhaps if it was wireless, and a little quieter...

The idea behind this is so insane, it just works.

I know I am late on this bandwagon, and that most of you already know about Darth Tater. I had to record this for posterity though, so here he is, in all his glory.

Darth Tater is basically your standard Mr. Potato Head, but with Star Wars-themed add-ons.

You get a cape, helmet, facemask, arms, eyes, ears, mouth, nose and feet. Items get attached via pegs, and spare items can be secured in a hatch in his behind. His lightsaber is not removable.

The idea behind this is so insane, it just works.

If you love stormtroopers, this toy is a must-buy.

This Stormtrooper is part of Hasbro's Original Trilogy Collection, which features new detailed renditions of toys packaged in replicas of classic boxes. There have been other 12" Stormtroopers in the past, but this is the best looking one that Hasbro has put out. The proportions are near perfect.

The figure features a cloth black jumpsuit with white armor pieces covering it. Most of the armor is permanently attached to the black suit, but some parts, like the belt and codpiece, are removable. The helmet does not come off.

The Stormtroopers only accessory is his gun, which can be stored in his belt. His hands are reasonably articulated, featuring separately jointed trigger finger. The figure itself is extremely articulated, and is only limited by the suit and armor. it has no problems standing on it's own.

If you love stormtroopers, this toy is a must-buy.