Rebel Heroes - SW [TPM 3D] - Battle Packs

Rebel heroes fight to free the galaxy from the evil Empire. The Rebel Alliance brings together a diverse group of people, all with one common goal: to end the brutal tyranny of the Galactic Empire. The daring pilot and smuggler Han Solo and his fierce Wookiee copilot Chewbacca find themselves in the middle of the struggle, as does the protocol droid C-3PO.

If you don’t like reading negativity the perhaps it’s best if you move along right now. We’ll give you a few moments to find a happier review…. We have never been so offended in recent memory than we were with the release of the Rebel Heroes Battle Packs set released as part of 2012”s SW [TPM 3D] line. It might as well literally be 1999. While it goes without saying that there are indeed products from that era that would fair well as candidates for rerelease, inferiorly articulated and sculpted action figures should NEVER be part of that equation. We’re always overtly positive when it comes to the many Hasbro products that get released. We even describe ourselves as one of their biggest cheerleaders to what they do. But a set like this is completely unacceptable. And it's quite obvious that collectors have blatantly rebelled against these egregious multipacks as they’ve been sitting and rotting on shelves since their official release date. (Clearance fodder will be replenished, everyone!) Battle Packs serve a very important purpose (or at least the used to), but it’s offensive that Hasbro would cheap out on them this much in 2012. And we don’t like to use the word "offensive" so freely either. But we’ve actually become borderline enraged that Hasbro would take a risk like this in 2012, especially when so few collectors have any extra dollars to "waste" on their Star Wars collecting habits and/or budgets. Battle Packs used to be some of the best collector-friendly multipack sets we’ve ever received, so what the heck happened?

What justification can Hasbro claim warrants the rerelease of 1999’s Han Solo (Cantina) Comm Tech figure over a decade from its original release? The mold for that figure needs to be broken and it should never get produced again. There is no other way to utter this. It would have been better to get the 2004 VOTC Han Solo figure or 2011’s TVC Han Solo (Yavin Ceremony) (VC42) figure repacked instead (as well as the many other options that exist for an Episode IV Han Solo action figure). Hasbro bombarded us enough with the 1999 figure in 2004 (as well as plenty of times before and after that) and here this figure is again. (It's offensive.) It literally makes us shutter. Who cares if they've tightened up the paint job in the face? It doesn't make crap look any better. But unfortunately the insanity doesn’t end there. Also included is a terribly painted and terribly assembled 2006 TSC C-3PO [With Ewok Throne] (SAGA 042) figure which in and of itself isn’t a horrible representation of him, but the terrible paint job makes this release a total and easy pass. You’re probably asking what could be so wrong with his paint job, right? Do you believe that C-3PO’s gold color fades in different spots? We have seen samples range from very bad to not so bad. But no matter how you slice it, this is not a good version of C-3PO in the least and you will find inconsistencies in the paint job no matter what. (Our sample in the photo gallery is one of the better paint jobs we had come across, so it may be hard for you to see the unevenness in the paint operations.) What's worse is that the tooling has been clearly overused/overworked at this point that his arms barely stay in the shoulder sockets anymore. Why couldn’t Hasbro include the much-requested Build A Droid mold to make the C-3PO sculpt here thereby giving us a new figure? That would have guaranteed that all of these sets sell through and for literally no more for their tooling budget. It’s maddening!

Chewbacca isn’t any better of course. Hasbro slightly repainted 2002’s SW Chewbacca (Cloud City Capture) ('02 #38) figure which was last seen in the basic figure line as 2006’s TSC Chewbacca With Electronic C-3PO (SAGA 054) figure. The reason to get that figure was for the electronic C-3PO “parts” and the net that carried him. Obviously that isn’t an option for this release and all collectors will receive is an Imperial blaster that doesn't fit in his hands. Have we seen worse Chewbacca action figures in the basic figure line? We absolutely have! Does that make a rerelease of this version any more palatable? It absolutely does not! There are plenty of other Chewbacca figures available that could have been included here to make this set very worthwhile purchase for kids and collectors. Kids do care about the quality of their toys. But a set like the Rebel Heroes Battle Packs set is a complete waste of time and money and will function in no other way than to clog shelf space. What’s worse is that the set retails for $21.99. That means each of these inferior action figures cost more than $7 each. For a few pennies more you can get super-articulated figures with superior sculpts. This set represents one of the darkest moments in the 2012 lineup and we’re very concerned fro the future of the line. Again, how hard would it have been to include that “new” version of C-3PO? Heck, why didn’t they include 2006’s TSC Han Solo (SAGA 035) figure instead? At least that figure has a better head sculpt! It’s not looking good. But Hasbro hasn’t been listening to collectors in quite some time. What gives? The future of the Battle Packs line looks sadly grim.