Rebel U-wing Fighter - RO - Vehicles (Class II)

A sturdy troop transport and gunship used by the Rebel Alliance, the U-wing starfighter is a well-armed, swing-wing vessel that must penetrate heavy fire zones to deposit soldiers onto battlefields and then fly air support during dangerous missions against the Empire..

We suppose the right thing to do would be to give Hasbro an “A” for effort. After all, they did bring an all-new vehicle into the 3.75” Star Wars action figure line with the Rebel U-wing Fighter. On paper, this Class II vehicle is quite nice. The details are all in place and it has the most basic of features. And while its scale is way off, at least its size looks comparable next to the included pack-in figure, Captain Cassian Andor. Simply but admirably painted, the Rebel U-wing Fighter isn’t going to make any aficionado of vehicles jump up or down or do cartwheels, but it may just itch the scratch collectors have had for years now as we’ve been so desperate to see any new vehicles at all come out of Hasbro. That may be a sad excuse to give credit to the Rebel U-wing Fighter. Just because we haven’t had anything new shouldn’t immediately forgive the sins of what is wrong with it. We’re not really saying that at all. But aside from the awful NERF gun permanently affixed to it, we really don’t take too much issue with it, albeit we concede the NERF gun is almost an unforgivable addition altogether.

Mostly off-white, the Rebel U-wing Fighter has been detailed with mustard yellow and blue. Frankly, the vehicle looks pretty incredible. Because we live in an era where paint jobs are so unpredictable, it’s nice to see that Hasbro has grasped this well when it comes to the vehicles they make. But that’s not the only thing Hasbro has grasped well here. The action features work beautifully too. The cockpit opens easily and snaps shut. They even provided a cord which straps the pack-in figure snuggly into the cockpit. It’s a huge cockpit and he would be flopping around inside were it not for that cord. A lever opens the wings and it does so with great fluidity and smoothness. This feature is so nice that it actually impresses us. And while we feel the “U-wings” are a little bit flimsy, the vehicle on a whole is quite sturdy. Manual landing gear feet can be found on the underside of the vehicle. They can easily be placed into “landing” position or tucked back up into the vehicle when it is in flight. There’s no doubt that kids are going to have a blast with the Rebel U-wing Fighter. It’s the collectors that are going to take issue with it.

The Rebel U-wing Fighter comes with an “exclusive” Captain Cassian Andor figure, but we should probably expect this figure to be planned in another store exclusive release or multipack many times for the future. Anything is possible. The figure isn’t half bad honestly. Yes, it a simply-articulated 5POA action figure, but Hasbro could have done worse. The figure comes with a ball-socket head and swivel shoulders and hips. The figure can’t do much but sit or stand, but that’s all you really need a pack-in figure to do these days. The paint operations fall between average and good. It’s a fair representation of the onscreen character, but we do see some “muddiness” in the hairline and face that probably could have been cleaned or tightened up in the production process. He also comes with a blaster that fits loosely in the functioning holster. In our opinion, the Rebel U-wing Fighter is significantly better than the TIE Striker, but it’s still a ways off from where we’d like to see 3.75” scaled vehicles. And for the MSRP to be set at $49.99, it makes us believe that we don’t have much hope for nice and collector-focused affordable vehicles for the future. That makes us the most sad of all.