Battle Rancor (With Felucian Rider And Saddle) - TAC - Exclusives

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game, the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, tells the story of Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, a mysterious figure who has been trained by the menacing Sith Lord to hunt down the last of the Jedi. Set in the dark times between Episodes III and IV, it explores the aftermath of Order 66 and the continued evolution of Darth Vader leading directly into the events in Star Wars: A New Hope.

The Force-sensitive Felucians patrol their jungle homeworld astride ferocious rancors that are marked with luminous warpaint. Together, a Felucian warrior and his rancor mount pose a formidable threat to even the most skilled Sith warrior. Felucia is heavily forested with fungal life forms and immense primitive plants that can be dangerous when disturbed. As one of the planets caught in the Clone Wars, Felucia becomes a battleground between opposing sides, pulling the native Felucians into the midst of the conflict.

When Hasbro announced that they were working on a new Rancor toy, none of us expected it would an Expanded Universe version instead. And it was even released before the The Force Unleashed video game's street date. But once it made its way to the shelves at TARGET stores across the USA, it wowed most collectors as one of the most impressive beasts the toy line had ever seen up to that point. It was large, it was menacing, and it was beautifully decorated. The Battle Rancor (With Felucian Rider And Saddle) was a very impressive exclusive indeed as the beast dwarfs both the vintage Kenner and The Power Of The Force "2" versions. Not only did it include an all-new sculpt (of the Battle Rancor monster itself), it also includes a highly detailed Felucian Rider (which is a first in the basic figure line as well) and an excellently sculpted saddle for the rider to stand on when piloting the Rancor around Felucia. While we believe that it would be relatively impossible to tame a rancor (we like to think of them as the Great White sharks of the Star Wars universe) despite what is explained on the back of the box that the Felucians are Force-sensitive and have the ability to tame the rancors but they're still unpredictable regardless.... whatever, we still love the set as a whole. It is new from the ground up and packs quite a punch and with a very fair retail price of $39.99, it's worth every penny as far as we're concerned. It really doesn't matter what relationship exists between rider and the beast of burden he mounts. The Force Unleashed multimedia event has brought us both new characters as well as reinventions of familiar ones. This TARGET exclusive brought us all of the above and it is an exclusive that has aged particularly well and remains one of our favorites of all time.

The Felucian Warrior (called Rider on the package front) is one of the most interesting Star Wars characters yet to be approved by Lucasfilm, Ltd. Basically with a koosh ball for a head, the Felucian Warrior's bizarre look is clearly inspired from some mollusk, hydra and/or some other underwater creature that has suction cups for hands and feet finished off with lots of tentacles. Despite its very unique design, bright colors and brilliant sculpt, it is a bit limited in the articulation department. Still, Hasbro ensured to include premium articulation where they did add articulation. As a result, not too much is lost here as far as we're concerned. Coming with a satisfactory nine areas of movement, the figure disappointingly has no head articulation at all which is particularly bizarre. But that's because of his very ornate head "fixtures". He is essentially one piece from head to crotch, save for the swivel waist. This may put off some collectors, but we really don't mind at all. Besides, the Felucian Warrior has a wonderful range of movement regardless. Where the figure does have movement, Hasbro went out of their way to include ball-joints which gives the figure its relatively impressive array of movement. It certainly wasn't a wasted effort and although head movement would have been sublime, it wasn't part of the plan here. Wasn't the last Star Wars figure to come without a head joint the vintage KennerStormtrooper from 1978? Wow, we just find this particularly odd. Anyway, there is really no need to harp on this because the figure has just enough movement to steer the Battle Rancor around Felucia and come up with some cool action poses of your own. Despite its limited articulation, the Felucian Warrior is marvelously painted. Dressed in an outfit that is reminiscent of some ancient tribal people, the Felucian Warrior has one of the nicest paint jobs seen on an exclusive action figure. He comes with a skull of some Felucian animal and that too was designed to look really cool and it fits in his hands very well.

But without a doubt the real gem in the set is the Battle Rancor. Hasbro has created an incredible sculpt for this incredibly and accurately scaled beast. Destined to be the definitive version for a Jabba's Palace version, the Battle Rancor comes with 12 areas of articulation which gives the creature an unbelievable amount of movement. (Editor's Note: Hasbro did utilize this sculpt for the TARGET exclusive Jabba's Rancor With Luke Skywalker exactly a year later in May 2009.) Steps way beyond any rancor monster we have received thus far, it is a masterful work of art in every way. It has large and imposing arms with frightening claws, a hinged jaw that opens up to show a vicious mouth and ball-jointed ankles to allow for maximum ways of posing this massive beast. It also has ball-jointed shoulders, but they functional only really with a "snapping" action feature rather than having the ability to rotate 360 degrees. Even so, the arms arm so long and excellently designed, you will be hard pressed to find fault with them. They work well to prop up the beast as well. The Battle Rancor's body section is lean and muscular and it well proportioned to the rest of its body. Believe it or not, there have been complaints from fans expressing that it is not in complete proportion with itself having too long of arms for its body. We have to wholly disagree with these sentiments. We think it is nearly perfect in every way and this is the perfect template for an Original Trilogy interpretation. The light brown color of its skins is beautifully enhanced with a lilac/light blue war-paint wash (that is luminous in the video game) and it gives this beast a whole new personality from the one we saw in Episode VI. It looks like war paint. This is a great set and seems to be commanding a premium price on the after-market, most likely due to the popularity of the video game. Even if you aren't into gaming, you can bet you'll be very into this set! As far as we're concerned, this is a toy to not be without.