Rebel Honor Guard - TAC - Basic (30 10)

A constant scarcity of materials means that many Alliance officers lack dress uniforms. However, a few of the survivors of Alderaan – a planet once rich in ceremony – have retained theirs. It is these survivors who serve as honor guard to Luke, Han and Chewbacca in thanks for their efforts in destroying the Death Star over Yavin.

When the Hasbro announced that The Saga Collection was being canceled during Comic Con 2006 and a new line would be coming in 2007, we were probably the most inconsolable collectors you’d ever come into contact. Between the great character selection, significant upgrades to some very weak POTF2 figures, the detailed source specifications and color coding and not to mention the great organization of the various Star Wars battles, The Saga Collection was a line that we wished continued through for many more years. (And no, we never liked the miniature hologram figures. We’d like to make that especially clear.) But our fears were quickly alleviated when we found out what Hasbro was up to: the 30th anniversary celebration of Star Wars. While we would have loved to see a bigger focus on the 30th anniversary of A New Hope, Hasbro certainly made sure that many of the action figures in the 30 (77-07) line were indeed sourced from that groundbreaking first film. One of the best waves (in our opinion) to come out of the 30 (77-07) was the second A New Hope themed wave which interestingly was intended to be one of the final waves of The Saga Collection had it continued into the full 2007 product year. One of the spectacular figures to be released in this wave was the Rebel Honor Guard.

For fans of anything “Yavin", this figure is a dream come true. He is incredibly authentic to the onscreen character, has a rather generic head sculpt for easy army-building and is super-articulated. What more could you ask from an action figure? The Rebel Honor Guard is outfitted in his green khakis and has a removable helmet complete with face shield. He also comes with an extraordinarily tall staff which must be used to keep those in attendance at ceremonies in order. His stance is ever so slightly too wide, but thanks to great articulation, you can tweak just how wide you make him stand. His pants hand over his shoes so the ankle articulation is very well hidden. And his arms are muscular but thin and are able to move as needed to pose the long staff as needed. The helmet fits perfectly. It’s loose enough to get over his head but once you tuck his neck under the chin strap, it stays in place very nicely. For a character that essentially just stands around, the Rebel Honor Guard has a lot of “unnecessary” articulation. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t thrilled to have the full 14 points. This is an expertly designed action figure and we hope that Hasbro continues to delve into the Battle of Yavin sequence in A New Hope and continue to make the various Rebels seen in the film. We can never get enough as far as we’re concerned.

Variations hunters needed to pay close attention to the Rebel Honor Guard. There were two changes made to the Rebel Honor Guard but thankfully both changes were made at the same time thus creating “only” two unique Rebel Honor Guard variations. The first released Rebel Honor Guard has an unpainted belt and the visor on his helmet is light and see-through. Hasbro updated the figure with a second release by coloring his utility belt (front and back) and giving the pouches some color and then they darkened the visor significantly. The updated version is obviously much better and very accurate to what we see onscreen. And we’re not entirely sure if this is an intended change, but we noticed the upgraded figure also has some differences in the hair color like more highlights for example. (But it’s much harder to notice this change – if there is even one here.) Definitely an army builder, the Rebel Honor Guard is a distinct pleasure in the basic figure line. Hasbro made it very easy to buy multiples of him as he was carried forward throughout the various waves of the 30 (77-07) thankfully. Easily one of the best figures of the 30 (77-07), we are thrilled that the Rebel Honor Guard had a chance to become a wonderful action figure. But we want to encourage Hasbro to keep bringing more Rebels from Yavin to us. It’s mandatory!