Recent Acquisitions

darthskellington

Dark Lord of the Typos
So I recently picked up a few exclusives using discounts and sales. Among them were a few I picked up from Entertainment Earth:

Ecliptic Evader - TIE Fighter
Joker Squad
Royal Guard Training from The Squall



The TIE is nicely done.....pretty much the same a recent releases....molded in a light gray color with Rebel Insignia on the solar panels. The Hobbie figure is your standard super-articulated TIE Pilot body, with a repaint of his Comic Pack head (wearing cowl), and an open-faced TIE helmet like Biggs came with in the Evolutions pack. I think the open faced helmet is a neat change of pace. For those who haven't read the "Darklighter" storyline in the comics, it tells of Biggs' (and Hobbie's) defection to the Rebellion. In the story they end up piloting some TIEs, and (to the best of my knowledge) in a wonderful bit of artistic freedom, the helmets are drawn with open faces so that you can tell which character is which, and see their emotions and expressions. I have heard nothing about these actually being real open-faced helmets, but it's cool Hasbro decided to include them with the figures.

The Squall - for some reason the package calls the Guard Training arena "The Crucible", instead of "The Squall". Anyway, the figures are nice....you get four guard trainees: Kir Kanos, Carnor Jax, Lemmet Tauk, and Allum Frost...each in a different colored suit. The helmets are removeable. The figures have many articulation points so you can create some decent action poses. Also comes with Vader and Palpatine figures, which, while logical inclusions, are basically reissues.

Joker Squad - this set is pretty nice...all new figures for a change. :) am not caught up on Legacy right now, so I cannot comment about the backstory much. However, this set features a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers serving the Sith Empire, and being commanded by Lord Maleval. The only disappointment about this set is that the armor is not accurate to the Legacy era. Legacy stormtrooper armor has matching leg armor (resembling clone trooper leg armor), along with possible slight helmet changes. The figures use standard super-articulated troopre bodies, with all new sculpted heads for each. Characters include Seargent Harkas, Anson Trask, Jes Gistang, Vax Potorr, and Hondo Karr. Jes Gistang is a female Stormtrooper, and has and all-new, or almost all-new body sculpt (some leg pieces might be old). Jes comes with a large cannon we have seen with some Clone figures. Another figure comes with a signature knife, which has previously been released with GI Joe Cobra soldiers.

Lord Maleval is a Quarren Sith Lord featuring red and black tattoos similar to Maul. He is all-new, and includes a ball-socket head, which we may see on future Quarren figures one day. Accessories include a red lightsaber, a light-whip, and a black cloak. The cloak includes internal wire-framing at the base and neck. The wire is actually the only thing holding the cloak on the figure, as you tighten it around his shoulders. For once, I actually like the softgoods on a figure.

Anyway, they are all worth picking up, but I recommend shopping around until coupons come up. I also saved a few dollars by buying a non-mint battle pack from Entertainment Earth, which looked fine to me. I open everything anyway.




Warren
Skel
 
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