It’s been 25 years since Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Despite a mixed reception at the time, even now, people are still buying new toys from it. That’s the kind of “disappointment” anybody would be happy for. And while George Lucas seldom made anything better by tinkering with it over the years, that’s not true of Hasbro. Their sculpts continue to just get better, and they have the price raises to prove it sometimes.
Going Forth
This year, they have more to reveal than usual in terms of figures going up for preorder on May 4th. That’s the good news. The iffy news is that many are exclusive to different outlets, so you can’t just order them all in one go, at one place, yelling “Shut up and take my Galactic credits!” Unless otherwise specified, however, all will go up for presale at 1 p.m. eastern on May 4th. They’re mostly prequel related, save for a couple of key items from the recent Ahsoka series. Certain items had to be held back to protect spoilers — in this case a Black Series 2-pack of the creepy, gold-masked Captain Enoch and one of his zombie Night Troopers. This pair will be Walmart exclusive.
The other Ahsoka item is an army-building Vintage Collection 4-pack of 3-3/4 inch New Republic era X-Wing pilots. The uniform doesn’t change much, so they’ll pass for the Imperial era, and as Y-Wing pilots. Pre-pick this awesome foursome up at “fan-channel” sites like Amazon, Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, etc., with extra stock available at the Disney Store later in the year. At the same time, you’ll also have a shot at fellow fan-channel exclusives Darth Sidious (Episode III Yoda battle outfit) and the Super Battle Droid, both 6-inch Black Series.
Hasbro Pulse will initially be the sole outlet for prequel-era Yoda and Commander Gree in a Black Series 2-pack, though they’ll be a Disney park and online exclusive later in the year as well. Yoda includes his council chair and a cloth robe. The same goes for retro sets from Episodes II and III, depicting prequel-era characters as if they’d been made by Kenner in the ’80s. Figures included are Padme/Jango Fett/Mace Windu, and Anakin/Phase II Clone/General Grievous.
The final preorder set is a good one for Episode I’s anniversary: A Duel of the Fates box set with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Maul. All include cloth robes and lightsabers.
Which ones will you try for first? May the images below be your guide.
