Over the years there have been a lot of Star Wars cards and stickers released exclusively in New Zealand, particularly in conjunction with food items and related promotions. I recently re-organised my collection of vintage, Original Trilogy-era, NZ-exclusive cards and stickers into new protective sleeves and a new folder, and have but together a quick video tour.

Sets covered include R2-D2 Space Ice stickers from the Tip Top Ice-Cream company (as well as the follow-up set of The Empire Strikes Back paper masks from the same company), Return of the Jedi ewok stickers from the Tip Top Ice-Cream company, Allen’s and Regina Star Wars and Return of the Jedi bubble-gum cards (the New Zealand equivalent of Topps trading cards), Twinkies Empire Strikes Back stickers, Kellogg’s Cornflakes Return of the Jedi stickers, Confection Concepts Postacards, and Quality Bakers bread cards.

You can also read more about each of these sets on the SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand website.

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Now this is podracing! The latest addition to our Micro Galaxy Squadron collection is the Boonta Eve Battle Pack, which includes two podracer vehicles.

This battle pack is marked as ‘series 1’ but does not have a ‘launch edition’ foil sticker. It is currently available in-store at branches of The Warehouse in New Zealand for a retail price of NZ$45.00 each (approximately US$28.47 at time of writing).

The assortment number for this battle pack is SWJ0093 112522 GC

Watch our full unboxing video below –

This Battle Pack includes two vehicles, that at this time are not available individually – Anakin Skyalker’s Podracer and Sebulba’s Podracer, as seen in The Phantom Menace. Each vehicle also includes a small figure that fits into the cockpit.

Each vehicle comes with a clear plastic stand that attaches to the podracing engines, so they can be displayed in a more correct hovering style, rather than just sitting on the ground. I rather wish that all vehicles in this range came with a clear stand, to have options for display (especially the Jedi Starfighter with hyperdrive ring). The vehicles snap onto the stands nice and securely, but are also removable if you prefer to display the vehicles without them (perhaps in a diorama setup).

The paint applications are colourful and tidy, with minimal weathering applied in appropriate areas. There is some minor articulation in the connectors between the engines and the cockpits, and the energy beam connectors are sculpted nicely.

Sebulba’s podracer –

Anakin’s podracer –

Overall, I think this is a fantastic set and a fine addition to our Micro Galaxy Squadron collection. The figures fit in the vehicles well, and the display stands give a more accurate ‘hovering’ presentation when on display.

Will you be adding this set to your collection? What vehicles do you hope to see in future waves of the Micro Galaxy Squadron line?

May the Force be with you!

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Today’s unboxing features the Jazwares Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron blind boxes!

When the Micro Galaxy Squadron line was featured at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year, we were so excited. We both love Star Wars starships, and have collected them across various formats and manufacturers. For the older lines, like Action Fleet, Micro Machines, or Titanium Series, the vehicles are all pretty much the same size. For this new range, the ship are all in scale to each other, which hasn’t really been done before!

Then of course, we had no idea if the range would even be available locally – so it was fantastic news to find the Micro Galaxy Squadron range stocked at a number of different retailers here in NZ! Of course we were going to dive in and grab our favourites.

One interesting feature of this line – blind boxes for the smallest ‘scout class’ vehicles. We don’t usually go for blind boxes, but we knew we wanted to collect this line, so in we went, grabbing three blind boxes to start with.

We didn’t get scientific when choosing boxes – just picked three and left it to luck. Each box has a case assortment number on the side, and fans have begun to figure out which vehicles are available in each assortment, but we wanted our first experience to be authentic and just see what we got. Subsequent boxes, we’ll take note of the assortment number as we try to narrow down and fill gaps in our collection.

Well, as luck would have it, the first and second boxes contained the same figure – Darth Maul with his Bloodfin speeder bike, as seen in The Phantom Menace. A very cool figure, and definitely one I was keen to get, I just don’t need two.

Minimal paint job on both the figure and vehicle, but very much expected considering the small scale of this scout class range. This vehicle reminds me of the old school Star Wars Micro Machines range, which I love.

The third box contained the Mandalorian! Glad to get a different figure, and one that I really wanted. Again, simple paint job, but more detailed than the Darth Maul figure, with more varied colours to show Din Djarin’s original mix-matched season one brown armour.

I know that the large Razor Crest vehicle also comes with a Din Djarin figure, but that figure appears to be the silver-toned beskar armour version, whereas this speeder bike version is his early season one brown-toned armour. It looks like the chase variant of the Razer Crest (Arvala-7 version) comes with the same figure as this one, but then if you’re collecting chase variants, you probably don’t care about the doubling up on one small figure.

So all up, I think these are great little vehicles from the Micro Galaxy Squadron line, but the nature of mystery boxes make this unboxing a bit of a mixed bag. When starting a new collection, you hope to get a good variety of items before hitting a duplicate or two when trying to complete the set but oh well. At the end of the day, I had fun opening these blind boxes, I like the figures and vehicles, and I know I’ll be back for more to add to our collection.

May the Force be with you!

Check out my full unboxing video below –

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An interview we did a couple of months back appeared in the Your Weekend magazine, published as a supplement in the Waikato Times, Dominion Post, and Christchurch Press newspapers (June 25, 2022). The photos and story are also online on the Stuff.co.nz website.

There’s always a bit of uncertainty as to how these articles will portray fans and collectors, but in this instance we were happy to be featured among other dedicated fans of musicians and sports teams in New Zealand. The photos, which were taken in a session separate from the interview for the newspaper, managed to capture some of the highlights of our Star Wars displays, including even a corner of our screen-used Outlander Club bar set piece, which we just happened to get finished setting up in the rumpus room specifically for this photo shoot.

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So many exciting new Hasbro The Vintage Collection figures lately! Celebrating the recent 20th anniversary of Attack Of The Clones, we have the new Anakin Skywalker ‘Padawan’ figure from AOTC – VC244.

We are still quite shocked to find this figure available on local store shelves, as it is still listed for pre-order on most international collectible websites. We were excited to get our first in-hand look at this Anakin figure, especially after the surprise appearance in a flashback in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series! I think Hasbro knew about those scenes, and put this figure in the same assortment as the first figures from the show.

Check out our unboxing video –

Anakin Skywalker ‘Padawan’ is VC244, as he appears in Attack Of The Clones. The backing card features a promotional photo of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, from what looks like the Tusken Raider camp scene.

This figure is part of the assortment containing the first figures from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series – all the more interesting after discovering that this version of Anakin does appear in the series in flashback scenes.

Here in New Zealand, this TVC figure retails for NZ$29.99 each – which is approximately US$20.

So, our first look at the figure loose and up close.

This Anakin figure comes with an alternate ‘robotic’ hand, which is quite unique for Hasbro 3.75″ figures. This ‘padawan’ version of Anakin is from Attack Of The Clones – technically the gold version of his robotic hand is only seen in the closing wedding scene on Naboo, so it’s really interesting to see it included as an option here.

As expected, the figure also comes with two lightsaber accessories – a lightsaber hilt with peg that can attach to a hole on the left side of the belt, and an “activated” lightsaber with blue blade, that can be held for action poses. The figure also comes with a removable soft goods cloak, and attached soft goods lower tunic.

First up – the cloak. Anakin has a unique cloak in Attack Of The Clones – the front has strips, which is quite different to other Jedi cloaks. Unfortunately, his style doesn’t translate well in this small action figure scale – the front strips here don’t want to hang down the front. This is mostly due to the way they have been cut/sewn, as part of the back, so they naturally want to hang down the back. I understand a small change like sewing separate strips to the front would increase production time and costs, but it would have been a big improvement.

With a bit of wrestling, the strips do hang down the front, but that creates a bit of bunching at the shoulders. If I want to display this figure wearing the cloak, I would just lie the strips down the back for a cleaner (if not as accurate) look.

Personally, I prefer this figure without the cloak on, which is a shame – not very many Anakin Skywalker figures have come with a cloak. It can be easily removed – it sits on the figure with a loop of cord around the neck – not very accurate, but as Anakin’s cloak doesn’t have standard sleeves, it needs some method of staying attached to the figure and not just falling off.

Taking a closer look at the figure sculpt up close. I like the Jedi tunic details, some good fabric folds and lines here. The plastic lower front tabbards are joined together, so they lie straight and flat – though they do limit the hip articulation a little.

The padawan braid is curved to the front – it isn’t bent so it naturally sits forward. The hands hold the lightsaber well – though considering the options included here like the robotic hand, I wonder why they didn’t include a second lightsaber. Anakin uses other random lightsabers on Geonosis in the arena and in the fight against Dooku, so it would have been fun to include another here. I know I can always grab a spare lightsaber accessory from another figure, but that would have really make this figure into the definitive AOTC Anakin figure.

There are nice points of articulation at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The knee joints on our figure are quite tight, but better than being too loose. To be honest, most of our figures are displayed standing straight, with most posing done with the upper body, so I don’t really mind – I care more about the arms for lightsaber poses.

The detail continues nicely on the back, with the belt pouches and capsules, tunic fabric folds, and boot strap details all very well done.

Our figure unfortunately has a bit of a paint flaw on the back of the lower tabbards. It’s frustrating, but always a risk with Hasbro figures – thankfully it is on the back, as we very rarely pose a figure facing away, so it won’t be seen once displayed on our shelf.

I particularly like the soft goods lower tunic – it adds a nice touch to the figure, and matches nicely in colour to the top of the tunic. It allows for some flexibility of the legs without having to create large artificial cuts in a plastic tunic.

One of my favourite aspects of this figure is the alternate hand – as well as coming packaged with two standard ‘human’ hands, this Anakin figure also comes with a gold robotic right hand. This allows collectors to create a ‘post-Count Dooku fight’ version of Anakin, as we see him during the wedding on Naboo.

Of course we don’t really see Anakin fighting or holding a lightsaber with this version of his robotic hand (it is black in Revenge Of The Sith, and mostly covered by a glove), but I really like the options here. I always feel nervous pulling off parts like hands, but the switch was relatively easy – the robotic hand sculpt has a hole/gap at the wrist so I was careful not to force it too much when attaching, as it can flex and bend.

The lightsaber hilt accessory attaches nicely to the peg hole on the belt, tight but not too tight. I am not worried about it falling out or coming loose. Of course this attachment method always leaves a hole in the belt sculpt if displaying the figure with the activated lightsaber in hand, but I do think it’s one of the better ways of giving collectors the option of displaying the hilt on the belt – and given the style of the belt clip, the gap is not too distracting within the design.

Overall, a great figure. Yes I am frustrated that the cloak isn’t quite as good as I hoped (it really is tucked behind the figure when carded so you can’t really see it at all before purchasing), but I still like all the other design details. Good sculpt details, good articulation, and I love the alternate hands.

As a big fan of Attack Of The Clones, I am really happy to see a new sculpt of a character from the film – especially as this year marks the 20th anniversary. I hope we see more AOTC figures released this year, especially since there are still many Padme’ Amidala outfits that have yet to be made in the action figure line.

May the Force be with you!

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The time has come – we opened up the brand new TVC Darth Vader figure!

After we featured the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series figures online, we had many collectors ask about the VC241 Darth Vader figure in particular, and if we could show him uncarded to see all the details. The iconic Star Wars villain has been made countless times in the 3.75″ action figure line, with so many different sculpts and repacks – so how does this one compare? After initially deciding to keep our Obi-Wan Kenobi series figures carded, our curiosity got the better of us, so we decided to open them for a closer look.

Check out our unboxing video –

We are still quite shocked to find these figures available on local store shelves. International retailers like Entertainment Earth (affiliate link) and Big Bad Toy Store have these figures available for pre-order, with a release date of November 2022 – that’s still months away. Here they are at our local Farmers department store, sitting alongside the current range of locally available Star Wars toys.

Here in New Zealand, these TVC figures retail for NZ$29.99 each – which is approximately US$20.

Here he is – “The Dark Times” Darth Vader VC241. I found the variant title quite interesting – this version of Darth Vader is “The Dark Times” – just as Obi-Wan Kenobi mentions when talking with Luke Skywalker in A New Hope… “Before the Dark Times, before the Empire”.

The back of the card shows the other figures in this wave, including Obi-Wan Kenobi “Wandering Jedi” and Reva “Third Sister” from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. It’s kinda funny that a couple of the other figures pictured here, like the Ahsoka Clone Trooper, are still not available here yet. It really is quite exciting to have these new figures available while the series is still airing on Disney+, we are so excited for the final episode!

So, our first look at the figure loose and up close.

This Darth Vader figure comes with four hands – two left hands and two right hands, for a variety of poses.

• An open grip left hand, capable of holding a lightsaber
• A closed grip left hand, in a fist
• An open grip right hand, capable of holding a lightsaber
• An half-open grip right hand, as if pointing or using the Force

As expected, the figure also comes with two lightsaber accessories – a lightsaber hilt with peg that can attach to a hole on the left side of the belt, and an “activated” lightsaber with red blade, that can be held for action poses.

This figure has two soft goods components – a large flowing black cape, and a lower “skirt” robe. The soft goods are made from the same material, and suit the scale well. The edges are not sealed, they are left raw, so do be careful not to cause any fraying with handling.

I really like the cape in particular – it is pleated at the back, to give extra fullness. This means that you can open the cape up for a full wide shape, like when Darth Vader strides down hallways.

There is a great level of articulation in this figure, which means he poses very well, and I found he is quite steady when attempting to stand him without an additional base stand (not included). There are articulation points at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrist, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. The joints all feel nice and tight, so the poses hold well.

The helmet has some really nice sculpting and details. The lenses have a red tint, to match Darth Vader’s appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi. There are also nice accurate silver/grey touches on the cheeks, nose, and tusks of the helmet (as used on the full-sized filming helmets to increase the contrast and visibility of dtails). One aspect which I found interesting – the helmet dome is made from flexible plastic, so the sides can be flexed (it feels like the same plastic as the cod piece, which can also bend). Perhaps this helps when assembling the figure with the soft goods components? In any case, I only noticed it when checking the neck articulation movement.

All up, a fantastic action figure – and I’m glad we opened it up to take a closer look. I know for many collectors, when it comes to a character that we all own several versions of, sometimes getting yet another double doesn’t always fit into the budget alongside new characters being done in the action figure line for the first time. Personally for us, this VC241 Darth Vader is a must-have figure, and in our opinion, one of the best versions Hasbro has ever made.

May the Force be with you!

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Very exciting news – the first three Star Wars The Vintage Collection 3.75″ figures from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series are now available in NZ! They just showed up on store shelves, unannounced, and fans were running out to grab them before they all disappeared. We were very fortunate be to able to get ahold of all three figures at our local store.

These figures were not expected to be released until much later in the year (or even early next year), well after the series had finished airing, so it was a complete surprise to find them available now, let alone locally – even before the US! These figures showed up at local Farmers stores, which had a toy sale on at the time, so fans could grab them at a discounted price as well.

While these figures are already must-haves for our collection, the figures themselves are very well done. The Darth Vader sculpt is one of the best Hasbro has done in recent years, complete with lightsaber hilt, activated lightsaber, and two alternate hands for different poses. Obi-Wan Kenobi comes with a blaster, lightsaber hilt, activated lightsaber, and two versions of the little Lola droid. Reva comes with four lightsabers! One hilt, one activated double-bladed lightsaber, and two single-bladed activated lightsabers, for all your posing needs. All three figures also have soft goods cloaks, which I personally really like for this scale.

I found the variant notes quite interesting – this version of Darth Vader is ‘The Dark Times’ – just as Obi-Wan Kenobi mentions when talking with Luke Skywalker in A New Hope... “Before the Dark Times, before the Empire”. This version of Obi-Wan Kenobi is ‘Wandering Jedi’, while Reva is ‘Third Sister’.

• Darth Vader ‘The Dark Times’ – VC241
• Obi-Wan Kenobi ‘Wandering Jedi’ – VC245
• Reva ‘Third Sister’ – VC242

We may eventually open these figures up, as our 3.75″ figure collection is predominately loose (rather than carded), but right now, these are the only figures with the Obi-Wan Kenobi series backing card design, so we’ll keep them carded for now.

Such a great opening line-up for our Obi-Wan Kenobi series collection – I really hope additional figures aren’t too far way. I definitely need a young Princess Leia and Tala, as well as Bail and Beha Organa!

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We are far from completists when it comes to The Black Series action figures, but as a big fan of the vintage Kenner Star Wars mini-action figures, particularly the early releases including the quirky representations of the cantina aliens, I could not resist this Amazon-exclusive version of Greedo. Released as part of the Black Series Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary collection, an existing sculpt is used, but he is re-colored in the style of the all-green Kenner version from the late 1970s.

This is an instance where we will definitely keep the collectible carded. The vintage cardbacks with their great character photos are as nostalgic to me as the figures themselves – possibly even more so for the background characters that were released as action figures, because their imagery didn’t appear in a lot of other places as was the case for the main heroes and villains of the Original Trilogy Star Wars movies. He’s a great addition to display alongside the 12″ Gentle Giant Jumbo version and an example of the original 3.75″ Green Greedo (yeah, I army build the cantina aliens!)

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Welcome to the Outlander Club!

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones a few days ago, we finished up a recover-and-restore project on this Outlander Club bar set piece and moved it from the workshop into our display room. It is from the scene in Episode 2 where Obi-Wan Kenobi turns down the offer of death sticks from Elan Sleazebaggano, and defeats Zam Wesell’s ambush attempt.

This was a large set component that was rescued from the junk pile when the Outlander Club set was broken down after filming in Sydney for Episode 2. We cleaned it up, re-attached some components that had become detached, and build a new support base to keep it off the ground and to bring it up to the correct display height (everything above the metal foot bar is original, except for the internal lighting, which has also been replaced… and will probably get upgraded to something better in the near future).

We have got plans to fill the wall space behind the bar, including some other, related, screen-used Star Wars set pieces, but that’ll take a bit more work. Stay tuned for updates down the line!

The Outlander Club set is reported to have taken a couple of months to build – it was then used for filming for less than a full day, then demolished (mostly) in order for another set to be built in the studio the next day.

This is a rare example of a fully built set on the production, which often relied on partial sets or just expanses of bluescreen for its locations. Every direction one looked within the nightclub set on Stage 3 at Fox Studios Sydney would provide otherworldly scenery. When filled with extras, smoke, and noise, it completed the illusion. But the nightclub only stood half a day, on July 17, 2000. After the club sequence was shot, the crew immediately started tearing it down to build another set needed in production.

Star Wars: Fascinating Facts – Pablo Hidalgo

It was quite the adventure to secure this unique piece for our collection – one that included a two-day road trip across the country. The set piece was located in another city, with a deadline to secure it (the owner was moving house). We hurriedly made a plan that included two important components – a hire van for the journey, and finding a place to stay overnight on the two-day drive there and back.

We picked up our hire van first thing on that Saturday morning, and hit the road out of town. A van isn’t the most comfortable vehicle for such a long road trip, but we knew it was going to be worth it. We took our cameras along for the journey, so we could look back at our adventure with fond memories.

Living in New Zealand, driving literally past Mount Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe), it felt like we were embarking on a epic quest – instead this time we were setting off to rescue an item, not destroy it! We made it as far as the Tongariro National Park for our first leg of the journey, and stayed at Discovery Lodge – a place we have visited before several times on holiday.

Getting up before sunrise the next day, we set off south for our destination. We arrived a few hours later, and finally got our first in-person look at the bar set piece. It was just so exciting! It was big, real, and finally in our hands. Now we just had to get it home.

We had packed blankets, bed covers, sleeping bags, towels, cardboard, rope, and anything else we thought might be useful to help secure the set pieces for the journey home. We used every single thing we had brought to pack it all in securely. Then, we were off!

It was a very long drive home, making only quick stops for food and fuel, so it was late in the evening by the time we pulled into our driveway back home. But that long (uncomfortable) drive was worth it – the bar set was now in its new home, all safe and secure.

We then set about taking our time to carefully clean the components, do some minor repairs and stabilisation, and build a wheeled base for display. And now, finally, it is complete and on display! We celebrated with a toast of blue drinks, just like Obi-Wan Kenobi!

A top-down view of the Outlander Club set during filming of Attack Of The Clones –

The bar as seen behind Obi-Wan Kenobi in Attack Of The Clones –

A great reference shot under natural lighting, from the Star Wars Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones book.

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We just recently were lucky to get this POTF2 nostalgia version of the Black Series 6″ Yavin Celebration Ceremony Princess Leia – a celebratory figure to celebrate the new year!

The packaging is a recreation of the POTF2 “green beam” packaging that was used for 3.75″ figures in the late 1990s. Back then, in that smaller scale, the Ceremonial Dress Princess Leia was released on a card with the FlashBack photo (the small plastic-framed image that would change from Leia to Padme Amidala with the pull of a tab), and also with a soft-goods cape partnered with Luke Skywalker in his Yavin 4 celebration garb (part of the Princess Leia Collection of 4 different 2-packs). This modern 6″ Black Series version of the figure has a foil finish to the cardback and bears the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary logo in the top right corner.

Leia comes with fabric components to her outfit, and a Yavin Ceremony Medal. The collectible was a Hasbro Pulse exclusive, originally scheduled to ship in February of 2022, but bought forward by nearly a couple of months in the end. This version of the Princess Leia figure will also ship in standard/current Black Series packaging in Feb/March 2022. We may hunt down a version in the standard packaging too, in order to open and display this great rendition of Princess Leia as seen in A New Hope, because we’ll definitely be keeping this POTF2 iteration on the exclusive cardback.

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