At the Star Wars Celebration Europe event in London in April 2023, we presented this panel entitled New Zealand collectibles: Tip-Top, Toltoys, “Taste the Magic“, and beyond, as part of the Star Wars Celebration Collecting Track program. It is now online for public viewing.

This version contains the same slides and details, but has had the audio re-recorded for clarity, to compensate for the ambient noise in the main convention hall where the Collecting Track stage was located. In it we discuss the range of Star Wars collectibles, companies, and promotions that are unique to New Zealand, across the eras of Star Wars collecting – topics include Toltoys figures and packaging, Tip-Top Ice-Cream promotions, Kellogg’s stickers, Twinkies stickers, Allen’s & Regina trading cards, Confection Concepts, Bing Harris Sargood Ltd, Pizza Hut, KFC, Pepsi, Mainland Products Ltd (“Taste the Magic”), Folio posters, and much more.

This was the fifth presentation I have given at a Star Wars Celebration event, and the fourth for Kristy – we very much enjoy talking about our specific Star Wars passions, and hope you enjoy this topic.

• For more details about the collectibles covered in this video, visit this SWNZ article category.
• For more about Toltoys NZ Ltd, visit this SWNZ page.
• For highlights of New Zealand Star Wars collectibles, visit – this SWNZ article category.

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Today’s unboxing features The Black Series Revenge Of The Jedi Darth Vader 6″ figure. This figure was originally revealed as a Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 exclusive figure, so we were very keen to add this Hasbro collectible to our collection.

For our very first overseas trip together, which was Star Wars Celebration III in 2005, the Hasbro exclusive figure was a Revenge Of The Sith Darth Vader 3.75″ figure. It feels like a full-circle moment to have another special convention exclusive Darth Vader figure from our most recent Star Wars Celebration convention – we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary during our trip to London for the convention.

At the time of writing, this figure is available to buy from Hasbro Pulse for US$33.99 each.

Check out my unboxing video –

The packaging for this Black Series figure is similar to other convention exclusive 6″ figures from Hasbro, in a large black cardboard box, very different to the regular Black Series boxes. This packaging is part of Hasbro’s recent ‘plastic free packaging’ initiative, which has both positives and negatives. I think most people will be keeping the packaging for this figure, so any plastic used wouldn’t be thrown away.

I would have preferred a little more sturdiness to the packaging, as the cardboard used here is quite thin in places and easily damaged. In our case, the box we opened arrived with a tear in the front cardboard frame – the photos of the box here are of our second figure which thankfully arrived undamaged.

When removing the front poster art card, the figure is revealed behind. There is no plastic window, so you can see the figure clearly, but it is a little ‘tucked away’ – I would have preferred a little bit more of a posed presentation, especially for collectors who will keep this figure boxed. He looks like the figures that come bundled up inside the ‘blind box’ plastic free packaging of the recent Black Series, not like a special figure to display inside the box.

The front of the box is a removable card poster of the original Revenge Of The Jedi artwork by Drew Struzan. The artwork is on both sides of the card, which is helpful, as it forms the front of the box – if one side gets damaged, you can display the other side. Speaking of display, in the back of the box, there is a small little cardboard stand that you can remove, to display the poster card on.

The recessed box housing the figure is made from red cardboard, meant to accentuate the red colour tone of this figure, but I think in some ways it drowns it out. It almost looks ‘too red’ and the figure is a it lost in the strong colour. Once I took the figure out of the box, I personally liked the artistic paint scheme a lot more.

Here we can see the Darth Vader figure out of the box, posed in front of the box with the poster inside the front frame – and it looks really cool!

One of the reasons why I think this Darth Vader figure looks better out of the box – his cape. The cape is all tucked behind the figure in the box, it almost looks like it is missing! Darth Vader just doesn’t look right without that flowing cape – and this figure is no exception. It looks so much better with the cape visible and displayed.

The dark burgundy colour of the figure is accented by artistic red brush strokes. In some places, this almost looks hand applied, like across the top of the helmet, but in other places it is clear this is printed on.

The burgundy/red colour scheme is used throughout the figure, including the lightsaber hilt and fabric components. It’s quite interesting to see a Darth Vader figure without anything in his iconic black.

This Darth Vader figure has no removable components, so he has a fixed helmet and hand poses etc. The right hand is perfect for holding the included lightsaber, while the left hand is good for ‘force choke’ poses.

Here is the Revenge Of The Jedi version next to the Obi-Wan Kenobi series version – you can really see the difference in colour here. The convention exclusive figure is made from a dark burgundy/brown colour plastic, while the standard Obi-Wan Kenobi series figure is a true black colour plastic.

The sculpting for these two figures appears to be mostly the same, with the main differences being the gloves – as the quilting lines on Darth Vader’s gloves changes direction between the A New Hope era and Return Of The Jedi, so this is accurate. The other painted differences in Darth Vader’s costume (like the details on the helmet, chest box, and belt) don’t really apply here as the stylised red colour covers all of that.

Overall, I actually like this figure more out of the packaging. When it was first revealed, I admit I was a little disappointed, but now that I have actually seen it in person and held it, I like it a lot more now. I’m glad we have two, so we can keep one boxed and open one – personally I think this figure looks better out of the box. A cool artistic addition to our Black Series collection, and a fun memento of our trip to Star Wars Celebration Europe.

May the Force be with you!

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