Today’s unboxing and review features Hera Synduall’s A-Wing from the Micro Galaxy Squadron collection. We are big fans of this range of scaled Star Wars vehicles and would love to add as many as we can to our collection.

I was excited when I saw that wave 2 included not one but two vehicles from Rebels – Hera’s A-Wing and Sabine’s TIE Fighter. They are both chase variants, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find them locally. Hera’s A-Wing is a silver chase 1 of 15,000 so I figured I would have similar odds as Moff Gideon’s Outland TIE fighter from wave 1 (also a silver chase) which I found locally – and did actually spot a couple of times across different stores. Time will tell if I spot Hera’s A-Wing more than once – but I wasn’t going to take any chances, and grabbed her when I first saw her.

The assortment number for this pack is SWJ0011-092922-TM

Check out my full unboxing video –

The packaging for this ‘light armor class’ vehicle is standard for this range – a big clear window bubble on a cardboard backing card. The lower front window insert has the name and number for this specific variant – Hera Syndulla’s A-Wing #0035. The bubble has a silver foil circle sticker noting that is a rare chase variant – 1 in 15,000.

The backing card has colourful space battle artwork behind the bubble (Sabine’s TIE Fighter vs TIE Fighters), while the back has a blueprint style image of the vehicle, a few insert shots of moveable parts, and a collectible card that you can cut out if you want to – I will be leaving my backing card intact.

I think it’s quite interesting that the backing card art for this A-Wing features Sabine’s orange Rebels TIE Fighter, while the backing card for Sabine’s TIE Fighter features an A-Wing. Not saying that each vehicle needs to have matching artwork, but it’s a bit quirky having swapped art.

The plastic bubble used for the ‘light armor class’ vehicles is pretty much the same, so there is a lot of extra space around the A-Wing. It is a little on the smaller size for this vehicle category – it’s flatter shape means it doesn’t use up the same depth of the bubble packaging, so from the side it looks a little empty.

Once I took the A-Wing out of the packaging, I could get a much better look at the vehicle. I always feel just a little bit torn between keeping these vehicles carded or boxed, as they do look good – but I really want to see all these ships displayed together. That was one of the biggest drawcards of the Micro Galaxy Line – that all of the vehicles are in scale with each other, which makes for a really cool display. As well as the fact that some of the smaller vehicles like speeder bikes are hidden inside mystery blind boxes, so they have to opened to add to your display.

Most of the colour in this design comes from the use of different coloured plastics. There are red and white painted designs on the top front ‘nose’ section, the back of the engines are also painted red, and also bit of painting on the cockpit hatch window. The paint is tidy and clean – this vehicle doesn’t have a ‘muddy wash’ like other vehicles (Jedi Starfighter, X-Wing etc). The clean finish does work well with the animation style of Rebels.

Overall, a nice tidy vehicle with a bright and colourful paint scheme. I’m sure there are artistic fans out there airbrushing and repainted Micro Galaxy Squadron ships to be more detailed, but I’m quite happy with my collection.

There is pretty much no paint on the underside of the vehicle (just that rear engine red), relying mostly on the different coloured plastic to give it variation. There is a small singular landing gear towards the front that can be pulled out, and it clicks into place nicely to help display the vehicle in a landed position.

Next, onto the included figure. The Hera Sydulla figure is quite well done, considering her size. She has quite a detailed paint app, with multiple colours. My particular figure has a few paint flaws, but considering how small this figure is, I can barely tell without looking up really close – the most obvious spot is her right hand glove, but it shows up more in this larger-than-life photo.

Her twil’lek lekku are sculpted down her back, so they can’t bend or break off. She is articulated at the shoulders and the hips, allowing you to pose her arms and legs into a sitting pose to put her in the cockpit. She fits nicely into the cockpit – I’m quite tempted to keep the cockpit hatch open for display, she looks really good in there.

The cockpit has translucent green plastic, so you can see inside – very useful when displaying a figure inside. The top hatch opens by pulling it up, which on my particular vehicle, was a bit stiff. The small notch to catch to pull it up is on the sides, rather than the top of cockpit hatch, so it’s a little more hidden – this makes a little harder to open, but looks cleaner for display, which I do like. I’m not really going to be opening and closing the cockpit a lot once I put it on my display shelf.

Overall, this is a fun version of Hera’s A-Wing. Perhaps not the most exciting or sought after vehicle, but if this line is going to continue and last through many waves, Jazwares will space out the headline popular ships (like the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1) with some more lesser known designs (like this A-Wing or Asajj Ventress’s Ginivex starfighter). I really appreciate the range featured in the Micro Galaxy Squadron line so far – I’m really impressed with the representation from the prequel era and animated shows so far.

I am so excited to see not one but two Rebels vehicles in the Micro Galaxy Squadron line so far – Hera’s A-Wing and Sabine’s TIE Fighter. As you can see when you display them side by side, despite both being in the light amor class category, the TIE Fighter gives you a little more bang for your buck on your display shelf, but that’s the nature of a line that’s in scale – vehicles will vary a lot in size.

I was a little frustrated when I saw that wave 2 included three chase vehicles featuring female characters (Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Ahsoka Tano), but at least Hera’s A-Wing is the slightly less rare 15,000 edition chase.

We know realistically, with some store exclusives and chase variant scarcity in the mix, it’s going to be hard or very expensive to be completionist with this range (as with so many Star Wars collection lines these days) so I was really happy to find this one instore ourselves. I thought it might be a long shot to find more than one of the wave 2 chase vehicles locally, but the Force was with me! I am so happy to have found all three that I wanted most – Sabine, Hera, and Ahsoka.

Stay tuned for more reviews of Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles coming soon – you can check out all of our reviews of our MGS collection so far here.

May the Force be with you!

The post Micro Galaxy Squadron – Hera Syndulla’s A-Wing appeared first on Villa Varykino.

Today’s unboxing and review features Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter from the Micro Galaxy Squadron collection. We are big fans of this range of scaled Star Wars vehicles and would love to add as many as we can to our collection.

I wanted this TIE Fighter variant from the moment I saw it, but my hopes dropped when I saw it was one of the hard to find 5,000 chase variants. You should have seen my face when I spotted this one hanging on the rack at my local toy store – I grabbed it so fast. I still can’t believe we found this one locally, and only paid retail for it, the Force was with us that day!

The assortment number for this pack is SWJ0012-091922-TM.

Check out my full unboxing video –

The packaging for this ‘light armor class’ vehicle is standard for this range – a big clear window bubble on a cardboard backing card. The lower front window insert has the name and number for this specific variant – Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter #0036. The bubble has a gold foil circle sticker noting that is a rare chase variant – 1 in 5,000.

The backing card has colourful space battle artwork behind the bubble (A-Wing vs TIE Fighters), while the back has a blueprint style image of the vehicle, a few insert shots of moveable parts, and a collectible card that you can cut out if you want to – I will be leaving my backing card intact.

Sabine Wren’s TIE fighter looks great in the packaging, but even better when you get it out. The bright orange and yellow paint scheme just sings, especially in contrast with the classic black and pale grey of the wings. It was such an iconic design from Rebels, I wish it was used more in merchandising – like the fun Republic Gunship paint jobs from both Clone Wars animated series.

This colourful TIE Fighter is so fun, makes me wish I had a full size one to jump in and go racing – especially with that black and white checkerboard print. I have to admit I did fly this one around my living room making TIE Fighter noises…

The paint job is fairly accurate, especially when you consider the scale of this vehicle, and it looks right at home with the style of other painted vehicles in the Micro Galaxy Squadron range. Of course the TIE fighters in Rebels have a slightly different wing size/ratio than the TIE Fighters of the original trilogy films (which is the sculpt used here), but I understand why Jazwares wouldn’t bother with a completely different vehicle sculpt. Not many people would notice or care about the subtle differences, and it looks fine, especially lined up with other TIE Fighter variants from the same range.

Sabine’s custom paint scheme is confined to the inner wing panels, cockpit and arms – the outer wing surfaces are the standard TIE Fighter black and grey as seen in Rebels (which is a slightly different grey to the original trilogy film TIE fighters). The wings can be removed from the main body if you wish – a tight fit, the simple peg-and-hole attachment is nice and secure.

There is a push-button panel on the underside of the cockpit, which raises the inner seat section, so you can more easily get a figure out. A simple push-up mechanism, it doesn’t fire the figure out James Bond ejection seat style or anything.

The back of the cockpit is also fully painted, and the checkboard print continues around the back as well. This vehicle has one of the most complex paint schemes in the Micro Galaxy Squadron range that I have seen in person (so far), and I am really impressed with how tidy it looks, even up close.

At the back there is a hinged section that can be folded down. I’m not sure this adds a lot of useful detail for display as this won’t really be seen once it’s on your shelf, but yeah, it’s there.

Next, onto the included figure. The Sabine Wren figure is quite well done, considering her size. She has quite a detailed paint app, with multiple colours, and is quite reasonably tidy. She is articulated at the shoulders and the hips, allowing you to pose her arms and legs into a sitting pose to put her in the cockpit.

The TIE Fighter cockpit window and top hatch both have sections of transparent plastic to act as windows, but in practice this is hard to see through. If I look really closely, I can just make out a figure through the front, but it’s not very easy to spot. Still, I appreciate the detail here, and much prefer it over opaque sections instead.

Overall, this is a fantastic version of Sabine’s TIE Fighter. I knew it was highly sought after on the secondary market, so realistically my only chance to own one was to find it locally, which I did! We know realistically, with some store exclusives and chase variant scarcity in the mix, it’s going to be hard or very expensive to be completionist with this range (as with so many Star Wars collection lines these days) so it was absolute luck to find this one instore ourselves.

Stay tuned for more review of Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles coming soon – including a comparison of four different TIE Fighter variants.

May the Force be with you!

The post Micro Galaxy Squadron – Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter appeared first on Villa Varykino.

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 and review features the Outland TIE Fighter from the Micro Galaxy Squadron collection. We are big fans of this range of scaled Star Wars vehicles and would love to add as many as we can to our collection.

We really enjoy The Mandalorian series, so it was very exciting to see several vehicles from the show included in wave 1 for the Micro Galaxy Squadron line. This particular Outland TIE Fighter comes with a Moff Gideon figure, and is one of the rare chase variant vehicles in wave 1 – the silver sticker notes 1 of 15,000.

The assortment number for this pack is SWJ0017-BC-US

Check out my full unboxing video –

The packaging for this ‘starfighter class’ vehicle is standard for this range – a big clear window bubble on a cardboard backing card. The lower front window insert has the name and number for this specific variant – Outland TIE Fighter #0017. The bubble has a silver foil circle sticker noting that is a rare chase variant – 1 in 15,000. As this vehicle is part of wave 1, there is also a gold foil ‘launch edition’ sticker on the top right hand corner of the backing card.

The backing card has colourful space battle artwork behind the bubble (the Razor Crest vs TIE Fighters), while the back has a blueprint style image of the vehicle, a few insert shots of moveable parts, and a collectible card that you can cut out if you want to – I will be leaving my backing card intact.

The Outland TIE Fighter is from the Disney + series The Mandalorian – as seen in season one. It is pretty much like a regular TIE Fighter, but with one major difference – the wings can fold down to lower the cockpit when landing. We see this used to dramatic effect when Moff Gideon arrives on Nevarro in The Mandalorian chapter 7.

Unlike the regular TIE Fighter vehicle from this wave, this variant includes a small stand to support the vehicle in a landing position. To be honest, I wish that all Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles came with stands, but at least this one does, so it doesn’t put tension on the wings to display it in this landed position.

While of course we don’t see the Outland TIE Fighter use a stand in The Mandalorian, I appreciate the effort put into making the stand a little more interesting than just a clear plastic piece. There are three small upright struts to support the cockpick that are painted in matching Imperial grey. When in position, they almost look like landing gears (or little legs).

The wings move in and out of this folded position quite well – there are a few stages between folded down and fully straight, that can be felt as little ‘clicks’ when adjusting. They don’t feel loose, and hold the position quite well – but I’m not going to fold-and-straight repeatedly to test out how well they would hold up to frequent positioning or play.

The Outland TIE Fighter comes with a small Moff Gideon figure, complete with cape. As with other figures in this line, he is articulated at the shoulders and hips, so he can posed in a sitting down position to put inside the cockpit.

The small plastic cape is removable, thankfully, as it affects the ability to pose this figure sitting down – though there isn’t really a useful place to store his cape. If you worry about losing small accessories like I do, I think the best place to store his cape is in the little plastic bubble the figure was packaged in – though I guess you could just stick it inside the cockpit as well?

Now, let’s take a look at the TIE Fighter with the wings straightened out! This is of course how the Outland TIE Fighter appears when in flight – just like a classic TIE Fighter. This variant is in the ship class above the standard TIE Fighter, and so costs just a little bit more – but it does have that addition movement feature and bonus stand, so it makes sense.

The Outland TIE Fighter does end up looking like a regular TIE Fighter when clicked into its upright position, but then that is the proper idea. I don’t think I will display the Outland TIE like this though – if I want more regular looking TIE fighters for my collection, I can pick up a few standard edition vehicles. This is a chase variant and I want it to look like a chase variant alongside my other MGS vehicles.

I’m quite impressed with the execution of this design – the movement feature almost disappears when in flight mode, I was worried it might really stand out or show a gap between the two halves. Nope – the wings are nice and tight

The top cockpit hatch opens nicely, so you can fit a figure inside. Technically the front window allows you to see inside, but it’s very small and a bit dark, so I find it very hard to really make out the detail of a figure placed inside. Still, a lot better than if the window was painted opaque plastic.

It’s a little difficult to demonstrate in a photographs, but there is a simple push button mechanism on the underside of the cockpit, that basically raises the internal section. This helps you get any small figure back out of the cockpit, so you aren’t resorting to tweezers or shaking it upside down. A useful feature.

Overall, this is a fun TIE variant for the Micro Galaxy Squadron line. Wave 1 included three vehicles from The Mandalorian series, including the Mandalorian’s Razor Crest, so you can set up a neat chase scene on your collectible shelf.

We know realistically, with chase variant scarcity in the mix, it’s going to be hard or very expensive to be completionist with this range (as with so many Star Wars collection lines these days) so I was really happy to find this one instore ourselves.

Stay tuned for more reviews of Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles coming soon – you can check out all of our reviews of our MGS collection so far here.

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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