Review: Star Wars Galactic Heroes 2 Packs

Ah, the glory that is late winter, with its dark skies and cold gray weather and sickness.  And, less you think all is gloom, this is also the time of clearance.  Well, one of them, anyway.  If you're not stopping by your local toy stores this month, you're likely missing out.

This is not the first time I've looked at Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures, and I doubt very much it will be the last.  Like I've said before: I love these little guys.  They're not quite as good as the Superhero Squad versions, which come in far more dynamic poses and with better articulation (I've got reviews of those here, here, and here), but they are still absolutely adorable.

At better than half off, my wife and I picked up three packs: a Princess Leia/Rebel Commando, Luke Skywalker/Lando Calrissian, and a Grand Moff Tarkin/Imperial Officer.  That's six figures, and we're going to tackle them all at once.

These are produced by Hasbro, by the way.  If you're lucky, you can still find some of the older packs cheap at Toys R Us (look for the black and red lettering then head to the price checker).  The newer packs with blue lettering are more prevalent, but they'll most likely still run you full price.

Appearance:

Princess Leia/Rebel Commando: 8/10
Luke Skywalker/Lando Calrissian: 7/10
Grand Moff Tarkin/Imperial Officer: 7/10

Overall, these are great figures.  The sculpts are solid and, except for a few problems, the paint's nice as well.  The issues are fairly standard: a little slop here and there and some scuff marks (though, in the interest of full disclosure, I wasn't being as careful as I usually am while opening these and might have caused a few of those marks myself).  The real draw for these is the design, though, and that's where most of them shine.

Lets start with Leia and the rebel commando.  Overall, these are easily the best of the bunch.  Despite a few scuffs, the paint ops are incredible.  The rebel commando really stands out here, with an exceptional level of detail for this scale.  It's the metallic paint detailing the ammo and buckles that really draws you in, I think. 


The huge blaster and pack make him an even more impressive figure.  Leia's fundamentally a simpler character, but she's still great.  I'm giving this pack a score of eight, and, to tell the truth, I almost went to nine.


Luke and Lando were a little more mixed.  Lando is by far the better of these two, containing a better design and far fewer problems.  The paint on Luke is the sloppiest on all of these, though Lando has his share of minor problems, too.  I've already got more than enough Lukes either identical or nearly identical to this one, so it doesn't matter that much... but it's still a problem if you haven't been picking these guys up for years.  He may not be the best of the six figures, but Lando's definitely the one I'm happiest to have: he's the most significant character I don't already own.

If I were scoring these independently, Luke would get hit with a six compared to Lando's eight.  That's an average of seven for the pack.


If I were scoring the next pair of figures on sculpt and paint alone, I'd be gleefully giving them an eight: Grand Moff Tarkin and his crony are almost as nice as Leia and the commando.  Where they come up short is in design, and it's not a problem unique to them.  The decision to arm nearly every character with a blaster or lightsaber was, in my opinion, a very bad one in the best of cases.  I'm not thrilled that every Luke and Leia I have is armed, but at least they make sense with weapons. 


But Tarkin?  Come on, he's above getting into fist fights and shoot outs.  He might order your execution or vaporize your home world if you get on his bad side, but he's not about to get his hands dirty.  The imperial officer makes a little more sense with a blaster (since some officers were armed in Star Wars), but not much.  These guys have desk jobs.

Packaging and Extras: ----

The packaging is fine, but nothing special.  The newer packs are a little more vibrant, but the old ones were cheap.

While I could care less about appearances, I do have one complaint.  I wish they'd make these a little less of a hassle to open.

There are no extras, so lets move on.

Play and Display: ----

If only these came with the articulation of the Marvel Superhero Squad.  For some reason, the Marvel figures come loaded with joints and articulation that allows you to choose between poses.  But, with one exception, Galactic Heroes give you nothing.

The only point of articulation is on Luke: the hand holding the lightsaber is on a cut wrist.  Is it useful?  Sure.  Does it justify a bonus point?  Not even close.

If the world were perfect, they'd think about making the weapons removable.  I know that would be problematic in this scale, but it's kind of annoying that all of the figures are holding nearly identical guns in nearly identical poses.

Price Tag and Final Analysis:

Princess Leia/Rebel Commando: 8/10
Luke Skywalker/Lando Calrissian: 7/10
Grand Moff Tarkin/Imperial Officer: 7/10

These are nice, but not so nice that I felt the need to pay six or seven bucks a pack.  If you haven't been to a Toys R Us lately, that's what they're going for.

But the older packs seem to have finally found their way to clearance, where you can find them for a more reasonable price.  I wound up paying $3.18 plus tax for each of the packs.  That's - what - $1.59 a figure?  Not bad at all.

It occurs to me that I'd actually be willing to pay $3.50 each for some of these if they came individually packaged and not in packs of two.  I'd have picked up a Lando years ago if I didn't need to pay for a sixth Luke at the same time.

I understand the logic behind sets, but I sometimes wonder if Hasbro wouldn't make more money packaging these individually.  Are there really more completists than casual collectors?  I wonder....


You're here, reading a review of miniature Star Wars figures.  It's time to accept it: you're a geek.  That's okay.  Once you've come to terms with this, it's time to take the next step.  There's a place for geeks.  Welcome home.