Vintage Collection

VCBASIC

Darth Vader

Info and Stats
Number:  
VC93
Year:  
2012
MSRP:  
$9.99
Definitive Status:  
Close
 
This figure has room for improvement and/or has a few minor flaws, but is close to definitive and worthy of display.
Suggested Hasbro Action:  
Retool (Low Priority)
Grade:  
9/10 Bantha Skulls
 
* Bantha Skull is compensated for any purchases made through these Ebay links.
* Bantha Skull is compensated for any purchases made through these Ebay links.
Review by: Chris
Review date: 10/18/2018

Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Chris - 04/28/2012 09:46 PM

2012-04-28 09:46 PM

This is the first time in any Vintage Collection that we’ve had a Darth Vader on an Episode IV card despite the fact that Darth Vader was obviously one of the actual vintage 12-backs.  But there was good reason for this.  To date, none of the Darth Vader figures released in the various Vintage Collections have depicted Vader’s Episode IV armor.  There are differences.  Two easy ones to spot: 

1.  The quilted lines on Vader’s gloves in Ep 4 are perpendicular to the forearm.  In Ep 5 and 6, the lines are parallel.
2.  The inner robe goes over Vader’s chest armor in Ep 4. In Ep 5 and 6, it goes under the chest armor.

Added as part of the re-review:

3.  The paint scheme on the chest box is unique to Episode IV.

Having said that, how is this figure.  Well, it’s pretty awesome.  It’s super articulated with ball joints at the hips.  Sure, ball jointed wrists would have made this figure unbelievable, but we can make due swivel forearms. I want to call this figure Vader unleashed because the figure can strike more dynamic fighting poses than what David Prowse did in the film.  The only negative I can give this is that it lacks a saber hilt.  It would have been a nice addition.  So it loses a point for that.  9 out of 10Edit: Shut up.  This is one the best two or three Star Wars action figures EVER.  10 out of 10.

Updated Review:  Chris - 9/17/2018 07:05 AM

I love Darth Vader.  I mean I really really love Darth Vader.  If you’ll permit me my semi-annual sentimental moment, I think the reason for that is simple.  By the time I started fully embracing my status as a sports fan in 1985, my father had long retired from fandom.  The indignity of watching his favorite athlete of all time lighting the lamp in a Blackhawks jersey was too much for him to bear.  For that reason, we couldn’t fully bond over sports as so many fathers and sons do.  He didn’t fish, so that was straight out.  So we bonded over Star Wars and specifically Darth Vader.  Vader will always be my favorite character.

Our own James “Jimmy” “Jim Jam” Griffin once said that he loved the movie The Big Lebowski like it was a person.  I thought, “Wow! What a great sentence.”  I knew right then that I would one day steal that phrase.  Today is that day.  I love this figure like it was a person.  The reasons for this are many, but nostalgia is at the forefront.  Darth Vader was one of the first 12 Star Wars figures ever released.  For many of us who were alive when those sainted 12-backs were in stores, Vader was our favorite and this figure holds an important place in our hearts. Fans were clamoring for a modern Darth Vader figure to be released in the Vintage Collection on the classic Episode IV card; that inimitable double racetrack Star Wars card.  Of all the vintage Kenner cards, it’s far and away the best.

But Hasbro was a victim of its own success.  In the vintage Kenner days, action figures were just vague approximations of their on screen counterparts.  The only reason the Kenner X-Wing Luke is Luke is because the name pill says so.  Fast forward to 2012, and Hasbro was delivering 3.75” action figures that looked like they just jumped off the screen.  Therein lines the problem.  As mentioned in the original review, there are significant differences in the armor that Vader wears between Episodes IV and V that are now very noticeable due to Hasbro’s 3.75” perfectionism.  Hasbro could have taken a short cut and released the VC08 Episode V/VI based Vader on the Episode IV card, but some fans (points finger at self) would have pitched a fit over that.  I don’t care if you don’t give a care because I do.  I give lots of cares.  Alternatively, Hasbro could have released the Episode IV based 2007 TAC Darth Vader 30-16 figure, but by 2012, that figure was starting to age out of Vintage Collection-worthiness.  Instead, Hasbro decided to go the all new route.  This is how the conversation at Hasrbo HQ must have gone:

Derryl DePriest:  Do you see all those stops that are in there?

Hasbro Designer:  Yes, sir, I do.

Derryl DePriest: On my mark (dramatic pause) pull them all out!

Hasbro Designer:  Awaiting your command.

Derryl DePriest: ENGAGE!

And then Hasbro pulled out all the stops.  By that I mean that Hasbro not only nailed all the relevant nuances of the Episode IV costume, but they also gave us an amazing action figure.  This is exactly what we want our action figures to do.  We can pose it in the most neutral 5POA styled pose, or we can pose it as “Vader Unleashed” and everything in between.  This is the definitive Episode IV Darth Vader…for 2012.  And now comes the elephant in the room.  This figure would be massively elevated with the addition of ball-jointed wrists, and it’s for that reason I’m lowering the score of one of my favorite figures of all time to a 9 out of 10 from the original perfect 10.

This figure is a love letter to the lifelong, overly obsessive and passionate fans of the line, and I greatly appreciate it.

I would happily buy this figure again if Hasbro added ball-jointed wrists, but the small minority of us who would do so would probably fit in a phone booth (if you can find one).  Many fans are starting to reach “Vader Fatigue.”  If Hasbro never got around to doing that, I’d be fine with that.  This one is close enough to calling definitive.  The Episode V/VI Vader is in much bigger need of an update.

Photographing this figures is making me rabid for a new Death Star environment/playset.  We also need a new Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced X1.  Either would be a nice excuse to add ball-jointed wrists to this figure as a pack-in.

* Bantha Skull is compensated for any purchases made through these Ebay links.
comments powered by Disqus
Terms of Service