Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,478: Han Solo (Speeder, Solo: A Star Wars Story Line Look)

HAN SOLO (Corellia, with Han Solo's Landspeeder)
Solo: A Star Wars Story Class B Vehicles Pack-In
Item No.: Asst. E0326  No. E1263
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster, vest, Speeder
Action Feature: Force Link sounds, crash/eject action
Retail: $29.99
Availability: April 2018
Appearances: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Bio: Han is cagey about where he scored this overpowered M-68 landspeeder, saying little beyond that its previous owner no longer had need of it.  The M-68 is a design from the ancient core world of Corellia, now a principal starship production facility for the Galactic Empire.  (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary:  So Han Solo (Corellia) is pretty neat.   He looks like a cross between an old Kenner Han Solo head and the new actor, with an outfit that looks almost 1980s/1970s in design.  The dark grey shirt looks like something I saw in a few old movies, with white gloves that look like something I've seen in a lot of old magazines about racing.    The pants have sculpted (but not painted) stripes and there's no holster for his small blaster.  All in all, it's a good pack-in figure but at $30 I would expect a little more deco.  The splatter on the boots is interesting, but not exactly Hasbro's best work.

The 5-jointed figure looks good, with a very young-looking face and a pretty nice vest.  We haven't seen a lot of anything from this movie, so I can only assume it's accurate.   The gloves are ornate, the vest has stripes and zippers, and even some of the stuff on his belt are painted.   On his right hip are either Death Sticks or code cylinders, but they're unpainted - so I don't know.   The figure has no holster for his small pistol, and there's no weapon storage in his big blue Landspeeder.   I expect people will lose it.

The speeder itself is pretty nifty - it's big, it's shaped like a book.  There are all kinds of buttons, levers, and switches and I love that.   The deco is nice, the size is good, but as a toy it's a mixed bag.  Hasbro has been weak about including wheels - now I know there are no wheels in the movie, but this is a toy in the kid's line.  Considering its crumplezone that sends the driver figure flying, wheels would be great as a play feature.  While it earns points in authenticity, it looses some for fun.  You'll love its weird look and cobbled-together feel, and the scraped paint and wacky spoiler are nothing to sneeze at.   On clearance, this should be your first purchase.  At full price, it's neat but uninspired.  If you picked up Attack of the Clones Anakin or Zam speeders, it's like a bigger, better version of those.   It has enough kid features to irritate collectors and enough collector features to irritate kids.   Han can sit in it just fine, and depending on how you pose him he flies out pretty nicely.

I'm a huge sucker for vehicles an this sees to be one of Hasbro's better-scaled offerings.   It's big, it's spacious, it has room for two figures.  I would have loved a storage compartment for weapons and wheels, but all we got are an ejector seat and seating for two.  As I write this I can't test its Force Link 2.0 features because the band locks you out of anything without a firmware update, and the app isn't up yet.   This basically means the entire feature is "bricked" once your phone or smart device dies and stops being compatible with the app.   This is just rotten - but the toy itself is still  nice if you can get it for the right price.

Packaging Notes: Because someone is deserving of less employment, this vehicle shipped in a case with a repack of the A-Wing from the last movie - in a red box.  So it looks pretty much identical to the one on clearance before the movie line launched, meaning we're going to see a pile-up of the previous movie's toys because Hasbro made new product with new UPCs and SKUs again just like we saw with Rogue One.   This is poor, poor planning.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,478: May 2, 2018