Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,146: Luke Skywalker (RacerVerse)

LUKE SKYWALKER on X-Wing Go-Kart
Hot Wheels Racerverse Basic Car
Item No.: Asst. HKB86 No. HKC07
Manufacturer: Mattel
Number: n/a
Includes: Fake paper orange track
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $5.99
Availability: 2023
Appearances: Star Wars   

Bio: Luke Skywalker, a Force-sensitive human male, was a legendary Jedi Master who fought in the Galactic Civil War during the reign of the Galactic Empire. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: One of the things as you get older - and it most likely will happen to you - is your favorite franchise expands beyond the scope of what brought you to it in the first place. Since Disney took over we saw a hard shift to non-classic stuff (I'll say original trilogy and prequels are left out a bit usually) so I find something like Luke Skywalker exciting, despite being beyond my focus as a toy collector. A $6 Hot Wheels car that looks sort of like a McDonald's or Burger King toy? And I can race it on a track? Sure, why not? It's a small line, and I was getting bored writing about super-articulated figures.

This toy is a toy. It's not a toy pretending to be a collectible, so far Mattel hasn't put out any $30 collector versions for Star Wars - it's just a basic toy you throw at a kid and collectors will ignore. Exciting. Dropping all pretense, they managed to deliver a toy X-Wing with an action figure at a low price point - sure it's non-removable, but it'd fall out if it were. Luke has a helmet with a translucent visor - but no eyes underneath - and a determined look on his mouth. The helmet is painted roughly as well as any typical Hasbro version at this size, with an orange flight suit and two hands molded to some controls stuck on the vehicle. The exaggerated noggin is not unlike a Bobble Head or any of a number of Happy Meal toys, just big enough to show a little detail and sized similarly to that which you see on a typical 3 3/4-inch action figure. It's not movie-perfect, it's not a real actor's likeness, but it's a good toy head.

This feels like something I would've liked to have as a kid - but it's not quite as good as the Blockade Runner in terms of design. Red 5 is brought as an X-Wing with no X.... and really, no wings. To be able to fly through tracks, Mattel truncated the design to have cannons above the engines - so you get two - with pylons that look sort of like vestigial wings. It's a sensible design, and if it were a Tomy toy from 1982 from Japan I'd have paid a ridiculous amount of money to get myself one. Instead it's $6, with a plastic top and a metal bottom with four rolling wheels. There are yellow and red paint stripes, a black block for a fake cockpit, and nothing too out of the ordinary. It seems like a good recreation for its size class, and while I wish R2-D2 was in some way represented maybe that's coming with something else later. It's a fun little design and it looks like the kind of thing a neighborhood kid might get in a Power Wheels car. It's a fun thing to mess with on my desk.

As a Hot Wheels car, it's pretty good - I've been trying out cars on launchers and tracks lately, and it goes about as well as Leia. (Chewbacca is, surprisingly, the big winner of the three I got so far.) If you put him on your launcher he glides perfectly nicely along the orange track for a bit, but not super duper far. I'm not sure if it's materials, weight, design, or something else - I'm not an engineer. But he rolls merrily along and Mattel does a good job making sure their toys actually function as toys, which is always welcome.

I don't yet know if I'm going to buy the prequels, sequels, or spin-offs - but Mattel, I'm in for a few more original trilogy go-karts. I'd love to see a few more of these - and at the rate Mattel is pumping them out, I already know I can't (and won't) collect everything in all the brands. For those who pick and choose these could be really fun pick-ups, so check the store and grab one if you see something that looks interesting. Even if you just play around with it for a day, it's six bucks, and you don't have to worry about losing accessories or anything. It's just a car.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Target.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,146: June 20, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,144: Princess Leia (RacerVerse Blockade Runner Tantive IV)

PRINCESS LEIA on Blockade Runner / Tantive IV Go-Kart
Hot Wheels Racerverse Basic Car
Item No.: Asst. HKB86 No. G0102
Manufacturer: Mattel
Number: n/a
Includes: Fake paper orange track
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $5.99
Availability: 2023
Appearances: Star Wars   

Bio: Leia Skywalker Organa Solo was a Force-sensitive human Alderaanian female politician, Jedi, and military leader who served in the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Imperial Era and the New Republic and Resistance in the subsequent New Republic Era. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: The collectible paradigm is, mildly, stale. If you're old-school, it took a while to get things like LEGO sets and statues and busts, 6-inch figures and other collectibles weren't even on our radar. Hot Wheels cars seemed like a stretch, but it happened, and after the success of Mario Kart figures-with-vehicles Mattel expanded the lineup to Racerverse with licenses like Marvel, DC, Trolls, soon to include Star Trek and Gremlins and DuckTales. But we're here for Star Wars Princess Leia, which gives you a little kid-size cart thing that recalls Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink as much as it does Mario Kart and a bevy of McDonald's Happy Meal toys. As far as I know there's no video game coming for this, but it sure as heck looks like something you should be able to steer around on Rainbow Road or Cheep Cheep Beach.

Toys have gotten a lot more expensive - if you want to get something for under ten bucks for Star Wars it's downright difficult, so a $6 Leia in a Blockade Runner has some appeal in an era where action figures are creeping up to $20 and even Funko's cheap Pop! Vinyl Figures are around $12. And sure, a typical Hot Wheels or Matchbox car is $1.25 in 2024, so $5.99 isn't nothing - but there are some more complicated cuts and more parts needed to make a tiny figure to go in your tiny vehicle. These cost about the same as the Character Cars, and they make a heck of a lot more sense. $5 for a car with a shape vaguely recalling Leia's character seems high when you can spend $6 on a ship with a tiny Leia figure instead. And perhaps both are expensive when you can just buy any old car for a buck and a quarter on those famous blue cardbacks.

The toy itself is more or less typical Hot Wheels-sized, as you can put it on tracks or a car launcher with no problems. The super-deformed proportions of the vehicle look good and they don't skimp on the greeblies - you can see the many engines, hatches, escape pods, and other odds and ends plus the window up front (without the visible centerfold) to boot. They added red stripes as well as more than one flavor of gray to enhance the ship details, and if some company out of Japan were selling just the squat vehicle with wheels for ten bucks I'd probably happily buy it.

Leia's head as a Spock-esque raised eyebrow and a determined expression on her face, like she's ready to ram someone in the walls. The figure isn't exceedingly detailed, but she does have an oversized noodle not unlike a Funko Pop!, bobble head, or more likely, Rat Fink-adjacent Hot Rod cartoon character of some sort. Her small hands are on a steering wheel, and the figure isn't removable.

As luck would have it I dropped six bucks at the Dollar Tree before getting this on some orange track, to see which of some of my cars really book it. Some cleared the full 22 feet of track, but most petered out after 8-10, and Leia was one of those. It's by no means poor performance, but it's not as impressive as a Sharkcruiser, a Millennium Falcon Carships, or - oddly - Transformers: Robots in Disguise R.E.V.

 While doing some research I was surprised that there aren't many collections being sold of these guys on eBay in 2024, and even more surprised that most of the little karts go for a premium on Amazon or eBay right now. You can find some in stores, but most remain elusive as what you're likely to find are unsold Disney girl characters and Super Mario Shy Guys. You might also find Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced, which is a shame, because it would be way cooler to have him in a Star Destroyer to chase down Leia and the stolen Death Star plans. But hey, this is a neat toy, if expensive, and a welcome diversion from the increasingly dull world of figures with minimal (or no) vehicles or playsets. Given that they're making Uncle Scrooge, Gizmo, and Captain Kirk, I would advise you all to give this line a look - you may not buy any, but at least you can go "Oh I remember Adam talking about that" when today's kids are overpaying on the secondary market for these 20-30 years down the road. These might actually turn into something really good, and this is a worthwhile pick-up if you have a few bucks to burn.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Target. She's shipping in current assortments along with other characters like Ahsoka, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,144: June 18, 2024