Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,036: Moff Gideon (Mission Fleet)

MOFF GIDEON (with Outland TIE Fighter)
Mission Fleet Stellar Class Vehicle & 2 1/2-Inch Figure
Item No.: Asst. E9342 No. F1137
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Cape, pistol, Darksaber, E-Web laser cannon, projectile, TIE Fighter
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: September 2021
Appearances: The Mandaloian

Bio: Imperial Moff Gideon is fiercely determined to capture The Child, known as Grogu. (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

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Commentary: You probably already breezed past this, but I bought Moff Gideon and the Outland TIE Fighter on extreme clearance at a Burlington Coat Factory last month. I'm hesitant to collect any new scale, but I'm a fiend for clearances and I love toy vehicles - so I tried it. And it's really good. If Hasbro made this exact toy, but maybe twice as big (at twice the price) and scaled for 3 3/4-inch figures I think you'd all absolutely love it. Because it's smaller - not Action Fleet small, but close - it was easy to skip, despite being a surprisingly well-made vehicle with a well-made figure. I just don't want to collect yet another line of squat, big-headed figures that is probably, ultimately, going to be pretty shallow as these things go. It's a good package - it's just not a size that older fans were already buying. Had Hasbro slapped this in a Retro box at twice the size and price, they couldn't keep it on the shelves. It's very good.

The Moff Gideon figure is good, and if you got this quality and articulation at 3 3/4-inches you'd be happy. The shoulders have the bend-and-swivel lateral movement, each leg is jointed at the hip, the wrists swivel, and the ball-jointed head turns. It's good, it's efficient. The cape fits on with a peg, with good detailing and decent paint. Everything is clean. Gideon's face has just enough detail to look like Giancarlo Esposito, complete with mustache. You can see the smile lines, there are wrinkles in his forehead, and his eyes perfectly capture his personality on the show. It's clearly a toy with big hands, an enlarged head, squat proportions, and oversized feet, but it's stable. It's sturdy. It looks good - nobody took shortcuts here. I'm sure if anyone at Hasbro is reading this they're rolling their eyes, but I really do think old-school fans - even Vintage collectors - would probably appreciate a kid's line made with this attention to detail... at four inches tall.

His accessories include an E-Web cannon, a Darksaber, and a blaster. I love the sword's white border, and I think it's one of the better looking Hasbro figure accessories. The blaster is nothing particularly special - good sculpt, good size, fits in the hand. Everything here works well, including the E-Web Cannon. Gideon can hold it to shoot things, or you can take it off the two-part tripod and mount it in any of three places on the included TIE Fighter vehicle. It's fun - this is a great play feature that probably would've been awesome to have on 3 3/4-inch scale toys, provided collectors didn't complain about them.

The Outland TIE Fighter itself is also excellent. With wings only 6-inches tall it's not exactly big, but it feels good in your hands and it might make you nostalgic for when Hasbro used to make new toy vehicles at bigger sizes. That's part of what kept me on board for so long - cool ships are fun to play with, and this one gets the job done. The top hatch opens to seat one figure (without cape), the wings pop in place and stay put nicely. Each wing also folds down like on The Mandalorian, which I believe is unique to this toy. The blue/gray coloring is sharp, the black solar panels have lots of detail, and you get little laser emitters under the window. I feel like the last time I was this happy with a toy Hasbro vehicle was for Rebels, so if Hasbro is taking notes I'd gladly pay $40ish for a bigger toy with these features - figure or no. If you see it cheap, I'd recommend it highly, even if you're not buying any new scales either. It's a good one-off.

Folding the wings down can be a little sticky - they don't necessarily want to fold the first time. A geared mechanism on each wing to go down smoothly would have been awesome, but for all I know there's some physics reason to not do that. At least you get a decent looking vehicle at a perfectly reasonable (clearance) price, and as much as I'd love to go back and fill in the ships I missed I don't think I want to spend hundreds of dollars right now. But hey, Hasbro can still make a good Star Wars vehicle toy when they want to, sadly it's just not at the size most older collectors would want. And if they did them in a bigger size, I assume kids and parents might be put off by the price. But I'd love to see what they could do, if they wanted.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Burlington Coat Factory for $4.49.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,036: June 8, 2023