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.

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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