STAR TOURS Boarding Party - ST - Exclusives

The Star Tours Travel Agency offers "convenient daily departures to the exotic moon of Endor" and other locations throughout the galaxy. All passengers travel in the Starspeeder 3000. As each boarding party enters the facilities, they will encounter the Star Tours Officers, maintenance droids, Mon Calamari, and even R2-D2 and C-3PO. Once the tour is complete, passengers will be able to pick up a variety of different souvenirs from around the galaxy. Let the journey begin and may the Force be with you!

It is really unfortunate when Hasbro decides to make some really cool action figures of "rare" Star Wars characters as part of a hard-to-find exclusive set. Such is true for the Disney exclusive STAR TOURS Boarding Party multipack by Hasbro. There are a lot of great things about this set, and then there are quite a few not so great things. But what is most important to note is its inclusion of Teek and secondly Kaink, who are both from the kitschy and corny (and at different parts sometimes extremely enjoyable) Ewok films of the mid 1980s. This multipack will likely be the first and last place you will ever find these characters and we have to sadly admit that a $39.95 price tag is required for purchase. Clearly this is a normally unacceptable amount to pay for only two figures desperately wanted, but the third new figure is just extra [unnecessary] fodder and the two others are two figures you really don’t want in your collections....again. You already have them. Included from left to right in the package are STAR TOURS Officer, Kaink, Teek, Ree-Yees and Chewbacca. Quite a hodgepodge and motley crew of characters that would normally not be seen together otherwise, this group of five diverse characters actually commemorates the original “boarding party” back in 1987 when the ride first opened at the Disney parks. Obviously the Ewoks films were relatively new at that point in time so it makes sense that Teek and Kaink were included in this gift set. And thank goodness they were because the other figures in the set are probably not worth your while. But we’ll get to the bombs of this set in a moment. Collectors who are fans of the Ewoks films and/or Ewoks in general will be sorry for passing on this extremely limited edition set of only 15,000 pieces worldwide. And this is because of how awesome the news figures are in this set. Trivia buffs may be interested to know that on the back of the packaging, the STAR TOURS Officer is the 2002 SW [S - P1] Imperial Officer [Version 1] ('02 #55) (the other brown hair variant) and not the 2001 POTJ Imperial Officer figure. Yet the POTJ version is the figure inside. But this is probably no big deal because what a piece of garbage the figure is indeed!

Teek is probably the most exciting figure in the whole set. As a small figure, articulation tends not to be too consistent with figures of tinier stature, but Hasbro has blessed him with ten points of articulation. This is a nice array of movement for a figure of this size and caliber and we probably would have been disappointed with any more points had Hasbro included them. There is such thing as too much articulation folks! Teek has a strikingly amazing likeness to his appearance in Ewoks: The Battle For Endor and he really only lacks his lightning speed. But since action figures are inanimate objects, you’ll just have to let your imagination got to work if you want him to zip around. As a “new” looking Star Wars character, he fits right in as a believable species on Endor and his physical characteristics make him immediately likeable. Half dopey and half endearing, Teek has a lot of personality and he may just be one of our favorite Expanded Universe characters in a long time. We really think that it is a crying shame that he wasn’t made available another way for hardcore collectors. He deserves better billing for sure. Our next favorite figure in the set is Kaink and while we hoped that we could reference her to Return Of The Jedi, we can’t. But she did appear in Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. Kaink is a retool of Graak from 2007's TAC [Romba &] Graak (30 43) Ewok two-pack. But for this round, Kaink has an all-new head and a soft goods cowl which looks fantastic. But that’s because we are lovers of all things soft-goods. Our opinion could be tainted here. She doesn’t look exactly like the character in the film, but it is close enough and most importantly we have another new never-before-made Ewok action figure. Honestly, what more could you want? It’s difficult to utter that two figures are worth $40 and we really can’t make that claim, but Teek and Kaink are lovely additions to the line and we feel our collections wouldn’t be complete without them. It is bittersweet to say the least.

There are three "not so great" figures in this set as well. STAR TOURS Officer is a repaint of 2001’s POTJ Imperial Officer figure. Outfitted in terribly bright 1980s colored threads very similar to Dominos Pizza’s theme, the STAR TOURS Officer is actually just as bad as you may think. It really looks that bad. Ree-Yees is a repaint of the 1998 POTF2 [FF/TKC] Ree-Yees Freeze Frame figure. He has been repainted and comes with a custom made three-eyed camera. He apparently takes pictures of guests as they enter the STAR WARS attraction. Hasbro honestly did a nice job with the repaint on this figure, but its rather (now) archaic sculpt has not held up that well after all of these years. And it makes us hanker for an all-new sculpt of Ree-Yees. Chewbacca, the biggest disappointment in the set is clearly there so that kids can recognize a major character in the midst of some pretty obscure characters. But Hasbro decided to include the 2001 POTJ Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) without any accessories. This figure was clearly added as “filler” in this set; try not to judge the set’s overall value from this figure alone. With all of the modern Chewbacca figures out there, we aren't sure why Hasbro would reach this far back in their extensive catalogue of figure. Overall, the set is definitely overpriced, but it still has some neat figures in it. STAR TOURS is closing its doors in September 2010 and this was a very nice gesture from Hasbro to say goodbye to this “Expanded Universe” portion of the Star Wars universe. But we also hope Hasbro finds other ways to release awesome action figures like Teek and Kaink into the line. There are definitely going to be some upset people unable to purchase this set, so hopefully Hasbro will find other ways to get them into the line. Time will tell and we won't hold our breath. The STAR TOURS Boarding Party exclusive multipack from Disney is highly recommended, but if you’re only looking to get the new figures inside, then maybe this is not the set for you and the medium to grab Teek and Kaink. But there is no denying that Teek and Kaink somehow make this set a worthwhile purchase.