Rebel Vs. Empire - ROTS - Battle Packs

The Star Wars battle rages on! The heroic Rebels clash against the Empire in this awesome battlepack. Who will win? The fate of the galaxy is in your hands!

Rebel Vs. Empire? Does that mean one member of the Rebel Alliance versus the Empire? We don’t know, but it probably doesn’t matter in the long run. Hasbro has cobbled together another mildly perplexing Battle Packs set loosely based on the events during the Battle of Endor. (Hey, at least all of the action figures in this set are from one film, unlike the oddly titled and packaged Jedi Vs. Separatists Battle Packs set.) Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca represent the Rebels in this set while a Stormtrooper and Darth Vader represent the Empire. On paper, the set had some potential. But in practicality it fails because of the figure choices Hasbro has used to comprise this Battle Packs set. The Rebel Vs. Empire set serves a purpose for the younger Star Wars audience. But the collector base will likely find no reason to add it to their collections. It isn’t exciting and except for Darth Vader, you likely have all of these figure multiple times already. But even the changes made to Darth Vader aren’t enough to warrant the repurchasing of the other figures inside this Battle Packs set.

Darth Vader is the only “new” figure in this Battle Packs set. A kit-bashed figure, it utilizes the head of 2003's SW Darth Vader (Throne Room Duel) ('03 #18) figure and the body of 2002's SW Darth Vader (Bespin Duel) ('02 #30) figure. When together, it creates a unique version of Darth Vader. But do you care? The articulation renders the figure pretty much useless and the head sculpt (with the helmet) looks distorted and not screen accurate at all. The Stormtrooper figure is a very sloppy repaint of the figure that came in 2002’s SW Stormtrooper Trooper Builder Set. These Stormtrooper figures are unique in the fact that they come without the “temperature changing” battle-damage markings. Also, the Stormtrooper only comes with his blaster rifle and not the E-11 blaster or the rifle rack. This was certainly a popular Stormtrooper sculpt back in the day, but why would Hasbro resort to this sculpt when they have the fan-favorite 2004 VOTC Stormtrooper figure? It’s a little bit perplexing. Again, this set has evidently been designed to introduce the younger buying public to some key Original Trilogy characters.

The Rebels in this set aren’t too wonderful either. Chewbacca is a straight repack of the Chewbacca (III 5) figure released in the Revenge Of The Sith line. We can’t find the slightest difference between this figure in the Battle Packs set and the basic figure. Luke Skywalker is a slight repaint of the corrected version of 2003’s SW Luke Skywalker (Throne Room Duel) (‘03 #17) figure. This is the version where the globe is on his right hand. Luke Skywalker comes with a real metal lightsaber hilt and removable green lightsaber blade, but he doesn’t come with the cool Death Star II environmental display stand. You must buy the 2003 figure in order to secure this piece. Han Solo is a slight repaint of 2002’s SW Han Solo (Endor Raid) (‘02 #37) figure. Whether the paint job differences are intentional, or just the end result of producing the same figure during two different manufacturing eras, their noticeable enough to hail this version as a slight repaint. He only comes with his blaster pistol. You might as well avoid the Rebel Vs. Empire Battle Packs set. Do you really want all of this old stuff all over again?