Rebel Armored Snowspeeder - TVC - Vehicles (Exclusive)

2010’s NY Toy Fair was full of tremendous announcements for fans of The Empire Strikes Back. Not only would the summer of 2010 bring us an all-new and larger scaled Imperial AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport) vehicle, we were also getting an introductory basic figure line up that focused on Episode V as well, but in “vintage styled” packaging in the newly announced The Vintage Collection. But one of the sleeper hits were the two all-new vehicles in the Mid Size vehicle assortment. Both the Bespin Cloud Car and Luke Skywalker’s Snowspeeder were as eagerly anticipated, but not as much as the show stealing Imperial AT-AT and the first wave of The Vintage Collection. Star Wars collectors immediately wanted to know however why the Bespin Cloud Car and Luke Skywalker’s Snowspeeder were packaged in the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” line look instead of the brilliant TVC packaging.

Thankfully Hasbro had plans up their sleeves that weren’t immediately transparent to the collector base. They eventually announced that two vehicles in The Vintage Collection packaging would be coming to us as TARGET exclusives. Thankfully, the chose Luke Skywalker’s Snowspeeder, renamed it Rebel Armored Snowspeeder (to match the Kenner toy) and released in in the Fall of 2010 at a very fair and reasonable $24.99. The box art is gorgeous. Surprisingly, many newly update figures in The Vintage Collection are absent from the box art. For example, they used 2004’s VOTC See-Threepio (C-3PO) instead of 2010’s TVC See-Threepio (C-3PO) figure. Also, R2-D2 from wave 3 also didn’t make it to the box art, even though this version of him was planned and released the month after the Rebel Armored Snowspeeder. Still, that really doesn’t detract from how awesome the packaging looks with the stunning The Empire Strikes Back logo cast in vibrant red.

The backdrop of the diorama featured on the box art is pink. It’s an interesting choice, but works surprisingly well and it matches the solid pink “construction paper” background of the vehicle in play mode being held by the hands of a child. You know what we’re talking about, those “side panels” on the box. Also on the box is a still from Episode V featuring miscellaneous Rebels preparing the various Snowspeeder vehicles and the like for the Battle of Hoth. For $5 more, collectors are treated to replica packaging that triggers nostalgia in very meaningful and special ways. But if you’re looking to save some money, then go for the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” packaged version. But we imagine you’ll be hard pressed to forgo The Vintage Collection version. There is just something about that silver and black that calls us home to our childhood. And that's what collecting The Vintage Collection is all about for Star Wars collectors.