Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - TAC - Commemorative Tin Collection (4 of 6)

Hasbro opened up the 30 (77-07) with a new model engine of collectible formats, and each came with at least 50% new working parts in addition to packaging that is destined to make “collectorphiles” go absolutely wild. 2007 is the 30th anniversary of Star Wars as a property and Hasbro began the celebration early with six late 2006 releases sure to be gobbled up by most of the collecting community. The Commemorative Tin Collection series is sure to appease both fans of the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, for Hasbro has created a special set for each film where every tin contain four core/key characters in Kenner inspired packaging all housed together in a deluxe collectors’ tin. The concept and the execution are both noteworthy, and we think this format is one of the nicest things Hasbro has done in a long time. What’s more, Hasbro also respected the hardcore collectors by including “new” or “newish” figures in the multipack so we just didn’t buy straight repacks. Don’t get us wrong, there are indeed some straight repacks here, but there is also enough newness in this set to make it worthwhile for anyone. The Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (4 of 6) is one of the more exciting sets because of what’s new, but the rehash is somewhat a disappointment. Let’s delve into it.

Hasbro included two straight repacks here, although one of them does look to be a slight repaint. Princess Leia, which was first released in 2005’s TSC Early Bird Figures set, is a straight repack. What is sad is how she lacks in articulation. We would have much rather have seen Hasbro update a The Power Of The Force “2” version of Princess Leia Organa instead and update it with modern paint operations, much like what they did to Princess Leia in the Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (6 of 6) set. In our opinion that would have been a better option to take. So that’s one straight repack. The other “repack” is C-3PO, which at first glance looks to be a straight repack of 2004’s VOTC See-Threepio (C-3PO) figure, and for all intents and purposes it is. But we have noticed that this versions appears to have slightly different paint operations. It’s very hard to conclusively confirm this one way or another. After all, when a figure has a weathered paint job, every figure essentially becomes a snowflake. So we’ll leave this determination up to you. More importantly, Hasbro has intensely tightened up the paint job of C-3PO’s eyes. The VOTC figure had terribly painted eyes. We’re happy to report that C-3PO looks much better in this multipack. It is still minimally articulated and his head is much too oblong, but we like the rest of him very much.

The Sandtrooper is an interesting figure. Hasbro took the 2006 TSC Sandtrooper (SAGA 037) and retooled the torso to create a new neck post so that they could add a ball-socket clone head and a removable helmet. Sadly, the sides of the new torso aren’t beveled to allow the ball-jointed shoulder joint to rest in it so the ball-joints stick out and his shoulders don’t look right. A new pauldron has also been tooled, but aside from that the rest of the figure is the same. More importantly, the Sandtrooper has a pristine clean paint job. This allows collectors to quickly transform this figure into a Stormtrooper by interchanging/swapping parts. Because Stormtroopers are the most popular army builder in the history of Star Wars, this was quite a wise decision on Hasbro’s part. But the best figure of this set is the Darth Vader. Based on the Darth Vader (Evil Sith Lord) figure from 2005’s ROTS Anakin Skywalker To Darth Vader Evolutions set, Hasbro has completely retooled the torso (to make it specific to A New Hope where the inner robes go over the shoulder armor) and given the figure a new head sculpt. Sadly they used a likeness of the Prequel Trilogy Anakin and not the Original Trilogy Anakin, but it’s a great figure nonetheless. There are new hands here too. All in all, this is a great set. The Darth Vader figure is worth it alone.