Razor Crest, The - TVC - Vehicles (Exclusive)

Hasbro took what should have been a general marketplace item and reserved it for their crowdfunding platform called HasLab. What’s interesting, the final backing number was 28,113 at 11:59 PM on November 9, 2020. It took Hasbro over a year to get the vehicle fully tooled, produced, assembled, and packaged for a February 2022 shipment. And collectors around the USA and abroad are reveling in the final product. What makes the final backing number so astounding is that, without revealing confidential information, there are more units of The Razor Crest than there are The Vintage Collection collectors. And the stretch goal additions, including Grogu (The Razor Crest) and Offworld Jawa Elder (Arvala-7), have, by default, been produced in larger quantities than some characters who made it into the basic figure assortments. It will be interesting to see how The Razor Crest holds (or doesn’t hold) its value over the next year or so. Still, it may saturate the market to the point where no one is paying aftermarket prices for this already-expensive, but beautiful, vehicle for the 3.75-inch The Vintage Collection line. Simply put, The Razor Crest is a stunning work of art, loaded with features and play scenarios and some extra pack-ins that may or may not do much for you as a single-carded collector. And interestingly, the one pack-in figure that should have arrived carded, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian, comes to us in a clear plastic baggie.

The Razor Crest isn’t as big as we anticipated, but please don’t take that assessment to mean that we believe it’s too small. It’s probably “just the right size” as large vehicles go for The Vintage Collection line. Right out of the box, before it’s fully assembled, you’re taken by its shiny silver color that’s accented with battle damage and dirt to help recreate some of the vehicle’s finest moments in The Mandalorian Disney+ series. Hasbro did a remarkable job on the vehicle’s paint job. From the shiny silver base coat to the detailed yellow block pattern and dark colors hugging the crevices and lines, The Razor Crest is easily one of the best-looking vehicles in the entire The Vintage Collection line and probably all the other 3.75-inch basic figure lines combined. As mentioned, there are many features here, so let’s run through some of them so you can see what this superb vehicle offers the collector. The cockpit canopy is fully removable. No hinge joint holds it in place when you seat a maximum of three (3) action figures into it. We hope our match is correct, but we counted 14 separate removable panels to help recreate the scenes after the ship crashed and how the Jawas picked up the scraps. There is a button you push to release a removable cargo bay cover. The engines are removable as well. Hasbro embedded a removable escape pod that seats The Mandalorian once you remove its cover.

There are removable front guns that rotate up and down, and there is a rear tail gun that raises and swivels. Coincidentally, it's hidden under one of the 14 removable panels. A side door lowers, and it comes with an extension ramp at the end. The rear cargo door lowers too. Inside are four (4) sliding carbonite block hooks. Interestingly, the carbonite chamber fits both new and old carbonite blocks (previously released like Jar Jar Binks and Han Solo). And the carbonite door opens and closes. Hasbro designed an ammunition locker, and it has two doors. All the loose included weapons mount to the wall and doors. It's a royal pain in the butt to install the weaponry into the wall and doors. We suggest doing a shot of gin before attempting it. If you have man hands, you’re going to curse the day you were born. Another door pops up and reveals a sleeping or bunk area for Grogu that includes a hammock. And there is a small door below the bunk area that lowers to reveal another storage area. Unfortunately, the door doesn’t come off here. Other features include a removable ladder, hooks to hang the included gear bags on for storage, two cargo nets, and a fully and beautifully painted and finished interior. Hasbro spared no expense to ensure that every last detail of this vehicle was taken into account. You’ll spend quite a bit of time inspecting its interior, but there are more cool features on the exterior.

The front landing gear door slides so you can open and close as needed. Two landing gear doors close shut too. All three landing gear pieces are removable, which is a nice feature to have. Most prominent is the three-piece stand Hasbro included to mount to The Razor Crest so you can pose it “in flight” without any assistance. You install the ship to the stand via a slot on the bottom of the vehicle. It fits into the transparent plastic rail on one of the stand’s pieces. As you can see, Hasbro was thoughtful when they approached The Razor Crest’s design. There are so many details to appreciate here. There are some other “smaller” features we believe will impress you as well. Let’s run through them also. Then we have some criticism. The front landing gear has a door that closes on it. Hasbro designed the rockets cleverly. They have an orange exhaust piece, but they light up brightly when outside light is shone through them. It’s pretty cool for an effect that doesn’t involve electricity. And we know this is a stretch, the three thermal detonators that go in the weapons locker also fit in the cockpit as a knob to the gearshift. You can recreate the scenes of Grogu playing with it if you so desire. Lastly, the clear plastic stand that comes with the pram with the Grogu (The Razor Crest) action figure also snaps into the bottom of carbonite blocks to float them. You have some options here.

Our complaints are minimal, but we’ll run through them. The weapons locker should have been a removable panel. The time spent fighting with the small area on the vehicle and manly fingers made it a chore and a half. It created too much aggravation and stress, and it was a major downer for us. We’re also disappointed that nothing in the cockpit is functional. Had Mark Boudreaux been involved, he would've added SOMETHING here that moved. As it is, we must admit it’s a letdown. Although overall strong, The Razor Crest has a few brittle areas. For example, the extra ramp severely sticks when you lower the side door. Whatever you do, please don’t force it. Use a blowdryer to soften the plastic and free up the ramp. Other fragile parts of The Razor Crest are the rear landing gear doors. The hinges are prone to breakage. Be careful! Lastly, although functional, the escape pod doesn’t have a clear window to see The Mandalorian underneath. We find that somewhat bothersome. The three pack-in figures make sense for The Razor Crest, but we’re not going to jump for joy for their inclusions here. Also, we HATE the new numbering convention for carded pack-in figures. Hasbro moved away from VC000 to HAS000. It’s brutal. However, the card art is attractive, and we believe they’ll be a popular item for The Vintage Collection on the aftermarket.

But don’t pay a lot for them! They’re plentiful! Just keep in mind there are four times as many Grogu (The Razor Crest) (HAS001) and Offworld Jawa Elder (Arvala-7) (HAS002) figures than The Power Of The Force Yak Face included with The Khetanna (Jabba’s Sail Barge) vehicle! The included Din Djarin/The Mandalorian is not mentioned by name anywhere on The Razor Crest box or the paperwork inside of it. We don’t know what to call this action figure officially. Anyway, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian is a repaint of 2020’s TVC The Mandalorian (VC181) figure and now comes with a soft-goods tattered cape. It’s a fine-looking action figure. Grogu (The Razor Crest) (HAS001) is a retool and repaint of the figure that came with 2021’s TVC Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) (VC177) Walmart exclusive figure set. This time Grogu has an all-new head sculpt and all-new left arm. The paint operations look scary up close. Finally, the Offworld Jawa Elder (Arvala-7) is sadly a straight repack of 2021’s TVC Offworld Jawa (Arvala-7) (VC203) figure but comes with new accessories, most notable the elder necklace and cracked mudhorn egg. Your mileage may vary, but we feel the figures are an overall disappointment. They make sense for The Razor Crest, but perhaps Hasbro should have focused on more obscure characters. The Razor Crest is a stunning addition to The Vintage Collection. We hope it doesn’t negatively impact the line in any way. Time will tell.