Darth Vader (The Dark Times) - RC - Basic

The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s STAR WARS figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away!

We don’t know what’s going on lately with the Retro Collection line, but Hasbro appears to be no longer capturing the spirit of the vintage Kenner line with the last couple of waves. It’s not that the characters are from Disney Star Wars. It’s that their approaches don’t feel authentic as of late. Take, for instance, Darth Vader (The Dark Times). Why didn’t they follow a process similar to 2020’s RC Darth Vader figure? Instead, they designed an “all-new” version of the Sith Lord, and the novelty of the figure got lost in translation. They eliminated the telescoping lightsaber, and there is no vinyl cape. For a character from a Star Wars source that precedes Episode IV, it feels odd that we have a Darth Vader figure with a soft-goods cape and a separately sculpted lightsaber. That said, the sculpting of Darth Vader (The Dark Times) isn’t terrible. The head sculpt comes with red lenses, and the chest box is very detailed. They added more detail to the figure’s costume, so it feels more complex this time. But, with the fantastic 2022 TVC Darth Vader (The Dark Times) (VC241) figure just released a few short weeks before this figure, it feels like a waste for the Hasbro Star Wars brand. We don’t need every character in every format. Plus, Hasbro needs to find a way to protect the packaging better. The imprint from the bubble of the adjacent figure it’s packaged next to in the case is rubbing off gorgeous card art. And there are flecks of damage throughout it. How difficult is it to produce quality card stock with no damage?