Disturbance In The Force - TLC - Exclusives

"What is thy bidding, my Master?" Darth Vader asks, kneeling respectfully before the holographic image of Emperor Palpatine. They have both felt a great disturbance in the Force; Palpatine believes that Anakin Skywalker's son is the cause. Vader suggests bringing Luke over to the dark side to make him a powerful ally. "He will join us or die," Vader vows to his Master.

The Disturbance In The Force 2008 San Diego Comic Con exclusive was a big surprise and raised many eyebrows when Hasbro made the initial announcement about it. And since time has elapsed to digest it as a whole, we can conclude that it has many positives; but it does have its share of negatives too. It is certainly quite a novelty toy with all of its bells and whistles including lights, sound and a much too long recitation of a section of script from the film (that is truly unbearable to listen to after one time). The figures are in decent scale to each other which is a very good thing and the overall likeness of the characters from the scene is more than fair. Hasbro did a fair job recreating that pivotal moment in the Special Edition of Episode V, but we wonder why they didn't just do things a bit differently to make it better. Darth Vader is a repack of the 2004 VOTC Darth Vader figure. This is probably the best choice because the vintage style figure was based on his Episode V appearance and what better way to recreate that awesome goodness than to use an awesome figure! Although four years after an original release of a figure feels outdated or old, if it is good, then it is wise for Hasbro to rehash it time and again. Most importantly, this version of Darth Vader is the best one to use due to its authenticity to the film. Darth Vader comes equipped with his lit lightsaber (maybe not the best accessory here) and his soft-goods cape.

The part of this set to get really worked up about is the Emperor Palpatine holographic image and base. First, the good points: The chamber/platform where Vader kneels is sculpted very accurately to the one seen in the film. Its center lights up beautifully in dark blue and when it is disconnected from the holographic Emperor Palpatine figure, it merely verbalizes "What is thy bidding, my Master?" This is a perfect snippet from the line dialogue and we are happy Hasbro made an abridged speech here. Unfortunately, if you connect the holographic Emperor to the base to light him up, the entire screenplay to the revised Special Edition scene is repeated. It goes on for too long of a time (and too loudly) for our liking and we are looking for something else to do until it ends. The light that makes the holographic Emperor glow is of a different color than the base, so there is a nice contrast of color very similar to what we saw in Episode V. There are some interesting points to note on the Holographic Emperor "figure". He is more of a mini bust than a figure. He is a statue and has no articulation (and he shouldn't have any). He also has a cord-like texture from head to toe that gives it a much better holographic look and "feel" that can only be felt to be fully understood. It is so nice of Hasbro that they gave this figure a unique texture instead of simply casting it in translucent blue. This is easily the best holographic image we have received in action figure form! And it is one of the best likenesses we have seen of the Emperor (and he is all-blue here so this is saying a lot).

We have always claimed that less articulation serves holographic figures much better and this Emperor Palpatine is a perfect example. As good as those points are, there is still one issue that we must discuss. The overall aesthetics of this figure set doesn't work too well. When displayed, Vader sits higher that the Emperor's visage where the film had it the other way with Vader looking up to the Emperor. And Vader will fall over very easily if you try to pose him in a kneeling position. Instead of having the Emperor attachment sitting flush with the ground, it should have sat atop another platform or something similar so it could be significantly higher than Darth Vader. Also, a leaner (thinner/flatter) meditation chamber area would have suited Darth Vader better. Despite these small flaws, we are very happy that Hasbro created and released this figure set as an exclusive. Likely to rarely play the dialogue from the film again once you hear it for the first time, the Disturbance In The Force figure set is destined to gather dust on your collecting shelves. As stated earlier, it has a beautiful holographic sculpt of Emperor Palpatine as well as a repack of a fan favorite action figure version of Darth Vader, but other than that, don't expect much else from this set. It would have been nice for Hasbro to tweak a few things we criticized before it got released, but this looks like this is the way we will get it. We don't expect Hasbro to revisit this any time soon. It wasn't a strong seller and you can still find it for under retail even over a year after its original release.