Lando Calrissian - OTC - Basic (OTC #37)

Lando Calrissian becomes a General in the Alliance Forces and volunteers to spearhead the starfighter attack on the second Death Star. He commands the Alliance Fleet to attack the Imperial Fleet and leads the starfighters into the Death Star's incomplete superstructure. They strike the station's reactor core with missiles, causing the battle station to explode.

Lando Calrissian (General Pilot) or more simply known as General Lando Calrissian has gone through quite an evolution in 3.75” action figure format. As originally one of the final 15 figures released in the 1985 The Power Of The Force line by Kenner, Hasbro relatively got out the first modern version of this character in The Power Of The Force “2” line. The problem? Lando Calrissian (In General’s Gear) was more like a beefed up caricature of Lando Calrissian. What made this release tragic was that Hasbro got the color scheme correct on the first modern release of him wearing this outfit. The 1985 figure was way off color wise and Kenner/Hasbro did right with the color palette of the 1998 figure, but why did they give him such an exaggerated frame? Six more years would have to transpire before Hasbro tackled this outfit again and they provided collectors with a really good update in 2004’s Star Wars “Saga” line. It didn’t have the best articulation, but the likeness and color palette was fantastic.

The 2004 Star Wars “Saga” Lando Calrissian (Death Star Attack) (‘04 #21) figure was a tremendous update to the 1998 The Power Of The Force version. This all-new sculpt brought scale and accurate proportions back to Lando. Hasbro even added a point of premium ball-jointed articulation to Lando’s right elbow to allow for a more varied positions while aiming the included blaster. Hasbro also added a removable bandolier holster and removable cape for even more variety. The best part about the 2004 version of Lando however is his head sculpt. Hasbro has definitely mastered that portrait here nearly perfectly in our own opinion and it brings an incredible amount of authenticity to an already great action figure. Part of the final wave of 2004 Star Wars “Saga” collection, Lando Calrissian (Death Star Attack) (‘04 #21), experienced the grim “last wave syndrome” and was hard to come by. But Hasbro had other plans that remained elusive and elsewhere to collectors until a big announcement was made.

When the announcement that the Original Trilogy hit, Hasbro had to scramble to prepare a collection of basic figure, exclusives, vehicle and premium collector “vintage styled” basic figures to prepare for this multimedia event. The Star Wars “Saga” line was canceled and hasbro geared up to bring collectors The Original Trilogy Collection, one of the most successful lineups of all time, so successful in fact that it exceeded Hasbro’s expectations. The went back to some of the most recent basic figures in the previous line, spiffed them up a bit, especially with cleaner paint operations, and offered them in pseudo “vintage Kenner" packaging. The gravitational force this line look had on collectors was unprecedented. It was like seeing the original lineup at retail (and this was especially true for the VOTC line). They shortened Lando’s name and just called him Lando Calrissian for the OTC release, but other than cleaner paint operations, the figure for all intents and purposes is the same.