Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) - SW [S - P3] - Vehicles (Exclusive)

During the Battle of Yavin, the Empire discovered what a threat the Alliance could be. Armed with stolen technical schematics pinpointing the Death Star's weakness, the Rebellion hurled what little resources they had to stop the Imperial menace. A scant collection of battle-weary starfighters darted into the Death Star's shadow, in a desperate effort to spear the battle station's vulnerable exhaust port. One of these starfighters was piloted by the capable and well-respected Red Leader, Garven Dreis. Flying his X-wing Fighter, Dreis launched his own heroic attempt at destroying the Death Star – an attempt that resulted in a deadly confrontation with the evil Darth Vader.

Hasbro managed to squeeze one last fantastic exclusive into the Star Wars “Saga” line before the line look converted to The Original Trilogy Collection that summer. Toys R Us stores were the lucky recipients of Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) which happened to also be the ONLY vehicle exclusive in the third phase of the Star Wars “Saga” line look. We have to make it clear that we’re utterly enamored of the larger sized X-wing Fighter vehicle from Hasbro. While it was introduced as an Electronic Power F/X release during The Power Of The Force era, it was 2002’s SW [S - P1] Luke Skywalker’s X-wing Fighter that gave collectors the very updated X-wing without the electronics and significant tooling updates. To help make up for these new tooling costs, Hasbro has not been shy about releasing and re-releasing this vehicle (plus or minus deco and pack-in changes) to collectors to make the most out of this impressive sculpt. What’s interesting is that Toys R Us seems to be reaping exclusive benefits with it and more power to them because they are wonderful exclusives to have. Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) demonstrates the first use of the vehicle where Luke Skywalker is not the owner. Based on the Battle of Yavin, pilot Garven Dreis (Red Leader), gets his own X-wing Fighter now, and collectors not only receive it too, but also a first time offering of Garven Dreis as an action figure. Sadly, R5-K6 is nowhere to be found, save for a cardboard placeholder.

By all accounts, Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) is quite plain when compared to Luke Skywalker’s X-wing Fighter. While the S-foils are nearly identical to the other X-wing Fighter vehicles released by Hasbro, there aren’t any fancy stripes on the four cannons that are affixed to them. Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) is relatively clean for the most part, but you see a collection of cloudiness from the droid socket to the back of the vehicle. And there is even a touch a yellow dirt on the nose of the vehicle as well. The rear exhaust ports are a little too dark, but we haven’t found any reason to believe they’re inaccurate as exhaust/smoke would collect thickly there just based on the vehicle’s mechanics. You will find a similar deco on the underside of the vehicle as well. It has three retractable landing gear legs which function beautifully. They allow the ship to sit up off the ground when in a landed position. You can also lock the S-foils into attack position while the landing gear is down. Although inaccurate, it makes for an interesting display option. Red Leader’s X-wing Fighter (Death Star Trench) is a very large vehicle. It is sometime difficult to forget the size of the original X-wing Fighter Kenner/Hasbro made in the past, so seeing something this large is almost as alarming as it is exciting. That of course is an exaggeration, but it’s quite a difference in size when you look back on what we have received previously.

The Red Leader Pilot, more commonly known as Garven Dreis, pack-in figure is a little bit of a letdown. It’s a kit-bashed figure that utilizes the body of 2001’s POTJ Luke Skywalker (X-wing Pilot) figure with the head from the Rebel Alliance Pilot from 2000’s POTF2 Y-wing Fighter, a TARGET exclusive. The figure has also been repainted but it’s meant to be Garven Dreis. Hasbro created two cardboard cutouts of both Garven Dreis and R5-K6 and placed them into the vehicle for what we’re imagining is for aesthetic purposes. It would have been nice to include a new R5 unit here, but Hasbro just has the 1996 POTF2 R5-D4 figure which itself is a total debacle and unusable to be repainted or reused in any way possible. Hasbro would have had to tool and all-new figure and then had they’d gone that route it wouldn’t have fit into the budget of this exclusive. (Editor’s Note: An updated Garven Dreis and a first time offered R5-K6 were both released and were part of 2009’s TLC Scramble On Yavin Battle Packs set. To this day the multipacks goes for lots of money on eBay.) But even without the figures, we’re have to acknowledge Hasbro for releasing a version of the X-wing Fighter for a background character during the Battle of Yavin. We hope that this isn’t a one-time trial and that they continue to release as many unique versions of the X-wing Fighter as possible. We don’t think it’s realistic to ask for every last one, but instead of Luke Skywalker’s X-wing Fighter getting rehashed every other year, maybe give collectors another reason to heavily consider another purchase of it. That will only be possible with significant retools and/or repaints.