Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] - Unleashed

No reward is worth this! Donning the uniform of a stormtrooper, the sly smuggler Han Solo is on a daring mission with Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca to rescue Princess Leia Organa from her scheduled execution on the massive Death Star. Backed into a corner, in the firefight of his life, Han realizes that there's only one way out of the Imperial entanglement. Despite the protests of Chewbacca due to odorous repugnance, Han and company jump down a garbage chute and escape. Once inside, Han quickly realizes they're not alone. Below them, the multi-tentacled creature, the dianoga, is waiting for the right time to attack. Without warning, the dianoga grabs Luke and drags him underwater. Determined to rescue him, Han fires blindly into the water until his friend is released. At last, they can figure a way to get out until the walls start closing in! Han quickly works to build a mountain of garbage to buy the group precious time, as Luke orders R2-D2 to shut down the garbage compactors. The group narrowly escapes being pulverized. Now Han Solo can set his sights on more important things, like collecting his reward.

If you’re talking about Hasbro, you know there is going to come a time even in a new line that a repack, retool and/or repaint is inevitable. In the Star Wars: Unleashed line, all three directly apply. The repainted Clone Trooper [Captain] was in good company with the many repacked figures like Count Dooku [Darth Tyranus], Mace Windu and Luke Skywalker (as well as many others) that were reissued in updated card back art, and then there are the more aggressive retools which are based on previously existing sculpts, but are technically new since the entire figure has to be recast instead of an interchangeable part. Enter Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] which is a clever (and borderline brilliant) reuse of the popular 2005 Unleashed Stormtrooper figure that barely met fan demand. It pits Han Solo in the trash compactor on the Death Star against the dianoga but with a twist. Instead of Luke Skywalker getting attacked by this multi-tentacled beast, it is Han Solo in mortal danger with one tentacle wrapped around him for a unique take on the classic scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. While not screen accurate exactly, we have to admit that we’re impressed with how well the final piece turned out. And so much has been added that you almost forget it is based on the Unleashed Stormtrooper figure. Now that is quite an accomplishment.

Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] has a likeness that is quite different from the one we received with 2004’s Unleashed Han Solo figure. The first version was more action oriented and had a very dark skin tone. This version Han looks very pale, but has a great likeness nonetheless. He looks like he is working hard to escape the caving walls and dianoga beats that both threaten his life. Because the sculpt is based on the original 2005 Unleashed Stormtrooper figure, Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] is in the same crouched position with his arms up at the ready waiting to fire the E-11 blaster rifle. But now Hasbro has sculpted a wonderful trash compactor base which is loaded with various trash and garbage that surrounds him. This all-new base has been tooled extremely well and has been brilliantly painted. His left foot stands in the mess, while his right foot stand outside of the base onto the “surface” which you place the figure. Protruding up through the base is one of the dianoga’s tentacles. It has been constructed with “bendy” technology and you can wrap it around in a couple different ways depending upon your tastes. We absolutely love how Hasbro has thought outside of the box here and applied what happened to Luke Skywalker to Han Solo instead. It just goes to show the multifaceted levels of artistry that goes into these very interpretive figures.

Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] was part of an elusive wave of Unleashed figures. “Last wave syndrome” has been around for years before this final wave of figures, but this phrase became part of the vernacular within the collecting community and buying habits changed when we knew that a line was ending. As a result, this final twelfth wave of basic Unleashed figures was so obscure that people began thinking it was a Walmart exclusive only. And to be quite frank with you, it almost was. Aside from a few specialty shops and online shops, this wave which included the Shock Trooper, Chewbacca [ROTS] (based on his appearance during the Battle of Kashkyyyk) and Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] was primarily only located at Walmart. It was a de facto Walmart exclusive as a result. Although this was the last official wave of Unleashed figures, a few exclusives came out afterwards, and a rumor list of planned characters leaked which included some really cool characters that would have likely been designed in some awesome ways. The will of the Force deemed that unleashed was to go away and be reinvented into a pitiful 2” line (which ended up royally failing). Han Solo [Stormtrooper Disguise] may fall under the “retool” category technically, but we feel it’s one of the nicer pieces in the entire Unleashed line. It was definitely a smart take on a classic version of Han Solo.

As a bonus feature to this review, we have provided the original artwork created for this Star Wars: Unleashed figure. Click the thumbnail to the left to see the amazing illustration.