Dagger Squadron B-wing Fighter - TLC - Vehicles (Exclusive)

In the story "Small Victories" from the Star Wars: Rebellion comic series, Rebel Alliance B-wing starfighters take on an Imperial fleet while trying to rescue Luke, Leia and the crew of Rebel One from an Imperial refueling station. Rebel officer Lieutenant Pollard leads the fledgling Dagger Squadron on their very first mission that's full of daring and danger. B-wings pack a powerful punch in battle; these heavy assault fighters/bombers are armed with cannons and torpedoes, and a rotating cockpit enables pilots to execute advanced attack maneuvers.

Sometimes when we wait for Hasbro to rerelease Original Trilogy large-sized vehicles (after they haven’t been on the market for a while), it doesn’t always pay off for collectors. The Toys R Us exclusive Dagger Squadron B-wing Fighter certainly made a few Expanded Universe lovers happy, but it left many more in the cold. In fact, never have we seen an exclusive pile up and maintain its shelf-warming status so long after its release. We would even bet that the Disturbance At Lars Homestead set hasn’t seen this much dust collecting. (Well, maybe not, we are exaggerating here.) It is a shame though, because the vehicle was done well for the most part but we think that its biggest problem was the lack of final paint details (especially the weathering). It is a lily white vehicle and although if you carefully inspect it from head to toe, you will see very faint signs of dirt spatter. But for the most part, this will be overlooked because it is quite faint and barely noticeable. In general, the B-wing fighter is a beautiful and sleek vehicle, but the toy version of it doesn’t work perfectly well. We realize it is a toy, but it has a thickness that significantly exceeds the dimensions of what should actually be. While we don’t expect a re-sculpt of it, we think better use of final paint applications would have aided in the vehicle coming across as more impressive (and thinner – good painting does wonders). In Star Wars: Rebellion, the B-wing fighters have an [almost] gray colored body with red trim details. We think the vehicle would have succeeded if it was cast in a light gray plastic (if Hasbro couldn’t afford the painting applications) or with some marbled effect. But this vehicle is what it is and for what it’s worth, it does have some very positive points.

The vehicle offers something interesting that no vehicle to date has offered. Included is a decal sheet that includes all of the Dagger Squadron colors. This of course doesn’t do much good unless Hasbro plans to release Vin Nothos (Scarlet Dagger), Callen Troyt (Gold Dagger) and Nera Dantels (Blue Dagger) to collectors so they can complete the squadron, but it does offer future possibilities, doesn’t it? Since this set comes with Lieutenant Pollard, we believe the wisest decal choice would be the black labels, but of course your opinions may vary. Since decals are traditionally not removable, we think it was a nice gesture, but fails in practicality. If the other members of the squadron are released as action figures, what good will it do the collector to have one B-wing with black labels applied and then an unusable sticker sheet with the rest of the colors? Or is this Hasbro’s way of saying “buy four”? We don’t intend to sound ungrateful, it is just a weird decision that Hasbro made. And there is certainly nothing wrong with getting something extra that you may not use. Many collectors will probably buy this to get the latest B-wing Pilot. Lieutenant Pollard is a retool and repaint of Keyan Farlander from the 2008 TLC Rebel Pilots Legacy II Evolutions set. Pollard of course has a new head but the rest of the figure is the same. Basically borrowing the same flight uniform concept of Ten Numb, the off-white suit looks good next to the all-white vehicle. Pollard is super-articulated as you can imagine, but he is a tight squeeze in the B-wing’s cockpit. A little futzing will be required to get his in there snuggly.

Speaking of cockpits, the Dagger Squadron B-wing Fighter has an amazing newly retooled cockpit. Loaded with colors representing the different buttons that light-up, the cockpit also has new moveable steering parts and shift gears. It is impressive to say the least. It really makes us hanker for one based on Return of The Jedi. The vehicle is a retool of the vintage sculpt. Of particular note, the vehicle now offers interchangeable weapons. Not the most exciting feature in the world, it does offer a new level of diversity and playability to the vehicle. If you’re into customization, this is the vehicle for you. If you’re looking for a B-wing based on the films, this isn’t the choice for you. And you have four options on how to decorate it. This doesn’t impress us much as we have stated earlier because we don’t have the other characters to fill those specific vehicles. And we do know that all of these characters are inevitable for the future. In summary, the Dagger Squadron B-wing Fighter is bittersweet. It is very nice to see the vehicle rereleased again for a new audience of collectors and fans, but we wish a bit more time was spent to carefully execute it before it saw final production. At least we do now have a redesigned cockpit for future movie-based releases. And we hope they are in the near future as well. We will assume that Toys R Us won’t take a second chance on this vehicle. This 2008 version wasn’t a success and we assume that Hasbro would pitch any future incarnations of it to another vendor. When and if this vehicle sees rerelease, it will be wise for Hasbro to base it off of its presence in Episode VI. We think most fans want an updated version of this vehicle from the film first.