Tauntaun And Luke Skywalker - POTF2 [FF/TKC] - Creatures

HEIGHT: 1.3 to 2 Meters Average
HOMEWORLD: Hoth
USES: Rebel Alliance Arctic Climate Steed
CHARACTERISTICS: Quick and Powerful, Capable of Surviving in Frigid Temperatures

Collectors knew that Kenner’s Beast/Creature Assortment was going to be great. With a first series based on the Special Edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, most couldn’t wait for Kenner to start banging out the Creatures from the unaltered Origina Trilogy, most notably those from the planet Hoth. The first from The Empire Strikes Back was the Tauntaun And Luke Skywalker set. It looks pretty great, but the Tauntaun came with an action feature that many found to be a disappointment. And less desirable perhaps was the Luke Skywalker pack-in figure which really didn’t veer off very far from 1997’s POTF2 [FF/TKC] Luke Skywalker (In Hoth Outfit) despite being an all-new sculpt. Despite the set’s setbacks, most collectors decided to look the other way and enjoy what Kenner did for these characters in the modern era. Overall, the Tauntaun And Luke Skywalker Creature set gets a solid score from critics. We just are excided to see what Kenner will do with this going forward in the future. If they can just steer their toys to be a little more geared toward collectors, there will be little reason to revisit these “action feature free” toys in the future.

The Tauntaun is an all-new sculpt. The sculpt is pretty fantastic, but we feel that the Tauntaun stands too low to the ground. As previously mentioned, an action feature has been included here to mimic the running action of the Tauntaun. This ultimately is an unfortunate detail as collectors are looking for authenticity and not playability. Still, Kenner needs to appeal to the kids too. For us however it doesn’t work that well or is really that believable. In our opinion it should have been eliminated altogether. This action feature a disappointment because the Tauntaun are more in an upright position when they run rather than hanging so low to the ground. Also, because of the action feature it is a little difficult, albeit possible, to place the Tauntaun in a rearing position to give it a little more height. We wish Kenner would have matched the posture of these creatures a little more accurately than they did with this release. That being said, the paint job on the Tauntaun is pretty nice. Many different colors of deco were used to breathe life into this beast. The coloring may not be spot on, but there is enough detail and highlighting give to this toy to make collectors appreciate what Kenner did here.

The included Luke Skywalker is an all-new figure, but it does share the approach of previously released versions. This time Kenner added hinge-jointed knees, which makes riding a Tauntaun that much more easy. The head sculpt is just alright in our opinion. It is definitely hard to make a small action figure look like the human actor in a film. The rest of the figure is painted nicely, but in all honesty this is just more of the same we have already seen before in the past. Luke Skywalker comes with a blaster, but we imagine that a lightsaber hilt or fully lit lightsaber may have been a more appropriate inclusion here. If you decide to look at Luke Skywalker as simply a pack-in figure, you’ll be able to appreciate him more. But if you’re looking for an update, well, this isn’t the one to be that for you. As Kenner amped up The Power Of The Force “2” line in 1998 with these exciting Creature Assortments, they changed their approach to many things, most notably the packaging and pack-ins. In addition to slightly revised packaging which now included “The Kenner Collection” logo, they added a Freeze Frame pack-in premium to the basic figures. They also got a little more daring with releasing products that fans and collectors wanted to see “reborn” in the modern era as well as those that were never available at any time.