Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter [Utapau] - SW [DV/ROTS] - Vehicles

Obi-Wan pilots his Jedi starfighter to Utapau on the trail of General Grievous. The Jedi hopes to put an end to the leader of the droid army, which would significantly weaken the Separatist forces. Obi-Wan lands his straighter in a hangar in one of the planet's many sinkholes to meet with an Utapaun official.

It’s almost painful to conclude that the only accurately colored Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter is a reduced-scale “dumbed down” version in the Star Wars [Darth Vader/Revenge Of The Sith] vehicles line. For years and years and years Hasbro could not get the color of this vehicle right. No matter how many times they re-released it in the Star Wars toy line, no changes were made to make it more screen accurate. In fact, the vehicle, which made its debut in the Revenge Of The Sith line, even came with incorrect and wrongly colored decals. There has been no mercy for his Jedi starfighter from Utapau. Now Hasbro has decided to add this specific Jedi starfighter in the 2013/2014 Star Wars [Darth Vader/Revenge Of The Sith] lineup. But Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter [Utapau] suffers from being too small and coming with action features that just aren’t up to collectors’ demanding standards. Hasbro has been intent on reducing the scale of these vehicles, removing features, and hollowing out as much plastic as they can to reduce cost while still bringing “quality” vehicles into the basic figure line. This in and of itself is quite the oxymoron, but it is what it is, and we don’t see any positive signs of returning to the glory days of collecting.

Despite Hasbro’s efforts to save some money, we don’t see this newly scaled vehicle line selling well, but truth has been stranger than fiction in the Star Wars brand recently. Some collectors are onboard with 5POA action figures. And we’re sure that some will be apologetic for this reduced-scale Class II vehicles lineup. Despite our resistance towards this smaller scale vehicle line, there are some things we like about them. Whether adult collectors or kids are buying these things, we don’t know how much long-term play value they’re going to get out of them when nearly half of the original features have been removed. What’s more, in the case of Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter [Utapau], Hasbro finally gave this vehicle the correct deco it deserves and what collectors have been longing to see updated. But are they going to waste their money on this to get these long-awaited updates? Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter [Utapau] is rework of 2013’s SW [DV/ROTS] Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter vehicle. All of these vehicles have been sold MULTIPLE times in larger scale loaded with features and details that up until this point have been unprecedented. The reduced scale is laughable for many reasons, but perhaps the greatest comedic element here is the size of R4-G9’s dome and the droid socket it sits inside of (and cannot be removed).

Hasbro also reduced the scale of a Jedi Starfighter for Yoda (released as 2013’s SW [Y/AOTC] Yoda’s Jedi Attack Fighter With Yoda & Super Battle Droid Deluxe set). But Hasbro gave a true scale Build A Droid astromech dome to attach to the droid socket. That’s certainly not the case here. Aesthetically, Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter looks pretty good. But with careful inspection, you’ll see how so many parts of it have been skewed to accommodate the smaller scale. The cockpit is very simple. It’s a hollowed out oblong sphere that is barely big enough to hold an action figure. And while we will concede that an inordinate amount of detail has been etched into the vehicle from top to bottom, it ultimately fails because it’s a caricature of the real vehicle that we received years ago. Two projectiles have been included and shoot when buttons are pressed. Besides an opening canopy, the only other articulation this vehicle has are four hinge-jointed wing panels, which add some versatility to the starfighter. It also comes with articulated landing gear. It’s hard to believe this is what the Class II vehicle assortment is now. Even if Hasbro had to go this route, wouldn’t it have been better if they attacked vehicles they have never produced before and especially include some Original Trilogy “mini rigs” to help engage those purists?