First Order, The - Celebrate The Saga

In the galaxy's unknown regions, former Imperial officers, nobles and technologists plotted a return to power, building fleets and armies in secret. This movement became the First Order.

You know if Hasbro had to make a “The Resistance” Celebrate The Saga multipack, they had to do the same for The First Order. Equally as insufferable, and equally redundant, The First Order Celebrate The Saga set brings forth six individual characters to the 3.75” line (they’re counting an accessory as a new character here). It seems as if Hasbro was just as bored cobbling together the mostly-laughable cast of characters from the Disney Trilogy into one multipack, as they left off General Hux’s name on the side of the box altogether. Admittedly, any chance to include army builders into an exclusive item like The First Order Celebrate The Saga set isn’t the worst idea. But it is a bit painful to see characters like the Flame Trooper and First Order Stormtrooper Officer again in 5POA, when they’re yet to be part of The Vintage Collection. The First Order multipacks unnecessary, probably unwanted, and not selling well (as evidenced by Best Buy adding this as an eBay listing shortly after its release. So, ultimately, a wasted item like this only reinforces to retail that 3.75” is no longer viable, when they’re having the wool pulled over their eyes by Hasbro that these figures are on the same playing field as The Vintage Collection. Oh, and did we mention the characters are from the Disney Trilogy which is a double whammy?

The First Order set includes a Mouse Droid. It was originally an accessory from 2017’s SW [TLJ] General Hux figure, but listed as a separate character her. Likewise, they’ve also included the General Hux figure, but this time with photo Real updated paint operations. Without question, general Hux looks better than ever, but will you care since the figure’s articulation count doesn’t exceed five points? While we hoped and prayed for Hasbro to include a unique BB Unit (or preferable and never-before-released astromech droid), they threw in the towel and re-released the 100% boring BB-9E that we’ve seen released multiple times before this. It would have behooved Hasbro to choose a completely random and barely seen astromech droid over this figure. Or heck, they could have produced any of the other BB units seen in The Last Jedi that the Disney Droid Factory line produced to make things a little more interesting here. Like The Resistance multipack, the “droid” selling point slot is wasted to a character that everyone has, and no one wants another of again. Another repetitious inclusion here is Captain Phasma. How many times do we have this boring action figure? We still don’t have a 3.75” version with the battle-damaged helmet revealing the character’s likeness underneath. Nope, they added the version from The Force Awakens line instead.

The rest of the set isn’t terrible, but once again unimaginative. For troop-building, Hasbro included the First Order Stormtrooper Officer from the Kohl’s exclusive multipack years ago (which was re-released as a basic figure in the Star Wars [Solo] lineup. And lastly, they included the renamed Flame Trooper figure, which was an Entertainment Earth exclusive a couple years ago, is also part of The First Order Celebrate The Saga set. These members of the First Order are relatively “rare” when compared to the rest of the multipack, as they were exclusives from the beginning (and re-released through different outlets). But does anyone care about them today? We’ve yet to see a First Order Stormtrooper Officer in any of the Disney Trilogy that looks like the figure in this multipack. (We’re willing to accept we missed the character on-screen.) Regardless, the MSRP of $29.99 doesn’t feel fair when it comes to this set. Not even General Hux’s Photo real makes these set feel like it has value or worth. But that’s just our opinion. Exclusive to Best Buy, The First Order Celebrate The Saga doesn’t look to be performing well. Stock is readily available, and as we’ve mentioned, Best Buy already listed it on eBay to help advertise its existence a little more widely. We’re not 100% against 5POA. Some of the Celebrate The Saga sets were done well. But this one, well, let’s say that it doesn’t meet any of our expectations at all.