Escape From Death Star Game [Exclusive Grand Moff Tarkin Figure] - RC - Board Games

The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by the 1970s STAR WARS figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Each sold separately. Subject to availability.)

It is an interesting way to introduce the brand new Retro Collection to Star Wars collection, but we believe the release of Escape From Death Star Game [Exclusive Grand Moff Tarkin Figure] from Hasbro will be a success on every level. With an acceptable MSRP, a nod to nostalgia, and classic vintage Kenner packaging, Hasbro reintroduces the collecting community to a classic board game that was one of the best selling games of the seventies. But this time there’s a chance to grasp the attention of the collecting community. Hasbro added an exclusive Retro Collection Grand Moff Tarkin figure as a pack-in bonus, and in all honesty, it is the key selling point of this set. The Retro Collection is vintage Kenner 2.0. Hasbro is years late in competing with the fan-favorite ReAction line. They focus on pop culture of the 70s and the 80s mostly and create lines of action figures averaging five points of articulation that were never made back in the day. Star Wars doesn’t wholly fit this approach as the vintage Kenner line was the most successful toy line of all time. But Hasbro is now rebirthing it and hoping that it will catch on like the other ReAction lines. The reaction is good thus far. And it appears that vintage action figures with simple articulation are something interesting older collectors.

The Escape From Death Star Game [Exclusive Grand Moff Tarkin Figure] set is better than expected. As we’ve stated above, the key selling point here is the exclusive Grand Moff Tarkin figure. But it’s also nice to get another chance to purchase this classic board game once again. The graphics are brighter and slightly refreshed, but mostly everything that was in place in the 70s is in place here. If you’ve never played the board game before, you now have a chance to relive it with your family and remember what made it a fun part of family time. Then again, there are no smart devices included here, so it could also flop too. Let’s get back to the focal point of this set; the Grand Moff Tarkin figure. Sure, this line is a bit controversial. We have two “vintage Kenner inspired” lines concurrently running. That will undoubtedly cause some confusion. But as most of the line thus far is exclusive to TARGET, we imagine that things will fall into place at the retail level. And we already know who is interested in this line: adult collectors. We don’t foresee too many younger or new collectors showing interest in this line. But then again, anything is possible. Grand Moff Tarkin is an extraordinary release because it completes something that Kenner never got to during the Star Wars line’s original run.

If you think about it, the potential of The Retro Collection line could be great. In a way, the Retro Collection line is the Hasbro equivalent of the “Infinities” comics series. For those of you that don’t know, the Infinities comics changed a couple of details from the Original Trilogy and then developed a story on how the events changed because of the altered events. For those of you who grew up with Voyagers, you know how a slight change in a sequence of historical events could have devastating effects on history. We’re getting a bit off-track here, but our point is that a figure like Grand Moff Tarkin changes how we see the vintage Kenner line now. New characters never introduced into the Kenner line will now be produced and fill in those gaps and voids where we never had those figures growing up. We soon will (depending upon how far Hasbro takes the line, of course). In the case of Grand Moff Tarkin, we never had him in the vintage Kenner line, but now we technically do. So how does he reshape the vintage Kenner line? Well, Grand Moff Tarkin looks brilliant in the Death Star Space Station playset, or interacting with Darth Vader or Princess Leia Organa. It’s mildly comforting to have him in the line finally (as a lost-now-found Kenner action figure). We hope Hasbro keeps the “new” characters coming. We need many figures in this collection, and the list is endless.