Sith Infiltrator - SW [TPM 3D] - Vehicles

A Sith Infiltrator streaks through space to its destination. Hidden beneath the side panels and mounted on the wings are launchers that fire probe droids or missiles. The wings flare open, greatly increasing the craft's speed and attack maneuverability. Darth Maul flies a Sith Infiltrator to the planet Tatooine to track down Queen Amidala.

1999 may have been the year for The Phantom Menace, but Hasbro made us wait 8 years before they decided to produce Darth Maul’s signature vehicle. A long time desired vehicles, it finally came in 2007’s 30 (77-07) line – an appropriate release time to generically celebrate 30 years of Star Wars – but sadly the vehicle did not meet expectations since it was much too small when compared to its actually size. As fate would have it, Hasbro returned to this original sculpt, repainted it (for the better), and have released it as part of the Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] lineup for 2012 to help celebrate The Phantom Menace 3D in theaters, a half a decade later. We were very surprised to see just how much Hasbro has changed on the vehicle this time around. At first glance, it might not appear like too much, but closer analysis will show you that quite a bit has indeed changed. Until Hasbro can give us an all-new and large sculpt of this vehicle, many fans will hold off until they can get a premium Sith Infiltrator into their collections, but it the line ended tomorrow, this recent update would fair well despite being too small in scale. The great news is the new Darth Maul (VC86) figure fits like a glove!

Hasbro squeezed a great deal of play value into this vehicle. Not only does it have exterior firing projectiles, but the long fuselage split into two halves and each side houses a probe droid projectile. It’s borderline silly for adult collectors, but it’s something the kids are going to totally dig. A “hidden” button at the bottom of the cockpit releases the four wings and puts them into flying mode. But in order to put them back down, you’re going to have to use your hands. The landing gear is just as odd as it was in 2007. Part swivel and part hinge-jointed, they have a wide range of motion for two pieces that essentially just “click” into place when assembling this vehicle together. We forgot about how detailed the cockpit of this vehicle was. The 2012 version of the Sith Infiltrator has a much more silvery interior of the cockpit. But it looks as if the intention was to reproduce the details identically. One interesting update we found borderline fascinating is that Hasbro updated the way the two halves of the fuselage come out. They have multiple positions and click loudly (and stay) at each point. Our 2007 TAC Sith Infiltrator does not do this and the halves are loose and have no resistance. Interesting, no?

But there are many places where the 2012 Sith Infiltrator appears to have been intentionally decorated differently than the 2007 version. Most notably, the interior projectile chasse is a completely different color as are the landing gears. (They match this time around and are dark bronze instead of silver. The center color running down the front of the vehicle has changed from a creamy or tannish gray to a blatant light gray. And the clear red “windows” in the canopy door are a lighter red and don’t appear so dark anymore. The back of the vehicle has differences too. There was a tan square on the back of the cockpit. This time the back of the cockpit is all gray. And the green vertical details running horizontally along the back of the cockpit are a different color green. You’ll also notice other differences that are more minimal including different shades of gray, but these are less obvious. Definitely a worthy upgrade, we’d say that this is the definitive Sith Infiltrator right now, although, it’s hard to call either definitive because both are too small. But the 2012 version is definitely the better of the two. We rolled our eyes when we found out this vehicle was getting another chance at retail, but we are pleasantly surprised with its updates.