Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) - SW [S - P3] - Hall Of Fame

As the Galactic Civil War raged across the Empire, Darth Vader is tasked with discovering the location of the Rebel Alliance's secret base. Vader captures Rebel operative Princess Leia Organa and has her tortured to reveal the location of the hidden fortress. Vader also seeks technical plans stolen by the Rebels, which carry schematics of the Empire's powerful Death Star battle station. When a rescue team successfully liberates the princess, Vader finds himself face to face with his former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

By the time the Star Wars “Saga” line came around, Hasbro realized that they needed to keep certain main Star Wars characters in the basic figure line at all times. These popular characters always sold through, but sometimes it wasn’t possible to release an all-new version of these characters to keep them in the line or even tweak them to make them relatively new. So Hasbro conceded that “straight repacks” were going to be the answer. They even advertised this by likening to what Kenner did in the vintage Star Wars line by re-releasing the same figures in every film’s specific packaging. OK, so maybe that wasn’t the greatest analogy, but the choices of action figures Hasbro chose to enter into the line again were obvious, and others were not so obvious. One such introduction into the line was Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) (‘03 #32) figure. Then Hasbro thought better of them being included in the basic figure line, so they created a special Hall Of Fame assortment where their "greatest hits' could be collected, without numbers, but with more confusion to collectors.

Originally part of 2000’s POTJ Masters of The Dark Side (Darth Maul & Darth Vader) two-pack, collectors have believed for a while now that the Darth Vader figure in this multipack would make a great single-carded basic figure at some point. Here is our chance. Keeping in mind that this sculpt originated in the year 2000, Darth Vader still holds up incredibly well as one of the best versions based on Darth Vader’s A New Hope appearance. And from what we can garner from its re-release, it appears that Hasbro feels similarly. First released in 2000’s POTJ Masters Of The Dark Side (Darth Maul & Darth Vader) two-pack, Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) saw two re-releases almost simultaneously. First released as 2003’s SW [S - P3] Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) (’03 #32) figure, it was then almost immediately released again this 2004 SW [S - P3] Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) Hall Of Fame series release. These two figures are identical. You may see varying degrees of flat and glossy paint used, but for all intents and purposes, both releases are the same.

Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) comes with seven points of articulation. What makes this “worse” is that his plastic molded skirt inhibits 99% of his hip movement. Aesthetically however, Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) looks rather remarkable. He is tall, muscular and has a stature that satisfies his rather statuesque appearance. Hasbro added a swivel elbow to his left arm. This was added to give him a little bit more movement for lightsaber wielding. It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough for this release. We’re perhaps most impressed with the type, quality and drape of his soft-goods cape. It’s realistic, curls around his frame and hangs at the right length. Soft-goods tend to have a pass or fail grade from collectors. You will be hard pressed to criticize these soft-goods however. We’re thoroughly satisfied with how well they were done for this figure. Thankfully Hasbro has been consistent with their delivery of the soft-goods for this figure, but a side by side comparison of each release will show you that slightly different types of fabrics were used on every release. Darth Vader (Death Star Clash) isn’t definitive, but you can’t say he’s terrible either.