TOY REVIEW ARCHIVE    LIVING WITH LATE FEES    FEATURES    LINKS    BIO    MISSION    EMAIL    MAIN PAGE >


Star Tours Series 4


Coheteboy has been a busy guy - but he's back tonight with not only a terrific review of the latest Star Tours robots, but some great comics as well.  It's all yours, CB!

It's almost hard to believe that there have been FOUR series of figures made for the popular Disney/Lucasfilm attraction, STAR TOURS, but that's exactly what we have. What's not too hard to believe is just how far Hasbro has dropped the ball on this latest batch of droids from the 18 year old motion simulator. The first three waves of figures had their share of misses, but were still incredibly well sculpted and detailed figures for the most part. 

Just a quick recap of what came out prior:

Series 1: Captain Rex, R3-D2, G2-4T
Series 2: WEG-1618, DL-X2, R4-M9
Series 3: G2-9T, SK-Z38, R5-D2

The latest series includes: 3T-RNE (imagine Andy Dick as a droid), MSE-1T (a larger mousedroid but with eyes), and G3-5LE (Number 5 is alive!). Those in the states won't recognize these droids at Disneyland or the Disney Studios since they're overseas! 

These figures are in fact Disney theme park exclusives, but maybe you should read the review before planning your next vacation!





Packaging - ***
The packaging for the latest batch of figures reflect the OTC or Saga2 style card that we'll all be seeing on the store shelves again. Standard card & bubble in its simplest form and it works. They've actually made the cardbacks more unique by including a headshot of the droid but nothing much else. I suppose they want to trick everyone into thinking that the droid they're looking for is indeed a part of the ride... even though it isn't (depending on which theme park you visit).

Sculpting - **
Where the previous Star Tours figures succeeded, these figures pale quite a bit in comparison. Though I never seen these particular droids in person, the photo of the headshot alone is enough to show that the sculptors of these figures are pretty far off base. 

While these sculpts aren't absolutely horrible, paying $10 for a piece of plastic without accessories can lead you to believe just that. Granted, these are some of the more intricate droid designs from the ride so-far, but instead of drawing as much of the little details in, Hasbro globbed over it with big fat crayons. 

Paint - *
As with the sculpt being a poor rendition of the actual droids, the paint doesn't fare much better. Wires are left unpainted. Other wires are painted in with just one color instead of four. Joints that are intended to be black are left untouched. Details that needn't any paint are filled in anyway. This is really unacceptable. The paint quality found in these figures are the equivalent to a toostie-pop holder, it's that bad. 

But the question still stands... are they applied neatly? Relatively. But you can find better paint application in a Burger King kid's meal toy. 

Articulation - **
MSE-1T, the giant vacuum cleaner looking droid actually has zero points of articulation, but I suppose you can't fault the figure for that design. 

3T-RNE and G3-5LE each have four points of articulation only. 3T-RNE has articulation in legs, arms, and a little microphone on the side of the head. The neck is fixed, unfortunately.

G3-5LE has articulation in the arms, neck, and a waist joint allowing him to lean forward or backward. 

Not awful articulation but definitely something to be desired.

Accessories - Bupkis
None of these figures come with a single thing. 

Fun Factor - **
If you like droids or robots, then I suppose these toys will provide enough fun for the child or the child within. If you do have to get one, G3-5LE is the "cooler" of the bunch, if he even deserves that status at all.

Value - **
With regular Star Wars figures costing about $6 retail, paying $10 for an exclusive isn't all that high, only that these figures are certainly not in the same league as the three series that precede it. Buy them if you're a completist, but if you're not, you're not exactly missing out. 

Overall - **
It's a real shame that these figures are of such low quality after three series of cool Star Tours figures. Sure, some of those had barely any articulation either, but at least they looked cool! Paying $10 is definitely not worth it and I wouldn't even know if a kid should pay $5 for these either. These are definitely for the completists out there. Not for the casual toy collector.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - **
Paint - *
Articulation - **
Accessories - bupkis
Fun Factor - **
Value - **
Overall - **

Where to Buy - 
Disneyland or Disney MGM Studios are the place to pick these up in the states, and I imagine that Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland will carry these as well. 

You may also try calling the Disney DeliverEars service at (800) 362-4533 if you are unable to visit the parks any time soon. And don't forget about the Jedi Mickey & Yoda figure 2pack that have arrived at the theme parks as well!





Figure from the collection of Coheteboy.

This page copyright 2003, Michael Crawford. All rights reserved. Hosted by 1 Hour Hosting.com