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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| Darth Vader's Sith Starfighter is essentially an Expanded Universe creation that bridges the period between REVENGE OF THE SITH and A NEW HOPE. By the time of ANH, Vader's personal assault craft was the TIE x1 Advanced, which was built to his exacting specifications. His Sith Starfighter is basically a Jedi Starfighter that has been painted black, gray, and silver. Gone are the Galactic Republic and Jedi Knight symbols common to the Starfighters seen in use by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in ROTS, replaced by the ominous Imperial seal. Hasbro utilized the exact same molds for the Sith Starfighter as the previous Jedi Starfighter releases. The vehicles aren't quite true to scale, but the sculpt doesn't really suffer that much from being scaled down. The most obvious flaw from the smaller scale is the R4-unit socket. It looks too large in comparison to images of the CGI-model ships used in ROTS. And, sadly, no recently released astromech droid figure will fit properly into the socket if you remove the "dummy" R4 that comes with each ship. Supposedly, older droids from the POTF2, Episode I, and POTJ lines will fit. The droid R4-K5, released in The Saga Collection (#066) specifically as Vader's astromech droid, does not fit well at all in the droid socket. Otherwise, it's a fine ship, and certainly a Sith-worthy vehicle, that rates a 9 out of 10. |
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| Paint: |
| The Sith Starfighter is molded primarily in dark gunmetal gray, with black, silver, and red paint applications. The dual main laser cannons in the center are molded in silver, with red decos along the cannons, then black and silver at the tips. The outer lasers, "missile" placements, landing gear, and "missiles" are all molded in silver, with no paint apps. The "dummy" R4-K5's dome has silver, black, and red paint apps to its dome, but the body details are vinyl decals. The canopy and front view port are molded in translucent smoke plastic, with silver paint decos: 9/10. |
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| Functionality: |
| As with previous Starfighters of this design, the Sith Starfighter has an opening canopy, spring-action wing flaps, retractable landing gear, and firing "missiles." A single lever at the very rear of the craft activates the wing flaps, while a button at the rear of each wing individually fires the “missiles”. The landing struts in front simply fold down and snap up into the hull. The cockpit easily accommodates the ROTS Darth Vader (III #13) figure, as well as the VOTC Vader, 500th Figure Vader, and TSC #013/#038 Vader: 8/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| Although large Imperial Seals are painted onto the wings and there is some weathering in the paint scheme, a vinyl decal sheet has more symbols, as well as additional scuff and blast marks. The cockpit decals are rather difficult to apply ... I'd recommend using tweezers for accurate placement. The opening canopy works well, but isn't removable. The "missiles" are decent, are fire roughly five feet on a horizontal plane; fired straight up, they go roughly two feet. A small instruction pamphlet shows decal placements and operating instructions for all action features: 9/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The 30th Anniversary packaging that is notable for the left corner "cut" design. The Sith Starfighter, Hail fire Droid, and Trade Federation AAT were the first three vehicles released in this packaging style. The STAR WARS logo is at the top left corner of the box front, with the black "30: 77-07" logo of the 30th Anniversary Collection on the box edge in the cut corner. There are plenty of photos of the Starfighter from various angles on the box, with a large publicity still image of Darth Vader from ROTS in the top right corner. The back of the box shows the action features, including an image of a Vader figure (possibly TSC #038) sitting in the cockpit. Text on the back explains the Sith Starfighter's paint scheme as intended to blend into the blackness of deep space, giving Vader an advantage in battle: 9/10. |
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| Availability: |
| Some areas saw the first three 30th Anniversary Collection vehicles hit shelves just before Christmas, along with the Comic Pack figure sets. Many areas didn't see them at retail until the post-Christmas store resets. As of this writing, they are in greater numbers, but the Sith Starfighter seems to be selling faster than the Hailfire Droids and AATs. No doubt, its association with the most iconic of all STAR WARS characters has made it a favorite with collectors and kids: 8.5/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| First mentioned in the James Luceno novel STAR WARS: DARK LORD - THE RISE OF DARTH VADER, and then shown as a painting in one of the sourcebooks, many customizers started painting previously released Jedi Starfighters to look like this ship. It was also a popular subject for modelers who bought the AMT/Ertl Jedi Starfighter model kit. When announced last year at San Diego Comic-Con, collectors went nuts with joy. Of the seemingly endless ROTS Jedi Starfighter repaints (2 each for Obi-Wan and Anakin, and an EU one for Mace Windu), this was one fans actually wanted. (Repaints of the ATTACK OF THE CLONES-style Starfighter so far include Obi-Wan's, Plo Koon's, and EU ships for Kit Fisto and Saesee Tiin.) Rather than just an-all black fighter, the design managed to add a bit more color variety and still be evocative of Darth Vader: 8.8/10. |
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