Going into Force Friday, I had a set plan of what to buy and what to avoid. However, many of the items on said list weren’t available, leaving me with a little extra money. Cut to a few days later and a new shipment arrived at Toy’s R Us containing some of the unseen Star Wars product. Although I was skeptical of the new vehicle at first glance, it must be said that it is a quality piece.
Let’s get the negative right out of the way, the First Order Snowspeeder is overpriced. It is indeed a sad reality, but most if not all of the new movie product is overpriced. This vehicle will run you around thirty-two dollars with tax, and that is appalling, even with the added “value” of the pack in figure. If we take a look back a few years, vehicles like this would have cost much less, around the twenty dollar mark. Perhaps it’s greed that forces Hasbro to raid our wallets like this, or maybe we are paying for that Disney logo. Nonetheless, it hurts to drop so much on so little.
Another downside of this vehicle is the figure. As we know, Hasbro hates collectors. Well, that isn’t entirely true, but it sure seems like it these days, as the figure included only sports five points of articulation. Luckily, like most armored figures, he looks very good detail wise. This makes it even more of a shame, as a great sculpt is diminished by poor movement. The lack of articulation makes the First Order Snowtrooper Officer difficult to pose with the turret, and driving the speeder. Hopefully this character is one of the first Hasbro get out in their Wal-Mart exclusive Black Series so we can create better scenes.
Okay, okay, enough negativity. There are some great aspects of this vehicle. The design is strange, yet screams Star Wars. Aside from the massive (and frankly out of place) turret, this speeder only has a tiny blaster cannon built into the nose. This makes it more of a transport, and less a combat vehicle. I think this makes it a great background vehicle for any Starkiller base diorama. It isn’t very often we get any vehicle for the bad guys that isn’t a walker, which is rather refreshing.
The paint is passable, with some variations across the hull and interior. It has some crates sculpted into the front of the ship, which I love. I do wish, however, they were removable. The rails must be plugged into place upon opening it. Those, as well as the headrest, are the only pieces on the ship that need assembly. While the paint on the turret isn’t great, the spring inside of the gun assures the missile truly launches instead of whimpering out of the barrel. Best part, it is removable if you don’t like the look of it. The figure can man the cannon as well as drive, but it takes some patience to get it to look believable.
Overall, it is a solid toy and worth the purchase, if the price was lower. So if you have some coupons or rewards points, use them on this because it is a great piece. It helps that is is expected to be seen in the movie as well. So go find one, they aren’t too hard to find now, but I wouldn’t dally, as Hasbro didn’t make enough Force Awakens product, so when it’s gone… it is gone.
