Fresh on the heels of my post about brick and mortar stores was the mailman with my Star Wars Retro Collection Escape From Death Star Game. The draw to this otherwise overpriced hunk of nostalgia was Hasbro's inclusion of the long awaited Grand Moff Tarkin in vintage style. Tarkin has long been at the top of vintage collector's lists when discussions are had about the blatant omissions from the original Kenner line. It took forty+ years, but here we are finally able to add the character to our collections.
Like most people buying this item, I have zero interest in the actual board game itself. I just wanted the figure to add to my vintage collection. Hasbro knew this was the stance of the majority of buyers, and quite frankly, I feel like they packaged it with the board game simply so they could get a higher price for it.
I'm admittedly not a fan of the forced wear and tear that Hasbro went for on the card. I also don't particularly like the giant red sticker which takes up twenty-five+ percent of the photo on the card. These two production choices really detract from what would otherwise would have been a rather beautifully carded figure. From what I've heard from other collectors, I don't appear to be alone in this line of thinking.
With that said, these gripes are easy for me to put aside because I'm not a mint in package toy collector. My intentions were always to get this figure for the purposes of displaying it along with my vintage figures. A somewhat continuation of the series if you. So with that said, I cracked this bad boy open.
Right off the bat I noticed a flaw with it. While the right hand is sculpted with the intentions of holding the gun, it doesn't. The grip of the hand is sculpted too wide, and the blaster keeps falling out of his hand when his arm is down. Oddly enough, the work around for this was to put it in his left hand, which didn't look like it was able to hold anything. Overall though, the figure doesn't look all that bad. It certainly captures the look and feel of a vintage figure. The five points of articulation are spot on with that of the '78 - '85 releases, and it has just enough detail for you to be able to say, "That's Tarkin," without it being a one to one accurate rendering.
To mention a little more about the blaster, it too looks straight out of the vintage era. Albeit a lot darker in color than the translucent blue ones from the past. I may have to break down and do a float test just for giggles. Vintage collectors will know exactly what I'm talking about.
At first, I thought the figure had too much detail with its wrinkles in the fabric, but as I looked closer at my vintage figures, I found that those too had much more detail in their sculpts than I apparently remembered. Still, side by side, I can't say I'm 100% convinced this figure fits with the line.
I didn't know if it was my mind that just wasn't willing to accept that this figure belongs alongside my original figures, or if it truly didn't fit in.
My goal was always to tuck this figure at the back end of the original Power of the Force line on my shelf as a continuation of the original lines, so that's exactly what I did. That's when it hit me. I realized what was wrong. Look at the face of all the other "human" characters, and then look at Tarkin's. His face is too thin and long. All the other vintage figures have rounded faces. Regardless of which character they were.
At the end of the day, I'm glad to finally have a "true" vintage style Tarkin figure to add to my collection. I also hope that Hasbo plans to continue this line with more figures that were missing from the original line. I'd start listing them, but depending on who you ask, that list could be infinite. I just hope if Hasbro does continue on that they avoid packaging exclusive figures with vehicles, playsets and further board games. I also hope they never release one as a convention exclusive. That would kill this line for me.
As for the board game...That's either going in the trash or to the neighbor with the four children. I haven't decided which one is more convenient.
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