by Jeff Smentek
2005 Toys R Us 5-Pack
In the fall of 2005, Medicom made another surprise move with the announcement of a second Japanese Toys R Us exclusive 5 pack of Star Wars figures: Luke Skywalker (Ceremonial), an Imperial R5 Unit, K-3PO, Ten Numb, and Wicket (Ewoks Cartoon Version). This second 5-pack wasn’t exactly warmly received by the Kubrick faithful the way previous box sets were. It’s filled full of mediocre repaints and doesn’t exactly offer up any “most wanted” figures. The sets were released in December of 2005 and reports of people buying 40-50 sets at a time for eBay re-sales were far too common.
Luke Skywalker (Ceremonial):
First up is a new Luke Skywalker, this time decked out in his Yavin 4 Ceremonial Duds. A strange choice since most fans would have rather had a Hoth Luke first. Still, he’s one of the nicer figures in the box, so it’s not a total loss. Luke comes with a blaster pistol and working holster.
Imperial R5 Unit:
A simple re-paint of the last TRU box set R5-D4, this Imperial Droid is a nice addition to the line. You can never have enough droids, so while he wasn’t high on many fan’s wish lists, he’s still a nice figure.
K-3PO:
A C-3PO repaint, this droid was pretty much booed by fans. A K-3PO figure before we get so many other fan favorites, like ANY Jabba’s Palace alien? Oh well, there’s always next year’s box set. Still, he’s a nice figure and the details are very well done.
Ten Numb:
Again, another head scratcher when it comes to figure selection, but he’s a great addition to any Return of the Jedi set-up. Again, not sure we really needed this guy, but we take what we get in a box set such as this one.
Wicket (Ewoks Version):
The final figure in the box set is a Wicket repaint. I guess he’s supposed to be from the Ewoks cartoon, but he doesn’t really look like it because he’s just a repaint of the regular figure. No big loss as you can just add him to your Kubrick Endor diorama and he blends right in as a nameless Ewok (Wompus?) as shown in the photo above.
