I got the AWing today at K-Mart for a whopping $0.00! I had points I'd been sitting on the better part of this year, so time to cash in. Plus like $12 was expiring anyway. Got that and a Rathtar for freebie free. Hooray me.
The A-Wing is pretty damn cool. It's sleeker (IE: Thinner) and a little generally smaller than the old A-Wing sculpt, but miles superior to the A-Wing last year, which I'm customizing into an A-Wing prototype pre-rebellion.
The new one is pretty much everything I could've wanted in a McQuarrie A-Wing I was going to do myself, but now don't have to. It has a few flaws, mostly minor, but not much.
The Pilot is even decent despite a non-removable bucket and the of course crummy articulation. She's got a very nice crisp sculpt and even the leg straps and things are sculpted to have depth to them. Separate bits would've been better but this is life these days. The separate visor is a vastly superior effort to last year's crap pilots, and the figure is painted very nicely. Kind of McQuarrie-ish herself really.
The ship's deco is nice... not great, and lacks the little dirt/soot and silver dings that the POTF2 ship had, but it has some paint chipping and it's generally decent for this era.
The ship has a forward landing gear but not a rear, and I believe I've seen that the ships have 2 rear struts ala the old A-Wing sculpt, and so that's kind of me, but the overall sculpt of the ship is nice and crisp, and the fact you do get one fold away strut in the front is very nice. Would 2 more have killed em? Eh, probably not, and I wish it was there. It's probably my only real gripe.
The ship is narrow but seems accurately scaled, which is my litmus test for whether I even buy a vehicle now or not. I've compared some pics and things, and I think it's pretty on the mark. A-Wings have kind of had a history of "what the hell scale is it!?" over the years too, and I suspect the new one may have similar issues, especially as the new production is using a lot less digital work and more practical stuff.
The end result is, for me, a toy that's not quite as good as the old POTF2 ship was, but in this day and age I think this is a nice ship for $30, and I'll be getting 1-2 more for a nice little flight of them, perhaps a custom different squad... Love me some good quality A-Wing-ing.