As the title states, it's not really a review of any of the figures, I just grabbed the camera and did my usual substandard job of taking pictures. Since the first wave (minus Vader and the album) of TAC figures are out in Canada and I've been fortunate enough to pick them up, I thought I'd show some pictures of what they look like in a broad sense.
I didn't buy the entire wave myself and haven't bothered opening them all yet, but I did pop the Galactic Marine and the Airborne trooper out of the package.
Just a couple of shots of the Galactic marine in the packaging, in case you guys don't see the trilogo versions elsewhere. As with the Saga figures we end up with generic cardbacks rather than the scene specific cardbacks. Much gnashing of teeth ensues from Canadian collectors over this issue and with Saga, I agreed. With the TAC cards, the generic cardback might end up being not so undesirable after all. The generic cardbacks are simply a cost saving measure on Hasbro's part, because we have to have both English and French up here as both are official languages. I believe the Spanish comes into play as these are also the cardbacks distributed into Mexico. I don't give a crap really because I open these things.
I've said elsewhere the MOC crowd will probably be pleased with these. In spite of all the corners, the cards feel pretty sturdy. The J-hook will be of concern and I've already seen some with fast creasing (one day on the pegs) but the rest of the card is sturdier than expected and should hold mint better than either the ROTS or Saga cards. The bubble too seems thicker and stronger and hopefully the quality and shape will lead to a lot less bubble scuffing than on ROTS/Saga bubbles.
Card Front:
You can see no scene, just a big, old Vader head. I think it works with the black/white cardback though. Apologies for the glare, Jared I ain't.
Generic card back:
We just get the figure listings and no information due to the generic nature. To offset that, inside the bubble on the cardback is taped a trilogo information sheet:
I couldn't manage a decent shot of the coin without too much glare, but they are standard regardless, no trilogo coins for us. The cost would be prohibitive and we'd end up with zero figures instead. The back of the coin has the Imperial logo on it (I've only opened the two clones, so maybe the rebel coins are different).
The airborne trooper comes with a nifty
purse bag. When I opened it up it had a
purse bag, small blaster reminiscent of the scout trooper pistol and the larger blaster. I looked for a holster but none to be found so initially I thought it was pretty stupid until I turned the
purse bag over to see the pistol fits nicely inside the
purse bag.
For reference sake I threw in the 501st sculpt with the removable helmet.
The galactic marine is indeed a little taller and both he and the airborne have some pretty nifty articulation with better shoulder and elbow joints than their 501st compatriot there.
The airborne's rifle is a nice, hefty hunk of plastic. The galactic marine's rifle is a flimsy piece of ****. You can see the bend just in front of the trigger and that's pretty much the thinnest part of the weapon, so it's going to be soft and flexible right there. If you're an army builder, equipping some of your airborne with pistol only will allow you to shift the sturdier rifle over to the marine.
On both the skirts are integrated with the belts, so if you want one off, you'll be trimming with a knife and be left with rough, unpainted edges. Neither looks particularly hard to take off though. On the airborne those shoulder straps (not the
purse bag) are also seemingly integrated/attached to the belt. The pauldron on the marine is easily removable though.
The faces/head sculpts seem different between the two TAC figures, odd considering they're clones, but whatever.
If you're an ass man, there's the view for you. Marine's backpack is removable, leaving a gaping bullet hole in his back. The
purse bag on the airborne is obviously removable as well.
They seem like well done figures, using good sculpts. If you're a clone guy, you'll be happy.
As for the rest of wave I of the TAC figures, well it's kind of here or there, it'll depend on your preferences. I didn't buy the battle droid or R2 though I'm sure they look ok together. I'm a big astromech/R2 fan myself, but the paint on this one just wasn't appealing, I might relent later. But not on the battle droid.
The Mace Windu figure is actually pretty nice and I picked up one for a buddy in Japan. I just got the Mace from the battle pack, so I'll compare and maybe pick that new one up yet.
Obi is funny looking to me. It's a decent sculpt with all new accessories for him but the head sculpt looks weird so I left him for now.
The lava miner was interesting enough for me to buy one, and that should be sufficient. Someone more detail oriented will have to decipher whether it's good or bad.
The concept stormtrooper - McQuarrie - is different slightly in paint/coloration from it's predecessor. I couldn't find my old version to compare with, but I'm confident the sculpt is the same, as are the accessories. The difference is where the highlights are on the armor; the old version had black detail whereas the new one has grey. I don't think it makes a huge difference, but it is noticeable. I'm guessing, but I think the shield might have more detail to it or just different paint perhaps.
