The celebration of the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back via Black Series figures continues with the Hoth Snowspeeder and gunner Dak Ralter. It’s pretty rare to get vehicles for six inch scale figures, so I really look forward to these releases while also despairing as to where I’m going to display this beauty. That’s a problem for later, let’s take a look at Dak and the Snowspeeder!
It just occurred to me that Dak and the Snowspeeders sounds like a pretty good name for a surf-rock band. The box is pretty large, but only just large enough to hold this puppy. The ship is mostly assembled, so the dimensions of the box are fairly representative of the end size of the ship. I do find it funny that Dak gets such a massive portrait.
The above pieces are not attached to the ship in the box. I didn’t notice any directions, but the assembly seemed pretty self-explanatory.
The panel piece attaches to the side of the ship with some pressure, but it doesn’t seem like a precise fit. The gun piece snaps on over it and holds down the panel more securely.
I’m not sure if this is meant to be for maintenance or what, but I have included a picture of the film-used model above that does have a corresponding open panel, so maybe they based this on that.
The harpoon gun attaches with peg on the back so it can swivel. I think it could use a little bit of a dry brush for detail.
The main cannons attach via peg. They are labeled L and R for help in placement, but really only fit on one way. They don’t really attach that solidly, so I popped them off a few times while playing with this sucker. I’m so used to the old Kenner vehicle that it almost looks weird to me that the cannons don’t have the clear plastic parts.
The little cylinders can slide into holders inside the cockpit. I’m not sure if these are flares or what, my memory of the grenade Luke used to blow up the walker was shaped differently.
The bottom has four compartments that open, the three landing gear and the compartment for the extra tow cable string. The string can be pulled out from the back of the vehicle and the little peg on the end of the string can attach to the harpoon gun.
The compartments stay closed with some pressure tabs and popping them open made me wish I hadn’t just cut my nails because they stay closed tightly and they are tough to pop open. The back two landing gear are attached to the opening flap and I noticed that they don’t like to stay open all the way. Any pressure on the top of the vehicle and they tend to collapse.
The other loose piece looks to be the ascension gun Luke uses to get up onto the AT-AT underbelly. It fits nicely in his hands and can be stored in the speeder in a slot next to the seat.
Of course, the most significant loose piece aside from the vehicle is Dak “feels like I can take on the hole empire himself” Ralter. The body is re-use of the recent 40th anniversary Luke, but he has a unique skirt/belt piece. That piece is slightly softer than Luke’s so Dak gets a little better bend on that left leg than Luke does.
The face looks like a decent likeness for Dak actor John Morton, though I had to pull up reference to check it because I didn’t really remember what Dak looked like. At any rate, the head does have nice, realistic faceprinting and looks right with the helmet on, so I suppose that’s what matters.
The sculpting on the ship is really nicely detailed and feels right in terms of scale and shape. The paneling detail is quite beautiful and the weathering they added is very good for a mass-market piece. Star Wars vehicles are always pretty grimy so this could use some panel lining and some dirt streaks, but I’m impressed with what they did here.
One of the deco details I really appreciated were all the safety warnings written in Aurebesh all over the vehicle. It took me back to all the warning stickers on GI Joe vehicles. There are a couple more moving features including steering flaps at the top that hinge open.
There are also two flaps at the back that hinge up and down slightly.
The cockpit hinges open and is cast in a translucent material. I wish it was a little less cloudy so I could see the figures in there better, but they look awesome holding the controls and there is a good amount of techno-greeblie detail in their instruments. I like how the seatbelts work as you can easily pry them up or peg them down.
While the landing skids are good, I think a flight stand would really complete the package here for me. I did pick up an adjustable flight pose stand that works pretty well holding the ship in flight, but it’s starting to crack under the strain of the weight of this thing, so I may have to rethink this. Perhaps that’s why Hasbro didn’t include one.
Lately I’ve been feeling a little burned by the constant repaints and repackaged figures in the line, but stuff like this really reignites my passion. The Snowspeeder is a really special piece and opening it and hefting around this massive Star Wars vehicle took me back to that birthday when I got Slave I and spent weeks just flying that thing around the house. Now I just need to figure how I’m going to display it!
