Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force Gunner Station: Millennium Falcon with Han Solo Review

Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force Gunner Station: Millennium Falcon with Han Solo — 

If you've been a regular or even casual reader of my reviews here in Viewpoints or other review sites, you probably know that I am a true-blue fan of the Star Wars movies and a collector of action figures, books and other tie-ins to George Lucas' space-fantasy tale set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

Though I was somewhat skeptical about 1977's Star Wars when it was first released and waited till October of that year to see it, I was blown away by the exciting visuals, wonderful music and engaging characters just as most of my friends and acquaintances had.  And because in those pre-VCR Revolution days the only way to bring home some of the magic of Star Wars was through buying tie-in books, soundtrack albums and the then-new "action figures" made by Kenner, I bought as many as I could with my allowance money.

One of the most expensive items I bought back in the 1970s was the original Kenner Millennium Falcon, which was a necessarily disproportionately scaled rendition of Han Solo's YT-1300 starship.  It bore a pretty good resemblance to its screen inspiration but it couldn't be an accurate replica because it had to be affordable for the average American parent and small enough for kids 4 and up to play with.

This meant that instead of having two quad-laser cannon stations as in the film version, Kenner's Falcon only had one; the pictures on the box often had Han Solo and Chewbacca sitting in the cockpit model while Luke Skywalker lay/sat on the one gunner station's seat.

Though I believe Hasbro has re-issued the Millennium Falcon since its 1990s acquisition of Kenner Toys and the prized Star Wars merchandising license, I don't own any of the new versions.  However, I doubt that the Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toymaker has redesigned the vehicle so that it has two gunner stations like the one in the movie.

In 1997, coinciding with the 20th Anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, Hasbro introduced the first in a series of three playset-figure combos under the Gunner Station label.

Gunner Station: Millennium Falcon with Han Solo is, along with its Millennium Falcon with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader with TIE Fighter, an attempt to give both kids and collectors the both of best world: playability for the younger set, visual authenticity for the grown-ups..

For kids ages 4 and up, the Gunner Stations offer both pretend-playing possibilities and a little something that actually shoots stuff action. Not only can they recreate the "TIE Fighter Attack" sequence from A New Hope by owning the Han and Luke Millennnium Falcon Gunner Stations, but by "firing" the missiles at other figures or vehicles, they can get some physical sense of action with, well, their action figures.

For collectors, the Gunner Stations offer both new variants of figures - or clever re-issues of ones they may have missed out on because they didn't buy another Kenner/Hasbro product - and new ways to display their figures.

Unfortunately, as much as I like the new and improved Han Solo figure that comes with the Millennium Falcon Gunner Station, I'm not as enthusiastic about the Gunner Station itself.

Basically, the Gunner Station is a pared-down and very simplified cutaway section of the Millennium Falcon's dorsall (top) turret as seen in 1977's  Episode IV; A New Hope, a.k.a. Star Wars. Its main components consist of a base, the "viewport"/support frame, and the gunner's chair/quad-laser cannon mount. which includes the unfortunate "launching missiles" feature.

My Viewpoint: Visually, the playset is nice in a Star Wars minimalist sort of way. As I noted earlier, it's really hard to replicate the Falcon in its entirety; the vehicle's size precludes a scaled down and fully-accurate rendition of "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy." A fully-proportional Falcon would probably be the same size as a coffee table; this is a nice fantasy for really dedicated (or totally crazy) collectors, but hardly inexpensive or practical. Thus it's understandable why Hasbro/Kenner decided to use the most basic and salient features of the gunner station and dispense with most of the walls, ceiling, and deck detailing.

What is not understandable is the toy manufacturer's decision to add the "missile launcher" feature to the Gunner Station trio of toys. While I understand the rationale of Hey! It's a toy! Kids play with toys! Kids get bored if the toys don't "do" something! I was a kid once, too, and some of my toys had action features such as plastic projectiles that could be "fired." And, honestly, I liked them to some degree.

However, there are several reasons as to why I don't like this feature of the toy.

It's potentially dangerous. Now, if I were giving this to someone 10 and up, maybe I wouldn't worry too much about the You'll shoot your eye out, kid factor that rears its ugly head with this sort of toy. At that age, some boys (the intended target audience of this product) own BB guns or even have some awareness that missile-launching toys have to be aimed at other figures and/or vehicles but not at another person.

For younger kids, though, this awareness is practically non-existent in cases where a parent might be too busy with work or is too confident in his/her children's judgment as far as safe use of toys is concerned. That's why Hasbro/Kenner has a prominent warning about small parts posing a choking hazard and age recommendations (Ages 4 and up...not for children under 3 years.)

It ends up looking goofy. Because the "missiles" also double as the forward halves of the quad-laser barrels, you'd think Hasbro/Kenner would have thought to make it so they'd fit into the launcher one way and stay locked in place till fired. And I suppose that adults who might want to set the Gunner Station up as a display item can do so without the "barrels" looking strange.

The problem is that although the barrels all fit in snugly into the launch mechanism/rear half of the gun part, the tips (which in the movie move back and forth but don't themselves "shoot out" or move weirdly) don't lock in a uniform position. Basically, what it looks like is a set of gray golf clubs in a bag, with the "heads" pointing in random directions unless you painstakingly take time to set them the "right" way.

Other than that, the Gunner Station: Millennium Falcon With Han Solo is a nifty Star Wars toy/collectible. Not a perfect one, mind you, but decent enough to pass muster with Star Wars aficionados.

Weapons and Accessories:

Rapid-Fire Quad Laser Cannon
Four Missiles

The three main parts (base, "viewport"/support frame, and swiveling chair snap together reather easily and have a "spaceship" duo-tone color scheme, with the base and viewport parts a light white-gray, and the gunner's chair/gun assembly rendered in a darker shade of gray.

The detailing is slightly above average for a minimalist toy of this nature. The sculpt/molding of the details is nice, with the usual components-and-rivets rendering that Hasbro/Kenner have always lavished on Star Wars vehicles and playsets for the 3.75-inch figures. Except for the "missile" part of the barrels, the Gunner Station does look a lot like the part of the Falcon it seeks to replicate; if you look hard at the control yoke, you'll even see that the toy makers added a simulated display of the guns' targeting computer, with accurate renderings of the scope done in red and yellow.

The Figure: The Han Solo action figure is a scene-specific variant of everyone's favorite smuggler-with-a-heart-of-gold. He is shown wearing his familiar outfit (white long-sleeved shirt, black vest, gun-belt with fast-draw holster, blue spacer's trousers with the red piping known as a Corellian Blood Stripe, and knee-high spacer's boots.

The one item that makes him scene-specific is the molded-on comlink headset he wears in the scenes when he and Luke are in the Falcon's gun well, blasting away at the four TIE fighters sent by Grand Moff Tarkin to make their "escape" from the Death Star convincing. The headset is nicely done, resembling one of the less compact PC-compatible headsets people use nowadays to chat online over the Internet. It's molded and painted onto the figure, though, so if one needs a Han Solo figure to recreate a scene from A New Hope that happens before or after the TIE Fighter attack sequence, this wouldn't really be useful.

The points of articulation are pretty basic. The pose is all right for accomodating Han into the Gunner Station and having the figure grasp the cannon grips with both hands, but the knees can't be bent realistically for a more natural pose.

However, the sculpt and paint job are nicely done, considering the scale of the figure.

Is this worth getting? Maybe not so much for most kids or casual fans of the Star Wars movies. The safety issues aren't exactly trumped by the toy's positive attributes. It does, however, come with an interesting variant of Han's basic figure; as far as I know, this one's only one of two figures of the character wearing his comlink headset.

So if you're a die-hard, must-have-every-figure-possible Star Wars collector, the Gunner Station: Millennium Falcon with Han Solo isn't a Death Star-sized loser of a lemon. It does look nice in a sparse, minimalist fashion, and mated with its Luke Skywalker Gunner Station counterpart it looks even nicer. Just don't give it to kids under the age of 10, and be prepared to spend time getting the "guns" to look properly aligned, but it's still a nice collector's item.