Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force Rebel Pilots (Cinema Scene) Review

In the late 1990s, after Hasbro, Inc. of Pawtucket, Rhode Island acquired Tonka and its subsidiary Kenner, the toy and game manufacturing giant decided to breathe new life into the dormant Star Wars collectible line known as The Power of the Force in several ways.

First and foremost, they began the long and still-ongoing process of redesigning and manufacturing the basic Star Wars action figures to improve their overall look.  Hasbro's designers were aware that adult collectors liked the original Kenner action figures from the late Seventies and early Eighties well enough, but they also knew that those first likenesses of the heroes and villains from George Lucas's popular space-fantasy set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" weren't always accurately done or had flaws that couldn't be ignored.

Keeping the "Kenner Collection" logo as a nostalgic touchstone to the 1977 Generation of collectors and Star Wars fans, Hasbro began its reintroduction of more detailed action figures, vehicles, beasts, and other toys in 1995 in a second and far more varied Power of the Force collection two years before Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox released the 20th Anniversary Special Editions of Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. 

Another major "tweak" which proved to be very popular was the introduction of the Cinema Scene multi-figure packs in 1997 as part of the 20th Anniversary commemoration efforts by all of Lucasfilm's Star Wars  licensees. 

What are Cinema Scenes?

Cinema Scenes (also known colloquially as "three-packs") are small dioramas based on scenes from the Star Wars series, usually containing three 3.75-inch action figures pre-posed on a molded and painted base with a carboard backdrop illustrated to match the specific scene being recreated in the Cinema Scene.

Over the years, Hasbro released over a dozen Cinema Scenes/Screen Scenes which span the entire saga, as well as similar two-figure sets, including the Silver Anniversary two-packs issued in 2002

Most of the Cinema Scenes depict the characters in important but not necessarily exciting "action" scenes; most tend to show major and minor characters, such as the Jedi Masters in the Jedi Council or Rebel pilots in a hangar bay.

Rebel Pilots: The Cinema Scene

For generations, an evil power has spread throughout the galaxy. It began with Darth Sidious' sinister plot to conquer the planet Naboo and peaked with the Empire's domination of the galaxy. Throughout the era, brave starfighter pilots flew into space to fight this power. Naboo pilots braved impossible odds to save their planet from the superior forces of the Trade Federation. Years later, X-wing pilot Wedge Antilles, B-wing Pilot Ten Numb, and A-wing pilot Arvel Crynyd were part of the assault on the second Death Star. Their success at the Battle of Endor released the iron grip on the galaxy. - From the package blurb

 One of my biggest "rants" about Kenner's original figures was that although the Ohio toy manufacturer created lots of figures based on the major characters and quite a few of the minor ones, some prominent dramatis personae had been omitted, including Grand Moff Tarkin and Wedge Antilles, the only Rebel pilot (besides, of course, Luke Skywalker) to appear in the entire Classic Trilogy.

Although Wedge (who was played by Ewan McGregor's uncle, Denis Lawson) finally got "figured" in 1997 (his little plastic replica was sold with a Millennium Falcon Carry Case), it wasn't till I purchased the Rebel Pilots Cinema Scene in 2000 that I added "Red Two" to my Star Wars collection.

This 1999 three-pack was issued during that nebulous transition time when Hasbro was literally creating a glut of Star Wars toys by rolling out not just The Power of the Force Classic Trilogy collectibles but a separate and huge Episode I line as well.  And although it was one of the last Cinema Scenes which I bought on my own, it was not as hard to find as the more coveted Death Star Escape or Final Jedi Duel.

Rebel Pilots, which is derived from a scene in Return of the Jedi, features B-wing pilot Ten Numb, X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles and A-Wing Arvel Crynyd in the hangar bay of a Rebel Alliance starcruiser as they prepare for the Battle of Endor.

Ten Numb is a Sullustan B-wing pilot who closely resembles Nien Numb, Lando Calrissian's co-pilot aboard the Millennium Falcon.  His head and face are not easy to see inside an unopened set such as the one I have because his removable helmet is securely on his head, but despite a blooper-worthy costuming goof (his flight suit was red in the movie), the figure looks impressive enough as it stands with Wedge Antilles (wearing his orange and white X-wing pilot flight suit) and Arvel Crynyd in his A-wing pilot togs. (Crynyd, by the way, is the guy who crashes his badly-damaged starfighter into the bridge of Darth Vader's flagship Executor.)

The three figures are posed in front of a "forced perspective" rendition of an Incom T-65 X-wing fighter in such a way that even though we know it's a photorealistic background on cardboard, the X-wing fighter looks 3-D and pretty realistic, as does the rest of the "hangar bay" beyond.

Weapons and Accessories:

Three Removable Helmets
Base
Cardboard Background

My Viewpoint: Although I'm not one of those collectors who has conniptions when Hasbro releases a product that contains minor inaccuracies in detail or even "fact," if such a thing exists in a fantasy movie, this Cinema Scene is somewhat rife with goofs.

Not only is Ten Numb wearing a white flight suit (based on a production still given to Hasbro by Lucasfilm when the figure was in the pre-design stages), but Arvel Crynyd isn't the Arvel Crynyd seen in Return of the Jedi; the figure is actually based on a Y-wing pilot named Lieutenant Telsij (call sign Gray Two), and his flight jumpsuit in the film was gray and not red.

Nevertheless, despite this and the figures' limited number of articulation points, Rebel Pilots is still a decent Cinema Scene, if only because it (a) has a Wedge Antilles figure and (b) the three characters really look good posed in front of that X-wing in the hangar bay.  The uniforms may be technically rendered wrong and one guy may have been the victim of intergalactic identity theft, but it just goes to prove that we live in an imperfect world.

Should I buy this for my kids? While Hasbro does suggest that these Cinema Scenes are appropriate for kids 6 and up, I don't recommend them for children younger than 12.  Really young children, with rare exception, will want to take the figures out of the package and play with them, which would be fine were it not that some sellers are asking far more than the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of $19.99.  Some sets in "mint condition" go for $100 or more depending where you find them, and I doubt that your average 6-year-old understands why these figures are so valuable to collectors.

Furthermore, the figures' helmets, can be damaged, broken, or even lost - even the most careful of adult collectors thinks twice about opening his or her figures because the little extras do have a tendency to get loose, especially if one is trying to shift the figures a bit to make the pose a bit less static or just to examine the details better.   Also, the small size of the helmets does make them a possible choking hazard for kids younger than 4 years of age.