Vinylmation Review - Star Wars #4

Star Wars #4 was released during Star Wars weekends in 2014. Despite the shift to 8 figure sets, Star Wars continues to have 12 figures per series. There have been some mixed feelings about this series, which is why I wanted to give my review.

Things to love:

• If you're a big Star Wars fan, the first thing to love it that it's a Star Wars set. There is so much to explore within the Star Wars universe, that I think it's great Disney keeps making Star Wars Vinylmation. Especially with annual Star Wars Weekends
• This series has more of the lesser known characters, which will appeal more to big fans who might not want to get the same characters over and over again
• Memorable characters - I think it's awesome that there's a Wampa and a Tauntaun in this set! They're pretty memorable and we haven't seen them before
• Do-Overs - looking back at the first Star Wars series, some of the characters really could have been done better in my opinion. Vinylmation was still evolving, expanding and finding it's stride. But perhaps this series gives collectors a chance to own more intricately designed figures that we've seen in the past. The Boba Fett combo topper in particular is much better than in Star Wars #1
• Variation on repeats - yes we have another R2, Leia, Luke and Han, but they're not identical to previous releases of these characters. Luke and Han are in their Hoth attire, R2 is on Dagobah, and Leia is dressed like she is on Bespin. They are central to the Star Wars Saga so you should expect to see them again in this series. I think this set would have been less popular without them
• Appropriate use of a variant - while not amazing or impressive to me, the Luke variant at least makes sense, as it reflects an actual scene from the movie. The figure has also been well designed and I especially love his ears. I don't like when variants have no meaning and are created purely for the sake of it

Things that aren't so great:

• Well, if you really don't enjoy repeats of figures, you won't like this series. One third of the figures are characters we've seen before
• Unknown characters - I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, I've lost count of how many times I've watched these movies, but I'm not one of those people who knows every little detail. I'm not familiar with the Ugnaught, Zuckuss or 4-LOM, so I can see how half this set would not appeal to some collectors