Every Toddler Needs an X-Wing (Super Secret W/O)
Written: May 01 '03 (Updated Oct 20 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun Star Wars toys for toddlers!
Cons: Darth's red eyes. Cockpit window falls off. No use for the "Jedi Force Action"
The Bottom Line: Fun, accurate Star Wars figures geared toward pre-schoolers. Fun for the kids and for adult Star Wars collectors. This is not my favorite set out of the group.
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| mizgnomer's Full Review: Playskool Star Wars X-Wing Adventure |
My husband and I are both Star Wars fans -- both of us have played with and collected many a Star Wars toy. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve playing with my sister and our Star Wars action figures, acting out elaborate storylines which usually involve us saving the universe.
When my husband and I saw that Playskool was going to release action figures geared for the pre-school set, we knew that we were going to get them for our son (who was only 1 year old at the time). Although they are intended for older toddlers, we wanted to share our love of Star Wars toys with our boy (and, I'll admit it, we wanted to play with them ourselves too). We were very pleasantly surprised to find that our son really loves these toys (particularly the Millennium Falcon Set).
Product Description:
Star Wars: X-Wing Adventure is based on the original Star Wars trilogy. The set includes Luke's X-Wing, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and R2-D2.
It is obvious that Playskool/Hasbro went through a lot of trouble to make these toys safe and fun for toddlers. The figures are chunky and easy to grasp. All of the pieces are made from a just-barely-soft plastic. The characters don't have much articulation, but less movement means less chance for a small piece to break off and become a choking hazard. The weapons are not removable -- they are part of the figure itself, which means no small pieces to lose or choke upon.
The characters have big feet and a wide stance with a low center-of-gravity, so they are easy to stand up and do not fall over easily. The figures in this set, like the figures in the other Playskool sets, are in an odd half standing, half sitting stance. Although it looks a bit strange, the figures do stand quite well.
Even though the ship and the characters are cute-ized and chunky, they are also impressively detailed. At first I didn't like the look of the X-Wing -- gone from long sleek lines to chunky cuteness, but it has definitely grown on me.
There are other sets in the Playskool/Hasbro Pre-School Star Wars line. We also have the Millennium Falcon set, the Stompin' Wampa Set, and the Fast Through the Forest playset. All of the sets are compatible with each other -- I can now put my X-Wing Luke onto the Forest's speeder bike or have him sit in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit.
Playskool recommends all of its Star Wars Adventures line for children ages 3 and up.
Low-down on the figures:
~~ Luke Skywalker: He is 2 inches tall and in that kinda-odd sitting/squatting position. His only movable joint is his right wrist (which holds his blue lightsaber). His left hand is held out, open-palmed (and has a magnet hidden inside). He has a goofy-grin on his face (unlike the Luke in the "Fast through the Forest" set, who has a serious expression). He is wearing the orange X-Wing pilot outfit, which is very detailed an accurate.
~~ Darth Vader: He is just under 2½ inches tall (taller than most other figures in the series). Both arms move at the shoulder, and his head moves just a bit. He carries a lightsaber in his right hand, and is pointing with his left hand. His eyes are red, making him look somewhat bug-like (in my humble opinion). He too is in the odd, squatting position, but for some strange reason a molded portion of cape/outfit is between his legs, so he cannot "sit" like most of the other characters in the series. He wears a cloth cape. His arms and legs are oversized.
~~ R2-D2: He is just under 1½ inches tall. His legs are oversized, in keeping with the big-leg versions of the other characters. He has no articulation. Overall, R2 was plenty cute in his original form, but this fattened, big legged version of R2 doesn't really look right to me.
~~ X-Wing: A very cute yet accurate version of the X-Wing ship. The over all look has been shortened, fattened, and cute-ized. Overall the effect looks pretty good. Luke fits (just barely) into the cockpit, R2 fits in a slot behind the cockpit hatch. You lift the cockpit window to insert the pilot. Pressing a button behind R2 causes the wings to pop open (into the "X" formation from its name). Pressing the rear of the ship will collapse the wings again.
Our Experiences:
I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that my now 21-month-old son really likes playing with his Star Wars sets. He particularly likes the vehicles.
Unfortunately, there are some things I don't like about the X-Wing Adventure set. While I adore the X-Wing itself, there are a few "issues" with it. First, the cockpit window, which lifts open to allow you to insert a character figure, falls off VERY easily when you open/close it. I'm guessing that it is intentionally made to "break away" so that a toddler won't hurt themselves if they fall onto the somewhat sharp window, however it is very annoying to my boy to have it come off instead of open/close. Another annoying thing about the cockpit is that it is a bit difficult to get characters inside. For the included Luke figure, you must turn his lightsaber so that it is pointing straight down, or else you will have no hope of getting him wedged in there so that you can close the cockpit window. As far as interchangeability goes, the X-Wing Luke is the only one we can get to fit into the cockpit (our Han Solo and Forrest-Luke cannot fit, at least not with the doorway closed).
My other very minor complaints include the fact that I think the Darth Vader figure looks silly with red eyes. Perhaps I'll just paint them black to make myself feel better. I don't know why, but with red eyes I think he looks like a big bug. Darth Vader is such a cool and effective villain, it is a shame that he doesn't have a better figure in this set. I also find it somewhat silly to have Luke's "Jedi Force Action" hand, but no other figure/item is included in this set for him to use his "Jedi Action" upon! I guess they want to make sure you purchase some other sets to try it out with. Basically, the "Jedi Force Action" trickery is done via a magnet embedded in Luke's hand -- and some other figures have an opposite-poled magnet for it to react against (for example, the Biker Scout from our Forest set has a magnet in his chest, so if you hold Luke's hand close to him the scout falls over backward, which is a pretty cool effect when you can get it to work). It wouldn't have killed them to include a Storm Trooper or something that would move on the X-Wing for Luke to use his "Force" on.
Still, with all my complaints, my boy still likes his X-Wing Adventure set. He is quite taken with R2-D2, running through the house yelling "R2! R2!" (perhaps that is because we also have the R2-D2 Interactive Droid, which he also loves dearly. He likes pressing the buttons on the X-Wing that make the wings pop open and shut. He does get frustrated at the cockpit window, and he has a very hard time wedging figures into the cockpit.
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) Toys from the first Star Wars trilogy
+) Figures are fairly accurate and well-detailed
+) Set includes 1 ship and 3 figures
+) Designed for pre-schoolers (chunky figures, no small parts, very durable, well-balanced, etc)
+) Ships wings open into the X-Formation with a press of a button
+) Adorable and quite fun to play with!
Cons:
-) Only the Luke included with this set can fit in the X-Wing's cockpit (and even then it is a very tight fit)
-) The cockpit window comes off entirely too often
-) Nothing to use Luke's "Jedi Force Action" upon
-) Not much articulation
Final Thoughts:
I must admit that, of the 4 sets we have, I like the X-Wing Adventure set the least. The Millennium Falcon set is just so impressive, I can find no faults with the Stompin' Wampa set (and the tauntaun is so adorable), and the figures in the Fast Through the Forest set are so well-detailed and cool looking. I'm unimpressed with the figures in the X-Wing Adventure set, and while the X-Wing itself is very cool the cockpit issues make this toy more difficult to play with than the other sets.
I will still recommend the X-Wing Adventure set, as it is still a cool Star Wars toy for toddlers, however you might want to try out some of the other sets first.
Related Reviews:
Playskool Star Wars Adventures Millennium Falcon Adventure
Playskool Star Wars Adventures - Fast Through the Forest
Playskool Star Wars Adventures - The Stompin' Wampa Set
R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid
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This review is part of the Super Secret Write-Off, on toys that you secretly purchased for yourself instead of your child. The write-off was thrown by Freak369 as a way of saying thanks to the super K&F leads, MaryTara and SBlaydes! I know that I owe them a big THANKS for always adding my wacky product requests to the database, as well as always having nice, helpful things to say. Thanks you two!!!
Other participants include:
KMINER, Melissasrn, MizGnomer (that's me), BearySweet, Bops_mom, Lisa_j, Merlot, Shantel575, Kristinafh, Logimom, ned1, Staceys1, cathyjones
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 14.99
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Epinions.com ID:
mizgnomer
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Location: Tennessee
Reviews written: 306
Trusted by: 204 members
About Me:
Don't meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you're crunchy and taste good with ketchup
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