Heir To The Empire VC Review

 I first read Heir To The Empire in 1991, June of 1991 To be exact, and at the time of the College World Series that year. My favorite college team, LSU won their first baseball title that year, and won the most recent CWS, so I felt that it was appropriate to review this 3 pack now, as Heir To The Empire is the book that inspire as much imagination and creativity in me as much as the original Star Wars, aka A New Hope did. For 34 years, I've waited for these figures to be officially done in the One True Scale. But, that doesn't necessarily mean I think all 3 figures are perfect, far from it. 

Since these are the Legends, aka Star Wars Truths (in my humble opinion, of course) versions of these figures, I will have special guests to help review these figures: my personal Legends customs of Luke Skywalker & Mara Jade that fall into the Legends/Truths camp. And to fill in for Luuke Skywalker will be my Comic Pack Dark Empire II Luke. So, I'll go into what I like, and what I don't about the figures. One of which, is a contender for my top figure of the year. 

First off, I hated opening this. So that's why I bought one to keep unopened. Having the 2nd one is worth not getting the Sabine/Howler though. Although I do still want that, if possible. But enough about what I don't have, and onto what I do have. I like the packaging, it is the standard VC 3 pack that debuted with some of Jabba's henchmen, if I correctly recall. If I don't have it right, I know someone will help me out there. The front is very simple, and the back has the card images on the back, along with some info on the HTTE story. Now onto the reviews of the figures! 

1. Captain Gilad Pellaeon 

Pellaeon makes his Star Wars figure debut (take THAT Sixers!!), and I can officially retire the substitute Pellaeon I've been using which is the Legacy Collection Captain Needa. But unlike Jason, aka MAKMCSWF, I will not toss my Needa into the bushes. He'll just be a random officer dude. This Pellaeon is based off the meeting he and Thrawn have with Joruus C'baoth in the Heir To The Empire novel, which is why he has a blaster pistol and holster. It's also my only gripe with the figure: the blaster doesn't fit. I didn't photograph it, but I cut down a spare TIE Pilot pistol, which does fit properly in the holster. Pellaeon is on the officer buck, and has decent articulation, despite the plastic skirt. You don't need him to dance like John Travolta, just stand and order people to do something. 

Check out the head sculpt on the picture just above. Incredibly well done! Pellaeon was portrayed by Xander Berkeley, whom you may remember from 24 as George Mason, who went out a hero. They got the head sculpt down perfectly! His hat cannot be removed, which here is a good thing. I should have shot a comparison with Pellaeon and either Piett or Jerjerrod, to show how Pellaeon has it better. I have him with Thrawn to show the size. For the photos, the blaster stayed put. 

I should have taken a photo with my custom blaster, but he does hold the pistol decently, but they should have given him a smaller one. A spare Cal Kestis, or Director Krennic blaster actually looks better in his hands. I just didn't photograph them at this time. Overall, this is a figure I'm very happy to have in my collection, as he can double for Legends/Truths and Disney Canon displays. 

2. Grand Admiral Thrawn 

My absolute favorite villain next to Vader is Thrawn. If Pellaeon is Watson, and he is, then Thrawn is Sherlock Holmes. Thrawn comes with his blaster, and a ysalamiri, which can block out The Force. The biggest addition is the epaulets on his shoulders, which is what he was drawn with back in the 1990's-2000's. Other than that, he's the Thrawn from the Ahsoka series body, with the skin tone of the live action Thrawn, but with the Rebels head sculpt. He's another re-use of the Imperial Officer buck, but his uniform is a bit of a brighter white, as you'll see in my comparisons with my custom head swapped Thrawn's. 

In the 2nd picture above, I added the Legacy Collection Comic Pack Thrawn to show the difference between the figures over the years. My custom Rebels/Ahsoka Thrawn shows the difference in height. Would I have preferred the Rebels Thrawn lower body? Yes. Am I disappointed? Not as much as I was with the live action Thrawn. It does make sense to use the shorter Thrawn, as he was portrayed this way in Legends, with the flared out pant legs. I do like his skin tone matching the live action Thrawn, and so I'm safe in saying that he's definitive. 

Thrawn's blaster easily fits in his holster and doesn't fall out, so there's a good chance that loose collectors won't lose it. But what disappointed me was the ysalamiri. Why? Just see the photo above. The 2009 one has a great sculpt and painted eyes, and is large enough to be noticed. Plus it perfectly fits Thrawn. The new one has good detail up close, but isn't as well defined feature wise, aka lack of paint apps. Plus it won't stay on. It took me 5 minutes to set up this shot. But you can see the HTTE Thrawn is much better than the 2009 version. And I'm using the year 2009 because that's when I got him. Overall, a decent figure. 

3. Joruus C'baoth 

I included the Sixer version to show that the VC version is basically a Mini-Me version of that figure. Unlike the Sixer version (which also comes with a lightsaber), C'baoth has an unlit hilt that can attach onto his belt (take that again, Sixers!), even though he never used a lightsaber in the Original Thrawn Trilogy. And needless to say, this is my favorite figure from this set, and is in the running for the best figure of 2025, just behind Hammerhead. 

The headsculpt looks EXACTLY like the image from Wokepedia at the top, and I believe the artist is Joe Corroney. While the head is difficult to move because of the long hair and beard, the detail is absolutely amazing, as you can tell in the close up shots. The "up skirt" shot shows he is wearing pants, and may have Skiff Guard Lando's boots. He's got the standard 17 POA, and while I didn't pose him breakdancing, he can achieve some of those poses, despite the long cloth skirt. His chest also shows he does love doing sit-ups and ab crunches. It's tough to see it when his head is attached, but it's there. 

His accessories include his lit and unlit lightsaber, swappable right Force Lightning hand, and his medallion is removable, as you can see in the last photo above this paragraph. The top photo is a recreation of C'baoth attempting to unalive Thrawn and Pellaeon, who's slightly slow on the draw. But the ysalamiri blocks out the lightning. Aside from Thrawn leaning heavily, I'm proud of that picture the most. Swapping the Lightning hand is easy, much easier than the Sixer version, which I'm afraid to do because I don't want to break it. Popping off the head is easy. Much easier than Pellaeon, anyway as I wanted to do a head swap with a spare Piett for a bridge version. But with Joruus? It's easy-peasy lemon squeezy easy. And now for my special guests to help me out: 

 

Now you may be asking why I have a comic image, but I wanted to recreate that particular shot for the photo set, so the one above it is my attempt. Which with swivel hip figures is hard to do, and I didn't want an @$$ shot of Mara, as the throne area doesn't have that much play space to begin with. But it did the job. The top 2 photos show Luke and Mara ending C'baoth (my only complaint with the Last Command was Mara ending Luuke and C'baoth), so this is how it should have happened. Mara ends Luuke (I used the DE2 Luke for the clone) in the 2nd picture above. The final picture is a battle royale. While that Mara, DE2 Luke and C'baoth can do a THWG, my custom Legends Luke can't, hence the one handed photos. My custom Mara is a GI Joe Rise of Cobra Scarlett head glued onto the Black Series Mara body, while my Legends Luke is the Legacy Collection Endor Luke that has the swappable chest plates, head, forearms and knees from VC Endor Capture Luke, and evil Starkiller legs painted black, with a painted belt from the 3.75 Black Series Jedi Luke, the cloth vest from a Battle for Endor Battle Pack Luke, and a cloth tabbard from a Saga Collection Jedi/Endor Luke. And, both of my Legends customs, along with the Comic Pack Karrde will be in my Cantina display. 

Final Thoughts

I am EXTREMELY happy I got this set. So happy that I have written another post about the Legends figures I'd like to see in the near future from Hasbro. For a 34 year wait, it's worth it! I'm glad they got the figures right. So I can forgive the accessories. For any Legends aka Truths fan, this set is ESSENTIAL! The more this sells, the more Legends figures could come down the pipeline. Which for me is perfect since my OT era figures are more ROTJ/New Republic timeline anyway. 

Thanks for reading! A special thanks to Chris and Nomad at BanthaSkull for allowing me to post this link in the comments section. Please share this link on your social media accounts so I can get more readers! 

Coming next week: The Ghost!