'Star Wars' Collectibles & Toys Review: Hasbro/Kenner 'The Power of the Force Complete Galaxy Collection: Dagobah with Yoda'

Photo Credit: www.rebelscum.com. (C) 1998 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

The boggy, swamp planet Dagobah is the principal planet in the star system of the same name. Although explored, Dagobah remains sparsely populated because of its inhospitable climate and generally unpleasant surroundings. Constantly shrouded in mist and strangled by dense vegetation, the planet is the home to numerous animal life, including dangerous flying predators. The Jedi Master Yoda also makes his home and hideout there and is the only resident of notoriety. – From the package blurb, Star Wars – Power of the Force: Dagobah with Yoda (Complete Galaxy)

Twenty years ago, Hasbro, Inc.’s Kenner division released a new assortment of globe-and-figure sets called Complete Galaxy. Sold as part of Kenner’s revived Star Wars: The Power of the Force collection, this assortment consists of four detailed globes based on three planets and one battle station where crucial events of the Galactic Civil War occurred.

The Complete Galaxy collection consists of the following sets:

• Dagobah with Yoda
• Death Star with Darth Vader
• Endor with Ewok
• Tatooine with Luke Skywalker

When the evil Emperor Palpatine ordered the Jedi Knights erased from the galaxy, Yoda went into deep hiding there, using its natural defenses and the power of the Force to discourage visitors. It was not until near the end of his days, at the arrival of Luke Skywalker, that the 800-year-old Yoda would have a purposeful visitor. – From the package blurb, Star Wars – Power of the Force: Dagobah with Yoda (Complete Galaxy)

Dagobah with Yoda consists of a globe – I estimate it’s roughly around the size of a large grapefruit – based on matte paintings and designs made by Lucasfilm for Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Following George Lucas’s concept that each world in the Star Wars universe has one dominating environment, the Dagobah globe is rendered in three basic colors:

• Olive Green (represents boggy ground)
• Blue Green (represents bodies of water)
• White (represents mist and clouds, as if seen from space)

The globe also features areas with “raised relief” to indicate hilly or mountainous terrain.

Dagobah is totally without spaceports nor any other modern technological convenience. It has been considered a haunted planet due to its history with the dark side of the Force and an evil group of Dark Jedi that terrorized it and the neighboring Sluis sector during the Clone Wars. – From the package blurb, Star Wars – Power of the Force: Dagobah with Yoda (Complete Galaxy)

Photo Credit: www.rebelscum.com. (C) 1998 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

Hasbro’s designers also identified important locations where pivotal events depicted The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi took place.  As in a terrestrial globe, these locations are indicated by a black dot and a location name label, e.g. LUKE’S X-WING CRASH SITE; YODA’S HUT; RAIN LAKE; POLAR BOG.

The globe comes in a tall black-and-green “The Kenner Collection” Star Wars: Power of the Force box with a transparent plastic “window” that allows you to see the open globe (it has a hinge in the back).

If you look closely at the lower half of the open globe, you’ll notice that the “inside” of the hollow globe has been sculpted to resemble the root base of the infamous “magic tree” that is the entrance to Dagobah’s “Dark Side cave.”  In front of that, at the “floor” of the globe, there is a base on which you can “plug on” the Yoda 3.75-inch scale action figure with the Jedi Master’s cane – called in Star Wars lore a “gimer stick.” The base can rotate the figure via a thumbwheel on the side of the display stand that comes with this set.

The upper half features a flying creature native to Dagobah called a bogwing. (The package doesn’t identify the bogwing by name; the product labeling on the package just calls it a “flying creature.) This bogwing is made of the same plastic as the Yoda action figure. However, the Dagobah with Yoda package states that the creature is permanently attached; if you try to remove it, you’ll end up damaging your collectible – seriously.

The Yoda figure included in this Complete Galaxy set is similar to Kenner/Hasbro’s 1996 “basic figures” rendition that was released in various packaging versions in The Power of the Force line. However, unlike its Collection 1 and Collection 2 ancestors, the Dagobah with Yoda set’s Jedi Master has a sculpted cloak that is more detailed, as well as a slightly darker paint job. The gimer stick is, as in most of the action figures that come with it, removable; however, it is small and can easily be lost.

My Take        

I received Dagobah with Yoda as a gift during the run-up to the May 1999 release of Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace, along with the other three globe-and-figure sets in Hasbro’s Complete Galaxy assortment within the company’s long-running Power of the Force 2 production run. (Although the number “2” does not appear on any of the line’s packaging, it is used by collectors and Star Wars collecting-themed websites to distinguish the 1995-1998 line from Kenner’s original 1985 Power of the Force collection.)

As a guy who has been collecting Star Wars action figures since  Kenner Toys of Cincinnati introduced them 40 years ago, I think the concept behind The Kenner Collection’s Complete Galaxy set is brilliant. Here, for the first time, fans could own nicely-rendered globes based on key locations in that galaxy far, far away – and with a 3.75-inch scale action figure, too.

The overall quality of this 1998 collectible is good. Considering that it was manufactured and marketed for a general audience and not for wealthy investor-type collectors, the design and presentation of Dagobah with Yoda is remarkably good. I like how the globe gives us an idea of where certain locales on the mysterious and mist-shrouded planet are in relation to each other, e.g. Luke’s crash site is said to be east-southeast of Yoda’s humble hut.

Because Hasbro did not create the Complete Galaxy collection for grownup consumers only (the manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $14.99 per set), the globes still have some toy-like features. For instance, since the globes are meant to be opened in order to display the figure in its “home environment,” there is a hinge that is not easily seen when it’s in the “open” position but is quite prominent when the Dagobah with Yoda set is closed in “globe-only” mode.

Now, I love anything that closely resembles a diorama, and even though Complete Galaxy globes only featured one action figure, I still have great fondness for them. I like the detailing on both the Dagobah globe and the Yoda figure; the former has a nicer, subtler paint job than one in the photos from Rebelscum.com, while the latter – the 1998 action figure of Grand Master Yoda – is an improvement over the older 1980 figure from Kenner’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back collection.

Though ’98 Power of the Force 2 Yoda is not as nicely sculpted as the later Star Wars Saga’s Yoda (Jedi Master) figure from the 2002 line, it lacks the weird orange eyes and pet snake of the original 1980 figure. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the figure in Dagobah with Yoda is an improved version of the basic POTF2 Yoda figure from 1996.

What’s not to love, right?

Finally, a word about the “history lesson” on the package blurb:

Dagobah with Yoda was produced at a crossroads in the history of the Star Wars franchise. The Classic Trilogy was 15 years in the rearview mirror – this set came out 15 years after Return of the Jedi’s theatrical run ended. The Expanded Universe was at the height of its popularity, and Episode I was a year away from its premiere on May 19, 1999.

Lucasfilm was, naturally, interested in maintaining secrecy about the exact plot of the Prequel Trilogy’s first film, so it did not provide Hasbro with any information regarding Yoda or his role in the Republic era except for what was known from Episode V and Episode VI.

Consequently, the bio of Yoda is more consistent with the Expanded Universe/Legends than with official Lucasfilm canon. For instance, the package blurb informs us that Yoda is 800 years old, which is 100 years less than the 900 years he tells his last Padawan, Luke Skywalker, in Return of the Jedi.

Hasbro’s biographical entry also alludes to events mentioned in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, albeit in a vague manner that is open to interpretation.