Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Resistance X-Wing

Wal-Mart releases a new troop-building variant of The Force Awakens X-Wing Fighter.

Based on the images and trailers we’ve seen, Star Wars The Force Awakens will feature a few very different styles of X-Wing fighters.  Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron will pilot his intriguingly-colored black and orange ship (part of the Resistance’s Black Squadron), while many of the other X-Wings feature a grey and blue color pallet more closely tied to their Original Trilogy colors.

It’s this semi-classic colorway that gets featured in the new Resistance X-Wing, a Wal-Mart exclusive vehicle that helps us build the space-faring forces of the heroes of the new Star Wars trilogy.  I like the Resistance X-Wing quite a lot, not only because it feels like such a throwback to the OT movies, but in that small upgrades make it a much better toy than Poe’s somewhat problematic X-Wing.

The Resistance X-Wing has a nice, classic feel, cast in a very light grey (lighter than the original X-Wings), with royal blue detailing that really pops.  The ship features BB-8 (or a like-kind droid, at least) in the navigation pod, and the new centralized turbines next to the chassis, that split in half when the wings expand open with a push of BB-8’s head.  One of the big improvements with this repaint over the black and orange starship are the wing-mounted blasters.  The plastic used for Poe’s ship, quite frankly, sucked, and the long, thin guns were warped in the packaging.  The new blasters are just firm enough to avoid such warpage, making them straight and parallel, giving the ship a much more polished, complete look.

Of course, every X-Wing needs a pilot, and rather than recast X-Wing pilot Poe, this exclusive delivers a semi-new figure, featuring Poe in his Resistance fatigues and his white pilot helmet.  I was disappointed to see this figure’s helmet was not removable, and does not feature the very nice translucent visor of the Black Squadron X-Wing pilot, but the more basic Poe figure does fit in much better with the similarly designed Ello Asty and Resistance Trooper figures.

The best part of this Poe is that his head is uniform with other figures based on the new character, meaning it’s simple to swap an un-helmeted head onto the Resistance Poe, or replace the dark green helmet of the pilot figure with this white version.  I love that kid of simple versatility, and while we have no real clue what looks Poe will actually sport in the upcoming film, I feel that between all the action figures released for him, we can cover each costume in toy form with minimal effort.

It’s also great that this X-Wing is more generic, making it a perfect Resistance army builder vehicle.  I’ve got Asty in the cockpit of my first starship, and I already sort of want a second one for my white helmet Poe figure.  On some level, I am sort of bummed by the relative featureless-ness of the vehicle… it’s got a great sculpt with tons of detail, but it’s just straight factory grey plastic with some blue highlights… no washes, no shading, no additional tones to add realism and make the toy feel more authentically lived-in.  I get that this is part of Hasbro’s Force Awakens basic collection, but let’s be honest– it’s still a $50 toy, so any extra paint apps and attention to detail would obviously be warmly welcomed.

Even without those extra details, the Resistance X-Wing is pretty cool.  I love the generic versatility of both the ship and its pilot figure, and based on what I’ve seen, Wal-Mart is stocking this thing heavily enough that army building shouldn’t be too big a hassle, for those so inclined.  The more overt design flaws of Poe’s black X-Wing have been resolved with this release, and while it’s still on a small side, the fighter fits any pilot figure quite well, and feels like another great retro-inspired throwback release.

Had Hasbro and Wal-Mart released this set for ten dollars cheaper, it would have felt like a true highlight of the collection.  But even with the just-north of reasonable price tag, the Resistance X-Wing is a cool vehicle, which we already know will play some kind of role in the (hopefully epic) dogfights we will see in The Force Awakens next month.  Check your local Wal-Mart stores, because the new X-Wing is hitting now.  Be on the lookout for the Force Awakens/ Battlefront end cap display, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding this set.