Four Micro Galaxy Squadron sets have just been unveiled for preorder! As we teased last week, two of them are big ones, but the other two battle packs are a welcome surprise for May the 4th!
These are:
| Item | Preorder date | Vendor | Price |
| AT-AT (Hoth version) | May 4 | Target | $59.99 |
| Emperor’s Shuttle | May 4 | Amazon | $29.99 |
| Battle of Coruscant battle pack | May 4 | Target | $49.99 |
| Destroy the Deathstar battle pack | May 25 (tentative) | Target | $59.99 |
Update: All preorder links added.
The battle packs were announced on the May 3 livestream of BitterAsianDude Inc, hosted by actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Captain Teva on The Mandalorian). The same channel also did the launch for the N-1 Starfighter just over a week ago.
In attendance were Jazwares Sr. Brand Manager Maxwell Lux, Design Director Dion Fields, and Head Copywriter for MGS Tim Bungeroth.
The livestream also had English actor and puppeteer Mike Quinn, who played Nien Nunb in Return of the Jedi. Quinn also puppeteered Ree-Yees, Sy Snootles, and a B-wing pilot in a deleted scene. As Max exclaimed, Mike was literally “in the belly of the beast”.
Fittingly, Mike did the reveal for the Destroy the Death Star and Battle of Coruscant battle packs, while Paul revealed the AT-AT and Shuttle.
Destroy the Death Star battle pack (Target.com) – $59.99
Interestingly, the battlepack was originally labeled “Battle of Endor” in Celebration Europe. Now we know why Max said this pack’s name was their “most aggressive”.
- New Falcon
- 2 TIE Interceptors
- 6 figures (Lando, Nien, 2 Rebel technicians, 2 TIE pilots)
- With clear display stands for the Interceptors
- Available for preorder on May 25 (tentative)
Falcon:
Instead of just a removable radar dish, it comes with two, including a broken version. It also has blaster marks on top and scratch marks where the Falcon scraped the Death Star.
LFL wants to be as screen accurate as possible. As such, DIon says they had to do many iterations of the broken dish. The final version looks sheared off, while still providing enough hand space to be pulled off from the vehicle. The set also comes with the normal radar dish.
According to Dion, the concept Falcon had a mynock eating the power cable sculpted in the battery cover. LFL said “not yet”.
Refinements: There is better seating retention in the cockpit, and snappier clicks for the moving and opening parts.
“The Falcon has a character arc. It changes from A New Hope, to ROTJ, to Force Awakens.” MGS follows these changes.
Interceptors
Have exclusive deco battle damage, unique blaster marks.
Figures
Max: Nien may be the first MGS figure with painted eyes.
Paul: I can confirm Lando has a mustache.
Display stand philosophy:
The set comes with 2 clear display stands.
Dion explained why they included a display stand instead of flight stand. The aim is to keep the interceptor level on a desk or display shelf.
Mike showcases the opening rear engine panel
The Destroy the Death Star battle pack will be up for preorder on Target.com by May 25 (tentative), with a projected July to August shipping date.
AT-AT (Target) – $59.99
Preorder link:
https://www.target.com/p/star-wars-feature-vehicle-9-34-vehicle-38-figure-at-at-wave-3/-/A-87846816
- Hoth version
- 5 figures (AT-AT driver, General Veers, Luke, 2 snowtroopers)
- 1 speeder bike (Hoth colors)
- Available for preorder on May 4
According to Max, it’s their most action-packed vehicle to date. The panels click and snap, the joints ratchet. Among the electronic sounds are the walker’s stomps and General Veer’s lines.
The neck has a ribbed rubber covering, just like the movie version.
Tim: “The head moves really well side to side to recreate the snowspeeder shootdown scene.”
Based on the video, the head has greater angle of movement than past walker model kits.
Dion: Unlike the one shown in Celebration Europe, this is the updated version with deco inside.
The cockpit detailing comes from Empire Strikes Back, while the interior of the body is taken from the Star Wars Cross Sections book as well as the Jedi: Fallen Order video game.
There is a clip for General Veers so he can remain standing in the cockpit, just like during the Echo Base attack.
Paul’s impressions: “The solid ratcheting on joints allows it to hold poses. It also guards against the legs getting loose and floppy over time.”
“Better proportioned walker, piping details, little touches of lights and screens, even little yokes for the driver and the big circular door behind Veers.”
“The attention to detail is spectacular, and the cherry on top is the button placement that allows you to activate walking sounds. while grasping it.”
Max: The walker scale works perfectly with the MGS snowspeeder. It shows how underdog the Rebellion is compared with the Imperial war machine.
There are 2 buttons (top and side) to activate the lights and sounds. Max dropped one Easter egg: if you hold the button down, it continues the walking sound.
Dion also emphasized how the snowtrooper has different shades of white, as well as details in his backpack.
The AT-AT will be available for preorder tomorrow, May 4 on Target.com at 8 am central time. It will retail for $59.99.
Emperor’s Lambda-class Shuttle (Amazon) – $29.99
- 3 figures (Emperor Palpatine and 2 Royal Guards)
- Available for preorder on May 4
According to Max, the ship is so huge that they had to make all three wings removable to make it fit in the Starship-class packaging.
The landing gears have detents, and the rear cannon even swivels.
There is a ratcheting mechanism for the wings with solid clicks, just like the AT-AT’s legs.
Max says the one shown in Celebration Europe was an earlier model with heavy wash. For this version, they toned down the wash and made it more pristine since its unlikely for the Emperor’s shuttle to look dirty.
He also shared one tidbit: the cockpit has room for six figures and one astromech droid (emphasis his), hinting at a future version of the shuttle.
Paul had an Action Fleet Tydirium on hand to compare, and the difference between the two is simply staggering. “The Action Fleet feels like a toy. This one feels like a scale model.”
According to Dion, the Royal Guards have different shades of red like their onscreen counterparts, not just one. He also shared that red is a difficult color to work with, because the red in their 3D renders look different when translated to actual plastic, so they have to make several iterations just to get the shade right.
The Shuttle is now up for preorder on Amazon.
Battle of Coruscant (Target exclusive) – $49.99
Preorder link:
- Anakin and Obiwan’s Jedi Interceptors
- 2 Vulture droids
- 4 figures (Anakin, Obiwan, 2 battle droids)
This set has Vulture droids in CIS livery, unlike the standalone Vulture in Trade Federation colors.
Both Vultures also come with 2 sets of wings, one for walking mode and one for flight mode. According to Dion, they got permission from LFL to turn the Vulture head into a cockpit for a battle droid pilot.
Paul showed off the Vultures in their flight and walking modes. The flight wings have opening and closing pontoons. The walking wings are posable, and the head pops out and pivots.
According to Max and Dion, the figures shown are pre-production samples. The final version will be cleaner with no bleeding.
The battlepack will be up for preorder on Target on May 4.
Other News
Y-Wing Update
Dion also showed a newer version of the Y-wing with improved details, compared to the one in Celebration Europe.
This one has a sublight engine glow and even soot around the thrusters.
For the first time, we can see that it also comes with removable missiles and a highly detailed underside.
Dion also showed a closeup of Gold Leader, who is noticeably more detailed than the Rebel pilots from Series 1 and 2. The figure now comes with the Rebellion insignia on the helmet.
Figure improvements
Speaking of improved figures, during the Destroy the Deathstar unveiling, Max called attention to the enhanced Imperial pilots for the TIE Interceptors.
Paul brought out Dak Reltar from the MGS snowspeeder, showing how far the figures have come from Series 2 to Series 4.
UK Availability
Tim announced that the new vehicles will be available from Smyth’s catalogue for UK fans.
“Know that we know, we love you, and we’re doing everything to get our product to you.”
Current developments
Max says the team is now working on next year’s SDCC exclusives and spring 2025.
They work with LFL 2-3x a week, and every step of the way is a collaborative effort with Lucasfilm, from the initial concept and render to the paint and artwork.
You can watch the full 2.5-hour livestream below. We recommend watching it not just for the MGS preorders. It’s not everyday you get two X-wing pilots on the same interview, when Carson Teva and Nien Nunb compare their X-wing experiences! Also Mike shared a ton of trivia from his time in ROTJ and the sequels!
May the 4th Deals
Amazon has a bunch of Star Wars day deals.
For MGS fans looking for their capital ship fix, now’s a good time to score the huge ship miniatures from the Star Wars X-Wing tabletop game.
Other than Lego sets and the rare Collector’s Series from Galoob, this blockade runner is the largest one you can get for now. Until MGS finally decides to make one.
Star Wars X-Wing C-ROC Cruiser
The C-ROC freighter is another big ship for MGS fans. It’s basically the civilian version of the Gozanti-class cruiser for carrying cargo.
Macy’s also has a “Buy 1, get 40% off another item” deal for May 4. Check out if this applies to the Mission Fleet Gauntlet, so you can have a bigger-sized Gauntlet until MGS makes a properly scaled one!
Video games
Steam has the biggest discounts for Star Wars games until tomorrow only.
- Star Wars Squadrons is a whopping 85% off. Best paired with a VR headset and a flight stick for the ultimate X-wing experience.
- The newer Star Wars Battlefront II is 75% off.
GOG has a 65% off sale on classic Star Wars games until May 5.
- The Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds real-time strategy game is down to $2.09 from $5.99. This was the precursor to the Empire at War RTS.
- The classic Battlefront II (2005 version) is just $3.49 from $9.99. If we can’t have cap ships, at least we can have fun boarding and blowing them up from the inside!
Humble Bundle also has a library of classic Star Wars titles on sale until May 5.
- Empire at War is 65% off.
- The bundled X-wing series as well as Star Wars: Starfighter games are both 65% off
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