The Phantom Menace is back in theatres and the toy store shelves are beginning to party like it's 1999. The first assortment released in Hasbro's brand new Walmart exclusive Discover The Force line featured five completely new figures based on some of the support and background characters in the first film in the Star Wars saga as well as seven repack figures. Every figure in this assortment features a black display stand, a playing card, and a black six-sided die.



Aurra Sing
Of all the new figures in this assortment, only two are recreations on previously released figures, but of those two, the Aurra Sing figure packs the most punch. Not only does this figure feature twelve well hidden points of articulation, it comes packed with everything you'd want including a removable vest and gun belt, two blasters, her long rifle, as well as a case with three removable Lightsabers!

While the head antenna may seem a bit large in the photos, it actually doesn't look too bad in person. This figure is a must have and once you have it loose and displayed on your shelf, you'll want to dispose of the original Power Of The Jedi figure, it's horrible repaint, and maybe even The Clone Wars versions of Aurra Sing (though we'd recommend keeping TCW one as well).



Tusken Raider
This figure is a slight repaint of The Vintage Collection Sand People originally released in 2006. Beyond a darker wash, it is essentially the exact same figure, which is great news for collectors looking to increase their Tusken Raider army or previously missed out. If you already have enough of this figure you know it is awesome, but can live without it.



Ric Olié and the Naboo Pilot
Since, with the exception of the helmet and head sculpts, these figures are almost completely identical, we might as well look at them both at the same time. This new body buck is awesome, with fourteen points of very well hidden points of articulation. There is a question about the functional holster and whether it is screen accurate, but who cares. It's a 3 3/4" figure that costed less that $10, and it has a functional holster (something the Original Star Wars Generation would have killed to have on our figures). Both figures also include a Naboo blaster, unique helmets (Ric's goggles are down, the other dude's are up), and a soft goods trench coat.

Both of the head sculpts are excellent, and with the unique helmets, these two figures don't look identical, and the idea of having more head/ helmet variations in the future is very welcome. If there is one negative comment to make about this figure it would have to be how connected the moulded light brown jacket's collar is. Ideally the collar should allow you to get the soft goods trench coat under it for more film accurate look, but once again, the overall quality of these two figures outweighs this one complaint. Maybe Hasbro will be able to alter this in future releases.

All said, both are must have figures.



G8-R3
What do you get when you take a Build-A-Droid R5 unit and a Naboo Astromech stand? A new Naboo Astromech. What more can we say? It's pretty cool, and worth getting if you want more Naboo Astromechs.



Mawhonic
Who ever thought Mawhonic was super short? No really, it makes sense since he's a pod racer, and in a horse jockey sort of way we should be expecting little dudes. After all, the other pod racers, including our boy Ani, are short, but Kenner got the best of us. Our Ree-Yees figure was only ever so slightly shorter than the other figures in the Return Of The Jedi action figure collection. That said, the Hasbro version that came out in 1998 wasn't all that tiny. None of that is relevant really, since this figure is very cool. Hasbro did a real nice job making this pod racer look good. The sculpt is great, the spray ops are dead on, and the accessories, which include a repaint of Bossk's rifle and a racer flag, are great.

If pod racers aren't high on your priority list, you may want to leave this one at Walmart, but if awesome Star Wars figures are what you want, don't overlook this little guy.



Darth Maul
Is it just us, or is three Darth Maul figures in one month simply too many? If you already have this figure you don't need this repack, and if you don't have a Darth Maul figure, there are two better ones currently hitting the action figure aisles.



Wait a second. Where are the Destroyer Droid, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Yoda, and Gungan Warrior figures? Sadly, Canadian Walmarts aren't carrying these figures, and I haven't got my hands on the last few repacks. All said, I don't think I'm too excited about more repacks anyway...