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  • Disneyland’s Star Tours Starspeeder 3000 pullback toy

    Posted by jeditricks on August 16, 2001 at 9:50 AM

    I’ve been a Star Tours fan for every second of this ride’s existance, and up until now, have been begging Disney for a toy from this ride… ANY toy. After 14 years (the ride turns 15 next year) and probably 1,000 failed attempts to get to Endor, Disney has finally put out a toy.

    This is an EU Star Wars vehicle which makes it a great addition to almost any Star Wars collector’s collection. If you don’t already know the premise of the ride, these Starspeeder 3000s are the shuttles run by the company Star Tours; basically, it’s the Star Wars equivelant of a Greyhound Bus. It’s a big flight-simulator that holds like 30 people per flight, each ride is exactly the same and last around 4 and a half minutes. You get in, strap down, and you are taken through a few fantastic Star Wars scenarios, the final one being part of the attack on a Death Star before you jump to light speed to escape the blast as it’s blown apart. The ride integrates new footage with existing Star Wars footage and music, and your real-life pilot droid, captain REX, is voiced by Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman) as he makes mistake after mistake while “getting used to his programming”.

    The toy is only five bucks plus tax, but can only be found at Disney theme parks that have the Star Tours attraction. It’s size is slightly smaller than an Action Fleet vehicle, though it’s about the same size as the Action Fleet Series Alpha Royal Starship; if you can find a place in your collection for the AF Cloud Car, then this piece should fit in perfectly. The design is quite accurate on the top and sides, it even has a non-removable R2-D2 sticking out the top in his droid socket. The only inaccuracy from normal view is the black fin at the center of the top, this one is quite a bit shorter than the one on the ride, though this was probably shortened for safety concerns. On the bottom, there is a set of white, free-rolling wheels near the front and a set of white wheels with black tires near the middel which are on the pullback motor. There are some details down there as well, conduits and stuff, but where the wheels are, it’s flat white plastic; other than that, the undercarriage only has some date code stamped in black ink “118”, some molded copyright text which is almost unreadable (and doesn’t tell who the maker of this toy is), and two triangle-head screws which hold the thing together. Luckily, when you have the vehicle sitting on a surface, the wheels are set in far enough that you cannot see them from most angles, so it looks like the ship is actually hovering a few millimeters off the surface, just as it should be.

    The ship has no opening panels or doors since it’s just a pullback, but it’s details are far from being simple or sloppy. The shape, as mentioned before, is very accurate except for the fin, and while R2’s body is smooth white, his dome has a few little dimples and dots which give a good feeling of features. The paint is a bit simple, but well-used for having only 7 different paints total, and very accurate. The silver items are painted carefully and without faults, the big black main window is painted perfectly, even the hatches in R2’s dome, the yellow and black warning plates under the doors, and the Star Tours logo are painted very nicely, no sloppiness here. The tiny Star Tours logo wasn’t perfect in the middle on a few of the ones I saw, but it’s so small you probably won’t notice. Connecting the blaster cannons to their power supply is a bright red paint line which is supposed to be a power conduit, but it looks a bit out of place there and seems like the only sloppy design element… though you’ll probably not notice this at all. Some elements, like the lights above each door and the weathering, are missing from this piece, but you’ll scarcely notice their absence, and I’m sure anybody who does will either forgive such omissions or simply add them by hand.

    Finally, the least-important element for me, the pullback motor. The motor’s strength seems pull back quite nicely and “flies” well, but it takes a little longer than expected for a light toy such as this to get to top speed. However, besides the wheelie it initially pops when starting off, it’s a smooth ride straight down it’s path.

    Ultimately, I’m thrilled they finally put out a toy from this ride and I’m glad that even though it’s a simple $5 pullback toy, it’s very true to it’s source and a great little toy. At this level, I couldn’t be happier – I certainly didn’t expect a “cheap pullback toy” to be this good. While I wish there were larger, more intricate Starspeeder 3000 toys, this will always be a worthy item for my Star Wars collection.
    GRADE: A

    jeditricks replied 23 years, 6 months ago 0 Member · 7 Replies
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