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The Twin Pod Cloud Car (TPCC) is the guardian of
Bespin's Cloud City. They are featured in ESB "escorting"
the Falcon to its' landing platform.
Kenner decided in the 80's that this would make a good toy, and
turned its' brief appearance into a vehicle for action figures.
Appearance:
Well, it looks like a Cloud Car. The scale
and features have been Kennerzied. For a vehicle we only see
at a distance, it's not bad. The design hasn't really been
altered to accommodate any goofy action features.
Painting the guns or making them a different
color, would have been cool. A new version, I'm sure would
have some airbrushing around them. (Yes, Cloud Cars
had guns. They fired past the Falcon, remember?)
The engine pod leave a little to be desired.
For detail there's a decal on the front and one on the back.
A chromed piece or paint inset piece would have been better, but
not really the style back then.
Fun:
Two opening canopies and landing gear comprise
all of the action features for this vehicle. Flashing LED'S?
Nope. Annoying buzzing sound? Not here. Shooting
Missiles? Not a chance.
The canopies for this the TPCC are interesting
because they are two pieces. The inner clear piece and an
outer orange frame piece. I wish the X-Wing canopies
were made this way. It looks a lot more realistic.
The landing gear are independently movable.
There is no switch or lever, just push them in and out.
The cockpits are a bit sparse, a simple seat and
a sticker for a control panel. A little better than the
vintage X-Wing, if you think about it.
Overall:
This was one of my favorite vehicles as a kid.
Sure, I loved my X-wing and TIE fighter, but the Cloud Car held a
special place for me. Why you ask? Simple. It
held two figures. Not many of the smaller vehicles could do
that. If Han and Luke went to some planet to save Leia, this
is the vehicle they took.
Looking at it now, I really love the fact that
they just tried to design a simple vehicle that looked like the
one in the movie. No action features, goofy R2 head or
moving seat. Just a clean representation of the movie
vehicle.
One a side note, my Mom had a Canadian Cloud
Cloud Car in her closet for a long time. It was still in the
box. As a bonus, it came with a Cloud Car Pilot. Hmmmm.....I'll
have to see if I can sneak that by her next time I'm there, if she
hasn't Ebayed it yet.
Engineernerd Score: 90/100
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