“Battle at the Sarlacc Pit” Battle Pack by Hasbro (Target Exclusive)

Target has had a number of exclusives from Hasbro, such as the Jabba’s Rancor set from 2009. I guess this set was in stores in 2008 — a bit before I made the jump to full-blown Jabba collecting — so I passed on it at the time. I’ve been wanting to get one for quite a while and finally got one new in the box for a pretty reasonable price. As you can see, it comes with five figures (Weequay, Lando, Han Solo, Luke and Boba Fett — more on these below) and of course the skiff and the sarlacc pit itself. The figures are all retreads of things we’ve seen before and the skiff has also been released in the past, so it’s the sarlacc that’s the real attraction here. Hasbro does a good job of displaying these sets in the boxes, although they can be rather difficult to get out. But for a set like this, I don’t like keeping it in the box.

The skiff is nice enough, and features retractable landing gear and gangplank. I did find that the landing gear had a tendency to retract too easily, though.

The sarlacc is actually three main pieces. On top is a “sand” shell that is made of very thin plastic. Seriously, it feels like it will break if you look at it wrong. It’s also got a shiny finish that doesn’t really make it look much like sand. It’s more like a loaf of bread than anything.

Under that is another sandy piece with the pit and sarlacc in the middle. This is made of much thicker and sturdier plastic. The sarlacc itself comes with the “beak” that was added in the special edition of Return of the Jedi, but luckily this is removable.

This is without a doubt the best part of the set. The sarlacc looks fantastic and is surprisingly realistic looking. It’s made of very thick plastic that’s quite rubbery and heavy. The tentacles (at least the big one) have wires inside for posing.

You can remove it from the sand part, although I’m not really sure why you’d need to. The “beak” also comes apart. I suppose this is to allow you to have it “eat” figures.

These battle packs come with a number of figures, which may make them seem like a good deal, but they are generally substandard compared to the figures that are sold individually. These are not very well painted and they’re not the super articulated types of figures we’re accustomed to.

Overall, it’s not a bad set considering all you get, although the figures are not great. It’s probably worth getting just for the sarlacc part, at least for me.