Star Wars Rivals by Funko Games

I first heard about Star Wars Rivals during the lead up to this year's May the Fourth "celebration." (May 25th will always be Star Wars Day for me!) From what I saw it was going to be a Walmart exclusive and in conjunction with the Fourth, they were supposed to have events or something to kick off the release. 

 

 Now that I'm actually reading the Funko game site, the starter set was available for pre-release online at Walmart starting 5/4 with wider availability in June. Still doesn't explain why I haven't seen any until a few weeks ago. Update: I stopped in Walmart today (7/27) and they had the starter set next to the action figures but the boosters are still in the game section...two aisles apart!

No Starter Sets to be found, just a lonely, single box of booster packs near the board game section. Luckily, you only need one Light Side and one Dark Side to play the game. 

 

We'll break it open after the...well, break. 

They pack quite a bit into each booster box!

 

You get: 1 random Light/Dark Side figure, their character card, 5 action cards, 2 location cards, 2 generic trooper cards, 3 location markers, a High Ground marker, a special d6, and of course, a rule book.

The object of the game is to win locations by having the most influence points at them. Instead of me doing a lot of typing, here's a quick 5 minute video explaining game play.

 

 

While I'm always down to check out a new Star Wars game, the main reason I wanted to pick some of these up was to check out the figures.

 

 On average, they stand as tall as a LEGO minifig. They have a cutesy cartoon big-head design which works...for the most part. I'm not sure what is going on with Chewbacca's forehead here. He kinda looks like Sam Jackson in Black Snake Moan.

I think even without all the game stuff, $5 for a stylized little figure is pretty good. Of course, the boosters are blind boxed so you don't know who you're getting. The boosters also have a chance to contain hologram versions of some characters. 

 

In addition to the boosters, there's also a Starter Set that includes the odd assortment of Vader, Asajj Ventress, Luke, and Commander Cody. Plus location cards and a specially cut die you can only get in the starter.

Funko has started introducing convention exclusives which means I'm not even going to try to collect a whole set of these.