Over the past few years, Hasbro’s “Haslab” initiative has brought us an array of Star Wars vehicles and playsets that are unlike anything else the company can do across either of its lines in the galaxy far, far away. But perhaps its biggest yet—a scaled replica of Star Wars Rebels‘ main ship, the Ghost—is starting to ship out to backers, giving them what might be the closest we have to an ultimate action figure celebration of one of Star Wars‘ brightest stars.
What’s Included With the Star Wars Haslab Ghost?
Inside the massive box you’ll receive the main body of the Ghost itself, with some assembly required: there are six sections representing the outer hull for you to attach, as well as the ship’s engines, removable panels for the outer hull that includes the topside turret, and removable landing gears to for whether or not you’re displaying the ship in flight or docked. Good luck if you’re doing the former: the Ghost is one of the largest Star Wars vehicles Hasbro has produced at a whopping 28 by 34 inches, and the largest Star Wars Vintage Collection vehicle since the Khetanna sail barge that kickstarted the whole Haslab venture back in 2018.
The Ghost wouldn’t be complete without the addition of its trusty shuttle, the Phantom. Included in this case, to go with the overall theme of this being the Ghost as it’s seen by the fourth season of Rebels and eventually into Ahsoka, the shuttle included here is the bulkier Phantom II, which can be displayed either docked to the back of the Ghost as it is on the show, or separately on its own. The Phantom includes a bonus “Accessory” in the form the head of Chopper, the Spectre team’s trusty droid, which can be slotted into the Phantom‘s droid socket (more on the rest of Chopper’s body, or lack thereof, shortly).
A good ship needs a good crew to pilot it, and the Haslab Ghost has four members of the Rebels team to help do exactly that. Being backed by over 22,000 people by the time its campaign wrapped up, the Ghost unlocked every stretch goal to come with figures of Hera (included as part of the standard campaign), Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb. Each figure comes with a unique Vintage Collection cardback that uses art pulled from the mural Sabine painted of the team at the climax of Rebels (and seen briefly again in Ahsoka) to designate them as exclusive to the Haslab Ghost. But they’re also, for the most part, exclusive to the Ghost‘s release in other ways. Hera, depicted in her Rebels-era flightsuit and pilot goggles, is a completely exclusive figure so far, with the only other Hera released in this scale being based on her appearance in Ahsoka as a General of the New Republic.
Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb meanwhile have all received similar enough retail releases in the line already. Kanan is perhaps the second most unique next to Hera. The retail version of him is based on his appearances in seasons one and two, so the Haslab variant comes with an updated costume, as well as extra accessories to depict Kanan after he’s blinded by Darth Maul: one standard head that includes a removable face mask, and a second that depicts Kanan’s damaged eyes and his shaved haircut from the climactic episodes of season four. Zeb and Ezra meanwhile are the closest to their already-available retail releases. Zeb has alternate graffiti decos on his armor to better align with his appearance in Rebels‘ fourth season, as well as an alternative face sculpt, depicting him smirking. Ezra’s additions meanwhile are purely in the form of a couple more accessories: his stolen Imperial scout helmet, painted by Sabine, and a Loth cat.
That brings us to the elephant in the room: the Haslab Ghost doesn’t come with the full crew of the Ghost. To celebrate the campaign reaching all of its stretch goals, Hasbro announced that it would make versions of Sabine and Chopper to go with the set, but only as an additional purchase, rather than as part of the campaign. On the one hand, this meant anyone, whether or not they backed the Haslab, could get these particular figures, which come with a mural cardback to tie them into the Haslab figures. On top of that, Sabine is at least an almost entirely new sculpt and paint job compared to her Ahsoka release in the Vintage Collection, coming with a bunch of extra accessories (including a few more Loth cats, to start your own pride).
On the other, Hasbro sold this set—emphasis on sold, it’s no longer directly available from the company—for a whopping $50. That is a lot for what is, ultimately, one and a half 3.75″ scale figures. Chopper actually comes with less than his standalone retail counterpart, even if he does have a brighter paint scheme more aligned with his appearance in Rebels. A full tenth of the $500 cost of the Haslab Ghost itself for what is, essentially, an almost mandatory purchase if you actually want a complete Rebels crew is a genuinely wild ask, no matter how great the figures are.
What’s Inside the Star Wars Haslab Ghost?
Once you’ve finished actually putting all the sections of the Ghost together, it’s time to actually remove some of that all over again to get access to the interior of the ship. A couple of top panels can be removed to see what’s inside, including a section that houses the Ghost‘s top gunner turret, itself a standalone “tube” slotted into the top of the ship when closed up. As well as being movable (just like the chin turret below the main cockpit), this top turret also has an adjustable seat, so whether you’re cramming someone as big as Zeb or someone as small as Ezra into it, they fit comfortably.
Once you get all that out of the way though lies the four main sections depicted inside the Haslab, each packed with a ton of small details. First off there’s the cockpit, which includes four main seats, laid out just like they are in the show, and a fifth lower seat at the front to depict the rarely shown forward gunner position. Every panel is covered with fun greebling and little details, with the space to squeeze in all four included figures (it’s an even tighter squeeze with Sabine and Chopper). The cockpit also houses a fun, but difficult to really use, feature from the show: a small ladder at the back of the room to descend into the Ghost‘s main loading bay (more on that later).
Moving through the hallway that connects each section of the interior, the next section is two crew cabins. The starboard side depicts Hera’s quarters, complete with a bunk bed with a removable top part (which has curtains on to give the Ghost‘s captain some privacy) to better pose figures lying in it, while the port side depicts Ezra and Zeb’s shared room, with a ladder to climb up to the second bunk. Lastly, at the aft of the ship is the lounge and kitchen area. The roomiest part of the interior, it’s also the one spot with some bonus included accessories in the form of a few bits of furniture: a dejarik table that can be plugged in next to the lounge’s sofa, a few stools and a wooden chair, and a picnic table to put in the kitchen. Only the first of those bits of furniture can actually be locked into place though, so you will inevitably have some rattling around if you move the Ghost around—but it’s a great place to pose the crew relaxing and hanging out with each other.
As fun as the interiors are, they’re also where the Ghost has had to make some natural cutbacks for scale. The ship isn’t actually fully to-scale for 3.75″ figures, otherwise it would be even more massive than it already is, but that also means some cuts have had to be made on the inside. In the show, the Ghost has four cabins, so the Haslab version has lost both Kanan and Sabine’s rooms. The latter is especially a shame, as it would’ve been great to see the printed deco for Sabine’s graffiti-covered walls in hers, but without a Sabine figure actually being included in the campaign directly, it probably made sense to be one of the cut rooms. You’re also, of course, only getting one level of interior—there’s no room in the ship as-is to depict the full cargo bay, but you at least still get some of it with the ladder down from the cockpit, even if the bay itself is barely accessible. You can open the forward gangway for a little more room, but you can barely squeeze a figure in there, let alone cargo.
The Phantom II is also another example of the Haslab’s condensing for scale. While it matches the size of the ship as is, being below-scale the Phantom II is now less of a shuttle and more of a single-crew fighter: there’s no back seating section, only a single front seat for a pilot, and the reality of the scale as such is that it looks tiny with figures placed next to it. So while you can remove it from its docking port on the Ghost and display it separately with retractable landing gears, it only really works slotted into the ship where it matches the scale better.
Is the Star Wars Haslab Ghost Worth It?
Ultimately, the Ghost probably stands as one of the best vehicles Hasbro has ever made—for the Vintage Collection or otherwise. It’s a massive hunk of plastic and sturdy in all the ways you want it to be. The detailing is fantastic, even with the accommodations to scale the interior is in particular just packed with lots of fun little details that makes setting up little vignettes with the Rebels crew that really does make it feel like it’s a celebration of these characters and their home. And speaking of those characters, their transition to action figure form is fantastic, even with a few largely already having made their way into the TVC line in some form or another. There’s some weird choices to justify “exclusive” versions here—Zeb definitely needed to include the retail release’s head on top of the smiling one, and not sure anyone actually needs this many 3.75″ scaled loth cats—but it’s great to get this later version of the Spectres, Kanan especially, who stands as the best of a good bunch by a significant margin.
Such is the paradox of Haslab projects, however: if you were waiting to read a hands-on piece like this, it’s too late to decide if you want in or not. You have to know you’re invested already to even buy into one at all, whether or not it turns out as good as you wanted it to be. If you backed it? You probably already know the ways to convince yourself that this was worth it—and in many ways, it really is!—regardless. If you didn’t? Well, good look either paying well over that on the aftermarket, or waiting for an extremely rare resale from Hasbro directly, if one ever comes at all.
Either way, you still have to consider the price investment here. The truth is $500 is a lot of money, regardless of whether or not this is a retail product or a curated crowdfunded campaign. The Ghost is massive, yes, but even if price couldn’t have afforded any extra scale, there’s still a few things that could’ve made it an even better toy for the hefty price tag. Lights and sounds in some capacity, even if it was just engine noise and blaster fire, would’ve gone a long way to make the ship feel even more premium. And then, of course, there’s the Sabine/Chopper situation. You’re already paying so much for this that having to fork out even more for it to feel properly complete as the loveletter to Rebels it wants to be is a huge bummer—one that’s only made even worse with how good the rest of the set is.
Even with the bulk of these compromises and considerations though, 10 years after Rebels first soared into our hearts, it’s wild to see the series get such a fantastic celebration of itself in plastic form. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s near enough to the best Hasbro could do to give us the Spectres and their ride in all their glory… almost all of them in one go, at least.
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