Battlestar Galactica toys have been famous since the 1970s, when the first Colonial Viper and Cylon Raider hit shelves, becoming instant classics. These toys are still eagerly sought today by collectors. In 1996-7, Trendmasters produced a modern revision of the Cylon Raider and the Colonial Viper, along with several figures, without so much as a TV show in the wings to boost sales. It did it out of love for Battlestar Galactica.

Now that the series is back and popular, it's Hasbro's turn, and while it's been slow off the mark, the results so far are good. For a couple of years now, Hasbro has been producing small die-cast metal ships from the Star Wars line, and it has now released three die-cast models in the same size and line for the Battlestar Galactica license.

Shipping in the same cartons with its Star Wars titanium toy line, in the exact same packaging but appropriately labeled, are the Colonial Viper Mark VII vehicle, the Cylon Raider vehicle and the Battlestar Galactica herself, each about 3 inches in length, made of die-cast metal and plastic.

Each ship comes with a black plastic display stand with clear arm, with a silver Battlestar Galactica logo at the front (sort of—I'll explain later). The Viper and Galactica have moving play features.

Small but wonderful

The Mark VII Viper appears to be mis-labeled on its packaging. This should be the Mark II Viper, an update of the original. (The Mark VII Viper is coming in a future wave.) It measures about 3 inches in length and is nicely painted in white and bright red with grays. Fitting on a standard titanium series-style stand, it features two play actions: Its clear canopy slides forward, as the Viper does on the series, and three landing struts can be lowered and raised, one front strut and two rear legs. When retracted, a substantial piece of the front leg still protrudes, however. This isn't too tragic.

The Cylon Raider has no movable parts, but it also sits on the small stand and is nicely painted in dark purple and black, with red engine highlights. Originally, the Cylon Raider was a saucerlike ship piloted by three Cylon robots. The new series does away with these redundant robots, turning the ship itself into a robot, with no need for a pilot. And instead of being saucer-shaped, this one is more skeletal, with forward-reaching spikes. It still has the vintage green hexagon logo of the Cylon fleet.

The Battlestar Galactica, reminiscent of its classic design, is more than 3.5 inches long. The new design incorporates the original side-mounted landing bays, which act as dual runways and retrieval decks for the fleets of Vipers aboard ship. In this updated version, the bays retract into the body to protect them from hits by attacking Cylon ships. This model has two plastic landing bays, which retract into the body appropriately. This model is painted in shades of gray with red highlights and light blue for engine flare. It also comes with a stand, which mounts into the body quite far back, forcing the ship to droop nose-down a bit, an odd place for a stand mount for such a heavy toy.

I have one or two small qualms about these ships. The first is that the Viper MK VII has some very sloppy paint on the rear vertical foil—but, admittedly, that could be a problem with our review unit and not an indication of general sloppiness in the line; and, as I already mentioned, its front landing strut protrudes a bit much when retracted. But otherwise it's a sleek, fun ship, and a joy to have.

The other problem is the fact that, inexplicably the Battlestar Galactica I unpacked came with a Star Wars display stand rather than one with the silver Battlestar Galactica logo across the front. As these ships are manufactured alongside Hasbro's titanium Star Wars vehicles, such a factory mixup is understandable, but it is a bit strange.

All in all, these are a welcome set of toys for a lover of the new series.