May the Fourth Be With You - Transformers Crossovers Yoda

It's May 4th, also known to many around the world as "Star Wars Day," or, as my friends often hear it (if only through me), "Bad Pun Day." As I'm writing this, the opening crawl to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is scrolling up my television screen. Time to pull out another Transformers feature from the now-defunct "Crossovers" line. Having already featured Darth Vader (as the Death Star) and Han Solo & Chewbacca (as the Millennium Falcon), it's time to showcase Yoda.

With other figures in the Star Wars Crossovers line, an effort was made to connect each character with a vehicle associated with it. This was no doubt a bit of a challenge for Yoda, who continues to be most closely associated with the swamp world of Dagobah, and perhaps secondarily to having been on the Jedi Council during the Clone Wars. He's not particularly known for being a pilot. Ultimately, the decision was made to have Yoda turn into a Republic Attack Shuttle, a vehicle used with some frequency in the Clone Wars CGI cartoon.

In robot mode, Yoda wields a lightsaber, the traditional weapon of the Jedi. Whereas older Star Wars Transformers figures (including both Vader and the Falcon duo) included small figures that would be carried within the robot/vehicle, this was no longer the case by the time the Yoda figure was made. Thus it is perhaps a bit more ambiguous whether this figure is intended to represent a mecha piloted by Yoda, or if this is meant to be Yoda himself. Of course, it's safe to say that all of the Star Wars Transformers would have to represent some alternative universe to the "galaxy far, far away" as seen in the movies. It would be difficult to imagine these transforming robots as tools only ever used off-screen, if they are assumed to exist at all.

One final note regarding Yoda. Whereas my other Star Wars Transformers represent characters and vehicles from the classic trilogy of the late '70s and early '80s, this Yoda figure is more properly associated with the prequel trilogy. As a matter of fact, most of the Star Wars Transformers are characters and vehicles from the Clone Wars era, almost certainly due to the fact that, between the more recent movies and the Clone Wars cartoon, this is the era more children of today identify with most readily. It is almost certainly a reflection on my own age that my collection has focused on what is actually a specific minority from within everything that was available from the line.