Dash Rendar's Outrider

5/15/2026

Dash Rendar's Outrider was released by Hasbro in 1996 in the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire toy line for $21.99. The same vehicle was repackaged one year later in the green Power of the Force packaging, but the actual Outrider toy remained identical between both releases. For a look at every 3.75-inch Star Wars figure released in 1996 in the Shadows of the Empire line, have a look here.

Packaging And Assembly

Inside the box, Dash Rendar's Outrider requires very little assembly. The cockpit plugs into the main body of the ship, and the bottom cannon plugs into the underside. Once those parts are attached, the vehicle is ready for display or play in less than a minute.

The more time-consuming part is the sticker sheet. The Outrider includes a fairly large number of stickers for the hull and cockpit interior, and applying them carefully can easily take around 30 minutes. Once the stickers are on the ship, they really do give the vehicle more personality. They add a little life to the hull and help break up the large sections of molded plastic.

Cockpit And Figure Compatibility

The cockpit opens and has room for one 3.75-inch Star Wars action figure. There is enough space inside for the bulkier Power of the Force figures from the 1990s, which is good news since those figures were not exactly known for being slim.

The cockpit also features a multi-position seat. The seat can be moved and swiveled around a little bit, which adds some extra play value and gives Dash Rendar a slightly more dynamic pilot position inside the Outrider.

Outside of the cockpit, there is no interior play area. The main body of the ship does not have opening panels, crew quarters, storage compartments, or hidden figure areas. What you see from the outside is essentially what you get. The Outrider is built as a solid toy vehicle shell rather than a miniature playset.

Features And Play Value

Dash Rendar's Outrider includes manually deployable landing gear on the bottom of the ship, which helps stabilize the vehicle when it is placed on a shelf or table. There are no firing missiles or electronic features included.

The guns on the top and bottom of the hull can rotate 360 degrees, and the gun turret on the very bottom of the ship can also rotate 360 degrees. These moving weapons add some nice hands-on play value, even though the vehicle does not include spring-loaded firing features.

The main action feature is built around the rotating center section. By pulling the main hull apart, the middle portion of the ship can rotate, which gives collectors a few different display options and allows the ship to be posed in more dynamic battle positions. It is a simple feature, but it works well for the design of the Outrider.

Scale And Display Value

There is no way around it: Dash Rendar's Outrider is extremely undersized for the 3.75-inch scale. In that sense, it follows the same general idea as the vintage Kenner Millennium Falcon, where the vehicle is clearly scaled down to make it work as a toy. The big difference is that the Millennium Falcon still offered an interior play area, while the Outrider does not.

Even with those limitations, this is still a cool vehicle and an important piece for collectors who enjoy the 1996 Shadows of the Empire era. It remains the only Outrider vehicle Hasbro made for 3.75-inch Star Wars figures, and it seems very unlikely that this ship will be revisited in this scale anytime soon.

Final Thoughts

Dash Rendar's Outrider is not the most feature-packed Star Wars vehicle from the 1990s, but it fills a very specific gap in the collection. It represents one of the most memorable parts of Shadows of the Empire, and for fans of Dash Rendar, Prince Xizor, and that entire multimedia moment, this is really the only 3.75-inch compatible Outrider option available.

The vehicle is usually not too expensive on the secondary market, so if you are looking to fill a hole in your Shadows of the Empire collection, it is worth keeping an eye out at toy shows or on eBay. A clean, complete example with the cockpit, bottom cannon, landing gear, rotating weapons, and well-applied stickers makes for a fun display piece.

What Was Shadows Of The Empire?
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was Lucasfilm's major 1996 multimedia event set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It was often described as a Star Wars movie without the movie, because Lucasfilm treated it almost like a full theatrical release without actually producing a film. The project included a novel, comic books, a Nintendo 64 video game, a PC game, a soundtrack by Joel McNeely, Topps trading cards, role-playing game material, posters, model kits, Micro Machines, toys, action figures, and vehicles. For collectors, the 1996 Shadows of the Empire toy line remains a fascinating snapshot of the Power of the Force era, and Dash Rendar's Outrider is one of its most recognizable vehicle releases because it was a unique design not made prior.

Packaging Text
There are few who can shoot, fly, and brag like Dash Rendar. As one of the most effective mercenaries and smugglers in the galaxy, he needs a craft large enough to hold a sizable cargo, but with the speed and agility of a starfighter. The Outrider is such a ship. Its design is inspired by a Corellian freighter much like the famed Millennium Falcon, with a few different specifications. For one, the Outrider is more compact and a little quicker in sub-lightspeeds. It also has a beefed-up hyperdrive and powerful twin shield generators housed in the forward main hulls. Rotating dual laser cannons are mounted on the top and bottom turrets, but its most notable feature is its conversion to battle mode. This is a state-of-the-art defense system in which the main hull separates from port to stern with a rotating swing-arm mechanism that provides the ship with an almost unlimited field of fire. In this mode the ship is extremely difficult to control unless flown by a master such as Rendar, whereby it can be extremely effective in battle. Moving just below lightspeed with swing-arm wildly circumventing the ship's rotating axis, the Outrider may appear to be flying out of control when in fact, it is efficiently avoiding enemy fire and destroying enemy craft at an unbelievable rate. Many have compared the Outrider's “blast-cluster” attacks to a hurricane, since it appears to be moving in every direction at once before snapping out of battle-mode and into lightspeed for an easy exit. With Dash Rendar in her cockpit, the Outrider is a devastating fighter and one of the most challenging targets in the galaxy.