When I was growing up I remember that there were toys for boys and then there were toys for girls. There really wasn’t that many female action figures. You had the one Princess Leia action figure that girls would get by default since the boys didn’t want to play with her. Today things thankfully have changed. As a father of two daughters who loves comic book heroes and Star Wars I am delighted to see the change. While some might feel that there is still a shortage in female action figures, which for some toy lines I agree, but there is not a lack of women figures in the Star Wars line.
When the show “Star Wars: Rebels” debuted last year many girls and boys were happy to see that those heroes were made up of both men and women. My daughters and I love the characters of Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren. When the first wave of Rebels figures came out those two ladies were not in the mix. Thankfully this year both girls and boys will be able to play with these two action figures. There will be a ton of fantastic figures and other accessories that our family will be on the lookout for from the “Star Wars: Rebels” line.
Even before Disney, Star Wars, and Hasbro teamed up to make this line of both men and women action figures, there were still a bunch of women characters from the past Star Wars toy lines. From Ahsoka Tano to Shaak Ti to Bastila Shan to Toryn Farr we have a bunch of female action figures that we play with from time to time. Don’t get me wrong though, my daughters also play with guy figures as well. They will pick up Leia and Han Solo or Chewbacca and R2-D2. We make up our own storylines and it doesn’t matter which figure we are playing with at that time. My daughters don’t care about the gender of that figure. They just want to play with their favorite characters.
Now with Sabine and Hera the fun has just multiplied. When we got Sabine this week, my youngest couldn’t wait for me to open the box. Once I did she took her and asked me to get the other figures so we could make up a storyline for them. I got out a bunch of my old Stormtroopers and Darth Vader from when I was a kid. The premise was that Vader and his crew were out to find the rebels and stop them. My daughter picked out a few men and women rebel figures and we started to play. I could tell she was delighted to be able to play with a character she loved watching on Disney XD. She held on to Sabine until we had to go and pick up her sister at school.
From a geek standpoint I loved the detail that Hasbro gave to Sabine. I even marveled at the fact that you could actually store her blasters in her side holsters. Now we wouldn’t have to worry about losing the blasters. Yes, that was the practical dad side talking right there. Getting back to the topic though, I hope that other toy lines take note of what Disney, 
Star Wars, and Hasbro are doing by having more female action figures. More and more girls out there are realizing it is cool to embrace their geek and adventure side when it comes to toys, shows, and games. We need more Sabines and Heras out there!
Please note: I was given the Sabine and Stormtrooper pack from Disney, but my thoughts are my own.