Eighteen years ago today, Star Wars released an expansion for a card game that did not trust cards to be interesting enough on their own. On July 26, 2008, WizKids launched the Clone Wars expansion for the Star Wars PocketModel Trading Card Game. It was a collectible game where players opened packs, pushed tiny plastic pieces out of cards, assembled miniature starfighters, and then used those ships in battle. So before you could play, you first had to prove you were capable of building an ARC-170 without snapping off something important. A Card Game with Actual Ships Inside The Star Wars PocketModel TCG combined trading cards with constructible miniatures. Each pack contained flat plastic model sheets. Players punched out the pieces and slotted them together to create small ships, vehicles, and other units. Those models were then placed directly on the table and used in a simplified miniatures game with…
