BIB FORTUNA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Behold the biggest surprise return Star Wars character of 2020, Bib Fortuna.  Sure, Boba Fett gets all that fuss around him, but we all knew that would happen anyway.  And I’m still not entirely convinced it was Boba anyway.  I mean, did you see how he actually had an impact on the plot and like a character arc, and like dialogue, and like something to do other than just suck?  I feel like that’s not very Boba Fett.  What if he’s another clone?  What if that’s the real twist of Book of Boba Fett?  What if he was really Rex the whole time?  Yeah, that’d be cool.  Wait, I’ve gotten too far off track ragging on Boba Fett.  What was I doing?  Right, Bib Fortuna review.  Of course.  How could I possibly get distracted from that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bib Fortuna was added to the Power of the Force II line in 1997, a year with quite a solid helping of Jabba’s Palace related characters.  Guess they really wanted to have them all ready for the playset the next year.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has the usual 6 points of articulation.  Bib is rather restricted on the articulation front, thanks to a handful of his design cues.  The tendrils on the head negate most of the neck movement, and the robes negate most of the leg and waist movement.  So, while all that articulation is present, he’s not really much more posable than, say, the Royal Guard.  His sculpt is still kind of from the transitional period of the line, so he’s kind of got some of that lingering bulkiness, which makes him not terribly far removed from his Mandalorian appearance, I guess.  The head’s kind of light on detailing for an alien from the line, and while there’s a fully detailed body beneath the rubber robes, there’s also no easy way to see it, since the robes can’t make it over his head.  In general, the detailing on him does seem to be a little softer than other entries from the line, which is too bad.  It’s not terrible, but not great either.  In terms of paint, he’s likewise not bad, but also not terribly inspiring.  The base work is alright, but it’s really just bare minimum.  Also, the blues seem a little too bright to me, but that might just be personal perception.  Bib was packed with a small blaster pistol, you know, for all that cool action stuff he gets into.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Bib is an alright character, I guess, and it was cool seeing him show back up after three decades, but I’m not sure he makes for the most exciting action figure.  This one’s really only good for standing there, which, admittedly, is all the character really does anyway, so I can’t fault them there.  This one wasn’t one I had as a kid, nor was he one I wanted as a kid.  I got his rather recently, as part of a batch of PotF figures I picked up from All Time in the fall of 2019.  He’s okay.  Not super exciting, but he stands behind Jabba well enough.