OBI-WAN KENOBI — JEDI DUEL
STAR WARS: EPISODE I (HASBRO)
It’s another Friday, which means it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum! Today, we venture once more into the galaxy far, far away, albeit with a slightly different focus than my usual more Original Trilogy-focused interests, instead turning our sights on the now 26 year-old tie-in toyline for The Phantom Menace, with a look back at Obi-Wan Kenobi!
Ah, yes, The Phantom Menace. What a thing that was. Has any other movie simultaneously brought back and killed a beloved franchise? Oddly enough, even though I don’t particularly care for it, it’s the only of the prequel trilogy that I can stand at all these days. Sure, it’s total crap, but it didn’t put me to sleep or make my brain hurt too much like the other two. Plus, it did actually have some pretty good performances by Liam Neeson and Ewan McGreggor. So, it wasn’t all bad I suppose. Just mostly…
Regardless of opinions of the film itself, the toys were a pretty big hit, and they aren’t terrible. So, today I’ll be looking at the basic figure of Ewan McGreggor’s young Obi Wan Kenobi.
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Obi-Wan was released as part of the initial wave of figures released by Hasbro to coincide with the release of the movie. Obi Wan is based on his look during his and Qui Gon’s final battle with Darth Maul. The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and features 10 points of articulation. The articulation is important to note, as this was probably the most articulation ever to be seen on a Star Wars figure at the time. Until Revenge of the Sith came along, this was the new standard. The sculpt on the figure is pretty decent, not perfect, but a nice approximation of what Obi Wan looked like in the movie. While I understand the decision to sculpt the arms bent to hold the lightsaber two-handed, it does leave the sculpt looking a bit odd if he isn’t holding the saber. The torso also suffers from being a bit boxy, even for the time. The paint is serviceable. Nothing spectacular, but pretty good in general. The lines on the boots are a bit fuzzy, but everything else is pretty clean. Mine have long since been lost, but when he was new, Obi Wan included his lightsaber and a “comm-tech” display stand that would play some of Obi Wan’s dialogue from the movie when hooked into the big comm-tech player you could buy.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
While Phantom Menace is far from one of my favorite movies, I was 7 at the time of its release, and I was willing to overlook most of its flaws because it was a new Star Wars movie. I rushed right from the theatre to get an Obi Wan figure (Which was $2.99, by the way. That’d cost you $10 now…), and I was very happy to have him.
Okay, so, like, I just need to address that, amongst the more minor things I disagree with my past self on, a pretty notable one is my stance on the Prequels. The thing is, when they came out, I loved the Prequels, because I was between the ages of 7 and 13, and that’s the perfect time for such things. As a proper adult, I’ve revisited them, and I see what works and what doesn’t, and respect them for what they are, because Star Wars is, first and foremost, about being entertaining and fun, and they’re honestly pretty good at that (so are the Sequels, but that’s another argument entirely). But, there’s a period from the late ‘00s through the mid ‘10s where I gave into the cultural peer pressure of “the Star Wars Prequels are terrible” and stuck with the trendy stance. I’m not about that these days, so I kind of find my opening remarks to this review… “cringe”? At least I do stick up for Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan.
In the heading of my original review, I erroneously list the title of the line as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, when in actuality the line was called Star Wars: Episode I. I was still very early in my reviewing, and not checking information as much as just writing down what I remembered off the top of my head. Otherwise, the actual review part’s not so bad. I was at least pretty nice to the figure. He was at the time missing his lightsaber and CommTech stand, both of which I have since located. Not too bad.
The Figure In Question 
Phantom Menace would have been much better received if Jar Jar had been less over the top. I do still think Clones is mostly boring, and the dialogue isn’t great. I still personally find it hard to watch. At least Phantom Menace is a nice looking movie, not yet the overused green screen mess of the subsequent 2. And that’s my major problem with Sith, a lot of the CGI effects haven’t aged very well (although Jar Jar still holds up quite well), which on its own is forgivable, but when 90% of what you’re looking at on screen is CG, again, moreso the backgrounds than the characters, it gives me a bit of a headache. But I was also 13 when Phantom Menace came out, so my slant is a bit different.
I do think TPM holds up the best of the three, in part because of the larger amount of practical effects, and also because I think there’s more promise of unrealized potential. I always am reminded that Padme’s actually a decently crafted character in the first one, and it’s really just the latter two where she loses all drive.
AOTC is definitely a lot of boring stuff. For me, it’s crazy that if you get just the base plot rundown of what the main characters are doing, you’d assume that Obi-Wan going all film noir detective to track down a bounty hunter and uncover a great conspiracy would be the A-plot, and Anakin and Padme laying low in her summer home the B-plot, but for some reason they’re flipped.
RotS is big, loud, and dumb, and makes very little sense, but it honestly shares that with the third entry in all of the trilogies when you get down to it. Of the three, though, it does suffer the most from Lucas’ cgi addiction.