Monthly Archives: October 2025

#3933: Sy Snootles & Joh Yowza

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

SY SNOOTLES & JOH YOWZA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

First appearing during the Jabba’s Palace sequence of Return of the Jedi, the band that would eventually be known as the Max Rebo Band was a three-piece band, and one that was never named on-screen.  The first names they got were courtesy of Kenner’s original toy releases, where they were collectively named as “Sy Snootles and the Rebo Band,” with the main name hailing from Sy Snootles, the band’s front and center singer from the movie.  The first Special Edition release added new members to the band, and Sy was ultimately given a bit of a downgrade, with Max taking the official front man spot for the group as a whole.  There were three band pairs released by Kenner in their Power of the Force run, and today, I’m looking at original front performer Sy Snootles and one of the new additions, Joh Yowza!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Sy Snootles and Joh Yowza are the first of the three “Max Rebo Band Pairs” released by Kenner in 1998 as part of their Star Wars: Power of the Force II line.  The pairs were all exclusive to Walmart at the time.  This set in particular has the notoriety of being the only totally CGI character-focused one, so there’s that.

SY SNOOTLES

As one of the original members, Sy was portrayed in the original film by use of a puppet.  For the Special Edition, she was re-designed to allow for more expressive and modern (at the time) effects-driven approach.  She’s ultimately a lot more cartoony, which is okay enough, and does at least make this a more drastically different figure from the original.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  Though she gets the basic movement, it’s generally pretty restricted.  A lot of that’s to do with the preposed nature of the figure’s sculpt, since she’s been given a rather sassy pose, which feels pretty in keeping with her characterization.  Despite not being very posable, the sculpt is nevertheless a pretty nice one.  It matches the design from the movie, and there’s also plenty of texture work, especially on the reptilian looking skin.  Sy’s color work also matches well with her film appearances.  It’s admittedly a bit of a departure from the usual Star Wars colors, especially the predominantly brown-based shades of Jabba’s palace.  The application’s pretty cleanly handled, and she even gets a little bit of accenting on her outfit.  Sy is without any accessories, though she was originally shown with a microphone and stand.  Since she doesn’t use them in the movie, though, they were dropped before release.

JOH YOWZA

Joh was added for the Special Edition, and is an entirely CGI creation.  He’s pretty much the epitome of the “annoying CGI creations that jump in front of the screen and make noise.”  So, you know, he’s not particularly well-liked.  It doesn’t help that he doesn’t much *look* like a Star Wars character, but hey, that’s just how it is.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation that are even more pointless than those on Sy.  He’s really pre-posed, and exactly what that pose is supposed to be is…unclear?  I don’t know.  The sculpt does a good job of capturing Joh’s design, whatever your opinion of said design might be.  It’s got some interesting texture work, and if nothing else, the face is certainly expressive.  Joh’s paint work was pretty involved, with a fair bit of accent work going on.  The fur work in particular works pretty well.  Like Sy, Joh is without any accessories.  There was a third-party instrument made available, for people that didn’t want empty hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My family didn’t really shop at Walmart in the ‘90s, and without access to the internet as it is, I didn’t really know about these sets until much later.  They’ve been on my want list for a good long while though.  I had the opportunity to grab most of the band members loose via a trade-in to All Time Toys about a year ago, which is how I got both of these.  Of the three sets, this one’s definitely the weakest.  Neither figure is really much in the way of playable, and Joh in particular just isn’t really impressive by any metric.  Still, they’re not terrible in the slightest.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3932: Ultraman Trigger Truth

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ULTRAMAN TRIGGER TRUTH

SH FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

When I last reviewed an Ultraman figure here on the site, it was in fact an Ultraman completely unrelated to the usual Ultramen I review around here, what with being from Superman and all.  That said, I did have a proper Ultraman related review back in the spring.  Last year, though, I had a heck of a run of Figuarts Ultramen, and that was super fun.  Here’s a little more of that.  Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga was released in 2021, corresponding with the 25th anniversary of Ultraman Tiga, to which it serves as a spiritual and thematic successor.  Much like Tiga, Trigger has a number of different forms he can use for different situations, which adds more possibilities for action figure releases.  Today, I’m looking at Trigger Truth, which is Trigger’s ultimate final form.  Yaaaaay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultraman Trigger Truth was added to Bandai’s SH Figuarts line in the summer of 2023.  It’s a Tamashii Nations Store-exclusive.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 44 points of articulation.  Trigger’s articulation scheme is really strong, moving further away from the more fiddly nature of earlier Ultras.  I was also quite pleased to see how much range he had on the shoulders, even with all the extra armoring.  Trigger’s designs are meant to emulate Tiga in terms of vibe and style.  His standard look equating to Tiga’s, and Trigger Truth is a bit of a build on that general look, working in elements of some of his earlier forms.  It’s a fun amalgamation of various elements, and it certainly gives the sculpt a lot of more ornamental detailing to work with, an it does it really well.  The detailing is very clean, and captures his design quite nicely.  Like Tiga, Trigger’s main color scheme is a balance of silver, purple, and red, with a bit of gold accenting worked in.  Truth keeps that general set-up, but adds some additional black accenting, showing the elements he’s gained from his “Dark” form that figure into Truth.  It adds a nice pop to the design, which helps the other elements stand out even better.  Trigger Truth was packed with five pairs of hands (in fists, relaxed, two styles of flat, and open gesture), an additional hand with a True Zeperion Beam effect attached, and his True Timer in two different colors.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My last run of Figuarts Ultramen kind of all fell into my lap, but since then it’s been a bit slower, since I don’t have as easy a time finding them, what with them all being imports and all.  But, as luck would have it, my wife was going on a trip to New York with her siblings, and invited me along, giving me the opportunity to swing by the Tamashii Nations Store in NYC, which of course calls for an Ultraman purchase.  This guy was the one that jumped out at me, so he was the one I snagged.  He’s a lot of fun.  I knew pretty much exactly what to expect, but that doesn’t make a new Ultraman any less awesome to get.