Tag Archives: The Empire Strikes Back

#2433: 2-1B Medical Droid

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

2-1B MEDICAL DROID

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Height: 1.5 Meters
Status: Industrial Automaton Surgical Droid
Classification: GeenTech 2-1B Series
Affiliation: Rebel Alliance
Weapon of Choice: Medical Diagnostic Computer”

Droids make up one hell of a subset of the Star Wars universe, and much like the Stormtroopers, they have lots of specialized models.  Also like the Stormtroopers, they’re a really easy thing for toy companies to make bank on, especially when it’s a droid that got some decent screen time.  Today’s focus, 2-1B, showed up in Empire two separate times, patching Luke up first after his run-in with the Wampa, and again after losing his hand to Vader’s lightsaber.  That’s not a bad spread of appearances, now is it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

2-1B was added to Kenner’s Power of the Force II line in 1997.  He’s the second figure of 2-1B, following up on the vintage release.  This sculpt would remain in service through The Vintage Collection in 2011, so clearly Hasbro thought it was a fairly worthwhile effort.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  As with many of the droids released in this line, the poseability’s a little bit restricted on this guy.  That said, he can pretty easily move his head and arms, which is just about all you need from him.  The actual sculpt is quite a nice one.  It’s pretty faithful to the film design, which is quite good for a PotF figure.  I really dig the texture work that went into him, and I especially dig the transparent torso with the visible mechanics within it.  Very fun.  His paint work is also pretty solid.  There’s not a ton going on with it, but all of the appropriate colors are there, and the application’s all pretty clean.  2-1B is packed with his handheld Medical Diagnostic Computer, for all your handheld Medical Diagnostic Computing needs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many of my Power of the Force figures, this guy was a more recent addition to my collection, added during a PotF buying-spree in the fall of 2018.  As far as this line’s droids go, he’s honestly one of the best, and has the benefit of slotting in pretty alright with the more recent stuff as well.  He’s also one of the cooler, more unique droid designs, and one with some decent screen time, making him one of the best in general.

I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2426: Snowtrooper

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

SNOWTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The ice planet Hoth was the site of the terrible conflict between Rebel and Imperial forces called the Battle of Hoth. Though the alliance resisted the Imperial assault for a short period, they were eventually forced to abandon the Echo Base headquarters as it became overrun with fearsome snowtroopers, the Empire’s elite frozen-weather corps.”

Since its very first entry, the Star Wars universe has dabbled in environment-specific variants of its various troopers.  When Empire Strikes Back brought our heroes and villains to the icy planet of Hoth, it brought with it a whole set of cold-weather gear variants.  That included today’s figure, the Snowtrooper!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Snowtrooper was added to the Power of the Force line in 1997.  This was the Snowtrooper’s second time as an action figure, following his original vintage release.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The Snowtrooper is a far more restricted figure than others in the line in terms of articulation.  The nature of the design means that he doesn’t have a neck joint, and the skirt piece means that the hip joints have reduced mobility as well.  The sculpt itself is a reasonable effort.  By this point, pre-posing and wonky proportions were mostly worked out of the line, and the Snowtrooper is reflective of that.  That said, the actual detailing on the sculpt is a little more on the soft side, so a lot of the details get a little lost.  The line was a bit up and down with the sharpness, so it’s too bad that the Snowtrooper falls more into the down, especially given the quality of the vintage sculpt.  The paintwork on the Snowtrooper is actually more complex than you might expect at first glance, with a good deal of weathering mixed in, in order to prevent it from just being an all-white design with nothing to break it up.  It honestly looks pretty good.  The Snowtrooper included a standard Stormtrooper blaster rifle and his supply pack, making for a pretty nice, fairly film-accurate package.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Snowtrooper was added to my collection during one of my PotF buying sprees, in the fall of 2018.  He was actually added to my collection by Max, so it’s technically his fault, I suppose.  The Snowtrooper isn’t one of the line’s most technically impressive figures by any means, but he’s respectable enough in his own right, I suppose.

#2419: AT-AT Driver

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

AT-AT DRIVER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Drivers of the dreaded AT-AT walkers, specially trained “ground pilots”, played a vital role during the Empire’s assault on Hoth.”

Didn’t I *just* review an AT-AT Driver?  Oh, wait, that review ran like a month ago, didn’t it?  Well, in my defense, it’s only been like a week and a half from my time, so, there’s that.  Well, with it being the 40th Anniversary of Empire and all, I guess there’s no better time to double down on AT-AT Driver reviews, now is there?  Great, let’s look at another AT-AT driver then, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This AT-AT Driver was actually the second to be released in the Power of the Force line.  The first was included with the AT-AT proper in 1997.  There was, however, only one of them included, despite there being two drivers per AT-AT, and it wasn’t exactly economical to get a second AT-AT just for the driver.  So, this guy got slotted for a standard release…in theory.  In practice, not so much, as the AT-AT Driver became one of the four PotF2 figures who didn’t make it to retail in 1998, and instead had to be offered exclusively through the Star Wars Collector’s Club, which made him a little tricky to get a hold of, until the excess stock was unloaded to Toys R Us, and they were suddenly available for a lot less than retail.  Quite a turbulent release path for a figure that’s not really much new.  Okay, that’s not quite true.  The figure was actually all-new, believe it or not, sharing no pieces with the pack-in figure from the AT-AT.  They had very similar sculpts, of course, but they were just different enough to be different.  The sculpt is pretty typical for this period of the line, being a fair bit bulkier than he should be, and a little lighter on the sculpted details than later figures would be.  All that said, it’s still a pretty nice sculpt, and not anywhere near as ridiculous as the basic Stormtrooper was.  In contrast to the pack-in, this guy has a little bit of pre-posing to him.  It’s rather minor, but there’s a slight shift in his step.  I kinda dig it; it makes him look a little more like a real person.  The paint work on this guy is pretty straight forward.  It’s rather on the basic side, although the head and the console on his chest both get a fair bit of smaller detail work that looks pretty sharp.  The AT-AT Driver included a blaster and a Freeze Frame slide.  Mine just has the blaster, I’m afraid.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In my quest to complete my PotF collection, the Fan Club figures tend to be the ones I don’t run into quite as frequently, for obvious reasons.  I did end up getting this guy loose, however, which worked well enough for me. Obviously, he’s not as impressive as, say, the Black Series figure, but he’s got his own fun little flair to him, and I can definitely dig it.

I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2410: Imperial Probe Droid

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IMPERIAL PROBE DROID

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Tenacious hunters, probe droids are armed with powerful blasters.”

Oh my, could it be?  Could it actually be something new on the site?  Yeah, I’m as surprised as all of you.  I was fully expecting the delving into the back catalog to go on a little bit longer…it actually might still, but at the very least, I’ve two new items for today and tomorrow to keep everyone feeling at least a little bit up to date (or as up to date as a review written a month ago can be…I built up quite a buffer you guys).  So, what’s the new thing?  Well, technically something old.  2020 marks the 40th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and so Hasbro’s kind of re-orienting their various Star Wars lines this year in order to tie in with that a bit.  Some of the vintage-style-cardback figures have slipped out early, but the first real release of the 40th stuff is the next entry in the Black Series deluxe line-up, the Imperial Probe Droid.  As the first thing the audience sees in Empire, I suppose it’s a pretty fitting way of launching things, so let’s get right into it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Imperial Probe Droid is figure D3 in the Black Series line-up, putting him right after the (no longer Best Buy-exclusive) Heavy Infantry Mandalorian.  It marks the Probe Droid’s fourth time in figure form, coming fairly closely to the third, which was released with the Last Jedi stuff in 2017.  On its base, the Droid stands, or floats rather, 8 1/4 inches tall and it has 23 points of articulation.  The smaller Probot was quite well articulated for the line he came from, and this guy does even better, with joints at pretty much all the spots that there are joints on the actual thing.  You’d be surprised how rare an occurrence that is.  In terms of the sculpt, this figure feels very much like an upscaling of the Last Jedi figure, which I suppose makes sense, because it effectively is.  They are adapting the same source material after all.  It’s even more sharply detailed this time, as you would expect for something with this much more canvas to work with.  In general, it’s just a very technically impressive sculpt, and the only way you’re really going to get better is with something on the much more high-end side of things.  And even then, that goes into the question of more details just being more attainable at a larger scale.  While the smaller Probot was light on the paint front, this one is actually pretty involved.  There’s a lot of really nifty little detail work, with all sorts of wear and tear worked in on the body’s main chunk.  It makes him look like a real working robot, and it really sells that signature used styling of the Star Wars universe.  The Probe Droid is a bit hard to accessorize, since it’s not like it uses a lot of stuff.  This guy gets a base to allow for a simulation of its usual hovering.  It’s the one area where I don’t feel this is quite as across the board an improvement on that smaller release, as they’ve opted to go with a more environment based stand, rather than the all clear like the prior figure.  It doesn’t look bad, and the snowy grounds of Hoth are the only time we see the bot in the movie, but it’s a little bit less versatile than I’d like, since I’m not really one for diorama set-ups.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Probe Droid is my first new toy purchase in roughly a month…or at least was when I wrote this review back in April.  I don’t know what antics future Ethan’s gotten up to in the mean time, but I’m sure we’ll all find out together.  While I wasn’t quite as excited as some when the figure was shown off (I was pretty darn happy with that smaller-scale one), I’ve kind of given in on owning most things Black Series these days.  Whatever the case, All Time got them in stock, and I, as previously noted, hadn’t gotten anything new, so, yeah, sign me up for that.  I’m glad I picked him up, because he’s the best Probe Droid out there, and a cool centerpiece to the Empire collection I’m going on only further build during this coming year.

As noted above, the Probe Droid was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Black Series, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2386: AT-AT Driver

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

AT-AT DRIVER

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“The Empire’s Combat Drivers are trained to handle everything in the Imperial ground arsenal, but AT-AT pilots see themselves as elite, controlling their massive four-footed assault vehicles in combat against Rebel targets.”

Okay, let’s round out this week of Black Series reviews with one more from the backlog.  I’m looking at another member of the Imperial forces, but this time he’s of the more usual faceless nature for these guys.  The Empire Strikes Back‘s Battle of Hoth introduced a lot of new designs, but perhaps its most lasting and impactful was the AT-AT, a weird robot camel contraption which serves as the backbone of the Imperial forces during their run on the Rebel base.  It being Star Wars, the AT-ATs of course got their own dedicated, uniquely designed drivers, one of which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The AT-AT Driver is figure 31 in the Black Series line-up, and hit shelves in the rather sizable late-2016 assortment that also included Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Snowtrooper, Revan, and Sabine.  Initial shipments of this figure erroneously named him the “AT-AT Pilot”, which was apparently a major oversight, and needed a correction, so here we are with this corrected thing.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation. The articulation is okay overall, but the shoulder’s are reduced to little more than cut joints by the design of the shoulder plates, which don’t move out of the way of the joints the way they should.  Despite some surface-level similarities between the two designs, the AT-AT Driver shares no parts with the TIE Pilot, though they do still share quite a similar construction.  The sculpt does a respectable job of replicating the design as we see it on the screen, and the best work is definitely on the helmet, which is a pretty pitch-perfect recreation of the actual thing.  The detailing on this guy’s not quite as crisp as on some figures from the line, but it’s not the worst we’ve seen either.  The paintwork on this guy isn’t super exciting to look at, but there is a fair bit going on there.  The helmet and the chest piece get the most intricate work, and everything is crisp and clean.  Along with changing the name on the box, there was also a running change with the figure inside.  Early shipments had this figure with a flatter sheen on his armored parts, instead of the shinier finish of most of the run.  Mine is a later run figure through and through.  The Driver is packed with a standard E-11 blaster rifle, which we’ve seen dozens of times before.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Much like yesterday’s figure, this one’s been sitting on a shelf, unopened, for over a year.  Likewise, he was also purchased from Cosmic Comix, during one of their sales.  I’m not sure exactly why I picked him up, but I recall I was choosing between this or the Snowtrooper.  I’ve always liked this design a little more, so here we are.  He’s a nice enough figure.  Not super thrilling, or anything, but a solid recreation of a solid design.

#2382: Lando Calrissian

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

LANDO CALRISSIAN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Once a smooth-talking smuggler, Lando Calrissian changed from a get-rich-quick schemer to a selfless leader in the fight against the Empire.”

Okay, well, I’m not quite into the backlogs of my collection yet, but I’m running on fumes in regards to new stuff.  This week, I’ll be looking at a few things that are new to me, along with some things that I just hadn’t gotten around to reviewing, all under one common theme: Star Wars: The Black Series.  So, let’s kick things off by taking a look at one of the main heroes of the Original Trilogy, as well as one of the returning faces for last year’s Rise of Skywalker, Lando Calrissian!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lando Calissian is figure 39 in the Black Series line-up.  He hit shelves alongside the Royal Guard, Qui-Gonn, and a Tusken Raider.  Kind of an eclectic selection, but there it is.  Though it’s the third figure I’m looking at, this was Lando’s first figure in the line, and is based on his attire from Empire.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  Lando is pretty standard for the era of the line in which he was released, being wedged between Rogue One and Last Jedi.  The line hadn’t quite made it to the improvements we would see in the latter half of the Last Jedi product, so compared to the other two Landos, he’s a noticeable step down in terms of both articulation and level of detail in the sculpt.  The lessened details are most noticeable on the head.  While this guy doesn’t look *unlike* Billy Dee Williams (in fact, he’s got a more than passing resemblance, to be fair), he certainly doesn’t have the spot-on likeness we saw on the Skiff Disguise Lando.  The rest of the body is a decent enough sculpt, if somewhat stiff in what you can do with the articulation.  The cape is a rather bulky rubber piece, which kind of restricts what can be done with the arms.  If you’re going to want any sort of gun-wielding pose, the cape’s gonna have to go.  The cape is also rather on the soft side when it comes to the details, which is really in contrast to the rest of the figure.  You can see they put effort into putting texturing into the sculpt, but it’s almost like something went off in the production process.  Lando’s paintwork pre-dates the move to the face printing, so he’s not nearly as lifelike or subtle on the detailing as figures that would follow.  He’s better than some of the figures that preceded him, though, and at least what paint is there is pretty crisp and cleanly applied.  Lando is packed with a blaster and a communicator, which pretty much covers the important extras he needs in this look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The whole assortment that Lando was part of was a little tricky to find.  I did see Lando in person once, but I was low on funds, and ultimately had to pass.  When I got Skiff Guard Lando, I figured I was good, but I happened upon this guy at a Five Below a couple of months back.  For $5, I definitely wasn’t passing this guy up.  He’s a step down from more recent figures, but he’s certainly not a bad offering, and he doesn’t stick out quite as badly as some of the earlier figures did.  Now I’ve got my whole core Empire cast finally!

#2311: IG-88

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

IG-88

STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (KENNER)

Everybody’s got their own personal favorite bounty hunter from the Star Wars verse.  Well, okay, maybe not everybody.  That seems a little presumptuous.  Some people don’t like Star Wars.  I know, I know, that’s a hard pill to swallow, guys, but lets be real.  Now, for the Star Wars fans out there, we can at least all take solace in knowing that we all agree that the best bounty hunter, bar none is IG-88.  We all agree on that, right?  Right?  Come on guys, Star Wars fans are always a really agreeable bunch, right?  Anyone?  Anyone?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

IG-88 was released in the first assortment of Kenner’s The Empire Strikes Back line, debuting alongside the movie in 1980.  There were two notable variations of IG-88, most easily identified by the finish of the plastic.  Early IGs were a more metallic silver, while later in the run he was shifted over to a duller grey.  The one up top is the silver, but there’s a comparison shot of the two at the end of the review. No matter the variation you have, the figure stands about 4 inches tall (he was a tall boy) and he has 5 points of articulation.  The two versions of the figure actually had slightly different molds, although they were more or less the same sculpt, just with some minor manufacturing tweaks.  The initial sculpt is actually really strong, quite possibly the best sculpt to come out of the vintage line.  While he fits right in with the rest of the figures stylistically, he’s incredibly sharply detailed, and sports pretty much all of the elements he should for a proper screen accurate IG.  The sculpt was so good, that Kenner actually ended up re-using it with just one tweak when it came time for the PotF IG-88, but that’s a discussion for a later review.  For the later run IGs, the sculpt is slightly downgraded.  It’s still one of the best of the vintage line, mind you, and all of the important elements remain, but some of the smaller details are lost and the overall crispness of the sculpt is also gone.  There’s also one piece completely mission on the right leg, and protrusions from the head are generally cut shorter.  If you don’t compare the two, you wouldn’t really know what you were missing.  For the paint work, IG-88 was kind of light, with molded plastic making up most of it.  The bandolier is painted black on both figures, and the lights on the head are red on the silver figure and orange on the grey.  The application on the silver is a little more precise, lending to more of that sharpness like we saw with the sculpt.  Both versions of IG-88 were packed with two blaster rifles, one short, one long, molded in a dark blue, which is probably the thing that most gives away this figure as vintage.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always had a soft spot for IG-88.  Since he wasn’t in the original movie (and therefore one of the figures I inherited from my Dad’s childhood collection), he wound up being one of the earlier vintage figures I tracked down for myself, picked up from an antique school sometime during my high school years. That was the grey version, and was just on his own without the accessories.  I picked up a complete silver when it was traded into All Time a couple of months ago.  Silver is the superior release, but grey has his own charm.  I appreciate them both for what they are: two more pieces for my awesome IG-88 collection!

#2278: Chewbacca & C-3PO

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

CHEWBACCA & C-3PO

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Encountering a Stormtrooper in Cloud City, C-3PO was blasted at point blank range and his limbs were scattered.  Chewbacca gathered the parts of the protocol droid and partially reassembled him.”

Remember when I was talking about C-3PO’s late entry into The Black Series, just three days ago?  Well, lucky him, he’s gotten not one, but two exclusive figure releases right on top of each other.  I suppose he’s just finally getting the due he deserves.  While the last figure was based on 3PO’s most recent appearance, this one goes back to the original trilogy, and gives us a dedicated Empire Strikes Back 3PO.  You can’t really have an Empire 3PO without a proper Empire/Jedi Chewy to carry him around.  So, one-two-boom, here they are, in one convenient Amazon-exclusive package!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Chewbacca and C-3PO are, as noted in the intro, are an Amazon-exclusive pairing, which was listed for pre-order shortly after Force Friday and started shipping in November.  The two are packaged in a box that’s similar in size to the deluxe-size package used for Grievous, which is a lot smaller than previous two-pack boxes.  It makes this feel a little less like a two-pack, and more like a deluxe Chewbacca that includes 3PO as an accessory.

CHEWBACCA

For his first (and previously only OT-based) Black Series figure, we got Chewy based on A New Hope.  While his look is more or less the same in all of the original films, there were some slight changes in his look from A New Hope to Empire, mostly to do with how the hair on his head sat.  For the later movies Chewy was all about “bangs” game.  We got our first taste of a Chewy with bangs on the Target-exclusive Solo-based figure, but those weren’t *quite* right for a vintage Chewy, and he had the wrong bandolier.  This one aims to be the definitive secondary Chewbacca.  He stands just shy of 8 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  Like the last Chewbacca, this one borrows heavily from the first Black Series Chewbacca.  This one gets yet another new head and upper torso, but keeps the standard bandolier that the Solo version ditched (hence the need for a new upper torso with only one bandolier imprint, rather the the v-shape of the Solo release).  While I had some issues with the mold when it debuted, at the very least, the mold quality has improved, and so now the parts sit better together, making for a better looking figure overall.  The new head’s the main focus of the figure, of course, with the slightly looser hair on his head, as well as a more relaxed expression, which feels more in line with Chewy’s more reserved status as the trilogy progressed.  I liked the improvements of the Solo sculpt a lot, but this does even better, and makes for the most cohesive Chewbacca sculpt to date.  The paintwork on this figure largely a match for the Solo version, which is a plus, since that was a solid paint-app.  The transitions are much more subtle, and the eyes are more lifelike than the original Chewbacca, resulting in a much more natural-looking take on the character.  As a late-in-the-movie version of the character, this Chewy is after he’s lost his bowcaster.  So, instead of that, he’s got a stolen Imperial blaster, borrowed from one of the proper Stormtroopers.

C-3PO

Ho boy, it’s another C-3PO.  It’s been days.  Days, I tell you.  As noted in the intro, this guy is based on 3PO’s appearance in Empire.  It’s not really much different from his appearance in the previous film (which is what the first Black Series figure was based on).  The color of the foot changes, and he’s a little messier.  In terms of construction, he’s using the same combined 3PO/4-LOM set-up as the 3PO I looked at three days ago, but this time around he gets the relaxed 3PO hands, instead of the posed 4-LOM hands.  It’s still a good sculpt, so I’ve got no complaints.  The paintwork follows the Target-exclusive’s lead, going for a slightly duller gold, which looks a bit more movie accurate.  In contrast to the very clean 3POs we’ve gotten previously, this one’s also got some serious dirt and grime, no doubt gotten when he got all blasted apart.  The main gimmick to this guy is the ability to pop his arms and legs off, simulating the major damage 3PO takes while in Cloud City.  In order to complete this look, he also has wire attachments that connect to each of his joints to replace the missing limbs.  They don’t really stay in place, but they do the job, and they look convincing.  He also has a net bag for Chewy to carry him in, completing the whole look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always dug this particular set-up for these two characters, with the Star Wars Saga release being my go-to Chewbacca for years, and the Applause plastic statue thing being literally the only one of those things I ever owned.  I’ve also been jonesing for a proper Empire/Jedi Chewy, since we had the rest of the main cast from Empire.  Needless to say, I was on board for this set when it was first shown, and I was definitely happy to get this pair from my parents for Christmas.  I’m very happy with both figures included, and they’re my default versions of both characters.

#2052: Wedge Antilles

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

WEDGE ANTILLES

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Despite his presence in all three films in the original trilogy, two-time Death Star run survivor Wedge Antilles didn’t get figure release during the vintage line’s run.  What’s more, his first ever figure wouldn’t even come as a single release.  Instead, Wedge found himself as the selling point of a carrying case shaped like the Millennium Falcon.  Why Wedge, a character who never even stepped foot on the Falcon was included with the carrying case is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think anyone was going to complain about finally getting a Wedge figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The carrying case that included Wedge hit shelves in 1997, as part of the Power of the Force II line.  There were actually two versions of Wedge offered with the case.  The first shipments gave Wedge an inaccurate color scheme and markings on his helmet, which were corrected in later sets.  The figure I’m looking at here is the corrected version.  Wedge stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  He’s largely the same sculpt as the Luke Skywalker in X-Wing Pilot Gear, meaning that, like that figure, he’s not actually wearing X-Wing gear at all, and is instead based on the cold-weather gear he sports during the Snowspeeder sequences on Hoth in Empire.  It’s actually the only time we’ve gotten Wedge in this particular get-up.  It also gave the line its second Snowspeeder pilot, allowing for that poor Snowspeeder to actually have a two-man crew.  Despite its exaggerated proportions, it’s not a terrible sculpt, and it has a lot of great detail work going on.  Wedge does get a new head sculpt, and while it’s not a spot-on Dennis Lawson or anything, it’s distinctly a different face from the head used on Luke, which is really the most important thing here.  Wedge’s paintwork actually changes things up a fair bit from the Luke figure, with different colors for his gloves, boots, and belt, as well as a radically different set of details on his helmet (though the original release actually had the same helmet detailing).  It’s a nice paint scheme, and again helps to sell him as a distinctly different figure from the Luke release.  Though more an accessory himself, Wedge still included one accessory of his own.  It’s a re-packaged Han Solo blaster pistol, which was actually the standard issue Rebel blaster for this line, so it certainly fits.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wedge is one of those figures that has long been on my want list, but he’s a slightly rarer item from the line, so I hadn’t really come across him.  Fortunately, I was able to find him loose and on his own during one of my PotF binges last December.  He’s not an amazing figure or anything, but I do find myself having something of a nostalgic twinge for him, even though I didn’t have him when I was younger.  Plus, he’s the first Wedge figure, which is pretty cool in its own right!

#1962: Bossk

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

BOSSK

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

When ranking the distinctive Executioner bounty hunters from Empire Strikes Back, the top spot is always, unquestionably going to go to IG-88.  There’s no contest there.  If I’m picking a number two, I think I’d have to go with Bossk, that shoe-less lizard guy in a Doctor Who costume.  Because, hey, lizards are cool!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bossk was released as part of the Power of the Force II collection in 1997.  He was one of three bounty hunters released that year, alongside 4-LOM and Dengar, all of whom were finally making sure the poor Mr. Fett wasn’t quite as lonely as he’d been since 1995.  This was Bossk’s second figure, following his original vintage release.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation, not surprising for this line. The sculpt was all-new to Bossk, and, amazingly, would remain unique to PotF; a couple of the other Bounty Hunters would keep their PotF sculpts in circulation for a little while, but Bossk was one and done.  Despite the willingness on Hasbro’s part to move past this sculpt, it’s really not a bad offering.  As an alien, Bossk benefits from being what this line excelled at.  The details are sharply defined, pre-posing is at a minimum, and he’s just a generally nice looking figure.  Even the paintwork on Bossk is pretty impressive.  Many of the PotF figures were more basic in their paint application, but Bossk has quite a bit going on.  There are one or two un-painted sculpted elements, but for the most part everything is painted up to properly match his on-screen counterpart.  Bossk is packed with a pair of blasters.  He has his rifle seen in the movie, which is decently sculpted, but there is unfortunately no way for him to actually hold it.  There’s a sling molded to it, so it can go over his shoulder, but it’s still a slight let-down.  He also includes a smaller blaster, which looks to have been made up for this figure.  Fortunately, this one can actually be held.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The only Bossk I had growing up was actually the vintage one, not this one.  This one proved a little trickier to track down than the other PotF bounty hunters.  Fortunately, I was able to get one from my friends at All Time Toys when a loose collection came in.  Bossk’s not without issue.  The inability to hold the gun is really frustrating.  Beyond that, though, he’s a really fun little figure.