Tag Archives: The Empire Strikes Back

#1424: Boba Fett & Han Solo

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

BOBA FETT & HAN SOLO

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

We’re starting to wind down on the Star Wars: The Last Jedi stuff.  Yesterday’s Finn review marked the last of the actual Last Jedi offerings I’ll be reviewing (at least in this round of stuff), but as with every new Star Wars release, there’s a healthy helping of items based on prior films.  As TLJ is the second film in this new trilogy, they’re putting out more than a few items based on the Original Trilogy’s second part, Empire Strikes Back.  I’ll be taking a look at Hasbro’s latest versions of Han Solo and Boba Fett from that film today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Han and Boba were released in the two-pack assortment of The Last Jedi figures, alongside the previously reviewed Rey and Elite Praetorian Guard pairing.  This is one of the two ESB-themed items in the initial product launch.

BOBA FETT

They just can’t keep the Fett-man down, can they?  If the Star Wars toyline went too long without at least one Fett, it would surely collapse into some sort of null field of pointlessness, right?  Fett’s the glue that holds the fandom together! Gotta keep those Fett-fans happy.  Or something like that.  Anyway, this new figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Now, after years and years of lots of nearly identical Boba Fetts, you might be wondering what sets this guy apart from the pack.  He’s an all-new sculpt, and it may well be the best sculpt we’ve ever seen on a Boba Fett figure.  It’s at least the best small-scale Boba we’ve gotten.  The last 5POA Boba I looked at had a number of issues that prevented him from being the best he could be, but this figure really tackles a lot of the issues I had with that and a lot of the other 5POA figures head on.  One big issue I’ve had with a lot of the basic figures is the rigidity of their poses.  This figure fixes that, giving Boba a slightly offset balancing of his weight.  It’s effectively still a straight standing pose, but it adds just a little more character, and makes him look a touch more human.  It also resembles the pose Boba had in the initial promo shots from Empire, which is a fun bit of nerdy trivia.  The sculpt also gives us a very nice take on Boba’s armor, with all of the details being sharply defined, and nicely recreated.  The head’s definitely my favorite part, as it’s easily one of the best Fett helmet sculpts ever produced.  It’s a spot-on recreation, and I just really love it.  Boba’s sculpt is aided by a pretty awesome paint job, which follows the trend of improvement on Hasbro’s part. The paint is clean and sharp for the most part, and there are a lot of really nice details.  There are a few details missing, but mostly minor stuff, and he looks far better than some of the earlier figures.  Fett is packed with his large blaster, his small blaster, and a big bulky thing that replicates his flamethrower.  Both the figure and the big bulky thing are ForceLink compatible, but as of yet I don’t have anyway to figure out how to test the sounds they make.

HAN SOLO

Han was actually completely absent from the product launch for The Force Awakens, so it’s a little bit amusing that he’s included this time around, despite not being in the movie (well, at least as far as we know).  This guy’s sporting Han’s spiffy jacketed look from Empire, which is my favorite look for the character, and which seems to be less common than you’d hope when it comes to toys (seriously, how do we not have this look in The Black Series yet?).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  No real surprises there.  At first glance, this figure’s sculpt looks to have some parts in common with the Force Awakens figure.  An actual comparison of the two figures reveals that there are no parts actually shared between the two, but they appear to at the very least have started from the same basic source files.  Not gonna lie, this figure’s far from perfect.  One of the things that makes the jacketed look my favorite for Han is how sharp he looks, but this figure ends up looking a little bit schluby.  The real culprit behind this is the waist.  The waist is too low, which in turn makes the jacket too long, which has the illusion of making his arms look too short and gives him the appearance of his gut having out over his belt.  If the waist were a quarter of an inch higher, the figure would look a bit better.  The likeness on the head also isn’t one of Hasbro’s better Harrison Fords.  From some angles it’s manageable, but from others he barely even looks human.  It definitely feels like they took their old Han sculpt from TFA and tried to de-age it, which hasn’t quite worked.  On the plus side of things Han’s jacket’s pretty nicely detailed, and I appreciate the texturing on the stripes on his pants.  The paint on Han is kind of “meh”.  It’s okay in some spots, but there’s more noticeable slop here than on other recent figures, and worst of all, his got weird placement on his eyes, which just throws the whole figure off.  I hate when that happens.  Han’s packed with his blaster, which can be placed in the holster if you so choose.  I was happy to see it was actually the correct version that he carries in Empire, not just re-used from a prior Han.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Finn, I didn’t grab this set on Force Friday.  I had seen it beforehand, and I mostly checked out the Han figure, who left me kind of cold, and mostly ignored the Boba Fett, since the Saga Legends Fett did nothing for me.  So, on Friday I focused on the TLJ stuff and left this behind.  Then I saw some photos online, and realized what an improvement Fett was, and slightly regretted not grabbing them.  When my Target re-stoked the basic figures, they also marked the two-packs down a bit, so I got these two alongside Finn.  Boba’s fantastic.  He’s rivaled only by the 6-inch Black Series figure in terms of coolness.  Han’s okay.  Far from the worst Han Solo figure, but nothing particularly amazing, which is a shame, since I’m always eager to get a new Bespin Han.  Alas, I’ll just have to hang in there for the next version.  This one will do until then.

#1233: Princess Leia Organa – Bespin Gown

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA — BESPIN GOWN

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (KENNER)

2016 was pretty unrelenting when it came to celebrity deaths (and, sadly, 2017 seems to be continuing the trend).  The one that me the hardest personally was undoubtedly Carrie Fisher, an actress I had come to admire more and more with every passing day.  She was truly awesome.  Truly, there is no better way to celebrate an awesome person than with action figures, and, thanks to Star Wars, Carrie was privy to quite a few of them.  Today’s focus figure is one of the earliest, coming from Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line of figures.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This Leia figure is one of the two Leias released in Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line (the other is her Hoth attire, reviewed here).  This one depicts Leia in the gown she was given by Lando when she and the rest of the Millennium Falcon’s passengers arrived on Bespin.  It’s not as prominent a look as the Hoth gear (which she spends most of the movie’s runtime wearing), but it’s certainly unique, and, if nothing else, was an excuse to release a Leia figure in a color other than white.  It’s actually a rather infrequent look for Leia figures, with only a handful of figures over the years.  Still, Han and Luke both got Hoth and Bespin figures, so Leia was due two figures as well.  The figure stands a little over 3 1/2 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  Bespin Leia was an all-new sculpt.  Like every other figure in the vintage line, there’s definitely a degree of stylization going on here, especially in how the outfit has been rendered.  With that being said, she’s not as far off from the film design as her first film predecessor.  The basics of the sculpt are pretty good.  She doesn’t really look a whole lot like Carrie Fisher, but she’s at least consistent with the ANH and Hoth versions.  The details on the clothes are rather on the simple side, but all of the important stuff is there, and she fits in with the rest of the line. The skirt has still been cut into a set of legs, but no longer in a way that resembles whatever the first figure was wearing.  Here, the skirt is simply cut with straight lines, as many of the other figures in this line were handled.  Also, while she’s still got the vinyl robe thing that the first figure had, it actually works a bit better with this design, which included a sleeveless cardigan-thing of a similar nature (thanks to Super Awesome Girlfriend for help IDing that piece of clothing.  Side note: she would like it noted that she’s not a fashion expert).  Sure, it wasn’t opaque pink like this one is, but it’s close enough, given the rest of the line.  It’s even got some nice printed detailing, which I believe is a unique feature to this iteration of Leia.  As far as paint, she’s once again pretty simple.  Mostly, she’s just got paint for the hair, the details of her face, and the few spots of flesh tone on the body.  Everything’s pretty clean (apart from the slight wear present on my figure).  The figure was packed with a small blaster pistol, which my figure does not have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Leia is a relatively recent acquisition.  I actually picked her up a few days after Carrie Fisher’s passing, from an antique store just outside of the town my family vacations in (in fact, it was the same store where Super Awesome Girlfriend bought me the ANH Leia just the year before).  It’s a figure I’ve been meaning to get, and they had this one there, and she was in pretty nice shape for the price.  I guess it was kind of part of my mourning process.  Anyway, despite this being one of her less essential looks, this was probably the best version of Leia that Kenner released.

#0806: IG-88

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

IG-88

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

IG88a

It’s day 5 of the Post-Christmas gift reviews, and today I’ll be looking at the first example of one of the themes to my gifts this year: Star Wars.  I can’t possibly imagine why that was the case.  It’s not like there was a new movie or something.  Of course, today’s figure isn’t from The Force Awakens, he’s actually from the original trilogy.

Empire Strikes Back is a lot of people’s favorite Star Wars movie (Not mine, but that’s a whole other thing).  There are a number of reasons for that, but one of the most prevalent, especially from a toy-buying perspective, is the bounty hunters.  Moving past the disproportionately popular Boba Fett, the film introduced five rather unique bounty hunters, all of whom do little more than fill the background of a scene on a Star Destroyer.  Still, those unique looks certainly made them all pretty memorable, and it also made them pretty good choices for action figures.  One of my personal favorites has always been IG-88, who is the focus of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

IG88bIG-88 is a part of Series 9 of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series line, released alongside Leia as Boushh and Clone Commander Cody.  He was one of the last figures to hit before the switch-over to Force Awakens-branded product.  IG-88 is numbered 15, which places him right before Leia numerically.  The figure stands just shy of 7 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation, which is pretty darn impressive for a character of his build.  There are certainly some parts that might benefit from improved movement (seriously, those cut-joint hips are killing me), but he’s overall a lot more mobile than I would have expected.  IG-88’s sculpt is seriously top notch.  It’s pretty much a pitch-perfect recreation of the design from Empire, right down to all the little tacked on bits.  Perhaps the only inaccuracy is the head, which is generally a bit sharper, and has a few more molded lines than the real thing.  However, the end result looks a bit better, so I can’t really complain on that one.  His elbows both have a rubber covering to mask the joints.  It looks cool, and it retains mobility, but I do have to wonder how long those pieces will last.  His bandolier is a separate piece, affixed via a small peg on the figure’s shoulder.  It sits nicely, ans allows for stowage of one of his guns and his bladed item.  The paintwork on this figure is probably the best I’ve seen on a Black Series figure in some time. To be fair, this does seem like a hard paintjob to screw up, but this is Hasbro we’re talking about here.   He actually goes beyond the simple gun metal grey we’ve seen on prior IG-88s and some brasses and browns, to give him that nice old and worn look.  IG-88 is packed with two blaster rifles, one long and one short, which can be attached to his hands through use of the small pegs on his forearms.  He also has a blade/axe thing, which can be placed in its spot on the bandolier.  All of the extras are very nicely sculpted and wonderful additions to the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I was fortunate enough to stumble across his series-mate Leia at an out of the way Walgreens, I had no such luck finding IG-88.  Fortunately, my parents seemed to fair a little better, as he was amongst the gifts I received on Christmas morning.  He’s a pretty stellar figure, from start to finish.  The sculpt and the paint really work together on this guy, and he ends up being one of the best figures to date that The Black Series has spawned.

IG88c

#0579: Bossk

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

BOSSK

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

Bossk1

After going a fair bit of time with no new Black Series figures, I’ve actually managed to pick up a few of them in a relatively short span of time. And, as an added bonus, I didn’t actually have to resort to breaking my “no prequel figures” rule again. Yay? Empire Strikes Back is a lot of people’s favorite film of the original trilogy, due in no small part to the introduction of a rather memorable selection of bounty hunters. Now, they certainly can’t all be Boba Fett when it comes to popularity, but today’s focus, Bossk, is certainly up there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bossk2Bossk was released as part of Series 7 of Star Wars: The Black Series. He’s figure number 10 in the line, though it is important to note that he’s number 10 of the second batch of numbers. Because Hasbro enjoys confusing people. The figure stands just over 6 inches in height and sports 30 points of articulation. His jaw moves, guys. His jaw moves. That’s pretty cool. Bossk features a sculpt that is all-new to this figure. Simply put, the sculpt is nothing short of amazing. The design from the movies has been translated quite nicely. The figure is also just covered in texturing, which makes him quite interesting to look at and shows that Hasbro definitely didn’t phone things in on this guy. Bossk’s paintwork is decent, though not quite up to par with the sculpt. This is Hasbro we’re dealing with here. On the plus side, the base color work is all very well-matched to the film look, and the colors are nice and clean. He also has a nice wash over his head, hands, and feet, which really brings out the smaller details of the sculpt. So, what’s the bad with the paint? Well, you’d be hard-pressed to find an edge on this figure that doesn’t have any bleed over, and you’d be just as hard-pressed to find a surface devoid of any stray marks of incorrect colors. From a few feet away, it’s hardly noticeable, but up close, the figure looks pretty rough. Not terrible, but rough. Bossk’s lone accessory is his blaster rifle. It’s a little difficult to get into his hands, but it’s well sculpted, and once it’s in place it looks great.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Bossk was purchased for me by my Dad. He was grabbing lunch at Wegman’s of all places and they had a case of this series. Here I was sitting in Political Science and in comes a text asking if I want Bossk and Chewbacca. Bossk was something of a slow-burn figure for me. I knew I wanted to see him made when the line began, and I was certainly happy to see the prototype, but I just never got really excited about him. That did change a little, but not as much as I would have hoped. The figure probably has the best sculpt in the line so far, but he’s really pulled back by the less than stellar paint. I really wish that Hasbro would put some more work into the paint on their figures, because so many fantastic sculpts are being hidden by lackluster paint.

Bossk4

#0210: Luke Skywalker – Bespin

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LUKE SKYWALKER – BESPIN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

Luke(Bespin)

I’m just a moderate Star Wars fan, but I am an action figure fan (in case the site hadn’t already clued you in on that…), and that means I frequently find myself venturing into the galaxy far, far away for my purchases. Hasbro recently brought the characters into the 6 inch scale with their new Star Wars: The Black Series. The line boasts improved sculpts, better articulation, and a greater selection of accessories. It’s also quickly become one of my favorite lines. The third series proved to be a bit difficult to procure at first, but I’ve finally tracked a set down and I’ll be reviewing them today and tomorrow (It’s only a three figure assortment and I don’t need prequel Obi Wan, so just the two for me.)

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke comes from the third series of Star Wars: The Black Series. Each figure in the line gets a number, and Luke is #011. He’s presented here in his main gear from The Empire Strikes Back, generally referred to as his Bespin look. It’s generally see as one of the character’s definitive looks, so it’s great to see it in the line. The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and features 29 points of articulation. All of the articulation seems to work pretty well, though I am slightly annoyed by the choice to give both hands a forward/back joint instead of the usual mix of one forward/back, one left/right. It’s a minor issue, but it limits the pose-ability a bit. Luke features an entirely new sculpt, which is great all-around. It’s well proportioned, nicely detailed, and the head has more than a passing resemblance to Mark Hamill. He also features an add-on belt piece, which could probably be removed if you so desired, but isn’t meant to be. On the paint side, he’s not quite as good as previous waves, but he’s not bad, and seems a lot better than I’d heard from other reviews. My figure seems to have received a decent paint job with no slop or bleed over. He’s got a decent wash on his body-suit, which does an excellent job bringing out the details in the sculpt. Luke is accessorized with a blaster and a lightsaber, both of which are reused from the previous LightsabersLuke. This is a bit of a letdown, given the larger selection featured with the rest of the line. Heck, the previous Luke even included a helmet in addition to these two pieces. I’d have liked to at least get a few extra hands, or at bare minimum that his right hand was removable to recreate the Bespin duel. Alas, he just gets the two pieces. Oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Luke from Amazon. He’s been in stock there for a little while, but I wanted to wait until they got in the Stormtrooper at a reasonable price before ordering him. Initially, I wasn’t sure I was going to get this figure. I already had the pilot version of the character from series one, and that’s a really cool figure. However, once I saw some pictures of this figure, I knew I couldn’t miss out on him. Plus, he’s Bespin Luke. What kind of a fan would I be if I didn’t have him? Anyway, I’m really glad I got this figure, and I’m going to have a lot of trouble picking which of the two Lukes will be my default.

SwBlacks1vss2

#0161: Luke Skywalker – Dagobah

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LUKE SKYWALKER – DAGOBAH

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II

So, today’s review is actually pretty nifty. I’ve looked at the most recent round of Star Wars toys with The Black Series, and I’ve also taken a look at one of the vintage figures from the original line, but I’ve never really looked at any of the figures released in between.

Star Wars is looked at as one of the permanent fixtures of the action figure aisle nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Following Return of the Jedi, the line shifted to Power of the Force for a little while, but that line only ran until 1985, at which point Star Wars toys effectively ended. Ten years later, Kenner relaunched the line under the branding Power of the Force II. In 1995, I was 3 and just getting into action figures. So, POTF II came at just the perfect time and provided me with my very first Star Wars figure, which I’ll be looking at in this review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released as part of the 1996 assortment of Power of The Force II. He’s based on Luke’s look while he’s training on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall, and features 6 points of articulation. That waist articulation was revolutionary, let me tell you. The sculpts for POTF II, in general, have not aged well. For some reason, everybody got really buff. Luke follows that trend, and looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Hamill. From a purely aesthetic stand point, it’s actually not a bad sculpt. There’s some nice texture on his clothing, and the proportions are about right, even if they don’t belong to Mark Hamill. One negative point: the feet are sculpted at a bit of an angle, which can make getting him to stand up a chore. The paint is actually very good for the time. There’s no bleed over or slop and the smaller details are all clean and sharp, and the shading on the shirt to show it’s wet and stained gives the figure a nice level of depth rarely seen on figures of this era. Luke was packed with a lightsaber and a blaster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The trip on which I acquired this figure is actually one of my earlier memories of going to the store and buying something. I don’t remember what store it was (for some reason my gut says Target, but that doesn’t seem right). What I very vividly remember was being walked over to the toy aisle by my parents, seeing the display of figures and running to them. I saw Luke hanging there and immediately grabbed him. In particular, I remember my mind being completely blown by the idea that he actually included a lightsaber. I guess I just assumed that would have to be a separate purchase. I had yet to pick up on how action figures worked, I guess. Regardless, I was thrilled to have this figure. As the years have gone by, the figure has started to show its age, but I still feel pretty damned nostalgic for him. All in all, he’s not a bad figure, and the sentimental value pushes him up to 11.

#0052: Leia Organa – Hoth

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

LEIA ORGANA (HOTH)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (KENNER)

My last bunch of reviews has veered towards things released fairly recently, but today, I’ll be jumping back to 1980, for a look at a figure from Kenner’s The Empire Strikes Back toy line.  The figure is of main character Princess Leia Organa in one of her looks from the film.  Let’s have a look!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Leia was released as part of the initial assortment for Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line which coincided with the movie in 1980.  There were two Leias released, but I’ll be looking at the one that depicts her in her cold weather look from the ice planet Hoth.   The figure stands just shy of 3 ¾ inches tall, and has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is actually pretty detailed for a figure of this scale and time-period, with all the padding and such being handled quite realistically.  The head doesn’t have much of a Carrie Fisher likeness, but it’s in line with what most of the rest of the line looked like.  The paint was fairly basic, I assume, although, as you can see, mine has seen better days.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, for those of you rapidly fumbling with math attempting to piece together my age, no I didn’t get this figure when it was initially released.  I wasn’t alive when it was released!

When I was small, my Dad gave me his collection of vintage Star Wars figures.  They were exclusively from the first film, so this Leia wasn’t among them.  But, I got to really liking them, so over the years, I picked up a few others to expand the set.  The ice planet Hoth (I’m pretty sure you always have to say it like that) look has always been my personal favorite look for Leia, so a while back, I found this figure at an antique store, along with a few others.