Thursday, December 2, 2010

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 1,427: Wicket

WICKET and Logray
The Power of the Force Collection 2; Original Trilogy Collection
Item No.:
Asst. 69605 No. 69711; No. 34515
Manufacturer: Kenner
Number: n/a
Includes: Staff, hat, sash, Freeze Frame Action Slide (1998 only)
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $5.99; $19.99
Availability: Spring 1998; Fall 2004
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Bio: Logray and the Ewoks stand amazed as their newfound idol, protocol droid C-3PO, begins to "magically" levitate as Luke Skywalker uses the power of the Force. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' desk.

Commentary: One of the fun things about this column is going through the early figures and seeing just how well they held up. Nearly every figure from 1995-1997 elicited some form of complaint, and in some cases it seemed unnecessary. Wicket was not a great figure. The little guy was much larger than his 1984 forerunner, but he doesn't look quite right. He's a little chunky, bigger than necessary, and his head is much darker than need be. He has 5 points of articulation, but doesn't really hit the right buttons in terms of appearance. Wicket's head could benefit from being larger, with brighter off-white fur and some light fur above his eyes and on his ears. With his current proportions, this figure seems almost like a grown-up version of the character. (Kids have big heads, after all.) The eyes are bright, and the teeth are painted, so it's nice to see they injected some personality into this figure. It probably could have been improved by a heavy repaint, but Hasbro never gave us one-- instead, we just got a new sculpt in 2010, which is just fine with me really.

Wicket's body was reused for a 2008 Ewok with Glider figure (and retooled slightly), plus the figure was repainted in Widdle the Ewok's coloring in 2007 for a Target exclusive. A new Wicket figure is hitting this year, so you might want to look for that one instead.

Collector's Notes: The set with Wicket and Logray is, unfortunately, still a worthwhile purchase-- Hasbro hasn't done a new Logray and the 1998 one is good enough where they may decide against redoing him. A variant of the figure exists as some stitches on his hood were painted. This figure mold was repackaged numerous times-- the 1998 POTF2 2-pack with Logray, the 1998 2-pack with Endor Leia, the 2004 Original Trilogy Collection single figure, and the 2004 OTC Toys "R" Us Endor 4-Pack come to mind for starters.

--Adam Pawlus


Day 1,427: December 2, 2010

2 comments:

juggalojedi666 said...

i think this is a pretty decent figure...i was pretty excited about te new one,but i havnt opened it yet...ive sold one of the 3 wickets i amased over the years,but still stuck with two of these old bastards..maybe ill try to repaint them for my ewok troop building dcence..i just recently found out about the two exclusive ewiks in the target set a few years ago and spent a fortune to get them..it would be great to do a battlepack with all ultra articulated past eworks....

Bravo said...

It's not bad, especially since it was part of a two pack. The sculpt holds up well enough, maybe it does make Wicket look a bit more formidable than his screen version.