JAWA with Sandcrawler
Star Wars Disney Droid Factory
Item No.: No. ???
Manufacturer: Disney
Number: n/a
Includes: Sandcrawler, blaster, Gonk Droid figure
Action Feature: Holster
Retail: $99.99
Availability: September 2018
Appearances: Star Wars
Bio: Jawas were a sentient species of meter-tall humanoids native to the Outer Rim desert world of Tatooine. (Stolen from Wookieepedia. Packaging has no bio.)
Image: Adam's photo lab.
Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!
Commentary: I was having a hard time deciding which quote to start this with, so I'll give you two. Luke Skywalker: "What a piece of junk!" Ken Masters: "I have proven the difference between us: you just suck." I have bought every Jawa made in the 3 3/4-inch scale, including saving up and blowing a handsome sum to get the vinyl cape one back in the 1990s. This new
Jawa is a bad Disney copy of the 2015
The Black Series figure from Hasbro. That one had a 2-pack of Jawas with above average articulation with amazing textured detail and awesome sculpting. This one has residue of that articulation - you still get swivel wrists, but also the worst shoulder joints on a 3 3/4-inch scale figure that don't look good and don't quite come down. The legs don't move - not a big deal - but you get vestigial joints on the elbows. You can see were the joints were, but Disney was too cheap to tell the factory to sculpt them over to look good. The texturing looks a lot worse, and the plastic feels harder and cheaper. It's not quite a slug figure, but Disney clearly spent no expense in making this item. I assume they would believe any hardcore fan already has a dozen Jawas (or more) to populate the vehicle, so this under-decorated sloppy piece of junk is just one more for the army.
The blaster slides in the holster, and the very loose wrists have no problems holding it either. Details on the bandolier are bulky and muddled, like a copy of a copy. This is a figure that looks like it suffered generation loss from someone making a mold of a production figure, and then making a mold of
that. I should say something nice about this one. The head is nice - the wrappings are subtle and the yellow eyes peer out from the hood nicely. The hood is also unique, but looks like it was a bad toy from years gone by. Even vintage Kenner stuff didn't look this awkward.
I generally don't dump on Disney figures because there's no reason for it. This one is weak, a perfectly fine addition to the back of the vehicle or someone to hide in the driver's area. I've seen better, and so have you. Kenner's vintage 1978 Jawa was better. Kenner's 2-pack from 1996 was better, with superior texturing and better shoulders. There's no Jawa I wouldn't rather have than this one. For a first attempt it'd be acceptable, but after 40 years we've seen better and leaving in remainders of excised articulation is just plain sloppy. This is why you need a humorless jerk in the licensing approval department to do the bare minimum of criticism of any consumer product, rather than someone rubber-stamping something for their own theme park. I can accept errors in the form of editorial control, like a wrong color or someone fudging a rarely-seen part of a costume. Beat leaving on landmarks from an old Hasbro figure? You can do better, Disney. And if you can't... well.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from ShopDisney.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 2,544: December 20, 2018
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