Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,134: Battle Droid (The Retro Collection)

BATTLE DROID with Non-removable Backpack
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Target 6-Pack
Item No.: No. G0370
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster with Queen Amidala, Jar Jar Binks, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: March 2024
Appearances: The Phantom Menace

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: Sometimes a retro figure looks a lot like a regular figure - take the Battle Droid. At first glance, it looks like any of a number of figures put out by Hasbro around the turn of the century, many of which had more articulation. This one stands out with sturdier, thicker limbs, no knee or elbow joints, and a distinctive pose that actually gives him some personality. You also lose a removable backpack, but depending on how you see Kenner figures, that's something that may be a good creative decision.

I'll give away my overall opinion by saying I'm annoyed that this figure is in a $60 gift set, as I'd love to buy another one or two. (Maybe Hasbro can repaint it later.) A lot of fans forget that a lot of old Kenner figures had poses with personality, including bent arms or hands that look like maybe they were posed to push a button on a panel. The Battle Droid keeps both hands able to grip things, but the sculptors made a good decision to twist the right wrist and bend the elbow so he can look like he's gesturing and telling you that you're not authorized to go there. This sets the design apart from a lot of modern figures who just stand there with their arms at their sides, which is never quit as interesting. His pose is mostly upright, but that's typical for this kind of robot - and probably why it looks so much like existing "modern" figures. He's hard to get wrong.

The details are pretty good, a little less intense than Hasbro's other droids but all the major elements are all there. You can see little ridges and joints (that are cosmetic), and the head has some mold seams that I assume weren't intentional, but certainly add to the old-ness of the design. His head now turns at the base of the neck only, so be careful - you don't want to torque the head off the neck. I don't know if this design would hold up to kids playing with it, but hey - that's never going to happen, is it? In the hands of collectors it should be fine.

In the movies and previous figures, we saw Battle Droids with removable backpacks - Kenner never sold a figure with a removable backpack. (Some accessory packs with backpacks did, however, exist.) Hasbro 2024 opted to co-opt the backpack designs of 1979, fusing the backpack to the body with some hand-waving, rounding it off and making for a thicker torso. I think this is the right idea - we saw similar design cues in Dengar and the Rebel Commander, but the connective tissue was refined as time went on. The Battle Droid has tiny antenna and a rounded-off look that seems unfinished, or perhaps made from memory - which is how a lot the Cantina Aliens of 1979 were made. I think going with how the Rebel Commander backpack made it look more like a separate element than part of the body would be a better looking choice, but the weirder choice is certainly more interesting (if intentional.) If you told me the idea was to make something Kenner might have designed before the original Star Wars line, I think I'd believe you - it's wrongness feels a little right.

It's always a little jarring to have Retro figures that have modern touches (hands that can grip the blaster well) and things that seem primitive (backpack), but it works for me. It's different enough from a standard figure that I can say "hey, that's interesting" even if I can't say "hey, that seems worth the ten bucks." Hasbro made freebie Battle Droids as substitutes for CommTech chips in some non-English speaking markets in the 1990s... and this is about that good, with similar articulation. And let's be honest, probably why the entire set is $60, unlike $72 or more like some of the other retro 6-packs we've seen. I like this figure for what it is - quirky, fun, sturdy - but odds are its pose isn't "retro" enough to please purists and anyone who has an MTT full of Battle Droids already doesn't need another one. Recommended for retro enthusiasts... unless this set goes on clearance, in which I say don't buy it at all, just leave it at the store so I can buy more of them.

Collector's Notes: I got my set from Target. It was in a pile of stuff on the "Collectibles" shelves without any real indication as to where it should have been.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,134: May 16, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,133: Queen Amidala (The Retro Collection)

QUEEN AMIDALA with Better Articulation than the 2000 Figure
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Target 6-Pack
Item No.: No. G0370
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Battle Droid, Jar Jar Binks, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: March 2024
Appearances: The Phantom Menace

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: I had low expectations for Queen Amidala and turned out to be quite impressed. This is probably the most marketed image of the character from the movie's time in theaters 25 years ago, and while we got dolls and toys at Taco Bell, we did not get an action figure until the following year. That Power of the Jedi Queen Amidala (Theed Invasion) [FOTD #3] was more or less a salt shaker with arms, but it was a nice sculpt and a decent looking figure. She couldn't sit, which meant there wasn't a great figure to sit in the throne in the Royal Starship... until now!

Unlike many, many incarnations of the figure, this Queen Amidala can actually sit. The designer of this figure - and if the same person did the others, well, oops - seemed to study the specific elements of actual old figures and incorporate some of them. For example, her left hand can't actually hold anything - much like a lot of Kenner-era Leia figures. The right hand could, but no accessory is included. The legs swing forward really well, and the tabard bends a little - now that's something I don't think Kenner would have done, but the sculpted detail on the leg interiors is something I really dig. You can see rolling fabric, just like the legs on the original mail-away Anakin Skywalker action figure. The eyes and make-up look great, and all of the details are not necessarily beautiful, but mutated. This figure's tabard is all gold, while the previous one was mostly red, and the movie costume was red with gold detailing. Getting it a little bit wrong is trademark Kenner, so I think it worked nicely here.

Sculpted details are pretty good - as usual, the body is a little botoxed with smoothed-out pleats and wrinkles, plus a narrower footprint that can fit in some vehicles. The arms are bowed out a tiny bit in a way I don't quite love, but that's not unusual with modern retro-style figures. The most unusual design element is that she has a collar around her neck, above her shoulders, attached to her tabard. It's sort of like a reverse cape, and is quite clever. I can't name any old figures I've had with quite this sort of bib, though, although figures have had belts or actual cloth aprons. I assume if Kenner did this in the 1970s, it might have been made sort of like a vinyl cape, perhaps Bespin Gown Leia's as it had a printed pattern on it. This solution looks a lot better, and gives the figure a lot more to do than just stand there like a chess piece.

Amidala doesn't quite have the posture of an old-school Kenner figure, nor does she have any sort of real "motion" in her pose like some figures, but she does a better job getting closer to it than a lot of other new guys. Kenner would never have had the hair hanging down the back, or the necktie, but I like thinking that maybe they would have done it this way eventually. She's lighter on sculpted detail with softened sculpted detail compared to a real vintage Kenner figure, but you know what? She's good. If she were an individually sold release I'd recommend picking her up at twelve bucks, and she's my new favorite figure from this set so far. I'd say that I like this figure so much I'd love to see them do a few more, but I can't imagine they'd do an Anakin or C-3PO or Darth Sidious at this point. I can dream, though.

Collector's Notes: I got my set from Target. It was in a pile of stuff on the "Collectibles" shelves without any real indication as to where it should have been.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,133: May 14, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,132: Qui-Gon Jinn (The Retro Collection)

QUI-GON JINN Just The Way He Was Never Intended!
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Target 6-Pack
Item No.: No. G0370
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Lightsaber, plus Battle Droid, Jar Jar Binks, Queen Amidala, Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: March 2024
Appearances: The Phantom Menace

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: I feel that there's a sliding scale with retro figures - almost none of these feel like they could have existed in the 1980s due to their posture and texture, but sometimes there are elements that feel right out of 1980. Qui-Gon Jinn absolutely feels that way. I would have loved to live in a world where Hasbro made one with a vinyl cape and telescoping lightsaber (because being from a prequel, it should look older than the 1978 figures.) What we got was a figure with cloth Jedi robes and a non-telescoping lightsaber, which is what we saw around 1983 - but the figure's texture is too smooth for 1983, as Kenner was putting subtle changes on its many figures.

Old Kenner figures were usually pretty on-model or wildly divergent. Luke looked more or less like what you might expect, Leia did the best they could with the engineering of the day, and I don't think there's anyone who can explain what was going on with R2-D2. Qui-Gon Jinn looks like a really high-quality knock-off with hints of the 1980s peppered throughout. The most authentically "old" detail is his left hand, which is a little more like the claw we saw on 1978 Luke. Can you cram an accessory in it? Sure - but it's not a "gripping hand," like the right hand. The robes mostly look like someone copied the reference photos well, except for the belt. In the movie (and most toys) the dark brown belt usually hangs a tiny bit higher, with some of the tan belt hanging below it. Here, the dark brown belt hangs a little low and it immediately struck me as just not looking correct. His boots look more or less like other action figure boots, but have that weird, not-quite-puffy rounded detailing that modern Hasbro Retro figures sport but old Kenner figures did not. You probably won't notice, but it really is one of those subtle "this isn't right" things that fans over 40 will see and are less likely to accept.

The head sculpt has an example of modern toy companies working around old limitations. The hair is a separately molded chunk in the back - old Kenner figures rarely had long hair or ponytails. In the case of Boushh, they just dropped Leia's braid entirely. Qui-Gon has a glued-in piece and while it does look sloppy, "sloppy" is how such a thing would probably look in the 1980s. The eyes don't quite feel right for the era, and the beard looks arguably too good. General Madine may be the most prominent beard in Kenner-dom, and Qui-Gon's looks too realisitc. Not that it needs to look weird, but sometimes weird is right with these old figures. The head also isn't particularly glossy, which hurts the old-ness a bit.

A green lightsaber that's just like Jedi Luke's is what one should expect, but the Jedi Robes - included with Qui-Gon but not Obi-Wan Kenobi - are also arguably too good for a retro figure. The hood sits well on the head, the texture is good, the feel is nice... Hasbro really struggled with cloth Jedi robes with sleeves when we started to get them regularly. This seems refined, which is odd - but also Kenner was pretty good about getting hats and hoods to fit, and most figures could fit in the appropriate vehicles. It makes sense that this would be just fine.

The figure's articulation is good, but I'm not buying the posture. The arms and legs swing forward well, and the long robes cut as leg joints do have a precedent. If you have a Hoth Han Solo or Bespin Princess Leia, their garments hang below the belt and above the knees, so this is more or less how it should look. The legs swing forward with little fuss, and the neck can turn without snapping off his long hair. That's more of a modern innovation, and I can't think of an old Kenner figure from the Star Wars era with long hair over his shoulders. Maybe I'm forgetting somebody. In terms of functionality, I would say it's appropriately retro with the quality-of-life improvements we got when Hasbro said "hey, we can use flexible plastic and the thumbs won't snap on our G.I. Joe figures." This is a good thing, even if it's not necessarily authentic to the era.

You can choose to like this figure for what it is - a licensed figure that looks like it could stand on a shelf with other old figures - or bag on it for not hiring an actual original gangster sculptor, and was probably sculpted digitally, and was spit out of a factory who doesn't grok that Kenner's old figures had good, crisp details - just not as much detail as a modern figure. For about $10, given what I assume to be a limited audience (the Venn Diagram of "People who love Episode I" and "People who love Kenner Action Figures" might be me and about 40 other people in total), it's this or nothing. I don't think someone like Stan Solo was ever going to crank one out, and I don't know that a Super7 or other company that trades in 3 3/4-inch retro figures would (in today's marketplace) come up with something that captures the tough-to-define posture and pose of those original figures. Having said that, I'd rather the original Episode I figures be posed and jointed like this so they could more easily fit in vehicles. It's good for what it is (a modern take on retro) and I can't argue the price.

Collector's Notes: I got my set from Target. It was in a pile of stuff on the "Collectibles" shelves without any real indication as to where it should have been.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,132: May 9, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,131: Jar Jar Binks (The Retro Collection)

JAR JAR BINKS Just The Way He Was Never Intended!
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Target 6-Pack
Item No.: No. G0370
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster, plus Battle Droid, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala, Darth Maul, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: March 2024
Appearances: The Phantom Menace

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: After other recent (and good!) figures of this character, I would not have expected to buy another Gungan. But in The Retro Collection, all things are possible and I got Jar Jar Binks. I would love nothing more than to take a crack at writing a story about him in a post-Empire world, but that's not likely to happen. What is likely to happen is me taking this figure to a bunch of vehicles to see if he'll fit, and thanks to his very long legs it's a mixed bag. He can fit in a Landspeeder or CAP-2 or even (shockingly) the AST-5, but his feet bump into the cannon of the MTV-7 which for some reason still remains on my desk to this day. I don't think that's a failing on anybody's part, he's just a really tall dude.

When translating any new design to the classic Kenner style, it's tough to say if Hasbro did a good job, or not. I think they did a bang-up job of making a good retro-style action figure, but the question we always have to ask is "but when was this figure made?" Is Hasbro tackling the design of a figure that could have came out in 1978 or 1983 or 1985? Usually figures are a pastiche of styles, cribbing details from each era to put something out that's something of an anachronism. For example, Jar Jar's ears being sculpted as big separate pieces is something I don't think you would have seen until 1983 or much later, but the legs having the sculpted "skirt" (and not a cloth one like the 1983 Klaatu figure) is something you could have seen as far back as 1978. The eye are perfectly 1978-ish, but the gripping hand is way better than anything we got in those days. His hands are almost modern, or at least, 1990s-style in terms of how well they grip the Battle Droid blaster. He stands and sits well, like most old figures, and I don't think any modern (read: late Millennial or younger) customer is going to have a problem with it seeming like something really, really old people had as a kid. You know, 40s, 50s, people who have one foot in the grave.

The coloring seems a tiny bit off, and that's where I think Hasbro rightly zagged where Kenner would also have zagged. His skin is molded in dark pink with a light beige for the mouth, nose, and ears - in their position I would have molded in cream and painted pink, but it works well and I don't see any blemishes. Hasbro opted to not include the skin pattern, but most interestingly the colors on Jar Jar figures tend to change a bit. In the movie, his shirt was more of a darker brown, and the vest was often a little darker too. This one has a lighter vest with a lighter brown pants and shirt - it's not as wacky as Walrus Man or Greedo or Hammerhead but it is off-model just enough for me to say "good job." He looks like Jar Jar Binks, but isn't perfect. That's what I want to see here.

Oddly, his hands are pretty much perfect - there's a separately molded trigger finger, which is not the kind of thing you saw from Kenner very much. You might have had fingers wrapped around in a closed loop, but this sort of thing wasn't typical until the 1990s. Also the left hand is interesting in that it's "broken," rotated so it can't hold a weapon and once again looking like something that came out of the 1990s. I can't quite tell what the design decision was here, but it really does seem like a heavily watered-down and somehow better figure than the staff-holding version we got in May of 1999.

Hasbro could've made a $17 (or $25) deluxe Jar Jar Binks in Vintage and it probably would have been great - but this goofball is also really fun. Sure he doesn't have the painted detail we got in 1999, but that's the point. He's a goofy salamander that looks sort of like he might fit in with your old Jabba's Palace or Cantina aliens. I think this is a great way to make me care about some figures I didn't think I would want to buy, and I'd recommend you pick this one up if you liked Kenner toys. Also if anyone out there from Hasbro is reading, consider a wave of Retro dudes for the next Star Wars movie's pre-release line. Don't wait 25 years - off-model figures made from preproduction designs are a blessing in the Kenner line, save authenticity for post-release The Vintage Collection figures.

Collector's Notes: I got my set from Target. It was in a pile of stuff on the "Collectibles" shelves without any real indication as to where it should have been.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,131: May 7, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,130: Darth Maul (The Retro Collection)

DARTH MAUL Just The Way He Was Never Intended!
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Target 6-Pack
Item No.: No. G0370
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Lightsaber, plus Battle Droid, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala, Jar Jar Binks, and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: March 2024
Appearances: The Phantom Menace

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from the galaxy far, far away! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: A few years ago I was pondering if Kenner-flavored prequel figures would be cool, and now we've got Darth Maul just before the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace He was the first one I'd want to see in this style - but Diamond Select Toys made a Jumbo 12-inch Kenner figure too... and I think they designed it better. Diamond's had sharper detailing, a better head, a vinyl cape, but had a not-so-retro lightsaber with a silver hilt. Hasbro opted to make soft details with very few painted tattoo markings, a different pose, and arms that were, sadly, too big to fit in the Sith Infiltrator vehicle we got about 18 years ago.

If there's one thing that's increasingly clear to me about Retro figures, is that they would be massively popular if these things could be released before the movie or TV show. With rough details, they would be the ultimate "sneak preview" figures. If they're off-model or generally wrong? That's OK.

Maul is a really tough nut to crack for true Kenner styling - after all, what do you emphasize? Do you pretend it's pre-1977 and give him early details like a vinyl cape or telescoping lightsaber? Or do you pretend Kenner never stopped doing Kenner-style figures, and make something that may look more like a 1990s release? This figure doesn't seem to hit any specific era with its massive 1980-style lightsaber hilt with two blades, the pre-1984 clean cut slice in the pants without any flowing fabric detail, and a head that has horns that somehow look better than the 1999 figure and facial tattoos that, I must say, don't do it for me. It's pretty close, but I don't know how Kenner would have done either the face or the make-up. It's just a lot more red and a lot less sharp angles than I expected.

In terms of functionality, it's pretty great - the aforementioned Sith Infiltrator ship from Hasbro has a few quirks and a small cockpit that was designed around jointed knees and smaller arms, so this one can sit in it - but you can't close the cockpit. He can sit, though, so break out the mini-rigs because his range of motion is excellent and he doesn't have any obstructions. They did a good job there, and he can holt the lightsaber better than most real Kenner figures. His pose is also pretty great, with a right hand slightly rotated to give him a slightly more dynamic shelf presence than most modern Hasbro incarnations of Kenner sculpts. I think they got that completely right.

He's also rather tall - Liam Neeson's a big dude and so are his figures, but Ray Park is a little short. Their Retro figures are about the same size. That seems like an OG Kenner move, were there wasn't a massive rift between the shorties and the Wookiees like we get with modern figures.

I'm less enamored with the actual robe sculpting - it seems unfinished, and is missing a certain sense of the weight or detail of an actual old figure. I would love grooves on the face for the tattoos (Klaatu had some real texture), and a chest that has some better layering. I'm not saying I could do any better, but it would be nice to have the lower torso area a smidgen more rounded so the legs swing forward more easily. It's good, but it could be just barely better - or, most fans won't notice and won't care because they will never open this one. But we will. I love how it feels as a toy - all the parts move more or less as expected and it feels like something you believe could have existed in the past.

As a bundle I assume this set is going to be destined for a sale unless the run was particularly low - that's no criticism of the set, I just don't think people going to Target are going to see a weird block box with no visible figures and drop $60 unless they are big believers in the format. I bought it at full price because I want to see more of these, and Hasbro's not making too many figures per year and the prices are generally on the fair side. Collector's Notes: I got my set from Target. It was in a pile of stuff on the "Collectibles" shelves without any real indication as to where it should have been.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,130: May 2, 2024