JANGO FETT Kennerized
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: No. G0371
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #341
Includes: 2 blasters, another 5 figures
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: November 2024
Appearances: Attack of the Clones
Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by the original 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from a 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 Amazon now!Click here to buy it at eBay now!
Commentary: I'm a big fan of
The Retro Collection, warts and all. Nobody's going back to 1984 to pump out more figures, but at least they're
trying.
Jango Fett is part of a six pack that's half
Attack of the Clones and half
Revenge of the Sith, with some sensible choices and some that are just going to make you mad that each prequel didn't get its own six pack. Jango Fett is probably tops of the list of characters to make in any format, and he's joined by two sensible choices - Padme Amidala and Mace Windu. (If it were up to me I'd throw in Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Count Dooku.) What's particularly interesting about Jango is that Hasbro made a 5-jointed version of him roughly a decade ago, and they're somewhat similar. I also assume the number of people who are grown-up Kenner kids who are looking at these figures and going "well, actually" while opening them up and playing with them is a vanishingly small group, and people might not even take these guys out of the 6-pack box they got in the mail. Their loss! It's a good figure.
Hasbro once again opted to make a Jango that mixes his costumes. The dent-free helmet of Kamino is here with the second silver and blue jetpack we saw on Geonosis. It's not true to the movie figures we got in the 2000s (but matches the
The Vintage Collection deluxe figure) and I feel like Hasbro has a blank check to make those kinds of decisions with
The Retro Collection. If they want to make a figure based on incorrect concept art colors, or with the wrong blaster? They should be encouraged to do so. (For
Vintage and
Black Series, accuracy matters. As a kid, Bib Fortuna had a weird twisty cane and nobody complained.)
The bulk of his costume feels like they put a typical modern design through a Kenner fun factory, with the various belts, holders, pads, vambraces, and so forth, toning down the musculature a bit and giving him a slightly more dynamic pose. What I found really odd were his holsters. Jango typically wears them with the leather straps over his thigh armor - this figure seems like they sculpted it digitally and accidentally pushed the straps behind the armor. It makes it look like his non-functional holsters are just kind of floating - you might not notice, but I did, and it's kind of weird. I almost feel like we got a figure that was near the final stage of development by accident - other than those holster straps, I think the decisions Hasbro made were really good. There aren't as many nifty details as on 1979 Boba - take a look at his quilted shoulders or the wrinkles on his arms and legs - but the armor seems right and the pose feels pretty good. His right gauntlet has recessed squares that seem deeper than the costume - those were shallower rectangles. The change is, well, "wrong" but who cares? It's Kenner, baby, getting a few details wrong is what makes them fun.
Jango's helmet looks a lot like
Boba Fett (Morak_ [FOTD #2,935], which is more or less what you want. It's a departure from the 1979 figure, but I think it fits in with the "story" Hasbro seems to be telling with these figures. Clearly Hasbro's interpretation of the future of Kenner would be that this is the new standard helmet, and I think it was probably the best choice. The sculpted details are all pretty much identical except for the dent in Boba's helmet, if you compare the backs they both have the same vent designs.
His backpack is really interesting and threw me for a bit of a loop. When I first saw it, I thought it was the original backpack with some modifications and the wrong coloring - but it's got to be the JT-12 with an elongated rocket. Sadly Hasbro dropped the vestigial retooled L/J-slot that we got on Boba Fett (Morak), but the proportions seem pretty close to what you'd have to get out of Kenner. I feel this was more of a "get it?" gag than how Kenner would have done it, but I'm probably overthinking things here. The little jets are melded with the figure's back - just like Boba - but this time they gave him some extra paint to set them apart. It's not quite right - but that's what makes it interesting.
The paint is the one place this figure really gives me pause, mostly because it's so good. Figures like Snaggletooth had duller silver paint back in the day, and this paint - while not vac-metal or a mirrored finish - is incredibly shiny. The quality of the materials is excellent, but - and I'm probably one of few fans to think this way - Hasbro should be allowed (no, encouraged) to cut corners. The original Kenner toys were dirt cheap back in the day, and it would be unusual for the company to cover the figure in so much paint, and so nicely too. The brown paint looks fine, the blue on the helmet looks good, and they did well.
Jango's twin blasters are, perhaps, a little too good - they look just like any typical modern WESTAR-34 blasters. I think most fans are going to love these, and they are the kind of thing I assume most Star Wars fanatics expect. Having said that, if they gave us gray Kea Moll/Squid Head blasters instead? I bet those would be just as easily accepted and would also be something Kenner Actual would have done.
Is he - and the set - worth it? Look, $10 per figure for six newly sculpted figures that vaguely resemble what I had as a child will always be worth it to me. Don't tell Hasbro, but I'd probably pay $15 for a new
Retro figure as long as they were genuinely
new without complaining. This is one of the better ones, and I will buy another if the set ever goes on sale.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from Hasbro Pulse.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 3,201: December 26, 2024
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