Figure of the Day: Day 137: Jango Fett

JANGO FETT Sneak Preview
Attack of the Clones Sneak Preview Collection
Item No.: Asst. 84455 No. 84678
Number: n/a
Includes: 2 blasters, 2 blast effects, rocket pack
Action Feature: plug blast effects on guns or jet pack for realistic blasting something or other
Retail: $6.99
Availability: Spring 2002
Appearances: Attack of the Clones

Bio: Jango Fett was a renowned bounty hunter and the "father" of Boba Fett (his clone). Fett was the leader of the Mandalorians, and later served as the template for the clones of the Grand Army of the Republic. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: The toy shelves of Adam Pawlus.

Commentary: The first figure of Jango Fett came in what was, on paper, the best assortment of all time. It was of a new movie. It was early. It had an astromech, a Fett, a clone, and a female bounty hunter. Surely, this is the best series ever right? Well, sales proved otherwise-- it did OK, but it was fairly easy to find everyone on clearance if you did some looking. They were all very good figures though, especially Jango. Modeled after data scanned from the sets, it's one of the best Fett figures of all time and was certainly tied for the best upon its release in 2002, despite only having six points of articulation. The figure's unique action pose delighted some and upset others, but it's worth noting that it's a great looking figure with some neat display options that make it worth picking up.

By and large, what you see is what you get. You can plug the red "blast effects" on the rockets, or on the guns-- which are also packaged with some other figures. Heck, you can even plug some blast effects on the toy for Jango's Slave I. Hasbro put a lot of work in making bits and pieces of one toy plug in/on another during 2002, which seemed to have been a mandate across other brands with G.I. Joe's Sound Attack and Transforers Armada's Mini-Cons. But I digress. Buy this figure.

Collector's Notes: Due to the glut of action figures released since 2002, this one, too, can be had cheaply. Other versions of Jango exist, but most of them have action features that clutter the look of the figure. This is the cleanest of them, as you can leave off the more distracting options. Other versions have spring-loaded or other features that you might not quite like as much. Until a super-posable version of Jango Fett comes out, this is easily the best one on the market today as far as appearance goes.

Day 137: September 20, 2006