Figure of the Day: Day 339: Gamorrean Guard

GAMORREAN GUARD with Vibro-Ax
Power of the Force Collection 2
Item No.: Asst. 69605 No. 69693
Number: n/a
Includes: Vibro-ax, Freeze Frame (some releases)
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $4.99-$5.99
Availability: September 1998-1999
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Bio: The brutish nature of Gamorreans, along with their great strength and violent tendencies, made them excellent mercenaries and guardsmen in Jabba's desert palace. (Taken from the figure's Freeze Frame cardback.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' Toy Shelves.

Commentary: This Gamorrean Guard was a fantastic update to the vintage 1983 figure in that it solved a few of the original figure's problems, and kept some of them too. The figure now has an articulated neck-- a first-- as well as a waist, but it still has one hand in a sculpted fist, which reduces the amount of "army building" poses you can do with this figure. As a trooper, it's good to be able to pose them in different ways with different accessories, but with only one hand that can hold a weapon, and one weapon, you're kinda stuck. Still, this didn't stop me from troop-building this figure because of its great armor, excellent sculpt, above-par paint job, and decent heft. It's a good diorama figure, you'll want to get several-- but not too many.

The figure is good enough to the point where it's unlikely we'll see a new version in the near future, although it would be nice to see an all-new sculpt with both hands, a Force Pike, and a couple of extra arm joints/swappable limbs. Who wouldn't want a "choking" guard?

Collector's Notes: On the $1 clearances at Toys "R" Us in late 1998/early 1999, all POTF2 figures were $2.99 with a $2 off sticker affixed to many of them. Because of this, I bought a heck of a lot of POTF2 troopers, including about 15-20 Gamorrean Guards. In hindsight, even at $1 each, this was overkill-- it's a great figure, and now I'll never be hard-up for them in a diorama setting, but there's probably no reason to have more than 6 in any given scenario. The Hasbro Jabba's Palace Diorama can keep a lot of figures in it, but not every last alien that has been produced-- as such, if you feel like buying a lot of guards, you might want to keep the army smaller than I did. Also, an Original Trilogy Collection repaint in 2004 looks excellent-- I'll review it at a later date, but it makes a great "captain" to your Gamorrean security force.

Day 339: April 10, 2007