Figure of the Day: Day 343: EV-9D9

EV-9D9 with Datapad
Power of the Force Collection 2
Item No.: Asst. 69605 No. 69722
Number: n/a
Includes: Datapad, Freeze Frame
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $4.99
Availability: September 1997
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Bio: EV-9D9 (Eve-Ninedenine) was a sadistic droid who supervised the droids in Jabba the Hutt's palace. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' TV tray.

Commentary: In the early days of the modern line, fans were thrilled that Kenner was cranking out so many updates to vintage figures (as in, 1980s) that were really hard to find. Although it doesn't seem like they were too thrilled when EV-9D9 hit, as the figure was clearly a resculpted version of the original action figure, minus the nifty mouth-moving mechanism. The figure itself is quite nice-- there eyes, dark bronze coloring, five points of articulation, and a true-to-movie look. However, it's modified from a toy sold in 1985, is missing that toy's most distinctive mechanism, and to the uneducated fan, could be mistaken for the vintage figure. (Not everybody out there is as on-the-ball as the likes of you, dear readers.) It's not that it's a bad figure, it's just reasonably unexciting-- it's a fun character, sure. A lovely design. It's just lacking in what makes a figure great in 2007, and even in 1997, it didn't have modern additions like a waist joint. Is that too much to ask?

Collector's Notes: This is one of two EV-9D9 figures ever made-- and the only modern one. As such, if you want one, it's this one or the very expensive original version. Since Hasbro will likely never revisit EV-9D9 in the near future, I can say this is a release to buy-- it's certainly good enough for most fans' purposes. If you care for such things, there's a fairly extensive backstory which was written for the character in 1996 which involved the torture robot being a criminal droid who escapes Cloud City with Lando out to put an end to whatever evil is going on. Whatever.

Day 343: April 14, 2007