OBI-WAN KENOBI Battle at TheedThe Saga Collection
Item No.: Asst. 85770 No. 87089
Number: 047
Includes: Communicator, lightsaber, cloak, stand
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $6.99
Availability: Fall 2006
Appearances: The Phantom Menace
Bio: Already a keen observer and skilled fighter as a Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi learns much more sophisticated lessons from his Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Somewhat traditional in his thinking, he often disagrees with his Master, but he nonetheless sees the wisdom in Jinn's thinking. Together, they are the first Jedi to confront a Sith Lord in a thousand years. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)
Image: Adam Pawlus' toy shelves.
Commentary: Star Wars was extremely popular in 2006, no doubt due both to what felt like conservative shipments of figures combined with huge demand leftover from the previous film. Hasbro managed to release 74 figures in The Saga Collection line of basic figures, and of them, about 20 were 100% new figures with completely new molds*-- and Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't one of them. This figure mixes and matches parts and pieces from as far back as 1999 and as recently as 2006 to create a figure that looks fresh but could probably have been cobbled together from any customizer with a pot of boiling water. The figure has eight points of articulation, taking the arms from the 2000 Power of the Jedi figure, the head from the 2000 Episode I figure, the legs and (it seems) the body from the 1999 Episode I figure, and the accessories from, well, several figures-- that lightsaber has been reused time and again after all. The sculpt looks a little old as Hasbro has since learned to do better Obi-Wan Kenobi heads, so in a way it's kind of a shame they didn't give us a new head for this figure to show off just how much better they've learned how to do heads over the past few years. Since there are a ton of gift sets with a very similar version of this figure in them, it's probably not worth your while to get this one, unless you're specifically not collecting those gift sets. In which case this one is pretty gosh darn good.
Collector's Notes: Hasbro released three Episode I-specific versions of Obi-Wan Kenobi in late 2006. There was this one, of course, and a nearly identical (except for the head) figure packaged with the Episode I figure tin. And a nearly identical version of that figure was packaged in the Sith Lord Attack Battle Pack. As such, this is one of those characters which has a lot of barely-different figures that are more different than just a variation due to different belts or heads, so if you want to get every last version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, it's going to take some work and some research. (We'll be covering those other figures later.)
Day 431: July 11, 2007
* - It's worth noting that several new characters and outfits can be created with paint and accessories-- new droids, clones, and holographic figures can be created without the use of new molds. Also, new troopers can be easily crafted with a new head and some paint, which leads to several more "new" figures in 2006, although there was a significant use of old molds the likes of which we hopefully will never see again.
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