Figure of the Day: Day 866: B'arin Apma

B'ARIN APMA Mandalorians and Omega Squad
30th Anniversary Collection Entertainment Earth Exclusive
Item No.: Asst. 87455 No. 87467
Number: n/a
Includes: Blasters, Helmet
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $39.99
Availability: Late 2007
Appearances: n/a

Image: Adam Pawlus' front yard.

Bio: Brotherhood, stamina, loyalty. These are three pillars upon which B'arin Apma rests his entire life. These are also the three main tenets that he drills into the clone troopers he trains – as essential to a superior soldier as marksmanship and courage. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Commentary: When Hasbro started revealing new Mandalorians as Entertainment Earth exclusives, a lot of fans weren't sure what to make of new characters like B'arin Apma. A few cracked that these looked like Hasbro employee heads on existing repainted bodies-- and this was pretty much the case. While the name to go with the face is not yet known, the figure itself takes a modified 2002 Jango Fett torso and arms and adds on newly sculpted legs plus a spiffy helmet in a dark grey color. In short, it looks sort of like Jango Fett, but not really. As a toy, the figure works pretty well-- his limbs don't easily pop off (although his head does), he can sit, he can stand, and his legs are super articulated. Unfortunately, his arms are not-- as they're recycled from an older figure, all you get are swivel joints at the shoulders and just above the elbow. This is going to limit the amount of cool poses the figure can do, but not by too much. That, and odds are this figure isn't going to see a lot of action outside dioramas, anyway.

The detail is pretty good considering they mixed 2002 and 2007 sculpts. Since the coloring is consistent, the figure basically works as a unified whole. What doesn't really work is the battle damage, and arguably the head. The "damage" is just some silver streaking, which looks more like a paint brush accident than actual wear-and-tear from the fields of battle. The head itself is something a lot of fans had issues with due to the facial hair and the well-kept hair on his head. Personally, I think it sort of works-- if the guy's face was dirtied up a bit and given a slightly meaner facial expression, he'd have looked particularly awesome. As it is, he isn't bad-- truth is we've seen very few representations of Mandalorians outside their helmets, and you never really know what kind of life they lead. Sure, we think of them all as these grizzled, badassssss supercommandos but for all we know some of them are heavily armored file clerks. It's a pretty good figure, and one I'd say is good enough to buy if you're the kind of fan who wants every Mandalorian that Hasbro has made. Which at present time is no less than 12 unique characters, more if you count the variant costumes on Boba and Jango.

Collector's Notes: The first test shots of these figures had helmets which were far too small, this was corrected for a later release. Early images of this particular figure showed him to come with a Jango Fett-style rocketpack more like the one he had on Geonosis, with the same deco as the one he would have in his final release. It is not known why the change was made. These items sold out from Entertainment Earth in late Summer of 2008, but are still available on the secondary market and some comic and online toy shops.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 866: October 8, 2008