BASSO in Disguise30th Anniversary Collection Comic Packs
Item No.: Asst. 87504 No. 87555
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster, helmet, comic, Mouse figure
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.99
Availability: Late 2007
Appearances: Star Wars: Empire comics and the Star Wars radio drama
Image: Adam Pawlus' toy room floor.
Bio: Rebels infiltrate an Imperial base on Kalizt IV to free Jorin Sol before he is tortured into revealing the location of the Alliance's fleet. Disguised as stormtroopers, Mouse and Basso enter the facility to carry out their assignments. While Mouse plants explosive charges to destroy the facility, Basso discovers that captured civilians are being used as slaves by the Imperials, and convinces the Rebels to free them. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)
Commentary: It's almost disgusting how many times Hasbro can use the same body to make multiple viable and yet different figures. Basso here is one of many to go incognito as the Empire's "finest" during his tenure as a member of the Rebellion. I'm not sure why he has the fancy markings around his human head, but he does have a fancy pauldron which makes him look a little more interesting. Given he uses a popular Stormtrooper body, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that he has 14 points of articulation and, for the most part, is a worthy addition to your army. His removable helmet basically means you can make him a plain Stormtrooper, which may come in handy if you can get a lot of him on the cheap. Really, Hasbro didn't have to do much work here-- an added accessory and a new head can easily generate a new character, plus I have little doubt we'll see the head again in the future to do one of those Rebel commando figures. They're making the body to use with Luke, after all, a simple head swap could result in multiple additional figures quite easily. But anyway, the point is this Basso is pretty great. He doesn't really bring much new to the table, but he does allow Hasbro to make an Expanded Universe character with limited cost and risk-- after all, who wouldn't like to own more Stormtroopers?
Collector's Notes: A strong seller, but not impossible to find. The figures essentially acted as extra troopers for your forces. The same basic body was used to make Mouse, comic versions of Stormtrooper Luke and Han, and a Clone-inspired Stormtrooper. The body will be used for movie versions of the figures, a Spacetrooper, and some Legacy-based comic figures for an upcoming Entertainment Earth exclusive due in 2009. The body was itself originally the 2004 "vintage" Stormtrooper.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 875: October 21, 2008
3 comments:
i heard this figure would also ship with a white pauldron. any truth to this?
No. Early pre-release samples-- one of which was sent to Rebelscum-- included no pauldron, but any and all variants are likely faked by fans. At this point, this product has ceased shipping, so unless Hasbro repackaged it in the white TCW/TLC packaging you will likely never see a legit variant. Plus I believe it was orange in the comic so there's no reason to change it, really.
Nope. I bought one at Wal-Mart that had no pauldron. Every one I've seen since had the pauldron.
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