Figure of the Day: Day 1,269: Captain Needa

CAPTAIN NEEDA Imperial Apologist
The Legacy Collection Basic Figures
Item No.: Asst. 87535 No. 87573
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #BD40
Includes: Blaster, Hat, Droid Part
Action Feature: Removable hat
Retail: $7.99
Availability: April 2009
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: Captain Needa assumes full responsibility for losing the Millennium Falcon when the Rebel ship emerges from the asteroid field. Needa apologizes for the mistake to Lord Vader, who accepts the apology -- then kills Needa as punishment for his failure. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's TV tray.

Commentary: "Apology accepted, Captain Needa." That one line of dialogue is really the only significant thing about this guy. A few seconds before he dies, we meet him and find out he's going to take responsibility for a mistake which really isn't his, and for some reason fans decided this warranted a figure. Hasbro listened, and here he is-- and he's pretty good.

Needa is made out of a new "generic" Imperial Officer body which Hasbro developed about four years late. The body has a removable rank badge which allows Hasbro to swap out this piece without making an entirely new torso. (To date, they have not done this nor have they announced a figure to make use of this feature.) The modular body (made from a previous Death Star Trooper's legs) has a ball-jointed head, so that's easy to change out, and like most good figures he has 14 points of articulation and fantastic detail. The hat stays on well enough-- not perfectly, but certainly not to a point to complain about-- and the likeness is passable. I mean, there's only so much you can do with aging, pasty, white British guys in the same exact costume, so the fact that it has any distinctiveness to it is pretty welcome compared to the one "Imperial Officer" we got in the 1980s. This figure is a good example of Hasbro using the most of its tooling library while planning ahead for future Imperials, but will we get more after this one? It seems unlikely, but that's been said before, so who knows. Perhaps we'll see a new Tarkin with this torso in 2011. Until then, this remains the latest, most refined Imperial officer available and it's well worth picking up for that reason alone.

Collector's Notes: Like most 2009 Legacy figures he's not particularly easy to find, but odds are you can get him without too much fuss. It's the benefit of their being a lot of Imperial Officer figures, some people don't seem to get there's a difference.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 1,269: April 26, 2010