Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,177: Princess Leia Organa (Boushh, The Black Seres)

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA (Boushh)
The Black Series   Basic Figure
Item No.: Asst. A5077 No. B1059
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #17
Includes: Helmet, staff, cape/harness, backpack
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $12.99
Availability: June 2015
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Bio: No bio due to new multilingual packaging.

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary:  What color are her shoes supposed to be?   I actually had to look some stuff up about this one.  Princess Leia in her Boushh disguise was one of my favorite figures as a kid.  I was excited when we got a new one in 1996, and again in 2006, and to a lesser extent in 2015 because we got two sizes at once.  And here's the thing - the 6-inch one has brown shoes, the 3 3/4-inch one has dark grey shoes.   So I actually had to do some research - which one was correct?  The Hasbro/Kenner figures are historically tan/brown shoes.  Other companies are usually the darker grey color.   But which is correct?

Star Wars: The Visional Dictionary and Dressing a Galaxy both show brown shoes.  Interestingly, Star Wars Chronicles doesn't show her shoes - it has tons of slave bikini shots, but no shoes of either costume from Jabba's Palace.   As such, it looks like Kenner and Hasbro probably had it right from 1983 until this figure - the darker shoes look fine, but are probably not authentic.  (Neither is Hot Toys'.   But Gentle Giant's Animated Maquette - an Entertainment Earth exclusive, thank you very much - got it right.)  It's so strange, because the two Black Series Boushh Leias seem to come from the same digital sculpts - the arms and heads are from similar sources, with tweaks to the hands and other pieces to best fit the plastic tolerances at that scale.  They should have very similar paint jobs, but the 6-inch one blows away the 3 3/4-inch one despite the similarity in price. 

This is sort of what the battle is at the factory level - is a $13-$15 4-inch figure any good when a $20 6-inch figure blows it away in terms of accessories, articulation, size, and deco?   Unless you're clinging to the past by the last atoms of your fingertips, no - there's a clear winner here.   The little figure has light silver on the face mask, while the big one has a darker grey.  The little one lacks the battle wear of the big one.  The little one doesn't have as much make-up as the big figure - and this is something I've been mentioning for years, you really do need extra deco in women action figure faces at the smaller scale and technology makes that difficult.  Also, little Boushh's thermal detonator is molded to her hand so you don't lose it, and big Boushh Leia's bandolier has painted ammo on it.   It's almost no contest which one is better here.

I appreciate that Hasbro put out the 3 3/4-inch version as a bit of synergy with the first new Han Solo in Carbonite set in nearly nine years.  She's a little pale, her lips are a little dark, but she looks pretty good overall.   I think I like the 2006 one more, thanks to a more dynamic pose, a removable detonator, and of course the lower price tag.   2015 Leia has 14 points of articulation, plus a swell neck joint you probably won't even notice - her neck can tilt up and down like most 6-inch figures.  It's well-disguised and expertly integrated.  I'd also be an absolute putz to not point out how nicely this figure turned out at the scale.  6-inch figures are easier to paint nicely, getting eyeliner straight on a 3 3/4-inch figure is quite the challenge.  Leia's strands of hair were also painted straight, and while her skin is overly pale here the execution on the technical details is nothing if not impressive. Hasbro also designed her to stand and sit, as there's a cut up her tunic that allows her legs to swing forward.  Clearly, the Hasbro engineers did the absolute best they could within the budget and factory constraints put upon this figure.

Personal preferences toward 3 3/4-inch aside, there's no argument that the 6-inch figure is a far better collector figure for the money.  It's not even a close call.   3 3/4-inch Boushh is good for what she is, but so was the version from 9 years ago.   She may also have the daintiest human hands in 3 3/4-inch adult-figure history, and I'd like someone to point me out to the ones I forgot.   If Hasbro got the shoes right, this would be a perfectly nice figure.  Since they didn't, the 2006 one is perfectly good and also cheaper.   This figure's general adequacy shows improvement over the last 10 years, but we get a new Boushh Leia nearly every 10 years and the leap between 1996 and 2006 is huge, while the 2006 and 2015 ones show visible growth but nothing so spectacular.   It really does show that the line at this size has largely peaked, with only the cloth cape and impressive backpack tampos being new elements for this go-round.  I look forward to seeing what 2026 has to offer, my guess is they won't find a way to make a better face sculpt or improve the articulation at this scale by any big leaps or bounds.

Collector's Notes: I got this online - you can probably score one for $13-$15.   Depending on where you bought her, she was sold in assortments or via solid-packed cases of 12.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,177: August 18, 2015