Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,529: R3-B0017 (Droid Factory Line Look)

R3-B0017 Disney Parks Halloween Exclusive Star Wars  Droid Factory
Star Wars Disney Droid Factory
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Probably Not Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Comes Apart, glows in the dark
Retail: $12.99
Availability: August 2017
Appearances: n/a

Bio: All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy.  Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors.  This droid has been programmed to scavenger Dathomir and serve Darth Maul.  Join R3-B0017 on his adventures throughout the galaxy.  May the Force be with you... and your Droids!  (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Rarely does a toy seem so tailor-made for me as R3-B0017.   I love droids, I love action figures, and I love things that glow in the dark - add in a ridiculous short backstory, and we're off to the races!

The mold is more or less the standard R3 fare - clear dome, hole in the top, a few textured bits, and some painted panels even though they don't seem obvious in optimal lighting conditions.  If the droid is lit from behind, you'll notice a few panels painted green on the front and back of his - erm - person.  It's simple and it doesn't add a ton to the overall look and feel of this one.  I like it because it's something, but it could just as easily have been another color since this blends in so much.  The green plastic tends to absorb a lot of light, obfuscating sculpted detail.  Having said that, you've bought hundreds of droids by now, so you don't need perfect deco.   You need glow.

The glow is good. The droid's green plastic is semi-translucent, fitting for a "ghostly" robot from Dathomir.  It matches the likes of Slimer more closely than my other glow toys, and for those curious the very best glow-in-the-dark toys seem to come from Onell Design's Glyos factory.   (Get some - also see Cosmic Radiation Edition Outer Space Men.)  The toy has a lovely green color rather than a bony off-white color, which is a nice change of pace as glow toys go.  Star Wars has precious few toys which glow in the dark thanks to most people I've spoken with telling me glow toys are seen as a cheap cop-out as design goes (I feel insulted), or in some cases the plastic is a little more brittle and unsuited to things like Transformers.   The more you know, I suppose.

Happy Halloween!  I like when Disney tries doing weird things with these, going above and beyond what would probably be appropriate under the Lucas era.  It's kind of an abomination, but it's also exactly the kind of thing I wanted to have.  I appreciate the backstory, I love the colors, and outside of a few glowing Action Fleet figures and an Applause! Spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi, glowing Star Wars toys are a small subset indeed.  If the price is good, get one.  (Warning: the price is awful now.)  Prices on eBay are usually pretty good - around $20 - within a month or two of release.  If you're interested in any of the special droids, I suggest you don't dawdle.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from eBay.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,529: October 30, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,528: Princess Leia Organa (Bespin Escpae, The Black Series 6-Inch)

PRINCESS LEIA Bespin Escape
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch - Target Exclusive
Item No.:   No. E2810
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: September 2018
Appearances: The Empire Stikes Back

Bio: Princess Leia Organa was one of the Rebel Alliance's greatest leaders, fearless on the battlefield and dedicated to ending the tyranny of the Empire. Daughter of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, sister of Luke Skywalker, and with a soft spot for scoundrels, Leia ranks among the galaxy's great heroes. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: I believe Princess Leia (Bespin Escape) is the best Carrie Fisher that Hasbro has ever given us.  This is the first time Hasbro's "Ultra Real" face printing has been done with Ms. Organa, so when you have a good sculpt finally given good paint it's almost eerie how good it is.  It's not the insane level of detail you get at Hot Toys, but it's also not $200.

The figure is light on deco, but so is the original costume.  The body is a white suit, largely devoid of color.  It's also basically the Hoth outfit sans vest.  The blaster is undecorated, and other Imperial blasters have gotten a little detail as of late.  I assume this is why the cost is still $20 - the face has a pretty stellar make-up job with the Bespin hair loops, red lips, and a lot of shading around the face that really brings her to life.   After seeing this figure, I want them to go back and do the other versions - particularly Jabba's Prisoner - to see if we might get something significantly better out of it.

Leia's articulation is par for the current course.  You get rocker ankles, double-jointed knees, and those slightly better-cut elbows so she can bend her arms a lot more than the typical 90 degrees.  I like how you can get some good action poses here, blasting away with both hands.   There's really no getting away from the fact that the figure is a star, another high mark for Hasbro after a couple of years of perfectly nice but hardly impressive releases.  On the Marvel front it seems the likeness on Paul Rudd gets the high marks, but I would wager that this Leia figure is their best human head in all of Star Wars.  Having done thousands of very good figures, Hasbro has to do a lot to make a figure so good it stands out over the previous releases.   Good job, everybody - I can't wait to see what your "real life" X-Wing Luke will look like next year!

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Target. 

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,528: October 25, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,527: R4-B0018 (Droid Factory Line Look)

R4-B0018 Disney Parks Halloween Exclusive Star Wars  Droid Factory
Star Wars Disney Droid Factory
Item No.: ???
Manufacturer: Probably Not Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Articulated serving claw, candy corn piece
Action Feature: Comes Apart
Retail: $12.99
Availability: August 2018
Appearances: n/a

Bio: All different types of Astromech droids populate the Star Wars galaxy.  Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors.  This droid is dedicated to serving the residents on the mining colony of Cloud City.  May the Force be with you... and your Droids!  (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: I bristle at new Disney droid bins, but I'm more or less at peace with the carded droids.  R4-B0018 is this year's offering, and you can score it on eBay or Amazon for less than retail price plus tax plus parking right now.  I realize it's still $20 or so for a $13 droid that should be $10 or under, but that's life, plus I want it and I'm not going across state lines to get one.

The coloring is inspired by the color of candy corn, a popular-among-adults Halloween candy to  hand out to children.  The real candy is usually white at its narrowest, orange in the middle, and yellow (like real corn) at the widest point - Disney switched the colors for some reason.  Perhaps it's trademarked - that yellow cap is meant to evoke real corn, though, so it doesn't look quite right in its current form.  It does get the point across.  The same R4 mold has been used for countless figures, but it adds a new articulated claw arm to grip an incorrectly colored piece of candy from the dome - perhaps we will see it used in a future droid elsewhere.  It fits in the dome quite perfectly, and there are little grooves in the corn that fit the claw.  It's pretty perfect, but the joints on the arm pop apart easily.

The coloring is worth mentioning, because it looks cheap and isn't.  The white dome has sculpted detail that is difficult to see in a dark room, and each colored section has a surprise - metallic panels.     The yellow plastic has sparkly metal paint in certain panels, as does the orange.  Why?  I have no idea - it matches closely and may be difficult to register in spots.    I appreciate the effort, but as a person who has been involved in toy making I would not fault them for cutting it and making an extra couple of pennies per figure.  It doesn't improve the figure, nor does it take anything away if it had been missing.  It's still evocative of the autumnal treat that more and more people express distaste for as an adult.

I like it - but I'm fond of these holiday droids.  Last year's is a favorite, and we'll get to it next week.  For this year, you should score this one while it's still on the cheap side.  It's my hope they keep these weird holiday droids gong and never, ever do more build-a-droid bin pieces, as these are much easier to obtain as a non-resident of a park in Disney's orbit.   Perhaps a Jack-O-Lantern, a skeleton deco, or a "black cat" droid could be in the works! I hope so.  The Christmas droids have been increasingly esoteric, and it's a little surprising they aren't doing any modeled after Easter eggs yet.  For now, I'll enjoy this candy-inspired can of robot.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,527: October 23, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,526: Hera Syndulla (The Black Series 6-Inch)

HERA SYNDULLA Rebel
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Figure
Item No.: Asst. B3834 No. C2143
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #42
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: September 2017
Appearances: Star Wars: Rebels

Bio: The captain and heart of the Ghost's rebel crew, Hera Syndulla was a gifted pilot and leader. Her command of her crew and the respect she earned from the Phoenix Squadron prompted her promotion to squadron leader by Commander Sato.  (Taken from the figure's 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: Thanks to a reasonably popular show, Hera Syndulla sold pretty well as a launch figure from The Last Jedi's bow.   It's easy to forget, but collector lines are generally powered by fan nostalgia - and by 2017, fans had a pretty good opinion on Hera.  Some people didn't care for her show, but people that watched the show like Hera. She has fans and the previous figure sold well, so it's no surprise this one moved.  Sabine and Kanan and Ahsoka did fine, too - clearly there's something to be said for making TV figures.

She's good - this is an interesting figure.  27 points of articulation give her a good range of motion, giving us the best and I assume only green Twi'lek we'll ever get.  The skin color is great, and if you thought "Wow I bet they could make a nice Oola!" I'd agree with you. They'll never do it - but it would be perfect.  At least Hera has a fantastic and slightly snarky facial expression, and a decent range of movement with some flexibility in her straps.  The grey circles on her lekku are subtle, and the deco is almost perfect.  Almost. The one nitpick I have is that the upper area of her pants is painted orange as it was molded in grey plastic, and the orange does not at all match the pants plastic.   If it matched, I'd say this is one of their finest efforts.  Instead it's merely pretty great.

I'm happy Hera exists and surprised that the whole team is slowly being revealed in this scale, even though the line is moving forward.  A complete season one cast is still more or less promised by Hasbro, who all but confirmed Zeb after showing us Ezra and Chopper at Comic-Con.   It feels late, but at least they're coming after we've decided how we feel about the crew and not before the show aired.  Hasbro did a great job executing most of Hera, so get one if you see one at a price you can tolerate.  She can't sit well, but it's not like she's going to get a vehicle.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,526: October 18, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,525: R2-X2 (Red Squadron, The Black Series 6-Inch)

R2-X2 Red Squadron
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Exclusive Red Squadron Figure Set
Item No.:   No. E2311
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: 3 droids
Action Feature: Compartments open to reveal arms, retractable third leg when dome spins, opening dome panels
Retail: $59.99
Availability: September 2018
Appearances: Star Wars

Bio: Astromech droids are a series of versatile utility robots generally used for the maintenance and repair of starships and related technology.  R2-X2 was Red 10 Theron Nett's droid and served in the Battle of Yavin. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: I wanted to say R2-X2 is the best version of the droid yet, but it's not.  It's close, but I'm having issues with weird, new errors being introduced to these droids.  R5-D8 is largely excusable because there's no good reference and previous figures were based, in part, on imagination.   R2-X2 is a droid done multiple times since 2006, and each version has had errors - some of which are easily overlooked.  This one got the green part right, got the color right for the body, and got the box around the "mouth" dot unpainted - correctly!   That's great.  It also totally missed the color of the dome, which is a kind of a big deal.   Kotobukiya got it right on all fronts last year.

In the movie, R2-X2 has a dirty white dome.  This 6-inch scale toy has a silver dome, which I don't believe it's ever done before.  LEGO got it right.  Funko got it right.  It's right on the cards.  Even the black R2-X2 Hasbro did got this part right.   It seemed that, to date, the one thing consistent in every single R2-X2 figure, LEGO set, or bobble head was the white dome.  But no, in 2018 Hasbro, Lucasfilm, and/or Disney found a new glitch to introduce to the low-hanging-fruit that is a droid repaint.

It's a fine looking robot in and of itself, but it's not a robot that appeared in the movie.  It's not even an understandable goof either - the black R2-X2 did indeed look black in some reference shots, and some droids we know only as a dome, so the body is easy to make up.  But not R2-X2.  We've seen mistakes, and we've learned from so many of them.  Props to Hasbro for getting the general panel layout and stripes correct, but I cringe at paying $60 for 3 de-accessorized droids where one of them definitely has a glaring error and another probably has several glaring errors.  I hope against hope that Lucasfilm approvals starts requiring anyone approving figural products to, at the very least, compare the new item being approved to previous releases and to find a still from the movie.  Or, in my dreams, show it off to fans if you're making a toy based on a 4 decade old movie - let us chime in.  Feel free to ignore us, but when something is totally wrong it would be nice to have the opportunity to correct it when we're talking about an exclusive in a line that's generally pitched as being specifically for the adult collector that wanted a clean, fresh start from 3 3/4-inch.  This is amateur hour error stuff.   Yes, the dirt splats are wonderful - but i don't see those in the reference material, either.  Is it possible that this figure isn't meant to represent R2-X2 but some other, similar robot they found in the archives and made by accident? I hope so. Because then I can understand why this figure doesn't match anything we've seen from 41 years of stills and movie history.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Amazon. 

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,525: October 16, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,524: R2-D2 (Red Squadron, The Black Series 6-Inch)

R2-D2 Red Squadron
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Exclusive Red Squadron Figure Set
Item No.:   No. E2311
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: 3 droids
Action Feature: Compartments open to reveal arms, retractable third leg when dome spins, opening dome panels
Retail: $59.99
Availability: May 2018
Appearances: Star Wars

Bio:A resourceful astromech droid, R2-D2 showed great bravery in rescuing his masters and their friends from many perils.  A skilled pilot's assistant, he served Luke Skywalker during the Battle of Yavin alongside Red Squadron. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Thanks to environmental residue, Hasbro could easily give us grassy, snowy, muddy, and other versions of this droid.  In the 6-inch line, other than the first catch-all version, R2-D2 gets only his second flavor five years later as a "blasted" version.  This is the one that they pulled out of Luke's X-wing, and one that had more bashed-up panels and blasted-up bits in the 3 3/4-inch line.  The battle-worn grit looks better here, though.

The original 6-inch R2-D2 was a rare instance of Hasbro making a figure that feels a little small, but had just about every necessary accessory up front.  We got two panels with pop-out arms - still here - and three dome panels that could be removed to add other accessories.  Also still here.  Hasbro removed the two scopes and lightsaber from this release, also the prequel booster rockets in the arms.  The removable arm panels remain - you can pop them off if you like.   Because of all the accessories and features, you should track down the 2013 original or the 2017 40th Anniversary repack.   It's the best.  This is good for different reasons.

This is a figure you buy for deco.  The white and brown blast marks with energy damage and oil leaking looks really spectacular.  It's kind of funny because it's a white glossy brand-new figure with what looks like years of leaky oil and war damage on parts of it - but from a distance, it looks great.  The eye is big and glossy, the red light looks good, and the blue is blue where it should be. It's not exact, but it's pretty close - that red light is nice, but it should be turned off.  R2-D2 is "dead" in this look.  The white blast on the side closely matches the movie, and some of the brown is close, but not identical, to the prop.  He could also stand to have even more dirt paint, but it gives a close enough impression of what we saw on the big screen at the end of the original film.  Clearly, I'm picking nits here.

If you want an R2-D2, this is a good one.  You don't get the pop-up lightsaber or the extra scopes, but you get a lot more paint and a paint job that could just as easily do duty on Dagobah.   I don't see this figure as a selling point for the set, but I don't see the set as one of the best either - two of the three robots are very close to droids you likely already own.  Sure they're different - but it can be difficult to get excited about more of the same without a little something extra in there to make the figure even more exciting and compelling, or at least different.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Amazon.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,524: October 11, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,523: Qi'ra (Corellia, The Black Series 6-Inch)

QI'RA (Corellia)
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Figure
Item No.: Asst. B3834 No. E1203
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #66
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: May 2018
Appearances: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Bio: At 18 years of age, young Qi'Ra is already enmeshed in a life of crime, working for a gang on Corellia.  (Taken from the figure's 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: I like this Qi'Ra figure, and it makes me grouchy because she doesn't have a lot of pals.   It's proficient, a superior example of a figure well-executed with all the trappings you can hope for on a 6-inch scale plastic figure with a level of detail consistent with the best of your expectations from an unreleased but troubled movie.  What I hate is that she's alone - Lucasfilm gave Hasbro reference for a Qi'Ra minus the corresponding time period of Han.  Non-collectors will shrug, but generally speaking I don't want to display a figure with no contemporaries - Forces of Destiny is mostly like this.  Disparate figures from disparate time periods, lacking the coherent focus of most Kenner-era waves giving us at least a couple of buddies to hang out together.   Granted, Qi'Ra doesn't have many friends because her pals aren't figures yet other than Han Solo.  And he's in the wrong costume.  Harrumph.  (Perhaps a Han's Speeder was planned that never made it out - I don't know.)

If you can get beyond the loner nature of this one - she's great.  Hasbro, pat yourselves on the back. Or Gentle Giant, or the sculptors inside Anaheim's Empire of the Mouse.  This figure looks great, with various textures coming to life in plastic.  Her collar looks sort of like wool. Her skirt is dirty leather, and her boots more or less match - complete with dusting of grit, or worm skin, or something. The bracelets mask the wrist joints, and are painted quite nicely.  The ab joint is well-hidden, with no weird crunch or bizarre cut breaking up the clean lines of the shirt meeting the skirt.   I love the wrinkled jacket, the dynamite hair, and the glossy eyes and lips - the shine doesn't look as good on the eyebrows.  (Hasbro: stop doing that.)

With about 26 points of articulation, this is a wonderful showing of how to hide articulation in a costume.  She has a tremendous range of movement, and looks fantastic too - I love the black, white, and red all over costume with superior posture and body language thanks to the jointing.  She can also hold her spiffy blaster with no problems.

Collectors have shunned many of the women in the new movie era, possibly in part thanks to their being produced in a lot of waves - so we're seeing top-billed women figures drop in price pretty quickly.  This is pretty backward from how things used to be - Leias came out, were in short supply, we got cranky, repeat.  At least each movie gets us one (or more) new women, as opposed to the Smurfette-flavored original casting.   I like this figure a bunch - thankfully Moloch is coming to join her in the prologue, I'd love to see Vest Han and maybe the Imperial officers Drawd Munbrin or Falthina Sharest.  (Seriously what is up with these names?)

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,523: October 9, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,522: Clone Commander Wolffe (The Black Series 6-Inch)

CLONE COMMANDER WOLFFE 6-Inch Debut
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Figure Shared Exclusive
Item No.:   No. E2259
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #n/a
Includes: Helmet, 2 blasters
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: July 2018
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: Clone Commander Wolffe (clone designation CC-3636) served in the Clone Wars as commander of the tight-knit unit known as the Wolfpack. A seasoned and battered combatant, Wolffe has witnessed some of the worst the war has to offer. Despite tragedy, he fights on bravely, proudly brandishing his battle scars and instilling loyalty among his men.  (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: It's sort of a miracle that Clone Commander Wolffe exists, but it makes sense for Hasbro as The Clone Wars has some fan legs and Wolffe is Rex with new paint, a new helmet, and a new head.   The body itself was originally sold as the Attack of the Clones Clone Trooper, so you might have a half dozen or so figures with this body.  Hasbro designed this one when double-jointed elbows were still on the table, we've had very few of those as of late.

The figure has slightly dirty armor, which is kind of odd.   The boots are glossy grey, but there are occasional smudges of fudge on the chest, arms, and helmet with flecks of white baked in some grey bits.   Plo Koon's Clone General is good, but it's hard to reconcile the shiny parts with the dirty parts.   I'd love to see the grey be all matte or all glossy, as the shoulders and helmet aren't quite as lustrous as the hands and lower legs.   At least everything looks like it should - you get the wolf detail on the helmet and shoulders, and it looks good from a distance. 

The figure's best feature is hidden under a helmet - the portrait looks like a scarred and enhanced Temuera Morrison.  The skin tone isn't perfect - Hasbro has had issues getting it just-so, and at this size it's probably impossible to exaggerate it to the proper levels so it looks exact - but it's good.  The facel ooks right, the expression is good, he's got a little bit of a lumpy, scarred, seen-it-all sense about him and that messed-up right eye.   I'm torn when it comes to how to display it - I love the helmet, but the human head is so dang good. 

My hunch is you'll skip this figure and regret it, because you don't go where it's sold.  It's really good, and one of Hasbro's better portraits in recent memory.  Get it if you see it, especially since your collection of The Clone Wars 6-inch figures is going to be pretty small right now.  Almost as small as your The Phantom Menace collection.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from GameStop.  It was also sold at Barnes & Noble and Disney Stores.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,522: October 4, 2018

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,521: Admiral Piett (The Black Series 6-Inch)

ADMIRAL PIETT 6-Inch Debut
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Figure Shared Exclusive
Item No.:   No. E2813
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #n/a
Includes: Hat, blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $21.99
Availability: August 2018
Appearances: The Empire Strikes Back

Bio: An ambitious Imperial officer, Piett rose through the ranks to captain and was assigned to the Super Star Destroyer Executor, Darth Vader's flagship.  When Vader strangled Admiral Ozzel, Piett was granted a battlefield promotion to admiral - and given a grisly warning of the penalty for failure.  (Taken from the figure's 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: Hasbro's character selection for The Black Series has been rather fascinating, light on aliens and droids but heavy on  humans.  Since there's a lot of tooling to share with Thrawn and Tarkin, Admiral Piett exists.  The arms and legs and lower jacket are similar to Tarkin, with a new cap, new head, and new hands.  And a new blaster.

The 6-inch figure is on par with previous efforts - you get a stiff jacket, so sitting isn't much of an option. The figure has a good range of articulation, much of which is nicely stowed in the seams.  Bend-and-swivel wrists allow you to give him a weapon, which he doesn't use, which is kind of a shame as it's new tooling and I'd just as soon have a slug figure of a Mouse Droid or some other armament for another figure in my collection.  (Or, heaven forbid, a build-a-figure piece.)   The texture throughout is great, and I can see how and indeed why Hasbro wants to make the most out of its figures like this - why not give the older fan the fascist thugs we crave?   The grey-suited toady has a removable cap and a clean outfit complete with black gloves.  The face looks good, with an excellent sculpt and printed, mostly glossy features.   There are bags under his eyes and a little bit of color in there, perhaps too much - I feel like we're looking at the first phase of a new manufacturing technique which is going to get a lot better as time goes on.

This figure exists to look good boxed or stand on a shelf with your bounty hunters and/or Imperials.  There's not a lot of fun action to have, and while the blaster is appreciated, it's of little use.   It is a fan-requested character, and seeing things like this gives me hope for the line's longevity.  We haven't even gotten the second Cantina alien yet, but we're on Imperial Dude #3.   Things are moving along at a strange clip - Hasbro has put out more Expanded Universe and non-vintage Original Trilogy figures than I might have expected 5 years in to the line.   I hope they keep dropping fun little surprises like Piett out there, and if we get a Ponda Baba, Momaw Nadon, or Snaggletooth, that'd be swell.  (Red for main line, blue for the interwebs.  Do it Hasbro.)

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.  

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,521: October 2, 2018