Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,092: Chewbacca (Life Day, The Vintage Collection)

CHEWBACCA (Life Day)
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Exclusive Action Figure
Item No.: No. F8382
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Life Day Orb
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $16.99
Availability: October 2023
Appearances: The Star Wars Holiday Special

Bio: Life Day is a longstanding tradition celebrating Wookiee cultural values including family, joy, and harmony. While festivities are traditionally held at the Tree of Life on Kashyyyk, Wookiees throughout the galaxy mark the day. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: If I had a short list of things I assumed would never, ever be made as a product, this Chewbacca (Life Day) would be near the top due to its appearance on the buried Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired only one time on CBS before a lot of us were born. To the fan of the saga, it's a bizarre show - but it makes a tiny bit more sense in the era of Sid & Marty Krofft's celebrity variety shows and other variety shows of the era. George Lucas has reportedly said he wishes every tape of it could be destroyed, and now it's on YouTube. There has never been an official commercial release of the special, but we have seen a few Boba Fett figures from the holiday special's cartoon segment. Chewbacca's slanket was never something I expected to see, so I was more than a little stunned when I saw it in the Hasbro booth last July.

What is it? The 2004 Original Trilogy Collection Vintage Chewbacca mold returns with a new right hand, a red robe, and a star-covered Life Day Orb. The head is new, as far as I can tel, but there are other similar heads. If I'm wrong, my bad - but the head doesn't seem to have any clearance for the bandolier Hasbro opted to not include, with fur brushed back a bit more and a bit more neatly than other heads. I like the sculpt, but I don't like the paint - the face is much darker than the cardback. Chewie's face has lighter hair around his eyes and mouth, so it would have been nice if they were a smidgen lighter. And if his lips weren't dark. Other than that? It's pretty great. Hasbro did a bang-up job retooling the right hand to hold the orb, which is the kind of thing we don't usually get to see. (I would have expected an orb tooled to fit on the existing figure's hands to cut costs.) He has the same articulation we've seen for 19 years - and again earlier this year - so it isn't bad. It's just not as good as some other new figures.

 The figure is nothing new - heck, Hasbro could've saved some money by doing one of its 5-jointed figures with a new arm too - but the robe is totally new. His hands stick out, which I do not recall from the special or the many stills I'm seeing online, so that's kind of weird - normally the hands are shown holding the orbs from inside the sleeves. (I assume nobody wanted to wear the full costumes under there.) I don't know if Hasbro could make a figure who has a hand that can hold an orb through the slanket like we saw from Funko and Diamond, so this design decision makes sense if you want it to work... and to look good in the packaging. I would say this is likely as good as you can get at this scale, with these materials, but I do wish the cut of the robe was a little less bulky on the toy. I'm happy Hasbro and Disney kept the price "down" at $16.99 for a body we've had a dozen or so times across multiple figure lines, especially for a holiday figure, an exclusive, and what I would hope is a lower-run item. (This is an item with a very specific audience.) If you are that audience, you've already bought this figure - maybe two, the cardback is pretty nice. Because I love wacky things from the time after the first Star Wars movie but before the saga had a codified look, this is right up my alley and I honestly wish they did a Kenner version too. (Funko made a Pop!) This is an item made for those old-school fans, and I think that's great that the powers that be came together to make something new out of mostly existing parts that a lot of fans will actually see as interesting and not just the same figure yet again. Sure, he can't be posed quite like the cardback, but at least it's close enough and weird enough to work for me. I'm very interested in anything Star Wars from the 1970s and 1980s movies, and TV shows, and if we're being honest, comic books too. Also I'm writing this while going through the original Land of the Lost so maybe I'm not a reliable source of what's awesome.

Again, not kidding, if Hasbro made a slightly smaller robe and packed it with Kenner Retro Chewie next year for $15 I'd buy it. (I probably wouldn't buy The Black Series version of this figure... but it might sell if kept to a reasonable run size!)

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Hasbro Pulse and it is also sold at Shop Disney. For anyone upset about such things - no bowcaster nor bandolier are included.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,092: December 21, 2023