OSHA ANISEYA (The Kenner Republic)
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: No. G0386
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster, droid buddy Pip, and another 5 figures
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: October 2024
Appearances: The Acolyte
Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by the original 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from a galaxy far, far away. (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)
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: When I first heard
The Acolyte was going to have figures, I quietly sighed - mostly because "new timeline for a modern show" and "old-style figures, of which 50+-year-olds will be the most vocal" was a formula for fan complaints even before we knew what the show
was. The figures had some really neat costumes from the Aniseya family, and some pretty repetitive ones for the Jedi.
Osha Aniseya came out of the show in the best shape, and her figure was the first one I opened. Her
The Vintage Collection figure was excellent, and her
Retro figure seems surprisingly willing to jump on some very modern production decisions. Is she good? Yes. Will she please those who insist Hasbro make these things
exactly like the 1970s and 1980s? No.
I'm a toy fanatic, and I find that many "collector figures" - even great ones - just feel like they're extracting money from my wallet that should be spent on more
toys. I've got both flavors of Osha on my desk now and while both are great, I assume this Kenner one is going to get more attention even though the
Vintage one has stunning articulation and exceptionally good attention to detail. Why? Because one may require care when posing, and the other I can pick up, pose, and put on a flat surface without even thinking. I like the simplicity.
The figure itself seems to have understood what needed to be done. Like Leia, she's a little taller than true 3 3/4-inch scale. She has five joints, no more than two colors of paint per piece, and her pose isn't quite as stiff as some other figures - but that may be because of her hair. Functionally, she gets the job done - each hand can grip one of her two accessories. Like most Kenner blasters, hers is a little bit bigger. The blue Pip, on the other hand, is pretty much the same size - but more simply sculpted, and
painted. Painted accessories are very uncommon in Kenner's original
Star Wars line, with nearly everything save for a few Ewok accessories and Amanaman's staff being molded in color. I assume that this was done because it was too expensive to make another mold to crank out Pip cast in blue, but seeing the extra orange paint app goes above and beyond what Kenner would likely have done. Is it bad? I don't think so - so it does stand out to those of us who had to make do with single-color lightsabers for up to 17 years.
Osha is more than just a fancy sculpt run through some smoothing filters. Creases are in different places, and her vest shows some signs of thought. Her vest's ribbing has 7 lines instead of 8 (or 7 1/2) on
Vintage, and Kenner Osha's badge is completely smooth as opposed to having some painted detail like
Vintage. Back in the 1980s, one variant of Hoth Leia had a smooth badge as well - I assume that's what Hasbro was opting to capture here. The Kenner-style figure opted out of representing Osha's holsters. This makes sense, few figures had any sort of functional accessory storage back then.
But what about the head? It's fine - but strange. The skin is a bit more translucent than most of the figures I had as a kid, so it makes it a little harder to see some sculpted detail. The silhouette is similar, but not identical, especially in the chin. Kenner humans were often pretty lacking in the chin department, and this one follows suit. What surprised me was that Hasbro gave her a separately molded hairpiece. This is something we only started to see in the 2010s in Vintage, and it looks great when it works well - it's just a bit of an anachronism. Hasbro did a good job getting it right as the "wig" fits perfectly, and because it's molded in red it's not going to scrape and show skin-colored plastic. I suspect it may have been done to give her long hair - Kenner rarely did this back in the day, so molding on a separate piece could well have been something they came up with (along with shorter hair) to give the figure's head a little more authenticity. The head swivels, but the hair does get in the way. The plastic wig is not at all what I would have expected on the final figure. I don't hate it, as it is a modern solution to an old problem.
If you ignored
The Acolyte as a property, this is still a good figure. It shows Hasbro experimenting with improving their techniques and trying to deliver a better new (old) experience. There's no way they could deliver this hair technique in the 1980s, but it's probably better than just giving her a shorter hairdo. I like both 3 3/4-inch Osha figures for completely different reasons, and have no desire to unload either one - but I'm biased to like
Retro more, even if the other one is more impressive. For $60 this is a pretty good set and I'd be lying if that didn't color my preferences. I'd even go as far as to say I'd love to see Hasbro do a few (very few) other figures - Bazil and The Stranger would be great, as would Vernestra Rwoh, but I don't assume any toys not already in the works will ever see the light of day. I like what Hasbro made, and how they priced it, too much to steer you away from this (sadly) mostly human collection. At least they picked some pretty good mostly humans.
Packaging Notes: The cardbacks are much sturdier than many Star Wars Retro figures. The cardstock seems sturdier than the old-school ones too, but it still has the sticker and faux weathering, both of which I could do without. Cardbacks are unpunched.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 3,191: November 21, 2024
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