Star Wars 3.75" Legacy Collection: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ep IV)

This is the story of how Obi-Wan Kenobi became my favorite Star Wars character...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Ok, so maybe not that long ago, and not very far away at all, I was young, and I liked Luke Skywalker.  Who didn't?  After all, he was the saga's protagonist and the "boy done good," who comes into his own, confronts his fears, and in the process saves his father and the known galaxy.

But then came the Prequel Trilogy, which was to shed some light on the past and in particular, one young Obi-Wan Kenobi as he came into his own.  We all cheered when he cut down Darth Maul but by the time the second movie was done, the only thing I could think of was why the hell would any Jedi think wearing a mullet and a trimmed beard would look cool? It didn't help that young Anakin was annoying and Obi-Wan couldn't stop sounding like he was annoyed with him.  And how the heck was he defeated by an old human Sith Lord when he'd previously sliced up perhaps the fiercest villain in the Prequels (Maul)?

Ok I admit, I had a soft spot for him going into the movies because Obi-Wan was played by a dude named Ewan McGregor.   And by having the same name, I felt compelled, probably by the Force, to like him as a character. I sure didn't.  I liked none of them because they were all one (or less) dimensional.  But I did like the Original Trilogy Obi-Wan.  He was everything the old and supposedly wise Jedi in the prequels weren't.  Patient, using his power only when absolutely necessary, accepting of his fate and of course, heroic. Everything a favorite character should be. :)

So that's how I came to think of old Obi-Wan as the guy I wouldn't mind being in the Original Trilogy.  Except I'd try harder to kick Vader's ass.  Except I'd run when I realized I was defeated, only to come back for a rematch.  Except I'd take out the Death Star instead of just bringing down its shields.  Except I'd show that cocky Han Solo guy I can pilot his piece of junk spaceship. Yeah, I'd be more "excepting" of my power than "accepting" of my fate. Har.

Thus, I've had this figure in packaging since I got him when he was first released and the Rangelord, who is my advisor in all things from the galaxy far, far away, said that this was the ultimate Obi-Wan.  Those word were never spoken more true. So click on for the details!

Like: That he looks a spitting image of the late Sir Alec Guinness.  How cool is that?  A Jedi Knight/Master played by a real life knight.  I think the expression on his face captures the feeling of calm and yet inevitability that Obi-Wan exudes in A New Hope.  The sad eyes, the slight frown, and the hair.  Yup, they even got the hair down perfectly.


Like: The voluminous cloth Jedi cloak. It's a brilliantly rich brown and has got body when worn. And it matches the cloth of the inner robes perfectly to give ol' Ben a very real-life feel.  The cloaks even got a hood you can pull over his head.  Having him that way reminds me of his first appearance when he saves Luke from the Sand People.  We hear the strange cry of the krayt dragon and then a mysterious figure in a robe appears over the crest of the rise...

Like: His ball head and swivel neck.  I love it when they give us extra articulation.  I especially love it when it give the figure character--in this case, the neck is not entirely upright but attached at an angle that makes him look stooped over. It's perfect for an old hermit who lives out in the Jundland Wastes.

Like: His right hand.  It's sculpted in a Jedi mind-wipe pose that really adds character to all his other poses.  He really looks like he could kick ass with that lightsaber, even if it's in his left hand.

Dislike: That he can only hold stuff in his left hand.  A minor issue, but interchangeable hands would've been awesome though probably not need.  At least Obi-Wan here can claim he was "using his left hand" while fighting Vader, that's why the Sith Lord won.  Yeah right, old geezer! :P

Like: His articulation.  It's pretty standard Star Wars, but I'm beginning to appreciate this line's great swivel hinge knees and hinged hips.  These never really became loose (especially the knees) and keep the figure stable when put in poses.

I also like how this figure is so well articulated that it seemingly has better moves than the on-screen Obi-Wan.

Dislike: That his grip on the 'saber is a little loose.  I think this is down to the little rubber bands they use to tie the weapon to his hand in the package.  Somehow the band can be so tight as to warp the shape of the hand. It's not even a major warp, but a slight one is all that's needed to wreck a tight grip.

Like: The attention to detail to the inner robe sleeves and the pants beneath his robes.  The sleeves are nice and wide with folds and wrinkles just like in the movies.  His pants are cast brown, which is a nice touch considering they never show his pant in the movie (I don't think), but you've gotta appreciate the effort in making it a different color from the off white torso.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9/10 - It's simply beautiful how movie accurate this figure is.  I imagine Sir Alec himself would be proud if he were still alive to see it.  From the sharply painted eyes to the salt and pepper hair and beard, to the sculpt of the robes and boots, to the voluminous robes and his personalized lightsaber, I can't imagine there ever being a better 3.75" old Obi-Wan.

Poseability: 8/10 - Just look at the guy go! He looks very taichi, which a form of martial arts that focuses on slow but fluid and balance movements.  Old people in Singapore practice that a lot in the mornings.  I suspect in China too.  But it's by no means a pushover "oldie" discipline. Someone who is a master can probably do some serious damage.  It's kinda like old Ben Kenobi in the movies using the Force in a passive but powerful manner.

It's the little things that make him so fun to pose, like the pointed hand, the kickass robes both sculpted (like his sleeves) and cloth (robe skirts and cloak).  And despite looking old and feeble and swaddled in cloth, none of his joints are obstructed by sculpt problems.

Fun: 10/10 - It's hard to put Old Ben down once you've got him in your hands.  Whether it's a scene from within his hermit hut, a meditative pose, or an action stance, Obi-Wan can do it all.  The figures I have the most fun with are the ones that I can finish shooting and still want to play around with.  They're the ones I like to put on display, so that when I see them again after coming home from work, I'll have easy access to 'em! ;)

Value: 9/10 - Obi-Wan comes with his lightsaber, his robes, a table (complete with glued-on tea set), and a mini Princess Leia hologram.  He also comes with the orange left leg of R2-L3, which I didn't photo but I'll review in a special way soon, hopefully.  Though i can't remember what I paid for him, I did remember getting him at retail.  So going by today's retail prices here in Singapore, he'd be the equivalent of US$10.  That's quite a steal considering all the stuff he comes with and also the quality of the figure itself.

Overall: 9/10 - Yes, I may be biased towards Obi-Wan as a character since he's one of my favorites.  But this figure of him is really up to scratch.  Sometimes when you're partial to a certain character, the toys end up being more disappointing because they don't measure up to how you see them. In this case, he not only matches up to my expectations but also exceeds them.  So I can very safely say that if you were to want an ultimate Obi-Wan Kenobi, this would be it, with re-releases of the same sculpt dependent on the "extras" they come with.

Star Wars 3.75" Legacy Collection: Boba Fett

When I was a kid, there were only good guys and bad guys.  And Boba Fett was a bad guy, dangerous and mysterious.  That's all I knew about him because I was too young to know what Bounty Hunter was.  I already had too much evil to handle in the Star Wars universe with Vader and the Emperor running around Force choking/"lightening" guys to kingdom come.

Looking back, Boba Fett's helmet was what intrigued me the most.  It wasn't as scary as Vader's but it was equally, if not more, mysterious, hiding the character's face and the whole history of how he came to be along with it.  The fact that he was always silent deepened the sense of mystery.

I'll always remember the nod he afforded Boushh in Return of the Jedi after the latter activated "his" thermal detonator while in negotiations with Jabba the Hutt.  One nod, just to say, "I like your style."

One nod that revealed so much about Fett to the audience.  One deadly nod to say, "Let's see if you're as deadly as you claim to be, if you are who you say you are."

Well, this figure is able to recreate that mysterious deadliness with its design.  But that's never been a problem with the vast majority of Star Wars figures--they've got the character's appearance down pat.  What this figure can do is move and pose like the classic Boba Fett.  And as an added bonus, we get to see what he looks like under the helmet!!!

Ok so maybe it's not as big a deal anymore what Fett looks like under the helmet--I blame the Prequel trilogy for this--but it's interesting to note that the head is sculpted kinda in the likeness of a young Jeremy Bulloch, who played the role because the costume just happened to fit.  At first I thought it was a clever re-use of the head sculpt of the captain Jeremoch Colton figure, who's Bail Organa's chauffeur (glorified pilot of the Tantive IV) in the prequels.  But it isn't, and he sure doesn't look like a grown up Daniel Logan either.  Kudos to Hasbro for maintaining a certain sense of mystery about the character.

That's the first thing I like about this figure:  His removable helmet.  Not only do you get a get an additional accessory, but it's a good one because it's not been molded too thick so that when he puts in on, he doesn't look like a bobble head.  Whether he's got the helmet on or off, he looks proportionate, and that's a real plus. :)

Like: The weather-worn paint apps.  In Empire and RoTJ,  Fett's armor is all beat up and worn out.  Same with this figure.  And they've done a great job of making his armored parts and guns appear this way with silver paint apps.  While they did dry brush his guns, the silver on his helmet is actually painstakingly painted on!

Like: His accessories--and he comes more than you think he does.  Helmet, Sawn-off blaster rifle, blaster pistol, and jet pack.  Plus, you also get a droid part: R2-A3's torso!

Like: His "back-pocket" style usable holster.  This has got to be one of the best holsters I've ever seen on a figure in this scale.  Not only does the holster provide a snug fit for his pistol, it's also flush with the back of his leg.  It's also very well hidden.  I didn't notice it until I got him out of the package and flipped him around to check out the cape.

Like: His extra molded "out of sculpt" detail.  First off, there's the cape, which hangs of his left shoulder, attached to a slot in the back of the shoulder.  Then there's the wire running from his right upper arm into the gauntlet.  And last but not least is the pouches, belt and holster ensemble. Such great detail!

Like: That they gave him an extra bicep swivel on his right arm. There's some molded wire that connects his upper arm to his forearm that restricts the elbows swivel.  So they gave him a cut right above the wire, thus allowing everything below it, wire and all, to swivel 360 degrees.  This is especially important for the classic two-handed "rifle-at-ready" look.

Dislike: That his jet pack keeps falling off!  It doesn't peg into his back tightly and tends to fall out also because it's not flush with his back.

Dislike: Bendy helmet antenna and weapons.  I don't actually mind that they're soft.  What I do mind is that they come out of the package bent.  My figure had a nice and straight pistol, but the sawn-off rifle had a bent butt.

Dislike: His trigger fingers don't quite fit into the trigger guards.  The right barely fits in the the guard, while the left index finger is bent.  Still,  fits Boba Fett looks naturally great though.  I mean, what kind of bounty hunter are you if you haven't broken a couple of fingers, right?  He would definitely hold his weapons better if his forefingers worked right.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9/10 - Great looking version of Boba Fett.  I simply don't think they'll come up with a better looking Fett in this scale, especially when it comes to proportions and the fit of his helmet.

Poseability: 8/10 - Star Wars figs tend not to have the ball-jointed hips/legs that the Marvel Universe figures enjoy, let alone the swivel/hinge balls that the Iron Man 2 line enjoys.  But they have pretty much everything else that they need.  Since I don't need my Star Wars guys to know any kungfu, and Boba here has got everything else a Star Wars fig can get in terms of PoAs, he's pretty much top of the line for...er...this toy line.

Fun: 9/10 - Having Boba Fett makes you want to have everything else you associate him with to recreate scenes from the movie.  The one that always comes to my mind is the battle on the skiffs above the the Great Pit of Carkoon.  Han Solo unknowingly takes out arguably his greatest nemesis there in the funnest way possible!  And all I need to recreate that scene is a skiff! (And Chewie, and Luke, and Slave Leia, and Jabba...)


Value: 8/10 - I got this guy at the retail price of s$18.90 (US$13.50), from Toys R Us (in Vivocity) when the Rangerlord pointed the 6 or 7 or so of Boba in the "pay-first-at-the-cashier-before-you-collect" glass case. He said that they were rare because they were much sought after, but I didn't know it was this rare/coveted, because they were all gone in a matter of days.  Getting one online right now seems relatively easy, though, and would only set you back about US$10 for a loose figure.

Overall: 8.5/10 - Boba Fett is the rock star of bounty hunters real or imagined, and his figure kicks ass.  Aside from the loose jet-pack problem I can't really have any complaints because there's lots of great little things about him.  The fact that he's been voted a few times on certain popular "Most Memorable Character" lists demonstrates the impact he's had on pop culture.  It's this X-factor which is brought to his toys, and which this figure oozes because of how well they made him!

Short Circuit: R2-D2 (Legacy Collection)

Who's remembers Johnny?  Who's Johnny, you said?  Well, I'm glad you asked...Go ahead, watch it to the end, I dare you... ;P

(Ok, till I figure it out you might have to click on "Read More" to go to the review proper and access the clip that's supposed to be right here--apologies!

P.s-please do it!  Otherwise the rest of this intro won't make sense. Lol. :P)



And the next question for those who still haven't a clue who Johnny is: what the heck did you jst waste 4 mins of your life on?

Answer: That's the music video of the then cult hit movie "Short Circuit" starring Steve Guttenburg (of the Police Academy series fame) and Ally Sheedy (of St Elmo's Fire fame)

Ah, that brings back memories...and images of everything traumatically uncool about the 80s.  Here's of list of all the things that would be considered simply wrong today, and all in just this one single music video:

1. El Debarge-the freaky singer with the pervy looking smile.
2. Debarge's eighties hair.
3. His pencil thin moustache.
4. His oversized pinstripe suit.
5. Freaky courtroom scene that would make no sense to those who've never watched the movie..
6. Cardboard cut out of Steve Guttenburg, in black and white nonetheless...
7. Freaky-looking female lawyer.
8. VHS & VHS player
9. Crazy jury...oh wait, these still exist today...
10. Unintelligible lyrics which wouldn't make sense even if you knew what they were.
11. Passing off of a robot hand for a hiding robot (Johnny 5) as a movie special effect.
12. Crazy voice modulation being passed off as singing...
13. Courtroom dancing
14. Exploding judges
15. Firemen who put out exploding judges (judges who are not on fire, but just charred and smoking)
16. That strange piece of lack carboard at the end...wth???

So what the hell has all that have to do with this review?  Well, R2-D2 is a robot (ok a droid, but it's the same thing...right? :P) and this particular figure can, well, short circuit.

Yeah see, you didn't even have to read all the jibber-jabber up top to read this review on Star Wars Legacy Collection R2-D2 (with short circuit effect).  But didn't watching the music video just make you feel like you could break the law and get away with it?  It was wild, wasn't it? Yep, that's what we 80s kids used to do for fun...that and play with our toys, of course!

All right, no more vicarious law-breaking.  On to the review!

Like: There have got to be dozens of R2-D2 figures out there but this one I had my eye on because of the short circuit effect!  And seriously, I love it!  Besides giving R2 chance to re-enact the scene where he was ambushed and sold by Jawas in A New Hope, the blue lightning will fit nice on other similarly round shaped object of the same size, for example, Juggernaut's head.  I love accessories that I can switch around among my figures to get maximum effect.  This is one that's surprisingly good!

Like: His metallic blue paint. It's a nice and shiny shade of blue and cleanly applied on his dome, legs, and neatly applied to lots of tiny details on his "torso."

Like: That he's white but has a very light wash bring out a dirty effect.  It's especially apparent on his legs and back.  He's been traveling through the deserts of Tatooine so he's dirt factor is just right.  Overall the tooling of the sculpt is perfect--it's not too crammed with detail and has the right paint job to make it look movie accurate.

Like: His scanner action feature!  Turn his head to the left or right 90 degrees and one of the pie sections on his dome will extend up for a "scanning" effect.  To think that when I saw the grooves around the one section on his dome, I tried to pry it out with my exacto knife.  I'd thought it was like the old school original R2 figure, which had Luke Skywalker's hidden ignited Lightsaber in it.  Thankfully, I didn't do much damage, if any at all.

Like: His other accessory - his third leg!  Now wouldn't it be neat if he could also retract his leg in addition to extending his scanner?  It would be awesome, awesome but expensive for them to produce and for us to pay for.  So they did they next best thing and gave him a plug-in third leg.  It fits snugly at an angle in a slot under his body and has an extra wheel on it so that when you lay his two legs back, he can roll on 3 wheels. (His two legs have wheels on the bottom too.  All 3 wheels are non-retractable).  Sweet!

He rolls smoothly, though you have to align the legs just right.  But that shouldn't be a problem at all. :)

Dislike: The one compartment in the front left side of his body that looks like it can be opened but actually can't.  It's a trick of the sculpt and the dirt wash.  This realistic effect is actually a good thing.  So I guess it's just that the figure is deprived yet another cool feature.

Dislike:  That he doesn't come with a ton of accessories like the Clone Wars Animated R2 does.  I don't actually own that one but have seen it on the shelves--it's got panels on the front of the body that can open, a couple of rocket boosters, and some other wiring and arm thingies I think.  And they're both priced the same at retail.  What a blow for the OOTIC fans (Only-Original Trilogy-Is-Canon. up, I just made that up :P).  This little guy should've and could've some with more stuff.

Dislike: The build a droid part.  It's the right leg of BG-J38, this droid-ish looking dude (a bounty hunter?)  Ok a quick search on Wookiepedia revealed that he "was Jabba's personal dejarik and hologames droid."  I have really no idea why anyone would want to build Jabba the Hutt's personal DJ--unless their completiss or love the character so much (I don't see how...)

Really, Hasbro could use more popular guys for their Build-A-Whatevers.  Jabba the Hutt himself, maybe?  That would be cool.  Or how about Build-A-Scene?  Like the the Build-A-Bridge from the Star Trek line.  I'd go for that.  Imagine, Build-A-Speeder, or Build-A-Rebel Shield Generator, or Build-An-Imperial bunker...

Dislike: Artoo's "eye."  It's made of a clear dark blue plastic as is the circle on the top of his dome.  But strangely, even under intense light, the eye doesn't "light up."  So either the light piping mechanism isn't working right or they never meant for it to work that way.  Either way it's a missed opportunity--light piping is one of the coolest features for toys, especially the Transformers that have them. Pity it doesn't work quite so well here...

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 8.5/10 - It's a beautiful, movie accurate R2-D2 figure.  Spot on colours, great application, excellent weathering, and a nice sculpt.  The wires coming out of his "feet" and the restraining bolt (I think this might be a first on R2?  Or at least a first in a long while) on his body are also very nice touches.

Poseability: 7/10 - Ok, I'm gonna cut him some slack here.  He's an Astromech Droid and has a grand total of 5 points of articulation--he can't have any more.  But he looks great posed leaned back with his third leg and or next to any other 3.75" scale Star Wars figures.

Fun: 8/10 - It's R2-D2!  I remember growing up that most kids liked 2 things from the OT--Lightsabers and R2-D2.  No one liked the prissy golden one and some liked blasters or even Ewoks.  But everyone liked R2.  Everyone still likes R2.  George Lucas liked him so much he allowed the lil' droid to fly.  Well, if all else fails he rolls... ;)

Value: 7/10 - Not the greatest, but not the worst.  R2 is saved by his scanner action feature and the removable 3rd leg.  Otherwise he'd just come with an electrical effect (made just for him) and a Buid-A-Droid part of a not  much wanted character.  Still, the idea of a BAF for 3.75 inch figures is a something Unique to Star Wars figures. Oh, and I did get him on clearance price of S$12.50 ($US8.90), that's about 33% off retail.  :)

Overall: 7.65 - R2-D2's a solid toy to have and as one of the original characters.  You can't do without him if like me, you want to buy the "best of" every iconic character.  Considering that there's only so much you can pack into an R2 figure, this one does well enough as a base "best of."  You may find R2s with more features and accessories like the Clone Wars version, but that's done in Clone Wars style and not movie-verse accurate.  Now that I have R2, my next step would be to get his golden partner in crime, C-3PO!  Right now, I'm tempted by the one that comes in a wooden throne from the Ewok worship scenes! :)