remember the cloud car pilot from empire strikes back? of course you don’t, they weren’t even in the movie, except seen through the canopy of the cloud car as they guide the falcon into the city. i didn’t remember him either, but i just got the action figure for $5 and he is absolutely good.
first off, he’s in a relatively neutral pose. no legs splayed out to the sides, no arms permanently at wacky angles unable to go forwards. his right arm is bent at the elbow, but it doesn’t hinder his movement, and it allows him to be put in reaching for my gun poses.
he has standard, solid, good articulation; his neck turns, his arms and legs move, he rotates at the waist. that’s the standard for star wars, it works well at this scale, but that wasn’t enough. he has knees so he can sit in a vehicle. nice touch. also his boot and glove cuffs neatly conceal swivel joints there, so his hands rotate and his feet can rotate too. so he’s actually pretty heavily articulated for this line. and it’s all good and solid. no sticky joints. hasbro’s quality control is showing through here.
he’s loaded with gear. in addition to a gunbelt with a removeable blaster, he’s got a comm-thingie that plugs into his belt, and a removeable helmet. plus, the helmet is cast in clear plastic so the goggles attached to it are transparent. very nice.
he’s got perfect paint applications, no smudges or excess. his cowl?(what do you call a skintight hood that doesn’t cover the face?) has a very clean edge without any paint slopped onto his actual face.
in short, he’s fully posably, very well sculpted and painted, has loads of gear, and a cool generic 70s scifi vibe that makes him a cool figure despite being a fourth-tier nobody who never showed up on screen.*
so what’s the problem? there are luke skywalker toys that aren’t this good!!!
admittedly, most of the lousy figures being released alongside this guy are actually a collection of older figures from the last few years. all the new figures in the otc lline are very nice, and the deluxe votc stuff is VERY nice.
still. this isn’t exactly uncommon for such a random no-name character to get a n insanely good figure, while, say, obi-wan has paintslop around his beard every time. EVERY TIME.
the cloud car pilot has a removeable gunbelt, so it won’t prevent him from sitting in a vehicle. meanwhile, the new $10 superdeluxe han solo has a gunbelt that’s not only inaccurate to the movies, but actually obstructs his leg articulation.
this line is crazy. i love it, don’t get me wrong, but some of the decisions they make just don’t make any sense.
*actually, he might have been seen in a background shot somewhere inside cloud city, but not as a plot element, or with any lines…
He was probably digitally added to the crowd sequences in the new dvd’s, during the restored scene where Chewbacca and Leia win the Cloud City Twist Invitational.
October 2nd, 2004 at 2:53 pm
didn’t you hear? that sequence isn’t on these versions, they saved all the major modifications for the inevitable six-movie boxed set in a few years.
so we’ll have to wait until probably 2007 to see stuff like lando’s grandfather, abraham calrissian, or han and luke’s kiss.
October 2nd, 2004 at 5:49 pm