Editorial

Still telling it as it is!

Star Wars Episode II: The Preview Figures

Ever since the age of four (I'm 27 now), the one thing that I loved as a kid and again as an adult has been the Kenner (now Hasbro) range of 3 3/4" Star Wars action figures.

When Hasbro put it's 'hat' back into the Star Wars market in '95 they have been producing the most identifiable spin-off product to the biggest money making saga in motion picture and licensing history.

After a pretty barren period of two years since the demise of the merchandise overloaded Episode I The Phantom Menace, Kenner and Lucasfilm have opted for a more subtle release of the Episode II: Attack of the Clones range of figures as they hit the market with a low key release of the Sneak Preview figures last week!

Zam Wesell, Jango Fett, Clone Trooper and R3-T7, four 3 3/4" figures packaged in the green Obi-Wan/Vader bubble-pack cards slipped into the stores rather quietly for a major Star Wars release, George Lucas and Hasbro learning from their mistakes of over exposing the last movie!

But are they any good?

Yes and No!

The figures are beautifully sculpted and Moulded, but the packaging does very little for the figures!

Anyone who has the 300th Figure Boba Fett or the Mace Windu Episode I Mail-Away Preview figure will be disappointed with Episode II's debut offering

The packaging is bog standard with ridiculously oversized bubble pack on the standard sized Star Wars card! There is no sense of 'Wow' with the packaging which is always a big thing with the collectors.

The figures themselves are of mixed levels!

Zam Wesell the first female Bounty Hunter is a must for any self-respecting Old-School Star Wars fan who remembers how cool the Bounty Hunters were as kids! Sadly the figure does not match up to the preview pics of the beautiful Zam Wesell (Leeanna Walsman).

Her mask (cloth in the film) is moulded plastic and cannot be removed from the figure! The colour scheme is accurate, but compared to other figures Zam is pretty on the basic side. The most irritating thing is the Laser blast attachment (for the guns which accompanies all of the figures) which is nothing short of naff!

R3-T4 Who is he? R2-D2 with a different style Dome and colour scheme! The little astromech with a clear dome (and blue energy bolt wrapped around him) may not look like much but hey I have a soft spot for these guys!

Design wise, he's just the best R2 unit to date and does look good in the oversized bubble, but, the paint scheme is too basic, and he is just not dirty enough! But he is so cute!

Clone Trooper These early stormtroopers don't have the same menace as their replacements but they do look good! The off-white dirt covered armor is a nice touch as is the heavy assault rifle.

Clone Trooper is a beautiful figure and a must have!

 

Jango Fett You cannot write anything bad about any Fett without being ostracized by the entire Star Wars community and why would I!!!!

Jango, the father of the coolest villain in Star Wars saga (Boba Fett) makes his mark in action figure format with a preview figure that blows the other three away!

Jango has the same Mandalorian armor of Boba only a cleaner blue and Silver version. The colour scheme on Jango is incredible. He looks menacing and is a real flashback to seeing Boba Fett for the first time.

A nice touch is the backpack, which hard-core fans will recognize as Boba's more colourful prototype backpack.