YAK FACTS:
• Biography: Celebrate 35 years of Star Wars in 2012 as we recreate a "lost" packaging line look that was created, contemplated… and put aside in favor of Kenner's classic black-and-silver Star Wars design. For the first time ever, we're bringing this line look out of the Kenner archives and treating you to a glimpse of what might have been. The same creative team who designed the black-and-silver look also developed the design as one of several options to be considered for the line. In this lost line look, they created high-tech imagery incorporating a signature Star Wars vehicle and an epic space theme. What might have been, what was and what is: it all captures our imaginations, just as the Star Wars saga captures our imaginations today, tomorrow and always!
• Sculpt/Articulation: Jar Jar is a partial kit-bash/repaint figure incorporating parts (head*, thighs, crotch) from the Movie Heroes Jar Jar (MH13) and features all-new arms, torso, lower legs and soft goods skirt. He features 15 points of articulation including ball/socket head, ball-jointed/insert molded neck, shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles; swivel waist, hips and wrists.
*The head has been slightly modified to fit on the smaller ball/socket post on the neck.
• Accessories (2): Atlatl, electropole
• Other Notes: This figure was first available in the 2012 SDCC Exclusive Carbon Freezing Chamber set on the "Lost Line" card design. This figure also available at retail and shipped on both the Vintage Collection (VC108) and Lost Line (EP1-01) card designs in July 2012.
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PROS: For fans of Jar Jar, this latest version attempts to improve upon the less articulated Movie Heroes version and does to some degree. The semi-new figure incorporates additional points of articulation in the neck, shoulders and wrists as well as well-disguised ankle joints. Hasbro also has taken this figure a step further by revising the deco to a lighter, less suntanned shade and adding soft goods for the “skirt” allowing him to sit upon a kaadu fairly well. This is a solid figure if you’ve yet to find the MH version but you may want to hold out for that one for the reasons below.
CONS: In this case being super-articulated doesn’t mean better when compared to the Movie Heroes (MH13) version. The joints are poorly matched as evidenced by they contrasting colors especially in the shoulders and knees. Also, the superfluous lower neck joint doesn’t do much to improve upon the figure and is more of an esthetic distraction than anything else. Then there is the skin color/deco. Where the MH figure seems to hit the right colors, this new version seems too light and the ornate deco on the arms is far too dark and is flat out wrong. Overall this figure seems like a waste of tooling resources, but your mileage may vary of course.
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