Yarua (Coruscant Senate) - [P] OTC - Basic (’05 #2)

Yarua is a Wookiee senator on Coruscant. He represents his home world of Kashyyyk in the Galactic Senate. Although Wookiees are known for their strong tempers, Yarua is a voice of fairness and justice in the government. Like all Wookiees, Yarua is an imposing presence in the halls of the Senate, with his great height and fierce demeanor.

Who doesn’t love Wookiees? Aside from Chewbacca, the Wookiee species had very little presence in Episode I and Episode II. (George Lucas would more than make up for that in Episode III with the Battle of Kashyyyk.) Thankfully, Hasbro took notice of their very small role and decided to work up one for the basic figure lineup. They chose Yarua (Coruscant Senate) who is a Wookiee senator from Kashyyyk and made appearances in the Senate In the first two Prequel Trilogy films. Originally planned for release in the 2004 phase of the Star Wars “Saga” line, Yarua was delayed for a small while to make room for standard The Original Trilogy Collection basic figure line. As a result, he was released in the first of three transitional waves of figures, more commonly known as The [Post] Original Trilogy Collection. Not as articulated as some had hoped to see, Yarua may have more positive than negative to itemize. We’ll go through the list.

Yarua (Coruscant Senate) comes with eight (8) point of articulation. Since Hasbro has shown that they can now include super-articulation in the Star Wars line with the VOTC figures, this makes Yarua a bit harder to swallow. A ball-socket head (with very inhibited movement) is accompanied by swivel shoulders and elbows. A nicely hidden swivel waist joint is covered by the ”fur” hanging over the swivel point of articulation. Lastly, Yarua comes with swivel hips. It would have been tremendous of Hasbro to have included ball-jointed knees, but it wasn’t the fate of this action figure. Other than a few fist pumps and groans in the Senate audience, there isn’t much else Yarua needs to do in your collection, so we suppose that Hasbro has given this figure the optimal amount of articulation the feel he needs. We hope that future Wookiees adopt more of the 2004 VOTC Chewbacca look and feel because right now no other Wookiee action figure comes close. Yarua (Coruscant Senate) does have some charm though. It's likely those who love Wookiees will have a soft spot for him.

The sculpt is fair but not perfect. What’s interesting about it is that is looks significantly better at some angles than others. Straight ahead views on Yarua leave a lot to be desired. For example, his face looks too wide when looking directly at him, yet he then has a very “Chewbacca” like feel to him from the side. That may sound stupid, but he has more natural Wookiee proportions from the side view than front view. We find that oddly surprising, but check out our photo gallery for proof of this phenomenon. It’s hard to remove, but Yarua (Coruscant Senate) comes with an orange-colored satchel that can be fully removed. The paint job on Yarua appears slightly unnatural. It’s hard to make fur look effective and it is evident Hasbro made feeble attempts with Yarua. You’ll find that overall the paint job leaves a lot to be desired. The white/gray “widow’s peak” is in place, but Yarua comes across a little too colorful in comparison to Chewbacca. Lastly, he also comes with a generic display stand that sports the Star Wars logo. These are nice additions we suppose, but they’re becoming very boring at this point. Yarua (Coruscant Senate) is a decent release, but he isn’t one of Hasbro’s finest moments.