Wicket - OTC - Basic (OTC #17)

A friend of the Rebels, Wicket W. Warrick is a loyal, curious and adventurous Ewok scout who meets Princess Leia in the woods of Endor. He becomes her friend and he encourages his tribe to help the Rebel Alliance fight the Empire. Wicket's trust and belief in Princess Leia brings the Rebels the allies they need to destroy the second Death Star and end the Empire's cruel control of the galaxy.

Is it inflation or just Hasbro trying to make a quick buck by releasing Wicket from 1998’s POTF2 Ewoks: Wicket & Logray two-pack as a single figure for 2004’s The Original Trilogy Collection. Hasbro was at an unfair disadvantage in a number of ways by the time 2004 hit anyway. The sudden announcement that the Original Trilogy would be seeing release on DVD for the very first time wasn’t enough advance notice for the toy company and they had to double step their preparation. But in all fairness they managed to cull together a great collection of figures despite rushing to meet deadlines. A collection that focused on core characters from across the entire Original Trilogy, Hasbro chose an even amount of Jedi, heroes, villains, Sith and creatures to round out a fine cast for collectors. As we’ve just mentioned, Wicket was chosen for single release which was bittersweet because it was great to get in his OTC packaging, but it was hard to swallow that he now commanded $4.99 by himself.

Many initially believed that Wicket was a repaint from the 1998 POTF2 Ewoks two-pack. Extra paint details on the cowl were added, like the brown stitching. But thanks to clarification by Adam Pawlus at GalacticHunter.com, it was confirmed that late date stamps of the POTF2 two-pack show that this detail was added on those releases first. While there are some variations in the paint job between this updated 1998 release and the 2004 OTC issue, for all intents and purposes it’s the same figure. Everything else has been carried forward as well. Wicket comes with the previously mentioned cowl and spear. But he also comes with a gray action figure display stand, the pack-in premium for all figures in The Original Trilogy Collection basic figure line. Again, at $4.99, Wicket feels a bit too steep in price for the average wallet, but if you’re looking for vintage-inspired packaging, then this is a figure not to miss.

As a figure from 1998, Wicket only comes with five points of articulation. A swivel head is joined by swivel shoulders and swivel hips. And as with most POTF2 sculpts, Wicket is too “thick” and “beefy” and much to tall when compared to other action figures. Hasbro didn’t really concern themselves with scale and accuracy in 1998, so it partially confuses us that they would use a sculpt from six years ago for a 2004 basic figure line. They obviously wanted to include an Ewok to represent The Original Trilogy Collection, but we wonder if Logray or a repainted generic Ewok might have served the line best. Whatever the reason, Wicket joins other popular characters from Return Of The Jedi in The Original Trilogy Collection, a fantastic group of characters that celebrates not only the first three Star Wars films on DVD, but also aids in binding the Star Wars collecting universe together because of the excellent representation of characters. These characters made us fall in love and begin a fire of passion that just won’t die out.