Wioslea - TLC - Basic (BD 36)

Wioslea is a salesperson for Spacesport Speeders, a used landspeeder lot in Mos Eisley. Swayed by Kenobi’s Jedi mind trick, the female Vuvrian offers Luke 2,000 credits for his landspeeder, which he sells to pay for the trip to Alderaan.

Remember that Seinfeld episode about "Mulva"? That's about how we feel visually about this Vuvarian's mouth. (Even the species' name sounds like part of the female anatomy!) Yikes. Sometimes a toy doesn't have to mirror something you DON'T see in the film. Enough said. Wioslea was an interesting but frankly inevitable choice for the Hasbro action figure collection. It falls under the "collector figure" banner, and we are thankful that this character was attempted in 2009 instead of 1995, because this will probably be the only time we'll get her, and in that case we need it to be good. And in fact, she turned out excellently. Modern technology plays a big part in determining whether a figure will have definitive final status or not. And technology had undoubtedly come of age in 2009, so we are getting the best figures we have ever received in the basic figure line. There would honestly be no need to revisit her ever again, and this is a testament to how well the action figure is designed. Wioslea is a great figure! As the new owner of Luke's landspeeder, Wioslea doesn't look all that differently from a Jedi, and in fact, early production photographs show her erroneously holding a lightsaber possibly even confusing the marketing team as well. Wioslea is outfitted in a "Jedi-like" robe with two holes for her antennas and has an attached and well-fitted soft-goods skirt (these are all nice touches, and it also proves how Hasbro goes the extra mile so often). She also has been packaged with a blaster and this accessory was originally included with 2007's TAC Concept Chewbacca (Ralph McQuarrie Signature Series) (30 21). She is well-clothed, well-outfitted, and very well-sculpted! What more could you ask for in an action figure?

Wioslea's sculpt is perfect and meets our expectations without issue of course. Her large bulbous head has ten eyes. We;ve never encountered and alien in the toy line thus far that has this many eyes. This requires a more complex paint application process! The head suffers a tiny bit from uneven painting and depending upon the sample; your piece may have more gray or more tan. We feel that heads with a more gray paint application look much better than those with more tan. But this, of course, is our own two cents. The contrast of the gray color is needed to prevent the figure from looking a little too bland. The gray color breaks up the monotony of a boring color palette a great deal. The mouth on Wioslea is very bizarre, and you don't know if she is in the middle of a sentence or about to devour something. It might have been better if Hasbro had designed it a little more closed. Still, the mouth stands out and catches your eye and as a result, draws you to her. Her legs are sculpted similarly with an "upside-down L shape" at the knee like the way the 2006 TSC Hem Dazon (SAGA 033) or 2007 TAC Voolviff Monn (30 58) action figure legs were designed. This unique style is a confusing choice, and it is unknown if this is Hasbro's convention or if they have some archive photos of the costume of this character that we haven't seen yet showing this. These types of legs don't behave well over time with gravity and only time will tell if it will affect the figure's ability to stand on its own. Unfortunately, this "bent leg" feature has affected other action figures negatively as well. For some reason, this leg style is not the best for our action figures.

Hasbro will need to use a much stiffer plastic to get the appropriate effect needed from this type of stance. Wioslea was a great choice to round out the first A New Hope wave for 2009. She is significantly taller than all the other figures in the wave (but perfectly in scale to, them) and her stature allows her to stand out amongst more popular characters. She is unique, and since her head is wide, she will stand out in a crowd. She will certainly complement any collection and add distinct singularity to any diorama. But most importantly, she is one more off of our Cantina/Mos Eisley checklists. A New Hope was rich with unique aliens (many of which still need to be made), but collectors never get tired of them, and we won't be quiet until we get them all made by Hasbro. Wioslea, technically a character outside of the cantina, will look great next to your 2006 TSC Garindan (SAGA 034) figure. And she will also look great by herself. Buy her today or risk never seeing her again! We thank Hasbro for taking a chance with her, and we hope that her sales will encourage further bravery and risk on Hasbro's part to round out more obscure background characters into the line. We expect that she will be a bit more popular than some of the other figures due to her bizarre and unique look, but collectors are picky, so we ultimately don't know how she will fair in the long run. We do know that she will undoubtedly enhance your Star Wars collection beyond your expectations! And she will do her part to accentuate a unique spin in your collections!