Lama Su (With Clone Youth) - SW [S - P2] - Basic (’03 #10)

Ten years after the fight to save Naboo from invasion, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi, thousands of solar systems threaten to secede from the Galactic Republic. A courageous Jedi Knight, his impulsive and headstrong apprentice, and a queen-turned-senator are drawn into the heart of the conflict... and the beginning of war.

A tall, lithesome creature, Lama Su is Prime Minister of the storm-shrouded planet Kamino. Commissioned by an enigmatic Jedi Master, Lama Su has undertaken the largest human cloning project ever attempted. He has grown an army of 200,000 troops – trained and ready for combat – with another million in progress. Because the Kaminoans are far removed from galactic affairs, Lama Su mistakenly believes he is fulfilling the order for the Galactic Republic, and is thus unaware of the grave consequences his enterprise will hold for not only the Republic but also for the entire galaxy.

Who would have imagined that the creator of the Army of the Republic would be an extraordinarily tall and think alien? Maybe that thought isn’t so hard to comprehend in the Prequel Trilogy, but it may have been quite the puzzle in the Original Trilogy. After an investigation by Obi-Wan Kenobi, research droids SP-4 & JN-66 were unable to locate the origin of the saber-dart that was used to exterminate Zam Wesell outside of the Outlander Nightclub. At a loss for direction, Obi-Wan Kenobi seeks the assistance of Dexter Jettser and it is explained that it was a Kamino saber-dart that was responsible. After going to the Jedi Temple library to seek Jocasta Nu for assistance, Obi-Wan Kenobi was still unable to figure out where his missing planet was. Thanks to an explanation from a Youngling, Yoda was able to confirm where indeed Kamino existed. Obi-Wan Kenobi headed to the planet to see is he could figure out more about the assassin, but he ended up coming across an even bigger secret on the watery planet. Clones were being grown under the direction of Lama Su, an expert cloner and Prime Minister of Kamino and leader of the cloning facility in Tipoca City.

In the film, Lama Su didn’t vary that much in height from Taun We, another Kaminoan who greeted Obi-Wan Kenobi at the front doors of the city. However, Hasbro’s interpretation of the character has yielded different results. Lama Su (With Clone Youth) is significantly taller than the earlier released TauN We action figure to the point that he looks completely out of scale to her. Now, it goes without saying that Lama Su is the corrected figure, but sometimes toy companies may need to forgo accuracy so that the figures stay in better scale with themselves. Some may disagree with that sentiment, but action figures Taun We and Lama Su look silly next to each other. We’re disappointed with the final result and we wish a different approach had been taken altogether. He comes with simple articulation and his molded “dress” prevents him from having any meaningful lower body movement. But you may be pleasantly surprised with how the figure came out because as a display piece (by itself), it doesn’t look all that bad. A decent sculpt and minimal articulation is probably all this action figure needs. And with a small role in the film where he just walked from corridor to corridor, do you really need super-articulation? (Something allowing him to sit down would be nice however.)

Lama Su has a fair paint job. Aside from eyes that look much too like a “deer in headlights”, the sculpt and paint job of Lama Su is not half bad. He does come with a ball-jointed waist which is a very nice enhancement here as you can make him bend over to communicate with the included Clone Youth, or Taun We for that matter. (You may need to thanks to the exaggerated height differences.) The Clone Youth is considered an accessory here officially. He of course looks like a young Boba Fett so that is a nice feature should you want to use this “figure” as such. Sadly, the Clone Youth comes with very little articulation. And our sample has a very wonky left leg which makes standing him up frustrating and borderline impossible. Hopefully your sample varies. The likeness is good and the paint job is excellent. We really wish Hasbro expended the energy to make a well-articulated version of this character because we bet that collectors everywhere would be “army building” him to recreate some of the scenes in Episode II at the cloning facility. Overall Lama Su (With Clone Youth) is a fair release. It’s not perfect, but it’s nice to get a properly scaled Kaminoan in our collection. We do hope however that a complete retool with be done one day, and for Taun We. They are cool characters and deserve to be realized excellently in the basic figure line.