Wampa With Hoth Cave (Hoth Attack) - SW [S - P3] - Ultra

The bone-chilling cold is not the only danger that awaits a traveler on the Hoth plains. Despite standing over two meters in height, the Wampa ice creature is nonetheless a stealthy predator. Camouflaged by its white fur and the howling Hoth winds, a Wampa surprised Luke Skywalker while he was on patrol and dragged him to its cave as his next meal. When the Jedi freed himself, the Wampa fought him – and lost an arm in the struggle.

You know that expression “in like a lamb, out like a lion”? It’s also true sometimes that the converse of this occurs as well, but when it comes to the Star Wars “Saga” line, the former certainly applies. We use this analogy to describe a line that went from PT to OT by the end of its run. A line that was really the “Episode II” line in actuality, Hasbro freed themselves from those constricting parameters by simply sticking the Star Wars logo on the packaging and called it a day. It was the community who unofficially dubbed the line Star Wars “Saga” and in all frankness it was a good name as the line really was comprised of characters from across the entire Star Wars “Saga”. After 2002 and 2003 had passed however, Hasbro began returning the basic figure line towards the Original Trilogy again. As a result, they created some impressive, although not entirely perfect, action figures with focus totally on collectors. As a result, we were treated to some very awesome Star Wars collectibles and if nothing, they provided a great kicking off point for better versions to be produced in the future. One perfect example of this was the Wampa With Hoth Cave (Hoth Attack), a figure in the newly developed Ultra line of figures. This line was a replacement of sorts for the defunct Deluxe line, but this time play features were sacrificed for collector grade detail and brilliant action figure concepts. Not only is the Wampa With Hoth Cave (Hoth Attack) an excellent release, it is interactive with an earlier released basic figure: Luke Skywalker (Hoth Attack) (’04 #03) which makes the deal even sweeter.

For $9.99 you get a huge Wampa action figure engineered with a nice amount of articulation. He also comes with severed tauntaun leg that fits like a glove in his right hand and has been designed to reach his mouth as if the Wampa is pulling the flesh from the bones. The bonus here however is the proportionately large Hoth cave base that accompanies the figure. Hasbro was extremely precise in the way they approached the environmental aspect of this piece. We have to say that we’re thoroughly impressed with the final results. From the brilliant sculpt of his “home” to the deco applied to make it look and feel like real ice, we have to give Hasbro proper credit for doing this release as well as they did. What’s more, the ice base that comes with Luke Skywalker (Hoth Attack) (’04 #03) can be inverted and placed atop the “pillar” of the Wampa’s Hoth cave and you can completely recreate the scene where Luke is hanging upside waiting to be the Wampa’s next meal. Hasbro even ensured a hole in the ice was added for Luke’s lightsaber hilt to rest in until the moment uses the Force to free himself from his iced entrapment. Again, the design of the completed ice cave is just so completely incredible to us that we know it will stand the test of time, even when better action figures come our way. The details alone are worth praising, especially the bony carcass of a previous victim the Wampa consumed at an earlier time. Let us reiterate, this set is a steal at the $9.99 MSRP. It’s almost unbelievable to us that Hasbro was able to cost this out. This is quality and value all wrapped into one.

The Wampa figure is also worth talking about more too. At first glance you might not realize that the figure comes with eight points of articulation. While it is fact that he comes with mostly swivel articulation, no one will be able to deny the range of movement his torso has thanks to a strategically placed second layer ball-socket torso working in tandem with first and third layer swivel torso joints. The combination is surprisingly a success and you can position the Wampa to throwback his body in anger, lean forward to pounce on prey, or even aid his arms to feed himself the juicy leg of tauntaun that comes packaged with him. The rest of him including the head, shoulders and hips are all swivel articulation points too, but they’re good enough for what this figure needs to do. Of course we’ll take an all-new sculpt with super-articulation just as easily also. There is a play feature present here too, but it’s one any collector would want anyway. His right arm is removable at the shoulder and there is blood on both ends to recreate the moment when Luke severs his arm once he frees himself from his frozen prison. It’s slightly gimmicky, but appreciated nonetheless. Based on the Special Edition version of The Empire Strikes Back, we bet it’s safe to assume that most collectors probably would have preferred the version of the Wampa from the unadulterated version of The Empire Strikes Back instead. Maybe that version will come one day, but in the meantime, this is a fine release and it’s one no collection should go without it.