Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) - POTJ - Basic

This Outer Rim Podrace pilot has rapidly risen to the top of the Podracing circuit through an unbeatable combination of reckless daring, skill, and outright cheating. The only thing Sebulba loves more than winning is ruthlessly dispatching his Podracing opponents.

As far as The Phantom Menace is concerned, the Power Of The Jedi line made up for where the Episode I line lacked. Some of the most important characters from The Phantom Menace were completely overlooked sadly, and it wasn’t until the transition to the one-banner Power Of The Jedi line that collectors finally got a correctly scaled Boss Nass, a generic Gungan Warrior and a basic figure release of Sebulba. To be fair, Sebulba was released as a pack-in figure to the Sebulba’s Pod Racer vehicle in the Episode I line and more importantly released in an upgraded fashion in the 1999 EI Mos Espa Encounter Cinema Scenes set, on which this updated POTJ figure is based. The pack-in figure was terrible, but Hasbro made improvements with the Cinema Scenes figure. Although completely unique sculpts (one is based on the aforementioned Mos Espa scene and this figure is based on the podrace sequence), they do share a nearly identical approach. And that is a good thing. The pack-in figure had no emotion or expression on his face, it was too small and it had a very weak sculpt. And the Cinema Scenes figure came with a weak paint job. Thankfully, Hasbro made all things good and tooled a completely new version of Sebulba for the Power Of The Jedi line that has personally itched us where we scratched. In our opinion they’ve produced a nearly perfect version of this character finally for the basic figure line. With the same ehnanced articulation and a dynamic and totally functioning sculpt as the Cinema Scenes figure, Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) – what a strange subtitle for a figure by the way – is a figure that should really satisfy and perhaps even impress collectors of the basic figure line and fans of Episode I. This brutal Dug is not one to mess with as Jar Jar Binks quickly learned, and Hasbro captured that attitude wonderfully in this action figure.

Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) comes with standard swivel joints in his shoulders and hips, but Hasbro added a premium ball-jointed neck joint which gives the figure a wondrous range of motion in the head. You can cock his head to the left or to the right and you can make him look up towards the sky or down at the ground very easily. For us, this is very important articulation for a podracer pilot to have and we’re thankful that Hasbro spent the time and money to add this very special point of articulation here. They’ve sculpted a beautiful likeness of Sebulba. You’re going to love the way he looks. We will guarantee you that. The sculpt is brilliant, but the paint operations are even better. The layered and speckled look of his skin in our opinion has been perfectly recreated. What separates the POTJ figure from the EI figure specifically is that they're two completely different sculpt, even if they look rather similar. They're wearing different outfits (one is sleeveless and one is not) and they have different expressions on their faces (one is snarling with teeth shown, one is snarling no teeth shown). Given that Sebulba was a CGI character in Episode I, it may be easier to replicate him in toy form, but regardless, he looks remarkable. Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) stands on his arms and two legs, with the center of gravity heavily relying on his smaller legs to keep him propped up. As you might imagine, Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) cannot attain any pose you wish because you will need to have his arms behind him in an “all fours” position, but there is no way you can deny how incredible he functions despite his limited movement.

You really have to credit Hasbro with picking up a B-character's wardrobe change. Now we have both versionss of Sebulba with good sculpts in the basic figure line. Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) comes with two accessories and they include a removable helmet (with goggles in place) and a wrench. The helmet fits like a glove and the goggle lenses are completely clear so you can see much of his angered expression through them. (A lot of that “anger” is centralized in his snarl though....) The wrench can be situated between his cupped toes. Hasbro ensured that two of his toes form an almost perfect “C” shape so that it can accept the girth of the wrench, so collectors are all set there. And other than that, there really isn’t else much more to write about when it comes to this figure. And in this case, less is more because we are thoroughly impressed with this action figure. Although most of us want as many action figures as possible and as soon as possible, it makes sense that the “longer” we wait for characters, the better they’ll be. Technology has come so far and Hasbro’s approach gets better with each year. Sebulba (Boonta Eve Challenge) is testament to this fact as the pack-in figure in the Episode I line is essentially laughable by comparison. And no matter how you slice it, the POTJ figure supersedes the Cinema Scenes figure as well. There is always a chance that Sebulba will be revisited in the future, but with the onslaught of way too much Episode I product and its relative failure at retail (it didn't sell through like planned), it’s unlikely that he will be approached with an all-new sculpt in the immediate future. But if Hasbro is one thing, they're completely unpredictable. So who knows.