Dengar - POTF2 [R/G] - Basic

Height: 1.8 meters
Status: Bounty Hunter
Classification: Human
Affiliation: Freelance
Weapon of Choice: Blaster Rifle

You probably know his Expanded Universe backstory well. He’s a Corellian just like Han Solo and he also just happens to have a lifelong grudge against Solo for the permanent damage he sustained in a swoop race against the smuggler. And probably most fondly, you remember that he was the one to nurse Boba Fett back to health after escaping certain death from the sarlacc pit. This caused them to maintain a long-running partnership for years after this. Kenner/Hasbro were quick to get out the bounty hunters. In fact, by the time the green phase of The Power Of The Force “2” line had come to an end, we technically had all but one bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back in modern form. We say “technically” because Dengar is actually the odd man out here. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the 1997 Dengar figure looks a little bit incomplete. He is missing his backpack and there are some elements of this costume that look differently from what we saw in Episode V. This is because, whether it was intended or just an oversight, this Dengar action figure is based on his very brief appearance in Return Of The Jedi and not The Empire Strikes Back.

Sadly, we don’t think that Dengar meets our expectations. You may feel differently of course, but let us itemize the ways. Dengar, while stocky, isn’t as thick as this action figure represents him. The action figure is much too bulky and actually looks out of scale to many of the other figures in The Power Of The Force “2” lineup. This is a huge detraction from this release and it’s very difficult for us to get past this. Thankfully, Dengar has quite a few positive points. His head sculpt is excellent. It really looks like the actor, but again, it is just too large. This figure won’t fit in well with the rest of the bounty hunters. Another positive is the figure’s paint job. Dengar’s coloring has been matched very closely to the onscreen character and we’re impressed with how cleanly the paint has been applied too. Kenner/Hasbro even added some speckling on the action figure to recreate the allusion of dirt on him. Overall, we bet you’ll be impressed with this figure’s deco. Dengar also comes with the standard six points of articulation. He is slightly pre-posed which limits how you can position him on a shelf.

Dengar comes with two weapons: a blaster pistol and a blaster rifle. The blaster rifle is screen accurate to the one seen in The Empire Strikes Back. And the smaller blaster pistol is just simply a Kenner/Hasbro creation to give the figure a little extra play value. Interestingly, Dengar is holding a completely different weapon while lurking in Jabba’s Palace during Return Of The Jedi. It would have been great had they added this new weapon to this release to make it more screen accurate. But it is this reason alone that we believe that Kenner/Hasbro really had no intention of making an Episode VI specific version of Dengar. The “no backpack” is really just a coincidence and not something that they planned. Even so, whether this was intentional or not, we’re glad that Kenner/Hasbro is thinking outside of the box by releasing us first time offerings of characters we had received in the vintage Kenner line. The nice thing about Dengar is that you could probably get away utilizing him for various Episode V, Episode VI and Expanded Universe displays. The figure is universal in and of itself. Dengar was plentiful throughout the POTF2 run and actually peg-warmed in many areas. But then again, so did the 1981 figure.