Jawas - TBS [P2] - Basic (#20)

Originally planned to be the second to last release in The Black Series [Phase II], the cancellation of Princess Leia in her Yavin ceremony gown has jumbled up the sequencing of the figures just a bit. Now they ended up being the caboose to this line look. Looking back at the modern Star Wars collecting era, there has only been one release that was a two-pack that wasn’t animated or Expanded Universe style. But even if the package contained only one Jawa, there was a complementary droid to make the value much more appealing. In an era where Hasbro is blatantly saving every penny possible to reduce tooling and production costs, it blows our mind that they would even still attempt to include a Jawa plus “anything” on a basic figure card back. Please don’t misunderstand our point. We’re thrilled to get two figures for the price of one, but it seems that they could charge $12.99 for one Jawa and use the money saved to apply better paint operations and more versatility to the other more complex figures in the wave. That’s what Kenner did during the vintage era. A basic figure could mean Yoda or Amanaman and we paid the same price for them. It helped amortize the cost of production across the board. Perhaps if they saved significant dollars by releasing their figures in a one figure per release standard that perhaps the enhancements we desire on other figures might be able to come to fruition. It’s just a thought. Don’t hang us for it. Anyway, it’s pretty much exhilarating to get the first all-new modern Original Trilogy Jawa two-pack in 19 years. We’re excluding The Original Trilogy Collection Jawas (OTC #24) set and The Clone Wars [S2] Jawas (CW08) two-packs (and any other Jawa two-packs we may have missed) from this point since they are either repaints or outside of the Original Trilogy.

There have been some amazing Jawa action figures throughout the years. 1999’s POTF2 [CT/FF] Jawa And “Gonk” Droid was a significant update to 1996’s POTF2 [R] Jawas set and included the line’s very first Power Droid. With 2007’s TAC Jawa & LIN Droid (30 19) set, Hasbro gave us an all-new sculpt and the first Jawa wearing a vest. Nearly two years later they significantly repainted (as well as somewhat retooled) the 2007 figure for 2009’s TLC Jawa & WED Treadwell Droid (BD 33) release. Then Hasbro went all out and gave us the first modern Jawa with soft-goods with 2009’s LC Jawa & Security Droid (BD39) figure. This release was a significant retooled figure from all previous Jawa action figures. Since then six years have passed us by and Hasbro returns to their roots and produced an all-new Jawas two-pack for the 2015 The Black Series [Phase II] line. Jawas (#20) are the definitive Jawa action figures for our collections and the perfect modern counterpart for the vintage Kenner action figure Hasbro produced for us all the way back in 1978. Interestingly enough, the new The Black Series [Phase II] Jawas set harkens back to the 1996 approach: two Jawas for the price of one. (The Jawas differing colors also follow the same pattern. It’s quite a coincidence!) These Jawas however can be considered the modern definitive updates. We’ve accepted that fact that Hasbro will never give us a Jawa covered in soft-goods like they did in 1978, so molded robes is the way it’s going to be. The Black Series Jawas show why this is show effective. The best looking Jawas (sculpt wise) that money can buy, all they need is glamorous paint operations to be perfected. But we truly believe that Hasbro mastered the sculpts this time around.

Each Jawa comes with a holdout blaster (the small silver guns) as well as a larger ionization blaster. On the taller Jawa the ionization blaster fits in its holster. But the smaller Jawa has a smaller holster and only the smaller silver holdout blaster will fit there. Each Jawa can hold either weapon well, but you should know that the cuffs of the robes around the wrists hang too low and inhibit how many options you have putting the gun in their hands. Both Jawas are highly detailed and have the best silhouette of any Jawa figure to date. Their hoods stand highly and their varying sizes make them the perfect duo of Jawas we have seen in the basic figure line in a long time. Again, we just wish that Hasbro added a final wash to them to note only bring out the texture in the sculpts, but to also create more screen accuracy. These are filthy and disgusting creatures. They shouldn’t look freshly laundered. Each Jawas comes with a ball-socket head, ball-jointed shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists and then a swivel waist. There is no articulation below the waist joint. This is sort of disappointing, but it isn’t unlike most of the Jawas we have received to date in the modern line. The two Jawas complement each other nicely as well. Because there are so many different shapes and sizes of this species seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it’s wonderful that Hasbro approaches each Jawa/Jawas release as unique from the previous one too. Each Jawa produced brings some sort of uniqueness to the basic figure line, and really that’s what collecting is all about in our eyes. The Black Series [Phase II] Jawas may not come with any fancy droids like so many previous versions have. But you get two of them for the same price as one. That is good enough, isn’t it?