Grand Admiral Thrawn - EU - Basic

Prepare to jump to lightspeed with Kenner's Expanded Universe, now offering the most memorable characters from Star Wars Dark Horse comics, Bantam novels, and LucasArts video games. Finally, the entire galaxy can be yours!

Five years after the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance has driven the evil Empire into a distant corner of the galaxy. But a new danger has arisen: the last of the Emperor's warlords has devised a battle plan that could destroy the New Republic.

A tactical and military genius, Grand Admiral Thrawn rallied the remnants of the Imperial fleet and set in motion a plan to destroy the New Republic. Using Force-inhibiting ysalamiri, he came vitally close to achieving his evil plans.

The action figure interpretation of the first major Star Wars villain of the 90s was one of the most anticipated events in Kenner’s long-running history. In 1998, after much prodding from fans, Kenner decided to create a sub-line of figures under a new Expanded Universe banner to focus on characters from comics, novels and even video games. A line of nine characters was developed with beautiful three-dimensional diorama packaging, but many collectors never took advantage of this opportunity because God forbid you opened up any of the figures you purchased. But those who did were treated to beautifully colored backdrops, which made the included figures that much more special. Despite the abysmal performance of Collection 2 figures that put a deadlock on the distribution of the Expanded Universe line as a whole, the figures eventually made their way out one way or another, and the aftermarket value for them now are at or about their original retail.

At first glance, the Grand Admiral Thrawn action figure looked inaccurate to the way we remembered him. Why are his hands gloved? Where are the epaulettes on his uniform? Why is he so pale when his skin color is such a deep and bright blue? And why does his ysalamiri look so cute and friendly? Well, for the most part, the action was correct based on the many comics appearances Grand Admiral Thrawn had, but there are other EU appearances of the character (including other comics), which show these details that Hasbro missed on the action figure. Either way, Hasbro did faithfully recreate this character in action figure form and we feel that it is more than “screen accurate” for the purposes of the Expanded Universe line. Sure, he could look more threatening and intimidating (and perhaps he could be a tad taller), but this is a decent action figure and he’ll be a popular addition to so many collectors’ Star Wars collections.

Grand Admiral Thrawn comes with the standard six points of articulation. Although Kenner has been a little more adventurous with the action figures in this sub-line, they decided to keep things simple with this release. He comes with a blaster that still has that annoyingly too big “POTF2” vibe to it. But it fits well in his hands and for that we’re thankful. We’re especially impressed with the Force-rejecting ysalamiri. This salamander/lizard like creature may have a silly purpose, but it’s a great pet and accessory for Grand Admiral Thrawn and it looks fantastic in the Kenner line. It has also been beautifully sculpted and fits around his neck perfectly. This release packs a great deal of punch and for the fair $5.99 price you do get a lot for your money. The likeness is excellent, and aside from a darker blue skin color, we’re quite happy with how well Grand Admiral Thrawn turned out as an action figure. We’d love to see more characters from Heir To The Empire get made, but after the unstable performance of this line (because of distribution), its future hangs in the balance.