Wookiee Warrior - TSC - The Episode III Greatest Battles Collection (9 of 14)

The towering, fur-covered Wookiees defend their home planet of Kashyyyk when the Clone Wars shatter their peaceful jungle world. Intelligent, fiercely loyal and exceedingly strong, the Wookiees are led into battle by Yoda.

The Episode III Greatest Battles Collection was a chance for Hasbro to reissue some of their greatest collector-focused action figures from the Revenge Of The Sith line out again to retail, but they also added a couple of the Sneak Preview figures into the lineup too. Wookiee Warrior, originally released as 2005’s ROTS Wookiee Warrior (3 of 4) Sneak Preview figure has remained a collector favorite. We have received quite a few Wookiee sculpts in the Revenge Of The Sith line, but the Wookiee Warrior from the Sneak Preview assortment has held up the best and came with the best movement and articulation of them all. This Wookiee Warrior is a wise decision for re-release. And quite frankly it’s great to see him again as a basic figure in The Saga Collection sub-line. Wookiee Warrior was the very first Wookiee in the Revenge Of The Sith line came to us early in January 2005 as part of the eagerly anticipated Sneak Preview quartet. A great sculpt, a perfect expression and the inclusion of screen-accurate accessories makes it a figure that will hold up well throughout the years. And even though some improvements can still be made on this figure, it still ranks as the best from the many releases Hasbro has done. Now he is part of The Saga Collection and he is expected to sell well in this line as he did in the Revenge Of The Sith line.

The Wookiee Warrior’s greatest strength is his ball-jointed knees. This is a point of articulation necessary for this species in action figure form. Without this movement, the figure is static which makes for a very boring action figure. The Wookiee Warrior also comes with ball-jointed shoulders, but the swivel elbows severely limit how much you can pose the figure in general as well place objects in his hands in a believable manner. If they can somehow work in ball-jointed elbows at some point, this could be a definitive figure. Other than that, we have to admit that we’re rather satisfied with how this figure came out. The sculpt averages from good to excellent. The details in the face are particularly impressive. Wookiee Warrior is a very beefy, large and tall Wookiee, perhaps bordering on too rotund, but his great height compensates for his heftiness. What’s more, his accessories fit like a glove. Wookiee Warrior comes with a removable battle helmet (with a very ornate design), decorative war armor that covers the front of him and also serves as a bandolier of some sort, a Wookiee rifle, and two shin guards. The shin guards in our opinion also double nicely as gauntlets. In fact, we almost prefer to have the Wookiee Warrior action figure wear them this way and not as shin guards. We should clarify however that Hasbro’s stock photos show this action figure wearing them as shin guards.

With 16 points of articulation, it’s more than fair to say this figure is pretty good and comes with a nice selection of movement. We’re not even sure if ankle joints would have been a wise decision to include here. Because the Wookiee Warrior is a very solid action figure, his weightiness helps out his center of gravity tremendously. We’re glad this is the case because it helps with posing the figure. It’s unknown exactly if the Wookiee Warrior is modeled after a specific Wookiee from Episode III or is just an amalgamation of multiple Wookiees, but if you look at reference images, you can find Wookiees that look a great deal like him. He has the helmet that the lead Wookiee Warrior in Episode III is wearing (while most other Wookiees didn’t wear helmets) but then has the body armor of Wookiees standing behind the leader, so that is why we’re inclined to believe that the Hasbro action figure is a mixture of a few different Wookiees. However, we aren’t entirely positive about that. We’re sure a reference photo exists somewhere that is the basis for this action figure. That aside, the Wookiee Warrior is a pretty fun action figure. He still holds up as the best from the Revenge Of The Sith line. But instead of being a “pre-release” figure, Wookiee Warrior is joined by Hasbro’s other “greatest hits’ figures, packed alongside a miniature hologram figure and carried forward in The Saga Collection’s The Episode III Greatest Battles Collection.