Zev Senesca - TAC - Saga Legends

Fighter pilot Zev Senesca ("Rogue Two") is stationed on Hoth. He discovers Han and Luke after the two Rebels were forced to endure a night in the subzero cold. Zev pilots a snowspeeder as he and his fellow pilots defend the base from attacking AT-AT walkers.

Zev Senesca may be one of the most underrated heroes in the Star Wars saga. If it wasn’t for him, most likely two of our favorite Rebel Alliance heroes may have become two well-preserved popsicles on the icy tundra of Hoth. Zev Senesca braved the cold to locate Han Solo and the recently injured Luke Skywalker and brought them back to safety at Echo Base. Zev Senesca started out life as an action figure as a pack-in figure to the 2006 TSC Rogue Two Snowspeeder TARGET exclusive. That was a great exclusive and it was really the first time we got such a nice “snowspeeder pilot” outfit. While still a kit-bashed figure, it made Zev Senesca new enough for all to appreciate and Hasbro used some of the best parts at the time to cobble him together. Zev Senesca’s second chance at retail is a welcomed one by fans. After all, he was one of five figures handpicked by the collective whole as what fans wanted to see hanging on pegs. Part of an ultimate wave of figures, he was the slowest seller of the five, but you have to remember that the other four were hot clone trooper exclusives, many of which made their debut in the basic figure line as part of Saga Legends.

Zev Senesca, for all intents and purposes, was meant to be a straight repack. Due to the blatant differences on the final Saga Legends figure however, we need to call him an “unintentional” repaint. When you compare 2006 The Saga Collection Zev Senesca next to 2008 TAC Zev Senesca Saga Legends verison there are quite a few difference. The 2008 Saga Legends version has a whiter helmet with less dirt splatter, a darker orange snowspeeder uniform (with two distinct shades of orange between the jacket and the paints), a lighter brown belt and a differently painted chin strap on his helmet. There is a small variance in the shade of gray that was used, but you would need to have a keen eye to see this. The differences between the two figures are quite evident. Although we believe that is was Hasbro’s intention to make them identical, uncontrollable things in the factories obviously make it difficult sometimes to match things perfectly that were created years apart from each other. We think the final version of the 2006 pack-in figure is the better figure because the orange flight suit seems more accurate in our opinions. But the Saga Legends figure doesn’t look bad at all. It is only when you compare the two together do you realize this.

We do need an update because while Zev is a good figure, there are issues with him that we would like to see improved. For example, his helmet it way too big for his head and it wobbles around too much for our liking. Hasbro decorated it beautifully, but is needs to be better fitted on his crown. And while he does have ball-jointed knees, he has static arms that only move at the top of his gloves (forearms). This is bizarre since his arms appear to be all-new for this release. Why they weren’t more articulated eludes us. Zev has the same legs from the 2004 SW Dutch Vander: Gold Leader (Battle Of Yavin) (’04 #13) figure. The torso, head and arms are all-new. His portrait could also be better, but he is recognizable to the actor. Hasbro ensured that they gave Zev a coat length that falls below the hips. This is a very important detail for snowspeeder pilots so we give Hasbro credit for capturing this detail. If fans (including us) were more patient, maybe Hasbro would have brought us a better version of him with a more super-articulated body. Who knows? Maybe Hasbro will revisit Zev in the future. We hope so because he is one pilot that had speaking lines and his role in the films was essential to the story. And besides, most of us are articulation snobs any more (this isn’t a bad thing), so we hold high standards for Hasbro. The current version of Zev is good, but he likely won't hold upas Hasbro improves the generic pilot body. (Editor's Note: There have been some significant upgrades made to the great pilots we have received in The Legacy Collection.) Here is hoping that a revised version of Zev Senesca is on the way.